So a friend of mine called me this weekend and confirmed something my pastor has been ministering for the last 3 weeks.
This is a cleaned-up snippet of that conversation:
Him: Krystal, [it happened…]
Me: LOL! [Was it] More than you ever imagined???
Him: It was good… It’s funny how I was taking about it and it came true.
Me: Exactly!!
Him: “I’ma start talking about me being a millionaire.”
While we were talking about some not-so-important foolishness that happened in his personal life, the principle that he used is essential to spiritual growth.
My pastor has been ministering on meditation being one of the keys to spiritual success. There are tons of New Age persons who claim to have spiritual enlightenment who have turned meditation into the exact opposite of its intent, but meditation is a Biblical practice. Unfortunately, He says, too few Christians really understand what meditation is.
You see, Intercession/Prayer is You talking to God with the hopes that He will hear your petition.
Meditation is God talking to you with the expectation that you will hear Him and follow His direction.
As the series has been developing, my pastor has emphasized how meditation works in manifesting success in our lives. When it comes to living our purpose and experiencing our desires we have to do three things:
- Visualize our success.
- Verbalize our success.
and 3. Internalize our success.
Like many, I find the first two pretty easy. I daydream constantly about desires. I even get bold and start speaking my desires. I start conversing with people about what God is showing me. But I drop the ball when it comes to INTERNALIZING that dream. I don’t allow myself the time to let that seed of potential take root. So unlike my friend who saw his meditations come to life this past week! It was the morning of my birthday when he verbalized what he wanted to happen, what he’d been imagining/visualizing for a little while now. And here we are less than 7 weeks later, discussing the manifestation of those desires! And you’d be surprised at how effortlessly this manifestation fell into place!
Nevertheless, my pastor confirms, “when the word that you receive from God becomes a part of your soil, the power within it will cause it to grow.”
Let’s look at that soil analogy for a second—
There is something innate about soil that causes things to grow. It’s true. The ground has no idea the makings of a seed. The ground doesn’t ask questions about seeds that it receives. But once a seed is placed in the soil, something automatically begins to happen. It is the natural progression of things. God designed it that way.
We, as believers are that soil. When seeds take root (even if they are seeds of sin) something powerful takes place. The more we meditate on those things, they begin to take root and they begin to grow. The more you think about doing wrong, the more often you find yourself exactly where you said you’d never be. And it is because you’ve internalized the wrong doing. If all you see is your husband cheating, what do you think will happen? If all you see is your child stealing, what do you think will happen? If all you see is you getting fired…well go ahead and pack your personal belongings.
Note: If all you can think is negative thoughts, you may not want to meditate too hard at all. Before you begin succeeding it must be said—whatever inside of you that is throwing off your perspective you have to get rid of it. Whoever/whatever is limiting your ability to visualize success they/it must go. Cloudy vision leads to cloudy judgments, cloudy rationale, and cloudy perspectives. Everybody won’t see like you do.
Those naysayers that refuse to grow, they have to go. Even if you’re the negative one. At one point in my life I was a Negative Nancy at work. Always complaining, always pointing out the wrong in things. I was burnt out in just about every aspect of my life. I knew it and others around me did too! Then I purposed to focus on LIGHT. I chose a different approach. I asked God to renew my spirit and I began to LIVE Philippians 4, verse 8:
“Finally bretheren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”
And since those meditations a ton of things have happened for the better!!
So I may not be imagining a new car. I may not be imagining me swimming in a million dollars atop a California King mattress (like my homeboy at the beginning of this post, b/c he loves King-sized beds too! LOL!!), but I do imagine me being at peace.
I do imagine my family being healthy & whole. I imagine my sisters happy, laughing, and experiencing the freedom that comes with the love of God. I imagine me standing before the judgment seat of Christ and seeing Jesus face-to-face.
It may not be your desires, but that’s what I imagine.
Thanks for reading!!
Eve Unyoked 