Imagination: the Strength of Faith

What is imagination?

Merriam Webster Dictionary defines imagination as: the act or power of forming a mental picture of something not present . . . and especially of something one has not [yet] known or experienced. Simply put, imagination is imaging or picturing something in the mind.

The Purpose of Imagination

How is the imagination used? Well, people imagine what they’re going to do today, or what they’re going to wear. Or, when we’re driving, we imagine how to get where we’re going. We use our imagination to understand what we’re reading or hearing. If we become bored, we use our imagination to escape the boredom. The imagination has many uses.

The word for ‘mind’ here is a word, which is most often translated as imagination. You will keep him in perfect peace, or shalom shalom, meaning safety, welfare, prosperity, and peace, whose imagination is leaning upon You or supported by You.

An Evil Imagination

Imagination is often used in a negative sense in scripture, such as in verse 5 of Genesis chapter six.

In those days just prior to the great flood, men had become wicked and depraved in their thinking. Every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. This Hebrew word used here for ‘imagination’ is a word which means a framing or a conceiving of something. The word here for ‘thoughts’ comes from a word that means inventions.

Inventions or plans, we might even say schemes, are conceived in the imagination. And in this case, the imagination conceived in their hearts was based on evil thoughts. In this case the thoughts conceived by men were evil, and so far beyond fixing that the Lord saw fit to wipe them all out with a flood and start over.

Imagination means conception. It’s where things are conceived before they become reality. We might say the imagination is the spiritual womb. The Bible tells us that we were conceived in the imagination of God before we were conceived in the womb. The Bible tells us we were in His mind before the foundation of the world.

Nothing will be Restrained

Nothing will be restrained from them that they have fixed their thoughts upon to do. Notice here that thoughts lead to results, whether good or bad. It’s like the old adage, you can do whatever you set your mind to do. There is definitely some truth in that statement. Whatever we can imagine, we can do.

Now, right on the other hand, we could say that if we can’t imagine it, if we can’t fix our thoughts on it, then it’s very difficult or even impossible for us to do a thing. Is imagination important? Absolutely.

Imagination and Vision

It’s impossible to have vision without imagination, for in reality they are one and the same. We must set our thoughts upon something to have vision. Here’s another old saying, if you aim for nothing, you’ll hit it every time. Without vision there can be no achievement.

As a Man Thinks in his Heart

And, not only that, if we change what we think about, what we imagine, then we can change our life. Now, that’s a strong statement. But the Bible seems to agree with it.

As a man thinks in his heart, that’s the way he is going to be. What makes us the way we are? It’s the way we think in our heart. Might it be helpful for us to change the way we imagine ourselves? Oh yes, it would absolutely change our life.

Not a Fantasy, a Promise

We need to start dreaming again. But isn’t that living in a fantasy world? No. When dreams are based on the promises of God, it’s not a fantasy, it’s a promise. That’s not living in a fantasy world, that’s living in a faith world. But faith itself cannot work without imagination.

Faith Depends Upon Imagination

Faith is the evidence of things NOT SEEN. How can we see things that are not seen? The only possible way is with the imagination. When we use our imagination to believe that we have the things God has promised us, we have evidence that they exist. Our faith in His promises is the evidence.

The Bible says that by His stripes you were healed. (1 Peter 2:24.) If we take that promise and imagine it to be true even when we’re sick, is that living in a fantasy world? No. The word of God, the promise of God, is not a fantasy. It’s a promise.

Now, if we’re just making up something to believe, something that the Bible never heard of, then it’s probably a fantasy, it’s make believe. But if it’s a promise from God that we’re believing from His word, it’s not a fantasy, it’s a holy promise.

The Response to Imagination

Psychologists who have studied the imagination tell us that there is little difference, psychologically speaking, between the response we have to an event we actually experience and one that we merely imagine. They both have the same effect on our thoughts and feelings, and even on our physical responses.

For example, imagine for a moment slicing a lemon in half and slowly squeezing the juice into your mouth. Though only an imaginary experience, we will likely start salivating. Because, strangely enough, we respond to the thought of tasting lemon juice the same way we would respond to the actual event.

When we take the word of God and vividly imagine receiving what we believe God has promised us, then it evokes the same feelings in us as if it had already happened, which strengthens our faith. Imagination is the strength of our faith.

How do you believe you receive something you don’t yet have? There’s only one way, and that’s to imagine that you already have it. The word ‘believe’ in the expression ‘believe that ye receive them’ means to think to be true, to be persuaded of something, to place confidence in it. The Bible says that Abraham was fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

In other words, whatever you desire, when you pray, be persuaded that you have the answer, place confidence in it. How in the world do you do that? By taking time to vividly imagine yourself as actually having it. When it becomes real on the inside, it will ultimately become the reality on the outside, because it’s based on the promise of God, not in fantasy.

And it goes on to say ‘and ye shall have them.’ The word ‘have’ in this phrase means the FUTURE first person singular of the verb "to be.” Don’t get confused by this. In other words, the having part of prayer is in the future tense.

We believe we receive it now, in the present tense, when we pray. We take time to think about it and imagine it to be true, we become persuaded of it, imagining ourselves having it. But we receive it, we have it, in the future. We sow the seed of faith when we pray, in the present, but the harvest comes later, in the future.

Therefore imagination is a strong influence to answered prayer, and it’s a powerful key to having faith. It’s also a key to changing the way we see ourselves.

Our Self Image Can Limit God

They limited the Holy One of Israel. How in the world do you limit God? Well, the Bible says that the spies who searched out the land of Canaan saw themselves as grasshoppers compared to the giants that were in the land. Their own self image, how they saw themselves, what they imagined themselves to be, limited what God could do for them.

On the other hand, imagining ourselves to be who God says we are will change the way we see ourselves. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. Well, if it’s not seen, if it’s not visible, then how can we believe it? Well, we have to use our imagination.

Faith Cannot Exist Without Imagination

We are saved by hope. For example, the Bible tells us that as believers in Christ God has prepared a home for us in heaven. That’s what we believe to be true. But how many of us have actually seen heaven? None of us. Well, how do we know it exists? By hope.

What is Hope?

We have learned to think of hope as a confident expectation of something, which is how it’s usually defined, and that’s certainly true. But in reality it’s more of a positive imagination. This verse says that hope is not seen, that is, it’s not seen in the natural world, but rather something we see in our mind. So then, hope is something that exists in our imagination.

Again, if we can’t see it, how do we know it’s true and real? By our imagination. And that, in a nutshell, is what faith is, the substance of things HOPED FOR. And if we don’t receive the things of God by faith, and place hope in them, then we’ll never receive them at all. Is it important to use our imagination in believing? Yes.

We might as well face it. We can have faith, we can believe, because we can see something not seen in the natural world. How? With our imagination. Faith is not blind. Faith sees.

In conclusion, we need to sow the word of God, the promises of God, into our heart, and when we pray based on those promises, we use our imagination to see ourselves having those promises in our life. And as we do that, our faith is strengthened. If it’s healing we are believing for, see ourselves healed, if it’s provision we’re believing for, we see ourselves having the things we need, unhindered by shortage or lack.

We ought to have a different world going on in our imagination than what we see in the natural world. Yes, life is in the present, but our imagination should be in the future, the place where our faith and hope in God’s promises is taking us.