I would like to share today on the importance of tapping into the well of wisdom.

We have been speaking a lot lately about tapping into your spirit which is where the source of wisdom comes from. I have been sharing various ways that you can tap into that wisdom.

Today I want to look at a specific way of tapping into that wisdom by the process known as journaling.

Now journaling has come to mean a lot of different things. When you hear that term you may think of something completely different to what I am sharing right now. But I think everybody understands that journaling involves writing something down.

Wisdom is tapped from your spirit, and we saw that you draw it out mostly with words. In the midst of your conversation you will find new ideas jumping out.

It is wonderful when you are relaxing. Perhaps you are lying in bed just letting your mind go. Or you are busy with something and your mind is in neutral. It is wonderful when something new just pops into your mind and you say,

“Oh wow, I just got a brilliant idea.”

But how do you make it happen on purpose? Have you ever sat down and tried to get new ideas and found that your mind just seizes up and it just doesn't want to work?

Well one of the ways that we saw you can do it is that idea of brainstorming. This is where you get a lot of people to talk and share their ideas. And in the middle of conversation ideas pop up.

But you know it can be inconvenient if you are in need of some new ideas; when you have to find a group of people that you can get together and make time for a brainstorming session.

It is not always possible to organize this and you don't always have the time or the people to do that. So what you need is a way of tapping into that wisdom all by yourself.

Well if it comes out with words, then probably the best way to do it if you can't have anybody else there is to talk to yourself.

They say it is the first sign of madness but it is not really true. Talking to yourself actually is one of the most powerful ways of tapping into the wisdom of your spirit on purpose.

How do you do this? Again you can't sit and hold conversations by yourself and say,

“Hi Bill, how are you doing today?”

“I'm doing great Bill and you?”

You would sound like you were mad.

How to Journal

How then do you talk to yourself? Well this is where journaling comes into its own. You see journaling is writing things down. And writing is actually just like speech.

In fact writing links with the speech center of the brain in the same way that speaking does. Neurosurgeons have proved that the speech center of the brain is linked to your entire nervous system.

Now you can't read or write and talk at the same time. I challenge you to give it a try. Sit down and write, and while you are writing one thing try and say something else. You just can't do it.

Yes you could write and then read what you had just written. Or you may even be able to say each word as you write it. But you cannot write and read at the same time. And you can't listen to someone else speaking while you are reading or writing.

Don't you find this so annoying? You are sitting reading a book. You are really enjoying it and somebody comes and starts holding a conversation with you.

You have to make a choice. You can just carry on reading and ignore them, then after a while you say,

“Did you say something?”

Or you have to stop reading to listen to what the person is saying.

You see words can only go one way at a time. And the speech center of the brain can only operate in one channel at a time. So you can't write and speak at the same time.

Writing is therefore a very powerful way of tapping into your spirit, because we saw that words are a very powerful way of tapping into your spirit.

Writing the Pictures of Your Mind

Now as you sit and write, pictures will start to come into your mind. This is because your mind can only understand the language of the five senses.

You can only think something that you see, hear, smell, taste or touch. In your mind you visualize a picture or you hear a sound. In your mind you think,

“I can just smell it.”

In your mind you can feel and you can taste. These are the only senses that your mind is able to embrace.

So if anything is going to come into your mind, it is going to come into it via the five senses. The words that you use to describe those sensory inputs are controlled by your spirit.

You never premeditate the words that you are going to speak. Your mind sees a picture and you express what you received with words.

We do that all the time when we are speaking. That is why words are so powerful to tap into our spirits. And when you are writing you are actually doing the exact same thing.

The wonderful thing about writing is it allows you to talk to yourself without people thinking you are weird. Nobody will ever come to you while you are writing and say,

“Oh boy, sitting writing to yourself - that's the first sign of madness.”

You see people don't condemn writing, but if you are talking to yourself you are going to get some strange looks. If you want to do that, you had better get all alone somewhere where nobody can see or hear you.

That is the wonderful thing about writing. You can do it with people all around you and nobody will even hear a word. But you can be expressing all the words and all the thoughts through your speech center by writing.

The key to becoming a successful writer is to allow the pictures and senses to come up into your mind and to express those impressions in words.

I am going to be looking in a lot of detail in the future on the subject of writing. I have in fact already started a full writing course for those who have a talent or desire to do writing.

So I am not going to go into that in lot of detail right now. But I want you to just consider a little passage from Proverbs. Solomon is my source for most of these daily motivations, and when I run out of some of Solomon's ideas, every now and then I will put in some other ideas as well as my own.

Here is a great little passage which describes this process of sitting down, and on purpose tapping into the wisdom in your spirit.

Solomon said in Proverbs 8:34:

Happy is the man that continually listens to me.

He is speaking about wisdom here. Wisdom says:

Happy is the man that continually listens to me, standing alert continually at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.

He is continually listening, standing and waiting for something to come forth.

Let it Out

You can begin to tap into that wisdom in your spirit right now on a daily basis through writing. Start by sitting down and write down the first thing that comes into your mind.

You know writers have a common problem they call writer's block. Writer's block is actually caused because you want something to stir your mind and your emotions first before you write it.

But actually writing very often involves kind of a step of faith. You actually just step out and say the first thing that comes into your mind.

Have you ever tried that? You would be amazed what comes out, sometimes often something you didn't premeditate. It just comes out and you think,

“What made me say that?”

But once you say it you actually start the stream flowing. And before you know it a lot of other things will come out.

Now the exact same thing happens with writing. If you already have thoughts and pictures that is wonderful. You have a starting point. But the key is to sit down and to write down the first thing that comes into your mind.

If nothing comes into your mind then a good way to do it is the way that you would start a conversation with somebody. You would start with an opening statement or question.

Hold a Conversation

Imagine that you are now speaking to somebody else. Except instead of expressing those words out loud verbally you actually write them down.

Ask yourself a question and write it down.

“So how are you feeling today Bill?”

That sounds pretty childish doesn't it? But give it a try and then write an answer to it immediately.

Imagine you are holding a conversation with yourself. Or imagine you are holding a conversation with somebody else; perhaps an imaginary person. Perhaps you could choose a famous person or even Solomon himself.

I would say,

“Solomon I would like to know exactly how this wisdom worked in you. Give me some ideas.”

Then I am going to imagine in my mind that Solomon is sitting with me.

If you are doing this you are going to picture him in whichever way you imagine Solomon looked. And then you are going to hear his words coming out. Write down whatever the first thing is that comes to your mind.

Perhaps that may sound a bit weird to you. Probably the safest way to do it is to actually imagine you are sitting down with the Lord because that is fine.

You go to Him in prayer and you are used to speaking to Him as a person you can't see. So journaling mostly tends to be spiritual, because you are actually doing it as a kind of a prayer.

And so you write down what you want to say to the Lord. Then you write down what you can hear Him saying back to you again in your mind.

Some people have developed this very powerfully. And those who flow in a Prophetic Ministry can actually get a message from the Lord that way.

But a lot of people can't do this. Many people have a problem with journaling because it has become so spiritual. So let's make it simple. Let's make it perfectly natural.

Sit down and write the first thing that comes to your mind. Imagine you are like a person playing a game of chess against yourself.

You have seen this. There is the chessboard. You sit and you move a part. Then you go and sit on the other side of the table and you play against yourself. That sounds really stupid, but I want you to keep this picture in your mind.

I want you to imagine that when you are journaling this is what you are doing. I want you to ask yourself the questions that are troubling you.

Ask yourself, “So what are you going to do now? What do you think is the wisest thing to do right now?”

Then I want you to go and sit on the other side of the table. Now you are going to be the counselor who is going to give the answers.

What kind of counsel are you going to give? Well if you knew the answers you wouldn't have asked the question in the first place would you?

Your counselor is deep down inside of your spirit. So in a sense what you are doing is you are letting your mind hold a conversation with your spirit.

You will be amazed what your spirit says back. You will be amazed at the words of wisdom that will come out and that you will find yourself writing down. You will think,

“I didn't know I had that in me.”

Well you didn't have it in your mind but it was in you. It was deep in your spirit. And if you are a child of God you have the Holy Spirit in there helping it along. You also have God in you to give you all of His wisdom that you can tap into.

Write Every Day

Isn't that an awesome way of doing it? I want you to try it now. Try it every day. On a daily basis sit down, just take a short bit of time and write down the first thing that comes to your mind. Or sit down and hold a conversation.

Instead of going out and looking for all the books to find the answers; instead of running around trying to get advice from other people all the time, why don't you sit down and ask yourself?

Or better still, why don't you ask the Lord? Ask Him, then sit and listen to the answer that comes up in your spirit and write the first thing that comes out.

You might start writing garbage, but as you keep going you will find that it begins to flow and begins to get clearer. And before you know it amazing wisdom will start coming up out of your spirit.

Every single human being has the ability to journal. You don't have to run around and wait for other people to give you of their wisdom.

Yes it is wonderful that people have put their wisdom into books and are there to give counsel and advice. But first, before you do that, tap into your own spirit.

There is another passage in Proverbs 5:15 that says:

Drink waters out of your own well and out of your own cistern.

You have more than enough there to tap into before you even need to go and tap into other people's wisdom. Try it and you will be amazed what comes forth.

See how you go, and I will share something more with you tomorrow.