Stop "Manifesting"
PH Bible Teaching
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Homefront Family Services, here is this week’s Bible teaching clip, “Stop ‘Manifesting.’” God's command to "be strong and courageous" was never an invitation to positive thinking. In this powerful section from Joshua 1, we see how true courage is rooted not in imagining better circumstances but in dwelling on the reality of who God is, what He has promised, and how His Word reshapes the way we interpret fear and uncertainty.
Check out the clip below, or view the full message below the transcript!
Audio version only…
Clip transcript…
[Joshua 1:6-9]
In verse six, “Be strong and courageous.” Verse seven, “Be strong and very courageous.” Verse nine, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.”
Okay, this is a really important part, what I’m getting ready to say, the next, like, maybe three minutes, so if you’re not interested, just be with me for three minutes, okay? Because I need this.
Notice what follows each one of those statements. Every single one of those “be strong and courageous” comes with it a statement about God Himself. “Be strong and courageous,” and then a statement that relates who God is, or what God is going to do, or what God has promised. In other words—this is the key—this is not God saying, “Think positive thoughts about what could be.”
You know people—it’s pop psychology—you know people like this, where you’re facing an uncertain future, something bad happens, you, you just lost a limb. Why did that just pop into my head? I don’t know.
But they’re standing there as you’ve lost a limb, and they say, “Look, I know this seems bad, but think about the possibilities. You’re going to be able to walk through narrower tunnels.” I don’t know, okay? But you get what I’m saying. People who try … I would really like to go back and start this whole section again.
But you get what I’m saying. Something bad happens, and they say to you, “Think positive thoughts. It’s not always bad. There could be good that comes out of this.” That’s not what God is saying. He’s not giving you the power of positive thinking here. You follow me? Here’s what He’s doing. God is saying to Joshua, “Don’t just envision positive things and try to manifest it. Think realistically about who I am and what I am.” That’s what He’s saying to do.
“Be strong and courageous.” Where does the courage come from? The courage doesn’t come from thinking good thoughts and hoping what might be. The courage comes from a response to reality about who God is. When you dwell on who God is, that brings you courage. That is real. That’s not something you have to hope for.
You’re not “manifesting a new reality.” You know people that say that in pop culture and new ageism: “Well, we’re going to think about this, and we’re going to dwell on this, and we’re going to meditate on this, and we’re going to manifest it and bring it into reality” as though that’s a thing. No, you are dwelling on the reality of who God is and the way that He cares for His people and you and what He has promised you, and that will bring you courage to face this.
And notice, by the way, the role Scripture plays in all of that. It’s actually in verse seven and verse eight. In verse seven, he says, “Obey the law.”
Remember, the law that God gave to Moses, that’s their only Bible. They don’t have anything else, it’s just the Books of the Law; that’s their Scripture. And so He’s saying, “Meditate on that, don’t turn from it, from the right or the left.”
And then Verse eight, “Do not let this book of the law,” don’t let My Word, “depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night.”
Why is that? Why is He saying that? Because fear, the fears that we face, largely it’s a battle of the mind; that’s what’s happening in our mind. So why stress the importance of meditating on God’s Word? Are you ready? This is the part I really need you to hear: Because a mind that has been purposely filled with God’s promises—that day in and day out has meditated on who God is and what He has done and what He will do—a mind that is full of those kinds of things will think much differently about the circumstances happening around them than one that has been filled with the news cycle and the speculations of mankind.
How does man control other men? We see it all the time; it’s all through fear. Political parties do it through fear: “Man, you got to sign up for this, otherwise we’re going to lose all the polar bears. You don’t even understand, the oceans are going to evaporate if you don’t do this, or you don’t contribute to that.” Or, “We’re going to end up in a race war if you don’t sign this petition.”
How do we … Man manipulates man through fear. Somebody that is totally discipled by the news cycles and the speculation of the world is going to look at their conditions and their situations much differently than someone who has been counseled and discipled and has just eaten and drank and taken in and lived and knows the Word of God.
That’s why Paul is reminding another exhausted Christian, (2 Timothy 1:7) The “Spirit that God gave us doesn’t make us timid,” it doesn’t make us fearful about circumstances, it “gives us power and love and self-discipline.” Because that’s who God is and what He will do for us.
So, friends, if fear is running our lives, what that is a sign of is that it’s not a life that is flowing from the Spirit, because the Spirit will produce something completely opposite: power and sound mind and self-discipline and love.