the power of sanctified imagination

The above image is of an ASML machine ~ one of the most technologically advanced devices ever to have come from....humans' imagination.  Yet, the godlike power of imagination is only hinted at by this example of humans' ability to imagine and to create such devices as an ASML machine.  Two simple but profoundly important questions seldom appear to be asked, namely:  1) Why did God invest man with the power of imagination? and,  2) How can that power properly be developed and utilized?

Imagination is the beginning, the wellspring, of creative power.  The ability to create a mental representation of things and/or circumstances that have never before existed, is built into the very nature of man's being.  It is a God-given gift.  More even than that, the power of imagination, it seems to me, must be an attribute of the nature of God's own Being.  A singular thought has lately instigated a veritable revolution in my own thinking: viz., the revelation (of Scripture) that man was made in the image and likeness of God.

Such an idea, importantly, is only discoverable by means of Divine revelation given in the Bible; it is not an idea that can be learned by any other means.  God made man to be like God.  Of course, I do not mean that man is "as" God.  Neither do I mean that man can become a deity by his own efforts.  Nor yet do I mean to detract in the slightest from the Person of Jesus Christ and of his Lordship over all of God's Creation, including mankind.

But none of that precludes our interest and right in seeking to understand both the nature and purpose of our own being ~ not merely as humans but, especially, as those who have been redeemed unto God in Christ.

I have oftentimes said that it behooves us to "take God seriously."  Not only do they go to hell, who do not take God seriously.  Unhappily, it is no less true that even among those who profess to know and believe God, few evidently even try to lay hold of much that God has intended and provided for his children, in this present life.

Imagination is truly an awe-inspiring power.  The devil understands that; so, he labors incessantly to pervert and corrupt that power in men, and tempts them to use the power of imagination to their own destruction.  Every evil word and deed among men springs forth from a wicked imagination.

But what has God intended for a sanctified imagination ~ that is to say, one that has been cleansed and healed by Christ?  For, the power of imagination must be something that God purposed to redeem in Christ.  We may justly infer, then, that man's power of imagination evidently has unspeakably great worth, in the sight of God.

God is preeminently known as the Creator of all.  God made man to be a creator.  (Even that simple declaration doubtless strikes some narrow-minded religious folks as heretical.)  But what does God desire that man should create?  If we recall what sorts of things God himself has created, we may of course understand that God wants man to be creative within the same realm which God created, that is, within the realm of Nature so-called.

In fact, Reality extends far, far beyond the reach of what is discoverable to man by any "natural" means.  There are, according to Scripture, other worlds and other kinds of beings besides what presently are seen to exist on Earth.  There are, for example, different kinds of heavenly beings including angels ~ which really exist, somewhere...

Importantly, man himself is something more than what appears in the "natural" world.  The Bible asks the question: "What is man....?"  (Redeemed) man is: a creature made in the image and likeness of God; thus possessing godlike powers; destined by God to rule over all that God has made; indwelt by God's own Spirit....

It takes my breath away to contemplate such high truths.  Then I ask myself: Am I taking God seriously?  Do I really believe such things as have been revealed to me in Scripture by the Spirit of God?  How is it then that I live, from day to day, such a beggarly existence contrasted with the noble Vision just alluded to?  I suspect it has much to do with my lack of understanding, with regard to the actual power(s) that God has placed within my own being.    I furthermore believe God wants me to seek and to obtain much greater understanding concerning my own (new) nature in Christ.  I believe God wants me to better understand how to use the power of imagination ~ for the glory of God and for the benefit of God's Kingdom (of which I myself am part).

To be a Christian, does not mean that one no longer has a mind of his or her own.  God loves individuality.  There are no two trees alike; no two stones alike; no two days alike; and no two people alike.  God did not make us to be robots or puppets, in Christ.  God invested us with power(s) to create: to imagine, to purpose, to speak, and to act.

 I believe the most important 'thing' I ought to have an interest to "create" is my own self. 
  What manner of being do I want to be(come)?    To answer that question, requires that I must use my power of imagination.  The ability actually to become that person furthermore requires that I must continue to use my power of imagination to carry forward that self-creative process.

If those kinds of thoughts are not approved of God; then, why did Jesus so often and in so many ways teach us about the possibilities of faith?  If you will pay close attention to his actual words, you will see that Jesus's teachings about faith were very much open-ended.  As a matter of fact, it seems to me that Jesus went out of his way purposefully to overthrow traditional, narrow-minded ways of thinking.

How did the prophet Elijah, for example, learn to call down fire from heaven?  (Evidently, he can still do it!)  Did God simply tell Elijah to do it, and Elijah obeyed ~ without having any notion that such a thing was even possible?  Or how did Peter learn to walk on water?  To be sure, he heard the voice of Jesus say, "Come."  But Peter first had to imagine himself actually doing it.  He did, after all, ask Jesus to bid him to do it.  Too, we know that when Peter's attention was distracted by the storm around him he began to sink. What can we learn from that example, with regard to what must have transpired in Peter's mind?  Peter must, in the first place, have imagined that he, like Jesus, could walk on water.  Though, afterwards, his imagination shifted away from the divine possibility and turned instead to see himself as being in grave danger.

I have studied extensively the teachings of numerous, well known (and some not so well known) persons whose ideas have to do with "personal development."  Without exception, every one of those teachers urges the importance of using the power of imagination to create a mental image, which then serves as a requisite precursor for manifesting the thing imagined.

Why did God give to man the power of imagination?  For, undeniably, that gift is part of man's nature by the will of God.  What, then, is the power and purpose of a sanctified imagination?  How shall God's Kingdom experience endless increase ~ without imagination working in the minds of that kingdom's constituents?  What are the limitations, if there be any, to the power of imagination?  What are the possibilities of that?

We will never know ~ if we remain ignorant, or if we are too timid to question, or...if we do not dare to take God seriously.