What is hidden belongs to the Lord, but what is revealed belongs to us and to our children forever.

These are words taken from Moses in Deuteronomy 29:29.

We ended last time by looking at ideas, and I spoke about the subject of revelation. I said that we would look further at revelation and so I am going to do that today.

What is an idea?

An idea is something original that you did not think about before. It is a revelation; a manifestation of what was hidden. And according to this Scripture, once what is hidden is revealed to us, it belongs to us, to our children and to future generations forever and ever.

Once an idea is manifested in this world, it is here to stay. It is here for keeps and for us to use over and over again. The big question of course is,

“Where does an idea come from?”

Not from Your Mind

If you have read the previous days readings, by now you should be getting the idea that most of what we have that helps us to succeed in life doesn't come from our minds.

If it did then the successful people of this world would be those that have been studying at University. They would be the ones who have all their degrees and doctorates.

In fact even today if you consider those who are the wealthiest and most successful entrepreneurs, almost without exception they usually failed at school or gave up the educational system.

You see revelation doesn't come from your mind, and good ideas don't originate from your mind.

Everybody seems to think that the mind has the power, and out there they are teaching that the power is in your mind. You have this movie called 'The Secret', which says that your key to success is what you think about.

Yes what you think about is very important. I have covered some of that already, because what you think about can change what you feel. What you think about can change some of your core desires.

Revelation Comes From the Spirit

But revelation and new ideas don't come from the mind. They originate from the human spirit, because only man can create.

Let me say that again:

Only man can create.

When I say man I am referring to mankind. These days you have to be careful when you say 'man', because the women get offended. When I say man I am speaking about humanity. Only men and women can create.

Paul mentioned something about this too. In 1 Corinthians 2:11 he said:

For which person knows all that is in man, apart from the human spirit that is inside every one?

The human spirit inside each one of us is what gives us the revelation concerning everything we need to know about humanity and mankind.

God the Ultimate Creator

Now God is the ultimate originator of all ideas. He is the ultimate creator. He produced everything. When God made man He did it because He got an idea.

You read it there in Genesis. It says:

And God said, Let us make man in our image.

It is as though God was having a chat one day with all the angels, and suddenly He came up with this brilliant idea.

“I know what, why don't we make man? Don't you think that's a great idea? Let's do it.”

You see God was the one who originated this whole way of doing things; of getting a brilliant idea and then going out and making your idea come into manifestation.

Now ideas do not come from concentration. Like I said, they don't come from the mind. Ideas come from tapping into your spirit. I want to give you some ideas of how you can do that.

Tapping into Your Spirit

Firstly, you need to have something in your mind, but deeper than your mind.

All the psychologists and self-help people out there teach you about this hidden part of the mind which they call the subconscious mind. But the truth of the matter actually is that the subconscious mind is closer to what the Bible calls the human spirit.

It is the part inside of us that guides us and controls us. It is the part inside that actually gives you the ideas and the revelation.

Feed Your Mind

Now you can feed this by whatever you put into your mind. And as you keep it in your mind it will begin to sink deep down into your spirit.

So you need to feed information inwards which you can do in two ways. The one way is to fill your mind with pictures. The other is to speak words, because words tend to produce pictures.

While you are speaking you are thinking and there are pictures being formed in your mind. What you speak about all the time and the pictures that are in your mind, sink deep down and color what your spirit produces.

Now a basic principle of teaching is this: You can only learn the unknown (something you don't know yet) from what you already know. So you learn the unknown from the known.

Here is the key to revelation. Revelation is always based on what you know. This is because revelation comes up into your mind out of your spirit in picture form. An idea comes up out of your spirit into your mind in the form of an idea, a concept or a picture.

Understanding Your Pictures

You see you don't think words. You can feed words in and you can draw words out of your spirit. But when your spirit speaks to you, it speaks in pictures. And when a picture comes to your mind, if you cannot recognize that picture you won't understand it.

Maybe you saw a picture in your mind of a candle burning down. Now if you have never seen a candle before you wouldn't know what that picture meant would you? If you had never seen a candle burn out and come to the end it would mean nothing to you.

But through your life you have had experience of lighting candles and of seeing candles burn low. And so in your mind you have a knowledge of candles; of running out of wax and burning down.

Now this picture comes into your mind and you see a candle that is burning low. You see now you can get a revelation.

Your spirit is saying something to you about a candle burning low, and usually what your spirit says is allegorical. It is not speaking about a real candle.

Your spirit may be saying to you that your power is low. You are feeling exhausted and are running out of energy. You are running out of ideas. It can mean a host of different things.

But what you know about that picture gives you the opportunity now to think of something new. That picture sparks off a new idea in you. It brings a revelation.

Start Learning

So if you want to get good revelation the first thing you need to do is to put something down there.

If you want to get revelation about business, how much have you learned about business? How much have you read about business? And how much have you observed, watched or asked people questions?

If you know nothing about business, your spirit cannot give you much revelation about it. If you know nothing about ministry, your spirit cannot give you much revelation about ministry.

Yes the pictures could come up but they wouldn't make sense to you. You wouldn't understand them. You would have to get somebody else to explain them to you.

Dreams Can Speak to You

Very often people need this because they are ignorant. They are running around asking someone to interpret their dreams because they are ignorant.

Your dreams actually are one of the best sources of revelation. That is another subject altogether and I am not going to get into this right now, but your dreams are your spirit speaking.

If you have knowledge you will understand that your dreams are giving you pictures based on what you already know, and you can get revelation. You can dream up new ideas. You could wake up having dreamed of a brand new business idea.

You could get it that way but you don't have to be asleep. You could actually just close your eyes and let the pictures come up into your mind. You can get revelation that way, but it is not going to come from concentration.

Using Words and Actions

How do you tap into your spirit?

Anybody who knows my teachings knows that there are only two ways to tap into your spirit. It is through words and actions. While you are talking, ideas pop up into your mind.

Haven't you noticed that you are busy having an ordinary conversation with somebody. Then right in the middle of the conversation while you are busy talking, suddenly something jumps into your mind.

You think, “Hang on, why don't we try that?”

Sometimes you can let your mind rest and just do something else. You may be a housewife and you are busy working in the kitchen making lunch. While you are busy with that, your mind is in neutral and suddenly an idea pops into your mind.

You think, “Why don't I try and cook this food in a different way?”

“Why don't I try adding a different spice or a sauce or something like that? I have never thought about that. I've never tried it before. Let's give it a try.”

Ideas come out of your mind. Why? Because you were busy doing something but your mind was at rest. Your spirit was free to pop up and put some ideas into your mind.

And so as you learn to relax your mind, you actually give your spirit the freedom to rise up, to give you revelation and bring you new ideas.

Brainstorming

One of the most common ways of getting new ideas is a principle that has come to be known as brainstorming. Have you ever heard of brainstorming? A lot has been written about it. In fact whole books have been written about it.

Brainstorming is when you get a group of people together and you begin to discuss different ideas and plans. So you say,

“Okay we want to increase our cash flow in the business. How should we do it?”

One person says, “Well why don't we try this?”

Another person says, “Why don't we do that?”

Each person gives their ideas, and right in the middle of it as you are sharing ideas, suddenly somebody says,

“Hang on why, don't we do that?”

Everybody says, “That's a brilliant idea. Why didn't I think of that?”

Well how did it come? It didn't actually come by storming the brain or by heavy concentration. It actually came by words.

While you were speaking and sharing, and while each person was speaking and you were hearing their words, your spirit became stimulated. And in the middle of it something popped out of your spirit and into your mind.

The Key is Relaxing

You see you cannot by an act of your will sit down and concentrate until you get ideas. When do your best ideas come? They usually come when you are doing something that doesn't require thinking.

Now if you are like me you might get ideas in the strangest of places, like while you are in the bathroom. Your mind is in neutral and you are not really concentrating on anything.

It can be while you are lying in bed at night before you go to sleep. It can be while you are chilling out listening to music, or just staring into space and letting your mind roam and do what it wants to do.

It doesn't take concentration. It takes actually relaxing your mind and quieting the thoughts in your mind so your spirit can speak.

Write the Ideas Down

What do you do when you get an idea? Write it down because ideas are fleeting. They disappear as quickly as they come.

You should have a pen and paper, a PDA or something next to you at night when you go to bed. Because usually as you lie down to go to sleep, before you drift off as your mind is relaxed and you are just letting your thoughts flow, some great ideas might pop up out of your spirit.

You think, “That is a brilliant idea. I must remember to try that tomorrow.”

Tomorrow you get up and you think,

“I had a brilliant idea last night. What was it again?”

You don't remember. You remember vaguely but the pictures aren't there anymore.

Write down those good ideas and I am going to show you tomorrow what you can do with those ideas.

For now, why don't you just learn to tap into your spirit and get revelation? Get some new ideas and make yourself up a book of ideas.

I don't want you to actually try and put those ideas into practice yet. I will show you tomorrow how to do that.