Is Manifesting a Sin?

In recent years, the popularity of “manifesting” or “manifestation” has risen tremendously. All throughout social media, you see people posting about what they are trying to manifest in their lives or encouragement to those who should “manifest positivity” in their own lives. Yet what does the Bible say about manifesting? Is it a sin? Should a Christian practice manifestation?

Before we start to answer any of those questions, we first must answer this one: what exactly is manifesting? Manifesting is the act of trying to bring to reality things that one is thinking about. For example, people try to manifest their dream career in their life by thinking positively about it or trying to attract good energy in that area of their life. Manifestation is basically the belief that one can make anything happen by the power of positive thinking.

This New Ageist form of thinking is everywhere nowadays. If you are on social media at all, you’ll see trends of manifestation or people posting, encouraging their followers to manifest positivity. The problem is that many times, people employ this form of thinking without even taking action to bring to life what they are trying to manifest.

So, what does the Bible have to say about manifestation? Well, although the Bible doesn’t explicitly mention the practice by name, there are some verses that we can apply to this topic regardless. If we’re going to summarize what manifestation is, it would be the act of thinking positively about things that you want to make them happen. Let’s look at a verse in the book of James that may shed some light on this.

 James 4:13-16 says, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.”

Although these verses don’t explicitly mention manifestation, they are talking about taking one’s life into one’s own hands and disregarding what God’s plans are for your life. We know from Scripture that this is a sin since we are to submit to God in all things and not try to override His plan with our own thoughts. In fact, the Bible says instead in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

True Christianity is about following Christ wherever He may lead, not devoting time and energy attempting to manifest what we desire for our own lives. True Christianity is about the denial of self through the power that we receive through our personal relationship with Christ. If you want to know more about God and His Son, you can download our Amen app which will provide you with guided Christian meditation and daily Scripture readings with teachings. Download it from the App Store today!