How do you overcome small thinking?

All the kings on the west side of the Jordan heard about this, including those in the highlands, the lowlands, and along the entire coast of the Mediterranean Sea toward Lebanon. They were Hittites and Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. They formed an alliance to fight Joshua and Israel.

Joshua 9:1-2 (CEB)

“Perizzite” means, “belonging to a village”. Villages have a connotation of “smallness”. People who grow up in villages are exposed to very limited opportunities for growth; educational, cultural, and entertainment opportunities are scarce. If not careful, people who grow up in villages can develop a very limited vision of life.

Since villages impart a sense of “smallness”, villagers tend to see themselves as small and insignificant people who are a small part of a small and insignificant community. People trapped by the Perizzite spirit, therefore, see themselves as people with little potential whose only task in life is to live a quiet biological existence and to stay out of the way of the people who are “really” important in this world. Perizzites not only believe in their own smallness, but also believe in the smallness of the “villagers” around them, including their children.

The Perizzite spirit, therefore, can lead to many generations of spiritual stagnation. Since stagnation always leads to poverty (in the material and in the spiritual realm), Perizzite spirits tend to produce many generations of spiritual (and even literal) poverty. The effect of Perizzite spirits in someone is limited vision, laziness, low self-esteem.

How do you overcome small thinking?

1. Recognise that we serve a big God who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think

Whatever dream God has placed in your heart He is more than able to fulfil it even beyond your wildest imagination. You see we serve a God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us (Ephesians 3:20);

2. Surrender your life to Jesus and seek His vision for your life

When you surrender your life to Jesus, it means you are no longer your own. Ask Jesus to come into your heart and be Lord and Master of your life. Once you surrender your life to Jesus you can then ask Him to show you His vision for your life. His vision for you will always be much bigger and better than you thought;

3. Recognise that you can do all things through Christ which strengthens you

Most dreams that God gives you to accomplish may seem impossible to you. And in the natural it may well be, however please remember that you will not have to accomplish them on your own. If you have made Jesus your Lord, then no matter how challenging the dream may be just remember that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Philippians 4:13);

4. Think big

When God made man He blessed man and gave man a command to be fruitful and to multiply. To be fruitful and multiply means exactly what it says. If your current dream is to run a business that serves 100 customers per day, think big and ask The Lord to show you how you can serve 1,000 customers per day. If your dream is to buy food for one homeless person a day, ask God to give you the means to buy food for ten homeless people per day. However many people you serve, always think big and ask God to show you how you can serve more and more people.

5. Ask God to make you a blessing to the world

God told Abram to leave his country and his people and his father’s house and go to a land that He will show him. He said He will make him a great nation and He will bless him and make his name great, and he shall be a blessing (Genesis 12:1-2). Pray and ask God to show you how you can be a blessing to the world, and when you do, you will see how He will begin to drop ideas and visions of greatness into your heart, and as you follow the leading of His Holy Spirit, step-by-step, He will make you a blessing to everyone you meet.

6. Use your God-given talents

In the parable of the talents, the Lord rewarded the servant who was able to double his talents and He punished the one who simply buried his talent and did nothing with it. Ask God to help you identify your talents and then use them so that you can make it better and serve more people with it. For example, if your gift is teaching, ask the Holy Spirit to give you opportunities to teach, study and prepare messages and teach at every opportunity you get and always look for ways to serve more and more people with that talent.

7. Visualise the promises of God

It was God that took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!” (Genesis 15:5). God wanted him to visualise His promises and likewise we too must visualise the promises that God has placed inside of us. You become what you think about therefore spend time on a consistent basis to visualise the promises that God has given to you because as a man thinks in his heart so is he (Proverbs 23:7).

Prayer

And may the Lord, the God of my ancestors, multiply me a thousand times more and bless me as He promised in Jesus name (Deuteronomy 1:11).

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How to Discover Your Life’s Purpose Through Dreams

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Are You Prepared for War?

The men from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh obeyed Moses. These men crossed the river in front of the other people. These men were prepared for war. They were going to help the rest of the Israelites take the land God had promised to give them. About 40,000 soldiers, prepared for war, passed before the Lord. They were marching toward the plains of Jericho.

Joshua 4:12-13

In this story we are told that the children of Israel were about to cross the river Jordan to go into Jericho, to take the first city that God had promised them.

Even though the men from the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh had already secured their land on the other side of the river, they did not just sit and wait for their brothers to capture their promised land alone. Instead these men were prepared for war.

As Christians, we also have a promised land ahead of us that we have to reach. Our promised land is not made by human hands, for its architect and builder is God Himself (Hebrews 11:10); it is the New Jerusalem which is coming from heaven down to earth:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had disappeared. Now there was no sea. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It was prepared like a bride dressed for her husband.

I heard a loud voice from the throne. It said, “Now God’s home is with people. He will live with them. They will be his people. God Himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, sadness, crying, or pain. All the old ways are gone.”

Revelation 21:1-4

This New Jerusalem, just like the promised land of old, is not easy to attain, we also must be prepared for war in order to reach it. Just like the children of Israel had to destroy the inhabitants of the land before they could possess their land, we too have spiritual giants that we must destroy in order to possess our promised land.

However unlike the Children of Israel who fought a physical fight using natural weapons with their enemies, the Bible tells us that our fight is not against human beings but spiritual forces:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places

Ephesians 6:12

What Does It Mean To Be Prepared?

To be prepared is to be ready “standing by,” ready to meet the opportunity (challenge) at hand; ready because the necessary preparations are done (or are sure to happen as needed).

What Is The War About?

War is a conflict between opposing forces.

You will see from the scripture we are about to read that the war is between God and Satan, and the war started in heaven however it has moved down to earth and we human beings are caught in it, whether we like it or not:

And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought,

but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

Revelation 12:7-12

So, the forces involved in this war are:

1. Two Kingdoms – the Kingdom of God with Jesus Christ as its King and the kingdom of darkness with the great dragon, that old serpent called the Devil and Satan as its king.
2. Two opposing Angels – Michael, the Archangel and his angels and Satan and his angels.
3. The battlefield – the war started in heaven however the battlefield is now the earth and people in the earth.
4. Battle strategy – Satan is out to deceive as many human beings as he can so that he can drag them down to hell. He continually accuses the children of God day and night. Satan’s strategy is to steal, kill and destroy but Jesus has come that we may have life in its fullness:

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly

John 10:10

God in His love has provided salvation, strength, Kingdom of God and the power of His Christ to all humanity who choose to believe in Jesus Christ His Son:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

How Do We Overcome Satan?

We overcome him by:

1. The Blood of The Lamb – we apply the blood of Jesus Christ when we accept that we are sinners and ask Him to forgive us and wash us clean with His blood. When we accept Him He becomes our sacrificial lamb (Hebrews 10:10).
2. The Word of our testimony – we testify when we confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead (Romans 10:9).
3. We do not love our lives to the death – this means that we will be willing to lay down our lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are also encouraged to die daily to our flesh or natural desires (1 Corinthians 15:31).

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

Matthew 16:25

Next week we’ll be looking at how you can prepare for war.

Prayer:

Dear Lord please help me to be prepared for war as the men from the tribe of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh. Please help me to always be ready to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life, in Jesus name.

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