I Can Imagine It

"When we are using our mind for what steals our time and understanding, we lose our fruitfulness."

MY IMAGINATION is far too valuable to give it to the enemy.

In order to write, I must listen. In order to listen, I must clear my mind of all the stuff that would distract me. I hear less in a busy room than in a quiet one. I retain more when I refuse other voices.

In order to write, I just need to hear Him.

The Sower sowed the Word into four types of people. Four men heard it, but three of the four men didn't retain what was said. One tossed out what he heard immediately. He has no time for religion. One heard and loved it until someone else made them angry and defensive. Or embarrassed. She can't possibly look like one of those Christians. One heard, but what was said had to compete with outside entertainment and attractive advertising. Other things in his life took priority in his hearing.

The Word only grew and produced results in the one that guarded his hearing from anything else. He didn't allow the news or his financial problems, his state of health, to speak louder than God’s Word, but he valued God’s voice above anything. He guarded his ears.

When our IMAGINATION becomes crowded, we will lose the voice of the Word. The Holy Spirit wants to give us revelation which will change our thinking – on faith, on the love of God in us, on patience, on many other things – but when we are using our mind for what steals our time and understanding, we lose our fruitfulness.

The Word we hear is meant to bear fruit. We hear it and apply it to our behavior. We don't think the way we used to because what we've heard has changed us. We IMAGINE God's truth, and it grows and grows and grows beyond what we can IMAGINE. Exceedingly abundantly beyond.

God gave us an IMAGINATION so we could create fantastic things. There are artisans, musicians, and writers who do what is UNIMAGINABLE. I can't IMAGINE painting as well as some people do. Or singing a particular song as well as I've heard others sing it. I can't write like some writers. They have a way with words that I don't. But in all of these, what makes their product so amazing is what they heard or didn't hear, what they IMAGINED was applied and allowed to grow.

We pull down wrong IMAGINATION as a deliberate act. It is a choice we make. We give God our time and thinking, not allowing what people say about us, about God, about what we create to upset us. We give God our emotions. We are meant to have them. The fruit of the Spirit, that fruit He grows in us, includes emotions, the greatest of which is love.

But His love only shines in us because we pulled down the stronghold of hate. Love allowed to grow produces actions from us toward others. His joy only bubbles up because we stopped IMAGINING what made us angry, what made us grieve, what made us confused or fearful. We can stand in the dark now and say no to fear because God’s Word on how He protects us has become stronger than what makes us fearful. We can laugh in the face of adversity.

The fruit produced by the Seed of the Word when it is planted, the Seed which we have allowed our IMAGINATIONS to grasp hold of, and the growth which comes as a result of that Word, is a revelation of WHO GOD IS. Jesus came to show us the Father, but not as a picture we hang on the wall. He revealed the Father’s love for us so that what we can’t IMAGINE, the incredible things He wants to do in us and through us, become a reality.

His nature, His character, His emotions, His IMAGINATIONS grown in us produce fruit thirty, sixty, or one hundred-fold. Who He is becomes who we are, and our life, amazing on a scale we cannot IMAGINE.

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11 TLB)

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” (John 15:4)


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com