Imagining is the fastest way to believing, and believing is the fastest way to receiving.
A number of years ago, I had an encounter in the heavenly realm where I was led by the Spirit of Knowledge (who I knew to be Experiential Knowledge) to an elevator. I pushed the elevator button, shook hands with Knowledge, entered the elevator and got off between the 3rd and 4th floors, which I knew to be the 3rd and 4th dimensions. In this encounter, the 3rd dimension represents the material realm that is seen with the natural eyes and perceived with the natural senses. The 4th dimension represents the “unseen” spirit realm — the dimension that is far above the limitations of this natural realm.
We are not keeping any score of what seems so obvious to the senses on the surface; it is fleeting and irrelevant; it is the unseen eternal realm within us which has our full attention and captivates our gaze! –II Corinthians 4:18, MIRB
So, how do you look at that which is unseen? By using the imagination, which, as I mentioned in last week’s blog, the Bible calls the eyes of your heart!
The Spirit of Knowledge in this encounter is one of the Seven Spirits of God listed in Isaiah 11:2. In that passage, the word for knowledge originates from the Hebrew word yawdah, which is Strong’s #H3045 and literally means: “to know (properly, to ascertain by seeing).” The Spirit of Knowledge (ascertaining by seeing, i.e., the imagination) will lead you to the 4th dimension. Though it is unseen by the natural eyes, it is ascertained by seeing with the eyes of your heart – your imagination. The unseen realm is more real than the natural realm, and when you really believe that (instead of just knowing it in your head), you will no longer be moved by contrary circumstances. Imagination will free you from the prison of your natural senses!
All creation knows that the glorious liberty of the sons of God sets the stage for their own release from decay. –Romans 8:21, MIRB
God created you in His image and gave you an imagination so you can create with Him. Your imagination is a gateway of God’s presence, which enables you to enter His kingdom with the faith of a child. That is why Yeshua said:
…Unless you dramatically change your way of thinking and become teachable, and learn about heaven’s kingdom realm with the wide-eyed wonder of a child, you will never be able to enter in. –Matthew 18:3, TPT
The adversary understands the importance of this gateway of the human soul, so he often tries to render it ineffective by either defiling it or by shutting it down.
Defilement of the imagination gate can happen whenever we view pornography, violence or anything corrupt. It is also defiled when it is used as an escape from reality. The imagination gate is also defiled by self-will and delusion when we are not fully submitted to the lordship of Christ and attempt to use it to get what we want apart from Him. The imagination can’t help but to create, so when it is defiled, it creates the wrong things. We see a clear example of this principle illustrated in the Tower of Babel.
And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and now nothing they have imagined they can do will be impossible for them. –Genesis 11:6, AMPC
The imagination gate can also be defiled by doubt, fear, negativity and victim-thinking, like the 10 spies who came back from the Promised Land with a negative and fearful report.
We saw there the Nephilim (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We saw ourselves as grasshoppers, and that’s how we appeared to them. –Numbers 13:33, CEB
What the Israelites didn’t know at the time (that they found out 40 years later) was that the Canaanite’s hearts had melted with fear when they heard about how God dried up the Red Sea for them (Joshua 2:9-11). The Israelites could have easily defeated these ones who were deathly afraid of them, but because the spies saw themselves as small, they thought the inhabitants of the land did, too, though that could not have been farther from the truth. Their defiled imagination created defeat and 40 more years of wilderness wandering. That is the power of the imagination!
The imagination gate is often closed by a religious spirit or by natural and spiritual authorities who don’t understand and encourage supernatural experiences. One simple “Oh, that’s just your imagination” is enough to close a child’s imagination gate, enthroning a spirit of doubt and skepticism there instead of the King of Kings.
Where there is no vision, the people perish. –Proverbs 29:18, KJV
In this passage, the word translated vision is Strong’s #H2377, which means exactly that: “vision.” It originates from Strong’s #H2373, which means: “to gaze at, to perceive, contemplate (with pleasure), to have a vision of, to behold, look, prophesy.” So, quite literally this passage teaches us that when we are not imagining, we are perishing and are not thriving. We are tossed about with the storms of life, reacting, behaving as a slave who survives instead of a king who creates. Imagination is the key!
There has been much misunderstanding about the imagination in the body of Christ, and many do not understand that, as a God-given gateway of the human soul, the imagination is a completely legitimate way of accessing the spirit realm. If your imagination gate has been shut down, you may struggle to dream or to see in the Spirit, you may doubt what you are seeing or you may try to filter everything through the limitations of your logical, carnal mind.
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. –II Corinthians 2:14, NKJV
Prayer to Cleanse and Open the Imagination Gate
…casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ;
–II Corinthians 10:5, ASV
I believe everyone’s imagination gate has been defiled or shut down to some degree. Pray this prayer daily until you no longer see the fruit of the defiled imagination: you are no longer tormented by lustful or fearful thoughts, you are fully submitted to the government of God, and your mind is at rest and is subject to you to be used as a tool in the Father’s hand. Pray this prayer daily until you no longer see the fruit of a closed imagination: you are freely and joyfully dreaming with God, you are seeing in the Spirit, you are comfortable with what you see, you are no longer censoring your imagination through your carnal mind, you are no longer a prisoner of doubt, unbelief and skepticism, and you are experiencing tangible manifestations of those things which you are joyfully imagining.
Father, thank You for creating me in Your image and for giving me the powerful tool of imagination. Thank You for inviting me to dream with You and to co-create with You and for the fun adventures You have planned, as we create together. I repent for any ways I have allowed my imagination gate to become defiled, and I forgive any who have contributed to the defilement of this gate, including myself. I repent for any ways I have misused my imagination to escape reality instead of using it proactively as an overcomer, a king and a son. I repent for any ways I have operated in self-will, and I bring my imagination and my entire being under Your lordship now. I repent for any ways I have allowed my imagination gate to be shut down, and I renounce and break agreement with doubt, unbelief and skepticism. I bring my imagination out from under the control of my carnal mind, which cannot comprehend the things of Your spirit, and I bring it under Your lordship alone. I forgive anyone who shut down my imagination, stole my dreams or clipped my spiritual wings. I now choose to fly. I apply the blood of Yeshua to my imagination gate, and I release Your fire to consume anything that is not pure and holy and anything that is less than Your best for me. I enthrone You, as King of my imagination gate and of my life. From my place of oneness with You, I now choose to use my imagination with wisdom and with intent to manifest Your kingdom here.
I hope you have enjoyed this excerpt from my book, Miracles Are Normal: Co-Creating Through Oneness With God. Click here to purchase paperback or digital copies from my website: Miracles Are Normal. And click here to purchase from Amazon: Miracles Are Normal on Amazon
I look forward to hearing your miracle stories, as you imagine and co-create with God.
Happy dreaming,
-Virginia