Gift of Imagination

“Mom, you are sitting on my duck. You are hurting him!” Big tears began rolling down Johnny’s face. His mom immediately stood up and understood what he meant as she looked down at the duck on his quilt. “I’m sorry!” she said. “Is this better?” she asked as she gently turned back the cover and sat on the edge of his bed. She wiped his tears and then asked, “Are you ready to pray now?” Johnny nodded. 

Studies show that young children have 100% imagination. Young adults in their 20’s, when tested, have 10% or less. Where has imagination disappeared? 

When God finished creating the world and people, He must have smiled to Himself and declared everything as very good. Considering His creation, He blessed Mr. and Mrs. Adam and blessed and sanctified the seventh day (Genesis 2.1-3). God gave the first couple freedom, authority, dominion, and a lot of room to be creative within the garden He had made just for them. They were under God’s authority to work with Him.  

Wonderfully handcrafted by God, our spirit is wonderful, as is our soul (mind, will, and emotions) and our body. We continue to be blessed. 

We can analyze and be creative with our minds. Schools prioritize analytical subjects like reading, writing, math, history, sociology, biology, and chemistry. Programs like art, music, drama, woodworking, and home economics are considered less important than analytical subjects. To earn a living in drama, music, design, or art is difficult. I understand. When I had to choose, I put aside music and focused on teaching degrees.  

Our God-given, God-designed imaginations, however, are how we connect and fellowship with Him. Jesus paid the price with His precious Blood to redeem us into a relationship with God through our born-again spirit. We believe in Jesus, and Father sends His Spirit through Jesus to become one with our spirit. A relational God, He is always speaking, but His children are not always spiritually hearing or seeing. We have five natural senses and five corresponding spiritual senses.  

Believers can learn to become as a little child and perceive and receive what Holy Spirit is saying to our minds. We can practice hearing to better understand our natural and spiritual senses, and how to activate the latter. 

Let’s look back to God training Abram.  

In ancient times, people believed in the supernatural. Abram had a God-encounter and trusted God’s word to lead him to a land. He eventually got there, had many natural and spiritual encounters. 

In Genesis 13, God shows the trusting Abraham who had chosen not to have strife with his nephew Lot, the land that will be his. ‘Lift up your eyes and “see.”’ YHWH is asking Abram to see beyond the physical to the spiritual to perceive and receive His promise. YHWH is asking Abraham to see beyond his age, the age of his wife, and step into the realm of imagination to trust God for His promises. Abram had to perceive before he could receive. He had to go beyond his natural eyes to trust and embrace what God declared as truth. 

We have a vision center in our minds where we can see past our previous failures, what is obvious in the present, and stretch ourselves to have faith to partner with Jesus in everything we do. We have the mind of Christ. Seated in Heavenly Places in Christ, we get His view of what we are to do on earth (Ephesians 2.1-10). We live in two worlds:  

1. This physical earth ruled by the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2.2). 
2. The Kingdom of God with God as our Father (1 John 3.1). 

When we receive Jesus, we receive from Father, through Jesus, His Spirit, and become His children. Our spirit becomes a born-again spirit into the Kingdom of God. 

Our imagination is a God-given tool to fellowship with Him. We learn to discern what is from Him and practice perceiving and receiving the things of God in our minds.   

Scriptures to Meditate, Decree, and Declare.  

• Genesis 2.1-3 
• Genesis 13 
• Ephesians 2.1-10 
• Ephesians 2.2 

• 1 John 3.1