“Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” ~Matthew 18:18
“By thinking those [negative] thoughts you emitted that frequency, and they became the pictures of your life” ~ The Secret to Money app
“Manifest” is a big pop culture buzzword right now. There are so many books about creating your dreams, thinking things into existence, taking charge of your own life. I own quite a few books on these subjects; I also may or may not be writing a book of my own on the subject. Over the past few months I have refined my daily devotional practice that includes a lot of this rhetoric. I have found myself wondering whether my faith can stand cohesively with my new age-y sensibilities, so of course I turned to the Bible. Sure enough, the idea of manifesting is part of the Christian framework. I don’t say this to assuage any guilt I have about manifesting, but rather to lay a framework that we all fall into in some form or fashion if we are attempting to fashion the life we want and the person that we want to be.
My daily devotional practice does two specific things for me: It allows me proper time to gird myself before I go out amongst the people (on the internet and in real life), and helps me to work on improving who I am and how I function. I have an unreal level of stress and anxiety that gets in the way of my productivity, my creativity, and decreases my quality of life. I know I am not the only one. When you go about your day there is so much coming at you that it can be easy to drown. We become bombarded with images that tell us what we should be working toward, how we should look, what we have to be to be valuable, etc. These things constantly slow me down and have me out here thinking that I ain’t shit, which just is not true. Not for me. Not for you. To combat all of these things I set my sights on who I am, and who God is. I begin each day with gratitude; think about what I want for myself, alladat.
We generally think about manifesting things. Thinking ourselves toward success, love, marriage. But it is more than that. Manifestation is far more complex than I had conceived. Right now I am reading You’re a Badass at Making Money and it is opening up my mind not to much about how to make money, but about my mindset toward money. I also use an app called The Secret of Money (Thanks Ominy girl!) that has daily inspirations that deal with manifesting money. This past week I was in Vegas on vacation. During those four days I woke up at 5:00 am every day and it was glorious. I did my devotional practice and had the whole day ahead of me. I took care of my mind, body, and spirit. During that time a few things hit me like a ton of bricks.
How you think dictates what you attract. Some circumstances in our lives are beyond our control, however there is a lot we can control. When I think a certain way about things, I conduct myself in a way that reflects that. If I think little of myself, I shrink in the presence of others. If I always expect the worst, I feel deflated when it happens even though I was expecting it to happen.
When Jesus made the statement in Matthew 18:18, it not only talked about manifesting but also the possibilities that the universe holds for us. The Bible also says that, “Life and death are in the power of the tongue.” Whatever we speak becomes reality. What we think about a think becomes the world that we create. Manifesting is not merely a wish list; it is a discipline. You have to adjust the way that you think about the things, possibilities, and yourself to see and be what you envision.
As I reflected on these things in Vegas, I had a thought: What if I changed the way that I prayed daily? I always begin my prayers with thanks. I thank God for the list of things that I have, then I ask for the things I do not. I altered this by just praying in thanks. I thank God for the things that I have and the things that I want, as if I already have them. It has begun to make me mindful of my approach to prayer and how I talk to God. I am more mindful of how I pose my questions and thinking through how I verbalize what is in my spirit. In a few days I have seen a difference in my mindset.
Friends, as you create the life you want, do not forget to change your mind. We ultimately attract what we are. If you want something different from who you are or how you think right now, you must edit your thinking. The wealthy move about the world in a particular way, creators move about the world in a particular way, people who have been successfully married for decades move about the world in a particular way. Find out how those who are where you would like to be think and figure out how to change your mind. It changes who you are, Paul tells us this: “Be not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind.” When your mind changes, you change and your world with it.
Love and Light,
~S.
Shardé Searches 