THE SUBCONSCIOUS — OUR COMPUTER
by
Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001)
(Chapter 17 from Dr. Hyle's excellent book, Justice)
"When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee: And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat. Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee." Proverbs 23:1-7
The conscious is the mind. The subconscious is the heart. The mind is like a computer. The subconscious mind is like that which is programmed into a computer. When you type something into a computer, it shows up on the screen. There is a key you can press that will delete that material and thus prevent it from being stored in the computer's memory. The typing of that material is similar to our conscious minds. Sometimes you cannot stop something from being entered onto the screen of the computer, but you can keep it from being stored in the memory of the computer. There is a way you can delete it!
I have tried for many years always to keep my mind on what is fair and right. I want to share with you some of the things I have used to keep unjust or judgmental thoughts from being stored in the subconscious memory of my mind and heart.
When a thought enters your minds, it can either be stored in your heart or deleted before it gets there. That is why the Bible says, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he." No one actually thinks with the heart, but the heart is the subconscious mind. How can you protect your heart in this area of justice?
1. Get a reputation for not listening to bad things. It is better not to allow something onto the screen of the computer that you do not want stored inside the memory of the computer. There are people who do not listen to bad, and those people are two steps away from thinking about things that they should not. It's not in their mind because they refuse to listen to it. There are very few Christians who live this way.
Years ago, Dr. Curtis Hutson was experiencing a rebellion at The Sword of the Lord. Some people were trying to get him removed as editor. Dr. Hutson called me and told me that he was in trouble if I did not come and help him. I flew there to fight for him, and we were able to overcome the rebellion. I met with some of those who were against Dr. Huts on, but who were still my good and loyal friends. I asked them why they did not come to me for advice before they rebelled. They told me that it was because they already knew where I would stand. They knew I would defend God's man! Because of my reputation, the bad things they were saying about Dr. Hutson never got on the screen of my mind. If you get that kind of reputation, people will seldom bring gossip and slander to you. This will help you the rest of your life.
2. Stop people in their conversation if you see bad coming. I want to keep bad things from getting to my subconscious mind. If I cannot keep it off the screen of my mind, before all of it gets put there, I am going to try to stop it from being finished. I am going to avoid as much of it as I can. Often people will ask me if I heard the news about someone. I ask them if it is good or bad. If it's bad, I stop them from telling me any more. I do not want to hear it. If it is in my area of judgment, and if there are two witnesses, I must listen. Otherwise I try to stop it when I see it coming.
If you cannot stop it and it gets on the screen of your mind, immediately say, "It isn't true!" or "I don't believe it!" Then the next time you see that person or think of him, you will have those
words entered right beside the accusation. If you do think of the accusation in your subconscious mind, it will be accompanied by the fact you do not believe it and that it is not true! You must come to the place in your life where you do not want bad to get into your mind, or you will soon have an evil subconscious mind. Protect your heart, or you will become evil as well. You must fight to prevent evil thoughts from being stored in the computer of your mind.
3. If you have heard it, immediately talk about something else. Before those words are allowed to be stored, change the subject to get your mind off the evil and on something good. Before the thought lodges in your heart, you must quickly shoot it back out. The best way to do that is with another thought. The best way to get another thought is to say something else. If you want to change your thought process, start talking! Talking occupies your mind more than just thinking. Talking aloud will change the way you think. It is difficult to think of one thing when talking about something else.
Every place I go I have things planned to talk about because almost everywhere I go somebody wants to tell me something bad. Sometimes I even take along some notes so I am prepared to change the subject if someone begins to tell me bad. I would rather be rude than to allow my mind to be filled with garbage.
Your subconscious mind will judge a person to be guilty if you allow the accusation against that person to enter your subconscious. The most effective way to destroy someone is to bombard people with lies about them. Every time the bad enters their minds, it will by association cause people to condemn the individual. Tragically it gets into the subconscious mind of most people, and the subconscious mind convicts the accused.
4. Do not allow your mind to picture it. You can put pictures in your mind, or you can keep them out of your mind. If you do not keep that picture out of your mind, your subconscious will have stored a picture of someone doing something bad that they have been accused of doing, even if they did not do it. You must not let that happen! You cannot serve God with that type of mind. Eventually that is what you will become.
5. Do not read about it. Anytime you read something, it is programmed in the subconscious mind, and you cannot get it out of your mind. Avoid reading materials that will tell you things that you do not want stored in your subconscious mind.
6. Do not think about it a second time. The second time you think about something it is in the subconscious mind. Control your mind. Paul tells us to think on certain things. Why? To keep control of your mind and to avoid the polluting of your subconscious. You would be amazed how much becomes stored in your subconscious mind, including the negative. It is there, and you will never get it out, but you can fix your mind on the right thoughts so that the bad thoughts will not enter your mind.
7. Do not believe it, and do not disbelieve it. When something is said, do not make any judgment whatsoever! That is called "no decision." It is the third position: (1) guilty, (2) not guilty, and (3) no decision. There is a place in your mind that allows you not to make a judgment of guilty or not guilty. Let me tell you when you should use this concept of "no decision."
(1) Any time it is something that is not in your area of responsibility. If you hear something bad about someone who is not in your area, you are to make no judgment. Fundamentalism is infested with negativism. We have come to the place where we seem to like garbage. We hunt for it. We relish in it.
(2) When it is information that someone heard.
(3) When there is only one witness.
(4) When there are two witnesses and I still cannot prove it to be true.
You have one mind, and you can either fill it with evil or you can protect it from evil. If you fill your heart with evil, you will become evil. Fill your mind with good reports of people instead of bad reports. The reason why I have been a happy person is because every day of my life I protect my mind. I refuse to allow my mind to be a garbage dump!
