{"id":33,"date":"2026-09-30T00:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T05:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/?p=33"},"modified":"2026-10-08T09:35:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T14:35:52","slug":"stillness-speech-renewing-the-mind-and-rest","status":"publish","type":"faithco_working_note","link":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/working-notes\/stillness-speech-renewing-the-mind-and-rest\/","title":{"rendered":"Stillness, Speech, Renewing the Mind, and Rest \u2014 9\/30\/26"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Speaker 2:<\/strong> Stillness may be one of the practical expressions of faith<\/h2>\n

\u201cBe still\u201d keeps recurring across the material.<\/p>\n

Not inactivity.<\/p>\n

Not mystical escapism.<\/p>\n

Not ignoring problems.<\/p>\n

But:<\/p>\n

Stop allowing the visible problem to have the loudest voice.<\/p>\n

Stillness creates space in which another reality can become perceptible:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • God is here.<\/li>\n
  • God speaks.<\/li>\n
  • I am not separated from Him.<\/li>\n
  • I am not alone.<\/li>\n
  • This burden isn’t mine to carry independently.<\/li>\n
  • I don’t have to manufacture the answer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Then Psalm 46 becomes much more than:<\/p>\n

    Calm down.<\/p>\n

    It becomes:<\/p>\n

    Be still and KNOW.<\/p>\n

    The stillness serves the knowing.<\/p>\n

    Faith speaks \u2014 but confession is fruit, not magic<\/h2>\n

    This solves an important problem in the Hill\/Kenyon material.<\/p>\n

    There is clearly biblical significance to speech:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • speak to the mountain;<\/li>\n
    • hold fast your confession;<\/li>\n
    • faith comes by hearing;<\/li>\n
    • life and death in the tongue;<\/li>\n
    • Jesus spoke what He heard from His Father.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      But Christianity can easily turn this into incantation:<\/p>\n

      Say the right words enough times and something happens.<\/p>\n

      Your own notes actually contain the corrective.<\/p>\n

      Words without inward agreement are empty.<\/p>\n

      Someone can say:<\/p>\n

      \u201cI am provided for.\u201d<\/p>\n

      while inwardly screaming:<\/p>\n

      \u201cThere won’t be enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

      Your notes describe the disconnect as lips confessing one thing while the inner person confesses another. <\/p>\n

      So perhaps:<\/p>\n

      We do not speak in order to manipulate reality.<\/p>\n

      We speak because our mouth is learning to agree with God.<\/p>\n

      And speaking can help us hear that agreement.<\/p>\n

      That makes your Romans 10 connection interesting:<\/p>\n

      Faith comes by hearing.<\/p>\n

      Speaking God’s truth allows our own ears to hear what our Father says.<\/p>\n

      Not:<\/p>\n

      My words create truth.<\/p>\n

      But:<\/p>\n

      My words can come into agreement with Truth.<\/p>\n

      That’s a substantial difference.<\/p>\n

      Renewing the mind means replacing lies, not merely suppressing thoughts<\/h2>\n

      This is another major thread.<\/p>\n

      You’ve written:<\/p>\n

      You cannot fight negative thoughts. You can only replace them with truth.<\/p>\n

      That could become a major section.<\/p>\n

      The goal is not:<\/p>\n

      Stop thinking bad thoughts!<\/p>\n

      It’s:<\/p>\n

      Expose the lie and replace it with what God says.<\/p>\n

      For example:<\/p>\n

      \u201cWe’re going to run out.\u201d<\/p>\n

      Not merely:<\/p>\n

      \u201cDon’t think negatively.\u201d<\/p>\n

      Instead:<\/p>\n

      \u201cThe Lord is my shepherd. My Father knows what I need. He didn’t withhold His Son from me. I trust Him.\u201d<\/p>\n

      Fear:<\/p>\n

      \u201cSomething terrible might happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

      Truth:<\/p>\n

      \u201cGod is with me. I am not abandoned. Whatever comes, nothing can separate me from His love.\u201d<\/p>\n

      Condemnation:<\/p>\n

      \u201cGod must be disappointed in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

      Truth:<\/p>\n

      \u201cThere is now no condemnation in Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

      This also connects very naturally with your earlier Matthew 17 discussion.<\/p>\n

      Perhaps unbelief isn’t merely failure to possess enough spiritual enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

      It can be an entrenched way of seeing\u2014a mindset that continues interpreting reality independently of God.<\/p>\n

      Which is why prayer, fasting, renewing the mind, abiding, and identity could all belong in the same conversation.<\/p>\n

      Persistence does not mean striving harder to believe<\/h2>\n

      This is another place Neville’s language is useful once corrected.<\/p>\n

      \u201cPersist in the assumption.\u201d<\/p>\n

      Christianized:<\/p>\n

      Persist in Truth.<\/p>\n

      When circumstances contradict it:<\/p>\n

      Return to Truth.<\/p>\n

      When fear returns:<\/p>\n

      Return to Truth.<\/p>\n

      When disappointment comes:<\/p>\n

      Return to Truth.<\/p>\n

      When feelings protest:<\/p>\n

      Return to Truth.<\/p>\n

      Not frantically.<\/p>\n

      Not through force.<\/p>\n

      Not:<\/p>\n

      \u201cI HAVE TO BELIEVE HARDER!\u201d<\/p>\n

      But by abiding.<\/p>\n

      You wrote elsewhere:<\/p>\n

        \n
      • Return to Jesus.<\/li>\n
      • Return to union and communion.<\/li>\n
      • Return to abiding.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        And:<\/p>\n

        \u201cThis returning is prayer.\u201d <\/p>\n

        I think that’s one of the finest concepts in this entire body of notes.<\/p>\n

        Prayer may be the continual returning of consciousness to God.<\/p>\n

        \u201cPray without ceasing\u201d then becomes much richer than uninterrupted verbal prayer.<\/p>\n

        It is living relationally aware of Him.<\/p>\n

        Faith produces rest<\/h2>\n

        This may be your conclusion.<\/p>\n

        If I genuinely believe:<\/p>\n

          \n
        • God is good;<\/li>\n
        • God loves me;<\/li>\n
        • God is present;<\/li>\n
        • I am His;<\/li>\n
        • He speaks;<\/li>\n
        • He provides;<\/li>\n
        • I am in Christ;<\/li>\n
        • Christ is in me;<\/li>\n
        • I don’t bear responsibility for controlling every outcome;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          then eventually something happens in me:<\/p>\n

          I stop striving.<\/p>\n

          That doesn’t mean I stop working.<\/p>\n

          It means the work no longer originates in panic.<\/p>\n

          Your notes say:<\/p>\n

          \u201cRelaxation is not laziness. It is faith embodied.\u201d <\/p>\n

          That’s worth preserving.<\/p>\n

          Perhaps:<\/p>\n

          Rest is what faith feels like when it no longer needs visible evidence.<\/p>\n

          Or:<\/p>\n

          Peace is not evidence that the circumstance has changed. It may be evidence that I have.<\/p>\n

          And then thanksgiving follows naturally.<\/p>\n

          Jesus could thank the Father before Lazarus emerged.<\/p>\n

          He could give thanks over inadequate bread before multiplication was visible.<\/p>\n

          Thanksgiving before visible resolution says:<\/p>\n

          I know who You are.<\/p>\n

          The boundary I would make explicit<\/p>\n

          I would absolutely include a section near the beginning or end called something like:<\/p>\n

          Same Vocabulary, Different Gospel<\/h2>\n

          Hill, Goddard, Kenyon, and Christian Scripture can sometimes sound remarkably similar:<\/p>\n

            \n
          • belief<\/li>\n
          • faith<\/li>\n
          • unseen reality<\/li>\n
          • confession<\/li>\n
          • imagination<\/li>\n
          • expectation<\/li>\n
          • inner state<\/li>\n
          • words<\/li>\n
          • persistence<\/li>\n
          • assumption<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            But identical vocabulary does not guarantee identical theology.<\/p>\n

            The critical questions are:<\/p>\n

              \n
            • Who is God?<\/li>\n
            • Who is man?<\/li>\n
            • What is the source of authority?<\/li>\n
            • What makes something true?<\/li>\n
            • What is faith’s object?<\/li>\n
            • What is man’s fundamental problem?<\/li>\n
            • What has Christ accomplished?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

              Goddard can make consciousness\/imagination the causal center.<\/p>\n

              Hill can make definite desire + belief + subconscious programming central.<\/p>\n

              Some Word-of-Faith teaching can drift toward making faith itself a force or law which even God supposedly must obey.<\/p>\n

              Your emerging Christian framework is quite different:<\/p>\n

                \n
              • God is the source.<\/li>\n
              • Christ is the Truth.<\/li>\n
              • The cross and resurrection are the accomplished work.<\/li>\n
              • The Holy Spirit reveals and makes that truth experiential.<\/li>\n
              • Faith receives and agrees.<\/li>\n
              • The renewed mind learns to see from God’s perspective.<\/li>\n
              • Speech agrees with what God says.<\/li>\n
              • Feelings come into submission to truth.<\/li>\n
              • Prayer maintains conscious union and communion.<\/li>\n
              • Obedience acts from that reality.<\/li>\n
              • God brings the outcome.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                That is the framework.<\/p>\n

                And I think this sentence may actually be the backbone of the whole article:<\/p>\n

                Christian faith is not using spiritual principles to make my desired reality become true. It is becoming so persuaded of God’s reality that I learn to live from what He says is already true\u2014even while my eyes are still telling me otherwise.<\/p>\n

                That takes almost everything valuable you’ve extracted from these messages while putting Christ\u2014not consciousness, imagination, feeling, confession, or faith itself\u2014at the center.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                A reflection on stillness, speech, confession, and renewed thinking as ways of learning to rest in and agree with God\u2019s truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[3,4],"tags":[24,5,6,12,9,25,26,27],"faithco_speaker":[],"class_list":["post-33","faithco_working_note","type-faithco_working_note","status-publish","hentry","category-faith-prayer","category-identity-union","tag-abiding","tag-confession","tag-faith","tag-prayer","tag-renewing-the-mind","tag-rest","tag-stillness","tag-truth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/working-notes\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/working-notes"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/faithco_working_note"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/working-notes\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/working-notes\/33\/revisions\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"faithco_speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faithco_speaker?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}