Monday, August 25, 2008

Visionspeak

Hey bloggers...
Happy Monday! Great stuff on the blog yesterday...your comments are truly inspired and insightful, and I'm glad that we're up and running again. And thanks for the encouraging feedback from the sermon. I always love talking about vision.

Speaking of which, my plan last week to use excerpts from 20/20 Vision: Changing Your Life by Changing the Way You See Things here through the 20th got a little sidetracked, but here's some more from the book that I think will be a word for someone today.

The new look, BTW, is just experimental...


____________________



Today I will expect good things
to happen to me.


Hope is the effectual combination of expectation and desire. Literally, it is the manifestation of a confident and favorable expectation in your life. To create an atmosphere of hopeful expectancy each day that you live is to prepare yourself for miracles. Hope is attractive and, on some level, you only get what you expect to get out of your circumstances. The sheer power of expectation causes things to move toward you, and the force of your desire dictates many of the events that occur around you. It could be argued that you really do have what you want in life and that if you wanted more you would have more. It just may be as simple as that.

It is possible to condition your mind in much the same way that athletes condition their bodies through strength-training. You can increase your brain power by disciplining yourself to spend time every day thinking and talking about nothing but the positive. Your trained attitude can actually become so mentally muscular that you begin living absolutely free of disappointment. If you learn how to see things correctly, the whole concept of disappointment can become irrelevant to you. Expecting good things to happen is a healthy habit that can easily be developed and can elevate the quality of your life. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life” (Proverb 13:12).

Perhaps the most important part of expecting good things to come to you is to talk about good things coming to you. Whatever you regularly and consistently talk about gets stronger in your life, so when you speak your hope and your faith – when you verbalize your optimism – you locate the good things that are swirling all around you in the invisible realm and you invite and order them into your material world. Talk about the happy ending to your story, even when you are in the middle of the worst part of its plotline. Talk about the part of the glass that you see as being half full. Talk about your dreams and visions, because the more you speak of them, the more real they become.

When a door closes, expect another one to open for you somewhere else. When the thing that you wanted or prayed for doesn’t manifest in the way that you visualized, expect something better to come along. Always expect things to turn out for the best, even when everything around you looks like it is in total chaos. No matter what happens, keep hope alive. Don’t dread anything! Just face forward and keep going. God is good and He wants to give you good things. As long as you keep moving in a positive direction, those good things will find you. Open your eyes today and see all the beauty around you. You can change your life by changing the way you see things.


____________________





My thinking today will cause me
to be at total peace with myself.


If you want to live in the kind of peace that prevents you from developing a stomach ulcer or hypertension – the peace that allows you to really sleep well at night – you must learn how to properly see yourself. Developing the proper self-image includes learning to forgive yourself and making a quality decision to stop blaming yourself and mentally beating yourself up for your mistakes and perceived failures. If you constantly bombard your spirit with negative thoughts of regret and self-accusation, those thoughts will eventually mutate into a kind of self-loathing that is completely counterproductive to your having any real degree of success in your life.

Low self-esteem is a learned habit that is usually developed by believing in lies and falsehoods. Insecurity and feelings of inferiority are also merit-less mindsets that people acquire and cultivate throughout the course of their lives. The fear of rejection is the result of learned behavior, as well. But the good news is that any learned behavior can be unlearned! When you know who you are, you don’t have to waste time trying to prove to somebody else that you are valuable or talented. You can believe in yourself while being fully aware and accepting of your own limitations. Being at peace with yourself comes from a balanced estimate of your self.

The more that you are at peace with yourself, the less stress you will have in your life. Guard your heart and never let someone else’s negative words decide the direction of your life. No one should have more power over you than you, and you can determine your own stress level and how much pressure you will allow yourself to feel in a day. If you want peace, you can have peace. You are in the driver’s seat, so determine where you want to go, emotionally, and don’t waver from your intended course. Get a vision of a more confident, more centered you, and become that person. No matter what has happened to you in the past, you can get it together if you want to.

Being at peace with oneself is something that should be aspired to, treasured and protected. Your peace is stronger than your fluctuating moods or temporary thoughts of discouragement. Being at peace will positively affect your health and could even lengthen your life in the long run. It certainly will make you easier to live with and will condition you to have better relationships and live a more successful life. When your mind is at peace, you see things more clearly and with better perspective; you are less likely to become overwhelmed by your circumstances. You can change your life by changing the way you see things.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

wrote this in the "crossover" so I am putting it on both..?#%??

Man it's Great to sit down after a long day and just listen to all my friends sitting around the blog fire and sharing their hearts, Watching the Spirit flame flickering in the face of each one. I think I see Gold in the fire !

Today's message was very personal for me Bishop Jim.
Thank you for your continuing faithfulness and great endurance in the work of the Lord.

I also was very inspired by the comments on eagles, chickens and KFE.

"Nothing but a house of BLESSING"

CITN "a gateway/portal to the world"

"Value what you already have"

"Insist on protecting what is handed you"

"See what is already accomplished in the spirit realm"

"Immediately recognize when CHANGE is NECESSARY"

"Operate IN CHRIST at all times"

"NEVER QUIT until your vision is a blessing to the world

Get first class airline seats at no cost !!! Yeay!!!!

"visionaries have very crazy lives"

David ????? who??? :) LOL
it wouldn’t have been so funny if you had looked so serious when you said it :O
LOL!

Love y'all
Iconoclast

Anonymous said...

JB……. Thanks for the shout about the videos on my blog and your complements of me and my ministry. If anyone hasn’t seen this 4 part series on "Hell a closer look" you really aught to go over there and watch them. They are very well done and informative on the subject of Hell, eternal torment. anyone wanting to get a full view of this subject would be blessed.

http://not1lost.blogspot.com/

I am really going this time.

Good night/Good morning

Bye bye / Hello ?

I dont know if I'm going or coming...but...I am..NOW

ICONOCLAST

Anonymous said...

I really have to go to bed but I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the freedom given to the lead guitar solos.........

I was a part of a church one time where the senior pastor really scolded one musician for expressing his talent in such a way.

Peace,
ICONOCLAST

Unknown said...

Cool, Iclast. It is most fun and amazing to be allowed to see how a faith-man's every word heals.

Layer by layer, the freedom and peace comes.

I was surprised today by a 37 year old memory. It just kind of floated by, but today I noticed the lack of peace it brought.

I realized there was an "I shoulda" attached to it. As I examined what this thing was doing in my NOW [which frankly I'd been enjoying in a new way the last few days], I realized I could change the "I shoulda" to "thank you, Father, for the others that could, and I know did, do it. This whole 'we're all one' thing is most excellent!"

Change is good! While it lasts, the grey [gray?] is soothing, especially with the "get me a glass of iced tea" front porch pic!

G-night, All!

Anonymous said...

Powerful word from the vision book.

Nothing to add but Selah

Be blessed mighty man and I like the change too, especially the southern scene on the porch.

JB

tracy said...

You only get what you expect to get out of your circumstances.....Bailey knows when she has the hiccups we try to scare them out of her, so the other day she has the hiccups and before I can "scare" them out of her I catch her looking in the mirror saying "BOO" to her reflection......only Bailey. I don't think she hiccupped again. By the way Bishop we drive by your house every morning to get to her school and this morning she turns down the radio and goes shhhhh Bittop is sleeping!

Anonymous said...

HEY BISHOP,
THANK YOU FOR THE EXCERPTS FROM YOUR BOOK 20/20 VISION, I'VE GOT TO PURCHASE MY OWN COPY SOON.
I CAUGHT THE SERVICES YESTERDAY ON SCREAMING FOR THE FIRST TIME. LET ME TELL YOU, ALTHOUGH IT WAS ALL GOOD, IT DOESN'T COME CLOSE TO AS BEING THERE IN PERSON. I COULD NOT FEEL THE CONNECTION OF THE WORSHIP(AFTERALL, WE WERE MADE TO WORSHIP HIM).
BECAUSE OF CIRCUMSTANCES, I HAD TO MAIL IN MY TITHES, AGAIN, I MISSED OUT ON THE CONNECTION OF ACTUALLY PRESENTING MY TITHES AT THE ALTAR(HOW ABOUT I HAD THIS SAME VISION BEFORE YOU STARTED IT, HOW CONNECTED IN CHRIST IS THAT?)

"CONTINUE TO KEEP IT REAL BISHOP"
J-FLO

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

Hey bloggers,

PRAYER REQUEST!

First of all, P. Joshua Foster sent me this a few days ago…


I woke up and heard bombing. Across the bay there is smoke rising in the air. People are screaming as boats sink. Thousands left without homes and that's just some of what I witnessed Monday. Want to hear more about it? Here is the youtube video link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5-Twcfd7Fc

Blessings,

Pastor Joshua


…and then his mom, Sue, called this morning for prayer...Josh is in the hospital with some kind of blood infection. He’s been in for 3 days receiving IV antibiotics and just called his parents today. She’ll keep us updated on how he’s doing.

The good news is the violence in the area has calmed down quite a bit in the last few days.


Please be in agreement for the manifestation of his healing...

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

And where is everyone today?

Donald said...

This is totally off the blog topic, but it has been weighing heavily on me lately.

Several nights ago I had a dream that caused me to awake from my sleep due to its troubling nature. I have been unable to forget about this dream, as is the case with most of my dreams, and it continues to stay at the forefront of my mind.
In the dream my family and I had traveled to visit my dad who lives in south central Alabama. We had carried our family pet, Doc, who is an 8 year old Boston Terrier and my son’s dog, Wally, who is about a year old and appears to be a black lab mix.
During the dream we took the two dogs outside. Doc took off running in a north westerly direction towards my brother’s house, while Wally proceeded to run in a south westerly direction towards a heavily wooded area.
After some time and much calling, Doc returned. In real life Wally is deaf and we knew this in the dream also. Although we knew that he could not hear us, we continued to call out to him. We were all getting anxious that he had not returned after such a long time when I happened to look to the south and saw him as he laid down on the ground. In somewhat common southern lingo I said, “Why foot, there he is right over there.”
As we drew near to him, we could tell that he had been attacked and had sustained injuries that we knew he could not recover from. Though quite gruesome to describe I feel as if the extent of the injuries may have some meaning. Practically half of his fur had been torn from his body exposing his skin or muscle tissue. One of his lungs had an open gash from end to end exposing the entire inside of the lung. Remarkably his head and neck appeared totally unscathed.
In real life Wally lives to enjoy life to its absolute fullest. His mannerism, actions, twinkle in his eyes, and everything about him says that everything is flawlessly utopian. For instance, when he is playing with our older dog and the older dog is ready to stop playing and snaps at Wally, Wally doesn’t comprehend that as a negative action, but rather another way to play. He is innocent and unaware that evil or bad exists. With him it is as if no one ever ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
In the dream we all seemed to intuitively know that the attack had been rendered by a wild hog. As I got close to Wally’s face to caress his neck and comfort him in what I knew was his final moments, it was as if we could communicate telepathically. As we looked each other in the eyes he knew that I somehow knew what had happened to him. I was able to see him go up to the hog and run from one side to the other while stopping to get down on the ground with his front legs and leaving his butt stuck up in the air with his tail wagging incessantly and his tongue hanging out and his eyes sparkling as if to say, “Come on and play with me my newfound friend,” only to have the wild hog assail him and rip him to shreds.
As he looked me in the eyes he continued to ask me in a confused manner, “Why did he want to do this to me? All I wanted to do was play with him and be his friend.” He continued to have his innocent look but now it was mingled with confusion.
At that time I became so distraught that I woke up and was unable to go back to sleep and have not been able to determine the dream’s meaning.
Are there any Joseph’s out there?

Unknown said...

P.Joshua, Agreed!

You nailed it Mystic. Agreeing for you, too.

Donald said...

I know what you mean Johnny. You almost think there ought to be a mint julep somewhere in that front porch picture, or back porch picture, or side porch,.... well you know what I mean.

Anonymous said...

Not long ago, not only was my doctrine/religion sure, so were my politics. Who was it who told me once, "It is so hard for someone to overcome what they are first told". Have more relevant sentiments been expressed to this age? How much do we really have to overcome? Who are we? Who really are we?
One of the most significant and essential truths the Spirit has carved into my heart is this.

We Are All One.

Hold true to love and fear not! To love, to care for one another, every heart, every life we rub up against. This is how the Spirit reigns.

And it is raining.

How has this generation, lost in the drought of darkness and lies built up for ages come to Herself? Awakened to this love.

It is by My Sweet and Glorious Spirit. It's My Spirit giving life. The Rain, the Love, the Blast! The raiders were at the gate to take your life, but I have saved and delivered you from all manner of confusion. And now seated in my right hand you will crash the gates of hell, devouring the waster!
You are under the rule of the King. No longer under the system of a king, as my people cried out for in Babylon. You have been delivered out of confusion. A procession of deliverance comes forth and the banner over you is Love.

Who are dogs, but companions? Gifts from God we cherish, friendships compared even to the best of friends. A dog, if you've known it, is even capable of a love and loyalty beyond what many of our fellowman have even known. We place that which we treasure in the hands of God. Not into faith in this worlds systems. This Babylon confusion can turn us into pigs! Pigs of the heart. Tearing away at the fellowship, and love, and companionship, and community God has destined for His children. Tearing even into our lungs and of that which we cherish, so that we might not breathe Now the Breath of Life!

We are to pray with a heart of love for the king, whoever our sovereign God seats or has to sit. And give to the ceaser what is the ceasers. Judging not any of these things. Lest we be as pigs, falling into the confusion of this passing age. We must rise above the spiritual-isms, national-isms, political parties, and maybe even one day be it to God economic systems. We will serve The King, living by the Spirit, praying for those in authority during this tension we live in, the collision between this world's systems and The Kingdom. The Kingdom is the Sermon on the Mount. This is the manifestation of the Spirit of Life.

Bishop I appreciate what you said Sunday about "preaching/prophesying to yourself" I think it's often how the gospel is manifest. No one is above it, especially the messenger. No one is above: less of me and more of you. But we are being lifted up, not we who live , but Christ who lives within us. His Spirit will reign!

In this procession our deliverance and victory is as certain as our sovereign God, who wills his workings within us. The King of the Harvest comes in us. The eagles are being released by the Blast. Some leading into higher heights, some pushed from the nest, and many, many, many great multitudes raised up to life from the chicken farm.
I heard a secret about what's going on down on the farm. Rumor has it the farmer has a Shack out back where He's turning chickens into eagles.

Because Overcomers!

THEIR ARE NO CHICKENS.... JUST EAGLES WHO ARE CHICKEN !!!

Living in fear; who know not love and its calling. Let our vision be this love. Oh please God let it be love. Let Love overcome us and we will be a blessing to God and our fellowman. Release yourself from the labels and affiliations and the concerns of this world.

I Breathe On You Our Spirit Of Love

Unknown said...

Hey Donald,
Dreams are such a gift!
I don't consider myself a Joseph, but I have HELPED interpret some odd "normal" dreams.

First, you are the best interpreter of your dreams.
If its a God dream, all of these comments are null and void. You will know.

In Normal dreams:
1--we dream in code, but the emotion, the feelings you notice, are always uncoded.
2--everything in the dream is you, all of the people, animals, buildings, grass, color--everything. When you said "we all seemed to intuitively know"-- that comment [to me] marks this dream as normal [caveat:you will know if it's not]
3--"you" said the wound facts are important
4--take your account above and reduce it to the important facts. I could make a list but yours might be different or even recall new ones.
5--the facts you chose to share about Wally [remember, he's actually you] are very interesting.
6--when your streamlined list is finished, ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes.

BTW...Congratulations on your ability to remember so MANY facts! You are ready to face the truth of what is being revealed!

Unknown said...

P.Joshua's video is compelling! In many ways. Not only for the power of the internet's open forum that he is tapping in to but also his Kingdom assessment.

From this side of the globe, Pastor Joshua C., we are agreeing that your natural blood was and is cleansed by the blood of Christ and that you are strengthened to do the work that you have been set in place to do! Receive.

Anonymous said...

Hey All

Today is a great day. Looking outside my window I see rain and you know what that means.
A season of new growth is here
earthly and spiritually.

Bishop did you get the e-mail I sent you today about Tyler Perry?
Really paragraph number 7 says it all.

I praying that my car will be fixed by tonight.

See this world through new eyes.
The things that you think are problems are really your challenge.
Go head on and break through the challenge and you will see a new world lives inside you.

Peace

Anonymous said...

To anon @ 6:07 pm,

There are no sweeter words that I could have imagined than those you have spoken. In this, you are me and I am you. This could be the beginning of what it means for CITN to be nothing but a blessing.

Donald, if I had interpreted your dream, it would have been similar to the parable of one casting their pearls before swine but this writer has much more captured the best of what has been said in your dream.

one,

JB

Larry Usher said...

Donald,

The dream is about you, not the dogs really. It is about your perceptions living in the world we do. The excitement and child-like awe of knowing God and the beauty He created while juxtaposed to the battle we must face or run from.
The one dog went to a "brothers" house where there would be counsel and safety, the other into an endless destination. Unfortunately, there are enemies in this realm that we must contend with as much as we wish it were Utopia and that perfection had already come.
The preparation that we all must participate in and to an extent endure as in Eph 6, creates a mature soldier from one that was childish and ill-prepared.
Innocence says see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil; wisdom says "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

Those things you would have been a sucker for at "1 year old": will no longer take you down at "8 years old".

That is just a little of what I see in this dream.

I am definitely one who likes to light a candle rather than curse the darkness, but in order to have the candle burning brightly, the spiritual "cylinders" have to all be firing, ie, shield of faith, sword of the Spirit, helmet of salvation, preparation of the Gospel of peace, breastplate of righteousness, belt of truth.
I have seen in visions some of the enemies we face and they are formidable opponents, but all defeatable by a "sling and some stones"(God's choice of weapons given the particular foe). But I know of no greater "weapon" than love...love will keep you strong, love will cause you to think of others in the midst of your own struggles, love will strip the weapon from a brother you thought was an enemy. This love is in you Donald. You are well able to take the land. Only be strong and of good courage...

Blessings & peace,

Larry

ps- word ver- ugjovs(U got joy of victory songs)

Larry Usher said...

Bishop- was happy to see you come back "full of it", the Spirit, that is! Really enjoyed the whole atmoshere of the service yesterday.
I had given a word to the lady next to me which was "you are blessed to be a blessing", which you spoke of later on. The word about KFC vs. KFE was much more than a joke. Eagles don't get caught at lower altitudes, but strike quickly, silently at times of their choosing. The rest of the time they spend soaring on high and getting ready for the opportunity to avail itself.
In the movie "Dan in Real Life", Dan, the main character is talking about his family at the end and trying to plan for things when he says to "plan to be surprised", which I thought is so God.
Something wonderful is going to happen in my life today! God is making ready the next open door, the next adventure and I will be ready when it comes. Loved the exhortations from 20/20.

Josh Foster- praying for you, believing with you...your steps are ordered of the Lord and the blood infection itself must die! In Jesus' name! Hugging you in the Spirit! Angels are there with you.

Love y'all,

Larry

word ver-WQAXJCSU "What quizzicality and "xtacy" (when) Jesus comes to see you"

2nd word ver FHMLBGRG "For Him my light begins growing, really growing"

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

Yeah, I got it, Laura. Thanks.

Donald said...

Thanks Larry and Avatar for your insights.