Your Brain: The Gateway to Your Spiritual Future – Part 2

15 Jun Your Brain: The Gateway to Your Spiritual Future – Part 2

 Blog Series:

Renew Your Mind ~ Transform Your Life

This week look at Part 2 of our brain being the gateway to our spiritual future.

There are two basic divisions of the brain: the conscious brain and the subconscious brain

The conscious brain gets most of our attention in life, but the subconscious brain is where the real power is.

• The subconscious brain is something like a million times more powerful than the conscious brain.
• The conscious brain processes about 2000 bits of information per second.
• The subconscious brain processes about 400 billion bits of information per second.
• The conscious brain operates with a very short-term memory span, generally limited to 20 seconds or less.
• The subconscious brain remembers everything it experiences forever.

There are two things to understand about the subconscious part of the brain

First, the subconscious brain is responsible for the majority of our thinking.

God has designed the brain in such a way that the activity in the sub-conscious part of our brains is where most of the mental activity actually takes place. It is always active, 24 hours a day. It is where we are thinking, choosing, building, and sorting thoughts. What we consciously think and what we say and do is largely influenced by the information and activity in the sub-conscious mind.

In a Scientific American article, we read:

“We are aware of a tiny fraction of the thinking that goes on in our minds, and we can control only a tiny part of our conscious thoughts. The vast majority of our thinking efforts goes on subconsciously.”  (Dr. Barry Gordon, professor of neurology and cognitive science at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Scientific American, February 14, 2013)

Second, the conscious brain is not aware of what is going on in the subconscious part of the brain (hence the name “subconscious”).

Benedict Carey wrote, in the New York Times:

“We’re finding that we have these unconscious behavioral guidance systems that are continually furnishing suggestions through the day about what to do next, and the brain is considering and often acting on those, all before conscious awareness. Sometimes those goals are in line with our conscious intentions and purposes, and sometimes they’re not.” (Benedict Carey, New York Times July 31, 2007)

Our subconscious brain is often at odds with our conscious brain

Because the conscious and subconscious parts of the brain do not always agree, there is great significance to the Christian in understanding the role and power of the subconscious mind in spiritual behavior.

For example, in our conscious brain we may know the verse that says, “My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). And we may think we believe that, and that we are trusting God for lives.

But in our subconscious, we may not be so sure. We may subconsciously question God’s readiness to meet our needs. Or we may be concerned that God might not supply all our needs according to the degree to which we’ve become accustomed.

That is, we might have food and clothing, and Scripture says we should be content with these barest of needs (“If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.” 1Timothy 6:8). But when our financial security is severely threatened, we typically respond in all-consuming fear rather than peace, even though we have food and clothing. This fear comes from our subconscious thoughts and values.

Therefore, one of the great challenges for the Christian is to bring the attitudes, values, and beliefs of the subconscious brain into harmony with the attitudes, values, and beliefs of the conscious brain.

If, in our subconscious, we believed that God would supply all our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus, and (of course) agreed with God as to what our needs truly are, we would not be terrified with financial crises.

We can use our conscious brain to feed our subconscious brain

Neuroscience tells us that what we wire into our brain through “thinking” is stored in our subconscious brain. So, by guiding and directing what we think about, we can use the conscious brain to strategically feed the subconscious brain, helping bring into harmony the attitudes, values, and beliefs of our conscious and subconscious brains.

Knowing this, we have a spectacular opportunity to feed our subconscious brain helpful thoughts, and starve it of unhelpful thoughts, so that we eventually replace bad attitudes, values and beliefs in our subconscious with good attitudes, values and beliefs, bringing our conscious and subconscious brains into harmony, and transforming us in to the character image of Christ.

Dr. Caroline Leaf, in her book, Switch On Your Brain, has written:

“The subconscious mind is filled with the thoughts you have been building since you were in the womb, and they form the perceptual base from which you see life. Up to 99% of the decisions you make are based on what you have built into your subconscious mind. If a person’s subconscious mind is filled with negative, toxic trash, then that is what informs his or her decisions on a day-to-day basis, which means that a person will speak and act from that toxicity.

“You cannot sit back and wait to be happy and healthy and have a great thought life; you have to make the choice to make this happen. You have to choose to get rid of the toxic and get back in alignment with God.”

We feed our subconscious and then our subconscious feeds us

So here is the cycle:

1. We realize and accept that much of our conscious thought is prompted by the attitudes, values and beliefs in our subconscious thoughts.
2. Our subconscious thoughts are affected by what we consistently feed our brain on the conscious level – either actively or passively (through culture, media, people, etc.).
3. If we deliberately and strategically feed good and helpful thoughts to our brain on the conscious level, that “thinking” eventually sinks into our subconscious, replacing the unhelpful thinking with helpful thinking.
4. When, through this process, unhelpful attitudes, values and beliefs in the subconscious are replaced with helpful attitudes, values and beliefs, the subconscious now begins to feed the conscious brain helpful attitudes, values and beliefs (see point #1 above), making us an integrated person, and enabling us to consistently live out our integrated attitudes, values and beliefs.

If we understand that process, we can use it to our profound advantage for our spiritual future, accelerating the process of spiritual transformation. If we do not understand that process, our ignorance can debilitate us, leaving us stuck in a lifestyle in which we do not consistently live out our highest conscious values and beliefs.

Next week, we’ll look at neuroplasticity, or how the brain changes, and specific strategies we can use to further the process of bringing our conscious and subconscious brains into harmony. Hope to see you then!

In case you’re new here

This blog post is part of a series titled “Renew Your Mind, Transform Your Life”, introduced on January 5, 2021. As the series continues, each succeeding post will be added to and available in the blog archives at www.maxanders.com.

If you know anyone who you think might enjoy joining us in this study, please forward this blog to them and encourage them to sign up for my mailing list here. In addition to receiving my weekly blogs on this subject, they’ll also receive my free video Master The Bible so Well That The Bible Masters You.

I look forward to going through this life-changing journey with you.

UPDATE: We are moving from this blog to a YouTube channel in early 2024. I’ll keep you posted regarding the transition. If you’re not already on my email list, subscribe here so you don’t miss any updates – you’ll also receive my free video, Master the Bible So Well That the Bible Masters You.

In the meantime, while I’m getting the YouTube channel ready, all of the past blog posts are still available – and you know that “repetition is the key to mental ownership!” 

We recently finished a series titled “Moving from Checkers to Chess ~ 5 Steps to Unleashing the Power of an Eternal Perspective,”  in which I “connected all the dots” from posts over the years and combined them into a “spiritual game plan.” That series is a great place to start.

I look forward to seeing all of you on my new YouTube channel in 2024 to further discuss how to walk closer with God and live better in life.

Two resources I’ve created to help build your biblical base for a closer walk with God:

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