The Holy One calls to me this morning. This new year also represents a new season of my life. As I journey with Jesus and in pursuit of my passion to write, I find myself "day-dreaming" more than I ever have before.
This morning the Holy One speaks to my concern that my "day-dreaming" could get me into trouble. I hear Him say, "I want you to use your imagination. It is a gift"! Then He takes me back to this year's promise, Psalms 37:4, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart".
I cannot help but make the connection between desire and imagination. Before I came to trust in Jesus, my mind did seem to have a dark layer over it and things I wanted or desired followed a self-satisfying lust. Once I got rescued from that darkness of my irresistible sin nature, my perspective changed and I began see things in a whole new light.
What I did not count on was the problem in the form of spiritual arrogance that came with salvation but could not protect me from the spiritual battles with my flesh that required discipline. Contrary to the thought that once we get saved we are no longer at risk for flesh failure, I discovered that flesh will still be tempted and it will put up a battle royal to have what it wants.
Flesh is never to be trusted in the sanctification process as it represents all that is at odds with our spirit and I tend to associate imagination and desire with the flesh. Because of the link we make to our flesh, most are afraid to dream or let our imagination go. We are suspicious of the supernatural and have little faith for miracles. We can get stuck in an alternative reality to the one the Lord might have available for us to experience. Heaven is to be our reality and earth is where we begin to imagine it.
I wonder where does my imagination fit into this balance between flesh and spirit? I know as with every other part of my being, I must commit my imagination to the Lord and ask Him to protect it as He protects my mind and to use it for His Glory. This conscious surrender enables me to delight in what comes next and not fear my desires.
The Holy Spirit sends me into His word for confirmation where I find Ephesians 3:20, "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever."
This verse challenges me as a part of the Body of Christ to unleash my God-given imagination to the God-given power that is at work within me to accomplish the great works prepared for us by God at the foundation of the world.
What pleases the Lord is no secret. He desires our unity and that we be bonded in love to Him and to each other. We need to start imagining a unified body with all the powerful miracles that can be brought to earth out of the Heavenly Kingdom of our Lord through a unifying agreement within the church.
What force could be stronger than the power of God's love in unity with the saints? Within the community of the church does lie all the power and gifts of the Holy One to impact and accomplish God's Divine purpose for it's existence.
Can we imagine Divine healing?
Can we imagine Marital harmony?
Can we imagine Spiritual unity?
Can we imagine doing greater works than Christ did here on earth?
If not? Why not?
Somewhere along the line we lost our ability to imagine things or ask for things beyond our own limited capacity to self provide or accomplish. This verse does not tell us to rely on or do according to our own power but rather to remember it is God's power at work within us. The verse promises we will see and experience the greater things even beyond what we ask or imagine.
If I can just begin to imagine more good than what I see and know that the Lord will do more than I imagine or ask of Him, what glorious acts of Divine intervention might we expect to see?
Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, was exhorting the Body of believers then to come into unity by the Spirit and this letter is for us today as well. With all the struggles I see in the church and between the churches, it is hard to imagine a form of unity that Paul describes as even a possibility. But that is where the power issues comes to rest, and where I must apply my imagination. What might we see God do that we cannot?
Dreaming precedes doing when God provides the dream. Imagining unity is the first step toward living it. Imagination is God's gift, I plan to start using it.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
This morning the Holy One speaks to my concern that my "day-dreaming" could get me into trouble. I hear Him say, "I want you to use your imagination. It is a gift"! Then He takes me back to this year's promise, Psalms 37:4, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart".
I cannot help but make the connection between desire and imagination. Before I came to trust in Jesus, my mind did seem to have a dark layer over it and things I wanted or desired followed a self-satisfying lust. Once I got rescued from that darkness of my irresistible sin nature, my perspective changed and I began see things in a whole new light.
What I did not count on was the problem in the form of spiritual arrogance that came with salvation but could not protect me from the spiritual battles with my flesh that required discipline. Contrary to the thought that once we get saved we are no longer at risk for flesh failure, I discovered that flesh will still be tempted and it will put up a battle royal to have what it wants.
Flesh is never to be trusted in the sanctification process as it represents all that is at odds with our spirit and I tend to associate imagination and desire with the flesh. Because of the link we make to our flesh, most are afraid to dream or let our imagination go. We are suspicious of the supernatural and have little faith for miracles. We can get stuck in an alternative reality to the one the Lord might have available for us to experience. Heaven is to be our reality and earth is where we begin to imagine it.
I wonder where does my imagination fit into this balance between flesh and spirit? I know as with every other part of my being, I must commit my imagination to the Lord and ask Him to protect it as He protects my mind and to use it for His Glory. This conscious surrender enables me to delight in what comes next and not fear my desires.
The Holy Spirit sends me into His word for confirmation where I find Ephesians 3:20, "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever."
This verse challenges me as a part of the Body of Christ to unleash my God-given imagination to the God-given power that is at work within me to accomplish the great works prepared for us by God at the foundation of the world.
What pleases the Lord is no secret. He desires our unity and that we be bonded in love to Him and to each other. We need to start imagining a unified body with all the powerful miracles that can be brought to earth out of the Heavenly Kingdom of our Lord through a unifying agreement within the church.
What force could be stronger than the power of God's love in unity with the saints? Within the community of the church does lie all the power and gifts of the Holy One to impact and accomplish God's Divine purpose for it's existence.
Can we imagine Divine healing?
Can we imagine Marital harmony?
Can we imagine Spiritual unity?
Can we imagine doing greater works than Christ did here on earth?
If not? Why not?
Somewhere along the line we lost our ability to imagine things or ask for things beyond our own limited capacity to self provide or accomplish. This verse does not tell us to rely on or do according to our own power but rather to remember it is God's power at work within us. The verse promises we will see and experience the greater things even beyond what we ask or imagine.
If I can just begin to imagine more good than what I see and know that the Lord will do more than I imagine or ask of Him, what glorious acts of Divine intervention might we expect to see?
Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, was exhorting the Body of believers then to come into unity by the Spirit and this letter is for us today as well. With all the struggles I see in the church and between the churches, it is hard to imagine a form of unity that Paul describes as even a possibility. But that is where the power issues comes to rest, and where I must apply my imagination. What might we see God do that we cannot?
Dreaming precedes doing when God provides the dream. Imagining unity is the first step toward living it. Imagination is God's gift, I plan to start using it.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
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