The Power of Imagination

Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”

What is imagination? According to “The American College Dictionary” it is “the action of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses; the power of reproducing images stored in the memory under the suggestion of associated images; or of recombining former experiences in the creation of new images different from any known by experience.”

Sounds like a complicated way of defining what my teachers used to accuse me of in school... daydreaming. In other words dreaming while you are awake. A friend of mine, Pastor Vic Schober, likes to do what he calls “imagineering.” This whole concept is very important in the pages of Scripture. Dreams were big in the Bible. Great experiences begin with a dream. Sometimes it is a dream while sleeping or what was called a “vision,” a dream while awake. We see those kind of things as supernatural events, God giving someone a dream or a vision. But the truth is that every dream or vision, whether we perceive it as a supernatural event of God giving it sovereignly and purposefully to someone or a dream that we just sit down and choose to think about, is supernatural because they bring things that do not exist into being.

Joseph’s dreams became the reality of his life. He interpreted dreams for others that predicted their future reality. Daniel’s Seventy Weeks Vision of end time events is a dream that is unfolding before us on a daily basis. Daniel interpreted dreams for others that became a reality in their lives.

I checked Naves Topical Bible and found 26 instances of dreams in the Bible. Then I checked for “vision” and found pages and pages of examples from Scripture. The book of Revelation in its entirety is a vision.

The mind is a powerful thing. I have to be careful here or some will think we are getting weird, getting into mind over matter or other creepy things. But just think (put your mind into action) with me for a moment. In the beginning God made man. The Bible said He created man in His own image. Now, God is a spirit so we can’t see a physical form. What was He referring to when He said in Genesis 1:27 “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.”?

He couldn’t mean that physically we look like God. Sorry to disappoint some of you that may think you look like a god. Image... the word is the root of “imagination.” According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance the Hebrew word translated as “image” is “tselem” and means “to shade; a phantom, i.e. an illusion, resemblance; hence, a representative figure, especially an idol.” We are the result of God’s imagination, God’s creativity. In fact, everything in creation was the result of God’s imagination at work. Doesn’t this give more reality to “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he?” Or Paul’s admonition instructing us to think on good things in Philippians 4:8?

Imagination is not just the power of man’s mind. It is the power of God in man’s mind. So everything that we have experienced, every new thing that is invented, every amazing medical miracle, every trip into outer space, and on and on it could go... is really the result of the creative nature of God imagining through us. God said of the people building the tower of Babel, “Nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” (Genesis 11:6) The old King James Version actually says, “now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have IMAGINED to do.” (emphasis mine)

So do some dreaming today. Change your future with the God given power of dreaming, seeing what is not yet present to the senses.

Prayer: Lord Jesus help me today to discipline my mind to think on those things that You dream for me, the plans You declare You have for me. You desire good for me, success for me, blessing for me. You said that you came that I could experience life to the full. Help me to become everything You have imagined for me. Make me a dreamer like Joseph. AMEN.

Blessings!
Pastor Roger