Believing is Seeing

Over the past few months, my "vision" has started clearing up. I am starting to see a better, freer, future. For the past two and a half years, I have witnessed "miracles" of God regularly. He helped me move out of a dark past, and into a present with hope and amazement. The next step for me in 2014 and beyond is to keep learning from the past, find joy in the here and now and anticipate AND visualize/pursue a hopeful future. It took awhile to overcome feelings of unworthiness to even consider it an option for me, a "moral failure."

I have been listening to and reading several books, articles, etc. that take that anticipation to a deeper level. Simply hoping for a greater future won't automatically make it happen. Having a plan that is in line with God's will is crucial. AND, seeing in my mind that future lived out makes it more personal, real, and within reach. I have often either not visualized much of a future for myself, at least not one of seeing God do HUGE things, OR I failed to dream or visualize anything at all (due to numbness, fear, shame, ignorance, etc).

I read the article below this morning that talks about "seeing is believing OR is believing is what leads to seeing." It is by Denis Waitley and makes good sense.

Do you have to see it before you believe it, or believe before you can see it? The answer is: Both are basically true. If you can see something in your mind's eye, and you imagine it over and over again, you will begin to believe it is really there in substance. As a result, your actions, both physical and mental, will move to bring about in reality the image you are visualizing.

Whatever you see or experience, real or imagined, consciously or subliminally, when repeated vividly over and over, does affect your behavior, and definitely can influence you to buy a product or buy into a lifestyle, good or bad. Your attitude and beliefs are, quite simply, functions of what you see day in and day out.

Information can be taken in almost unnoticed. You won't react to it until later, and you still won't be aware of what lies behind your response. In other words, what you see really is what you get, regardless of whether you know it or not.

By seeing from within, in your mind's eye, you can change your life. For example, by rehashing fears and problems, you can make yourself depressed. As a result, you can botch a business deal, hurt a relationship, or lower your performance. By forecasting a gloomy outcome in your mind's eye, you can act as your own witch doctor and practice a modern-day kind of voodoo that will fulfill your negative prediction with uncanny accuracy.

On the other hand, by replaying in your mind's eye the best game you ever played, you can repeat that best game again, when the stakes are even higher and the pressure is on. And by mentally pre-playing the best game you've ever imagined, you can set the stage for a world-class performance. This "instant replay" and "instant pre-play" applies to anything from a successful sales call or athletic event to the effective motivation of your teammates and children.

Choose your role models and inputs carefully. Your attitudes and beliefs are the software programs driving you every day on life's journey.

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Hebrews 11:1, The Message (MSG)

Faith in What We Don’t See

11 ^1-2 The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.