Clarksville, TN – Your mind is like a computer. Every thought that flows through it, and every image that you create, is inscribed on the cells of your brain. Recall some of your thoughts and created images. Then imagine them on a motion picture screen. Would you be willing, and pleased, for that film to be shown to every Sunday school class in our land? No? Why not?
God has called us to holiness in all our thoughts. This must be our goal even when we feel too human to begin. This may seem like an impossible task, but anything less falls short of what he has asked and few Christians seem to know what it is that God has told us in his written word about holy thoughts.
You may never have considered yourself of great value, but consider this one talent alone, your ability to imagine, let your mind wander for a few minutes and see what you can create… see how endless your power is. Your mind has awesome abilities to imagine anything; this maybe the first time in your life you realized how incredible your imagination really is.
God values our power to imagine far more than any of us do. He knows why He created this power in us, and how He intended us to use it. Our creative ability is a mark of His image in us. Jesus showed the control that God originally intended for us to have. He saw the sea and the fish with a gold coin in His mouth. Jesus created it. He saw pots of water becoming wine, and the water became wine. He saw bread as multiplied, and it was multiplied. He never did anything until He first saw the Father doing it (John 5:19).
Throughout history, men and women who have reported miraculous answers to prayer have repeatedly said, “I saw it before it happened.” We “see” things all the time, but only when our power to “see” gets united with God’s power to create, do we see miracles. And they happen because that is what God originally intended.
Our imaginative power received a destructive blow when man sinned against his Creator. However, in the eyes of God, our imagination is still a holy gift. He knows its power, even if we don‘t. The Bible contains many references to God’s attitude towards our imagination. If you carefully examine the scriptures you will find that every part of your life spiritually, emotionally, and physically will be strengthened. No matter how strong or weak you are right now the Bible is a tool for us to use to make gigantic strides forward.
1) God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every IMAGINTATION of the THOUGHTS of his heart was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5)
- The result, God destroyed the world with a flood. Mans corrupted imaginations caused the faces of the entire earth to be changed.
2) The IMAGINATION of man’s heart is evil from his youth. (Genesis 8:21)
- This happened after the flood ended and Noah was able to reestablish his family on dry ground, he built and alter and made a sacrifice. God was pleased but then it was almost as if He sighed as He looked at mankind.
3) Now nothing will be restrained from them which they have IMAGINED to do (Genesis 11:6)
- This happens when men where building the Tower of Babel. God then said, “Let us go down and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech”. (Genesis 11: 7). God had to take such an action because man’s imagination had to accomplish things he was no longer permitted to do. In the beginning man’s boundaries were unlimited. Whatever he could imagine, he could do. Later God found it necessary to say, “Many evils and troubles are befallen them… for I know their IMAGINATION”. (Deuteronomy 31:21). Although our ability and power to imagine is sacred gift, we have long misused it.
4) These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him (Proverbs 6:16). Among the list of only seven things is: A heart that deviseth wicked IMAGINATIONS (Proverbs 6:18).
- As history unfolded, Gods attitude towards man’s misuse of his imagination hardened.
5) They say unto everyone that walketh after the IMAGINATION of his own heart; No evil shall come up on you (Jeremiah 23:17).
- The Holy Spirit inside us tells us, “You shouldn’t use your imagination to picture things that God has forbidden. “The flesh says, “But you enjoy this, what harm can it do? Surely God doesn’t care what you imagine”. God asked, “Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? Do not I fill heaven and earth? (Jeremiah 23:24).
The carnal mind always suggests, “God isn’t paying any attention to what we are thinking, and even if He does He understands that we are merely weak human beings. After all, He made you like you are, didn’t He?” God invested Himself in man through His Son Jesus.
Men “see” a machine in their imagination long before they knew how to build it. Inventors wake up in the middle of the night and write out solutions to problems they have “seen “ in a dream, We “see” solutions in the form of pictures, and they work for years to materialize our visions.
There is something special about being able to imagine things known and unknown. To God, that ability is sacred. He doesn’t want it misused. And that is exactly why evil forces have an intense desire to see that ability misused. Our minds are the battle ground; our imaginations are the trophy to be won.
If we use our imaginative power to visualize anything that represents lust or impurity, we are indirect conflict with God’s will. Men enjoy using the power of imagination to create a multitude of images that God has forbidden. For example, when man sees a woman who is attractive to him, he undresses her in his mind, bit by bit until she is completely nude. He then even use his imagination to feel what it would be like to touch her body, he can continue this mental activity until he has experienced every possible sexual act. He has taken God’s special, holy gift and turned it into lust.
Married or single women are also capable of wrong thoughts. They can see or think of a certain man and begin to picture life with him as their husband. They can imagine him filling all their emotional and physical needs. “He would listen to me, he would talk to me, he would understand me”. For a few moments he belongs to her, and again God’s precious gifts of imagination has been used in direct violation of his will.
Jesus taught us that there are sins so attractive and habit forming that even if a man came back from the dead and warned us, we wouldn’t give them up. No sins fit this category better than that of immoral thinking Jesus explain in a new way, a message God presented throughout the Old Testament. He said, “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her, already in his heart.” (Mathew 5:28).
But now I see that not only does Jesus wanted to get lust out of our believes, but has provided a way to do it, The Bible is full of scriptures to give us guidance on how to achieve a pure heart and mind.
Excerpt from Created To Believe: The Power of Praise Through Practical Biblical Truths written by Richard “Reason” Garrett
Copyright © 2011 Liberated Publishing Inc
