I’ve met many Christians who want to see more of God in their lives. What they often don’t realise is that their experience of His power and presence is tied to their imagination. Now, when I say “imagination,” most Christians think I’m talking about fantasy or mind over matter. I’m not talking about either one. Did you know that Scripture has a lot to say about the imagination? When it’s used in a positive sense, Scripture calls it hope!
For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Romans 8:24The part of you that hopes is a result of the part of you that imagines. How? Because when you hope, you’re creating a mental picture of what you’d like to see happen. There are many scriptures on this topic. Let’s start with a verse in Hebrews.
You could say it this way: Faith is the substance of your positive imagination, the evidence of things not seen. According to this verse, faith brings into reality the things that you positively imagine. It’s like your spiritual womb. Your imagination will conceive what God’s Word says, and then faith brings to birth the things that you’ve conceived.
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
When I’ve heard people use the word hope when talking about receiving from God, I’ve heard others criticise them, saying, “You don’t need to hope; you need to believe!” They don’t realise that without hope—without a positive imagination—you can’t believe! If there’s nothing hoped for, faith doesn’t have anything to give substance to.
It’s not just believe and receive. You have to conceive the Word, then you believe what it says, and then you receive what it promises. You might ask, “How do you conceive the Word of God?”
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1
You could say it this way: Faith is the substance of your positive imagination, the evidence of things not seen. According to this verse, faith brings into reality the things that you positively imagine. It’s like your spiritual womb. Your imagination will conceive what God’s Word says, and then faith brings to birth the things that you’ve conceived.
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
Isaiah 26:3
The Hebrew word for mind in this verse is “yetser” which means conception, which is also translated as imagination. I don’t know if that helps you, but it blesses me! This is so important, because there are a lot of people who look at hope as a non-issue. As a matter of fact, many faith people have down played the role of hope. It says in 1 Corinthians 13:13,
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
People in the faith crowd, of course, will emphasise faith. And they understand the importance of love and how it’s the greatest of all. But did you know that hope should be right up there as one of the greatest forces, with faith and love?
When I’ve heard people use the word hope when talking about receiving from God, I’ve heard others criticise them, saying, “You don’t need to hope; you need to believe!” They don’t realise that without hope—without a positive imagination—you can’t believe! If there’s nothing hoped for, faith doesn’t have anything to give substance to.
It’s not just believe and receive. You have to conceive the Word, then you believe what it says, and then you receive what it promises. You might ask, “How do you conceive the Word of God?”
Proverbs 23:7 says,
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
What you think or meditate on is how you conceive things, whether good or bad. If you meditate on your circumstances, that’s what you’ll conceive. It’ll be a self-fulfilling prophecy! But if you meditate on what God’s Word has to say, you’ll conceive what
God’s Word says. It’ll change everything about you—how you see yourself, your circumstances, everything.
That’s powerful! I hope you are getting this.
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night
Psalm 1:1–2 (emphasis added)
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
Psalm 2:1 (emphasis added)
The word meditate in Psalm 1:2 is the same word that’s translated as imagine in Psalm 2:1. Your heart is like soil that’ll grow whatever thoughts are sown into it (Mark 4:26–28). What goes into your heart is what you imagine happening. Your imagination will go in the direction of your dominant thoughts. That’s why you have to make sure that you guard your heart (Prov. 4:23).
You know, if don’t have a specific place to go, well then any old road will do. You could just head in any direction because it wouldn’t matter. But if you want to go in a specific destination—say from Texas to New York—you have to picture in your mind where New York City is and visualise the direction that you’ll be going.
Whether you look at a map or use a GPS, you have to move in a certain direction. You have to have the end goal in sight. And if you’re travelling a long distance, and it’s going to take you more than one day to get to a certain place, you know what? You have to have some idea that you’re going to spend the night somewhere along the way. You have to think about these things. All of that is your imagination.
Some of the things I’m saying are hard to put into words because I’m talking about things you can’t see. But this is the way I live! My ministry and my relationship with God would not be where they are today without putting these things into practice. There are a lot of goals that I’ve set that I believe are from the Lord. The only way that I know I’ll get there is if I imagine the things God has put on my heart and meditate on them. When I do, they’ll paint a picture on the inside of me that I’ll be able to see manifest through faith. They are going to come to pass.
Sometimes it may not look like it, but you watch: whether it’s finances or healing or whatever, I am going to have all that I need to accomplish everything that God has told me to accomplish. Whatever I do shall prosper!
I really believe that the things I’m sharing with you will change your life. If you want to experience more of the supernatural power of God, if you want to see more of His provision, if you want to see more healing, this is the way to do it. I encourage you to get my teaching titled The Power of Imagination. It’s available in CD and DVD formats and as a book. To order you can go to awme.net/imagination, or call our UK Helpline at +44(0)1922 473300.
We love you!
Andrew and Jamie
Andrew and Jamie
The Power of Imagination
In Andrew Wommack’s teaching Believing Is Seeing, learn how to use your imagination to discover all that God has for you.
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