The Power of the Mind

THE POWER OF THE MIND Leadership tycoon Warren Bennis once said “We seem to collect information because we have the ability to do so, but we are so busy collecting it that we haven’t devised a way of using it. The true measure of any society is not what it knows but what it does with what it knows” There is wealth of information at our disposal but to truly understand all these, one must first acknowledge that we are primarily thinking beings and everything in this world has been achieved because someone first thought about it. In fact the book of Genesis tells us much about the power of the mind and its ability to invent. God imagined a world and then he willed it so and it came to pass. The fact is , the mind is a channel through which things-to-be are coming into the realm of things-that-are. This article will, hopefully focus on the mind, what it is capable of and how this weird truth of the power of the mind changed my life.
THE MIND Encarta Dictionary defines the mind as the seat of thoughts and memory; the center of consciousness that generates thought, feeling, ideas, and perceptions and stores knowledge and memories.
As the center of mental activities and memory of a person, the mind includes both conscious and unconscious activities such as dreaming. The Human identity can be viewed in light of this fact as being made up of mind and body. We have for many years assumed the mind as ‘just’ the part of man that is responsible for thoughts and memory, but recent studies proves it to be more powerful and more than just a tool but an essential part of both God and man. The detailed account of creation describes God as a thinking being ( Entity) with a mind of his own; as a matter of fact, every action God took during creation was an act of materializing his thoughts and imagination. With the words he spoke in Genesis 1 he made reality what he had created in his mind, and as he saw it the word tells, he said they were all good, even after man’s creation God kept an open mind for new ideas and as the thought of a helper for Adam came to his mind he actualized it as he imagined. The mind is the strongest tool we have to help us secure anything we so desire; when we concentrate our energy purposely on the future possibility that we aspire to realize our energy is passed on to it and makes it attracted to us with a force stronger than the one we directed towards it, in other words, reality is a projection of our thoughts or the things we habitually think about. Albert Einstein said in his book ‘The Evolution Of Physics’ “Physical concepts are free creation of the human mind and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world. The mind is so powerful that its activities affects almost everything about us, that is to say, we are only but products of what goes on in our minds.

THE MIND AS A POWERFUL TOOL OF IMAGINATION
We earlier established the fact that all inventions are consequences of the mind’s ability to imagine them, God imagined a world and everything in it and it was so when he voiced it out, willing his imaginations into reality.
Our mind is almost as powerful as God’s, we though cannot create life, but we can achieve anything, so long as we stay focused and determined in our minds we can actualize our imaginations and ideas, in essence, our life is in reality a reflection of our imaginations, Martin Luther King Jr. in his speech on August 16th, 1967 said (describing how great an influence the mind is in the life we live) “ As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free, psychological freedom, a firm sense of self-esteem is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery”
Edmund Spenser also said “it is the mind that maketh good or ill, that maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor”. Imagination is in actuality seeing things through the mind’s eye, everyone possesses a certain degree of imagination ability, in some , it may be highly developed, and in others it may manifest in a weaker form ( it varies in degree in different people)
Many do not know that faith originates and establishes itself in the mind, Hebrews 11 describes faith as being sure of things hoped for, and being certain of things we cannot see( but with the minds eye), in essence faith is that gracious power of the mind, where by it firmly assents unto Devine revelations upon the sole authority of God the revealer as the first essential truth and fountain of all truths The bible, above all researches, ideologies and philosophies gives more insight into the mind’s power. It tells us of God’s desire and plan to write his new covenant and laws in the human mind and through meditation on these words (new covenant and laws) faith is restored and strengthened. The book of Isaiah tells us about the mind of God and how different it is from ours, totally good and always filled with good thoughts for his children, but ours, always filled with evil ideas and wicked thoughts. But the people of God are to imitate their father, filling their minds with good thoughts. Mathew 15: 18-19 says “ But the things that come out of the mouth come from the mind (have their origins in the mind) and these are the things that makes a person unclean, for from his heart ( mind) comes evil ideas which leads him to kill, commit adultery and do other immoral things; to rob, lie, and slander others. But Jesus came to release us from the captivity of sin and all evil residing in our minds.
The mind is so powerful that it can recast a scene, picture, object or event continuously until the individual acts on his imagination (good or bad) that is why Romans 8:6 warns on who we let control our minds as both self (sinful nature) and the holy spirit are in constant battle on who to rule man’s most powerful tool (his mind) Jesus said in Mark 12:30 “And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, your entire MIND and all your strength “. To love God with all one’s mind means all your thoughts, imaginations, decisions, and ideas will come from God and you will depend on him solely for inspiration.

CONQUERING THE MIND
In his book ‘Becoming the Boss of your Mind’ Ramez Sasson stated that most people keep thinking the same kind of thoughts and visualize the same mental image in an unconscious automatic manner. This means they keep viewing the same movie in their mind and consequently go on creating and living the same kind of life. But we can change the thoughts and images in our minds, as thoughts creates events and circumstances; if you keep thinking about difficulties, fear and failure, your life will definitely mirror these thoughts and recreate them continuously, but changing your thoughts and imaginations will also change your actions and consequently bring about new results. The Bible tells us to focus our minds only of things that are good, lovely, and righteous and holy which means if we change our way of thinking we will eventually change our lives (When you master your mind, you master your world).
The reality of the possibility to be able to control one’s mind is unreachable to many, but for those who have tried and still persist in their effort to become more conscious of their thinking process and have attempted to control and filter the contents of their mind to the will of God, they will soon realize in a practical and direct way that their thoughts are creative and possess power. Conquering the mind, and subjecting it to the will of God, I have come to understand, makes an individual realize the reality of his true essence and purpose in life.

MIND POWER AND SUCCESS
The mind also plays a vital role in achieving every success and goal (minor or major, short term or long term). To accomplish anything using the power of the mind you need a clear and a well-defined goal so you can focus your mind on. Your thoughts, which are part of your mind possess power, the thoughts that you most often think tend to come true ( as established earlier) if you pour your mental energy into the same thoughts ( say your goals) day after day, they will become stronger and stronger and would consequently affect your attitude, expectations, behavior and actions. Back in 1937, personal development pioneer Napoleon Hill published ‘Think and Grow Rich’ a book that became one of the most influential publications of all times, the book was packed with techniques and instructions on how to develop a wealth mindset and achieve great success in everything we do. Its contents were so powerful that to this day, the book is widely regarded as a benchmark of all other books of its kind. One of his many statements that I love is “true riches comes first with a state of mind, all achievements, all earned riches have their beginning in an idea” Napoleon Hill.
In the end, it is God’s greatest desire that we have a mind like his so we can see his intents for us all. He wishes above all that we prosper, achieve greatness and succeed in everything we do.