What is thinking brilliantly? And when I ask that question, I’m actually asking myself. How do I live out a brilliant lifestyle, personally? How does it function in my day-to-day life?
Graham Cooke says in The Art of Thinking Brilliantly, “The mind is both a battleground and the key to transformation. We are learning to be vulnerable to throne room thinking, so that we may consider life from a place above the line, not below. Building the right mindset is crucial to growth. We can never entertain thoughts that are detrimental to our identity. What if there are no such things as negatives; only possibilities that are yet to be encountered? The mind of Christ is a strong, powerful way of thinking that releases us to think like Heaven and release a fresh anointing here on earth.”
I know, good stuff right? Please, feel free to read this again. Or pause and consider this as long as you need…then come back.
Are you back? Okay. Here we go. How do I activate brilliant thinking in a genuine, authentic way?
ACTIVATE BRILLIANT THINKING
I don’t believe walking around with a smile plastered on my face, when it’s a mask, is genuine. I don’t believe that attempting to be happy all the time is authentic. We are emotional. We have a variety of expressed life reactions. Can you imagine Jesus with a big stupid grin on his face, calling out the Pharisees? I don’t think so.
Thinking brilliantly is not an emotion, it is a principle of living.
Thinking brilliantly is not about being genuine or authentic.
Thinking brilliantly is how we see life, people, and God, and how God sees us.
Graham, has uncovered wonderful revelations about thinking brilliantly. I am always intrigued by how he discovers such great truths. I say that to make a disclaimer; this little writing is not to disprove the concept of thinking brilliantly, quite the contrary. It’s to answer questions I’ve had along the way about how I can apply these insights into my daily world.
In order to answer my questions I had to first discover how I translated thinking brilliantly. What is the key, for me, to open that door? It started in the way I perceive fatherhood. We grow up with fathers that generally love us, yet have many insecurities themselves. Most fathers don’t have a clue when they hold their first child in their arms what they are going to face. What turns and twists life will take. Most new fathers are not trained in the art of fatherhood. And if that isn’t enough, they discover their second child is nothing like the first and they have to learn entirely new and different ways to father.
We then see God through our human inadequacies, maybe as the dictator or the disciplinarian. Some see him as aloof or cold. And the worst to me, would be those who fear God because of their earthly fathers. As children we see God the Father from these scenarios, often creating a not so healthy response to God. I’m sure if we got ten people together we would probably have a number of differing views of God. For blog space I’ll stop here.
HEAVEN’S SIGHT
Thinking brilliantly then, is beginning to see the truth about how our heavenly Father sees us. His great joy in us. His overwhelming, out of this world, uncontrollable love He lavishes on us. This became the beginning of change for me in thinking brilliantly. I needed to know how Heaven thought about me. It’s important that I know that He’s head over heels in love with me. So here’s where my thinking takes me…if I can begin to see how brilliantly God thinks of me, and I gain His view that He sees all people this way, then I may start seeing everyone from His vantage point. I can start expressing brilliance to everyone in my life, because I’ve experienced God the Father as a brilliant father to me personally. Which makes me a brilliant thinker. As Graham said, “…we may consider life from a place above the line, not below,” otherwise from God’s perspective—the heavenly one.
The old adage, so heavenly minded that we’re no earthly good, becomes obsolete because we have gained Heaven’s mindset, and we’re thinking brilliantly about those in our day-to-day lives. I want to become more heavenly minded. I desire to take on God’s perspective of his creation. This world and the people in it are not a pastime for Him. It’s not a toy. It’s unquenchable love. Unrestrained compassion. Lavish hope. And these are merely a few of his thoughts toward us.
The key for me is to continue gaining insight into a magnificent God that loves his fantastic creation—US!
Byron traveled as a piano player for twenty plus years. He grew up loving music from his parents and still today enjoys playing, on occasion, for good friend singer/songwriter Bob Book. His first book, Dream Big Dream Often, brought Byron to the crossroads of a new creative endeavor. He has written well over 100 blogs based upon his spiritual journey, a series called Byron’s Musings, two devotionals in the series Meditations of a Common Man, the first in the children stories Willow Wisp and The Hush, the study called Prophetic Mobilization (with Crystal) and several short stories. He is known for his storytelling combining a warmth and joy, with spiritual authenticity.
For more inspiring writings from Byron, go here!
