EMBRACE THE HEAVENLY VIEWPOINT - PART 3

SATURDAY 09 JULY 2022

Every man or woman obsessed with the past has a neglected future. By this, I mean that one thing must be part of your life, if you truly look forward to a blessed and great future, and that is "forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead." If your heart is captured by the past, the whole of your existence, including your affections, desires, motives, pursuits and outcomes - will be regulated by inadvertent limitation.

Reference: Philippians 3:14-15 New International Version (NIV) "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you."

By making up your mind to keep pursuing the right goals that will advance your purpose, you'll be able to gain acute awareness or accurate insight into where you currently stand, and based on your forward-thinking mentality, the Spirit of God will offer you the right guidance that will empower you to build on existing accomplishments. This is why Paul expressed, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us..." Now I want you to get an error-free or perceptive understanding of what is happening in this Scripture: all we ask or imagine...not all already received in the past. It's a forward-based Scripture in the sense that it denotes your present and future expectations through the influence of worded prayer, as well as focused, imagined activities in the mind realm. Also the latter part, "according to his power that is at work within us" suggests that once you envisage the right pictures in your thought pattern, your imagination becomes the platform where the Spirit of God incubates your formed mental images concerning what is ahead, in advance of establishing them as reality in your world.

So the future becomes clear to us at some point, as we ask or imagine in accordance with the powerful enablement of the Holy Spirit. But it becomes so in advance for those who saturate their imaginations with forward-thinking meditations, coupled with the intention of turning their relevant mental production into earthly reality by the help of the Spirit. Therefore we should pray for and imagine the best without ceasing and then store the corresponding by-products of our filtered imaginations in the midst of the heart, guarding them with all diligence. Why? This is because the heart is the vast storage for forward-thinking plans and also, the change that influences our advancement in the natural world begins there.

Now watch this: Verse 15 of our referenced Scripture reads, "All of us who are mature should embrace this point of view. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you." Here Paul is laying emphasis on like-minded Christians, and politely, he added that those who weren't like-minded should make up their minds to upgrade their mentality, even if it takes God to help them. So it matters the quality of your association and the calibre of those who surround you. If people around you don't pay positive attention when you speak about your plans, your dreams and your visions because they think they are unattainable - it probably means you're more adept at being a forward thinker and pressing on to what lies ahead than they possibly are. And of course coming up with great ideas and sharing it with them can become a serious blunder, since they don't have the capacity to understand or reason at the same level with you, let alone being your supportive vessels in terms of bringing any supreme idea to life's eventualities.

So aside from keeping your heart with all diligence and embracing the right association, regularly widen the scope of your forward-thinking ability by being an ardent student of the Word and by God's grace, your pursuit of what lies ahead will be bigly rewarded. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - 1 Corinthians 9:25; Romans 15:13; Galatians 6:9; Hebrews 12:1.

Exuberant Declaration: I have an exclusive ability to focus my attention on the goals of my pursuit and my strength lies in functioning in complete dependence on the Spirit of God and His guidance, and in humble submission to God's will. As I keep exercising my faith, refining my mission, enhancing my knowledge and fulfilling my purpose, I experience significant progress and advancement as the effect of God's faithfulness and unconditional love in my life. Blessed be God!