Had you ever been told as a kid,
“You just have too big of an imagination!”
…perhaps in response to something you were afraid of? Something that you cooked up in your wild imagination? Or in some kind of strange ungodly remark you might have made that came up and out from that place of “imagination” in your heart…
For me, as a kid, my “imagination” was something that I felt, tortured me.
As a child, my imagination went from being a wonderful place, to a place that went dark and out of control.
I eventually came to the conclusion that it did more harm in my life than it did good.
So what did I do? I eventually tried to tune it out and shut it down as best I could. I didn’t ask Jesus for help. I just tried to fix it myself by shutting the whole thing down.
Did it work? Sometimes it seemed like it did… but I later discovered, that trying to simply “shut it all down” did much more harm than good.
This was never God’s intention for the place of imagination that He created in my heart.
It wasn’t until years later as an adult, that I began to realize that God uses this place of “imagination” to speak to us, and to show us things…. and it opened my eyes to what I had done by attempting to shut it all down.
“Imagination” is something that God created and designed within us—for a purpose, and on purpose, to be used as a good thing, as an important thing, as a necessary thing, as a beautiful creative thing…
He doesn’t want us to get overwhelmed and just attempt to take it all into our own hands and decide to “shut it all down”…
No— that’s actually the attempt of the enemy. That’s his goal— to either use it for his evil plans or convince us to shut it all down, making this area of our lives useless and “non-threatening” to his agenda.
And so we eventually “close our eyes” and we “plug our ears” because we think it’s the only way, because we think it’s “better this way”….?
“It’s too much! I can’t take this… these things in my head…. these thoughts, ideas, scenarios, pictures, nightmares…..just shut it all down, just turn the radio OFF, this just gets me into trouble, this keeps me afraid, this just makes me want to hide away, this just keeps me in a panic, this just keeps me in a place of torment…..no more!”
But this is why God asks us to submit our imaginations to Him…this is why He wants to purify and transform our imaginations, to clear the way so that our imaginations can be transformed back into a place where He can show us beautiful things from His heart, and beautiful things from His mind. ?
He knew that, as humans, the place of “imagination” within our hearts could be filled with wickedness.
“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” —Jeremiah 17:9
“Would not God find this out?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.”—Psalm 44:21
…But He so beautifully knocks on the doorway of our hearts once again…??☀️
And He so wonderfully invites us into a process of transformation and deliverance, and freedom with Him…
And if we simply turn to Him… and we open the door to Him…we’ll discover that we can ask Him to help us with these issues of the heart and mind…. these “imaginations”….
His revealing and healing light is a safe place for us. ☀️We can dare to go there with Him…
“Examine me, O Lord, and try me;
Test my mind and my heart.”—Psalm 26:2
He is faithful to help us,
He is faithful to deliver us,
He is faithful to teach us,
He is faithful to redeem us.
He is faithful to purify these places within our hearts and minds, so that our “imaginations” can be restored and be used in the way He designed them to be used. ✨
And then our imagination begins to come alive once again…. and in a brand new, purified way that we never thought was possible. ?
He’s always longed to be able to commune with us in this place of imagination. ?He always desired to teach us how to learn to dream and to imagine with our hearts, in a way like He does. ?
Jesus, thank You for showing me the truth, and the way. Thank You for knocking on my heart once again, and for bringing me back into Your light so that You could begin the work You promised to do in me.
-Heather ?