Where Did Those Thoughts Come From?

Hearing God’s voice amidst the noise in our lives is not easy. Even when you do hear something it’s hard to be sure if that was God or just you thinking to yourself. The question hangs in the air, “Where did that thought come from?”

The ever funny and slightly irreverent Lily Tomlin said, “Why is it when we talk to God we’re said to be praying, but when God talks to us we’re schizophrenic?” She makes a good point.

We have this notion that God spoke to people long ago, in Biblical times. We’ve all see Charlton Heston as Moses and heard the booming voice, “Moses…Moses.” However we don’t expect that to happen in our own lives! I’m still waiting for, “Heather….Heather,” but not hearing that has caused me to consider how God does talk to us.

Sometimes God is speaking and we just don’t hear Him

I think there is a part of us that wants everything to be cookie cutter neat and tidy; straight forward and clear. However, life isn’t like that. Jesus said some really explosive things which help to explain why the religious leaders of his day were so threatened by him. Even so, he never got to share everything. For example, he told his disciples, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” (John 16:12-13) Even if Jesus had disclosed these things to them, they would not have “heard” or understood what he was saying.

Knowing that people couldn’t understand or hear him, he went on to say, “When the spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth.” It’s important to study the various scriptures of which there is abundance but it’s the spirit that helps us understand the meaning in the message. You also need to hear what our Heavenly Parent wants to say to you individually. God is not a one-size fits all parent and He/She wants to guide our lives individually.

God speaks to us through our thoughts.

There are so many things going on in our heads every day. It’s hard to sort it out and know what’s me, what’s God, and what’s just going on around me. It’s important to figure that out so we are not simply a tuning fork for the white noise in our environment.
Kent Crockett in the Sure Cure for Worry has tried to simplify this question by describing four different sources for our thoughts.

1. Some thoughts come from other people
For good and bad we are greatly influenced by the people around us. That’s why it matters who you hang out with. We form our own beliefs by listening to others and taking information in. It’s a perfectly valid way to learn if the information we are hearing is correct. If the information is incorrect, a false word can become a stumbling block in our lives and can create negative self-talk.

Sorting fact from fiction

I grew up with discouraging voices in my head from teachers who predicted I would not amount to much due to my lack of academic progress. I think no-one had factored in that moving schools every year was not helpful to a developing mind! Regardless, I was tagged for the vocational tract and grew up with the notion that I was not smart. It was only years later in college that I had a huge realization that I was indeed smart and finally my middle school teachers were summarily kicked out of my head.

But many times God uses the positive voices of others to guide our path. We perhaps have been praying for guidance about our choice of career or circumstances and all of a sudden someone says something and the words hit us right between the eyes. Then we know that God has just used someone else’s voice to speak to us personally.

Part of developing spiritual maturity is learning how to discern where the voices are coming from and when our Heavenly Parent is talking to us personally.

2. Most of our thoughts come from ourselves
We have all kinds of thoughts every day. The National Science Foundation estimates that the average person has 12,000 thoughts a day. A deeper thinker can have 50,000. I don’t know how anyone could possibly measure that but presumably there is a way. What do all these thoughts add up to?

We are our own person, with our own set of thoughts and beliefs and that’s important. Each one of us has to sort out for ourselves what we believe. Jesus was well aware of this and even tried to help his disciples figure out what they believed when he asked them, “But who do you say I am?”

Jesus was well aware that the tabloids of the day were saying all kinds of things about him. Some thought he was Elijah returned, others had him tagged for a prophet and others an imposter. Jesus, being smart, didn’t tell his disciples what to believe but drew out from them what they knew to be true; not because someone persuaded them but because God had given them that thought or understanding.

Peter believed that Jesus was the Messiah. That thought occurred to him. He knew that to be true. We each have to know for ourselves. Romans 14:5 states that “Each person has to be fully convinced in his own mind.”

Achieving spiritual maturity means that we learn to listen to our own thoughts and discover our faith; we become personally convicted in what we believe. We must discover true faith, faith in God, but not just in the existence of God. We must believe that together with God we can solve the world’s problems.

3. God can plant thoughts in our minds
A young woman in our community was struggling with her own sense of self-worth and told me that she couldn’t believe that God would even want to bother to speak with her. Just about everyone I know has wondered that at some point of other.

We think God only talks to a special, elite group of people. We know who they are: Moses who said a thought entered his mind to go back to Egypt; John the Baptist who witnessed the skies open and was awakened to the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, even though his rationale mind was screaming, “But Jesus is my impoverished, illegitimate cousin.”

Then there is Buddha who entertained God’s thoughts as he sat under a tree and meditated. Martin Luther King Jr. is famous for his dream which sprang from a thought planted by our Heavenly Parent. But what about me – do I really believe God wants to speak to me?

The Thinker – Rodin

The reality is that our Heavenly Parent wants to speak with all His children, not just some of them.

Sometimes God comes and speaks to us but we are not sensitive to it. It comes disguised as a thought. Have you ever had an unusual thought pop into your mind, out of the blue?

Many years ago I met the man who was later to become my husband, but at the time I didn’t know that. We were attending an evening presentation and were just talking together. It seemed as if we had nothing in common. We were at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of interests.

All of a sudden a thought popped into my head. What would it be like to be married to someone as different as this person is from me? We lost touch but several years later met again and were blessed in marriage! I think God put that thought into my head. It was a premonition of what was to be; what God intended.

It’s important to learn to pay attention to the things that our Heavenly Parent puts in our minds. Sometimes it can mean life or death. Such was the experience of Rev Moon as he fled south, pursued by the Red Army, as a refugee during the Korean War.

He was travelling with a small group of refugees; a man with a broken leg who he refused to leave behind, and a young man named Won Pil Kim. They were hungry and exhausted, night was falling. They came across a humble dwelling that had been deserted. Rev Moon’s companions wanted to stay and rest for the night, not an unreasonable request, but he insisted on moving on.

A thought had come to him that they should cross the Imjin River that night. The others tried to dissuade him but Rev Moon was insistent. It was dawn when they finally arrived safely on the Southern bank of the frozen river to discover they would be last refugees allowed to cross. The UN forces were closing the crossing because of the imminent attack from the North.

Won Pil Kim turned to Rev Moon and asked, “How did you know we had to cross now?”
“Somehow I just knew,” he replied. “This kind of thing happens often to anyone who takes the path of Heaven. People often don’t know that salvation is just beyond the next obstacle.”

When you are living in tune with God you are subtly guided and led. Try it out this week and see what God has to say in your life.
But there is another reality we have to deal with whether we like it or not, and that is not all thoughts are good thoughts.

4. The enemy can also plant thoughts in our mind
It’s not co politically correct to talk about Satan or the enemy, but it just may be spiritually correct. You only have to watch a few horror movies to realize there are destructive, unseen forces in our lives.

Most of the time you will not encounter demons, but a far more destructive adversary – your own emotions: your insecurity, your lack of self-worth, your fear of inferiority.
Satan (literal or metaphorical) is revealed for who he is; by the simple fact that he is happy when you are unhappy. His goal is to make your life miserable by interjecting thoughts of fear, anger, depression, jealousy, and worry. He will take joy in pushing your buttons.

Most people let random thoughts drift into their minds and even give up valuable time entertaining them. Think about a recent destructive thought you had and how much time you dedicated to it! To counter this, a passage in Romans encourages us to renew our minds.

A Brand New Mind

Romans 12:2 says “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

There is only one way to renew your mind and to become transformed. That is to truly know who you are. We are God’s sons and daughters and feeling that to the bone changes everything. We are infinitely valuable, there is no-one quite like us. We have the seeds of divinity within our hearts. We have dignity because we are created in the image of God.

Insecurity only exists because we are not fully confident that we are loved. If we have confidence as God’s child then we don’t need to lash out at someone when they challenge us or perform better than us. Unlike the enemy, we can simply be happy in the accomplishments of others.

Rev Moon teaches us that the way to win over Satan is to love unconditionally, because that is something Satan cannot do. Such a heart immediately defines you. When we are connected to God and are confident in God’s love then there is no room in our head for negative thoughts.

We can only renew our minds by learning what our true value is.

“Even God cannot have true love, peace and happiness, or attain His ideal apart from His sons and daughters. What would be the use of peace and happiness to God if He was alone? … Please understand that each of you is indispensable for completing God’s true love, God’s peace, God’s happiness and God’s ideal. We have been unaware of our value. When you experience your precious, awesome and lofty value, which can bring love, peace and happiness and the ideal even to God, you can praise yourself and feel reverence for yourself.” Rev Sun Myung Moon.

We have to learn to listen to the voice within. To listen to how God is speaking to us through others, through our own thoughts and even planting His thoughts directly in our minds.