Dr.  Ronald Powell     

Toxic Thinking

Our Text:

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,...2 Cor 10:3-5

Introduction

Today I am going to show you how your thoughts and the things that you meditate on long term cause biological manifestation in the form of disease in your body.

Fear, anxiety, unforgiveness, bitterness, self-hatred, a low self-esteem, guilt, jealousy, envy, anger, rage and resentment are now referred to in the medical field as "toxic thinking patterns" because they cause disease.  

The Bible calls these toxic thinking patterns sin. Therefore what medical science has just proven is that most of the time, disease is a consequence of sin - particularly in our thought life.

Conversely:

You also build good memories by the same process.  

For example,

If you sit and study the Word of God, the information coming through your eyes (if you are reading the Bible) or your ears (if you are listening to a sermon) enters your brain in the form of light and sound waves which are then converted into electrical current in the nerves of your brain. That information is now in the form of a thought.  

When that thought reaches your free will, you decide whether or not you are going to meditate on that thought.

If you are feeling lazy and don't feel like putting in the effort to think on that thought from the Word of God, you can make a decision of your free will to reject that thought, which will then become hot air. Therefore that information does not further penetrate your brain.  

On the other hand: if you make a decision of your free will to entertain that thought from the Word of God, your corpus callosum will shift into high gear and you will begin to meditate on that thought.

While you are meditating on the Word of God, chemicals carrying that information shoot into the cortex of your brain where the trees of your mind are located and you begin to build memory through the process of protein synthesis.  

The more you meditate on that scripture from the Word, the more branches you build on that tree and the stronger that memory in your brain becomes.

In summary,

If you reject a thought by the decision of your free will, it will literally become hot air and it will not penetrate your brain any further.

If you choose to think about that information, it will shift onto the nerve branches in the trees of your mind, and a memory is built.  

• Good thoughts result in the building of a good memory.

Every single thought whether it is positive or toxic goes through the same cycle when it forms.

The only difference is that the thoughts release different quantities of chemicals.

Depending on which kind of thought it is (positive or toxic), it will have a different structure caused by those chemicals. As a result memories that are built from negative, toxic thoughts look very different to a positive healthy memory.

When you meditate on the Word or you think on whatever is true, pure, lovely, of good report and praiseworthy ( Philippians 4: 8 ), a positive memory is built in your brain. This memory looks like a lush tree.

The pre-frontal cortex is the rational decision maker of your brain.

Therefore as you stop and say, "OK, this is the situation but..." you tap into the pre-frontal cortex and it will help you to deal with that emotion. Thus you can use this pre-frontal cortex to replace a negative emotional perception with a logical, rational decision.  

The connection between the emotional part of the brain (amygdala) and the pre-frontal cortex is not developed in children until the age of 18, which is why parents need to guide their emotional responses and decision making.

Even adults may not use their pre-frontal cortex (rational decision maker) and can become very reactive to that dominant emotion, which is not a good thing. We make mistakes when acting on impulse.  

If you have been told that you are doomed to repeat the patterns in your family, that you are a victim who is controlled by your genes and biology or that you cannot transcend the influence of your environment, you have been lied to and need to hear the truth.

I have something very encouraging to tell you:

You may have spent your entire life of 40, 50 or 60 years putting toxic thoughts into your brain and building negative strongholds.  

You may have a whole forest of toxic thorn trees in your brain but:  

In just 4 days of thinking correctly you can remove the thorns from those toxic thorn trees (picture on the left) and you can create new healthy memories over them within 21 days (picture on the right). 9 (Show on Screen)

You can literally detoxify your brain and change its whole neuro-chemical structure through your thought life.

For example,

If you decide to reject those thoughts of unforgiveness, hatred, bitterness, anger etc through genuine repentance, releasing and forgiveness, you can change that memory and the structure of those thorn trees.

It has been scientifically proven that if you choose to reject those toxic thoughts and purposefully meditate on good thoughts such as the Word of God, the chemicals released from those good thoughts will flow through the thorn trees and literally remove the thorns.  

For example,

When you repent for your bitterness and you forgive, the chemicals released from those thoughts will literally cut the thorns off that thorn tree of bitterness. The memory will always be there, for example you will always remember what your mother in law did to you.

However, because you have forgiven that tree of bitterness will no longer affect you or make you sick because it no longer has the thorns that release those toxic chemicals.

When you think of your mother in law you no longer feel that high octane ping go off inside of you; whereas before you had forgiven, when she came to mind you could physically feel that strong angry emotion rise up within you.  

This applies to any other toxic thorn tree

When you make a decision to reject those toxic thoughts and change your thinking to the way that God thinks as described in His Word, a new healthy memory will be built on top of that old toxic thorn tree and the emotional sting will be removed at the same time.

You can change and grow your brain at will through thinking.

You can choose to deal with those toxic thorn trees and build new healthy memories over them. In science this process is called "re-transcribing those memories neuro-plastically."

The Bible calls this "renewing the mind".

Romans 12: 2 : "Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]."

Ephesians 4:23: "And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude]..."

Closing :

Your brain has an incredible capacity to change, rewire, grow and heal! You can literally remodel the memories in your brain through changing your thinking.

*(Do A Mental Exercise with Congregation!)

*Reference: HEALING begins with SANCTIFICATION of the HEART

DrMKStrydom

ISBN: 978-0-7974-4375-4

Second Edition 2010

All Scriptures used with permission. "NO DISEASE IS INCURABLE"