Do you believe that, out of your oneness with God, you can heal the sick and raise the dead? Do you believe that material abundance is available to you, enabling you to be a channel of God’s provision and His heart in the earth? Are you believing for a miracle or something that God has promised you that has not yet manifested?
PRO-ACTIVE, PURPOSEFUL, GOD-ALIGNED, CONSISTENT IMAGINATION BRIDGES THE GAP BETWEEN WHAT YOU KNOW TO BE TRUE AND WHAT YOU ARE ACTUALLY EXPERIENCING!!
What you desire to see without, you must see within!
In 1979, Ellen J. Langer, psychologist and author of Counterclockwise, did a very unorthodox experiment proving the power of the imagination. She and four of her graduate students put an advertisement in the local newspaper for what they described as a “study on reminiscing.” They selected 16 participants, all in their late seventies or early eighties, and divided them into two groups of eight – an experimental group and a control group. Prior to the experiment, they consulted leading geriatricians to find measurable biological markers of aging, so they could gauge their results. Amazingly, they were told that there were (and still are) none! So, for the sake of the experiment, they tested weight, dexterity, flexibility, eyesight and memory. They took photographs to later evaluate appearance of change. And they administered a psychological self-evaluation.
They found an old monastery in Peterborough, New Hampshire that seemed “timeless” enough for them to replicate the world of 1959. They carefully studied what life in 1959 was like, creating that setting down to the most minute detail.
The experimental group was told to live as if it were 1959, with every conversation being in “1959-present tense.” They were told not to bring any current magazines, newspapers, books or family photos, but they did bring photos of their younger selves, which were shared with other participants. They were asked to write a brief autobiography as though it were 1959 and were told that they were not to “act as if it is 1959,” but just to let themselves be who they were in 1959.
The control group went to the exact same location one week later and were told to discuss things that took place in 1959. But their bios were to be written in past tense, their photos were of their current selves, and they were told to reminisce about the past, keeping their minds focused on the fact that it was no longer 1959.
By the second day, all members of both groups were actively involved in serving meals and cleaning up afterwards, despite having been extremely dependent upon caregivers before the retreat. After the week, both groups were retested and showed improvements in hearing, memory, height, weight, gait, posture, joint flexibility and manual dexterity, but the experimental group showed greater improvement. On intelligence tests, 63 percent of the experimental group improved their scores, compared to 44 percent of the control group. Finally, volunteers who were unaware of the experiment’s purpose were asked to compare photos taken before and after the study, and these objective observers judged that all of the experimental participants looked noticeably younger at the end of the study. Langer goes on to say this:
“This study shaped not only my view of aging but also my view of limits in a more general way for the next few decades. Over time I have come to believe less and less that biology is destiny. It is not primarily our physical selves that limit us but rather our mindset about our physical limits… If a group of elderly adults could produce such dramatic changes in their lives, so too can the rest of us. To begin, we must ask if any of the limits we perceive as real do exist.”
The Bible calls the imagination the “eyes of your heart.” You become what you behold!
I pray that the light of God will illuminate the eyes of your imagination, flooding you with light, until you experience the full revelation of the hope of his calling—that is, the wealth of God’s glorious inheritances that he finds in us, his holy ones! I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God’s power made available to you through faith. Then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you! This is the mighty power that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted himto the place of highest honor and supreme authority in the heavenly realm!
-Ephesians 1:18-20, TPT
The word translated here as imagination can also be translated as “innermost” or “heart.” Imagination ALIGNS the eyes of our heart with our natural eyes, so that “faith becomes sight.” In Genesis 15, God showed Abraham the stars of the sky, giving his faith a visual anchor. Jesus also described what He was seeing with the eyes of His heart:
Then Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.’
-John 5:19
Not only was Jesus living in absolute dependence upon the Father, He was co-existing in both the heavenly and earthly realms simultaneously. He was not speaking figuratively when He said He saw the Father. He saw with the eyes of His heart. And He did this, not out of His Divinity, but out of His humanity. Jesus, the “firstborn among many brethren,” was the firstfruit of a fully mature son, demonstrating to us what is possible and available to us! His sacrificial death on the cross made it available. And His earthly life demonstrated what it looked like.
For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.
-Psalm 103:14, NKJV
The word “frame” here is Strong’s #H3336, which means, “form, framework or imagination.” This verse is literally stating that God understands our framework and that our imagination is the framework of our lives! Often, when I begin teaching something that might be a new concept for people, I say that I am “framing it up” for them. It might be some time before they are able to fully comprehend and step into the reality of what is being taught, but I am creating a framework that makes it possible for those who persevere.
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 Isaiah 11: 2, the word for “knowledge” originates from the Hebrew word “yaw-dah,” which is Strong’s #H3045. It literally means: “to know (properly, to ascertain by seeing).”
The Spirit of Knowledge (ascertain by seeing, i.e., the imagination) leads us to the 4th dimension, which is the spirit realm – the dimension that is far above the limitations of this natural realm. Though it is unseen by the natural eyes, it is ascertained by seeing with the eyes of your heart – your imagination. Imagination frees us from the prison of our 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, Mirror Bible
God created you in His image, giving you an imagination with which you can create with Him. Your Father gave you your imagination as a gateway of His presence so that you can 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 happens whenever we trade with lust, pornography and anything corrupt that is viewed with the natural eyes. It is also defiled when it is used as an escape from reality. Often children will escape into a world of fantasy when they are victims of painful circumstances beyond their control. At some point in the maturation process, however, they must take off the garments of victimhood, which include escaping with the imagination. Then, as an overcomer, the imagination can be used proactively to conform external “reality” to the will of God and to spiritual reality. The imagination gate is also defiled by self-will and delusion anytime we attempt to use it to get what we want when we are not fully submitted to the lordship of Christ. 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. Notice what God Himself said about these people’s wicked imagination:
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 is often closed by a religious spirit or by well-meaning parents or 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; mentally, to perceive, contemplate (with pleasure); specifically, to have a vision of: behold, look, prophesy.” So, quite literally this passage teaches us that when we are not imagining, we are perishing, or are not thriving. Instead, we are tossed about with the storms of life, reacting, surviving, behaving as a slave who survives instead of a king who creates. Imagination is the key!
There has been much misunderstanding about the imagination, especially in the body of Christ. 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, you may doubt what you are seeing or you may try to filter everything through the logic of your 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
I believe everyone’s imagination gate has been either defiled or shut down to some degree. Here is a prayer you may find useful to cleanse and open your imagination gate. Pray this prayer daily until you no longer see the fruit of the defiled imagination, until you are no longer tormented by lustful or fearful thoughts, and until 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 gate, until you are freely and joyfully dreaming with God, until you are comfortable with what you see, until you are no longer censoring your imagination through your carnal mind, until you are no longer a prisoner of doubt, unbelief and skepticism and until you are experiencing tangible manifestations of those things which you are joyfully imagining.
Prayer to Cleanse and Open the Imagination Gate:
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 am the Aleph and the Tav,” says the Lord God, “who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
-Revelation 1:8, TPT
Notice that the IS comes first in this passage…
Whatever was, is. Whatever will be, is. That’s how it always is with God.
-Ecclesiastes 3:15, MSG
A number of years ago, when encountering the heavenly realm through the imagination gate was fairly new to me, my husband received a call from a friend who, very excitedly said, “Want to do a Melchizedek meeting?” My husband asked what that was, and our friend said that he had no idea, but that was what he had heard. Who could resist that? So, of course, we said yes. It was last minute, so we called a few friends we thought would be up for it and were headed out the door, when my phone rang. Normally, I wouldn’t answer when I was in such a hurry, especially since I didn’t recognize the number, but, for some reason I did. The call came from a friend I hadn’t spoken to in a few years. When I told her I was going to a Melchizedek meeting, she said, “That’s funny. I have become friends with someone who just wrote a book about Melchizedek, and he’s here with me now.” It was a crazy confirmation of an even crazier (normal) meeting where a small group of us went on a spiritual adventure. We had just begun when someone saw Melchizedek, and then someone else saw him leading us up a spiral staircase. Scene after scene unfolded for over an hour, with most of us (including several very new believers) seeing the same things at the same time. At the very end, we encountered Melchizedek in a field of golden wheat, which we knew represented the harvest. He stood near a white board and began drawing three dots aligned horizontally. He explained that these dots represented past, present and future and that the present was simply a portal into the eternal realm. He explained that accessing the eternal realm was one of the keys of David. It was how he accessed the new covenant before Jesus came in the flesh. Think about it… he said, “Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11) before the Holy Spirit was actually poured out in Acts 2. And David’s tabernacle had no veil!
Shortly after our Melchizedek meeting, I began having encounters where I saw the face of Yeshua, and His eyes looked like deep, fiery pools of eternity into which I felt irresistibly drawn. After having this same encounter numerous times, I suddenly saw Melchizedek’s timeline superimposed over the face of Jesus, with past and future aligning with His eyes. The middle dot, the present, was in the center of His forehead, aligned with the location of the pineal gland in the brain. Through Yeshua Ha Mashiach, our Lord Jesus Christ, we can enter the realm of timelessness, where all things are freely available to us!
So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
-Genesis 32:30
The “Is” (the eternal present) is your portal into the realm of eternity. Recently, the Father said to me:
Come into My heart, child, beloved. It is your true home. In the deep, deep caverns of My passion for you (the many mansions in My heart), you will REMEMBER, you will BE, and from that place of I AM, you will begin to dream and to imagine clearly and specifically. Come and step into the largess of my heart and the immenseness of My thoughts toward you. In this place, they are not dreams but reality, for everything exists in its entirety in My heart, and everything you see, experience and remember there is “yes and amen.” The only work lies in birthing it into the tangible realm, giving it form and substance. And even then, our work is joyous, exuberant play, as we dance and create together.
By entering the portal of Present, you can enter the “Was” (past), re-writing your story . It is possible to, on a daily basis, re-create situations that are less than His kingdom of Love, Joy and Peace, forgiving everyone, including myself. This is reframing my world – shifting from victim to overcomer, from slave to king.
I recently read the story of an art teacher who came to her classroom and found that the janitor had left all the chairs up on the desks after cleaning the floor. As she lifted one of the chairs, it slipped out of her hand and hit her foot. She realized that she had criticized the man and quickly corrected her thoughts by forgiving him and acknowledging that he had lost his helper and no doubt felt overwhelmed with work. But several hours later, she was in so much pain that she realized that something was either broken or dislocated. She knew not to spend too much time on analyzing the problem but to focus on fixing it with her imagination. But when she sat down to do so, her imagination flatly refused to cooperate. She ended up going back reviewing every event of her day, struggling to remain focused because of the intense pain in her foot. Finally, she remembered an incident with a man who didn’t like her and refused to speak, even though she said hello to him. In her heart, she had despised him, thinking how pitiful and horrid he was. Then, she realized that this was the blockage. She used her imagination to re-write this scenario, picturing the scene, only this time, she said hello and he responded by saying hello with a smile. This time, instead of thinking that he was a pitiful soul, she thought, “What a nice guy!” She did this several times and then moved through the remaining events of her day. She woke up the next morning in no pain and, only when she saw that she had left her house in a mess did she realize that the chair incident was real instead of a very vivid dream.
Recently, Holy Spirit began to show me that the fruit of some things in my life was connected to some roots from every early on. Remember, we do not attract what we want but what we resonate. He said to rewrite my story. At first the concept was foreign and confusing. I didn’t want to trade in any people in my story. Remember.. anyone who has hurt you was doing so as they lived out of who they’re not. If they were born again and living out of their true identity as a son of God, they wouldn’t have done what they did. So, imagine them that way!
You can also step through the portal of the present into the “Is To Come” to be IN the future (your “expected end”).
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an EXPECTED END. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with ALL YOUR HEART.
-Jeremiah 29:11-13
The sanctified imagination is one of the greatest tools to help us pray the prayer of faith, because the prayer of faith starts at the end of the equation where it is already done and works its way backwards. WE MUST BE IN THE EXPECTED END, THINK THE THOUGHTS, FEEL THE FEELINGS AND SPEAK THE WORDS FROM THAT PLACE (NOT TRYING TO GET TO THAT PLACE). Trying to get there still resonates of not being there, which produces more not being there. But by using the imagination gate and traveling the timeline, we begin to resonate that thing, so we attract it. Becoming skilled at seeing with the eyes of your heart involves the practice of imagining specifically and habitually FROM the expected end. This will enable you to think the thoughts and feel the feelings of HAVING instead of waiting to have or trying to have (which resonates of lack).
Imagination connects me with the tangible manifestation, but I must use it with wisdom as a mature son – not as a slave dreaming of the end, but as a participant thinking from the end. Entering into the desire fulfilled allows me to think FROM the end. Reason (the carnal mind) cannot think from the end; imagination (a function of the human spirit) must do that.
In a recent study, three groups of people were tested on their free throw accuracy in basketball. Then, group #1 physically practiced free throws for 20 days in a row. Group #2 did absolutely nothing. Group #3 spent 20 minutes each day getting into a relaxed state and imagining themselves performing free throws. If they happened to miss, they were told to adjust and imagine themselves getting it right the next time. At the end of experiment, everyone was tested again. The group that physically practiced each day improved by 24 percent. The second group, of course, didn’t improve at all. But what was most astounding was that the group who had spent their time imagining, improved by 23 percent – only a 1 percent difference from group #1! This is the power of the imagination!
I would like to invite you to join me on an imagination adventure in the Father’s heart. Find a quiet place, put on music, if you desire, and begin to imagine the fulfillment of those things God has promised you. BE IN your expected end fully. Imagine in as much detail as possible. What do you see? What are you wearing? Who is with you? What are they doing? How do you feel?
Before you begin your exercise, I would like to share a very beautiful word from the Father to me. It is also to you, inviting you into His heart where you will learn to dream again…
Do not be afraid to dream, to envision, to desire. It is not carnal. It is not selfish. Nor will your dreams be “too small,” as you have supposed. Goals which are imposed upon you from without are too small. But those dreams which emerge from your heart are the outflow of My heart in you. You are made in this way to create with Me. It sounds “spiritual” to defer to Me, but that is religion. I will not deviate from this pattern in creating with and through you. You must remain in a place of submission, allowing Me to guide and direct those dreams. You must allow them to die; as you have learned. And you must give Me permission to work with places of idolatry. But I will not dream for you. I have placed My dreams within you from eternity past. They are already within you, yet you are waiting on Me to give them to you from without. Some people spend their whole lives waiting for this, wandering in a wilderness of uncertainty and purposelessness. Do not die in this wilderness….. It sounds so spiritual, saying you trust Me and that My thoughts are higher than yours. And they are. But you have forgotten that My thoughts are within you because I am within you. You have learned to not walk in presumption, to not lean on your own understanding. You have learned to submit to Me, to ask Me, to listen to Me, to eat from My hand – the Tree of Life. But now you must learn to dream My dreams. You must accept responsibility for the dreams, desires and destiny that I have already placed within you. I not only give you permission to dream, but I require that you dream. I have chosen, not a puppet, but a bride…a bride with her own thoughts, feelings, desires, personality and identity. It is time to embrace the dreams and desires that I have placed within you. Look into your spirit, and you will remember what you already said yes to. So, just be true to the passions and desires the arise, for springtime has come. You did well to remain steadfast and obedient during the winter season, when the old desires were dying away – the shedding of a skin much too small. But now you must look within and embrace the dreams of this butterfly season. You have grown accustomed to caterpillar options and restrictions. You have grown accustomed to the death of desire. But it’s time to wake up. Do not fear disappointment, for this is the season for you to create with your dreams. Don’t worry about the uncertainties. Just start by being true to the desires you know are there. Do not stifle or censor them, judging them as selfish or frivolous. Am I not well able to convict and to correct you? Start by simply acknowledging the desires you know are there, even though they may be small and sparse at first. Just like the beginning of a spring shower, the first few drops simply lead the way for the downpour.
Here is the link to the video version of this teaching, released at All Things Restored last week: The Imagination
I hope this has blessed you and trust that it will connect you to your “expected end.” And I look forward to hearing your miracle story!
-Virginia