Thoughts and words lead to the formation of image

Many people are looking for themselves, you regularly hear the phrase  ‘I’m trying to find myself’But even though many people are trying to find themselves, most people,  if they don’t know God,  are as lost as a needle in a haystack.

We even hear Christians say ‘i found Jesus?E We need to understand that Jesus is not lost. Jesus knows exactly where he is seated at the right hand of the father with all power and authority in heaven, in the earth and under the earth and he knows exactly who he is.

Mark 14:61 again the high priest asked him, saying to him, "are you the Christ, the son of the blessed?" 62 and Jesus said, "I am. In the natural man, our image of each other is formed from looking at outward appearances.

1 Samuel 16:7 for the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

But God looks at the image in our born again heart or spirit

The desire to find ourselves usually comes as a result of our dissatisfaction with our own image

To understand why this is, we need to look at the way the image is formed

This image has been created as a result of the thoughts that we have allowed to become houses in our mind

These houses of thoughts that we spoke about last week are our image of how  we see ourselves.

We hear the phrase that someone has a poor self image.

What does this mean?, usually that person thinks that they are not of any worth, feel inferior to other people, or that other people are so much more capable than they are.

This image they have of themselves has been constructed over many years, built from the houses of thoughts that have been established in their mind, which in turn have  strongholds in their  life.

If we are ever going to grow and develop in God, we need to obtain the image that God has already  prepared for us

The bible talks about not conforming to an image that is influenced  by mans way of doing and saying things

Ephesians 4:17 this I say, therefore, and testify in the lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,

When we do not know God, we rely on our mind to lead us and guide us.

But our mind does not contain our destiny and can never lead us into the fulfillment of something it knows nothing about. It can only lead us into futility

Ephesians 4:18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart;

Having no understanding of God, leads to hardened hearts to the things of him, it also leads to the formation of an image on the inside of us, which is not Gods image

What kind of image are we working on, on the inside? If we look at ourselves for a moment, our image of ourselves constructed by thoughts has been  fed by whatever image we have allowed to develop

 News media, television or other peoples opinions have all begun to shape our thinking

Over a period of time, thoughts and words subtly and slowly begin to change  our image of ourselves, to the point where we become, or conform to the image that we see

Then we begin to say oh I can never see myself doing that. I can never see myself becoming that succesful;

We have to begin to develop and become the image that God has already put on the inside of us, the real you

The real you is inside you, in your born again spirit, but it is covered by layers of deception of who we think we are

1 Corinthians 13:12 for now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall i know even as also Iam known.

The word will remove these layers to reveal the real you, but the word needs to be obtained with the understanding to be able to walk in it in everday life

James 1:23 for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

So without understanding we are unable to do the word, so we forget what it is saying to us

We all know what it is like to read the word then forget all the scripture, just when we need them

As we get this word on the inside of us, this word is the image that God wants us to be transformed into

2 corinthians 3:18  but we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the spirit of the Lord.

This scripture is already an image, but we are to get this image in us

Once we get this image in us, then the manifestation  (or the reality) of this image can be produced to the point where this image is now what we have become, we have a new image of ourselves.

We now no longer see ourselves as the world sees us, inferior, unworthty, average. We see ourselves as God sees us. We are looking at the reflection of the word in ourselves

Just like looking in that mirror when we get this word inside with understanding, we see the reflection of the word looking back

Words and thoughts produce image. What we hear, what we see and what we say, is going to produce an image on the inside of us

What is the image that God want us to see?

Genesis 1:26 then God said, "let us make man in our image, according to our likeness;

God has made us in the image of him, his image is contained in our born again spirit

Now he wants our mind to be transformed into his image - how?  by his word, because the word contains the image of God.

Ephesians 4:23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,

Colossians 3:9 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him,

Renewing our mind to conform to the image of God, to Gods way of doing things

The enemy is fighting this image with everthing he’s got. He does not want the people of God developing the image of this word

Because when we get the image of this word and we start to become the image of this word, his nightmare starts all over again

Now he has all these Jesus people walking around acting just like Jesus did

God wants the image to come to pass,  but the image cannot come to pass until we get the word

There is only one way to get crystal clear hearing from God, we are going to have to spend time in the word.

If we don’t spend time with God, we are not going to know his voice.

So many people think that they can come into intimacy with God through prayer without the word,

When in reality, without the word we are only able to speak to God about things we know about. God wants us to speak to him about things that he knows about, his word.

In other words speaking the word to God takes us out of our understanding into God’s understanding.

We cannot make progress and grow in God apart from the word.

Our first step must be to make a quality decision and make the word final authority in our life. This then ends all argument and debate and God begins to move in our life