You probably already know that you are transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2). But did you know that the word mind (Strong’s #G3563) not only defines the intellectual faculty but also includes feelings, purposes and desires? Of course, you are certainly changed when your conscious belief system shifts, but your conscious mind is not the only mind that needs to be transformed in order for you to manifest your miracle. Transformation and healing must also come to the subconscious and unconscious layers of the soul. And the transformation of these deeper layers brings even quicker and more dramatic results!
We know that the “double minded man” does not receive the things he requests from the Lord (James 1:8), but now you know why! Doublemindedness is a state of conflict between various parts of your being. Your thoughts create, your emotions create, and your words create, but when these areas are creating opposing things, you are literally fighting yourself, sabotaging your success. The solution is simple and clear: in order to manifest your miracle, you need to be in alignment with God and with yourself.
Your conscious mind is like the tiny fraction of an iceberg that is actually showing above the water and which, according to neuroscientists, only represents five to ten percent of your actual brain function. The conscious mind houses the thoughts and feelings that you are consciously aware of.
Your subconscious mind is the largest part of that iceberg, occupying 50 to 60 percent of your brain. It is underneath the water of your awareness, so to speak, and functions as a bridge between the conscious and unconscious layers of your being. The subconscious mind is where recent memories are stored. If you’ve ever driven somewhere without consciously thinking about what you’re doing, you can thank your subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is also responsible for habits and underlying mindsets. The subconscious mind is like a filter made of beliefs and values, some that you are aware of and some that you are not. This filter basically summarizes your perception of the world. Your senses and your conscious mind take in information which is then interpreted and filtered through your subconscious mind. According to the NLP communication model, we are bombarded by over two million bits of data per second! If your conscious mind had to process that amount of information, you would become so overwhelmed you could not function. Again, you can thank your subconscious mind for taking care of this problem by working behind the scenes, filtering out what is deemed as unnecessary and only delivering around seven chunks of information to your conscious mind, so that it can function unencumbered. It delivers this information to your conscious mind, not in words, but by way of emotions, feelings, intuition, sensations, images and dreams.
Both the subconscious and unconscious minds store memories, but the most pronounced difference between the two is that you can choose to access memories stored in your subconscious mind, while you cannot, by choice, remember anything in your unconscious mind without intervention. For example, someone’s phone number could be stored in either your subconscious or unconscious mind, depending upon how important you deem this information and how often you access it. So, though you might not be consciously thinking of your best friend’s phone number, if I asked you for it right now, you could probably choose to pull that information into your conscious mind from your subconscious. If that phone number was not deemed important by your inner filing system, it might be stored in your unconscious mind, and you would have trouble remembering it.
The subconscious and unconscious minds are both responsible for storing memories, habits, feelings, emotions and behaviors, but the unconscious is the source of the programming that your subconscious mind uses to interpret the information it filters for your conscious mind. Your beliefs, behaviors and habits ultimately spring from the deep spring of your unconscious mind, influencing the conscious mind by way of the subconscious bridge.
My friend, Connie Woods, often illustrates this point by asking people if they remember being potty trained. Of course, no one does, yet hopefully, we are all experiencing the benefits of that event in our lives. And so it is with trauma and early childhood conditioning. There are things you experienced before your intellect was fully mature that still affect you, yet often these things remain buried until Holy Spirit reveals them. You may not remember them with your conscious mind, but the fruit of your life reveals that something was imprinted upon the deepest layers of your soul. These mysterious depths of the ocean of your soul are described in the word of God:
The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]? I the Lord search the mind, I try the heart, even to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.
— Jeremiah 17:9-10, AMPC
We see from this passage that we do not fully know what lies in the depths of the heart, but that God does. We also see that the fruit of our lives springs forth from what is resonating in the heart and mind. The law of resonant frequency states: You do not attract what you want; you attract what you resonate! And often, you are not consciously aware of what you are resonating, especially in the unconscious and subconscious layers of your soul.
Remember, the key to co-creating with God and manifesting miracles is coming into agreement with God and with yourself, so it is very important to understand how these “minds” work together. I believe that the fragmentation of our minds happened at the fall and that the restoration purchased for us at the cross will allow us seamless access to 100% of our brain’s capacity. As maturing sons of God, we are growing into the stewardship of our renewed mind by understanding how these fragmented pieces function together and by learning how to govern, overshadow and restore them under the lordship of Christ.
So, picture your conscious mind like the captain of a ship giving the orders. That’s important, of course, but in reality, it’s the crew in the engine room below deck (the subconscious and unconscious minds) that are actually guiding the ship, and they do so according to what they have been trained to do… even if that training was faulty and born of traumas that no longer exist. The bad news is that your unconscious mind, which has been programmed by the fall and which you cannot even access at will, is running the show. The good news is that the subconscious mind, which functions as a bridge between the conscious and unconscious, always obeys the orders of the captain!
It is the job of Holy Spirit to reveal and heal wounds stored in the unconscious mind. It is your job, as a mature son of God, to “give the orders” by choosing what you will consciously think and feel. If you do not proactively govern your subconscious mind by way of your conscious mind, it will do what it has been programmed to do. You are not at the mercy of your subconscious unless, by abdicating your authority, you choose to be. Your subconscious mind responds to your conscious choices and thoughts by producing the corresponding emotions, forming a perpetual loop that you yourself create. The renewing of the mind does require gentle and persistent co-laboring with God. But restoration and reprogramming of every layer of the soul is possible, and it is part of your spiritual maturation process. When you begin retraining your subconscious mind by governing your conscious mind, you and your world will be transformed. Everything changes!
This is an excerpt from my new book, Miracles Are Normal: Co-Creating Through Oneness With God. In chapter 7, you will learn how to discern what is resonating from the subconscious and unconscious layers of your heart and mind and will learn how to cooperate with the Spirit of Truth as He reveals, heals, restores and transforms everything. And you will learn how to govern your soul from your place of identity as a son of God.
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