Sharon,

I know it is confusing and I definitely don't have a handle on the market 
when it comes to faith and believing and thinking.  There is a strong aspect 
whereby what we think we are is what we become but as you well know, so 
often there is a lie buried deeply inside that tells us differently and our 
emotions easily react to how we felt when that lied occurred.  I was just, 
in fact, sitting alone in my office thinking about how I felt and attempt to 
locate if there was any lie behind the sadness I was feeling.  My mind 
flashed back to several places and I did get more information but there's 
more to go.  The situation is our big dog and not dropping that ball was 
based on the knowledge that Raleigh would indeed drop the ball, if I yelled 
loud enough, but I backed it up with action if he didn't drop the ball; I'd 
go and take it from him.  Somehow, action is involved with all these things 
yet we are required to actually do nothing since Jesus has done it all.  "I 
also wasn't afraid of Raleigh.  If I had been, I might have yelled all day 
but wouldn't have in mind the action of taking it away from him by force if 
need be.  Faith is where you stand," is another way of believing.  We stand 
upon something God has said and He has said a lot in his Holy Word. 
Thinking, that I am referring to, is not making a passage of Scripture into 
a mantra, or confession, which we repeat until our tongue snaps off its 
roller.  It is simply standing in one place.  That takes an "act" of 
"faith," in itself it would seem.  I am referring to thinking as it relates 
to our thoughts.  If we are bombarded with perpetual thinking that is based 
originally upon a lie we believe, then we will not believe, or stand, upon 
God's written Word or His inward voice that communes with us as clearly as 
the Enemy can do.  Believing, at least in one way, is knowing the difference 
between the shepherd's inward voice and that of the Enemy who lies to us 
about the truth.  To this day, I'm still trying to put it all together 
myself so don't feel bad.

Phil.




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sharon Hooley" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2012 7:30 PM
Subject: Re: Believing God


>I probably needed to hear this myself.  When I was prayed for when I was 
>younger, I thought I'd have to conjure up the sense/feeling that says, 
>"Yes, I'm absolutely convinced that I will receive my eyesight!"  I 
>remember you telling us the story about commanding your dog to drop the 
>ball.  Did you have to make yourself feel confident that he would obey you, 
>or was it merely what you thought and decided to make your voice sound with 
>authority?  You also had a saying in some of your signatures that faith is 
>where you stand.  That was hard to wrap my finger around.  If it were a 
>decision of where you'll physically stand on a human chessboard, I could 
>understand how that would work.
>
> But now comes this revelation that believing is what you think!  There's 
> that verse in the old testament that says, as a man thinks in his heart, 
> so is he.  So, if we choose to cultivate the attitude that says, I believe 
> that what God says he will do, he will keep his promiseour actions and 
> feelings that correspond to that thinking come more naturally.
>