Gregory Dickow - Think Higher. Live Higher. Time for You to Fly
Well, welcome to "The Power to Change Today," and today we are launching the 2018 Fast From Wrong Thinking. And it is your time, it is going to be your year. It's time to break out of every limitation holding you back from the victorious life God created you for. Listen, the enemy is trying to keep us small, defeated, crawling through life as victims of whatever he brings our way, but God created us for so much more. He created us to fly. He created us to soar. God has put limitless possibilities inside of you. You may feel like you're just crawling like a caterpillar, but you're about to get your wings today, you're about to discover how to soar. You're about to uncover all the beauty, all the glory that you were created for. It's time to get in the cocoon, that's what fasting from wrong thinking is all about. It's not fasting from food. It's fasting from wrong mindsets, it's so easy.
I'm going to show you exactly how to do it today. I'm talking real transformation, where it's not about you doing anything, it's what happens to you, not what happens by you. And that's what Fast From Wrong Thinking is all about. You just get in the cocoon, you get into 40 days of renewing your mind with me. And I'll send it to you, it's absolutely free. My announcer will tell you more about it, and you'll see in the show, but listen, Isaiah 55 says that God's ways are higher than our ways, therefore it's because his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. So, what today's program is all about as we tap into God's higher thoughts, we're going to begin to soar into his higher ways. We're going to rip the roof of the ceilings of our finances, our relationships, our emotions, our health. It's time for you to fly. You've got wings inside of you, and today, you're going to learn how to change from the inside out. Instead of wrestling to try to bring about change, change is going to happen in you, by God in you rather than by you. Today, you're going to learn how to live higher by thinking higher. Check this out.
Throughout the Bible, 40 days symbolizes dramatic transformation. Forty days symbolizes how long... forty days actually represents how long Jesus was fasting in the wilderness before he went into his ministry and before he began to fulfill his purpose. He fasted for 40 days. Moses fasted for 40 days. Elijah fasted for 40 days. Forty days symbolizes something. The children of Israel unfortunately, because they held on to wrong beliefs and wrong mindsets, the children of Israel ended up dying in the wilderness after 40 years. They still, most of them still had not gotten into the Promised Land. A few of them got in the Promised Land, actually two of them, Joshua and Caleb got into the Promised Land 40 years later. But it wasn't a 40-year journey, it really is only a 40-day journey. And I believe that God wants us to see transformation happen in the next 40 days, and leave the wilderness that we've been in, and enter into the Promised Land, amen.
And that means what is the wilderness? The wilderness is when you can hear God's promise, but you can't see God's promise. You can hear that God has made some promises. "Oh yeah, I heard that. I heard that he promised healing, I heard he promised blessing, I heard God promised a great home and a great marriage, but I'm not seeing it in my life". So many people hear about, in the beginning of a new year, they hear about new year's resolutions, and they hear about how they can, you know, become the best version of themselves. And they hear that they can lose weight, or they can start eating right, or they can have a better marriage or a better home, or their finances can turn around. But usually what happens is within the first 20 days or so, people try to start new habits, but they revert back to their old way of living because they haven't changed their old way of thinking. And you can't have a new way of living until you change the old way of thinking.
When we renew our minds to God's way of thinking, we end up in God's purpose and God's will and God's destiny for our lives. Are you still with me? So, I want to show you. This is what God's called me to do to show you how to change your thinking, which will change your life. To change what you're believing, which will change your life because right thinking produces right living, right believing produces right living. When you think great, you'll live great. When you think big, you'll live big. When you think small, you'll live small. When you think defeated, you'll live defeated. When you think victoriously, you will live victoriously. Because Proverbs 23:7 says, "As a man thinks within, so is he". So, it doesn't matter what you try to do on the outside, it's what you think on the inside that will eventually produce the kind of life you want on the outside. But it starts inside. It's a journey from the inside out. As he thinks within, so is he.
Now, I believe God gives us pictures of how our lives are supposed to unfold through nature. Obviously through the Bible, but he adds the color to the black and white Scriptures, he adds the color of... nature is like the color that makes the Scriptures come alive for us. Or the Scriptures are already alive, don't take that the wrong way, but it helps illustrate for us what God is trying to say. So, when he says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed," the word "transformed" is the Greek word "metamorphosis". It's where we get our word "metamorphosis" from. And I think the best illustration in nature of metamorphosis is the example of a caterpillar that becomes a butterfly. Now, butterflies are made to fly, right? Butterflies are born to fly. A butterfly's life is all about flight. It's all about flying. A butterfly's life is not about being grounded. A butterfly's life is not about crawling. A butterfly's life is not about meandering through the dirt. A butterfly's life is all about floating through the air, float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, right?
What makes a butterfly a butterfly is that it flies. It was created to fly. It was not created to be grounded. It's a picture of what our life is supposed to be like, people. We are not supposed to be grounded and limited and always on the earth and always meandering through the dirt of life. We're supposed to soar, we're suppose to sprout wings, and we're supposed to fly, and we're supposed to express the beauty and the color and the nature of God. And we're supposed to reproduce that beauty and reproduce that color and reproduce that wingspan. And we're supposed to be reproducing something beautiful. Have you ever been to a butterfly... what do they call them? Like a butterfly zoo, a butterfly house or whatever you call it.
A house with a bunch of butterflies is basically what I'm talking about. It's amazing. They're all these colors, and they're all flying, and none of them hit each other. There's no collisions, they don't need insurance. They don't need any of that. They never collide. It's amazing that they're all fluttering and flying, and none of them are falling. All of the sudden their wings break and they just fall. It doesn't happen. God designed them to fly, and God designed you to fly. This butterfly is the exact picture of how our lives are supposed to be, flying into God's will for our lives, flying into God's purpose for our lives, flying with color, flying with personality. The caterpillar, the only color the caterpillar has is its blood on the inside of him. I've killed a few in my day when I was a little kid, right? I've squeezed them, I've stepped on them, and then all these colors come out.
Whoa, how did all that color come out of that caterpillar? It's because God put it on the inside of that caterpillar, and that's why that caterpillar needs to get into its cocoon because that's when the color is going to begin to be expressed through its wingspan as it is metamorphosized within the cocoon, and it becomes what it was designed to be on the inside. Every one of us are designed to fly on the inside. There are wings inside of you. There is color inside of you. There is personality inside of you. There is talent inside of you. There's anointing inside of you. There are gifts inside of you. There's beauty inside of you. But what our problem is is we all want to see that come to pass while we continue to run with our little legs like a caterpillar.
And if a caterpillar was trying to fly, you could see how silly a caterpillar is that thinks that by running really hard, getting a good head start, backing up here, and he decides, "Oh, I'll just do it up here since this is higher up and I can fall further". But if a caterpillar thinks, "Oh, there's the edge of the cliff. If I can just get to the edge of the cliff, I can fly". And so, he gets his momentum going, and he gets all his legs going, and studies say that caterpillars can have 16 legs, I mean, think about it. We can go pretty fast as humans with two legs, and animals can go pretty fast with four legs. But this caterpillar's got 16 legs, telling us how futile it is to think that we in our own power and in our own strength can fulfill God's purpose for our lives. But that silly caterpillar, if he's mentally irregular as Rocky put it, he's mentally irregular, you know, that's like Paulie, Paulie's mentally irregular, don't mind whatever he says.
But if that caterpillar has lost his mind, he's going to do something really stupid. He's going to get his legs going, and he sees the cliff, and he's like, "I know I got a butterfly inside of me. I know I got a butterfly inside of me. I know I got color inside of me. I know I got wings inside of me. Man, I'm made to fly. God created me to fly. I'm supposed to mount up with wings like eagles. I'm supposed to run and not grow weary. I'm supposed to walk and not faint". And he goes like this... He's not flying. He's falling, right? All he's doing is falling. He's not flying, why? 'Cause no matter how many legs you have, they can't make you fly. You are not going to fly with legs. You're only going to fly with wings. And where are you going to get those wings? You got to be transformed. Where's that caterpillar going to get wings? Sorry, but I'm just going to tell you, that caterpillar's got to get in the cocoon.
And the life of a caterpillar from the time that it's born to the time that it actually flies is approximately 40 days. And there are several stages that that caterpillar goes through. That caterpillar starts out as an egg on a leaf, and then that egg grows into a larva, and then that larva begins to eat the leaf that it's sitting on, begins to eat the leaf, green pastures and still waters, you know what I'm saying? He begins to eat the leaf and he grows into a caterpillar. He keeps eating and devouring. The strongest part of his body when he's a caterpillar, listen to what I'm about to say, the strongest part of his body when he's a larva and a caterpillar is his jaws because he's designed to eat the leaf that he's sitting on and he's living on. And as he eats the leaf, he begins to expand. And he becomes that 2-inch long caterpillar.
And then, as he becomes that 2-inch long caterpillar, he goes into the next stage, where he begins to weave his cocoon around his body. And then when he gets in that cocoon, guess what he does? He rests. He doesn't wrestle, he rests. We got too many Christians wrestling out here and not getting in the cocoon. The cocoon is God's Word, and the cocoon is God's church. And as we get into God's Word, get God's Word into our minds, get our bodies wrapped with God's Word and God's church and rest, even though we know we still look like, on the outside, a caterpillar, the color and the beauty and the greatness is inside of you, but it can't come out without the cocoon effect. It can't manifest without the cocoon. The cocoon is the incubator that causes what's inside of you to begin to come forth out of you. And the Word of God is the incubator.
As we wrap the Word of God around our minds, as we wrap the church around our lives, we are in the cocoon. And it may feel like you're not moving much. It may feel like you're not making much progress. But if you will stay in that process, and of course, from egg to butterfly is approximately a 30 to 40-day process, if you'll stay in that process, you will make progress. There is no progress without process. Are you hearing me today? If you want progress in your marriage, you've got to submit yourself to the process of what it takes to have a good marriage. If you want progress in your health, you got to yield to the process that produces the progress in your health. If you want progress in your finances, you've got to submit to the process that causes your finances to increase.
Well, interestingly, the same process that makes your finances grow is the same process that makes your marriage better, it's the same process that makes your emotions better, it's the same process that makes your health better. And what is that process? Be transformed by what? The renewing of your mind so that you end up doing the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. In other words, no matter what area of your life you want to see progress in, God's Word getting in your thinking and you adapting your thought life to God's way of thinking, remember, God's ways are higher than our ways because God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
So, we can't fix our ways, but we can fix our thoughts, in other words you can't become the butterfly because you want to. You become the butterfly because you change the way you think, and you be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and that's when your wings begin to expand. Does this make sense? So, you say, "How am I going to fly and experience the dream that God has for my life? How am I going to fly like that butterfly"? You got to submit to the process, be transformed. The butterfly doesn't start out flying, the butterfly starts as a caterpillar and goes through the process of metamorphosis. That's what we go through. Be transformed by the renewing of our mind. And listen, it literally means we are changed from the inside out. It's not going to happen because you turn over a new leaf and decide, "I'm going to be this, and I'm going to be that".
You got to get in the cocoon. The Word is what changes you. The Holy Spirit is what brings forth the greatness that's inside of you. You resting in God's promises, resting in God's house, letting the Word wash over your mind and change the mindsets that are keeping you crawling like a caterpillar when you're supposed to be flying like a butterfly. There are ways of thinking that are keeping us grounded, keeping us crawling, and keeping us limited. And we need to dismantle those ways of thinking, and that's what I'm called to do in your life. I'm not called to change you on the outside. I'm not going to talk about how much you need to stop cussing, and how much you need to stop smoking, and how much you need to stop having, you know, having committing this act or that act.
Look, if you can stop something, by all means stop. If you're doing something wrong and you have the power to stop it, stop it. But my calling is not to tell you the behavior that you're supposed to follow. My calling is to help you renew your mind to God's way of thinking, and dismantle the mindsets that are keeping you crawling, and empower you with the mindsets from God's Word that will cause your DNA of greatness to come forth. And guess what? If I dismantle, if I help you dismantle the wrong mindsets and awaken in you the right ones, then the behavior will take care of itself. I can't say to everybody, "Come on, you got to fly. Come on, let's fly. Come on, why are you grounded? Come on, why are you so limited"?
That's only going to frustrate you more. But I can say, "Hey listen, I know how you can fly. I know how you can be never be discouraged another day in your life. Get in the cocoon with me. For the next 40 days, we're going to be like a caterpillar. We're going to get in the cocoon. We're going to dismantle. We're going to dismantle one by one the wrong mindsets that have grounded us, limited us, and kept us defeated. And we're going to awaken the DNA, the wingspan, the color that God has created us to express. We're going to awaken that through the renewing of our minds". And then, all of a sudden...all of a sudden you're flying, why? Because your mindsets that limited you have been dismantled, and you've adopted a new way of thinking, which creates automatically, as a byproduct, a new way of living. It's not magic, it's transformational metamorphosis. It's the way God designed us.