Review
1. Creativity includes innovative
solutions to problems, innovative responses to life
situations, and so on.
2. Not a matter of simply rejecting
traditional methods.
a. Traditional methods usually produce good results.
b. Instead, recognizing that sometimes there are better ways.
3. God knows the best way to solve
every problem, the best response for every situation.
a. Question: Are you satisfied with good results from
traditional methods, or do
you want superior
results from God's innovative methods?
4. Last week: Preparing
to receive God's creative ideas.
a. Develop a relaxed attitude.
b. Focus attention on God.
c. Be receptive.
d. Anticipate spontaneous ideas.
Next few weeks: Stages of Creativity
1. Identify
2. Investigate
3. Ponder
4. Evaluate
5. Implement
First Stage of Creativity: Identify
1. Definition: You see a
problem, a need or a solution, and you decide to work on it.
Hearing God's voice
1. Cultural emphasis: logical,
rational, analytical thought.
a. reject things that don't make sense.
b. comes naturally to me.
c. may seem ridiculous to consider hearing God's voice.
2. As Christians, accept idea that
God communicates with us.
a. Very few have heard God's voice audibly.
b. Does that mean God speaks to very few people? No.
3. If you are a Christian, God
speaks to you.
a. Spontaneous thoughts.
i. Not part of your thought pattern.
(1) May or may not be related to thought pattern.
ii. Sometimes "floats" into your mind, develops.
iii. Sometimes arrives suddenly & clearly.
b. Inspiration, revelation.
i. Sudden understanding, new idea.
ii. Often spontaneous.
iii. May or may not be related to conscious thought.
c. Impressions, intuition, hunches, gut feelings
i. Comes from beyond conscious thought.
ii. May be difficult to explain in words.
iii. Possibly cannot justify idea rationally; may not "make sense" but
"seems
right."
4. Problem
a. God is not only source of these types of thoughts.
b. Must learn to identify them, test them.
c. 3 sources of ideas: God, Satan, yourself.
d. Your ideas come from mind or spirit.
Your Own Thoughts
1. Nature of your thoughts
a. Conscious thought
i. Usually result of linear thinking, progressive building
of ideas; A leads
to B, which leads to C.
ii. Conscious thought consists mostly of what you know or have
experienced.
iii. Knowledge is basis of creative thinking; new ideas usually based on
old
ones.
(1) Issue: What do you do with your knowledge?
(2) Creative thinking allows you to look at old information in new
ways.
(3) Innovative thinking is looking at same thing everyone else does,
but thinking something different.
b. Subconscious thought
i. Impressions, intuition, hunches, gut feelings, revelation,
sudden insight.
(1) Emphasize: subconscious thoughts may come from your spirit.
(2) I suspect: spirit & subconscious mind interact continuously.
(3) We may discover they are the same.
ii. These may be from your spirit, but not always.
(1) You make decisions on basis of experience, knowledge, desire
&
emotion.
(2) Your mind quickly integrates many types of information,
resulting in "snap decisions" or impulsive decisions; based on
subconscious thought.
(3) Even major decisions can be based on hunches, relying heavily
on subconscious thought.
(4) Decisions based on subconscious thought draw on previous
experiences
(a) Tend to be conservative & based on habit.
(b) Often not innovative.
iii. Many creative acts are precede by an "Aha!"
(1) Idea suddenly comes from somewhere other than conscious
thought.
(2) From subconscious thought, your spirit, or God, or Satan.
2. Content of your thoughts
a. Based on your knowledge, experience, emotions, preferences.
b. Usually consistent with your character; about something
that comes naturally to
you.
3. Results or your thoughts
a. Variable
Thoughts from Satan
1. Nature of thoughts coming from
Satan
a. May be gentle, alluring.
b. May be forceful, demanding attention.
c. Whether gentle or forceful:
i. Doesn't go away; persistent.
ii. May solicit strong emotional commitment, response.
d. May prefer secrecy, or lack of examination (Don't think
about it; just do it!)
2. Content of thoughts coming from
Satan
a. Appeals to your ego.
b. May violate God's nature or biblical principles.
c. More likely ignores God's nature & principles, concerned
primarily with its
own fulfillment.
i. Enticement or pleasure of thought pushes aside any concern
about God.
3. Results of thoughts coming from
Satan
a. Inflated ego, affirmation of self.
b. Maybe a sense of urgency, anxiety or confusion.
Thoughts from God
1. Nature of thoughts coming from
God
a. May seem like intuition, impression.
b. Occasionally forceful, urgent; but rare.
c. Usually comes easily, gently.
i. Often seems delicate, easily lost or overpowered by normal
thoughts.
ii. Easily ignored or forgotten.
iii. Sometimes is gentle but persistent.
d. Welcomes examination, testing.
i. Come, let us reason together; let's talk this out &
examine it.
ii. Prove me; test me & verify that I'll do what I say.
2. Content of thoughts coming from
God
a. Often enlightening, encouraging.
b. Often consistent with your character.
i. God gave you your character, works in cooperation with it.
c. May be inconsistent with your character.
i. A clue that it's not your thought.
ii. May seem unnatural or uncomfortable.
iii. Requires greater dependence on God for fulfillment.
iv. Isa 55:8-9 "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are
your
ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than
the
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your
thoughts.'"
v. Some would interpret this verse to mean that anything God
wants you to
do will be uncomfortable, unpleasant, difficult or weird.
(1) Not always true.
(2) Will occasionally be true; God's ways may seem foreign to you
simply because he is so superior to you.
vi. He often has you do things differently than you would normally
do.
vii. He may have you consider something you thought you had already
considered enough.
viii. Since he can distinguish between causes and
symptoms, he may have
you consider something that seems unrelated; in reality may be real
cause.
3. Results of thoughts coming from
God
a. Greater faith, peace, enlightenment.
i. Always benefit you in long run.
ii. Circumstances may deteriorate, but they are only a small part
of your
situation; and only temporary.
b. Increased humility (as long as you don't take responsibility
for the results!).
Creativity, True to Your Nature
1. A psychological study showed
we are more creative if left alone to do what we love.
a. Internal motivation
i. Includes love of challenge, interest in the problem or area
of specialty,
enjoyment from working on problem.
ii. Doing what you enjoy, or what comes naturally.
iii. Internal motivation produces greatest creativity.
b. External motivation
i. Includes status, reward, affiliation, need for income.
ii. External motivation produces least creativity.
iii. Pay & status may be benefits of creativity, but are poor motivators
for
it.
c. Conclusion of psychological studies:
i. You can increase your creativity by spending more time in
activities that
offer you greater internal reward.
2. Based on our interpretation
of character & motivational gifts:
a. You will be most innovative & creative in areas that
come naturally to you.
b. Innovation & creativity mean something different for
each of us.
c. An innovative administrator, innovative prophet, innovative
mercy person may
all have creative
solutions to the same problem, and all solutions may be
different.
i. All can still be from God.
ii. All can still be effective.
iii. Each can be true to character of person who had or received the idea.
iv. This seems illogical, because logic tells us there is only one
right/best
answer.
Conclusion
1. Initial stage of creativity
is identifying a problem or need.
2. In initial stage, you will
get better results if you determine source of innovative idea.
3. Select those ideas that come
from God or your own spirit.