Tracey Armstrong Ministries

Insight

In my book, Becoming a Pioneer of Success, I featured some men and women who were considered geniuses. Men such as Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and the slave who became an inventor, George Washington Carver, just to mention a few. These men became masters of creativity and invention because of their ability to constantly operate in the science of success, as Dale Carnegie coined the phrase, the power of insight.

I believe that we all can be masters of creativity and invention, scientists of success and innovation, if we understand that genius, true genius is found within the power of insight and awareness. How does it work? I will take an example from Becoming a Pioneer of Success, King C. Gillette had lost his home and job due to the Chicago fire. He discovered that there was money to be made through invention. Not just invention, but inventing something that was inexpensive and disposable. He submitted the idea of inventing something disposable to his mind hoping that he could come up with something. While he was shaving one day with a straight razor, an image flashed into his mind of a razor which was disposable, safe, and inexpensive. Voila!, the disposable razor was born from an aha moment.

Every genius idea is the same, from Holiday Inn to Disneyland. It’s an aha, insightful moment. What I should tell you is that we all have them, but very few move on them or give their minds the opportunity to unconsciously search for the solution without conscious understanding. The creative subconscious mind and subconscious mind will go to work looking for the solution if we give them the problem or question. Have you ever gone to bed with a problem on your mind to wake up to the solution? Yes, your creative subconscious and subconscious minds went to work while your conscious mind was rejuvenating and resting.

[For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him,  By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones),  And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable  and  unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in  and  for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength, (Ephesians 1:17-19 AMP)

Revelation
Insight and revelation never manifest before there is a problem. Insight and revelation are God’s inventive forces to find solutions for problems, without being limited by our conscious understanding and reasoning.

There are three elements that come into play when we start to think through problems. Insight, aha moments, and forward thinking, which we also refer to as reflection and meditation. These are all a part of the awareness stage of revelation. The problem or goal awakens these faculties. God has instilled these qualities within our makeup. Lets look at the insight portion of Eph 1, “[For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him”

The first thing that I would like to point out is the word grant. Grant refers to a specific grace and favor gifted to us. God has gifted us with the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. The important bit of news is that we do not just have wisdom and revelation, but we have wisdom and revelation from the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor 2 says in vs. 9 and 10, ““But as it is written, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love him.” But God has revealed those things to us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God.” The Holy Spirit works within us to give us wisdom and revelation for solving problems our understanding thinks is impossible. The Holy Spirit is equipped to search everything, including the depth of God. We are equipped to receive everything that the Holy Spirit has searched, even the deep things of God. The most important knowledge that we receive by the wisdom and revelation of the Holy Spirit is the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Why Jesus? If we know Jesus, we will also know the Father. If we know the Father, we will know and understand the creator and His will for our lives. We will walk in a level of innovation only known by God Himself.

Creative Sub-Conscious 
The mind works on three conscious levels; conscious mind, subconscious mind and creative subconscious mind. Revelation starts at the sub levels of the mind. Most of our wisdom and revelation would come from the creative subconscious mind. It is the part of the mind that goes to work on any problem that we give it, even as we are sleeping. The scripture refers to this faculty in the following passage, “By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones),”. 

The best way to activate the creative subconscious is to give it something to work with in the form of a problem and a goal, then pray about it, and sleep on it. Make sure that you keep something near your bed to record solutions. New thoughts will stream in, leaving you with insights, aha revelations, and forward thinking.

Inspiration Fuel
Insight becomes fuel for action. Insight empowers us to achieve things that most people refuse to believe would be possible. Eph 1, also gives us the level of power and authority that we can expect from the Holy Spirit’s involvement with our subconscious and creative subconsious minds. “And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable  and  unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength,” When I read this portion of scripture I get an overwhelming sense of potential.  We often see someone’s insight in the form of innovation. Innovation is the result of the action fueled by inspiration. Once you and I have a solution we must get moving on it.

Action
Eph 1 says, “as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength.” God’s mighty strength must bring to pass dynamic results. If we have the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation we will have insight. If we have insight from God then it will generate action. If we have the fuel of innovation then we will take actions that produce results. Results are a by-product of action. Chop the insight into small achievable goals and go for it. Stack up the wins and celebrate the joys of insight.

Action will develop into velocity and momentum. If you are not satisfied with your level of momentum, I suggest that you spend time reflecting or meditating on a specific issue. Give it to your mind and let your creative subconscious go to work on it with the help of the Holy Spirit; trusting that God has an answer directly from His mind for you. The mind of Christ has been given to you if you are a believer. Tap in and trust God for insight, aha moments, and things to reflect and meditate on, then get moving on it!

In order to withdraw the precious from the worthless, you will have to remove all of the previous references. Any references of defeat or failure, which have not been properly processed, will leave opportunity for impure thought to cloud your creativity and innovation.  The definition of unsubstantiated is “not substantiated; unproved or unverified.” Most thoughts are grounded in a belief of what we call truth. When something is substantiated, we have truth to anchor our belief into. It’s usually our rationalization with previous references of people, places, and things. The strongest form of faith is anchored into the unseen, the unsubstantiated, the spiritual truth. Anchored into the hope to come, instead of being anchored into a reference of what has happened. The Hebrew mind should anchor into the prophetic rather than the testimony of what has happened. Our faith should be linked to faith in God. Our encouragement should be linked to God’s faithfulness in times past. Yet our trust is substantiated in the realization that He is ultimately faithful, truthful, and trustworthy.

In every circumstance there is something pure; but the state of purity must be achieved before the pureness of the precious can been clearly seen in the worthless.

Impurity will corrupt our minds and our consciences according to Titus. But in Romans 8:28, we read that peace of mind and a good conscience are available as we come into the assurance that something good is coming and we understand that God loves us and that we are called according to His purpose. If God has called me to achieve something in His name, through His power, and for His glory, then He would not allow something negative to enter into my life without a plan of escape and ultimate victory.

The love of God and the call of God give us strength to overcome everything that could rise against us. The love and mandate of God are vast enough to produce large strength in our hearts and souls. Proverbs 24:10, If you faint in the day of trial, your strength is small. KJV  Trials are something that we cannot avoid. In this world you shall have tribulation… but how we deal with tribulation is another matter. If we faint in the day of trial, it is because we lack the strength to make it through the hardship. The goal is not simply to make it through the trial but to learn how to be better off once it is over. Without strength we will not be able to maximize any opportunities that are hidden amidst the adversity. Staying positive in the midst of it will enable you to overcome every trial. John 16: 33 I have spoken these things to you so that you might have peace in Me. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. 

We cannot stop tribulations and trials, but we can overcome all trials through good cheer. The Greek word for good cheer is courage. Trials and tribulations will challenge your courage. But you and I must broaden our strength in order to make it out of the affliction and gain something valuable through the process. Just the way that Proverbs 24:10 is written gives me the idea that adversity is a normal part of life, but fainting within the trial is not. The Hebrew word used in Proverbs 24:10 for strength is koach ko’-akh from an unused root meaning to be firm; vigor, literally (force, in a good or a bad sense) or figuratively (capacity, means, produce); also (from its hardiness) a large lizard: -ability, able, chameleon, force, fruits, might, power(-ful), strength, substance, wealth. I found the meaning of this word to be exciting. As I thought through each aspect I stopped at chameleon. I thought to myself,  “Do I want to become a chameleon during my trial? What could be the benefit of conformity?”  A chameleon doesn’t really conform to its environment but it has the ability to blend into its surroundings so that it can avoid the flight reflex that is a form of stress. It can also keep its position, if there is an enemy lurking. The power of not having to freak out is very powerful in and of itself. The chameleon shifts into a pattern that will fit its current situation until it is ready to shift back to its normal pattern. The situation doesn’t change the chameleon long-term; his defense mechanism is his ability to change patterns to seemingly blend in until things have returned to normal. I am sure that you have experienced moments of freaking out because of unforeseen and uncontrollable circumstances. This chameleon-like ability allows us to maintain peace until we have the wisdom necessary to escape danger.

When my wife and I were planning our marriage we had very little money. If you have ever planned a wedding you know that everything comes down at some level to, can we afford it? Due to my inability to conform to the circumstance and believe that there was an answer for everything that needed to happen; I would just lose it. My breakdown sounded like this, “We can’t get married, we can’t afford it, we don’t have enough money!“ I was not the chameleon of the family. My wife was. She would try to calm me down and assure me that everything was going to be ok. But I wasn’t interested in being calmed down. I just continued, “We are just starting a new itinerate ministry and we don’t have any speaking engagements!” Nothing that she did worked until she prayed and asked God how to help me. The wisdom of God was for her to agree with me. The next time I was having a breakdown she simply began to agree with me. I would say, “we don’t have enough money to get married!” and she would say, “you’re right we don’t have enough money to get married, lets call it off!” Then I would all of a sudden become the savior and declare, “ No, we will work it out! I will get the money some how.”  My wife was the cool, calm, collected chameleon.

The bible gives us a key understanding of how God strengthens us. God is able to give us joy no matter what the circumstance. This reference is found in Nehemiah 8:10, Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Sorrow can be overcome by maintaining good cheer and a joyful heart.

I have often heard people ask the question, “Why am I going through this?” or “why has this happened to me?”  There are many reasons why certain things are allowed to happen. Yet they all should produce in us tried, tested, and proven faith. I Peter1: 7 encourages us that troubles are to test our faith and to prove its sincerity and value.  “The purpose of these troubles is to test your faith as fire tests how genuine gold is. Your faith is more precious than gold, and by passing the test, it gives praise, glory, and honor to God. This will happen when Jesus Christ appears again. (God’s word) This scripture lets me know that God gets glory from how I walk through trials and that God doesn’t necessarily get glory from saving us from unfortunate circumstances. My wife recently heard in her spirit, “people complain about things that are designed to save them.” I have done this many times. I am in a hurry to an appointment, but I am stopped at every red light. The traffic is moving slowly. A train comes just at the wrong time. As I look at my clock, I realize that I am now late. But further down the road I notice red, yellow, and blue lights flashing. Police officers have just arrived at the scene of an accident. If I had been just a few minutes earlier I could have been involved in that accident. Sometimes God is slowing us down in order to save us from something.

7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 9 Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. 1 Peter 5:7-9

One of the mandates of being a Christian is to live with other people’s afflictions and victories in mind.  I can withstand what others are withstanding and vice versa.  Fight to win because others are counting on it. Your victory will become the substantiation of their victory. One of the dynamics that we must reintroduce into the body of Christ is the teaching that other people’s faith displayed through tough times actually builds faith in those who are watching.

7 Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith:I Thessalonians 3:7

The development and display of your faith is precious to brothers and sisters around the world who are dealing with problems similar to yours. Never under estimate the power of your faith in the life of others. Be someone’s hope, someone’s encouragement, someone’s reason not to quit because they find comfort from your persistence.

To many Christians, being successful and prosperous in the world means forsaking the purposes of God. In Becoming a Pioneer of Success, Tracey Armstrong shows that success isn’t just a godly calling– it’s a destiny that God desires for every Christian! This book will teach you how to draw upon the wellspring of divine creativity within you to fulfill the destiny of success and happiness that God has waiting for you. You will learn how to win at the game of business without sacrificing your morals or “selling out.” Are you looking for success but don’t want to lose sight of the Lord? Then you are ready to become a pioneer of success!