We have spoken about a spirit being able to bring a change upon the physical world. We spoke about creation requiring an image, a picture or a template to work on. 

A template is something that most of us use all the time. The guys who are into electronics know what it is like to have a circuit diagram.

Usually you convert that into a special little circuit board that is made with brass and is all etched out. All you need to do is just drop the components into place, and you have yourself an electronic device. 

The women know what it is to use templates if they do any dressmaking. They pull out the pattern, and the pattern consists of each part of the garment.

They just pin it to the material and then cut it out. It is a template, a form or a pattern. 

God Works by Patterns

God always works according to patterns. When God spoke to Moses up on the mountain and gave him the Ten Commandments, God gave Moses a pattern.

He gave him a picture of the Tabernacle, the place where His presence was going to dwell, and where God was going to meet with His people. 

He was very particular about the pattern because He said to Moses, "Make sure that you make everything exactly according to the pattern." 

God gave precise dimensions of every single part of that Tabernacle. He didn't say to Moses, "Well make the ark about so big." 

He told it in detail, with exact dimensions, and He said, "Make sure that you make it just the way I gave it to you." 

God has designed this whole world and universe according to patterns. If you study the stars and you see how they travel in their orbits, you will see that there is a clear order and pattern. 

We Live According to Patterns

That is why natural laws could be derived, because they always work the same. They work according to a pattern. And we as human beings live our lives according to a pattern. 

You have a pattern every day. You wake up at a certain time. Perhaps you have a morning meal, or you travel to work.

Whatever it is that you do with your day, you tend to follow a pattern. And while you are following this pattern you feel very comfortable.

You don't need to think about it, you fall into it naturally, and there is no stress. If you want to put a person under stress, make him change his pattern. 

My son had a real problem with changing his pattern when he was small. He had it down to the point where when he went to bed at night, he left in a certain way.

He greeted each person in the exact order with the exact same words. And he expected to hear us reply to him with the same words. 

If he made it to his room and suddenly remembered that he had left someone out, he came back and went through it all over again. And woe to anyone who did not respond according to his pattern. It made him uncomfortable and he got all stressed out. 

We are all like that in some way aren't we? We like our little comfy patterns. We are used to doing it that way and we resist any change to the pattern.

Early Templates

We learn that actually right from the beginning from when we are little babies. The baby starts out in this world knowing very little else except, "I'm hungry." 

A baby soon learns that the way to have this need met is to make a noise. It learns that if you make a loud enough noise for long enough, sooner or later somebody is going to shove something in your mouth.

It is going to supply something that tastes good and satisfies that inner craving. They soon learn the pattern. And the pattern is, "I am hungry. I open my mouth and cry, and somebody shoves something in my mouth. Easy; just follow the pattern." 

As they start to grow up they begin to realize, "If I want to get attention I need to do certain things. And if crying doesn't work, maybe sometimes it takes the opposite. Maybe before I get the kind of response and attention that I want, I need to learn to shut my mouth." 

Children soon begin to learn that in order to get love and attention from those about them, they have to perform in a certain way. They learn to develop a pattern or a template to life. It is a template that says, "If I want to get these people to like me, I have to behave for them in a certain way.

If I want to get what I desire from somebody else, I have a price to pay and I have to change my behavior and act in a certain way. I know just how to turn my mom right around my little finger and get from her whatever I want." 

Kids are very clever. They soon learn your weak points, and they know what they can get away with too don't they? 

They know that if dad says, "No," the chances are mom is going to say, "Yes." And if mom says, "No," well, dad might say, "Yes." 

They know who they will ask for what. They develop patterns and templates for life. They develop ways of living, ways of avoiding pain and rejection, and ways of getting what they want.

Later Templates

Then we grow and reach the adolescent, teenage years of puberty, that awful period of transition from childhood into adulthood. When that happens there is suddenly a whole new set of rules. It has to change. 

As a young teenager growing up you want to get acceptance. You want to be treated, not as a child anymore but as an adult now. That adolescent begins to learn that if you want adults to accept you, you had better start talking like an adult. 

You had better start acting like an adult and start making everybody think you are an adult. It may take a little bit of adjustment and also changing your appearance to look like an adult. 

I remember making an arrangement with my daughters, that when they turned 13 they got makeup for their birthday. This was because I considered them old enough to begin to start acting like adults and we encouraged it.

Of course these days girls start a lot younger and makeup is no big deal any more.

When a child goes through a growing stage, new things begin to happen. Adolescence is a very important growing stage. 

A new template and a new pattern for life begins to form. And it doesn't take long for that young person coming into adulthood to learn that you cannot play with the kids anymore, nor can you act like a fool anymore.

You cannot be childish and do childish things anymore. You have to start acting like an adult now. You are different. If you wish to respond to the adult world out there you will have to behave in a different way.

New templates have to be formed. The old ones don't work. You cannot cry and throw a tantrum to have your way as an adult. Some people seem to think that they can. 

You have seen it haven't you? The 'waterworks' still function sometimes where women are concerned don't they? Take out the tissues and let it flow, and some gullible man will soon let you have your way.

It does not always work though. You have to grow up and you have to change. There has to be a different set of templates. 

Different Acts

You are now an adult and you have learned all of the little templates that work as a child, as a teenager or as an adult. And now you now begin to build yourself a repertoire.

You begin to build yourself a set of plays or acts; a set of situations or scenarios by which you conduct your life. 

Depending on what situation you are in, on what company you are in, or what problems you are facing, you will have to pull out a different template to handle that particular situation.

You will use a different one to get through a particular problem and to obtain what you want in a particular situation. 

You now have quite a large selection which you have built up over a period of time. You have built those things up by the experiences that you have had in life.

You have learned in life that when certain situations arise, this is how you handle them. Each one of us has learned to handle them in a different way. Each one of us has formed a different set of templates. 

Manifestation of Templates

As an adult you come to a situation where there are so many templates there you do not even have time to think. When you face a situation, particularly a crisis situation, it takes a matter of split seconds for you to decide what you will do. 

That is when your template begins to come into action without you even being aware of it. Suddenly you find yourself reacting in a certain way. 

When some people face a stressful situation, they just collapse and totally draw into themselves. Some begin to explode in anger. Others just grit their teeth, and they become stubborn and fight. 

We all handle situations differently. What actually happens is as you face that situation you assess it with your mind. And your mind goes inward into your heart and looks for a template. 

It says, "Hold it, I'm sure I faced this situation in the past at some stage. I have many years of recording back there. I'm sure I faced this situation once before. How did I handle this one before?" 

What happens next is automatic as your soul pulls a template out and it reacts according to it. Automatically, in split seconds and without you even having time to think why you are acting in a certain way, something triggers off. 

Somebody comes and rubs on you the wrong way and what do you do? Each person will give a different answer here. Each one will respond in a different way. 

Confusing Emotions

Templates are history that is stored in us through the experiences of life, and we respond in life according to the situations that we face.

So when you face a particular situation, what was stored way back there in experience affects the way that you respond to that situation.

It could be that the last time you faced a similar set of circumstances you had a very negative experience. It may have been an experience that was filled with negative emotions - with sadness, grief or with anything like that. 

You now face a similar situation. And suddenly coming up out of you, without you even trying or thinking about it, comes the same set of emotions. You are filled with care, fear or guilt - with whatever that emotion was.

You can't understand where it is coming from. Why do you suddenly feel this way? What has happened is a set of circumstances has been created that has caused a template to come out.

It has triggered off those emotions and feelings in you. And most of the time those previous experiences were bad and negative. 

How often do we have beautiful experiences in life? Who has had a life that was just filled with wonderful things? Can you say that nothing bad ever happened to you; that most of the time it was good things? 

Did you find that most of the time people just said nice things to you and were kind to you? Was your experience one in which most of the time you did not make mistakes, do stupid things or open your big mouth when you shouldn't have? 

Sinful Templates

Is anyone in that category? No, we live in a sinful world that is full of selfishness and evil. We are continually exposed to evil, and we learn to build templates based on evil.

The pictures that have been built into our hearts are mostly negative. As you sit watching television you just pour more of them in. You pick up books and read and pour more of them in.

You continually pour in more sin, more selfishness, more of the way of the world. That is what has regulated your thinking. It is what has built the templates of life that you live by. 

So as you go through life, face situations and have to make decisions, you make them based on sinful templates and you respond automatically. As you meet situations, you pull them out automatically. 

When you face a situation you find a little 'two-act play' that suits it. You pull it out and you go through the motions without even thinking. There is no effort involved. You do it automatically. 

Now you come to a situation where you want to walk with God, and where you want to take the power of the recreated spirit. You want to take those forces of faith, hope and love, and you want to release them into the earth.

You want to release them into your life and into your circumstances. You want to change things, to make things happen and create things. You look for a template to use, but what template do you find?

You find templates of destruction. You find templates of negativity - of criticism, fear, guilt and strife, because that is all that has been built into you. 

You have these new forces in your spirit. And you want to release them in the name of the Lord, to let His power go forth from you, but you cannot find a template. 

You are like a woman who has bought a whole new roll of material and she wants to make a beautiful garment. However all she can find are patterns for men's clothes. She wants a beautiful dress, but there is no pattern there. 

That is exactly the way we are as believers. We have new material and new resources. We have all that power waiting to go but no templates by which to make it. 

You have to start making some new templates before you can release that power or before you can create by the power of the Spirit.

It must happen before you can release that anointing into the earth to go out and create in the name of the Lord. That is what I want to deal with here.


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