Faith – Can You Imagine It? (7)
Now, I don’t pretend to fully understand this yet, but I do believe that this is very important when it comes to operating in faith. I’m just writing down my own thoughts to try and cement them in a bit. But, I do hope that this will be inspiring and motivational. I know that this subject has really got me quite excited.
Today I want to talk about how we use our imagination and how it can either benefit us our go against us, as far as God and the process of faith is concerned.
Firstly, we use our imaginations all of the time. Say, and I’ve done this lots of times, I can’t find my keys. Well, I just picture in my mind my movements and where I likely put them down. (Getting older now, I do try and have a set place for things like keys but it doesn’t always work out, I guess the next step if it consistently doesn’t work is a nursing home!). Also, say you are out shopping and you park your car. I can guarantee, you take a mental picture of where exactly you parked so that you can return to it okay. Here’s another example: If I were to ask you, “how many windows does your house have?” You would have a picture in your mind of every room and you would begin to count them, wouldn’t you? Here’s another example, “picture in your head a dog”. You wouldn’t have the letters d.o.g. appear in your mind but you would see a dog that comes to mind to you, could be any sort really. So, what I am saying is that we think in pictures. That’s why it’s a true saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words”.
We are created in the image of God and I believe that the Lord has given us the same creative imagination (to a degree, of course) that He has. Look, when God created the Universe and everything that is in it, He had a picture of what it would look like before He spoke it into being. It’s the ultimate fulfilment of the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1, that we have looked at and that is “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we cannot see” (with our physical eyes).
Because we are fallen creatures now, we have perverted God’s gift to us of imagination. Look what God said in Genesis 6:5 (NLT) “The LORD observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. Or how about what God said about humans building the Tower of Babel, in Genesis 11:6 (KJB) “And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” Well, before moving on from the negative to the more positive, I want to consider one more negative thing when considering our imaginations and that is fantasy. You see, when we as Christians are thinking about sanctifying and using our imaginations we are not talking about going into fantasy land. What do I mean by this?
Here’s an example. I’m writing this at the tail end of June, 2026 and it’s World Cup time in the football world (or Soccer for my American friends!). Now, I could start daydreaming about England getting to the final and winning the World Cup with Harry Kane getting a hat trick (scoring three goals). That would be classed by many to be living in pure ‘fantasy land’. That’s definitely NOT the kind of things that the Lord wants us to dwell on or think about.
Look, I’m not a Hebrew scholar, but I am told that the Old Testament word for imagination is yetser (יֵצֶר), and one of the root meanings of this word is “conception”. Which means that when we use our imaginations we can conceive something. Looking over to the New Testament writings we can see and relate to how this can work against us. It says in James 1:15 (ESV), “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” If we consistently think about sin, it will conceive and give birth! But, that’ looking it at again negatively, sorry!
Here’s how using our imagination in a positive way can and will conceive and produce something positive. When I worked at Teen Challenge, a residential centre for men recovering from addiction problems, we had a staff member at one time who was a joiner (carpenter) and he had an amazing creative ability. One day, he saw in his imagination a prayer tower where the men and staff could go and spend some time alone with the Lord and pray. Now, he had to see this in his imagination. Below is a photo I took of the finished article. It’s edited in a way for dramatic effect as, well, I used my imagination to present it this way!
One of the ways to redeem our imaginations is by bible meditation. No, not just repeating verses over and over and trying to memorize them but chewing over them and letting our imaginations go. I heard a testimony recently of a man, who after reading the David & Goliath story, went outside and took a measuring tape with him and measured out 9 Foot 6 inches on a tree (about 3 Meters), which I think was the height of Goliath and then he looked up and imagined what it would be like to come against such a huge man.
Another use of imagination is to put ourselves in a situation where we could repeat what happened in the bible. For example, when we read Acts 3, and see how God used Peter to heal a lame man, we could imagine ourselves doing the same thing today. You see these disciples were just fulfilling what Jesus had said:
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. (John 14:12). We are included in the “whoever believes in me”.
The operation of faith is seeing something in our imagination, we can’t yet see it with our physical eyes, and then praying or working towards it manifesting in the physical realm.
I’ll finish with this. Today, before I fully embarked on my day, I had my normal quiet time which included bible reading, prayer etc. But, I also thought about what I wanted to achieve today. It’s now later on in the afternoon, and so far I’ve done all of these things that I had thought about and imagined: I did my washing and hung it out and it’s all dry. I went to the library and did some research that I wanted to do. I came home, washed my car and cleaned and hoovered inside it, I cleaned one of my waste bins. I made the exact same lunch that I had intended to make. Then, I sat down, where I am now, with a mug of Rooibos tea, to write and publish my weekly blog. All of these things I had imagined I would do.
Without imagination, we cannot do anything. Where is your imagination leading you today?
