Talking to Yourself
Talking to Yourself
Faith and imagination are interconnected. Faith brings power—the power of believing something that we hold in our minds to be true.
By faith, we see something that doesn’t yet physically exist. Most every living thing responds to faith, especially articulated faith. Each and every one of us needs to imagine and believe in our own ways.
You can write your imagination into a mission statement for your family or your business.
You can design your vision into a blueprint for a new building.
You can detail positive expectations for your children by regularly speaking to them about God’s unique destiny for their lives.
Imaginings become prophetic when articulated.
These types of prophecies have been researched extensively within the field of psychology. Experts have generally accepted the theory that what human beings believe and communicate has a powerful influence over what happens in their lives.
Our lives respond to what we believe about ourselves in self-imposed prophecy. Studies have shown that people speak out loud at a rate of about 150 to 200 words per minute, but internally, we talk to ourselves at a rate of 1,300 words per minute. We are engaged in rapid monologue, perpetually self-prophesying.
Think about this a minute: What do you believe about yourself? What do you say to yourself?
Our emotions are activated by what we believe. Dr. William Backus, psychologist and author of twenty books on counseling and pastoral-related matters, defines an emotion as “a response of a number of physical systems to something we believe.”1 We interpret situations based on our belief system.
“I’ve heard many people say that fear is faith moving in the wrong direction. We are afraid because we have faith that something bad is going to happen.”
For example, I walk into our kitchen in the dark hours of the morning. I see a person standing in the shadows of the room. If I believe that person is a burglar, my emotions—as experienced through my physical systems—are going to respond accordingly. I would be terribly excited. My heart would beat faster. My blood pressure would rise. I would prepare to protect my family. I hope I wouldn’t run!
However, if I believe the person in the shadows is my daughter who has unexpectedly come home, I would be joyfully excited—though my heart would still beat faster and my blood pressure would still rise—and I would rush to give her a big hug! Even our physiology is affected by what we say to ourselves.
What the Bleep Do We Know!? Is a movie about quantum physics and the relationship between God and science. There is a vignette about an experiment conducted by a Japanese scientist. He wanted to determine if and how droplets of water responded to positive and negative energies in the form of words. He put water droplets into two separate jars. To one jar, positive words such as love and thank you were communicated. Negative phrases, including “you make me sick” and “I will kill you,” were conveyed to the other jar.
Researchers found a significant difference between the responses of the sets of water droplets. Somehow, the water in the positive jar transformed into beautiful shapes, and the appearance of the negative ones turned ugly.
“Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?” voiced the narrator. “If thoughts can do that to water, imagine what our thoughts can do to us.”
How do you talk to yourself? Are there words you regularly use to build yourself up…or drag yourself down? Drop a comment and let’s talk about that.
1. William Backus, Telling the Truth to Troubled People: A Manual for Christian Counselors (Bloomington, MN: Bethany House, 1985), 72.
Adapted from Live Ten (Thomas Nelson) by Terry A. Smith. All rights reserved.
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Photo by Ümit Bulut on Unsplash