Using Your Imagination for Fantasy or Faith

In Genesis when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and there was a
delight to the eyes, and the tree was to be desired to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate.

What did she see?

The enemy when he tempts us wants us to see something. But the truth is, what he wants us to see is not reality.

She saw something that wasn’t actually there. And the enemy does the same thing to us.

He gets us pointed at pornography, at an extramarital relationship, masturbation, fantasy, a hookup, or a same sex relationship.

And he tells us all that will be there for us and all that it’s going to do for us. And it feels on some level like it will. And it never does.

Join us as we talk about the power of our imagination and how to take hold of it for His glory.

Outline:

• Your imagination is a part of the struggle you have with sexual sin.
• What the enemy wants us to see is not reality.
• Your imagination is important to your journey of obedience to God.
• The enemy wants to hijack the gift of our imagination and use it for his purposes.
• How do we renew our minds? How do we think about the truth?
• What is a tempting thought? How do we take it captive?
• The enemy’s got a hold of my imagination.
• The enemy is using your imagination to draw your attention to a smaller vision.
• What is faith? It’s the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

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Free Resources to help you on your journey to Becoming Whole

👉Men's Overcoming Lust & Temptation Devotional
👉Women 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Women overcoming unwanted sexual Behavior)
👉Compass 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Wives who are or have been impacted by partner betrayal)

Transcript

Josh  0:04  
You probably know that your imagination, your thought life is a part of the struggle you have with sexual sin, right? sexual fantasy kind of enters your head, you start music on some thoughts. Start thinking about past experiences or people you might want to hook up with, or images you might have seen online or videos you might watch, your brain starts to go that direction. And as it is, when our imagination starts to move, and we start to experience it in our body, we want to bring that imagination into the real world. We want to make it flesh in some way. And so we end up acting out. So you're aware of the role that imagination and your thought life plays in, in sin? Are you aware of the role that your imagination plays in faith? Are you aware of the way that imagination is actually a part of can be a part of growing your relationship with God, and growing in sexual integrity as a result, that's we're talking about on today's podcast. So to start us off, I want us to take a look at Genesis three, we were there last week want to be there again this week. Because something interesting happens here that I think is really profound for us. And I don't know that I understand all of it. But I think it's can be illuminating for us as we're thinking about the role the imagination plays, both in temptation and in sanctification. So I won't get into all the ways the enemy tempts Eve, but basically the gist of it right, he said he wants her to eat from this tree, the gods forbidden. And the Goddess said, if you eat from it, you're gonna die. And the serpent says during verse four, you surely won't die for God knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. And this we're going to focus in. In verse six, it says, so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and then it was a delight to the eyes. And the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took its fruit, and ate. And she also gave some to her husband and he ate. Now as if both were opened, and they knew they were naked, etc, etc, etc. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and there was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was to be desired to make one why she took of its fruit and ate. What did she see? What did she see? This is where I want us to focus. The enemy when he tempts us wants us to see something. But the truth is, what he wants us to see is not reality. Something happened in this conversation for Eve, where what she saw of the tree wasn't true. When we asked you was the tree that would bring death to her good for food? Because that's what she saw. She saw that it was good for food. Was the tree, a delight to the eyes? Maybe Maybe we don't know what it looked like. The scriptures don't tell us. So maybe it really was a beautiful tree? I can't speak to that one. Was it to be desired to make one wise? Would it do what the enemy said? Would it really make her wise? No, no, it didn't. It doesn't. And it didn't. I mean, that's that was not the fruit of what happened. Then we twisted something he said, your eyes are gonna be opened. And her their eyes were open. We read that in verse seven, but not in the way that the enemy said, not in any way that the enemy said, she saw something that wasn't real. She saw something that wasn't actually there. And the enemy does the same thing to us. He gets us pointed at pornography at an extramarital relationship, at masturbation at fantasy at a hookup at a same sex relationship. And he tells us all that will be there for us all that it's going to do for us. And it feels on some level like it will. And it doesn't. And I'm not saying that there's not pleasure in it. I'm not saying that. There's not some truth in what he says. But it's twisted. And somehow as we listen to the enemy's temptations, our own perspective is twisted. And that's beyond the scope of being we'll get into all that in this podcast. But what I want to highlight is this, your imagination is important to your journey of faith. Your imagination is important to your journey of obedience of your relationship with God. Why is your imagination important in relation with God? Why suggest on a very practical level, because we live in a world that we see. And yet there's so much that we cannot see. We cannot see. Love. Right Love is a is a construct, construct. It's a concept. It's action. It's sentiment itself. It's a lot of different things that self sacrifice. We can see evidence of love, but we can't we can't see it quite that way. We can't see God. Right. I mean, we can see evidence of God everywhere. But we can't see God So if we're going to be obedient to God, we are going to love God with all that we are. All that we are when we came to see all that we are right we see the outside of us. And we even see that kind of dimly, right? We look in a mirror, but how much do you actually see of all that you are? Can you see your personality? Can you see your voice? Can you see your impact on people's lives? Can you see your history? There's so much about being a human being, you can see people you're in relationship with, but can you see the relationship? Right? Like? I mean, haven't? Haven't? Isn't this part of our journey? Like, isn't that part of what gets so difficult in life, that there are things that we thought were real and they weren't, we thought they loved us. And they didn't, we thought they'd be faithful. And they weren't, we thought we could do it. And we couldn't, we thought we couldn't do it, we could I mean, there's so much that goes on that we can't see. And the imagination is meant to help bridge the gap. I think it's a gift from God to bridge the gap between what we can see and we cannot see, we are not just flesh, we are flesh and spirit. And the imagination helps us to bridge the gap. It's a it's a tool of faith. It's a tool of desire, it's a tool of love. The enemy wants to hijack the tool, the gift of our imagination and use it for his purposes. This is what he does. In Genesis three, he kind of sews this tale for Eve, letting her believe a story that's not real. And she begins to envision this story in her head that God doesn't care for her that she's on her own. And she's not as much as valuable as she thought she was. He's spinning his tail. And she then sees that the tree is something it's not. And the enemy wants to do that in your life. And my life to imagination is meant to be a tool of faith, a tool of desire to have love. The enemy wants it to be a tool of unbelief, a tool of doubt, a tool of despair, a tool of of deception, and a tool of temptation. This is what he's after. Now, let me just say an important aside here, I think a lot of us in the Christian faith, we don't think about the imagination as a part of our spiritual journey. We might even sound offended at that, because we typically, I think, think about the imagination as belonging to fiction. The imagination has to do with that which is not real. Because that's where we've usually used it, we that's where were they so we know that it's a tool of the enemy. And so we try to steer clear of it. We either use it for entertainment for amusement, or we try to steer clear of it. And so when we read passages in Scripture, like Romans 12, two, for example, where Paul says, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. We start to think, oh, we need our minds renewed? And how do we try to renew our minds with memorizing scripture verses with thinking about the truth? And how do we think about the truth? It often we think about in words, right? We read the words of Scripture, we think about the words, it's like, we're trying to renew our minds with information. And true information at that. And that's fantastic. But but it doesn't satisfy the heart to say, Okay, let me focus on the truth. I'm a new creature, the old is gone, the newest calm, I'm a new creature, the old is gone in the newest come. Like, again, that's an unseen reality. And to say that words like we might try to drill it in our heads, we might memorize it, but has it taken a hold of our hearts, we need the imagination, our imagination to help bring that into our hearts, because the imagination is the language of the heart. Facts are the are the tool of the mind if I could, you know, separate us like that, which is probably not a fair way to do it. I think the Lord has given us the imagined our imaginations to help us to conceive of what the full scope of reality is, and what truth is. And so yes, we want our minds renewed and our imaginations play a part in that, not because we are imagining a fiction, but because we are using our imaginations to take hold of that which is not seen, but is true. You think the enemy uses our imagination, or gave us an imagination? No, God gave us an imagination do you think was just for amusement? If it was just for kids? I mean, it's a powerful tool. Einstein said Imagination is more important than knowledge. Imagination is powerful. The its it is not to be trifled with, and the enemy wants us to kind of relegate it just to you know, Friday Night Movie Night. Why? So we don't use it for our spiritual lives. The enemy wants to get us to relegate it just a fantasy. Why do you need to just so that we can have? I mean, do you think that the enemy uses the imagination, just because it actually gives us a dopamine hit? And we feel it physically? That's part of it for sure. But it's also because he wants our attention. And he knows the imagination is the doorway to our attention.

Josh  9:47  
So we read other verses like Second Corinthians 10. Listen to this. Paul says, For though we walk in the flesh, we're not waging war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh. Should have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy it listed as we destroy arguments, and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. And we take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Okay, so I've taught so many people over the years, who tried to take their tempting thoughts captive, and how do they do it? What's a tempting thought? A tempting thought is not words, right? Tempting thought is not words. It's not like, Okay, I should go look at pornography. That does that's attempting. What's the tempting thought? It's images, right? It's it's pictures. It's it's movement. It's touch. It's imagination. Right? I'm imagining those things. But that's what the temptation is. Those are the thoughts that we're taking captive. And then we try to take them captive with words, or with like, some kind of mental gymnastics like, don't think don't think don't think like, it doesn't work. How do we take them captive? Well, certainly, Paul's talking about divine power here. We unite our imagination with the Spirit of God, and we say to the Spirit of God, God, the enemy's got a hold of my imagination. You take it, you take it, you fill my imagination. Now, show me what's true. I want to see what's real. Ignite my heart, Lord, to behold what's real in my mind right now. And so we then you know, your new creature, the old is gone, the new has come, we might imagine, what is it? What do I look like? What does it mean that I'm a new creation? Well, what's, what's my picture of the old me? That's me tempted me powerless to sin. What's the picture of the new me? What's the picture of me strong and able to stand against the enemy? What do I look like in the armor of God holding the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, and wearing the helmet of salvation. And we invite Jesus Jesus, use my imagination to show me what's real. Again, this isn't about fiction, this is about engaging with what is real, and using our imaginations, to engage to take hold of that which is actually true, the true unseen world. This is this is what God had in mind, I think with our by giving us an imagination. Listen to this from from Hebrews 10, beginning verse 36. And think about these moments of temptation and the role of our imagination. The writer of Hebrews says, For you have you have needed endurance, so that when you've done the will of God, you may receive what is promised? What's how do we, how do we take hold what's promised you guys, we can use our imaginations, like we think of heaven, we think of seeing Jesus face to face, we think of heavenly reward we think of, of making it through the day, and being able to look our spouse in the eye without any shame or fear. And he goes on to say For yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay. Are we just supposed to hear that? And then, and kind of just hold that today? With just words? No, imagine it. Imagine? Yet in little while the coming one Jesus will come and he will not delay? What will it be like? Let your imagination take hold of that. Because you guys, the parts that the ways the enemy is holding our imagination today, they speak to these deep desires of our heart. Do you think that the the temptation of in your head the fantasy of someone looking across a room and seeing you and being turned on by you, and coming and hitting on you and having sex with you? Do you think that imagination is just about that? No, it is speaking to your heart, that you are seeing that someone sees you from afar off, they come to you, they seek you out, they want to be with you. They want to bring you into bliss. What is that it's a twisted, distorted version, a sinful version of what your heart is truly longing for. The enemy is using your imagination, trying to draw your attract your attention to that smaller vision. And the writer of Hebrews is saying no, in a little while. The coming one is actually coming. Imagine him he's not going to delay. He's coming for you. Okay, now the writer of Hebrews goes on to say, but my righteous ones shall live by faith. And he shrinks back. My soul has no pleasure in him. And yet the writer of Hebrews says, We are not of those who shrink back. Imagine yourself as not when it shrinks back, and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. And what is faith? You guys? Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. It's the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen. Take hold of it with your imagination. You're not imagining fiction, you're imagining what is to come in his reality for by it that people have old received their commendation, your imagination. And my the whole point of this podcast is to highlight for you, yes, the enemy use your imagination and temptation. And the reason he does it is not just because it works to tempt you, but because he wants to draw your attention away from using your imagination allowing God to use your imagination for what it's really for. You which is taking hold of the unseen reality of God, His presence, His love, His Spirit in you the power you have to overcome all things because of him, your union with the larger body of Christ and the fact that you belong, the true nature of your you being created in His image, the truth of you being a new creation, the truth Have you never been abandoned? All those things God wants to take hold of in your imagining. So as you read scripture, about who you are about the nature of God, use your imagination when you're tempted, battled temptation with the power of faith, letting faith take hold of your imagination. It's a tool of faith, a tool of desire, a tool of love, a tool, a capacity that you have, that God has given you. Lord, thank You for our imaginations, we take them back from the enemy and we consecrate them to you to your purposes we consecrate them to reality, both that which is seen and that which is unseen. We consecrate them to the future, and you're promised soon return. We do so Lord with great thanks. In the in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.