Imagine That
Imagination is an important part of faith. If you can conceive it in your mind, then you will begin to believe it. When you believe it in your heart, you will confess it and receive it. You must be able to visualize the promise of God in your mind’s eye. While it is true that “we walk by faith and not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7), you must remember that this biblical truth is referring to physical sight and physical senses. You must walk according to the promise of God, but to do that, you must be able to imagine and visualize His promise coming to pass.I heard a story of two great men of faith who were riding together in a car. As they were driving, they passed a large mansion off in the distance. It was a beautiful home that looked large enough that maids and butlers would be needed to keep it running. The yard was massive and well-groomed with beautiful trees and shrubbery. When one of the ministers saw this beautiful estate, he spoke these words: “I can’t imagine living in a house like that.” The other minister instinctively made this statement: “You don’t have to be concerned about it. You never will.”Why would he make such a statement? It’s because if he couldn’t imagine it, then he couldn’t believe for it. We only receive what we believe and without belief there is no faith.God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Romans 4:17 (KJV)I call this biblical principle “calling those things that be not as though they were.” What this means is simply this: you speak the promise that you don’t see physically as though you do see it physically. But in order to do this, you must visualize it first as a completed promise in your mind. Otherwise, you will never speak it from your heart.At creation, God spoke and commanded, and all of creation came into existence. He knew what He wanted, and although it didn’t exist physically, it did exist in His mind. Then He spoke it, and it came to pass.
Can You See?
I recently heard the testimony of a woman who was legally blind and wore glasses that were as thick as the bottom of a Coke bottle. She had been prayed for many times by many different ministers, always with disappointing results to the point she didn’t want to be prayed for again. A healing evangelist came to her church, and on the last night of the meetings, he called for her to come and receive prayer. She reluctantly left her seat and walked to the front of the church.The minister asked her if she wanted to regain her sight. “Of course!” she replied. He said to her, “Take off your glasses. I am going to pray for you, and then I want you to tell me if you can see.” So he laid his hands on her and prayed for her, then said, “Now, can you see?” She started to open her eyes, and he said to her, “Close your eyes! I didn’t tell you to open your eyes!” So she closed her eyes. He said to her, “Can you see now?” Again she started to open her eyes. This time he said to her, “I did not tell you to open your eyes! Close your eyes and don’t open them.
"You’ve got to see yourself seeing before you can see.”
The woman was beginning to understand what the minister was asking her to do. So she kept her eyes closed and began to see herself seeing in her mind’s eye. She took the time to imagine what it would look like for her to be able to see. Then she opened her eyes, and her eyes were completely healed. She could see!
Visualizing the Completed Work
When I was young, there was a time when I thought I would like to be an artist. In pursuit of this, I enrolled in and attended one of the nation’s premier art institutes. On the first day of my oil painting class, the instructor gave what he felt was his most important guideline and principle for being an artist. He said before your brush touches the canvas, you must be able to see your completed work. He went on to say when you look at the blank canvas, you must be able to visualize what you are going to paint.While this may be a basic principle for an artist, it also reveals a spiritual truth. God promises freedom from the bondage of hopelessness.
But we must be able to look at the canvas of our hope that has not yet been painted and see it as a finished work.
Without a vision, the paint will go on the canvas randomly resulting in confusion (Proverbs 29:18 KJV).
Can You Imagine It?
Recently, I was talking with a lady in my church about her husband who needed healing. When I asked her if she could imagine him being well and returning to normal life, I could see a look of astonishment on her face. She was having a new thought. She said, “My goodness! I just realized I could not see him healed. I’ve been trying to do everything I thought I was supposed to do, but in my mind, all I could see was him dying or staying in the condition he is in. When it really came down to it, I could not imagine him being well. I just couldn’t imagine it! I didn’t even realize that I couldn’t imagine it until you asked me.”This lady realized she was not using her God-given ability to imagine or visualize victory. Although we are created with the capacity to visualize victory and success, the enemy tempts us to visualize defeat and failure and he uses the physical senses to do this. If you will observe children playing, you will see that they have been born with the amazing ability to pretend and to make-believe. They imagine themselves flying and being super heroes, or pretend they are a princess living in a castle. They have extremely creative thoughts and ideas. This ability is God-given.When we are young, we have so many dreams, plans, and possibilities of what can take place in our life. But for many, the ability to dream, or to even imagine something, doesn’t seem to exist anymore. Because of the continual disappointment of not seeing dreams fulfilled or watching other people step on their dreams, the ability is hidden.
The truth is, we are never beyond hope.
God has placed within us the ability to dream for victories as well as success in life. If you believe you no longer have the ability to dream, the truth is that ability is still there, but it is just covered up or weighed down and hidden by all of the hurts and disappointments of the past. As you learn to forgive and forget those things that lie behind and press forward, you will uncover and release your ability to dream. Then it simply becomes a decision. Will you dream about victory, imagine victory, visualize it in your mind, and allow the joy of hope to flow through you? Or will you decide to not think on these things, but rather dwell on the possibility of defeat, which only brings worry and discouragement that further covers up your ability to imagine?A true confession from the heart is not possible without the imagination and visualization of the victory that is promised in the Word.
Imagination and Visualization Becoming Realization
Many years ago, I knew of a young girl who attended college with my sister. The girl’s hometown had a festival every year. The main promotion was giving away a new car that a local dealership supplied. The local businesses gave away tickets from which the winner would be drawn randomly on the night of the festival.My sister’s friend needed a car and somehow it was born inside her that she was going to win this car. As she would see it being driven around town, she would think to herself, That’s my car! It was a bright red brand-new car and the promoters had a big sign attached to the top promoting the event. She would think, I hope they are taking care of my car and the sign doesn’t scratch the paint! She had conversations with other people telling them she was going to win it, to which they would reply back, “No you aren’t. I’m going to win!” Obviously, they didn’t believe either one of them would actually win it. But the girl saw herself driving it. She imagined it sitting in her driveway. She could see herself taking the car to college.The night of the big event finally came. The event host gave all the tickets a final spin in the big tumbler before reaching in and pulling out the winning ticket. Someone’s life was going to change in a moment. But who was it? Did all those months of seeing it, imagining it, believing it, and speaking it result in receiving it at that moment?It did! The girl’s name was on the winning ticket and that night her faith became sight. She actually did drive the car home, parked it in her driveway, and drove it to college. In the end, her imagination and visualization became realization.
The New Age Counterfeit
The New Age cult stole the principles of imagination and visualization from the Word of God and perverted them into a false doctrine.
From the days of Adam and Eve until today, the tactic of the enemy has been to take pieces of truth that God has spoken and mix it with principles that dilute, confuse, and deceive. They reveal a way that looks right, but in the end it leads to destruction (Proverbs 14:12). Although imagination and visualization are spiritual principles, they are only proper to use when attached to the will of God that is expressed in the good things He has promised in His Word.The enemy has taught that anything you can imagine or visualize can be yours and is completely detached from anything godly. The flaw in this principle is that man is encouraged to realize his personal fantasies and desires of the flesh without regard to God. Because New Age thinking builds upon these principles incorrectly, much of the church has ignored them completely out of fear. Too often some religious leaders have completely ignored the true principles of God because the enemy has highjacked and distorted them. We should never ignore the true operation of godly principles because someone else is operating in these principles falsely.Can you imagine someone discovering that there are counterfeit dollar bills being passed around in the community? Then because of this, they discard and throw away all of their dollar bills, not knowing whether they are counterfeit or not? Of course, not! That’s ridiculous! You never throw away what is good because bad exists.Therefore, we must never discard the true principles of the Word of God because someone else is using or teaching them incorrectly. There are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. Galatians 1:7-8
Believe You Have Received
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24 (NIV)In this verse, Jesus proclaimed the biblical principle of calling those things that be not as though they are. He said that when you ask God for something, you must believe you have already received it, and after you believe you have received it, then you will receive it. Of course, in order to believe it, you must first conceive it and see it mentally. It is virtually impossible to believe for victory without mentally seeing it first.That’s what believing in the heart and speaking out of the abundance of the heart is: speaking what you are seeing inside. The true power of the spoken word is when your heart believes what God has told you. When your heart believes, the natural result is that you mentally see the promise and you instinctively speak the promise. When Jesus said “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34), He was revealing to us how faith is activated and the promise is realized.Now there are those who will take this principle and attempt to believe for things that God has not promised. This is where the full Word of God must be taken into consideration. In other words, scripture is proved with scripture.First John 5:14 says if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. The next verse says that when we know He hears us, then we receive what we have asked. So, you can see by this verse that He only hears us when we ask for things that are according to His will. This means the principle in Mark 11:24—believing that you have received and then you will receive—is based upon the condition of 1 John 5:14 that what we ask must be according to His will. In other words, God grants our requests when we believe we have received what He has promised. Believe it! See it! Receive it!
