Daydream Believer...

 Daydream Believer

Mary Ann Wray

As a young child, I developed a bad habit of constantly daydreaming. I learned that through fantasizing, I could become anyone, do anything, or go anywhere I wanted.  I replayed what I saw on "Father knows best," Donna Reed", or "My Three Sons" and inserted these images into my own troubling scenarios at home, school and with neighborhood kids. What I observed other people doing, that I thought were loving and good, would be played back in my mind like movie clips. My real life events were replaced with imaginary ones along with living characters, including my father, mother, other family members, friends, teachers, or myself. An unhappy family life, learning disabilities, and social conflicts were completely transformed into what I wanted to be rather than what they really were. I wished so badly that my real-life mirrored what I desperately wanted and this was the only way I believed it could ever become a reality.

Just a side note to this open confession, may I suggest to parents and caretakers of children, that in this day and time, we ought to be real careful about what we allow on Television and what types of music they listen to? Images and ‘sound-bytes’ replay in their heads, even while they are asleep. It can cause nightmares in their sleep and behavior problems during the day. Watching T.V. and playing video games shouldn’t replace using their creative imaginations in a healthy way or getting physical exercise. Obesity among children is on the rise, not only because of S.A.D., The Standard American Diet, but the fact that kids are allowed to be little floor potatoes, glaring at flat screens while holding remotes in their hands for hours at a time. Reading books has nearly become an obsolete practice among elementary and middle school children any more.

Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s, we didn’t have video games. T.V. was in black and white and programs mirrored very traditional family values. Censoring prohibited foul language and nudity. I wasn’t allowed to watch more than an hour a day during the week and two hours on the weekends. I was banned from watching the “Three Stooges” after I grabbed my Dad’s nose one night after he came home from work. I held his nose in one hand and slapped it down with the other while mimicking Curly’s laugh: “Yuh, Yuh, Yuh!”  I thought it was funny and my Dad would be humored by it. Needless to say, he didn’t find it the least bit amusing!

My parents told me to go outside and play and I did for hours each day. Even in the winter, we’d make snow ‘forts’, ride bikes, collect rocks and in the warmer weather climb trees. In the summer we’d go fishing for tadpoles and crawdads in the creek behind the house. I know it’s not so safe to do some of these things without supervision nowadays, but kids need to get out of the house and explore. Back then, there wasn’t the rampant problem with rebellion, violence and behavior issues like we see today. Children are very emotionally vulnerable and can become mesmerized by images, songs, and suggestions replayed over and over in cartoons, video games and sitcoms. Some of these purposely mock God, demean authority and promote bloody violence. We have to be our children’s ‘soul police’ because the media isn’t doing it for us! Ironically censoring immorality is pretty much banned in media today all under the guise of “Freedom of Speech”.

During early childhood, exercising the imagination in a positive way is very good.  But in my case, it was a form of escape: escape from deep emotional pain and rejection. As a result, I didn’t function well socially or academically.  I realize now it wasn't my fault, but what I had to correct and take ownership of, was my thought life that was ‘crooked’ from childhood traumas. After I got born again, I would catch myself daydreaming and fantasizing. To this day, I have to consciously stop it when my mind begins to wander. Daily I ask the Holy Spirit to help me in this area. Then, I can begin to evaluate my own thoughts and discern where they are coming from. I can easily go down the wrong ‘mental’ path because of past habits; somewhat like a maze. Pretty soon I find myself lost in empty thoughts! God gave me a sensitive prophetic nature, so I have to be particularly careful how I think and must be on guard against familiar spirits revisiting my mind. If not, thoughts can become the "place" and seedbed for demons to produce counterfeit beliefs and strongholds.

It wasn't until I began to renew my mind with the Word of God, and sit under sound doctrinal teaching that I could begin to recognize the lies of the enemy and start renouncing ‘hidden works of darkness’ in my thought life. I haven't arrived yet. I believe this is something we all must work out daily by sanctifying our total being: body, soul, and spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23). We take care of our bodies every day by feeding and washing it. It’s the same way in the spirit and soul realm. There are unclean spirits and pollutants all around us. We are not immune from their affects but we have authority over them in Jesus’ name! Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10: 6 that we don’t wrestle or fight against flesh and blood. We war against principalities, rulers of the air and wicked spirits. They work in the unseen realm and influence the way men think through Anti-Christ philosophies. For this reason, we must bring every thought captive into the obedience and knowledge of Christ. We are charged to cast down every vain imagination. If thoughts and ideas don’t produce Kingdom fruits of righteousness, peace and joy they have to be swatted out of the mind like flies! Since they have no power to bring godly corrective changes in character, they are vain (empty and void of any power).  We have to be able to recognize these kinds of thoughts and ideas that come to us in a variety of ways before we can get rid of them. The only way we can learn to discern, is by becoming very familiar with the Word of God and understanding His nature! We are only exposed to teaching and preaching a few hours each week at church, but at least 150 of those hours are spent on our own! In this sense, we are the captain of our souls. How we spend our valuable time depends on our own choices.  

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4: 12.  No one and nothing else can provide the knowledge we need to live a godly life during our waking hours but the Holy Ghost and Word of God. We are saved by grace and born again by the Spirit through faith. That’s the easy part but the real challenge comes afterwards. We have to desire to grow spiritually, study the Word of God, and learn to take dominion over our own soul. We are tri-part beings, just like God. We are spiritual beings that will live eternally, but temporarily exist in a mortal body. We possess a soul which is our mind, will and emotions. We mirror the image and likeness of the Godhead. Jesus was God incarnate in the flesh while on earth. After the resurrection He attained a glorified body that will never die. We will too after the resurrection of the just! The Holy Spirit is invisible but responsible for providing us with abundant life. He is our Life Force. He leads and guide us into all truth and convicts us of sin, righteousness and judgment. He is the Spirit of Truth Jesus spoke about in John 16: 13. The Father is the heart (soul) of the Godhead. He has emotions and great love for humanity. That is why He sent His only beloved Son to die for us. He longed to reconcile man back to Himself. He knew the only way was through Jesus’ shed blood.

When someone repents of sins and takes Christ as Lord and Savior the spirit man becomes regenerated and alive or “Born Again” as Jesus described to Nicodemus in John Chapter 3. Before then, the Bible says we were dead in our trespasses and sins! A miracle occurs at the “New Birth” but neither you nor anyone else can see this miracle with the natural eye. Your body didn’t change at all; but His spirit within you bears witness in you that you became a child of God (Romans 8: 16). When you receive Christ, you receive the power to become His son or daughter (John 1: 12)! One way to look at it is like the hard drive and driver on a personal computer. Before Christ your spirit was like a corrupted hard drive and your will was the driver. The hard drive (spirit man) had to be reformatted to remove all the files corrupted with viruses and Trojan Worms (sin) that got that way through Adam’s sin. This sin nature was something we all inherited. That’s right-you and I were born with a corrupted hard drive! The driver that made the software on our hard drive run was iniquity (the willful desire to do what pleased your flesh). But after the New Birth, that sin nature was replaced with God’s DNA-His Divine Nature and Attributes. This spiritual transfer caused your will to want to ‘drive’ in His direction rather than your own!

However, we still have the same body and soul after the Born Again experience. Memories aren’t magically erased. Emotions are not supernaturally reconfigured to feel a certain way. Using this same example of a PC, the soul is like ‘software’. These applications help the computer do many different functions efficiently. The soul is what processes how we see, feel, hear and do things. Part of the process of ‘de-programming’ our old mindsets is like removing malware from software applications. It’s a part of your computers necessary maintenance.  Romans 12: 2 tells us not to be conformed to this world’s pattern (syschēmatizō). A schematics is a pattern or blueprint showing how something is arranged or organized. It’s an official plan or program of action. The enemy is the god of this world and has a plan to influence and tempt man to a pattern of rebellion to God’s law. But not so for the child of God. We are to be transformed (metamorphoo) through the renewing of our minds. This word metamorphoo is where science gets the term metamorphosis. It's the transforming process of changing a worm into a butterfly or moth. By nature, our minds are worm like in many ways. We could be the most brilliant thinker on earth, but the natural mind is opposed to God and can’t receive anything from Him (1 Cor 2: 14). The word of God sweeps our minds of these ‘worms’ to think like Christ and function the way He designed our minds to function in the Garden. It’s a lifelong process and won’t be complete until we leave this earth (Ephesians 1: 14)! “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.” Ephesians 5: 25b-26

Jesus did His part for us on Calvary; His work of shedding His sinless blood for our sins is ‘finished’. Now it’s our job to continue the personal journey of faith and follow Him daily. He has not left us comfortless or powerless. The same grace that saved us from our sins is the same grace that enables us to pick up our cross and do His work. That’s why He taught us to pray “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth (in me) as it is in Heaven!” “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling…” Philippians 2: 12

Soulish thoughts and imaginations is the enemy's playground and battlefield. He wants to bring confusion and disrupt our ability to hear God clearly. “Stinkin thinkin” as some preachers call it, gets us off track and makes us believe things about ourselves, others, and The Godhead that simply are not true. This leads to bondage and inner chaos rather than peace and freedom in the inner man. Meditating on God's Word, is the antidote. Philippians 4:8 tells us this: “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” Thoughts produce actions! As a man thinks in his heart, so he is!

The Lord showed me that I must discipline my thoughts the same way I discipline my body through a healthy diet and exercise. My spirit man gets exercised by praying in tongues, worshipping God (even when I don’t feel like it) and doing the works He shows me to do. We have to feed our soul with sound doctrine and preaching/ teaching in a Biblically patterned full-gospel church. We are His sheep; His flock. No matter how long we’ve been walking with Him, He wants us to feed in green pastures beside still waters; not places riddled with sticks, briars and murky waters. Be careful what you feed on; it just may choke you!

It takes effort and cooperation with the Holy Spirit to dominate the soul. We have to consciously quiet our thoughts and mind in order to hear His still small voice and obey Him. This demands an act of our will. Setting time aside to be alone with the Father is the starting point. Being God conscious throughout the day helps us to become more sensitive to the Spirit’s conviction. Remember, He doesn’t just convict us of sin. He also convicts us righteousness and judgment: the things we should do and what He determines to be right or wrong. He teaches us how to discern our own actions (fruit) as well as judge the things going on around us. Yes, we need to be fruit inspectors! That’s how Jesus said we would recognize trees! You know if something is fleshly or spiritual by the fruit it produces (Galatians 5).

If we neglect to practice this spiritual discipline, the soul quickly and happily takes the driver seat while the spirit man slides over to the passenger side! It’s so much easier to let our soul do the driving than the spirit man, isn’t it? It takes no discipline at all to let our feelings, will and self-centered thoughts dictate how we behave and react in a situation. Our spirit should be driving Ms. Daisy rather than Ms. Daisy driving our soul! Ms. Daisy will drive you crazy! Proverbs 20: 27 says the spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord, searching the inward parts. Psalms 18: 28 says that God Himself will light our candle and enlighten our darkness. The spirit is meant to guide us through life, by the power, instruction and light of Our Heavenly Fathers voice (Romans 8: 1-16)! Sometimes I have to consciously take my soul out from behind the wheel and shove it back over to the passenger side with commands like, “Be quite!”  “Shut up!” “Empty thoughts and imaginations get out of my head in Jesus’ name!” “Mary Ann, submit to God! Die to your flesh!” “Think on the Word of God, mind!” If I don’t, I become hijacked and veer off in a completely direction than where I really need to go!

Kingdom living is learning to conquer the giant within us, as my Pastor puts it. Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” Therefore, this “soul giant” needs a King to govern it. Jesus needs to be King of Soul-not self! If self is on the throne it may bring temporary pleasure and self-gratification, but always ends up in bondage and defeat. Take it from someone who lived in a vicious cycle of defeat for many years. I was governed by selfish thoughts, broken emotions and self-will. Our pastor often says that the soul makes a good servant but a terrible master. There is a lot of wisdom in that statement! Proverbs 16: 26 puts it this way…“There is a way that seems right to a man but the end is destruction.” Jesus showed us the way through overcoming His own temptations. Because He lives in us and we have the same power that raised Him from the dead working on our behalf from the inside, we don’t have to be overcome with temptation and sin. If we’re going to possess His promises on the earth and take dominion we’ve got to first take dominion over the soul.  The same grace and faith it takes to get born again is the same grace and faith we must use in order to become ‘sanctified’: to think, walk, talk, and work like Jesus! In Luke 21: 19 Jesus said, “In your patience possess your souls.”