A Dis State Of Mind

A Dis State of Mind

Scriptures: Numbers 13:1-3; 25-33; 14:1-25; First Samuel 30:1-20

The title of my message this morning is “A Dis State of Mind.” How many of you are familiar with the word “Dis”? All of you have heard this word used as a prefix attached to other words. A prefix is attached to the beginning of a word to modify its meaning. For example, “un” is a prefix meaning “not.” When you add “un” to the word “wrap” it changes the meaning of the word from doing something (wrapping) to undoing what was done (unwrapping). This is the same with the word “Dis.” Dis is a negative prefix. It means not or none. When Dis is added to the beginning of a word, the meaning of the word is now changed to be the opposite of the meaning of the word prior to Dis being added. Let me give you a few examples:

• Appear and Disappear. “The sun appears over the sea in the morning and disappears behind the mountains in the evening.”

• Honest and Dishonest. “Stealing is dishonest. Now be honest and tell the truth, did you take the money?”

• Obey and Disobey. “Children will tend to disobey their parents until they are taught to obey.”

• Agree and Disagree. “It's ok to disagree with your friend. You don't have to agree on everything.”

As you can see, when “Dis” is used as a prefix, it changes the meaning of the word into its opposite. There are well over 1000 words that has “Dis” as a prefix and that my friends is a lot of negativity. This morning we are going to talk about a Dis state of mind. And please note that when we are living in a Dis state of mind we start off in a negative mentality even before we enter any situation. Remember, Dis is a prefix, meaning that it comes before the word. Likewise, when we have a Dis mentality, that mentality exists before our situation and therefore when we enter into a new situation that mentality “colors” our responses to that new situation. Because of this, a Dis state of mind will drain us mentally, emotionally and spiritually if it’s not addressed. To illustrate this mindset we will focus on one of the hundreds of words that have “Dis” as a prefix and that word is Discouragement.

The word discourage is defined as “to prevent something from happening by making it more difficult or unpleasant; to feel less motivated, confident or optimistic.” Discouragement (as it is will many of the other Dis words) is a tool that our enemy uses against us, and get this, that we effectively use against ourselves and others. Contrary to popular belief, Satan is not behind everything that goes wrong in our lives - sometimes we have a couple of hands in the situation also. The fact is when we become discouraged about a situation our views of that situation changes from a potential positive view to one that is negative. We slowly begin to lose our optimism and become more and more pessimistic about the situation. Discouragement acts as the brakes that stops the momentum that we might have in our lives. It tells us that something cannot be done and when we give in to its pull we begin to believe it. When we start to believe it all forward momentum pertaining to that situation comes to a stop because we have become discouraged. And please understand this, some people live in a constant state of discouragement where they expect all things pertaining to them to fail. Things have gone wrong so many times in their life that failure has become their normal. This morning we are going to look at two situations and the differences in their outcomes based on how each group responded to their feelings of discouragement. Turn with me to Numbers chapter thirteen. Let’s start with verse one.

“And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, ‘Send men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, every one a leader among them.’ And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.” (Numbers 13:1-3)

God had brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt and brought them to the Promised Land – the land of Canaan. It is believed that the initial trip took less than 2 months, some estimate that it was around 44 days. When they arrived, God told Moses to send out 12 men (one representing each tribe) to search the land of Canaan to prove that it was everything that He had promised. When the men returned, their report was mixed. Let’s pick up the story at verse twenty-five.