Too many Christians have no frame of reference for God. They have no internal, personalized experience or expression of God’s presence. Their experience is mostly physical and mental, or what is called soulish in nature. Because it is physical and mental, it depends on physical and mental stimuli to exist. But the spirit is so much more than that.
Spiritual warriors internalize their relationships with God. Put simply, they live from within. They know that power flows from the inside to the outside, not the other way around. God has already put inside every Christian something that needs to be manifested. It must be revealed, declared, and exposed. That’s why the Holy Spirit is constantly seeking to cause our inner man of the spirit to rise up and manifest itself in the course of everyday life.
Everything we need will be made real as we exercise faith and dependence on the Lord. The word manifest means to show or demonstrate plainly. In the spiritual sense, a means to become a literal sign of God’s revelation.
Having an internal frame of reference means that in any given situation we do not take our truth from external circumstances. The world always gives us negative information. We ask the father for His perspective.
We never ask, why? It’s the wrong question. It is an invalid question that makes us an invalid. It is a victim question, and the father never makes us victims. He trains us to fight, to overcome, and to be more than conquerors in Christ. If the father has never been overwhelmed, and Jesus is undefeated, then the Holy Spirit can only lead us in triumph.
An internal frame of reference takes all its testimonies from the Godhead. We learn to perceive in the spirit. Wisdom is the understanding of how God thinks, how he sees things, and how he likes to act in a given situation.
The two best questions we can ask in every life event are both spoken on the day of Pentecost: what does this mean? And what shall we do? – Acts 2: 12; 2:37. In between those two questions comes a whole wealth of Revelation and an experience of God to go with it.
An internal frame of reference creates the space in us to discover God in the midst of any life event. It empowers us to look forward and anticipate. It enables us to look back in hindsight and determine anything that we may have missed, so that we complete our learning circle in terms of present, future, and past. The Lord goes before us, so we can anticipate. He walks with us so that we are aware of his present intention. He comes behind us so that we can ascertain what we could also have learned.
Anticipation, awareness, and ascertaining are critical forms of developing wisdom in our walk with God. I use my internal frame of reference not only for specific situations, but on a daily basis as a lifestyle relationship. I love to know, and God loves to talk… Perfect.
So many times, we go into situations blind and unprepared. God gave us eyes to see and ears to hear in the spirit. Jesus was always knowing, especially in the invisible. He knew what was in the hearts of men, so he was never caught off guard by trick questions from religiously intolerant people. He knew when virtue went out of him as the woman with the issue of blood touched him in a crowd. He knew the best time to visit Lazarus was when all-natural hope was gone.
He knew how to wait on his father, how to commune with the Holy Spirit, and how to live from the inside out.
If you have ever taken a walk-through dense Woodland, without any path, you will know how hard it is to walk without any real bearings. The journey is hard: we never walk in a straight line; we are constantly navigating trees, bushes, and overgrowth. When we do eventually come into a clearing, we step into the middle and stop! We look at the heavens, we look around, and we take a breather – time to reorient and reorder ourselves. That is exactly what we do regarding our internal frame of reference. We take time to stop and listen. We ask God’s perspective: we seek wisdom, not knowledge. Father, what does this mean? It’s a fabulous question! We never assume. Our starting point for revelation is always with the father, never the situation. We do not live in our circumstances: we live in Christ. Therefore, it is his opinion that is most desirable.
Our circumstances are not the problem. It is our perception of the circumstances that is the problem. To Gideon, losing 99% of his army was definitely a problem on one level, but not if God had a specific purpose for the 300 who remained! Sometimes God is such a genius He uses the enemy to encourage us and develop our frame of reference as in this incident in Judges 7:9 – 15:
Now the same night it came about that the Lord said to him, arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hands. But if you are afraid to go down, go with Purah your servant down to the camp, and you will hear what they say; and afterward your hands will be strengthen that you may go down against the camp. So he went with Purah his servant down to the outposts of the Army that was in the camp. Now the Mennonites and the Amalekites and all the sons of the East were lying in the Valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as numerous as the sand on the seashore. When Gideon came, behold, a man was relating a dream to his friend. And he said, behold, I had a dream; a loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian, and he came to the tent and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat. His friend replied, this is nothing less than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand. When Gideon heard the account of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, arise, for the Lord has given the camp of Midian into your hands.
Gideon is made aware of God’s current plan and develops anticipation of the outcome. He is immeasurably strengthened. He is still outnumbered by 400 to 1 and there is much to be done, but he has outstanding assurance. That is what an internal frame of reference accomplishes. It takes the wisdom and perception of God and reorients us so that we are perfectly positioned to take advantage of the external situation around us.
It is our privilege to live this way consistently. As he is so we in this world – 1 John 4:17. We have the mind of Christ. Developing an internal frame of reference is a part of our partnership with the Holy Spirit in being renewed in the spirit of our mind – Ephesians 4:23.
All our life transformations come from a renewed mind set. Circumstances are transformed when we think differently about them. Now we discover that far from a situation being against us, it can actually be designed to work for us!
We can have a frame of reference that creates a negative disposition. It is what Paul viewed as a mind set on the flesh.
Romans 8:5 – for those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things the flesh, but those who are according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile towards God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those were in the flesh cannot please God.
When we view life from a place outside of who God is for us we take on board a perspective that is hostile to the purpose of the father. We cannot cooperate with Him nor partner with people around us. When our thinking is hostile to heavenly purpose it is reflected in our lack of peace and an impoverished lifestyle. Repentance is the art of thinking again, so that our actions are governed from a better place of thought.
If all of our thinking has brought us to a place that we do not like, then surely it is time for us to have another thought!
Assignment – in your present circumstances, have you been captured by a negative viewpoint? Has your thinking taken you to a place of peace and purpose? What needs to change in you? What would transformation look like for you in your present circumstances? What is the necessary line of thought that could restore you to peace and purpose?
Commission – check out your present thoughts and attitudes towards God, yourself, others, and current circumstances. What is working well, and why is that so? What is clearly not working, and what is the impact of that on yourself and your relationships? How cautious, fearful, and negative are you about life in general? Submit yourself to a checkup, using the Holy Spirit and other people. Give yourself a tuneup in terms of faith and positivity. Your life may resemble a car that badly needs service. Failure to adjust guarantees a breakdown later. If you have already broken down, it is your thinking that has wrecked you. You must take some time out to take those negative, cynical thoughts captive. They are corroding your heart relationships in denying you the joy of life in Christ. A timeout now to correct this imbalance is absolutely vital. Take some honest feedback from others. It cannot hurt you more than you are already hurt yourself. It is time to get healed.