SESSION 9 - THE REBUILDING PROCESS (Part B)

INTRODUCTION:

Tonight we’ll try to draw the threads together to know what to do with this material in the coming months.

The first thing we must remember is that the recovery process is much more than 10 weeks in a formal setting. God will connect and reconnect you and this teaching continually.

In the course we have been undertaking together our mission which has been to seek to understand the forces at work that affect our self esteem. It has been our goal to discover enough truth to allow us to make changes to the way we approach the issue of our search for significance such that the changes are both in harmony with God's grace and being sustainable.

Shorter, quick-fix courses are available. There are many ways of coping (eg breathing exercises for stress).

But for healing 2 factors must be evident:

(1) Must be in harmony with truth and God’s grace towards us

(2) Must be achievable and sustainable

True healing isn’t some kind of quick fix. If I had a cricket or baseball bat which broke, and patched it up with tape, then it may work temporarily , in other words be able to play straight away, but you won’t be able to say the bat is fixed/healed. The bats future is dubious. So is trying to fix issues quickly.

The process of change requires honesty, encouragement, right thinking, the help of the Holy Spirit and time.

As we consider the rebuilding process we need to pay special attention to the important role played by our thought-life.

NOTE - It doesn’t mean that if I think I’m a magpie I will become one - but it does mean I will behave like one!

Transformed by renewing of the mind. ie. Part of this transforming process has to do with our thought life.

Our thoughts reveal what is going on within the belief system of our lives and usually have a profound effect on the way we feel, the way we perceive ourselves and others, and ultimately, the way we act.

BELIEFS THOUGHTS Emotions actions

We often interpret the situations we encounter through our beliefs. Beliefs tend to be the beginning point. Remember from last week - the heart of man = deep hidden springs. So beliefs generate our way of thinking.

Once stimulated by that situation our beliefs trigger certain thoughts.

Our thoughts in turn tend to be reflected in our emotions and actions. They are the engine for our emotional life

Emotions are by and large incapable of direct manipulation other than perhaps by chemistry.

If I was to ask you all to feel happy. Your probably can’t. So you would think of something happy and that thought would trigger the emotion.

Same for guilt, depression, fear, etc

cf Movies which present ideas to generate emotional responses.

The only change that will ultimately be both healthy and sustainable is that change which comes from "the heart" and which results from the heart being changed in its beliefs and expressed in a new way of thinking. We have to learn to discover the false beliefs that reside within ourselves and challenge them with truth until they yield to the truth. By understanding the chain effect we are able to work our way back to discover and address the belief systems that reside within us.

The reverse order helps me evaluate my behaviour.

e.g.

However we try to intersect our emotions (eg with drugs) and this short-circuits the healing process. We need to look beyond the emotions to the beliefs and thoughts which have produced the emotions

SITUATION

BELIEFS THOUGHTS Emotions actions

Some of our interpretations are conscious, most however, are unconscious assumptions.

Unconscious assumptions may arise and I can’t explain to you why.

To talk about our "Belief System" is another way of talking about our hearts - "hidden springs".

In order for an emotion to persist, our belief system must continue to produce certain thoughts. If an emotion hangs on, you need to understand that the problem is primarily in your belief system.

Whenever we encounter a situation (eg I meet my mum), this causes me to interpret my beliefs about our relationship which will trigger certain thoughts and emotions which will result in an action or behaviour pattern.

Since it is not easy or possible to directly access our belief system (heart = hidden springs) the battle for our sense of significance and healthy sense of self-esteem is won or lost in the mind.

It often takes certain situations to help us access our beliefs. We can’t directly access our belief system easily.

The battle for our sense of significance will be won as we influence our belief system through the process of our thought life. Since my beliefs produce or trigger certain thoughts then I need to access these thoughts (eg access files) and modify these.

It is important for us to realise that even though we have been made new in Christ, there is still a battle going on in our minds. The mind has a key role to play in the healing of our belief system. The Holy Spirit is in us to show us and make real to us the truth that we need to restore our belief system and sustain our thoughts to make possible healthy emotions and life-styles. Daily, however, we are assaulted by our enemy and the world around us in a manner that may seek to confirm misbeliefs and keep us in the dark. The result is that we may yet have to seek out and replace many wrong beliefs that can provoke us to wrong behaviour.

SITUATIONS: are the real events, circumstances that occur every day in our lives. Regardless of the kind of situation we face, the way we react or respond to it is entirely determined by our beliefs.

e.g. Blondin asks, "Who believes I can cross the rope with someone on my back?"

The moment you are faced with the situation your reaction reveals your beliefs -

e.g. saying I forgive, yet still avoiding the person because my belief is that the person hurt me deeply.

BELIEFS: are deeply held ideas that we perceive as true, existing both in our conscious and sub-conscious minds.

A situation causes me to blush – I believe something has occurred which is shameful.

However, some of our deeply held beliefs are simply not true.

They are false beliefs, and can be destructive to our self esteem. The four main false beliefs that we have been studying are:

THOUGHTS: are the conscious ideas that occur in our minds and are shaped by our beliefs as we interpret life's situations.

All our thoughts are attempts to interpret a given situation. Using our beliefs as a filter, we try to understand what a situation means and how it well affect us. It is our thoughts that trigger our emotions.

EMOTIONS: are the feelings we have, based on what we believe about a situation.

ACTIONS: are the things we do, based on how we feel and what we think about a situation. Our emotions are the launching pads for our actions. When we receive a message from our emotions to act, we have 3 choices:

eg - We walk into a room of people and we have a serge of fear. This emotions indicates a belief system, ie DANGER

l. We can ignore the message; we can challenge them. This is what we do if we ignore. We say to our emotions I’m not sure you’re telling me the truth’

2. We can obey our emotions. If we fear being in a room of people we don’t know then we might rush out of room and go home.

3. We can contradict the message and do the opposite - it is possible. Walk up to someone in the room we don’t know and introduce yourself.

Instead of battling through life suffering a barrage of emotions - a person has the fortitude to question after a situation and begins the process of learning to replace false belief with God’s truth.

WE CAN LEARN TO REPLACE FALSE BELIEFS WITH GOD'S TRUTH.

2 Corinthians 10:5

The Word of God (Truth) is able to pull down strongholds and a key way is to bring all thoughts into captivity. We have many false beliefs that exalt themselves against God and cause us to doubt what God has promised to us. It is safe to come home to God - despite whatever other ideas come into your mind defying or denying what God says.

Challenge false beliefs ‘Come up out of your hiding place’. Grab all thoughts and demand that they stand in front of Jesus and give account.

To "take our thoughts captive" means that we must find and examine our beliefs. We must make sure that these beliefs are actually true. Making our thoughts obedient to Christ means that we must throw out our wrong beliefs and replace them with God's revealed truth.

Phillipians 4:8

Don’t let the multitude of our thoughts captivate you. But capture them and replace them with the thoughts from God’s Word.

God wants us to concentrate or "fix our thoughts" on His truth. Most of our wrong beliefs have been in our minds for some time. Therefore it can be difficult to identify and remove them from our thinking. This is where we need to learn to identify emotions and thoughts

Recognising and evaluating our emotions and our behaviour can help us discover our false beliefs. Negative emotions and wrong behaviour are especially good indications that we are basing our significance on Satan's lies, rather than God's truth.

eg.

Situations arise

Wrong Beliefs Wrong THOUGHTS NEGATIVE Emotions Wrong ACTIONS

or

right beliefs correct thoughts positive emotions right actions

Finally we can then make a SUMMARY STATEMENT about the situation, recognising that it would be nice if the situation was different, but that it cannot affect our true significance.

Example (p.52)

Scripture references have been taken from the New International Version of the Bible.