Healing - The Power of Your Imagination

The Power of Imagination in the Bible

Your imagination is how you think, meditate, understand, and how you remember things. You really can’t do anything without an imagination. You must take the Word of God and let it excite your imagination.

“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” – Genesis 6:5 KJV

This is talking about the deep thoughts of man, not just surface thoughts. God deals with us on a heart level, and He sees the imaginations of our heart. There can be no real transformation of actions without it first starting in our imagination. Alot of people don’t think that imagination is that big of a deal. But the Lord dealt with people according to the imaginations of their hearts (1 Sam. 16:7). This is the account of David being anointed as king by the Prophet Samuel. Jesse was bringing all his sons before Samuel. When Samuel saw the oldest son, Eliab, he surely thought the Lord’s anointing was on this one.

“But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance (or appearance) or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (parathesis my thoughts) – 1 Sam. 16:7

We know that in the verses that follow, Samuel saw Jesse’s other sons and the Lord refused them, until Samuel asked Jesse is this all your sons. He said that there is one more, the youngest one. He is in the field tending to the sheep. When Jesse sent for him the Lord spoke to Samuel and said arise anoint him this is the one.

God is the God of hearts. He does not look at the exterior of a person – or even the things a person does – and judges an individual by that criterion. Man, judges after the flesh, but 1 Samuel 16:7 teaches us that God judges according to the heart.

It is possible to put up a good front and still have an impure heart. It is also possible to be dealing with personality problems or bad habits on the outside and still have a right heart on the inside. God is much more inclined to use a person with a good heart and a few problems than He is to use a person who appears to be perfect outwardly but has a wicked heart. Our motives, thoughts, and feelings need to be consistent with God’s heart. Having a pure heart is vital. Start taking a regular inventory of your inner thoughts and attitudes, and work with the Holy Spirit to let the thoughts and attitudes of Jesus reside in you.

Hope

Hope is more than I want this to happen or I wish that would happen. Hope is your imagination. When Paul talked about hope, he was seeing things with his heart. He was taking the promises of God, and through those promises, he was seeing God cause him to succeed. Most people, because they don’t understand this process or don’t know how important this is, allow their imaginations to be controlled by other things—and they see themselves failing. They see themselves poor and yes, they even see themselves sick.

When what God has told you becomes a vision on the inside of you, you will wait for it with patience.

“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? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” – Romans 8:24-25

People who quit and give up are people whose imagination is negative—they’re seeing the negative side of something instead of the positive side of it. They don’t have hope. As you can see, the power of our imagination is very impactful on ourselves and our lives.

“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” … – Proverbs 23:7a NKJV

Think as God Thinks

Proverbs 23:7 teaches us that we become what we think. If we intend to walk in real victory we must renew our minds daily. We must learn to think like God. And what do I mean by that? Have our thoughts line up with what the Bible says about us and who we are. Our true identity in Christ.

Sadly, some people accept things that simply are not true. For example, they are convinced that they have no worth or value because someone has told them so or they have been treated badly in the past. As if they were worthless. However, the Bible tells us that we are so valued by God that He sent His only Son Jesus to die and suffer in our place. Some Christians have even believed the lie that God doesn’t heal and that their sick because God is teaching them a lesson. That it is His will for them to be sick. They even believe that God can heal, but that He heals only who He wants to. These are all negative thoughts, and they are not true according to the Bible.

As we learn to think as God thinks, we exchange depression and hopelessness for joyful expectation. When we have negative thoughts, we end up with negative results. But positive thoughts, open the door for God to work in our lives.

Your Imagination Is Like Soil

Soil does not care what kind of seed you plant in it; the moment it’s planted, the soil starts producing. It is the same thing with your heart and your imagination. Your imagination will conceive something and automatically start making it happen, whether it’s positive or negative. So, let me ask you this question, what do you see as it relates to your healing?

The imagination is not moral or immoral; it’s what you focus your attention on that affects it. You get to choose whether your imagination is positive—which is hope—or if your imagination is negative – which is hopelessness.

Earlier we read Romans 8:24, Paul was explaining hope, meaning you are looking at something that you cannot see. something that isn’t present. Once it becomes present, there is no longer any reason to hope for it. So, you might be thinking, well, if you cannot see it, how are you looking at it? Imagination is the ability to see things in your heart that you can’t see with your eyes.

For example, seeing yourself well, when currently you have pain. Seeing yourself healed and whole, when the doctors report says otherwise.

“But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” – Romans 8:25 KJV

Patience has a direct relationship to hope. If we don’t have a strong hope, we can’t have patience. Therefore, to increase our patience, we need to increase our hope. And if hope is a positive imagination, as I said before, then our positive imaginations are a vital part of patience. Patience comes easily to those with strong hope.

Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith.” Putting faith in God’s provision is what saves us. Hope is an important part of faith. If someone says I have no reason for hope, then they don’t understand what hope is. Hope comes directly from God through His word.

^“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” – Romans 15:13 NKJV

^“For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” – Romans 15:4 NKJV

The Role of Imagination in Healing

“Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” – Mark 5:25-28 NKJV

This woman had the same problem for 12 years. She suffered, and no one was able to help her. Surely, she had thoughts of hopelessness. But she imagined in her heart after hearing about Jesus and the miracles that He had done, that if I could touch his garment, I too could be healed. She not only imagined it, thought it, or hoped for it, but the Bible says in verse 28 that she spoke it. It matters what you say to yourself. (Proverbs 18:21) The power of her imagination not only led to her healing but it led to wholeness and peace. She imagined herself well by touching Jesus’ garment!

The multitude was thronging Jesus. This implies she was on her hands and knees, pressing through the crowd. Passive people will never experience the miraculous! She was determined. That is why she got healed. She was seeing with the eyes of heart what could not be seen with her physical eyes. Those with an aggressive type of faith make a demand on the Lord. I encourage you to get your fight back because there is victory on the other side of the pressing.

In Isaiah 26:3, it says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” The word “mind” here is translated “imagination”. So, we could quote this verse this way: “The Lord will keep you in perfect peace when your imagination is stayed upon Him.”

My mother used to tell me that peace of mind goes a long way. I didn’t really understand what she meant the first time she said that to me. I have since learned that peace of mind must precede peace in other areas of our lives. Isaiah 26:3 promises perfect peace to those who keep their minds on God. We grow anxious and lose our peace when we spend today trying to figure out tomorrow or when we try to live tomorrow in our minds today.

When we are attacked in our bodies with some type of sickness or disease we must go to the word of God and renew our minds. Fill our hearts, our imagination, with the seed of God’s word. We must think like God thinks. Say what God says, in His word.

Our Imagination Follows Our Thoughts

If we think about depressing things, we will be depressed. The answer to our lack of peace isn’t a pill or the removal of our problems. The only sure way to walk in God’s perfect peace is to keep our minds stayed on Him.

Our minds must be focused on the Lord to the degree that we start walking by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

You get to know God by His Word.

“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” – John 14:7

You need your own revelation from God. You cannot live off another person’s revelation.

We get to choose whether our imagination is positive or negative. Your imagination is how you think, meditate, understand, and how you remember things. And yes, it is powerful. You really cannot do anything without imagination. You must take the Word of God and let it excite your imagination for peace, health, and wholeness.