It's more natural for us to think, I've got to get myself ahead, but actually if you serve, and value, and invest into people, which is God's way of doing stuff, it actually works. So many things you find in life, people are struggling trying to make life work, but God says listen, tune in. I know how it works, because I designed it. He says My ways of doing things have got greater value than your ways. Some ways we do things are fine, but He said there's other better ways of doing things. He said if you can lock in with My words, and My thoughts, and you begin to agree with them, and you begin to let them be a part of you, then your life will come up to a different level. My life now is a completely different level to what it was 10 years ago, and that was a completely different level to what it was 10 years before that. The more I've come into agreement with God's thoughts about me, and about life, and about what could be done, and what I could do, the more my life changes.
So who's responsible for that? You are. So to change your inner world or shape your inner world, you actually have to change what's inside your heart, see? The thing is - and let me just read this verse here - I want you to have a look with me in Proverbs 23 and Verse 7. I'm going to talk about changing your inner world, and then I'm going to give you several little keys on what to do, how specifically you about changing your inner world. I'm not just going to exhort you and tell you it's possible. I want to show you actually how it happens, then it's only a matter of just putting the discipline and the commitment into working with yourself. Why wouldn't you work with yourself? You're of great value to God. Oh, I can see straight away some thoughts come up - I'm not much value. Who told you that? Why do you agree with that?
I've found very often when I ask someone, why don't you pray for yourself, they can't pray for themselves, and when you explore why they can't pray for themselves, it's for this reason; their belief about what their value is, is very low, and they don't realise they're of great value to God. So they can pray for everyone else except for themselves. They can ask for everyone else except for themselves. God wants you to know you're of great value, but someone a long time ago, or experiences, may have told you you're not much value. Someone may have spoken it over your life, and if you've come into agreement with those words, they define who you are, and I want my life defined by what God says I am, and what I can do. Think about that. See, don't let your past define you, don't let friends define you. You need to let God's word - God's your designer, He knows what you're capable of, and I can tell you now, I can absolutely assure you now, you're capable of much more in 2008 than you did in 2007. You are capable of much, much more, but to position yourself for that to happen, you've got to be willing to change how you think about yourself. Next time we'll talk about how to change the atmosphere around you, then we'll talk about how to change the world around you, how you actually bring influence of God to bear through words you speak.
Right now, I want to just look at first of all defining your inner world. Proverbs 23:7 says as a man thinks in his heart, so he is. As a man thinks in his heart, so the Bible uses the word heart, not your physical heart. It's describing your inner man - in the heart of the matter, the core of the matter. So when the Bible's talking about your heart, it refers to the inner man. The Bible describes us as being made up with body, soul and spirit. We're a spirit being. We have capacity to interact with the spirit world. We're a human being, we have capacity to live and function in a physical world, and the soul is the connecting point between the two. If a person's in this world without God, then they're cut off from that life that God could give them. When we connect with the Lord, then we have access to the life of God.