This month, we are covering a seemingly simple concept that has powerful, revelatory, and wide ranging applications: Right-Right vs Right-Wrong...Right WHAT-Right HOW/WHY vs. Right WHAT-Wrong (or NO) HOW/WHY.
The overview for the rest of this Series is that God wants our brain to have Profitable Thought Processes. The enemy and our flesh wants our brain to have Unprofitable Thought Processes.
In the previous post, we covered the role of remembering:
Spiritual Warfare is based on the experience and understanding supporting the WORDS and SENTENCES that we state.
Your ability to be successful at Spiritual Warfare depends on whether your memory serves you or you serve your memory.
Memories can ONLY serve you when they are factual and understood.
The key point is that a the Profitability of an individual's Though Process partly depends on whether they individual's memories are based on TRUTH...do the memories create or do they destroy?
The first step would be to make sure the individual's memories are FACTUAL.
The second step would be to make sure the individual's memories create...which would ONLY come if the memories are UNDERSTOOD.
Today, we will look at our ability to understand...
OUR THOUGHT PROCESS: UNDERSTANDING
The previous post covered how we can initiate The First Feedback Loop through remembering...through intentionally searching for a memory. We can also initiate The First Feedback Loop through understanding...through intentionally thinking of a stimulus. We can think of a concept and allow our brain to create a full thought. Once the emotion and connecting thought are known, we can choose the next stimulus from this information and create another full thought.
In a post from the Brain Series titled, "The Sixth Sense", we saw the following:
"The Bible tells us to "meditate"...to intentionally choose to think...to remember and/or imagine. For example, the Hebrew word used throughout Psalm 119 for meditate is Strong's #7878 "siyach" - to ponder, i.e. (by impl.) to converse (with oneself, and hence aloud) or (tans.) utter."
"Initiating an internal stimulus that begins the process of creating a full thought (through memory and/or imagination) strengthens feedback loops. It makes us more intelligent. Ultimately, there is nothing better to remember or imagine than God's Word...we already saw that it renews the mind! No wonder the Bible encourages us to do this. For instance, cycle Luke 17:3 through your mind a few times and try to resolve the contradictions like we did in the previous two posts."
"Initiating an internal stimulus is also a necessary skill for intentionally handling stressful situations in a healthy and profitable manner. In fact, it is the same thing that David did before he gave his explanation..."
In the Bible, this process of intentionally understanding is referred to with the word "meditate".
In the post following "The Sixth Stimulus" from the Brain Series titled, "Rehearsing", we saw:
"From the previous post, we saw the brain can't distinguish between external stimuli and internal stimuli. When we choose to think...to remember or imagine...we send a full thought into the amygdala and we get an emotional reaction. However, since the situation isn't happening externally, there is no damage done externally. The individual can stop and determine WHY they had the reaction."
"If the reaction is due to something that is in their conscious memory (trees of the mind) then they can know the WHY and deal with it!"
"If the reaction is due to something that is absent from their conscious memory, they can repeat the stimulus in a slightly different fashion. This is modeling! Repeatedly rehearsing the situation with different variables can help you determine the cause of the outburst."
Now we see how understanding can repair an unprofitable memory...even if the memory is not conscious!
Notice, all of this involves our imagination. While this looks like it is always Profitable, the reality is that most peoples' imaginations are Unprofitable. For example, people imagine taking out their own justice against others. In "Modeling God's Wills" we covered one of the most destructive uses of the imagination: pornography.
Pornography is the fastest growing addiction in the U.S. From the perspective of today's post, pornography is an intentional initiation of The First Feedback Loop with images. The completion of The First Feedback Loop leads to an emotional response in the amygdala. From there, the individual makes a decision about an action. Eventually, the individual chooses whether to complete The Second Feedback Loop by intentionally putting the information covering the entire event into the cortex.
Notice, most individuals are either choosing NOT to complete The Second Feedback Loop or they are filing away in their cortex a powerful emotion (guilt) WITH their sexual thoughts. Both of these responses result in Unprofitable Thought Processes. In fact, it looks as if BOTH of these responses result in sources of ammunition and resources within the brain of the individual that can be used by the enemy to make the individual Unprofitable. Wasn't THAT the definition of a "stronghold"?
Notice that most people who try to help individuals break an addiction to pornography tell the individual to just stop doing it. How EXACTLY does that solve the problem?...especially since we now know the individual has an Unprofitable Thought Process and this "Don't do it" solution allows the stronghold to remain.
Clearly, we can't stop doing something by just stop doing it. So the solution is to do something else.
Some "experts" tell the individual to have sex with their spouse instead of pornography. If anything, this will result in the individual trying to associate their spouse with the Unprofitable Thought Process they have concerning sex. In fact, this is why men will ask women to do things that they've seen in pornographic material. This reinforces an Unprofitable Thought Process.
This "solution" just proves the "expert" doesn't understand causality. The "expert" is all about the effects. The "expert" either thinks that we can have effects by just having the effect ("fake it till you make it") or the "expert" thinks that effects leads to causes! Talk about an Unprofitable Thought Process...
Clearly, we can't stop doing something by focusing on the effects and doing the opposite. This actually ends up being more damaging in the Long Term.
The ONLY way to fix an Unprofitable Thought Process is to intentionally admit it and intentionally do the opposite CAUSE. However, if people don't know the opposite CAUSE, then all they can tell people to do is either "stop it" or "do the opposite effect".
We covered all of this in "Modeling God's Wills" using Jesus as our example of how to identify and address a potentially Unprofitable Thought Process. Here are the sections from that chapter:
The Opposite of Pornography
Jesus' Baptism
Jesus' Points
Jesus' Response
Masculinity and Pornography
Masculinity
Manly Thrills
Emotional Risk
Ultimately, ALL of this ends up planted in the heart.
Planting in the heart is the effect of the causes which are experience and understanding...which people commonly refer to as faith.
Our faith is a cause and the effect is what we ACTUALLY believe in our heart...which is proven by our actions...which we reap from 100% through justice.
Profitable faith results in good things being planted in the heart which results in good actions which results in Reward through justice.
Unprofitable faith results in destructive things being planted in the heart which results in bad actions which results in the individual being open to punishment and attack from the enemy...
SUMMARY
We have seen that Spiritual Warfare involves faith.
Faith is based on experience and understanding.
So, Spiritual Warfare is based on the experience and understanding supporting the WORDS and SENTENCES that we state.
Imagination concerns understanding!
Your ability to be successful at Spiritual Warfare depends on whether your imagination serves you or you serve your imagination.
An animal imagines as an effect...in response. Something happens (stimulus) and the animal's brain projects what will immediately happen...from the animal's unaware brain. The same is true for us. However, we can imagine as a cause.
We can hinder our ability to imagine Profitably by not completing The Second Feedback Loop or associating guilt with our connecting facts. We can also intentionally choose to begin The First Feedback Loop, especially if it is used to repair either by meditating or rehearsing.
This means our imagination can serve us or hinder us. Our imagination can help us be Profitable or Unprofitable. Our imagination is responsible for the other half of our Thought Process.
Next week, we will look at specifically how strongholds are formed...
Next Post
No comments:
Post a Comment