Changing what you Believe (5 of 6)

Mike Connell

So we have to know we're righteous, know we're righteous, right before God. How do I know that? I begin to meditate, meditate, meditate, meditate, presence of God with me, presence of God with me, see? And I have to meditate on what the Bible says is true and as I do that it becomes established in the heart. Now the biggest thing is people don't want to take the time to do it, but if you'll take the time to do it your life changes and you're free of shame, see? If you take the time to do it your life changes. Your life changes. You begin to experience God, you begin to encounter God, you begin to experience Him as someone who loves you passionately. You begin to enjoy the experience of being in His presence. You begin to feel His love flowing into your heart. You begin to have that encounter and that experience, it becomes a part of your life, but there's a process to it and that process is called meditation, embracing the truth, holding the truth, imagining the truth, declaring the truth until I feel it sink into my heart. When it does you change. You actually then are unashamed, you can come before God [unclear 00.41.31] unashamed. That's why David did it - absolutely unashamed and danced before the Lord. Absolutely unashamed to be himself, not worried what anyone thinks. I don't care what anyone thinks, it's about me and God and oh! You can imagine the joy he had in his life after all the years, now God has fulfilling the promises. He's excited about the Lord, unashamed about loving the Lord.

See, a lot of people are hung up, can't lift their hands, can't dance, can't [unclear 00.42.00] can't do anything. It's like they're held back. Now that's - see shame - God's wanting to get us free out of all that stuff, not so you can have a personality like mine but so you can have your own personality and be expressive totally about how you love the Lord, passionately expressive and loving of God. So meditation plants the truth in your heart. It plants the truth I am right before God, I'm accepted before God, I am loved by Him. There are several truths you need to have put into your heart. The first truth is that God loves you. God absolutely and totally loves you. That's a good truth to put into your heart. Well you say well I know that one. Really? Really? You see you know the words - God loves you, see? But has it become a revelation, see, that I am loved? If I am loved I don't have to go hunting everywhere else for it. I am absolutely loved by God.

Here's another truth: God has made us to be righteous, or He's made us accepted. Well here's the truth: I am accepted totally before God. I can come before Him blamelessly. That's a good truth to know isn't it, see? God is good and I can trust Him. See, that's a good truth to have in your heart. God has made me unique, to be a representative of Him. I'm an ambassador, I can represent God uniquely. [I have to 00.43.34] compare with anyone. I can be myself. I'm called to represent Him by being ME! But you've just got to live in the heart, it lives in the heart. I can give you scriptures for all of these things but it's got to live as a truth in the heart. It's got to become truth in the inner man and when it becomes truth, that's when you begin to find your life changes.

Now of course the dilemma is it requires some time working on your belief system. Now listen, your belief system is your belief system. Most of our belief systems were formed out of the environment, circumstances around us and we've got many things we believe to be true in our heart which are not true at all. You see as the Holy Spirit helps you identify those truths which are not truths at all, they're wrong beliefs, and you begin to work on them and change what you believe, your life changes because as a man thinks in his heart so he is. So for example if I have struggled growing up in a financially impoverished background and I believe life's real hard and you've got to really work hard for everything you get and man, there's not much to go round.