Becoming skilled at seeing with the eyes of your heart involves the practice of imagining specifically and habitually from the expected end. The more details, the better.
In Mark 10, blind Bartimaeus cried out to Jesus saying, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! It was obvious that he was asking for the healing of his blindness, yet Jesus responded, What do you want Me to do for you? Only after Bartimaeus said specifically that he was asking to receive his sight was he healed.
Then Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road. –Mark 10:52, NKJV
Perhaps Bartimaeus’ vagueness was shielding him from unnecessary vulnerability and potential disappointment. Jesus forced him to come out from behind those self-protective walls and into the place of specific, targeted faith, where he could imagine himself with restored eyesight and where his words came into agreement with his thoughts. Faith takes risks. And while vague prayers may shield you from disappointment, they also elude the goodness and power of God, which are seeking a specific target: your faith!
God never works anything independently of you that concerns your life. God is only going to work through your thinking, through your beliefs; so, whenever you want to receive answers from the Lord, bring out that clear-cut objective…. You must see your objective so vividly and graphically that you can really feel it in your emotions.
–Dr. Paul Yonggi Cho
Abiding in the place of continuous imagination is the key to using it to manifest your “normal.” Remember, you are no longer separate from God but are one with Him. So, you are not imagining something that is not real to make it real. You are using this God-given tool to abide in what is real… long enough for the invisible to manifest in this dimension, becoming visible. Consistent imagination ushers you beyond the limitations of what some call “common sense” and into the reality that nothing is impossible and that anything limiting the extravagant goodness of the Father in your life is self-imposed and cannot continue without your agreement. You are not in a state of lack, desiring to have. You are in the place of desire fulfilled, and you ARE desire fulfilled. And what you are must manifest!
This, then, I say, and I testify in the Lord; ye are no more to walk, as also the other nations walk, in the vanity of their mind. –Ephesians 4:17, YLT
The word translated vanity in this passage is Strong’s #G3153. It means “devoid of truth, perverse and morally depraved.” But it also means “frail, lacking vigor, transient.” It originates from Strong’s #G3152, which means “devoid of force, truth, success, or results; useless, of no purpose.” So, here, Paul is warning against the perverse strongholds of the mind that are typical of unbelievers. But he is also warning against the weak, wandering, unfocused mind, which produces no results and no success. “Hit or miss” visualization will not manifest your miracle! You must be focused, consistent and persistent!
I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead.
–Philippians 3:13 TPT
David described the man who is blessed, prosperous, fruitful, successful and favored by God this way:
…his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law [His precepts and teachings] he [habitually] meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted [and fed] by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season; its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers [and comes to maturity]. –Psalm 1:2-3, AMP
Andrew Wommack has seen over 40 people raised from the dead through his ministry, including his own son. And it all started with his imagination! He tells how he began meditating on John 14:12, where Jesus said we would do greater works than He did. He began decreeing and declaring that he would heal the sick and could literally picture himself healing blind Bartimaeus, the 10 lepers and the woman with the issue of blood. But when he began declaring that he would raise the dead, his imagination would not cooperate, and he had to press in until he was able to see it. It became his passion, and he studied every Biblical account of someone being raised from the dead, imagining himself in the story. After engaging his imagination consistently, he began dreaming of raising the dead as he slept, every night raising 20 or 30 people. Then, one day, a man died during one of his meetings and, because it had become so normal for him through his imagination, he simply commanded the man to come back to life. And he did! Jesus had already made clear to him – just as He has to all of us — what is available. But it required focused, persistent and habitual use of the imagination to make possibility become tangible reality. It worked for him, and it will work for you!
Have you been enjoying these excerpts from my book, Miracles Are Normal: Co-Creating Through Oneness With God? If so, you can purchase paperback or digital copies from my website here: Miracles Are Normal. And you can purchase from Amazon here: Miracles Are Normal on Amazon
Happy co-creating!
Virginia