This is the strategy the devil uses, and just in case you think that was Old Testament, in 2 Corinthians 11:2 Paul says I'm afraid and concerned for you Corinthians, because I espoused you to Christ as a virgin to a groom. He says I'm concerned lest the same way the devil beguiled Eve, your minds will be corrupted from just a simple trust relationship with the Lord. So he's very clear it's possible for us to entertain thoughts that take us totally out of the way that God wants us to walk. How many know, how many can recognise and admit I've done it many times? See, we've all done it many times. Man, you get wound up, you think that person - they don't like me. They don't like me. Where did that thought come from? You don't even know, you've never even asked them. You ever went up and asked them do you like me? You never asked that. You just assumed they didn't like you, then before you know it [unclear 00.12.49] I don't like them either. Before you know it you've gone down some path, you shouldn't be there.
Or someone says something about someone else and you don't even stop to listen and check out whether it's true. Why are you telling me this? Have you checked the facts? Why aren't you praying for the person? You take it onboard: ooh, wow. Add a little bit to it. It grows in your mind. You tell someone else. Before you know it there's gossip and slander, all kinds of things going on. That's how it all works. Okay then, so one source of ideas and imaginations is the Holy Spirit. One source is the devil. Another source is your own heart, your own heart, ooh oh ooh, your own heart. Proverbs 4:23 says, very clearly it says keep your heart with all diligence, for out of your heart is where your life flows. Your life flows out of the things that are in your heart; not out of what your education is, not what your financial position is. It flows out of what you believe truly in your heart. If you believe, if you have embraced a belief in your heart that no one likes me, every place you go you'll find conflict in your relationships and people turning against you.
If you believe in your heart it's always my fault, I'm always to blame, everywhere you go you'll have problems in your relationships. You'll become the place that blame is laid every time. The Bible's very clear, what's in your heart determines how you will live out your life, so you've got to really watch what's in your heart and guard what's in your heart. Now there are several things, so there are some things in your heart. There are two lots of things can be in your heart and what you want to do is cultivate one and get rid of the other. So what can be in your heart can be very good. We can have dreams and desires and hopes and aspirations. Of course if you live under control, then you may come to believe well no one's ever interested in what I feel and what I want. I've just got to go along with the crowd. That is an imagination and it brings a bondage to your life, and you'll never explore the dreams and desires you have, but God wrote desires into your life.
He wrote gifts into your life. He wrote dreams into your heart, and you've got to actually discover what God's put in your heart. It's your heart, your life, your dreams, your desires. You've got to discover them and identify them. As you identify them and own them, the Bible says in Philippians 2:13, it's God works in you both to desire and will and to want and to purpose and to do of the things that please God. So we're waiting for the will of God. Sometimes the will of God is already written in desires you have in your heart, longings you have in your heart. But you've got to get them out of your heart and begin to dream them and then begin to get the dream into practical steps, so if we're going to move in the realm of prophetic flows from God and into the realm of the faith you've got to one, be able to hear from God and two, you've got to actually access the things God's putting in your heart, or you'll never be able to actually own your life. You're always living out someone else's dream.