Work on the Affirmative Side

Our right brain learns primarily by imitation, by being mentored. I am starting to see a little more clearly how poor a mentorer I am. When people watch me to learn how to act under different situations and pressures they are often seeing more a mirror of their own problems than they are seeing the responses from the spirit of heaven.

I want people to see how blindly defensive they are and how they thereby are avoiding facing their “stuff”. But when they trigger my stuff what do I do? My first overwhelming impulse is to feel defensive and point out their stuff – which is exactly how they react in turn. A vicious and accelerating cycle.

I want people to not make assumptions about what I am thinking. But I also expect them to read my mind when I am afraid to express my true feelings. I want people to understand my true heart motives in spite of my words and actions that seem to convey the opposite. But when others treat me by doing the same thing I want them to be more honest about expressing their real core feelings. I want people to live from their hearts and not just from head formulas or from their triggers. I want people to take ownership of their “stuff” and be willing to be humble enough to admit and apologize when they hurt me. But how often and willing am I to do the same for them? Very little I'm afraid.

Therefore, I really may understand them quite well because they are simply reflecting my unresolved “stuff” back to me and I don't like what I see and experience from them. They don't like it when they see their unresolved issues reflected in me and so they attack the mirror and blame it/me for everything bad they see about themselves. That really hurts when I am the mirror being spit at and slapped around emotionally.

I need much more grace and heart-sight to break this closed cycle. I need radical healing of my triggers so I don't mirror other's problems back to them. I need to look more frequently at the mirror-face of Jesus to get more acquainted with my true identity and value. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAS95) If I can see my real self as God is forming in me I will be more transparent so others will see less “stuff” mirrored back to them and more value as they look through me to catch glimpses of their true self-worth in Jesus' mirror.

I need a spirit of instant forgiveness, humility, unconditional love in the face of abuse. I don't have those qualities very much and I can't produce them. God.......

Just after I finished writing the above I read todays message from the devotional book To Be Like Jesus. It was directly for me in the present. “If there are any of you who have weak faith, remember that it is because you do not work on the affirmative side. It is of no use for us to think that we can carry forward the glorious work of God without strong, unfaltering faith.... Those who have educated themselves to stand on the negative side should without delay repent and be converted. Remember that when you stand on the negative side, accusing and condemning, you make room for the agencies of the power of darkness. Precious time has to be spent in waging war against these agencies, because there were those who refused to stand on the affirmative side.... "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory." Satan is behind all strife and vainglory. Let us get out of his company, and stand with those who say, "Victory is for us, and we will cling to the arm of infinite power."

I have weak faith because I do not work on the affirmative. I cannot reveal more of God's glory without strong, unfaltering faith. I can see that I have been programmed to stand on the negative side, as many around me have as well. I need to repent and be converted without delay. When I take the negative side I make room for the power of Satan. The negative side involves accusing and condemning. This extends the time needed for healing since more baggage is created that then has to be resolved along with the original problems, all because I refuse to stand on the affirmative side.

Satan is behind all strife and vainglory. Those two sound like two sides of a common coin – the two branches of the Tree of Death.

The solution? From the reading I see these:

• Seek the Lord with my whole heart so He will come very near me.

• Take hold and present God's promises to Him.

• Ask God to lead and direct.

• Work only on the affirmative side.

• Think of all that God has done for us.

• Praise God for all blessings.

• Always draw others with affirmation.

• Repent and be converted from negative thinking to affirmation.

• Do not refuse to change.

• Get out of Satan's company.

• Say affirmatively, “Victory is for us.”

• Cling to the arm of infinite power.

In My Utmost For His Highest the reading for today also reminds me that obedience comes from oneness of spirit. I either synchronize with Satan by dwelling on the negative or I synchronize with God's heart and work only on the affirmative. God, change me!

If I want to be a useful disciple, I must give up my right to myself to Jesus. God does not operate primarily by rules, but in relationship. If I hesitate to obey it is because I love a false god more than Him. Jesus will not “help” me obey – I must choose and then experience His power to do it. Obedience creates and spreads life.