The first general stepped up and made an impressive presentation. He had scouted out the land, checked the climate, and even evaluated the surrounding terrain. He had consulted with neighboring military powers, and read up on the history of the people they were to conquer. With all this information and guidance at hand, he set forth a thorough and well thought out plan.

“Your majesty,” he began, “ the first city we must take is a walled city just inside the borders of the land. I have studied siege warfare, and consulted the experts. Given the time of year, and likely weather patterns, in this part of the land, and in this culture, I believe it will take us about six months to wait out the inhabitants of this city. Give me a week to supply and train my men. From that point, in about six months we can take our first stronghold in the land.”

The King looked quite impressed. His general had certainly shown his wisdom and diligence. He turned to the second general for confirmation of this well-thought out plan. The second general stepped up.

“Sir,” he said respectfully, “I have looked at all the same information, but I have a slightly different recommendation. Call me crazy, but I believe that if we leave tomorrow, and march around the city every day for the next seven days, that on the seventh day, we can shout and blow trumpets and the walls will fall down. We can take that city by next Friday.”

What kind of leader makes an audacious recommendation like that? Well, I am glad you asked. The kind of leader that makes that kind of recommendation, is a spiritual leader. The kind of leader that kind make this kind of recommendation, thinks in a particular way.

A spiritual leader is willing to learn everything he can about good leadership, while also being willing to question the common assumptions of the day. While not rebellious, a spiritual leader recognizes that perhaps we are not seeing all there is to be seen. If this is the case, to lead effectively, he or she must look beyond what appears obvious to all.

A spiritual leader assumes that while we must negotiate visible reality, a higher reality exists. We live in both a natural world and a spiritual world, and they are connected one to the other. Understanding the nature of the connection between natural and supernatural reality is a must for a spiritual leader.

Imagine now that the recommendation of the second general works. Not only does it work, but works decisively, demonstrating that this strategy was the right one. A spiritual leader will resist the urge to write a book about how to conquer cities by marching and shouting. Instead, a spiritual leader would point others not to the most recent strategy, but the process by which the most recent strategy came to pass.

A spiritual leader points people to the always-the-same-always-changing active voice of God. The same God who spoke to Moses in the burning bush, also spoke through a donkey, and a floating hand. Though He is always the same, He never replicated a given strategy. A spiritual leader points people to the active direction of God, rather than trying to declare that the most recent wineskin is the new “right way”.

Spiritual leadership is exactly that. Leading spiritual beings in a spiritual way. Let us begin to think differently in this current leadership culture.

The difficulty here is that the change of “style” and even the adjustments of tightening or loosening our orthodoxy are all first order change. We are adjusting the offense or defense, without consideration of the possibility for a higher order.

When Jesus is approached in (Matthew 22:23-33) by the Sadducees, in order to test Him, they ask Him a question. They tell the story of the seven brothers who married the same woman and each die (I call this the parable of the unwise brothers). They then ask a question about how this plays out in eternity. Jesus’ answer is paradigm shifting.

He says, “You are mistaken not understanding the scriptures and the Power of God…” and then goes on to deliver the rest of the answer. But the real, and most important answer has already been delivered in the above phrase. The men gathered, (and you and I, I might add) do not understand the Scriptures, and, in light of, from the perspective of, the Power of God. In other words we view the scriptures from the earth looking up, instead of from the heavens looking down. Whenever we view the things of God through the lens of men, we have already misunderstood. Like trying to understand an elephant with a microscope, our paradigm will not allow an accurate view of our subject.

Our orthodoxy can be a completely accurate set of gathered doctrines, but viewed through an earthly lens, we will always reduce it to something less than it’s fullness. We can see our doctrines as a rule to be ruthlessly followed regardless of context, or a rule too rigid to accurately represent the Love of God. Both can be the wrong view, because we look not through the lens of “the Power of God” but rather through the lens of earthly application.

The Kingdom of Heaven is not only the Presence of God not the Earth to act on behalf of God and man, it is a paradigm through which our orthodoxy always makes perfect and compassionate sense. If it is not making sense, or it seems to dogmatic, the problem is not the doctrines which we have held so dear, it is the paradigm through which we view our orthodoxy. There is a paradigm intended to govern our orthodoxy that is qualitatively different from that which the human race has been born into.

When we adjust our styles and presentations, or even adjust the parameters of the standards of our faith (in either direction) we are making first order change. When we allow a higher order, or a higher perspective to give us a new view of the same parameters, or stylistic approaches, second order change occurs, and instead of adjusting our approach, we ourselves are adjusted as we choose to know the Scriptures through the lens of the Power and perspective of God, instead of our own knowledge.

We must view all of our expressions of doctrine and church through the worldview that includes both a visible and an invisible world. This in mind we are much more likely to identify and change the right thing.

The goal of growth and maturity is that we develop a strong internal locus of control, or sense that our choices and actions can and do change our lives and the direction of our destiny.

Jesus once told a parable of three men who were all given resource, and then after a time, the owner of the resource came back to check on how these men had chosen in the face of their circumstance. How they had chosen, had affected whether or not their resource had multiplied. More importantly, how they had chosen, affected how much more was entrusted to them from that point on.

To the degree we learn to handle what we have been given, it appears that we become eligible for more. I think it is essential here, to remember that ultimately, we will end up reigning and ruling alongside Jesus over the eternal creation. This is not an assignment for yes-men, this is an assignment for people who have learned how to think and navigate, in the reality that God has established.

Here is the challenge; empowered by God, we think freely. This can sound like a tightrope of dependence versus independence. It is not so much a tightrope, as it is an understanding of a very simple principle. A principle so simple it is hard to understand.

We all operate from somewhere. We all choose, consciously, or unconsciously a source for our being. A simple picture of this is the idea that we operate, speak, process from our head or our heart. What comes from these places is an independent expression of what truly is in our thoughts or in our heart.

In the same we way we operate, speak and process, from our soul or our Spirit. What comes out is, then, an accurate expression of what is in this source. When we depend, or operate (think, process) from the Holy Spirit, resident in our soul, what comes out of us comes from God; an accurate expression of what is in us.

To the degree that we operate from our soul, as source, what comes out will reflect how much our soul has been conformed to the image of the Spirit within. But soul was never intended to be source.

The ultimate Internal Locus of Control, then, is not independence, but the actualization of the recognition that God-in-Us does not rob us of our us-ness, rather it deeply anchors us in our true and eternally-designed-us. For a man or woman born from the Heavens, as Jesus described in John 3, self-control means yielded-ness to the new self, not rebellion against our environment.

The goal of maturity is that we develop this kind of internal locus of control and in so doing learn how we can fulfill our created design.

Jesus was never a victim, even on the cross. He chose when to fight, by overturning tables in a temple, or when to surrender even unto His own death. He chose. We can too.

These five gifts, if some way existed by which I could return them to our country, may not stop school violence. They may not pull us back to a strong economy, and they may not bring back every single victim of human trafficking. But when I think about it, they actually might accomplish all those things. If not, I believe they could set on course, the kind of people who could stop such social symptoms.

Perhaps it is just wishful thinking, as I see no real way to give this gift back to our culture. This is especially true as each of these gifts must be laid ahold of, pursued, valued and even cherished if you will. Perhaps even this kind of pursuit is another gift I would love to return. If I can’t give these gifts back to our culture this week, perhaps you will allow me to encourage just you to receive these gifts.

As we shop like crazy people for just the right present to wrap this week, consider laying ahold of these five things as a gift to yourself, and a never-ending gift to those you love. Consider capturing these five endangered species before they disappear from among us entirely.

1. Thinking: Before I could catch myself, I heard the words come out of my mouth. “Who needs my mind, I have my iPhone.” My friend had just told me to take a picture in my mind of some lovely meal set before us. I snapped an actual photo, while my words echoed in my mind (Phew, it must still be present…).

As my mind will do, I began to ponder the reality of how many devices, and processes we have allowed to become our substitute for thinking. It is not my intent to protest any of these people, places, or things. We have, however, much like the nation of ancient Israel, called out for a king, and turned to any monarch that will prevent us from the hard work of sensory intake and cognition.

We have pundits of every flavor who will tell us what to think.  What they cannot do is tell us whether or not we are asking right questions. They supply answers, we become parrots.

I am certain I do not have any phone number memorized but my own, and that of my wife. I know where to find every other phone number on a touchscreen.

Like an educational system that teaches memorized facts and events, but does not supply ways to think, we live in a culture that supports the ease of easy answers (there’s an app for that, or a law for this) and suggests that we need not think. Someone more qualified will do that work for us.

Google is not an original source, and Wikipedia cannot perform the intricate synthesis of original ideas for which the powerful human mind was designed. The human mind is a muscle, like any other function of a living soul, it can be exercised or atrophied.

True freedom takes place in true thought. Our culture slips slowly into spoon fed bondage, while we let great thinkers like Homer Simpson, and Oprah Winfrey hand us a world-view.

Work a crossword puzzle (yes, a paper one with a pencil). Read a hard book. Put away your electronics and look out at the horizon while you let your mind ponder hard questions. Enjoy the power of thinking, and come up with a thought that no one else ever had before. You exist for a reason. You cannot find that reason on Google. Think. It may be what stands between you and a life if slavery.

2. Respect:  Respect is more than what you grudgingly give someone who holds a position of authority over you. And contrary to popular opinion, respect does not have to be earned. Respect is a quality you develop and it has to do with how you regard and value anything or anyone that is not you.

If you are a respectful person, you will respect things and people. If you are not, you will lose your way quickly. Many have lost their way.

The opposite of respect is contempt, and this is the quality that Jesus likened to murder.  If you have hatred (contempt) in your heart towards your brother, you have murdered him. This sounds extreme, but consider. All murder begins with the ability to see someone as a non-person. We must see others as less than us before we pull a trigger, or swing a bludgeon.

But what of the bludgeon of the heart when we make it clear to another that we value them less than ourselves? Truly our own heart dies a bit when another clearly expresses that we do not matter. It does not begin with a gunshot. It begins with an offense and our tendency to demonize someone we do not take the time to know or consider. It begins when they pull out in front of us, or take our parking space. Contempt. We diminish their personhood. And when we do, we diminish our own hearts.

Respect is a wealth that cannot be taken away from you. It is an awareness that attributes value and worth to others, because you take the time to see, or at least believe that they are created in the image of the same God as you.

Perhaps this is the greatest loss that our culture is enduring. We no longer have meaningful dialogue, we just shred another’s soul if they do not think like me. The comment strings on blogs (Christian blogs may be the worst) are one of the most damning indicators of the erosion of respect. These, alongside the linguistic assaults of our political process seem to be the barometer of the murderous hearts our nation has come to cultivate.

Consider that each man or woman has a story. Consider that the disrespect handed you is part of an epidemic that each of us must take the responsibility to stop. Consider exchanging your offense for empathy and your judgments for the opportunity to see through new eyes.

Let the next car in, instead of grudgingly demanding your right to that 30 feet of concrete. Ask God to show you the value in all things He created. You can respect the environment without becoming a weirdo. Parents rather than demanding respect from your children, model it by first respecting them. This is a position of strength not weakness.

Regaining respect in your own soul will bring you more peace than you realize. Regaining respect in our culture could change everything.

3. Conversation: Conversation is far more than a verbal exchange. It is an exchange of ideas, perspectives, and a sharing of the richness that is deposited in each of us.

If U don’t have time 2 talk, consider U may B losing 2 much connection.

Again at the risk of sounding like an old guy on a rocking chair on a porch (which is a great place for conversation by the way) I am not trying to cure the ills of social media, or protest against every form of convenient communication.

What I would say, however, is that when those convenient exchanges become an ongoing substitute for real face to face, eye-contact-full communication we lose the building blocks of human relatedness.

Meals are fast. Twitter is faster. A facebook status and a reply are a nice touchstone, but they are not contact. Communication research says that words are less than ten percent of what makes up human communication. Tone of voice, facial expressions, body language, touch, volume, pacing, proximity; all these things make up the human aspect of commune-icating.

If you have ever tried to resolve a personal conflict via e-mail, you recognize (I hope) the deep limitations of semi-communication.

Stand or sit, without a time limit. Or at least with more than an hour. Have enough time and tolerance to chase a few rabbit-trails. While it is good to be able to stay focused, it is wonderful when someone truly enjoys the story that arises from an unhurried pace. Breathing slows down, and barriers lower. Hearts have time to connect, and the exchange reaches beyond the necessary data.

Verbal exchanges in hallways, and rushed meals may have their place, but do not assume you have had a full-fledged human connection, and do not underestimate the vital building block of the human soul that exists only in the real connection that happens when two or more people take the time to exchange the reality that exists within them. As my good friend Phil Buchanan says “People Last Forever”. As I say, data fades quickly.

My daughter and her friends occasionally stack all of their cellphones in the middle of the table. Whoever reaches for their phone first has to pay for the meal. Real conversation is too frequently interrupted by the many “necessary contacts” that flow through our phones all day long.

The convenience of a free flow of data, may supercede a sustained connection and starve our souls slowly.

Put your phone down. Look your friend in the eye. Ask yourself what is going on in those eyes, and then set about to discover. Fight the urge to pick up the phone, and stay connected past the point that feels comfortable. We are losing this most valuable resource, even though it is unlimited.

People Last Forever.

4. Letters: What? Letters? You mean paper letters, with envelopes and stamps? Yep, I do. For a variety of reasons, I am aware that about the only people that get letters any more are residents of our prison system. Ironic isn’t it?

Why would I want to give back letter writing to our culture? This one may be more symptom than source, but it used to be our only way to communicate across distances and time. Today distances are more than geographic. It is a sad joke that we all walk past tables full of people looking at phones and not each other. Someone will ask the question, “are you texting each other?” and laughter ensues. Then we all go back to looking at our phones. Distance.

How much thought goes into writing a letter, finding an envelope and a stamp and then mailing it? All of the previous gifts, thought, respect, conversation, are encapsulated in the simple act of writing (and mailing) a paper letter.

I haven’t done it in years. Maybe not since my father passed away. He was in prison.

I think I will write a letter. Maybe two. With real and substantial content.

5. Modesty:  Modesty is a topic which many of my friends and fellow bloggers have discussed this year. Sadly modesty as a conversation is often reduced to rules about showing skin, or not. Let’s dive at least a bit deeper than that shall we?

As a counselor for sixteen years, I made a clear distinction between topics that belonged behind the closed door of my office, and the open public forum of say, a lunch table at a restaurant, or a simple conversation that did not involve a client. Some things simply belong behind closed doors, out of respect (There is that word again) for people both behind the door, and the people in the public forum.

Aren’t you glad when a marriage counselor doesn’t discuss a couple’s sex life at the dinner party that evening? Both the couple and the party guests would feel violated by such a discussion.

The problem is, if you are violated enough times you develop a tolerance for it. Our culture has opened the door to a level of sexualization to which we are entirely desensitized.

I am not a prude. I am part of a team who is trying to restore a healthy sexual dialogue to the mainstream church. For too long we have not taught or discussed sexuality in healthy ways. In the vacuum of healthy discussion, any and all discussion seems to arise and be welcomed.

Things that would have never been considered are now defended as free speech and educational opportunities. You and I have both read of the extremes that have happened in a handful of college settings where actual sex acts are watched by students and performed or sanctioned by pseudo-educators. Pornography flourishes in a culture where we assume “free sexual expression” means that anything is allowed.

As with any freedom that is mis-defined, the holy has become profane, and that which is rare and beautiful has been “promoted” to the standard of “common”.

There is a vast difference between healthy understanding and conversation about sex and sexuality, and an unbridled access to every view and variation of actual sexual activity and stimulus.

What our culture would have once not allowed, we now defend in the name of freedom and tolerance. The sexualization of our thinking is expressed at so many levels that we do not even see them any more. To begin  to name the various aspects of this sexualization, promotes a case by case defense of this act, or that standard, and a polarization between the two sides.

When can we simply say that each individual circumstance, law, or social norm is part of a larger social drift, that is becoming a tsunami. Can we as a culture say that some things while normal and natural do not belong as a part of our dinner conversation, advertising campaigns, or next years political agenda? And can we say that some things that are normal and natural in one context, are not normal and not natural in another?

At what point in that dialogue does the machinery of our culture turn on us to protect the drift, and keep pushing us further and further into sacrificing our families and children and eventually our culture on the altar of free sexual expression?

I would simply like to give back to us the gift of modesty. Not a standard of appropriate dress, but a standard where human intimacy is actually intimate, and we actually value maintaining certain aspects of our lives and bodies only for those relationships for which intimacy is intended. I would like to give us back the gift of modesty that says I share different aspects of myself with people in different ways, in direct correlation to the level of relationship and intimacy that has developed between us.

For days now I have thought of what impact it might have to give back to our culture gifts of thinking and respect, of deep connection and protection of our intimate selves. How might it change the decay of our nation if we intentionally turn the course of human value and values? I know it is wishful thinking. But I value God’s image in you enough to wish.

Merry Christmas.

In the Days between now and Christmas, I want to give something away each day. Starting Monday December 17th, 2012 and Ending Monday December 24th, 2012  I would ask you to tweet a link to your favorite blog post from my archives, with the Hashtag #TDLD. Either a blog post or a brief quote from the book, “Think Differently Live Differently: Keys to a Life of Freedom.” As long as you use the hashtag #TDLD I will search at the end of each day, and choose one to receive a gift.

Once I choose a tweet, I will contact the winner via Direct Message, and offer to give either a free copy of the book, a free Study Guide, or a free version of the Audio version of TDLD.

I look forward to hearing from you and the posts or quotes you choose to tweet.

Thanks for reading…Thanks for thinking differently.

Bob

These kinds of thoughts plague the mind of people who suffer from this next “way of thinking”.  One of the most destructive belief systems I have observed over the years is the core belief, that one’s life is simply in the hands of external forces, entirely outside of the control of the individual. The person struggling with this over-arcing lie has a very difficult time finding lasting freedom.

The official psychological, sociological term for this meta-cognition is, “locus of control”. Specifically, everyone of us has some belief about how much control we have over our life and our destiny.

Someone with an internal locus of control understands that they can influence directly the path of their life, and the way other people respond to them. They recognize that their choices steer them in specific directions. While we all encounter circumstances outside of our control, an individual with a strong internal locus of control recognizes that overall they must make choices and steps to arrive in the life circumstances and kind of relationships they desire.

An internal locus of control is crucial to experience true freedom. We must have the ability to make choices as we interact with God and others, or we are absolutely bound by circumstance and “fate”.

An individual with a strong external locus of control feels that they are constantly in the hands of powers and circumstances outside of their control. They are entirely dependent on people and circumstances for their happiness, and satisfaction in life.

Stated in this way, we can all see that the belief that we are at the mercy of others, other people, other forces, is a huge trap. It is sometimes difficult for this type of person to self identify. This difficulty is a direct result of the problem itself. When you have no sense that you can impact your own life, you wait on others to take care of you. When you do this, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Others, and circumstances dictate your life. To someone laboring under this meta-lie, it does not feel like a lie at all. It has been their experience.

It is easier for the person with the external locus of control to identify certain thoughts, as in the first paragraph. To them these types of thought and others are common. Always waiting for a break, often feeling misunderstood, or even opposed, people with an external locus of control see themselves as victims of the cosmos.

This particular meta-belief system dictates multiple thoughts. And this particular belief system is easily passed down through the generations of a family line.

Parents who force compliance and obedience only train their children that they do not have control of their own lives.  Parents who train their children in wise choosing, convince their children that they can significantly determine the course of their lives.

Other personality types that struggle with the external locus of control mindset, include people struggling with addictions, compulsive behaviors, and relational dependencies like codependency, or chronic financial struggles.

One of the greatest steps toward true freedom is the discovery that you can interact with God for yourself. You can stop other people from treating you badly. You can choose to stop and start all kinds of interactions.

I spoke one time with a person who was angry because of how another person had treated them during a phone call. When I asked why they had stayed on the phone, they said, “He would not let me off.” They could not see that they had the ability and the right to hang up the phone at any time.

If you have felt that much of your life was out of your own personal control, and you are stuck waiting for a change of circumstance before you can be free, consider that you may be deceived in this way.

Paul and Silas were completely free, locked in the inner confines of a prison cell. I know many who are absolutely bound in their expensive homes where they can come and go as they please.

If self-control is a fruit of the Spirit perhaps we need to discover al this means.

Think Differently. You can choose to do so. Really.

Prisoner Thinking:

Has Self as Source: When you are your own source for thinking, it guarantees that you will always have only one perspective. Whatever personal quirks or biases you carry will always season your receptivity and process. Your unrecognized lenses and filters will remain unrecognized, and yet no less influential. The fundamental impact of Adam and Eve’s choice in the Garden was that it shifted the nature of man, so that he (we) became his own source.

Relies on our Five Senses for Input:

I have often pondered what may have been true about our sensory input prior to the fall. At the very least, we lost our ability to know by the Spirit. When our way of taking in reality relies only on our five senses, then the natural world is our primary vantage point.

Relies on Cognition for Process:

Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. While cognition (reason, logic, deduction) is a very valuable process, left to it’s own we become out of balance. Thinking, separate of intuition, wisdom, and discernment, is like only working out the right side of your body.

Considers only the Material Realm:

Since our five senses are our primary input, we may have no idea how much of reality is outside of our perceptual range. We see what we see, surely that is all that there is. This is prisoner thinking. It is like trying to walk through an unknown room in the dark; we don;t know what the obstacles are, or where the path is clear.

Makes Non-Sequitirs:

Because prisoner thinking only considers the visible portion of reality, the mind will come to conclusions that are not necessarily connected to all of reality. We see circumstances, and sometimes our only conclusion is that God is not good. We observe events and come to the belief that we are alone. Prisoner thinking.

Only knows what it doesn’t want:

Prisoner thinking does not dream of possibilities, it only sees limitations.

As you begin to recognize the building blocks of prisoner thinking, what other thought process limitations do you see that come from the knowledge of good and evil?

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts”. -Isaiah 55:8-9

The first time I traveled to the Middle East, I wanted to send postcards to my children immediately upon my arrival. As soon as I cleared passport control, I went directly to the first store, and proceeded to pick out five postcards to send. I looked at the price on the postcards, and was struck with a sort of sinking sensation. It had nothing to do with cost. It had to do with just how lost I was.

What does that number mean? How much is a Shekel? And much worse, I was starting to realize I was about to interact with a clerk about these questions, and I did not speak his language. I didn’t even know what language he spoke. All the signs had three languages simultaneously. They all seemed to have English, Arabic, and Hebrew. At first I only recognized English. But approach the clerk I did.

I looked at him and didn’t even know where to start. So I started with the only thing I knew; English…and a look on my face that I am quite certain showed just how lost I was. I am fairly certain that he let me squirm for a few moments before he bailed me out, and spoke to me in English. Though I could not speak his language, he could speak mine.

This was to be the first of hundreds of experiences where I learned again and again that as an American, I had only spoken, and thought, and lived like an American. Every encounter I had in Israel, I discovered that while I had not learned their ways, this group of people, Israeli, and Arab alike, had all learned my ways. They made a way for me to interact with them, even while I had no idea that I did not have a way to interact outside my own American mindset.

Prisoner thinking is the way we all think as post Genesis 3 citizens. Along with the fundamental nature change that happened at the fall of man, came a fundamental shift in our way of seeing and thinking. None of us know what it was like to not have prisoner thinking because we have all been born into it. One component of prisoner thinking is the inability to even recognize that another way of thinking actually exists.

By the way, this particular facet of prisoner thinking manifests itself in the dogmatic insistence that it is right! How many ethnocentric American tourists have finally in their frustration with their own limitations, gotten angry that these citizens of the foreign country they are visiting refuse to speak American!! As if the only thing they have ever known, is the only thing to know.

Prisoner thinking began when mankind lost the Spirit of God, and replaced the Spirit with their (our) own knowledge. As I have said, when we lose our glasses we have two problems. Our glasses are lost, and the way we find lost things is what we have lost.

Mankind lost a way of thinking, and lost the very mechanism by which we might actually know what we lost. So now we search for what we think we need, in the ways we think we should.

Another significant element of prisoner thinking is that it focuses on absence not presence. It sees what it does not have, or wishes to do away with. Prisoner thinking does not think about what it does have, or what is possible.

The prisoner defines freedom as getting out of jail, not as fulfilling their destiny. The prisoner defines freedom as stopping behavior, not as embracing the Presence of God. The prisoner defines things this way because of a way of thinking. And the worst kind of prisoner insists to themselves and others that they are right.

In John Chapter 3 Jesus tells Nicodemus, “I have been both in Heaven and Earth, If I tell you Earthly things and you don’t believe me how will you ever believe me when I tell you heavenly things”.

Freedom thinking assumes multiple perspectives, prisoner thinking is locked into only one way of seeing.

Please do not confuse this idea with relativism. I am not describing a mindset that says each person is the source of their own reality. I am describing a mindset where objective reality must be observed from multiple angles and vantage points. At the very least, objective reality must be viewed through material and spiritual lenses. We do not create our own reality, but we do create our experience by the way that we view objective reality.

Simply put, freedom thinking is not limited by prison bars and circumstances.

Much like the other ways of thinking we address in this series, the higher order of thinking can recognize and even practice the lower order, but the lower order is not even aware that a higher order exists.

Jesus, the only post Genesis 3 citizen who did not live by the Knowledge of Good and Evil, was faced with the daunting task, of convincing prisoners that they were prisoners. This was a pre-requisite to helping them move to freedom.

And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.”  Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?”  Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains. -John 9:39-41

Prisoner thinking often insists it is free, like the blind men in the above scene, insist that they can see. They believe they can see all that can be seen, because they see what they have always seen. As always the first step to a new way of thinking is the acknowledgment that your way is not sufficient.

Prisoner thinking begins to lose it’s grip when we genuinely see that we are deeply limited and we ask God and others to show us what they see.

¹⁰ For to us God revealed them (mysteries) through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. ¹¹ For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, ¹³ which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. ¹⁴ But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. ¹⁵ But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. - 1 Corinthians 2:10-15 NASB

The human brain is an amazing organ capable of multiple functions. You would do well to understand how to use and care for your brain. The brain is more than a storehouse of data, it is also a processor. It can generate, synthesize, organize and assign meaning to thoughts.

The ways of thinking in our brain lead to all manner of thoughts.

Jesus said, “Think in a whole new way, because God’s Present Activity is among men.” We read it in this language, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” The word “repent” literally means, “ think differently afterward” so it is reasonable to understand that Jesus is not simply telling us to have better or more accurate thoughts, rather, He is telling us to process thought in a different way, or to take in reality in a whole new way

The word, “repent” is an English translation of the Greek word, “Metanoeo,” a compound word telling us to take in the realities in front of us on a different channel. It is from this word I derive the title of this current series. “Meta” cognition or, “step back and look from a higher perspective”, allows us to consider how we consider. To think about how we think. So know how you know. Think about how you think. Understand the various lenses and filters through which all of reality enters and sticks in your brain.

This series will examine a variety of lenses and filters. Most of them will have some kind of polarity. Spirit versus flesh, concrete versus abstract, and so on. I hope to allow us all to have a chance to know our own thought processes better. I hope you will have a chance to “meta-know-yourself”.

The first of these lenses, I think, is the grand-daddy of them all; in one sense a meta-meta-cognition, or a way of thinking that informs and guides all other ways of thinking. Way back in the garden, at the fall, when man consumed the fruit of that darn tree, we see a shift in the human condition, and therefore the human process.  We switched sources. One moment our source was God-in-and-through-us, a moment later our source was simply…us. The knowledge of good and evil, as a way of knowing, can be reduced to one word, knowledge.

We see here a shift that is described above in the 1 Corinthians passage. Paul is not referencing good thinking and bad thinking. Paul is referencing two different “ways of thinking” He specifically says that certain thoughts cannot be processed through certain thought processes. Specifically, spiritual thoughts cannot be really understood, received, comprehended, through natural thought processes.

Spiritual versus natural. These are two very different ways of thinking. And it is the failure to recognize this distinction that I believe leads to confusion ad conflict among believers. The same topic, the same words, the same ideas can mean something completely different processed through the spirit, or processed through the brain.

Don’t get me wrong, the brain is always involved in the process, but in one case (natural thinking) the brain is the source, and in the other (spiritual thinking) the spirit is the source, and the brain is merely the recipient and language translator.

Natural thinking will turn this very conversation into a conversation about doctrine or religious positioning. Processing a conversation about spirit versus natural thinking through natural lenses always reduces the conversation to “right and wrong “. Spiritual thinking is more like turning on a light in a dark room; this way of thinking allows everything to be seen more clearly. The key to natural versus spiritual thinking is not to discern whether or not the brain is involved, but rather, to discern whether the spirit or the brain is the source of the thoughts.

Anyone see the trap? The trap in this conversation will be echoed in several of the following posts.

Spiritual thinking can recognize natural thinking.

Natural thinking cannot recognize spiritual thinking.

What a set up. Because natural thinking cannot recognize spiritual thinking, it cannot recognize itself as not-spiritual. This is why the people Jesus ministered to were all blind. They thought they saw, but they could not see, and they could not see that they could not see. You see?

Have you ever thought you knew or understood something and later, a “light goes on in your mind”? Suddenly you see it differently, realizing that you had completely misunderstood. Assume that more light is always available.

So much of the struggle we have truly hearing the teaching of Jesus is that we apply the wrong process to His words, and we do not know that we do this.

“Beware the Leaven of the Pharisees,” He said.

They wondered if He was referencing their failure to provide bread.

“You must be born again,” He said.

Nicodemus asked if a man could enter his mother’s womb a second time.

If we are not careful, we smugly look at those examples and are certain that we understand everything Jesus said. Even more we convince ourselves we understand all that He meant. We must know that spiritual truth spoken in spiritual words is like rivers of living water, a never-ending always-renewing fountain of Truth.

Spiritual truths are only understood by spiritual minds. How would I know if my thoughts have spirit as source and not brain? One way would be to see whether or not these thoughts produce, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, meekness, mercy and self-control. Another way would be to see if the words spoken produce life or death in you and others.

Jesus’ goal as a teacher was not simply to fill the human mind with accurate thoughts. Jesus’ goal was to give people a new source. Jesus’ goal was to give people a new Way.

Think Differently.

I often pose the question, “How many blind people did Jesus minister to?” After a pause for effect and a few answers, I deliver my point.

 “All of the people Jesus ministered to were blind.”

All of us see as clearly as we can see. All of us see all that we are able to see. But none if us see all that can be seen. As soon as we assume that we see everything that can be seen, we have locked in our own level of blindness.

Assume the simple fact that a Biblical world-view assumes that we surrounded by a world that cannot be seen with our physical eyes.  Add to this multiple layers and types of what I am learning to call “prisoner thinking” and we may find that we are far worse off than if we were simply physically blind.  At least the optically blind are aware of what they see not.

The word “repent” comes from a Greek word that means to “think differently”. In English the word “differently” is an adverb, not an adjective. All this means is that the “thinking “ is the part that should be different, not just the thought.

Let me say this another way.

To change our ways of thinking changes every thought that follows, and every thought that went before.

“Ways of thinking” refers to the overarching processes that guide and inform our thoughts. “Ways of thinking” refers to the process of our thinking, not just the contents of our thoughts.

My friend Alan Smith says that we always look through our glasses, we seldom look at them. The lenses through which we take in reality, the thoughts that guide how we think, these over-riding processes are referred to as “meta-cognition”

Meta-cognition refers to the simple idea that the brain programs itself, and it has even been programmed as to how it programs itself.

Ultimately all of our “ways of thinking” or meta-cognition can be traced back to the shift in the human race, when we were created and functioned as carriers of the Breath of Life, and in a single moment switched our source and foundation to the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The Knowledge of Good and Evil is not simply a new package of thoughts. The Fall marks a shift in the guiding processes of the human mind. It generated a new meta-cognition. In fact, I would say that this is a meta-meta-cognition. Under the umbrella of the Knowledge of Good and Evil are multiple other shifts in our meta-cognitive processes.

As I like to say, when we have lost our glasses, we have two problems. We have lost our glasses, but we have also lost the way that we find lost things.  In our search for the kind of truth that makes us free, it is often the way we search, and the ways that we think that hold us still in bondage.

Let me describe the struggle as simply as I know how.

For every thought, there is both a thought, and a way of thinking.

For every way of thinking, there exists other ways of thinking the same thought.

People are often limited to a single way of thinking, but do not recognize this. Most people assume that their way is the way.

When people try to know truth, or even right and wrong, they usually examine thoughts, but not ways of thinking. 

Two people with two ways of thinking can believe they are talking about the same thing and be on completely different topics.

Often one way of thinking is of a higher order (not better, just able to take in more perspectives) than another.

Example: A very concrete thinker and a very abstract thinker can have a conversation and both have a very different understanding of the conversation.

Jesus: Beware the leaven of the Pharisees

Disciples: Is He saying this because we forgot the bread?

The abstract thinker can see both perspectives, while the concrete thinker is locked into only his own perspective. Because he is locked into his own perspective, he does not even know that another perspective can exist. Try to push this conversation with the disciples and they will simply increase their level of bread thinking. They must be shifted to a different way of thinking before this conversation can actually progress.

This conundrum is most evidenced in male-female relationships, where the biggest differences between genders is the ways that each gender thinks. I am convinced that one of the reasons that God calls us “helpers suitable to one another’s needs” is that we can both be stuck in ways of thinking. We (male and female) need one another to not remain stuck) Another place you will see this distinction played out is in comment streams on internet posts. This is a very difficult context to help people come to similar ways of thinking.

I will do several posts in the days ahead highlighting some ways of thinking and the intent to move people to do more than just think new thoughts.

Begin to think with me; “I am certain I do not see all that there is to see”. Just as important, “I am certain I do not yet see in the same way that God sees”.  Let’s begin to think differently.