Taming the beast 2
First some housekeeping (1): “Is the voice in your head the devil?”
No. The voice in your head is open to influences from God-connected sources and from dysfunctional sources. Left untrained, unrestricted and unobserved the God-connected influences tend to be heavily outweighed by dysfunctional influences. The things of this temporal world dominate the socialization of the voice in your head.
Mark 4: 18 Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, 19 and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
So while the voice in your head is not the devil, the devil wields considerably influence over it. That then produces the challenge of trying to identify which source the voice is pulling from when it speaks. “Is this of God or of the devil?”
“When should I listen to the voice and which messages should I reject?”
Housekeeping 2: Is the core YOU the Christian persona? No. We enter with a built-in connectedness to God but without any identification with anything – no material possessions, no belief systems, and no attachments of any kind.
Christianity guides us as to how to strip away the cares and deceitfulness of this temporal world that inevitably become attached to the core YOU. It enables us through the power of Christ in us to become fully aware of the presence of the impostor SELF and to be able to readily identify it. It awakens your consciousness as to the difference between the CORE YOU and the false SELF with which it is so easy to identify and become attached.
Even as you seek to find out who you are and what is your purpose Christianity provides clarity as to who YOU are not and thereby takes you closer to the core YOU. It defines your purpose as that of coming to a state of BEING where connectedness with God is fully restored.
Now to new ground in our continuing journey:
The voice in our head has the ability to speak so loudly that what it is saying spills over to others and affects them as well. That is why a bubbly, ‘ray of sunshine’ spirit can lift the mood of others and an angry, mean-spirited feeling can transcend the individual who generated it.
The voice in your head then can be contagious and can influence the state of mind and actions of an entire group – maybe even a nation. Almost like the flu the ‘vibes’ from inside your head is spread quickly and unnoticed to others. They then exhibit similar symptoms without understanding how and when they got infected.
Families that live together are vulnerable to contagious diseases. Similarly, closely knit groups face the risk of having the mood of the entire group shaped by the ‘vibes’ that are put out by the voice in the head of one or more individuals.
A key test of personal and group maturity is the capacity to so train, chain and watch the individual and collective voice in the head such that it produces appropriate messages despite the presence of swirling negative ‘vibes’.
Our goal as individuals must be to produce a voice in our head that is so well trained and domesticated that it produces messages of hope, optimism and overcoming in an environment of mega-gloom, perceived impending disaster, and collective depression bordering on hopelessness.
We must strive to so chain and watch the voice in our head that it sends out still, calming, peace-making messages in an environment that is in uproar and filled with aggression and anger.
As a group, we need to be fully awake to the risk of being taken on a collective roller coaster ride. We have to find from somewhere within us a stabilising force that holds tight to the core. Anchors that are not moved by the prevailing winds of the many false SELFs that would have us collectively move in one direction or the other. The group has to develop the capacity to maintain its balance and keep its focus even as it provides solidarity and support and celebrates successes.
A failure to do that places the group at risk. We must be ever mindful of the fact that the voice in your head is not YOU. The Core YOU that has connectedness with God is NOT the impostor SELF with which we identify more often than not. The collective group SELF is also a composite of false SELFs.
The danger is that untrained, unchained and unobserved the voice in our head (individual and collective) is reflected in Gen 6: 5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
The group then must have the capacity to recognize the havoc that uncontrolled voices in our heads can wreak on the collective body.
1 Pet 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
The devil is too clever to run around in the hot sun seeking prey. Instead, he simply provides training for the voice in our heads and sends messages through it that brings us to him. Individually and collectively we have to seek to disconnect the devil-inspired transmissions or at least to screen out its messages.
The ease with which collective dysfunctional behaviour is achieved is testimony to the power of those dysfunctional transmissions in our collective heads. Mob violence can be sparked in an instant. People have been led to commit mass suicide. Families, work groups and congregations have been rent asunder by messages that were not screened. We have to be vigilant. We cannot afford to let us guard slip for a moment.
Remember that it is when we are out-of-step with our normal state that we are most susceptible to identifying with the false image of our SELF. When you are distracted by tiredness, stress, significant challenges, change of status, excitement, bereavement, success you may not pay as much attention to the fact that the voice in your head is not core YOU. You might even get caught up in treating it as if it were YOU and identifying with it.
Somewhere from inside or outside must come a heightened sense of awareness that recognizes the impostor and its actions and call it out. If you are to maintain and improve on your connectedness with God you have to somehow gain access to the core YOU and stop the noise in your head that is being made by your impostor SELF.
As a group, the same applies. By prayer and supplication and reliance on non-selective application of the Scriptures we have to expose the impostor and call the collective body to increased vigilance.
The group must find from somewhere a voice that maintains balance. A voice that protects it from being tossed to and fro by changing moods. The problem is that that voice is likely to be out of step with some strongly held views within the group. The voice might be cast in the role of being lacking in understanding, of being insensitive, maybe of even being uncaring. Yet the group needs a resolute, anchoring voice that keeps the collective body on track.
One of the clever ways in which the voice in your head deceives some people is by substituting the Group SELF for the individual SELF. This is a master-stroke. It allows the individual to feel very good about themselves and to earn the respect and commendation of others even while doing dastardly things.
For example, feelings of honour and pride can be taken from being the first person or being among the group of farmers who beat a crop or livestock thief into unconsciousness. This is being done in the name of the group. A similar philosophy permeates gangs.
A more noble application manifests itself in the willingness of men to risk their lives in battle for the benefit of their nation.
In the final analysis, SELF is even more developed and strengthened when it wraps itself in the group. It has the added benefit of having noble intent. It says: “See I have denied myself. What I am doing here is for others. Don’t look at me …this is not about me…that is bigger than me. ” This outlook and transfer of individual SELF to group SELF takes place from the national level right on down through the family level.
The danger is not readily recognized. It is usually only identified with mob behaviour. The real challenge is that the Group SELF is still about the individual SELF. The individual SELF gets its validation from the group. It gets strength from the legitimacy of the group.
However, the individual SELF is still in place and it warms to the scope for growth that is possible under the banner of the group. It readily identifies with this group-legitimized image of SELF. The group has the potential to lull you into loosing awareness of the fact that there is an impostor SELF that is not YOU. Unwatched the voice in your head gets more and more power. Attachment to groups – from family up through nation – tends to feed the impostor SELF.
If the collective voices in the heads of the group members are not adequately trained, chained and watched, they tend to send inappropriate messages. Members tend to get caught up with ideas, words and actions that are temporal and of this world. They get distracted and loosen their connectedness with God. But they are blinded to that reality because the group can so often evoke an almost missionary zeal. “I will give my all to this group – even my life.” All of this in the context of achieving self-denial and being caring and protective of others.
As we follow this thought we want to unveil an even slicker trick of the voice in our head. A scenario will make the point more effectively.
I am part of a Young People’s Group planning discussion. I want to encourage the group to go on a Buscapella. I make my case but in the final analysis it is decided that the group will have a Bible walk session. I come to the session and I show as much enthusiasm for the Bible walk as those who promoted it.
My “good spirit” is noted and I am held up as an example of the kind of spirit that we ought to display. Unobserved by my core, voice in my head sees this as an opportunity to strengthen SELF. It prompts me to make extraordinary displays of self-sacrifice. My willingness to deny self is widely discussed and recognized.
With each event SELF grows stronger. I increasingly identify with this martyr-SELF and get attached to that image of my SELF. In that state, I strive even harder to make sacrifices. I am so distracted by the voice in my head that I fail to realize why I am now making these sacrifices. I am now being driven by the respect and adulation of others.
The tragedy is that because of the reverence with which I am treated and the pious feelings that are prompted by that I find it really hard to even imagine that my connectedness with God is being loosened. The voices of others and the voice in my head combine to send me the message that I am close to sainthood. “You are a wonderful example of Christian living.”
Those thoughts and words take on a life of their own and before long the impostor SELF takes complete charge. Pride comes to the fore and the inevitable fall is not too far behind.
The fall might be manifest at the annual awards ceremony for the group and I note that I am not among the awardees. Voice in my head goes ballistic at this unjust treatment. Foul play and jealousy must be the cause of this unacceptable behaviour on their part. Unwatched, SELF has grown so powerful that it is hard to control and the voice in my head induces me to say and do things that finally show the true character of the impostor that has taken me over. Then comes the cycle of dishonour and shame and the pain that accompanies them.
1 Cor 10:12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
Getting us to do right things for the wrong reasons is one of the devil’s cleverest ways of loosening our connectedness with God. The more SELF abounds the less room there is for God. Inducing us to build up SELF in apparent acts of righteous behaviour is hard to detect and difficult to avoid.
James 1:26 If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.
Reflect on the words does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart. Is that not in essence failing to train, chain and watch the voice in your head to the point that you have been deceived into accepting the false SELF as YOU?
Luke 16: 15 And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
We must test the spirits continually. Try to dig deep too find the motive for our actions. If they bring satisfaction, what is the nature of the pleasure or benefit that we derive?
Again, we can try to find out who gets the credit for the actions. If the credit abounds to SELF and we identify with that and get attached to it then we know that we are going down a dangerous path.
We may justifiably ask if it is humanly possible to live in this world and to shut down our false SELF. The voice in our head seems to have so much power and so many tricks how can we be expected to deal with it?
Matt 19: 26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
The taming of the voice in your head is only possible when you are in Christ.
The process for putting on Christ includes the following:
We must hear the good news of Jesus, His atoning sacrifice for our sins and His resurrection. Rom 10:14. You must also believe the good news. Heb 11: 6
Faith is not enough. We are called to act on our belief and to make a decision to no longer let sin reign in our lives but to seek to live in obedience to God. This is the very important act of repentance. Luke 13: 2 You then have to confess Jesus as Lord of your life. This is a public declaration of your belief that Jesus is the Son of the Living God: Rom 10: 8-10 Another major step is that you must be baptized for the removal of our sins. Gal 3:27
At that point you have put on Christ and you are in Christ. Now you are empowered to experience the renewal of your mind and live a transformed life. Now the taming of the voice in your head can take place in earnest.
Through the power of Christ in us, we allow the voice in our head no latitude. The answer to dealing with the voice in your head starts with continually recognizing that it is not YOU. An impostor can only have sway if it is not recognized. Once you recognize it and call it out then the game is over. The undercover cop that infiltrates a gang is only effective if he is not recognized for who he is. Once we spot the false SELF and expose it, it loses its power.
So in order to effectively manage SELF we have to be continually vigilant. We have to screen every single thought, word or deed that we are prompted to embrace. When we do that we end up processing events differently. We see things from a totally different perspective. The blinkers of SELF are removed. Things that might have offended you are now deflected. Things that would normally have distracted you are now pushed aside. Successes that once would have disrupted your pattern are now taken in stride. Disappointments no longer have the capacity to cripple you.
The renewing of the mind is in fact largely about screening out messages that are produced by the dysfunctional promptings of the voice in your head. Once you consistently reject those messages and recognize that further training of the voice is required then you grow spiritually. That is the path to spiritual maturity.
If there was an end state to spiritual maturity it would manifest itself in the capacity to readily identify the difference between the voice in your head and the core YOU. You would intercept inappropriate messages and screen them quickly out of your thoughts, word and deed.
You would consequently reduce the clutter of thoughts and calls to DO that places us on a treadmill in this life. You would instead be centred on BEING closely connected with God. You would have avoided getting caught in the trap of endless acquisition of material wealth and status in the quest for security which is a never ending spiral.
You would also understand the price that is paid when you become attached to things that must pass away. You recognize that such attachment is the source of suffering and discomfort.
You would have mastered the ability to accept what is. You do not resist and question the fact that it is. “Why me?” is not on your lips. Instead, you accept what is and strive to maximize the opportunities that the new development now offers.
You would not be caught up in seeking to differentiate yourself from others. “I am not like THAT!” is not uppermost in your mind. Instead you strive to find common ground with others. With that spirit, loving your neighbour is not as difficult as it appears. Achieving that is aided by the fact that you always look beyond your impostor SELF and through the impostor SELF of others. You somehow manage to relate to others on the level of the core YOUs.
Monday 9 June 2008
Sunday 1 June 2008
Taming the beast
Taming the beast
A man decides that he wants to have a lion as a pet. He gets a young cub. As an animal lover he does not want to restrict the lion’s freedom unduly. He wants him enjoy something of a normal lion’s life. The cub is even allowed to roam a nearby wooded area. No real effort is put into domestication and the man relies on the fact that he has been a consistent source of food to define his relationship with the lion.
Is this a dangerous adventure? How likely is it that the lion’s natural instincts to hunt will come to the fore at some point?
Untamed, unfettered and unobserved we see the potential for a tragedy unfolding.
The situation is very similar with respect to what we have been calling “the voice inside your head” – the prompter. Untamed, unfettered and unobserved the voice inside your head is a whole load of trouble.
You will recall that the voice in your head is not YOU. Making that distinction is essential. The voice in your head is a false sense of SELF that pretends to be YOU. Many persons never truly make the distinction and most of us confuse the two from time to time.
Today we want to spend some time getting to know the voice in your head better so that you can set about taming it, fettering it and observing it.
It is important to note that the voice in your head has been around from the very outset. Reflect on the very first act of disobedience recorded in the Scriptures.
Gen 2: 15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
That is the earliest recorded action of the voice in your head. An examination of the case gives us important insights into just what the voice in your head is about.
The voice in your head is about SELF. Self is to be promoted. That is the ultimate goal. The nature of the promotion changes with circumstances but marketing SELF is the mission of the voice in your head.
In this case, the issue is that SELF is being cast in a role that limits its options. It is being fettered. It is being controlled by outside influences. Why should that be? - it wonders. Why must I be bridled?
The voice in your head objects to imposed restrictions. It points to what you are missing. It also highlights your subordination to something outside of SELF. It sees this as a blatant plan to undermine and fetter SELF. The voice in your head will have none of it. It wants to have its own way … to chart its own course…to march to its own beat. Is it surprising then that so many of us have a hard time doing what we are told to do or in obeying rules?
The actions of the serpent also highlight one of the key strategies of the voice in your head. The serpent sought to create suspicion about the motives of others with respect to SELF. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
The message is that ‘God does not have YOUR best interest at heart.’ God wants to have something that makes Him better than YOU.
This wedge of SUSPICION is at the root of much of our inter-personal difficulties. Yet it is a constant message from the voice in your head. It constantly doubts whether others have SELF’s best interest at heart. The voice in your head thinks that since it is always looking out for its own interest, why should others be any different?
This philosophy makes achieving TRUST very difficult. If trust is consistently questioned and pushed aside then the need to keep SELF apart increases and is entirely logical. If I can’t trust you then I had better stay clear of you. In earlier presentations, we pointed out that separation was a key strategy of the voice in your head. SELF gains strength by being different. “I am not like that!”
Differentiation is at the core of effective marketing. One brand seeks to establish that it is different from other brands. It is not surprising then that the voice in your head seeks avenues to make SELF different from others as part of its promotional strategy. Being different and separation go hand in hand.
Left untamed, unfettered and unobserved this tendency to separation and the inclination to be suspicious of others actually fuels discord and enmity. This is another instance of the dysfunctional nature of the voice in your head. We need to see that its natural inclination is to move us away from connectedness with God.
Mark 12: 30 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
God says: Love your neighbour. The voice in your head says: “Be suspicious of others. Don’t trust them. They are not like you. They want the best for themselves. They don’t have YOUR best interest at heart.” If that is true then what room is there for the love of others that God demands?
1 John 4: 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
Like an untamed, unfettered and unobserved wild beast, the voice in your head is a bag of trouble when untutored, unchecked and left unattended.
Gen 6: 5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
Proverbs 6: 13 He winks with his eyes, He shuffles his feet, He points with his fingers; 14 Perversity is in his heart, He devises evil continually, He sows discord. 15 Therefore his calamity shall come suddenly; Suddenly he shall be broken without remedy.
The natural instinct of the lion is to hunt and to dominate. We see here that the natural inclination of the voice in your head is NOT to draw us closer to God. It is naturally inclined to lead us to dysfunctional behaviour. We must train it. We must chain it and we must watch it. That is the essence of Romans 12:2
Rom 12: 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
So back to our objective of taming the beast:
The voice in your head prompts you to be suspicious of others. In fact, it is the voice in your head that needs to be viewed with suspicion.
1 John 4: 1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
You have to screen every single prompt that comes from the voice inside your head.Ask: Is this prompt in accordance with the Word of God? Anything that runs counter to the Will of God must be identified, exposed and denied.
Another feature to note about the voice in your head is its ability to send messages that just seem to be right for you. It just seems the natural thing to think, say or do.
2 Tim 4: 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
In order to tame the voice in your head you have to be alert to your vulnerabilities. Try to remember that it will seek to take advantage of you when you are tired, or upset or excited. Be especially conscious when you are unsettled or off balance in any way. It is in that state that carefully crafted messages get through your defences. The thought so completely sums up how you feel at that moment that you identify with it. You fail to see that it is in sync with the feeling of the impostor SELF and not reflective of who YOU are at your core.
So far, in the effort to tame the voice in your head we have looked at shoring up your defences – essentially the chain it and watch it components of your strategy. However, you put yourself at a major disadvantage unless you devote attention to the train it component.
Prov 22: 6 Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.
The voice in your head begins to be shaped very early in life. Some people say from in the womb. It is important that it gets a clear picture of the kind of messages that is expected of it from the very outset. This does not come naturally as its natural inclination is to produce dysfunctional messages.
There is an awesome responsibility on adults and parents to train the voices in the head of children from the earliest stages such that they produce messages that promote connectedness with God as against conformity with the world.
It is important to note that the voice in your head seems to take its cues more readily from what it observes as against what it is told. No need to wonder why Junior is so protective of his toy car and so unwilling to share it. He has seen how Daddy goes ballistic when he spills his drink in Daddy’s car. Mom also appears to be a different person when he forgets that he is not to drink on the couch. The message is clear - THINGS are very important. You have to defend things against people. In fact, things are more important than people.
Junior’s voice in his head quickly learns that it is to send messages that defend things against people. Junior identifies with the messages because Mom and Dad have shown him that that is the way he should be. Loads and loads of the messages that the voice in your head sends to you today were actually coded in your early years.
So what now? Can training of the voice in your head still take place in our adult state?
The renewing of the mind is in fact largely about stripping away messages that have been implanted into our minds by our life long experiences. Untrained, unrestricted and unobserved the voice in your head draws its own conclusions from each encounter from all that is happening around it and decides on the messages that it will send.
Rom 7: 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
As with so many passages, the personal implication of this one jumps out at you when you examine it in the context of the voice in your head and its battle to take over the core YOU. When the voice in your head is identified as the thing in me (that is, in my flesh) then the struggle is more clearly seen.
20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
This is where the distinction between the voice in your head and YOU is essential to a better understanding.
Now if I (MY FALSE SELF) do what I (CORE ME) will not to do, it is no longer I (CORE ME) who do it, but sin that dwells in me (=MY FALSE SELF represented by the voice in my head).
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1 Pet 5: 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
That roaring lion is not roaring in the wild but is actually the quiet voice in your head. Its aim is to devour the inward man: 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. It is consumed with warring against the law of your mind.
What can we do? Is there a way out? How do we know which voice to believe?
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Matt 19: 23 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved? 26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
John 14: 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
You can have no life outside of Jesus. You must be in Christ to have life. The taming of the voice in your head is only possible when you are in Christ.
A review of all the conversions in the New Testament and supporting passages point to the following process for putting on Christ:
We must hear the good news of Jesus, His atoning sacrifice for our sins and His resurrection.
Rom 10:14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
You must also believe the good news.
Heb 11: 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Faith is not enough. We are called to act on our belief and to make a decision to no longer let sin reign in our lives but to seek to live in obedience to God. This is the very important act of repentance. You must commit to taming the voice in your head.
Luke 13: 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
You then have to confess Jesus as Lord of your life. This is a public declaration of your belief that Jesus is the Son of the Living God:
Rom 10: 8-10 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
Another major step is that you must be baptized for the removal of our sins. This is a step that is either left out completely or is comprised in attempts to make salvation more convenient.
Gal 3:26 For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus. 27For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ.
At that point you have put on Christ and you are in Christ. Now you are empowered to experience the renewal of your mind and live a transformed life. Now the taming of the beast in your head can take place in earnest.
The domestication of any wild animal requires discipline, patience, diligence and persistence. Taming the voice in your head requires discipline, patience, diligence and persistence. You must use the Bible as the training manual. Today God speaks through His Word. In order not to be confused by the voices in your head compare what they are saying with what the Bible says.
The process of stripping away wrong messages and replacing them with appropriate messages has to be ongoing. There is no letting up. You have to be persistent.
You also need to be patient. Natural inclinations have a way of coming out occasionally even when they have been suppressed. Understand that and do not get frustrated. Instead, increase your commitment to further training and be more vigilant in your screening.
As you undertake this task of taming the voice in your head be encouraged by 2 passages:
Phil 4: 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Matt 21: 21 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. 22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
A man decides that he wants to have a lion as a pet. He gets a young cub. As an animal lover he does not want to restrict the lion’s freedom unduly. He wants him enjoy something of a normal lion’s life. The cub is even allowed to roam a nearby wooded area. No real effort is put into domestication and the man relies on the fact that he has been a consistent source of food to define his relationship with the lion.
Is this a dangerous adventure? How likely is it that the lion’s natural instincts to hunt will come to the fore at some point?
Untamed, unfettered and unobserved we see the potential for a tragedy unfolding.
The situation is very similar with respect to what we have been calling “the voice inside your head” – the prompter. Untamed, unfettered and unobserved the voice inside your head is a whole load of trouble.
You will recall that the voice in your head is not YOU. Making that distinction is essential. The voice in your head is a false sense of SELF that pretends to be YOU. Many persons never truly make the distinction and most of us confuse the two from time to time.
Today we want to spend some time getting to know the voice in your head better so that you can set about taming it, fettering it and observing it.
It is important to note that the voice in your head has been around from the very outset. Reflect on the very first act of disobedience recorded in the Scriptures.
Gen 2: 15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
That is the earliest recorded action of the voice in your head. An examination of the case gives us important insights into just what the voice in your head is about.
The voice in your head is about SELF. Self is to be promoted. That is the ultimate goal. The nature of the promotion changes with circumstances but marketing SELF is the mission of the voice in your head.
In this case, the issue is that SELF is being cast in a role that limits its options. It is being fettered. It is being controlled by outside influences. Why should that be? - it wonders. Why must I be bridled?
The voice in your head objects to imposed restrictions. It points to what you are missing. It also highlights your subordination to something outside of SELF. It sees this as a blatant plan to undermine and fetter SELF. The voice in your head will have none of it. It wants to have its own way … to chart its own course…to march to its own beat. Is it surprising then that so many of us have a hard time doing what we are told to do or in obeying rules?
The actions of the serpent also highlight one of the key strategies of the voice in your head. The serpent sought to create suspicion about the motives of others with respect to SELF. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
The message is that ‘God does not have YOUR best interest at heart.’ God wants to have something that makes Him better than YOU.
This wedge of SUSPICION is at the root of much of our inter-personal difficulties. Yet it is a constant message from the voice in your head. It constantly doubts whether others have SELF’s best interest at heart. The voice in your head thinks that since it is always looking out for its own interest, why should others be any different?
This philosophy makes achieving TRUST very difficult. If trust is consistently questioned and pushed aside then the need to keep SELF apart increases and is entirely logical. If I can’t trust you then I had better stay clear of you. In earlier presentations, we pointed out that separation was a key strategy of the voice in your head. SELF gains strength by being different. “I am not like that!”
Differentiation is at the core of effective marketing. One brand seeks to establish that it is different from other brands. It is not surprising then that the voice in your head seeks avenues to make SELF different from others as part of its promotional strategy. Being different and separation go hand in hand.
Left untamed, unfettered and unobserved this tendency to separation and the inclination to be suspicious of others actually fuels discord and enmity. This is another instance of the dysfunctional nature of the voice in your head. We need to see that its natural inclination is to move us away from connectedness with God.
Mark 12: 30 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
God says: Love your neighbour. The voice in your head says: “Be suspicious of others. Don’t trust them. They are not like you. They want the best for themselves. They don’t have YOUR best interest at heart.” If that is true then what room is there for the love of others that God demands?
1 John 4: 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
Like an untamed, unfettered and unobserved wild beast, the voice in your head is a bag of trouble when untutored, unchecked and left unattended.
Gen 6: 5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
Proverbs 6: 13 He winks with his eyes, He shuffles his feet, He points with his fingers; 14 Perversity is in his heart, He devises evil continually, He sows discord. 15 Therefore his calamity shall come suddenly; Suddenly he shall be broken without remedy.
The natural instinct of the lion is to hunt and to dominate. We see here that the natural inclination of the voice in your head is NOT to draw us closer to God. It is naturally inclined to lead us to dysfunctional behaviour. We must train it. We must chain it and we must watch it. That is the essence of Romans 12:2
Rom 12: 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
So back to our objective of taming the beast:
The voice in your head prompts you to be suspicious of others. In fact, it is the voice in your head that needs to be viewed with suspicion.
1 John 4: 1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
You have to screen every single prompt that comes from the voice inside your head.Ask: Is this prompt in accordance with the Word of God? Anything that runs counter to the Will of God must be identified, exposed and denied.
Another feature to note about the voice in your head is its ability to send messages that just seem to be right for you. It just seems the natural thing to think, say or do.
2 Tim 4: 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
In order to tame the voice in your head you have to be alert to your vulnerabilities. Try to remember that it will seek to take advantage of you when you are tired, or upset or excited. Be especially conscious when you are unsettled or off balance in any way. It is in that state that carefully crafted messages get through your defences. The thought so completely sums up how you feel at that moment that you identify with it. You fail to see that it is in sync with the feeling of the impostor SELF and not reflective of who YOU are at your core.
So far, in the effort to tame the voice in your head we have looked at shoring up your defences – essentially the chain it and watch it components of your strategy. However, you put yourself at a major disadvantage unless you devote attention to the train it component.
Prov 22: 6 Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.
The voice in your head begins to be shaped very early in life. Some people say from in the womb. It is important that it gets a clear picture of the kind of messages that is expected of it from the very outset. This does not come naturally as its natural inclination is to produce dysfunctional messages.
There is an awesome responsibility on adults and parents to train the voices in the head of children from the earliest stages such that they produce messages that promote connectedness with God as against conformity with the world.
It is important to note that the voice in your head seems to take its cues more readily from what it observes as against what it is told. No need to wonder why Junior is so protective of his toy car and so unwilling to share it. He has seen how Daddy goes ballistic when he spills his drink in Daddy’s car. Mom also appears to be a different person when he forgets that he is not to drink on the couch. The message is clear - THINGS are very important. You have to defend things against people. In fact, things are more important than people.
Junior’s voice in his head quickly learns that it is to send messages that defend things against people. Junior identifies with the messages because Mom and Dad have shown him that that is the way he should be. Loads and loads of the messages that the voice in your head sends to you today were actually coded in your early years.
So what now? Can training of the voice in your head still take place in our adult state?
The renewing of the mind is in fact largely about stripping away messages that have been implanted into our minds by our life long experiences. Untrained, unrestricted and unobserved the voice in your head draws its own conclusions from each encounter from all that is happening around it and decides on the messages that it will send.
Rom 7: 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
As with so many passages, the personal implication of this one jumps out at you when you examine it in the context of the voice in your head and its battle to take over the core YOU. When the voice in your head is identified as the thing in me (that is, in my flesh) then the struggle is more clearly seen.
20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
This is where the distinction between the voice in your head and YOU is essential to a better understanding.
Now if I (MY FALSE SELF) do what I (CORE ME) will not to do, it is no longer I (CORE ME) who do it, but sin that dwells in me (=MY FALSE SELF represented by the voice in my head).
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1 Pet 5: 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
That roaring lion is not roaring in the wild but is actually the quiet voice in your head. Its aim is to devour the inward man: 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. It is consumed with warring against the law of your mind.
What can we do? Is there a way out? How do we know which voice to believe?
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Matt 19: 23 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved? 26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
John 14: 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
You can have no life outside of Jesus. You must be in Christ to have life. The taming of the voice in your head is only possible when you are in Christ.
A review of all the conversions in the New Testament and supporting passages point to the following process for putting on Christ:
We must hear the good news of Jesus, His atoning sacrifice for our sins and His resurrection.
Rom 10:14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
You must also believe the good news.
Heb 11: 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Faith is not enough. We are called to act on our belief and to make a decision to no longer let sin reign in our lives but to seek to live in obedience to God. This is the very important act of repentance. You must commit to taming the voice in your head.
Luke 13: 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
You then have to confess Jesus as Lord of your life. This is a public declaration of your belief that Jesus is the Son of the Living God:
Rom 10: 8-10 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
Another major step is that you must be baptized for the removal of our sins. This is a step that is either left out completely or is comprised in attempts to make salvation more convenient.
Gal 3:26 For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus. 27For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ.
At that point you have put on Christ and you are in Christ. Now you are empowered to experience the renewal of your mind and live a transformed life. Now the taming of the beast in your head can take place in earnest.
The domestication of any wild animal requires discipline, patience, diligence and persistence. Taming the voice in your head requires discipline, patience, diligence and persistence. You must use the Bible as the training manual. Today God speaks through His Word. In order not to be confused by the voices in your head compare what they are saying with what the Bible says.
The process of stripping away wrong messages and replacing them with appropriate messages has to be ongoing. There is no letting up. You have to be persistent.
You also need to be patient. Natural inclinations have a way of coming out occasionally even when they have been suppressed. Understand that and do not get frustrated. Instead, increase your commitment to further training and be more vigilant in your screening.
As you undertake this task of taming the voice in your head be encouraged by 2 passages:
Phil 4: 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Matt 21: 21 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. 22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
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