The Power of Suggestion

Several years ago, there was a beautiful hotel that was built in Galveston, Texas, which jutted out over the water in the bay. It had these large plate glass windows that allowed you to look out over the Gulf of Mexico. And the balconies on each room made an ideal fishing pier! It seems that right after this hotel opened, there was a fisherman who took his rod and reel and tried to cast out into the water. Somehow, though, he managed in his clumsiness to knock out some windows below him. The hotel very quickly put up signs in every room that read: "No fishing from balconies." Guess what happened? People had never given much thought to fishing from their balconies, but they suddenly thought that was a great idea! So everyone decided to try it! Even people who could care less about fishing joined in. And they kept knocking out windows. Finally, one bright administrator came up with the unlikely remedy, removing the "no fishing" signs. Guess what happened? People quit fishing and there were no more broken windows! Suggestion is a powerful thing. Somehow it places in the mind of the reader or listener the temptation to act foolishly. We fight it when we come to a “wet paint” or a “stay off the grass” sign. But even more so we fight it in the spiritual realm.  Eve fell prey to the suggestion of eating, Abraham to lying, and Achan to that of stealing.  Paul even wrestled this beast of the brain. He explains it to us in Romans. “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.  I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate I do.”  Here is a man who admits falling into the power of suggestion. Although, we read of those who contended with this culprit in the past it does not exclude us from wrestling with it in the present.  Daily we find ourselves battling with the power of suggestion. Paul well versed and loaded with experience gave us the means which allows for ongoing victory. “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” We cannot keep this force from approaching our mind but we can keep it from penetrating and overtaking our will. Foreign thoughts will always be lurking in the shadows seeking to control our actions. However, God has given us the ability to label them as spiritual opposition. But most of all He has given us the power to cast them down and to be successful when faced with the power of suggestion.