It has recently come to my attention that the world has tapped into a powerful spiritual truth that the church has, by and large, overlooked. Allow me to explain. I am currently enrolled in a class at the University of Oklahoma that is designed to help upperclassmen be successful in life after graduation. You could consider it a life after OU crash course of sorts. The nature of the class allows for many talented people of varying backgrounds to come in and lecture. This afternoon a psychologist by the name of Dr. Jim Will lectured on how to successfully "sell yourself" at a job interview. During the course of his lecture Dr. Will touched on the subject of what he called "self-talk". He gave several great examples of just how powerful what we say (or think) to ourselves can be. You see, it is a reality that we talk to ourselves-- not audibly, with the exception of some, but internally and that this happens all the time at an astonishing rate. According to Dr. Will 60-80% of our "self-talk" is negative. Interested yet? So was I! It was about this time that Holy Spirit began speaking to me and bringing scripture to my mind. Now this wasn't entirely new stuff to me, rather what interested me most is that it seemed that Dr. Will was onto something that Solomon had attempted to communicate to us thousands of years ago. Proverbs 23:7 reads: As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he...Proverbs 18:21 reads: Death and life are in the power of the tongue... In other words how we views ourselves and how we think about ourselves will largely determine our reality. Now if the world can take hold of these biblical principles and see results how much more should the church be able to? The church must rise up and begin declaring their God-given identify and destiny over themselves. In a sense what we say is how we steer our lives. We see this in the book of James where James equates the tongue to the rudder of a ship. Therefore, declarations, actually spoken aloud by a born again believer, are much more powerful than the world and can actually propel or prevent us from stepping into our destinies. Let's take back this idea of "self talk" for the redemptive purposes it was meant for. For those who are more unfamiliar with this idea of declarations you can start by declaring simple biblical truths such as: I was chosen to bear lasting fruit for God (see John 15:16) or I am an overcomer (see Revelation 12:11). You will be surprised to see how quickly what you say about yourself will begin to effect how you think about yourself. Pretty soon you will find yourself coming into alignment with who God has said you already are!
You will also decree a thing, and it will be established for you...
Job 22:28 (NASB)
