2.19.26 – While You Wait

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been studying the journey of the children of Israel from Egypt to Mount Sinai. This is a fundamental truth that is reestablished in the Apostle Paul's writings—specifically to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 9:24–10:11) and to Timothy (1 Tim. 6; 2 Tim. 4)—when he describes our spiritual journey as a race.

After applying the blood of the lamb, a fifty-day journey, and agreeing to a marital covenant with the Lord (Ex. 19–24), our God, the God of Abraham and Isaac, for the first time, they are going to find themselves in completely new territory, waiting for forty days for Moses to reappear. At the end of Exodus chapter 24, Moses ascends the mountain, and he will be gone for forty days and forty nights, where he will receive the blueprint for the Tabernacle (Mishkan). What we do not have is any commentary on what the children of Israel did during these forty days and forty nights, and my inquiring mind speculates all day long.

One thing I do know is that before the forty-day period was over, they had already abandoned their marital covenant—when things did not happen in their timeframe. I want to take a little bit of time this morning to connect the way your brain works and how it establishes your destiny, and superimpose a thought on what may have been going on in the minds of the Israelites then, and in our minds now.

For the children of Israel—God's firstborn son, His set-apart people, God's newly acquired bride—their reticular activating system (RAS) went into default setting. Let me explain.

As we have talked about over the years, your brain has a reticular activating system (RAS), which is composed of a network of neurons. It acts as a filter system by allowing certain things into your brain and keeping others out. Unfortunately, we and the people of our past are responsible for this filter (Prov. 23:7). For instance, if you feel unloved (Gen. 37:4), your RAS is going to take every piece of information from your day and confirm that belief in you. If you feel people do not like you at work, then your RAS is going to work all day long to confirm that negative belief! This is where the "confirmation bias" comes from that we have talked about so often. Our minds love to read, watch, and listen to things we agree with—hence our political issues of the day and many more divisive realities. Reading things you agree with confirms your RAS filter.

The RAS only lets things enter that you agree with. If this were not the case and everything in your environment were treated with equal value, your brain would have a meltdown from too much information (John 21:25). If you are not where you want to be emotionally, relationally, spiritually, or physically, there is a need to reprogram your RAS filter, and it begins with visualization.

We need to get our brain thinking differently. We want it to see opportunity. We want it to see patterns that are no longer coincidences so we can build momentum.

Many of us have set goals for ourselves for this year, but here in the month of February—the 12th month in the biblical calendar—most have had those goals slip away. Why does that happen every year to the majority of people? Maybe it is time to reprogram that God-given RAS with a two-step process. Are you ready?

Take that list of goals that you have and let us get started. It is achieving these God-given goals that prepares us to take God's blueprint and put it into reality. Let us say, for instance, that one of your goals is to improve your self-worth (yes, that is spiritual thinking :-). Visualize! Close your eyes—yes, close your eyes—and picture what you are going to look like and feel like when your self-worth has improved. Can you see yourself speaking up at work in meetings? Having people listen to you? Going to the gym? Making those phone calls? Sharing your faith? Waking up early? Breaking off bad relationships? The RAS needs to be re-filtered!

Now think about what it will feel like in your emotions. Happy, proud, standing taller, grateful that you made the change. Marry the specific change you have made. Become one with it. Can you see it? There you are, raising your hand in a meeting, sharing an insight, signing up another customer, going back to school, or whatever. By doing this, you are actually reprogramming your RAS filter.

What is important to know is that your brain does not distinguish the difference between reality and imagination. It does not make a distinction between the bad that really happened to you and the imagined memory that you are creating. Visualization encodes into your brain as though it is a real memory. That is what changes the RAS.

Neurological research has taught us many things, but here are two to consider: the more you visualize seeing yourself achieving (Rom. 4:17), the greater your confidence is going to be. And when you do this for just thirty seconds a day—visualizing that it is going to be a great day and how it is going to feel—you will "shine brighter" to the world than ever before (Matt. 5:13–16). By visualizing an activity, you actually develop the skill and help yourself improve the skill as though you were actually doing it—crazy, but true. This process reprograms the RAS by changing the neurological patterns within our filter system.

Instead of being a light that has a basket covering it, you will find yourself speaking up. You will be looking for opportunities to grow spiritually, physically, emotionally, relationally, and financially more than ever before.

Go through all your goals. Spend thirty seconds, close your eyes, visualize: what does it look like when you have achieved your monetary goals? Going to the bank and seeing the money there? Putting a down payment on your dream home? Saving enough money to give to orphanages and more?

In time, you will be more confident and capable. It is time to change that "GiGo" system—garbage in, garbage out—into good in and good out! Or, we can focus our attention on the Egypt we came out of and... make a golden calf (Ex. 32). I choose the former :-)

Shalom,
Alan