Seth Dahl posed a question on his social media this week asking, “How do you get out of discouragement when you’re in it?”
It’s easy to have an answer for that question when you’re not feeling the weight of discouragement. Oh! Just don’t forget the joy of the Lord! (Excellent advice if you ask me.)
Hours after commenting on his post I found myself surrounded by thoughts attempting to convince me of my irrelevance, my ineffectuality, my inability to surmount indifference and my general failure in every facet of my life. It was difficult to stay focused and difficult to encounter the joy of the Lord. Then I came across a blog post from Steve Backlund. It seems like I often come across Steve Backlund’s work exactly when I’m in dire need of exactly what he’s saying. Steve was blogging about his 3 main goals with his interns. The first goal is that they become hope-filled and resilient. He says this can only happen when they have good beliefs. Here’s an outright quote from his blog, “Believing truth always leads to hope, while believing lies creates a lack of hope (Romans 15:13).”
I realized that the thoughts surrounding me were not my own and were actually trying to get me to relinquish my calling to live in a lower reality where anxiety can help get things done. Anxiety is a bad friend.
The great news for me in my fight with discouragement this past week was that there was an easy door to just exit stage left. That door was hope.
I remembered an old Bill Johnson quote. (I know, I’m quoting everybody this week but hey, if you need everybody’s quotes to get out of discouragement it’s definitely worth it.) Bill’s quote echoed through me, “Any thought that doesn’t glisten with hope is under the influence of a lie.”
I was able to give my head a shake and realize that the filters I was viewing reality through were actually distorting and disrupting my perception of reality. I wasn’t experiencing reality because reality is filled with hope. I had begun to believe narratives about my life and my circumstances that were not real. I was like the captain of a ship at sea surrounded by fog and hope was the lighthouse shining through it all to guide me back to solid ground.
It’s interesting to think that agreement with those false narratives can actually manifest those narratives that began as false realities, into actual reality. Once we use our authority to decide to manifest enough of a false narrative into reality, it becomes even easier to believe. That’s why it can be difficult to escape the false narratives we’ve partnered with especially if we’ve been partnering with these false narratives for a long time.
But here’s the key. Hope. If hope becomes our guiding light and the anchor by which we can judge all of the noise in our minds, we can come back to ultimate reality which is entirely influenced by the true nature of God.
The foundation of ultimate reality is who God really is and who He says we are and what He says is currently happening. Nothing else is as real as what God says. He spits black holes 700 billion times the size of our sun out of His mouth when He speaks. Hebrews 4:12 says, 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.
The lens we use to read that scripture will change its meaning. If we have a belief that God is like an overly critical authoritarian, we’ll read that scripture and immediately feel like He’s judging the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts from a place of criticism. And that is the crux of the whole thing. The most impactful belief system at work in every human on the planet is at the very foundation of each one’s model of the universe. It’s THE question from which every other question, every other belief system, every little nuance of every person’s model of the universe is derived.
Who is God and what is He like?
I can’t count how many times in my pursuit of the one who is truth itself, I’ve found that I had a belief that was anchored in something that wasn’t real. For some wrong beliefs it was easy to shift them for real within myself. For others I needed help. He’s a really good teacher if we’re willing to really listen.
Believing something doesn’t make it real but believing what is truly, authentically, ultimately real has immense, extraordinary, supernatural power. The closer our beliefs align with ultimate reality, the more powerful.
Life and death is in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21) so use yours to manifest life. Declarations have been transformational for my belief systems and I can’t emphasize enough how powerful daily declarations are. One of my key declarations is, “Holy Spirit doesn’t criticize me.” If you’re looking to learn how to use declarations to change your belief systems, Steve and Wendy Backlund have written some amazing resources. I’d especially endorse Wendy’s book, “Living From the Unseen”. When we declare aloud what is truly, authentically, ultimately real it has immense, extraordinary, supernatural power. That’s how declarations work. Saying, “I have a billion dollars”, every day won’t magically manifest a billion dollars in your bank account, but saying, “I was created by God to be a powerful creator of wealth,” could begin to create the belief systems required to become a billionaire. So I declare things over myself that are anchored in the truth of who God is and who He says I am. Things like, “My future is chock full of good things so I should be excited about my future!”
The simple key to get out of discouragement is this: the truth is better than we think. When we find the truth, we’re filled with hope. So just reverse engineer it and objectively look at the specific areas that are getting you down and say no to whatever projections of the future lack hope. Ask Holy Spirit to come and show you what the future is really going to be like. What COULD the future be like? Spend some time allowing the voice of God to reshape your projections of the future.
That was my day yesterday. Then, hours later when I was getting ready for bed I felt mildly feverish and was comforted by my wife putting her hand on my chest and praying for me. I thought I felt better and then just as I was about to sleep I felt a wave of anxiety pass over me as thoughts of being hospitalized with the Coronavirus flooded my mind. I put my hand on my forehead and said out loud, “I release the peace of Heaven over my mind right now in Jesus name.” In my mind I asked Holy Spirit what was really going on. He told me I was under slept. I went to sleep and woke up refreshed in the morning. We’re complex things, humans.
So if you’re discouraged, go after your beliefs and if all else fails, get a good night’s sleep.
The Weirdo Christian 