Divine Imagination/Knowing Christ

In my previous post, I mentioned what I refer to as divine imagination. I got this term from a song by Michelle Tumes, called "Dream." Here are the lyrics:

I believe there is divine imagination
Give it wings for it created aviation
Every little hope you're holding inside
Every little gleam you keep in your eyes

Before a seed became a flower there was a vision
The dream is planted deep, He'll shower it with wisdom
Flowing with the love that's making you smile
You've waited and you've prayed, you've dreamed your whole life
Your soul begins to fly

There's a dream in your heart

And His heart is your prayer

You can move mountains with your life in His hands

He'll tear down the walls and He'll walk where you can't

Have faith in the power to believe He's given you a dream

I pray your dream will leap beyond your expectations
You'll see miracles; He has no limitations
Listen to His voice a spark will ignite
Let him be the strength to carry your life
He'll raise your spirit high

There's a dream in your heart
And His heart is your prayer
You can move mountains with your life in His hands
He'll tear down the walls and He'll walk where you can't
Have faith in the power to believe
He's given you a dream

You will find the bloom beneath the sunshine
Reach inside and sail to His horizon
Every little hope you're holding inside
Every little gleam you keep in your eyes
You've waited and you've prayed, you've dreamed your whole life
Your soul begins to fly

There's a dream in your heart

And His heart is your prayer

You can move mountains with your life in His hands

He'll tear down the walls and He'll walk where you can't

Have faith in the power to believe He's given you a dream

Faith in the power to believe
He has given you a dream
Faith in the power to believe
Gotta have faith in the power to believe
He has given you a dream
Faith in the power

I believe that, even today, God does inspire people to write, to paint, to sing, to create and invent. And even deeper than that, I believe that He converses with those who love and follow Him. I also believe that He talks to different people in different ways, depending on our individual giftings, reservations, talents, and misgivings.

My imagination is one of the greatest gifts God gave me. God uses it to bring me closer to Him, to teach me, to guide me, to admonish and to inspire me. It’s extremely powerful, and, sadly, the devil has used it against me more times than I can count. That's why I must be on my guard at all times, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5).

In my first post I said that God (Jesus, to be more specific, in case that helps) told me to do something a little weird (fasting secular fiction for 40 days). I also said He sits in my living room, that He wears a white robe and sandals, and that He has a great smile. And no, I'm not delusional. How can I see God? Nobody has seen God and lived, right? The bible says so. And I'm not contradicting the bible here, so don't get all worked up. I'm not talking about a mountaintop experience with the unbridled power of Yahweh, like Moses experienced on Sinai. I'm talking about His gentle presence in the heart of me as a believer.

Anybody can conjure up images of Christ, or who they think Christ is, in their imagination. That's the beauty of imagination. But in order to really let your imagination be a vessel or tool for Him, you've got to know Him first. There are imitations out there, and any believer can be deceived. I know because it’s happened to me. This is why discernment—the ability to tell whether what we feel/hear/imagine/see/read is really of God, of our flesh, of worldly influence, or something else—is essential.

In John 10, Jesus tells a story to help us understand what it means to know His voice. He tells about the shepherd and the sheep. Here are his words in verses 4b-5: “…the sheep follow him [the shepherd] because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” He goes on to explain that this story is an illustration of Christ’s relationship with us (v. 11, 27): “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep…My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”

So how do we know when something is really of God? How do we know when we’re hearing His voice? It’s simple. Listen to Him. Get to know Him, and you’ll recognize His voice. And how do you get to know God? By reading the Bible and through prayer. The only way you will ever know God’s voice is if you spend time reading the Bible. And reading the Bible is a sure thing. It’s the divinely inspired word of God. It is the ultimate authority. His opinions, His personality, His very essence are contained within the words of your Bible. In fact, He and his word are one and the same. He is His word. John 1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

So, if you want to know Jesus, read the Word of God, the Bible. The entire word of God, from Genesis to Revelations. Read it over and over, for it is the voice of God. And when you’ve become acquainted with the written form of Him, you’ll start to sense His leading in your everyday life—in your decisions, in the song you hear on the radio, in the words of a friend, and in your own thoughts. Immerse yourself in the Word of God. Renew your mind by “washing” it with the Word of God.

Ephesians 5:25b-26 says “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.”

The word of God washes and cleanses us. It changes us, and it changes how we perceive the world around us.

Ephesians 4:23 tells us to “be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” The verses around it tell us how to do that, by laying aside our old sin nature and putting on the new self we received through Christ and which was created in the likeness of God, in righteousness and truth.

Romans 12:1-2 tells us to present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice to God, “and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

The mind is a battlefield. That’s where the enemy wages war against us. And that is why it is essential to renew our minds daily with the washing of the Word of God. Remember that 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”

It's fascinating really, that in my mental conversations with Him, I can only hear answers to my questions when I know the scriptural basis for those answers. Otherwise, He doesn't reply, just points me back to scripture. If I want to know His heart, I must read it for myself. But after I have read Him, I recognize Him. And, just as importantly, I learn by default to recognize what is not Him.

So I can sit here and say that yes, I can see my Messiah sitting in my living room with me (in my mind's eye). He reads over my shoulder, laughs with (and sometimes at) me, and guides me when I let Him. I disappoint Him, I'm sure. But He loves me anyway. And I want to know Him more, so that I can hear more of Him and be more like Him.

No, He's not physically there, but He is in spirit. The Holy Spirit is our guide, the One who ministers to us on a daily basis, and He knows that my imagination is very visual and is the best way to communicate with me. So He uses it, and I honestly do believe that He speaks to me at times. I just have to be still and listen…