Have you started becoming aware of the “movies” that are playing on the screen of your imagination? Have you discovered some of the thoughts that produce emotions within you? What emotions arise with different imaginations.

We have two types of movies, both are created by the words we pay attention to and both produce an emotional outcome. A positive and blessed life and a negative and depressed life both come from the same place – a place called your heart.

There are different meanings to the word “heart” in Scripture and not every definition is the same for every scripture, so it is important to know what we are referring to when we talk about the heart. In our context the heart means the seat of the emotions, or the place from where our emotions arise. Let me give you a real drama in my life.

The Spider!

All my life I have had a fear of spiders. Even though the poor little creature had not done anything to me, when it came into my space I would scream in terror and depending on the size just burst into tears. So strong was this emotion that I would demand its immediate death before I could calm down. These encounters would leave me visibly shaken. I do not know where the fear came from, it was just there. I knew the fear was unfounded, but the fear superseded any reason or logic. Neither was I willing to deal with the fear either.

Then, a few weeks ago I had an encounter with the Lord. We were standing in the heavens looking out at the universe. It was spectacular and awe inspiring. As I stood there praising the Lord for all His wonderful works, I saw a tear running down His cheek. I couldn’t comprehend why He had a tear. I asked Him what was wrong, and He told me He loves ALL His creation, everything, not just people. His love was so intense it produced a tear. Then I heard a deep groaning sound that I could feel in my heart.

The Lord turned, looked at me and said that the sound I was hearing was that of creation groaning for its redemption from the bondage to sin and death. Everything in creation was suffering under the weight of sin and death, even the spider. I just looked at Him, sort of numb, because I could not imagine Him loving a spider. He told me both the snake and the spider are His creation, yet we (His church) have renegaded them to nothing more than demonic symbols and automatically identify them as Satanic. I turned my head and there in front of me was a spider, about the size of my fist, looking at me.

The weird thing is that the spider looked like it wanted to cry. There was so much sorrow in its eyes and all I could feel was that this spider desperately wanted to be loved. However, this spider was not looking at the Lord, it was looking at me. I heard the Lord’s thoughts, He simply said they are waiting for me and the rest of the church to come into who we are and to redeem them back to Him.

(And to show you how emotions work with thoughts, tears are streaming down my cheeks and my heart is again overwhelmed just because I am recounting the experience.)

Sadly, in the encounter I could not get myself to reach out and pick the spider up. It took all I had just to look at it. But that spider is now a part of me. I can see it and I can feel its cry.

Things have changed since that encounter. I no longer freak out when I see a spider, even the big ones. No, I am still not picking them up and they are not crawling on my hands. One thing though, no one gets to kill them anymore. I bless them and tell them they need to stay outside, and then get someone to take them outside – without harming them. We had a big, pretty, brown wolf spider go to the Mall with us today. Dave found him when he opened the boot. I stepped back, and after some coercing from Dave, it ran under the car.

I still have to do some work on the internal “fear movie” in my mind regarding spiders. I’m working on allowing it (my heavenly spider) to touch me. I have to get over my religious mindset of thinking spiders are evil.

It’s getting easier as I give the Lord thanks for spiders and that they are part of His wonderful creation. Changing a movie from fear to faith is simple but not easy. It is simple because all it requires is thanksgiving, coupled with a feeling of gratefulness, which causes a change of the images in your mind. To keep doing it until the old movie no longer exists is not easy as it requires a willing attitude and a mental discipline to make the change.

I encourage you to renovate the theatre of your mind and bring it into a place of peace and joy that causes the wellspring of life to well up and flow into your life, bringing you much joy and prosperity.

Have a wonder filled day! 🕷🕸

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Heartfelt Prayer! Part 4 – Download PDF