Suggestion

Matthew 8:13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.

If you are not familiar with this story of the Roman Commander who believed in Jesus, go read and enjoy the opening verses of Matthew 8. This telling is based upon my observations of this scripture.

Jesus was about to go with the Roman who then suggests that Jesus can do a remote healing. The Roman said to Jesus “speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed”. For this Jesus declares that this Roman has greater faith than all of Israel.

What happens if you believe something else above truth, Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit? The first thing I would suggest is that your mind is not protected by the truth, Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Your mind then becomes subject to suggestion.

A hypnotist with tell you that his subjects are nothing more than willing participants in the power of suggestion. He suggests to them, he does not control them. They will not do anything contrary to their moral character. Yet these people believe they are chickens and act like chickens. They believe they are in another place doing other things, and they act as if they are in that place. This is all done by the power of suggestion.

If you sincerely believe a lie, the mind will reinforce your reality to support that lie. Such is the power of the mind to reinforce belief. If you believe in the power of tarot cards, palm readers, horoscopes, and witchcraft, your mind will be subject to the power of suggestion in these things. The mind will seek to reinforce your belief. It will go as far as delusion if necessary to support that belief.

Believe in Christ, the truth and the power of the Holy Spirit to protect your mind from suggestions that lead to deception.

Default Setting

Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Allow me, if you will, a little liberality here. A conversation can exist within the mind of men, which does not exist within all men. Our thinking varies according to environment, education and physicality. Yet all, every one of us have the very same default setting. We all have this in common from the very beginning.

As to current programming of the mind, modified away from the default setting, program upon program being installed above and in revision to the default setting, the above verse can cause in some a rebellious response.

Wicked? I am not wicked.

Unrighteous? I am not unrighteous.

Return to the Lord? I was never with him.

Mercy? I don’t need your mercy.

Pardoned? I haven’t done anything wrong.

The default setting is love. A baby is born helpless, dependent and installed only with the capacity to love and be loved. What happens to that baby from that moment on depends on the programmers to build upon the default settings or to overwrite it.

1 John 4:8b God is love.

That love a baby is born with is pure in form and exists without expectation or demand for it knows nothing else. It will learn to expect and demand but that is not built upon the default setting of love, then the mind will overwrite it with selfishness which is the gateway to all worldly things.

John 3:3b Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

That is Jesus telling us that we need to be restored to our default settings.

Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.