Jedi Mind Tricks

As Obi-Wan Kenobi said in Star Wars - A New Hope, "The Force" can have a strong influence on the weak-minded." Jedi use mind tricks to influence others using “The Force”.  Jedi mind tricks, most familiar from the Star Wars movies, is actually the power of suggestion. While this is a general description rather than a Jedi technical term, it has become the phrase normally used to describe forced influence on the minds of others.

According to The Urban Dictionary -  Jedi mind trick is something used by Jedi's to persuade people to do things they want them to do. This is generally achieved by the Jedi waving his hand slowly in front of his face and speaking slowly and clearly what they would like the person to believe, think or say.

Guard:   Do you have any          

                 identification

 Jedi:  We do not need any

                identification  

Guard:  You do not need any

                 identification.

Some think that is how the Holy Spirit works… taking control of us making us do stupid things we wouldn’t normally do on our own. This myth is mostly perpetuated by scenes of people in church hopping all over the place. Hopping around might be a reaction by some as they enjoy the realization that God Himself is near, good, or majestic but hopping is not a requirement of those that know the sweetness of the Spirit. God is personal and knows each one of us. If you’re not a hopper, don’t worry, God will reach you in a way that is special to you, so you know He is there.

Here’s what happens when you let Him into your life…

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stubborn rebellion and give you a heart that mirrors mine.  I will put my Spirit in you and you will have the longing to follow my decrees and the power to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land  I gave your ancestors; you will be my people,  and I will be your God.”  

Ezekiel 36: 26-28

As this Bible verse describes, the Spirit is like a welcome gift when you come to God the Father through belief in His son Jesus. You give Him your heart in trade for a new one – bought for you by Jesus.  Then you get a new spirit.  This spirit is able to talk to God through His Spirit he also puts inside you. This Spirit works with our spirit to impart knowledge and strength to our spirit so that we now want to please God.

 

Unlike the power of The Force, God’s people are never forced into belief, behaviors, and we never give up the ability to think for ourselves. God just needs a way for us to understand His ways and His heart.  In our human state we can’t really speak the same heavenly language that God speaks.  We can however, let the Holy Spirit interpret for us and to us. 

Romans chapter 8 is a wonderful letter to the Church at Rome written by the Apostle Paul. Rich in its clarity, we can go to this chapter when we need to learn more about life with the Holy Spirit and let it provide peace to our spirit. Here’s a clip from the Message version:

 “A new power is in operation in the universe. He is -  The Spirit of God. He can free you from a lifetime fated of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin. No, he didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. Along with his Son, Jesus, he on the human condition, entered the mess of humanity in order to set things right once and for all. The law on earth, weakened as it always was by fractured humans, could never have done that. The law was always a temporary solution instead of a deep healing. And now, what the law tried to do but couldn’t deliver, is accomplished when we, instead of failing over and over with human efforts, let us simply embrace what the Spirit is doing.”

The Empire Strikes Back

For a Jedi mind trick to work, the receiver has to be weak minded.  If we think the Holy Spirit works in the same way, it can be offensive to think we are not smart enough to resist the tricks. Then we look around at those hopping people and classify them as weak. We deny God access to our lives, our heart and our minds. More devastating to imagine, we hold onto our empire, refusing the exchange of a spirit that is capable of speaking with God’s Spirit. In this universe, we don’t have the power to end the wars. If asked, I’ll bet most people would say they want to find someone that could end the wars and allow us to access their all-powerful mind. We need a super hero that loves us. Isn’t that who we read about in the verse above from Romans 8:1-4?

Romans 8:5-8 continues this perspective…  “Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is also in them – the living God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into a free life. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person who ignores God and what He is doing tries to make himself into the God of his own life. It doesn’t work.”  

God loves you too much to leave you without hope and without help but, how should God get through to you? Do you want a severe disciplinarian who makes you toe the mark?  Maybe an invisible “up there” out of touch deity that makes you guess about what’s right?  Or should He come, invited, as a wise friend and counselor who wants to share truth heart-to-heart with you?    You decide.



God, you are my only hope

Lord, I believe that you are the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead. I trust that you can change my life, so I welcome you.  Even though I may still experience the limitations of sin, I want to be relieved of the self-seeking protection found in this Stormtrooper suit and experience life on your terms. It stands to reason, if you have done the same thing in others and for Jesus as he hung on the cross, you will bring me a new life as only you can, and in a way that helps me know you personally.  (Romans 8:9-10)

I am at peace to know that the moment I get tired; your Spirit is right by my side. Even when I don’t know how to pray, it doesn’t matter. Your Spirit in me makes a prayer out of my sighs and groans.   That’s why I am so sure that every detail

in my life built on my love for you

- is worked into something good.

(Romans 8: 26-28)

Click here to see a video about the power of suggestion…. I saw this a few weeks ago and it inspired todays, left over manna. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B47qG7DCjiI&feature=player_detailpage