What is manifestation?
Manifestation is part of the new age spirituality movement and it is the act or process of turning your desires into reality through your energy, thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Common practice of manifestation includes writing what you want to manifest down, putting it on your vision board, chanting it to yourself, positive affirmations, and putting reminders of it all around you. This form of manifestation is rooted in the Law of Attraction which centres around the belief that whatever energy you put out into the universe will attract things on the same wavelength as that energy and return it to you. It means the universe will respond to what you send out to it.
Is Manifestation in the Bible?
A lot of people try to reconcile this concept of manifestation with scriptures such as Proverbs 23:7.
Proverbs 23:7 ~ For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, But his heart is not with you.
They particularly take the first part of this verse to back up their belief. However, a study of Proverbs 27 as a whole will show you that this scripture is talking about the difference in people’s actions and what they actually feel deep down in their heart but it is their heart that reflects their true nature. So, this verse is not to be taken as biblical support of manifestation.
Another scripture often picked on is Job 22:28
Job 22:28 ~ You will also declare a thing, And it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways.
At first glance, this verse seems to support the principle of law of attraction that you attract what you put out into the universe but the verses prior to this put Job 22:28 in context.
Job 22:26-27 ~ For then you will have your delight in the Almighty, And lift up your face to God. You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you, And you will pay your vows.
Job 22 as a whole talks about returning to God and verse 28 is about God granting you the desires of your heart up to the point where whatever good thing you declare out of your mouth will come to pass because God wants you to delight in him. These three verses clearly show that God is at the centre of fulfilling your desires and not an energy you put out into the universe.
Christian “manifestation”.
There is also a concept of “decree and declare” amongst Christians which derived from Job 22:28 that is often used to excuse manifestation but as the bible shows, whatever you declare comes after or through prayer and it is a confirmation of your faith in the power of God not the power of the universe. Jesus mentioned in the bible that with a tiny bit of faith like a mustard seed you could command a mountain to move from one place to another and it would obey (Matthew 17:20).This is because as you declare in faith, you are leaning on God and his power. It’s the power of God responding to your faith.
When you remove God from the process, it leans towards witchcraft as it becomes more of a cosmic concept just like Karma and “putting energy out into the universe”. It might work but it won’t be from God. One observation about people that believe in new age manifestation (putting energy out into the universe) is that after it is all said and done and it works, they don’t thank God. They often thank the universe.
