A Journey Through Perception Shifts
I used to focus a lot on crafting lessons.
I take insights from reading God’s Word, format them into a structured teaching, and hope to inspire perception shifts in those who listen.
This approach feels natural—it’s how we’ve been taught to share knowledge.
But the responses to these lessons vary widely. Some people recognize the information and hold onto it. Others keep only what resonates with them, and still, others discard it altogether.
When someone recognizes the information, they assign a value to it—positive, neutral, or negative. A positive value might lead to excitement, a neutral response might sound like, “It was okay,” and a negative value could arise if the lesson touched on something painful or challenging.
For the longest time, I thought that recognition and retention of information were the keys to growth.
But I’ve come to see that behaviour shifts matter too.
Christian growth, in my opinion, isn’t about simply knowing more. Growth is about transformation—how knowledge shapes how we live. I’ve come to believe that behavior is made up of four components:
- Acting: What we physically do.
- Thinking: The thoughts that guide our actions.
- Feeling: The emotions that arise.
- Body Language (Physiology): How our non-verbal cues express what’s within.
When we align our acting and thinking with God’s truth, our feelings and body language follow naturally. Growth in behavior means having all four components—acting, thinking, feeling, and body language—working together to glorify God.
Here’s an example: There was a time when I was deeply worried about my finances. My thoughts were consumed with wondering what I could afford to eat, and my natural reaction was to constantly check my accounts.
But then, I remembered “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33, NIV).
I decided to act differently.
Instead of chasing after solutions, I focused on prioritizing God’s kingdom. I continued my spiritual disciplines and gave God both my time and finances, even though it felt counterintuitive.
Over time, my thoughts shifted as I trusted God’s promise to provide.
Gradually, my feelings of peace grew, and even my body language changed.
My shoulders weren’t hunched with tension, and my interactions with others reflected calm assurance rather than anxious energy.
Where Perception Meets Behaviour
For me, the real challenge is bridging perception shifts into behavior shifts. I believe this is where the Holy Spirit works most powerfully, taking the truths we recognize and turning them into lived reality.
It’s not about perfection. Some days, I see how far I’ve come; other days, I see how far I have to go. But what encourages me is knowing that growth isn’t a single moment; it’s a lifetime of aligning more closely with God’s heart.
Final Thoughts
Someone experienced once shared with me that it is difficult to have a perception shift without a behaviour shift.
My preliminary thoughts that made sense to me is this:
If I continue to be set in my ways (my acting and my thoughts), then it is unlikely that I would gain new information/perspectives from God by living my life the same way.
If I continue to add on in my sets of behaviours of Christ-like behaviour (which also includes reaching out to people), then I can grow from what God is showing me in my daily interactions with people.
There is time and space for direct information giving as a teacher – there is also time and space to consider if collecting new information without applying the information in our world, is helping us grow our set of behaviours too.
In my cells, we switched from the leaders preparing lessons, to the cell members providing questions and answering each others’ questions.
This year, we will be including some lessons prepared by the cell leaders for some direct information giving – the cell is a space for everyone, for both kinds of learning paths.
A Question for Us
Growth often involves both perspective shifts and behavior shifts, and the two are often closely connected.
As we reflect on our journey, how might our perspective and behavior be related to each other in ways we haven’t yet considered?