Key 6 - Perception Shifting

• Psalm 31:22-24.  David wrote these words, “For I said in my haste, ‘I am cut off from before Your eyes’; Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications when I cried out to You.  23 Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints!  For the Lord preserves the faithful, and fully repays the proud person.  24 Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord.”

• Notice what David realized about his own experience.  David said, “For I said in my haste!”  In other words, because David was impatient for the Lord’s blessings - because he couldn’t wait for God to answer his prayers and because he was frustrated with his circumstances - that was why he thought that God wasn’t listening.  It was because David was impatient, and David recognized this in the end when he wrote the psalm.  He realized that God WAS in fact there and He DID care and He WAS listening.  It just didn’t FEEL like it and in David’s impatience, he basically accused God of not hearing him.  His impatience changed his perception of reality.  So when you FEEL like God isn’t there, try to remind yourself of these words so you don’t make the same mistake.

• Often if we simply practice shifting our perception of things, we can turn a disaster into a blessing.  Nothing changes about our circumstances except that we are looking at things differently. 

• But, did you know that natural miracles are actually the most common and most powerful miracles that God performs in your life?  Perception Shift.  Did you know that these subtle and “un-miraculous” events are actually greater and more profound examples of God’s power than most of the supernatural miracles that God performed in the Bible?

• Well, if you think about it, God has set up rules and regulations to govern everything in the universe.  In order to perform a Natural Miracle, God must obey these rules and regulations to get the job done.  Supernatural Miracles, on the other hand, occur when God bends or breaks these rules and regulations, making exceptions to them, in order to accomplish something.  With Natural Miracles, God has to work WITH people, places and things.  With Supernatural Miracles, God bypasses the will of people, places and things and simply does the act.

• The Early Church put this concept into practice whenever they suffered.  They shifted their perception, viewing all suffering as Jesus counting them worthy of enduring just a bit of the suffering He endured for us.  They also realized that if we shift our perception in this way, rejoicing even in our sufferings, God WILL reward us for it.  So they expected blessings to pour into their lives every time they suffered; knowing their blessings would come afterwards.  Again, proud Papa rewarding the child for doing something hard.