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Is there life after death? The Bible says there is. A host of personal testimonies of those revived from the dead, and science’s foray into near-death and post-death experiences that defy the skeptics, say absolutely yes. One passage in the Scriptures tells of cognitive existence after death and it’s not good – not good at all. Luke 16:19-24:
19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:
20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
The rich man’s body was in the rich man’s tomb. The rich man’s brain, the rich man’s lips, the rich man’s tongue—all were in the rich man’s tomb. But from hell, his soul-man lifts up his eyes.
There is truly cognitive existence after death—either eternal life in Christ Jesus or eternal cognitive death. Jesus gives the great commission, which tells it well. Mark 16:15-16:
15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
Have you been born again? Are you ready to participate personally in the absolute greatest miracle of all time? Are you ready to be free of your past and lay hold of God’s eternal glory? Today is your day of salvation. Click onto “Further With Jesus” for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.
GOD SAID, Psalm 33:6:
By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
GOD SAID, Hebrews 11:3:
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
GOD SAID, Romans 12:2:
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
GOD SAID, Ephesians 4:22-24:
22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
MAN SAID: I am a wise and rational thinker. My science is all I need. The God of the Bible simply hinders my style. I don’t want Him.
Now THE RECORD: Carnal man fantasizes that as the fields of academia expand, as scientific discovery multiplies, the irrelevancy of God and His Bible will be evermore apparent. But the reality is: it is evermore the opposite.
Following are just a few relatively recent discoveries, all of which are ongoing, and all certify the marvelous inerrancy of God’s Holy Word:
• All physical matter is created out of invisible energy known as photons. Photons are light. God said He created all matter out of that which is invisible, and 1 John 1:5 says, “…God is light…” And God is immortal.
• Science is experimenting with converting words into light and light into words. Notice Psalm 119:130:
The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.
• Cosmologists assert that because light can be seen from stars billions of light-years away, light is therefore immortal. God is light and He is immortal.
• God said everything is made out of His Words, and the instructions for life in our DNA is made up of a four-letter alphabet, arranged in words, sentences, chapters, and books.
• The science of neuroplasticity says the brain is continually being re-wired, and that even the words we think change its shape. God’s Word, recorded thousands of years ago, gives explicit instructions on how to renew and transform the brain.
Students of the Bible have been dazzled by light since God said, “In the beginning…” (Genesis 1:1). Believers are especially enamored with what often appears to be a strange grouping of words in Colossians 1:13:
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
The linguistic term translated is used. We who were created by Christ Jesus, as He spoke us into existence with God’s Words, are therefore a product of words. We’re translated with words into the Kingdom of His dear Son. Jesus is our translator. Revelation 19:13 declares:
...and his name is called The Word of God.
He is Alpha and Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, and everything in between. The word in Colossians is translated.
GodSaidManSaid has published a considerable array of features dealing with the life-transforming power of words. This feature will provide additional confirming research. Necessary foundational excerpts follow from several GodSaidManSaid features:
GodSaidManSaid, “Words are Like Seeds: When Planted, They Will Bear Fruit (Part 1):”
There is a solution. His name is Jesus Christ and He is called “The Word of God” (Revelation 19). The following paragraphs are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Everything Made of Words:”
If God created our beings, and all that we see, out of words, then there should be proof everywhere of this truth, and there is! This wisdom is one of the greatest secrets of all time. All things—your home, your computer, your car, your body, and the world—are literally framed out of words: God’s Words! To man, such a concept is bizarre and hard to fathom, but this feature will simply, once again, prove the veracity of the Holy Word of God.
Years ago, I was talking to a man about Jesus Christ. He told me that what I had to offer was just words, as though words were of no consequence. I asked him, “What if I can prove to you that all things are created from words?” He answered me in a challenging tone, “Try it!” The following explanation ensued: I asked him how he had arrived at the event we were attending. He said that he had driven up in his car. I told him that I would prove that his auto was a simple compilation of words. I explained:
“Long before the first car was ever created, a man rode down the road in a horse-drawn buckboard, taking all day to do what takes us just minutes in our modern vehicles. He thought, ‘Boy, I’d love to have a horseless carriage.’ Those were silent words in his head. He went home and grabbed a tablet and pencil and wrote down his plan to create a horseless carriage—written words.”
I asked the man what we had so far, and he rightly responded, “Words.”
Next, the excited inventor went out into the field and dug up some iron ore, and other necessary materials (which God had spoken—with words—into existence out of that which is invisible), processed them into steel, and drove away in the first car—his horseless carriage.”
I asked my friend, “What is a car made of?” He responded, “Words.” Everything is made of words—God’s Words. Even when a person becomes a new creature in Jesus Christ, he literally speaks himself into existence. This is his first supernatural act as a son of God. Romans 10:10 says:
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Medical science and the field of psychology are, more and more these days, confirming this verse from Proverbs 18:21:
Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
The words which we think, speak, and act upon also have a direct bearing on our physical and mental health. This should be of no surprise when we understand that all things are created out of words. Therefore, even our bodies respond to words. It should be a concern to us that medical research estimates 75% of the typical human’s thoughts (words) are negative or counterproductive.
What we tell ourselves about ourselves and our lives day after day has a tremendous effect on shaping our reality—for good or bad. It is now known that bone marrow produces white and red blood cells prolifically (white blood cells kill disease and red blood cells bring oxygen and life) when one focuses on happy, positive thoughts (words). When negative, destructive thoughts (words) are doted upon, the bone marrow’s production is inhibited.
We are made out of words, therefore the human body—as well as creation—responds to them.
In a multi-page feature in the publication Science, the headline reads, “Finally, the Book of Life and Instructions for Navigating It.” The DNA molecule is a 3.3 billion-letter book. DNA has not only been constructed by words, but all of its information is just words. [End of quote]
We are words. Learning to speak the language—the words—of unfeigned faith is such a marvelous concept. When we become born-again, we enter into the invisible Kingdom of God (Luke 17:20-21).
This new life in the invisible Kingdom has a totally new language. Speaking this language is imperative.
Everything is and responds to words. Be careful about the words you entertain. If words are everything, what do you think would be the result of continually being bathed in negative words—words from the 24-hour news cycle, bad and lustful words, words from Hollywood and the Internet, etc.? The results are different levels of mental and physical trauma, and finally, an accelerated death.
How about this statement in the April 2010 issue of Psychology Today?
Evidence shows that prompting people to relive a recent trauma by talking about it or by visualizing the event may actually provoke posttraumatic stress disorder, not prevent it. [End of quote]
Today’s dose of God’s Word therapy “doeth good like a medicine” (Proverbs 17:22).
Imagine these short paragraphs from the GodSaidManSaid feature, Shocking Truth! Internalized Words Are Converted to Light:
How do thoughts (silent words) and spoken words turn into light in the body and produce physical results such as health—or disease? The following excerpts are from Dr. Don Colbert’s book Deadly Emotions:
We can sum up in one word the basic communication link between what we think in the brain and what we experience in the cells of the body: neuropeptides. Now, before your eyes glaze over and you assume that I’m going to assault you with a lot of medical mumbo-jumbo, let me assure you that I’m going to describe the physical process of how emotions turn into disease in very simple terms. Those of you who are physicians or medical researchers may find this explanation overly simplified, but I ask for your patience. Dr. Candace Pert, a noted stress researcher, demonstrated that a certain class of our immune cells—the monocytes—have tiny molecules on their surface called neuroreceptorsthat are a perfect fit for neuropeptides. All of the monocytes have these receptor sites.
The brain produces the neuropeptides—which are chains of amino acids—and conducts them along the nerve cells throughout the body. They are like the keys that fit into the molecular locks of every cell of the body. Dr. Pert has called them “bits of brain floating through the body.” The brain “talks” to the immune cells all over the body, and in turn, the immune system cells communicate back to the brain, using the messengers called neuropeptides. If your brain interprets physical perceptions as anger, fear, or depression, every immune cell of your body knows that interpretation very quickly! [End of quote]
From the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Bible Rewires Addicts’ Brains:”
Harnessing the power of God’s creative Words heals the mind and the body, and empowers one to set a course for life—life more abundantly, even unto eternal life.
Top neuroscientists were interviewed in the May 2005 issue of Discover magazine concerning what they considered to be the most critical development in neuroscience in the past 25 years. A dominant theme, the concept of the plasticity of the brain, kept recurring. The amazement in neuroscience is that the adult brain actually adds neurons and literally changes form.
Brain plasticity means that the shape, size, and the number of neurons and synaptic connections change with experience. Elizabeth Gould, professor of psychology, Princeton University, weighed in with the following:
One of the most important advances in the field of neuroscience in the last 25 years was the recognition that the adult brain exhibits both functional and structural plasticity. Indeed, an entire subfield of neuroscience has emerged that focuses on plasticity as a basis for understanding brain function under normal conditions as well as after brain damage. Because of this large body of work, we now know that the shape, size, and number of neurons and synaptic connections change as a result of experience.
The big news in the field of neuroscience is that the brain is plastic—it changes form over time, and words and experiences are central to this process. Thousands of years before neuroscience was even conceived, God declares this principle over and over again in His Word. Romans 12:2:
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
The Godly renewing of the mind—making new the mind—actually transforms your entire being: mind, heart, body, soul, and spirit. This process, through a very dramatic, life-changing experience, is what Jesus Christ calls “born-again.”
The Words of God renew the mind and we are transformed. Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language defines transform: “To change the form of; to metamorphose.” Metamorphose is defined: “To change into a different form.” Again Webster defines it in theology as follows: “Change the natural disposition and temper of a man from a state of enmity (war) to God and His law, into the image of God, or into a disposition and temper conformed to the will of God.” [End of quote] The call to put on the mind of Christ is the call to be transformed into the likeness of God. God changes our entire being with words—His!
So, neuroscience now understands that the brain can be transformed. The Word of God, the foundation of all that is true, proclaimed this revelation thousands of years ago.
Putting on the mind of Christ literally changes the formation of the brain. Let’s read Romans 12:2 again:
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Neuroscientists know this as neuroplasticity. Transformed simply means to change form. God’s renewing of the mind process will change all aspects of a person’s life and it begins as a result of direct intervention of God’s Spirit in the believer’s mind. This process of Godly mind transformation begins with a miracle and proceeds through a continued series of miracles:
• Miracle #1: Born-again
• Miracle #2: The chain-breaking power of the open confession of Jesus Christ with the mouth.
• Miracle #3: A public water baptism by immersion.
• Miracle #4: The supernatural baptism of the Holy Ghost as received on the day of Pentecost.
• Miracle #5: The daily study of the Word of God which continues the process of mind renewal.
The born-again experience is not "turning over a new leaf." It’s a new—all new—life. II Corinthians 5:17:
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Neuroscience begins to understand neuroplasticity, but God is already there. [End of quotes]
Dr. Caroline Leaf, author of the book Switch On Your Brain, deals in some detail with words and neuroplasticity, and how to harness thoughts effectively. Dr. Leaf is a communication pathologist and audiologist. She’s worked in the area of cognitive neuroscience since 1985. In addition to being an accomplished author and lecturer, she also hosts Switch On Your Brain on TBN. We’ve pulled several excerpts from her book for your perusal:
You are a thinking being. You think all day long, and at night as you sleep, you sort out your thinking. As you think, you choose, and as you choose, you cause genetic expression to happen in your brain. This means you make proteins, and these proteins form your thoughts. Thoughts are real, physical things that occupy mental real estate.
Eric R. Kandel, a Nobel Prize-winning neuropsychiatrist for his work on memory, shows how our thoughts, even our imaginations, get “under the skin” of our DNA and can turn certain genes on and certain genes off, changing the structure of the neurons in the brain. So as we think and imagine, we change the structure and function of our brains. Even Freud speculated back in the 1800s that thought leads to changes in the brain. In recent years, leading neuroscientists like Marion Diamond, Norman Doidge, Joe Dispenza, Jeffrey Schwartz, Henry Markham, Bruce Lipton, and Allan Jones, to name just a few, have shown how our thoughts have remarkable power to change the brain. Our brain is changing moment by moment as we are thinking. By our thinking and choosing, we are redesigning the landscape of our brain.
Research shows that 75 to 98 percent of mental, physical, and behavioral illness come from one’s thought life. This staggering and eye-opening statistic means only 2 to 25 percent of mental and physical illnesses comes from the environment and genes.
We are constantly reacting to circumstances and events, and as this cycle goes on, our brains become shaped by the process in either a positive, good-quality-of-life direction or a negative, toxic, poor-quality-of-life direction. So it is the quality of our thinking and choices (consciousness) and our reactions that determine our “brain architecture”—the shape or design of the brain and resultant quality of the health of our minds and bodies.
Taking this to a deeper level, research shows that DNA actually changes shape according to our thoughts. As you think those negative thoughts about the future—the week ahead, what a person might say or do, even in the absence of the concrete stimulus—that toxic thinking will change your brain wiring in a negative direction and throw your mind and body into stress.
So when we make a poor-quality decision—when we choose to engage toxic thoughts (for example, unforgiveness, bitterness, irritation, or feelings of not coping)—we change the DNA and subsequent genetic expression, which then changes the shape of our brain wiring in a negative direction. This immediately puts the brain into protection mode, and the brain translates these poor-quality, toxic thoughts as negative stress. This stress then manifests in our bodies. But the most exciting part of this study was the hope it demonstrated because the positive attitude, the good choice, rewired everything back to the original healthy positive state. These scientists basically proved we can renew our minds.
Choice is real, and free will exists. You are able to stand outside of yourself, observe your own thinking, consult with God, and change the negative, toxic thought or grow the healthy, positive thought. When you do this, your brain responds with a positive neurochemical rush and structural changes that will improve your intellect, health, and peace. You will experience soul harmony.
Just the mind activity from your reading of the next few lines generates electromagnetic, electrochemical, and quantum action in your neurons. It causes:
• Magnetic fields that can be measured;
• Electrical impulses that can be tracked;
• Chemical effects that can be seen and measured;
• Photons to be activated that can be captured on computer screens;
• Energy activity that can be explained using quantum physics; and
• Vibrations in the membranes of the neurons that can be picked up by instrumentation.
Scientists are discovering precise pathways by which changes in human thinking operate as signals that activate genetic expression, which then produce changes in our brains and bodies. Our genetic makeup fluctuates by the minute based on what we are thinking and choosing.
Whatever you believe in and hope for becomes substance on a physical level, and you act upon this. This process can move in either direction—negative or positive.
Through our thoughts, we can be our own brain surgeons as we make choices that change the circuits in our brains. We are designed to do our own brain surgery. [End of quotes]
America, the world, and you and I need a word transfusion. David Kupelian, in the April 2013 issue of Whistle Blower, under the heading of “Americans Snapping by the Millions,” listed very stark data regarding the mental health of the United States:
• One-third of U.S. employees suffer chronic, debilitating stress.
• One-half of all 18- to 33-year-olds experience levels of stress that keep them awake at night.
• 75-90% of visits to the doctor [General Practitioner] are stress related.
• Stress is now known to play a major role in the progression of cancer.
• The CDC reports 23% of U.S. women take antidepressants.
• 11% of Americans 12 and up take SSRI antidepressants that are mood-altering drugs with suicide warnings; statistics show an alarming correlation between antidepressant-medicated students and school shootings.
• Suicide surpasses car crashes as a leading cause of injury and death.
• 20% of New York City children 6-12 have been diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety, depression, or bi-polar disorder.
• April, 2013, Psychology Today reports 14 million U.S. adults suffer from BDP (Borderline Personality Disorder).
• 5.7 million U.S. adults have bi-polar disorder.
• In a given year, 2.4 million American adults are diagnosed with schizophrenia.
• Approximately 6 million U.S. adults experience panic disorders.
Imagine that the solution to all of these maladies are words – God’s Words.
GOD SAID, Psalm 33:6:
By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
GOD SAID, Hebrews 11:3:
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
GOD SAID, Romans 12:2:
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
GOD SAID, Ephesians 4:22-24:
22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
MAN SAID: I am a wise and rational thinker. My science is all I need. The God of the Bible simply hinders my style. I don’t want Him.
Now you have THE RECORD.
References:
Authorized King James Version
Draxler, B., “Life as We Grow It,” Discover, October 2013
GodSaidManSaid, “Everything Made of Words”
GodSaidManSaid, “Let’s Change Our Brains”
GodSaidManSaid, Shocking Truth! Internalized Words Are Converted to Light
GodSaidManSaid, “The Mystery of A Body Filled with Light (Part 2)”
GodSaidManSaid, “Unlock Holy Ghost Pharmacy—It’s Real!”
GodSaidManSaid, “Words Are Like Seeds: When Planted, They Will Bear Fruit (Part 1)”
Leaf, C., Switch On Your Brain, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, 2013, pp32-56
Johnson, B. and Pagano, M., “Can Faith Rewire an Addict’s Brain?” The Wall Street Journal, March 28, 2014
Knox, M., “The Gene Genie,” Scientific American, December 2014
Pinker, S., “Trauma Requires Counseling,” Psychology Today, April 2010
Pratt, L., et al, “Antidepressant Use in Persons Aged 12 and Over: United States 2005-2008,” October 2011
Svoboda, E., “Kings and Queens of Chaos,” Psychology Today, October 2013
