Sometime ago I attended a training which held in one of the hotels in Abuja. Looking through the glass door of the hall I was in, I observed a security personnel who sat by the door all through the training session. Apparently, his responsibility was to keep an eye on activities just outside the hall which really were very minimal save the sparse occurrences of people coming in and going out of the hall. For most of the time, his chin was seated comfortably in his palm as he sat in a somewhat reflective mood. His demeanour didn’t look quite optimistic. I might be wrong but I felt his thoughts fell into one of two categories. He was either thinking about the past and current happenings around him or thinking about the future. Thoughts could wander from thinking about struggles along life’s highway to how last month’s salary got zapped so quickly or what financial alternatives lay in the future. Just my wild guess anyway.

All humans think but we don’t all think the same way, we don’t all have the same thinking patterns and we don’t all process thoughts the same way. Our minds are factories processing several thoughts in a day. Usually, our words and actions are the products of our thoughts. We process all kinds of thoughts in our minds – the good, the bad and the ugly. If we act on the right thoughts, we get the right outcomes. If we act on the wrong thoughts, we waste energy and we lose out. Not every thought is productive. Not every thought moves us forward. But we can process the right thoughts and act on them – thoughts that propel us in the direction of our purpose and destiny.

Thought patterns determine what we pursue and what we seek to accomplish. Thought patterns differentiate the poor from the rich. A million bucks in the hands of someone with the wrong thought pattern would not produce the same returns as the same amount in the hands of someone with the right thought pattern. Said in another way, the value of money in the hands of someone who only thinks about acquiring property or amassing wealth is different from the value of the same amount in the hands of someone who thinks of providing solutions. By the way, note that solution-oriented businesses usually outlast for-profit-only businesses.

Yet again, there are two extremes. Some people believe that their human ability and capacity alone is all they need to create, innovate or achieve anything. Another set of people sit back and wait for the Holy Spirit to show them what to do and how to do it while sending their brains to sleep! Both extremes are dangerous. One denies the influence God can bring into a person’s life via His Spirit and the other denies the God-given creative capacity that lies in us. The child of God is blessed because he or she can enjoy the best of both worlds. We have inherent intelligence and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to call on at any time.

Let’s get ready to put our brains to work. Let’s task our brains. What ideas do we have? How can we do things better? Are there any other ways of achieving the results we get now? How can we maximize our gains and reduce effort and cost? In what ways can I apply my skills and talents? How can I serve my church or community differently? You might not always get immediate and perfect answers. Some thoughts might even appear awkward. But where the finite stops, the infinite kicks in. You can rely on the Holy Spirit to help. He would take the thoughts in God’s mind and put them in your mind (I Corinthians 2:12). He can also give guidance on the thoughts already being processed in your mind.

It’s always fantastic to pray in the Holy Spirit and look to receive His inspiration. Praying in the Holy Spirit unties wrapped up thoughts. It improves your capacity to innovate and conceive. It liberates from mediocre thinking. It propels to the realm of creativity. It fires up your thinking process.

There is nothing like waking up fired up with thoughts that make you wanna run or skip. So take some time to pray in the Spirit and this is something you can do before you go to sleep at night. Then expect to have God’s thoughts distil upon your mind so that you wake up with His thoughts and ideas on your mind in the morning. When you begin your day with the thoughts and ideas God put in your mind, you leverage on His wisdom to conquer the day. And when those thoughts are fired by the power of the Holy Spirit, you always have good success. Victor Hugo, a poet in 19^th century once said, ‘Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come’. This is my version: Nothing can stop a Holy Spirit-inspired idea because its time has come!

 

Thought check: What are those ideas God has put in your heart that you need to act on now?