Here are a few thoughts that are worth remembering.

We need to fix or secure our thoughts on that real, genuine, accurate, right, correct, proper, exact, faithful, sincere, dedicated, loyal, and devoted mindset. Settle our thoughts on high quality, good quality, and excellent, decent, respectable, well-behaved, lovely, trustworthy, helpful, sound, enjoyable, and obedient attitude. Commit our plans to God and let Him establish our thoughts on acceptable, honorable, respectable, and justified way of thinking. It is true that what we have faith in, affects our way of thinking.

As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the real person. Personality is the parameter to the construction of our mindset. We act in response to our ability to see ourselves. 5It is important for us to know how God sees us.

At one time, Paul had evaluated Jesus by what the world 5thought about Him. As an educated Jew, Paul was looking forward to the Messiah. However, the Jews of his time were looking for a political Messiah; a powerful person who would free them from Roman rule, Instead, Jesus had died, even suffering the Romans’ most cruel punishment: Crucifixion. According to human standards, Jesus was merely a human being, an insignificant man who died like a criminal. But that changed at Paul’s encounter with the risen Christ on the Damascus road. In the same way, believers are changed when they meet Christ. Christians are brand new people on the inside. The Holy Spirit gives them new life, and they are not the same anymore. We are not reformed, rehabilitated, or reeducated – we are re-created (new creations0, living in vital union with our Lord Jesus Christ 6(Colossians 2:6-9 NLT).

Paul was so disparaging toward this heresy (false philosophy, the kind that is deceptive because it keeps people from seeing the truth) because it came from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world. No man-made religion can lead to the truth, for truth can be found only in Christ. True philosophy will focus on Jesus Christ – it will not put Christ in any lower position, nor will it focus on human endeavor.

At conversion, we do not merely change; we begin a new life under a new Master. The old life of sin and death has gone; the selfish, sinful human nature has been dealt a deathblow. Old ways of thinking, old distinctions have been abolished. In its place, a new life has begun.

7Some people succeed in everything they do, and they brag that no one, not even God, can keep them down. We may wonder why God allows these people to amass great wealth while they despise Him as they do. But why are we upset when the wicked prosper? Are we angry about the damage they are doing or just jealous of their success? To answer these questions, we must gain the right perspective, viewpoint, standpoint, outlook, point of view, opinion, attitude, or perception on wickedness and wealth. The wicked will surely be punished because God hates their evil deeds. Wealth is only temporarily. It is not necessarily a sign of God’s disapproval. Do not let wealth become our obsession.

Just because Jesus tell us to forgive does not mean others will, and we should not beat ourselves up because of it. All I can say is another or we all do innocent stupid things at one time because we are not perfect, but if we do the right thing in God’s eyes, asking for forgiveness from the one we offended, we will not be held accountable spiritually for our actions. I know it does not stop the hurt or the loss, but doing the right thing, repent and asking for forgiveness is what is required from our Most High God. Yes, losing a friend over stupid things hurts terribly, but hopefully, through God’s Holy Spirit of wisdom and discernment; we have learned something that we will not repeat in the future hopefully. Resentment is a dangerous emotion. It can be a malignancy that consumes the spirit and warps the mind, leaving us bitter and disappointed with life. No matter how badly we have been mistreated or how selfish our partners have seemed, we are called upon to release them from accountability. That is the meaning of true forgiveness. We have to repent and ask for forgiveness when we have wronged someone because that is definitely how to live for Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Resentment is a dangerous emotion. It can be a malignancy, growth, tumor, or disease that consumes the spirit and warps the mind, leaving us bitter and disappointed with life. No matter how badly we have been mistreated or how selfish our partners have seemed, we are called upon to release them from answerability, liability, or accountability. That is the meaning of true forgiveness.

  • Quote from “Become A Better You” of Pastor Joel Osteen:

“God is preparing you for greater things. He’s going to take you further than you thought possible, so don’t be surprised when He asks you to think better of yourself and to act accordingly.”

“God was thinking about you before you were ever even born.”

“When you do the right thing with the right motives, there’s no limit to what God will do in your life.”

“If your conscience (sense of right and wrong) is clear, life is good.”

“My father (Joel’s father) often quoted a simple yet profound statement by Edwin Markham (1852-1940) that sums up the attitude we need: “Ah, great it is to believe the dream as we stand in youth by the starry stream; but a greater thing is to fight life through and say at the end, the dream is true!”

  • Quote from “Streams In The Desert” of  Doris Lafrenz about Isaiah 18:4 dated 1/25/2012:

God is Not Unobservant

“I will be still, and I will behold in my dwelling place” (Isaiah 18:4, RV).

“As we look out on the evil of the world; as we think of the apparent success of wrong-doing; as we wince beneath the oppression of those that hate us, let us remember these marvelous words about God being still and beholding.”

  •  Quote from “Prayer” of Andrew Murray about prayer in 1 John 2;27 & John 15:4

But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ. “ (1 John 2:27 NLT)

“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.” (John 15:4 NLT)

How beautiful the thought of a life always abiding in Christ! The longer we think of it, the more attractive it becomes.”

  • Quote from “The Practice of God’s Presence” of Andrew Murray about God’s thoughts and our thoughts in Isaiah 55:9 (NLT)

 “For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

On earth, the words of a wise man often mean something different from what the hearer understands them to mean. How natural, then, that the Words of God, as He understands them, mean something infinitely higher than we understands at first. We must understand this, because it will cause us to search for the fuller meaning of God’s Word as He meant it. It will give us confidence to hope that there is fulfillment in life beyond our highest thoughts.

God’s Word has two meanings. The one is the meaning that originated in the mind of God, making human words the bearer of divine wisdom, power, and love. The other is our partial, distorted understanding of God’s Word. Although such words as the love of God, the grace of God, and the power of God may seem very true and real to us, there is still an infinite fullness in the Word that we have not yet known. How strikingly this is put in our text from Isaiah: “As the heavens are higher than the earth.” Our faith in this fact is so simple and clear that no one would dream of trying with his little arms to reach the sun or the stars. And now God says, “My thoughts (are higher) than your thoughts.” Even when the Word has given us God’s thoughts and our thoughts have tried to understand them, they still remain as high above our thoughts as the heavens are higher than the earth.

  • Quote from “The Power Of A Praying Parent” of Stormie Omartian about “Breaking Down Ungodly Strongholds” in Matthew 16:19 & 1 Peter 5:8 (NLT)

 “And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.”

“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”

I am grateful to God that He reveals such things to us before they become serious. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a child’s sins you are sensing. It could be hurt or fear over something he (she) has thought, seen, or experienced. It could be hopelessness, confusion, envy, selfishness, or pride. It’s impossible to guess, so it’s best to ask God to reveal it to you. Even if you don’t get a clear leading right away, you can still pray about it. Jesus instructed us to pray as a matter of course, “Deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:13). Sometimes we don’t have to be any more specific than praying for God to penetrate the lives of our children by the power of His Spirit and deliver them from evil. The point is, don’t ignore these warnings.

            Even if you don’t sense anything in your child now, it’s still a good preventative measure to pray the following prayer. Not that you have to be forever suspicious of your children, but you do have to be suspicious of the enemy lurking around waiting to erect a stronghold in their lives.

Published by Elias A Busuego Jr PhD DTM

Elias A. Busuego, Jr., PhD, DTM is self-described as “proud of the only two women in my life – my wife and my daughter (with her husband and one grandson & one granddaughter). I am also proud of my three sons: John and his family (two sons & 1 daughter); Christopher and his family (with his wife and one grandson & one daughter); and Elias Jr. IV and his family (with his wife and one son & one daughter), who are all serving in the U.S. military.” The author states that he read the Bible back-to-back, and learned the history behind it, but did not understand its deeper spiritual perspective until he experienced of being Born-Again, born in spirit. Since he was Born-Again on March 17, 1972, he started understanding the Passage and/or Scripture on John 3:3-7 NLT. These are most of his favorite verses. In John 3:3-7 NLT says, “3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” 4 “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again? "Jesus replied, “I assure you; no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ In John 3:5 – This statement has perplexed and divided commentators for many centuries. Some traditions have taught that the water denotes physical birth (referring to the “water” of amniotic fluid or even semen) and Spirit to spiritual birth – in which case our Lord Jesus Christ would be saying that a person has to have two births: one physical and the second, spiritual. This view builds upon the preceding context when Nicodemus referred to physical birth. It also points to the parallel our Lord Jesus Christ makes in verse 6. According to this position, our Lord Jesus Christ would have been granting the Pharisee’s point in order to highlight the nature of the second birth as spiritual. Two strengths of this interpretation are that it avoids making the physical act of water baptism a necessity and that it avoids bringing almost a “third birth” idea into the discussion. If water doesn’t refer to natural birth, say its defenders, then our Lord Jesus Christ seems to be saying that a person must be born of their parents, born of water, and born of the Spirit. Other traditions have taught that the water refers to baptism and the Spirit to spiritual regeneration – thus, our Lord Jesus Christ would have been saying that a person must both be baptized and receive the Spirit in order to enter the Kingdom of God. This view is at times influenced by the belief that the sacrament of baptism is itself a requirement for salvation. A parallel view makes water refer to baptism but places the emphasis on teaching two steps of baptism; one by water, the other by the Spirit. For support, these views point to the larger context in John where John the Baptist and water baptism are mentioned just preceding the events in Cana and following this encounter with Nicodemus. They also rely on the tendency of previous generations of Christians to equate the mention of water with baptism. But in the first seven chapters of John, water appears in some way (naturally or symbolically) in each chapter. To associate water and baptism too closely makes baptism a higher priority than the Scriptures give it. Here, for instance, if our Lord Jesus Christ was speaking of two completely separate acts, two baptisms, it is odd that the rest of the discussion between our Lord Jesus Christ and Nicodemus never again refers to the subject but revolves entirely around the work of God’s Spirit. Still other traditions have taught that our Lord Jesus’ reference to water is not physical in either the sense of birth or baptism. The term water is simply another description of the Spirit – or the Spirit’s activity of cleansing and giving life (see John 7:37-39). In John 3:6 – Humans can produce only more human beings; this answers Nicodemus’s question in verse 4. Only God the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven. At the same time God puts His Spirit into us, we are given a new regenerated human spirit. It is God’s Spirit, not our effort, that makes us children of God (John 1:12). Our Lord Jesus’ description corrects human hopes that we might somehow inherit goodness from parents or earn it by good behavior, church background, or correct associations. At some point we must be able to answer the question: Have I been born of the Spirit? In John 3:7 – Our Lord Jesus’ statement to Nicodemus that evening has been heralded to all the world ever since. Both Jew and Gentile have heard the divine mandate: You must be born again. Without the new birth, one cannot see or enter into the Kingdom of God. In those words, millions have heard our Lord Jesus Christ speaking directly to their hearts and our hearts. Behind our Lord Jesus’ challenge is His invitation to each of us –” You must be born again; allow me to do that for you.” Since he was born again on March 17, 1972, he started also understanding his other favorite Passage on Romans 12:2 NLT. “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” When Elias offered his entire self to God, a change happened in his relation to the world. As one of Born-Again Christians, he believes we are called to a different lifestyle than what the world offers with its behavior and customs, which are usually selfish and often corrupting (Galatians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:14). He commented that Born-Again Christians are to live as citizens of a future world. There will be pressure to conform, to continue living according to the script written by the world, but Born-Again Christian believers are forbidden to give in to that pressure. But refusing to conform to this world’s values must go even deeper than the level of behavior and customs – it must go to the transforming of the way we think. In Elias testimonies as a Born-Again Christian believer, he emphasized that born-again is an experience and he experienced a complete transformation from the inside out. And the change must begin in the mind, where all thoughts and actions begin. Much of the work is done by God’s Spirit in us, and the tool most frequently used is God’s Word. As we memorize and meditate upon God’s Word, our way of thinking changes. Our minds become first informed, and then conformed to the pattern of God, the pattern for which we were originally designed. When we as Born-Again Christian believers have had our minds transformed and are becoming more like our Lord Jesus Christ, we will know what God wants and we will want to do it for it is good, pleasing to God, and perfect for us. It is from those gleanings that he was able to write this book.