Mensa Otabil - Think Fruitful Thoughts
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Proverbs chapter 3, verses 19 and 20: The Lord, by wisdom, founded the earth; by understanding, He established the heavens. By His knowledge, the depths were broken up, and clouds dropped down the dew. The world we live in is the fruit of God’s wisdom. Everything we see in creation-the mountains, the rivers, the sun, the moon, the planets, the galaxy-all of these are a manifestation of God’s wisdom, God’s understanding, and God’s knowledge. That’s what the passage is saying. The things that we see did not start as things; they started as wisdom, knowledge, and understanding in God. So, you can say that they came from God’s mind, God’s thoughts, God’s thinking.
For us to live fruitful lives, our minds must be fruitful; our thoughts must be fruitful because the battle starts in the mind before it gets into physical reality. God stimulates our imagination through His words and promises. If you remember your Bible well, when God wanted to show Abraham how his future would be, He took him out and showed him the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore and said, «So shall your descendants be.» Why did God have to do that? He was triggering the imagination of Abraham because if you can’t imagine it, you cannot do it. You think it, believe it, do it. If you can’t think it, you can’t believe it, and if you can’t believe it, you can’t do it.
So, fruitfulness starts with the mind. A mind that is trapped in impossibility cannot inspire fruitfulness. If your mind is constantly thinking, «It’s not possible, it cannot be done, I can’t see my way out of it,» and everything you see around you is viewed negatively, or you only see the reality without thinking beyond it to see what is possible and what can be done, then fruitfulness will elude you.
In living fruitful lives, God uses our minds and spirits to redesign our reality. God inspires new thoughts in our minds so that we can think of new things and start working towards them. One of the most fundamental differences between human beings and all other life forms is our ability to imagine. Imagination is unique to us, and with imagination, we can originate new possibilities.
It’s amazing the kinds of things people do; sometimes, when you see what people have accomplished, you wonder, «What were they thinking? How did they think? What kinds of ideas would make a person create this machine or product or take this action?» It’s a fruitful mind, a fruitful thought. So, I pray that God will give you a fruitful mind. Imagination helps us rearrange existing scenarios. When we use the power of imagination, we don’t just look at one situation as it is; instead, we consider it in different forms. What if it was this way? What if we looked at it from another point of view? That is using the power of imagination to rearrange the scenarios of your life.
Imagination helps us see different actions that can be taken and create a preferred future for ourselves. If we want to live fruitful lives, our minds cannot be fixed; we cannot box ourselves into a space and say, «This is how it’s always been; this is how it’s always going to be,» thus talking ourselves out of solutions. A fruitful life starts with a fruitful mind and fruitful thinking. We see this in the way God created the universe, and we see it in how people have invented things in our world. We will see it in your life as you allow God to stimulate your thought so that you can look at life from a very wide point of view rather than just a narrow perspective.
Fruitful works around us come from somebody’s mind, somebody’s imagination, somebody’s thought. It’s about time the world sees the fruitful thoughts that God has blessed you with. Let us pray. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, open my mind to Your thoughts; help me to capture the new ideas of Your Spirit.» In Jesus' name, amen and amen. May the Lord inspire new ideas in your spirit and in your mind. I am Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.