Faith + Imagination_ Why You Must SEE Yourself Healed Before HEALING Manifests.

No matter what you may be facing today, I want you to know that God is so much bigger. We see in Jeremiah chapter 32 in verse 17, it says, Now, knowing that God can handle anything we face is so comforting for us. It's so important for us to understand that he's bigger than any situation we face. However, receiving help from God is not determined by how big God is. It's actually determined by what we can believe. And Jesus settled this issue when he was dealing with the father of a boy who had epilepsy. In Mark chapter nine in verse 22, the father said to Jesus that Satan has often thrown this boy into the fire and into the water to destroy him. You know, they had a revelation in that day that Satan was responsible for these things. But he said, So what Jesus was saying is, yes, I can do anything, but that's not the determining factor here. Yes, God is bigger than anything we face, but that's still not the determining factor. The determining factor is what can you believe? So we see this, that believing is necessary to receive anything from God. I want you today, no matter what you're facing, start expecting something good to happen for you. Don't be expecting that things are gonna get worse. Don't be expecting that you have no help because you have a God in heaven who's already given you help. He's just waiting on faith's command. Now, hope is the starting point for receiving. We know this because if you don't have any hope, there's nothing for faith to attach itself to. As a matter of fact, we could say this, that hope is the blueprint for faith to build upon. You know, any good builder knows they have to have blueprints if they're gonna build something properly. But when you look down at those blueprints, you don't actually have a house or a building, you just have a vision for a building. And so the same thing with hope. It's not actually faith, but it's the starting point. Now, we see this in Hebrews 11 in verse one. It says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, and it's the evidence of things not seen. So what we see is that faith will eventually give substance to what we're hoping for. We could say this, hope is an expectation. You have to get your expector up. You have to start expecting that God will do good things in your life. You have to start expecting that God will heal your body today, that God will provide for your need no matter how serious the situation is. Now, faith comes as we begin to give attention to the promises of God instead of the circumstances. We have to meditate upon those promises. You know, it's not enough just to read a promise here or there, or pull a scripture promise out of a box and look at it once or twice. Meditation actually requires imagination. Now, imagination is so important for life. A lot of people understand imagination if they've watched imaginary movies or films. You know, Disney is filled with imagination. And so sometimes in the church, people have said, well, imagination is of the devil, but that is so untrue. You know, God is the one that gave us the imagination, and he gave it to us so that we can imagine our lives with what his word says about us. We have to imagine ourselves with what God promises us. So if you need healing in your body, start imagining yourself well. If you weren't able to walk or run, start imagining yourself walking and running again. If you weren't able to do certain tasks in the past, start imagining yourself doing those things, or taking a trip, or fulfilling a plan that God gave you years ago. If you need money to pay your bills, start imagining yourself paying everything off in full with an abundance left over for every good work. Actually, start imagining yourself sowing bountifully into the work of God. You know, God wants to bless us and give seed to the sower. So if you imagine yourself being a sower, that's how you can start the process of faith for finances. The more you meditate upon what God says, the more you imagine yourself with what the word says, the bigger that's gonna become on the inside of you than the problem you're facing on the outside. And so we see this, that imagination is a key ingredient in meditation. Now, I have to warn you, the devil's not gonna just sit back and let you have thoughts of peace and blessing and health without a fight. He knows the power of imagination. And so he's an expert at injecting images into your mind that contradict the word. He's an expert at inserting images of defeat and failure, images of sickness and dying prematurely. And you have to know that when you get those kinds of images or thoughts that never comes from God, because it does not line up with the word of God. You see, the battleground where healing is won or lost is not out in the street somewhere. It's actually in your mind. You have to know this, that not every thought you think comes from God. And there is a war to be won, but it's not the war that Jesus paid the price for. It's the battle of the mind. Now, in 2 Corinthians 10 and verse five, we get some instructions from heaven. You see, there are some images that must be kept. And then there are some images that must be cast aside or gotten rid of if we're gonna live successfully in God. And in 2 Corinthians 10 and verse five, it says this, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and there are plenty of things that do that in life, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Now, casting down arguments, what does that mean exactly? Arguments are human reasoning. You know, the devil will just get you to reason yourself right out of the blessing of God. Arguments are philosophies. They're ideas that oppose God's truth. Sometimes we've learned things about God when we were young that actually are not scriptural. And so that becomes an argument against the truth when we need help from God. But these arguments are eventually gonna lead to images that will pull you down and keep you from receiving from God if you don't deal with them. Now, although God is bigger than sickness, although he's bigger than lack, he's still not gonna violate man's belief system. And so you have to realize this world's governed by Satan. He's always injecting negative thoughts and things that contradict the word. You know, we can go all the way back to the Garden of Eden and we can see that that was his tactic or his strategy with Adam and Eve. He came to Eve and he said, has God really said, you know, you shall not eat of the fruit? Has God really said you're gonna be healed this time? Has God really said that he'll supply all of your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus? And you're gonna be tempted to take that reasoning and argue against the word of God with it. But you have to be wiser than that. You've gotta take those thoughts captive according to what we just read in 2 Corinthians. Now, that phrase bringing every thought into captivity is actually from a Greek word that's a military term. And it means to arrest or to seize. And that means we're not supposed to be passive about this process. You know, the Bible teaches us that the violent take the kingdom of heaven by force. Now, this is true. I mean, the first part of that is that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. In other words, there is no passive approach that is going to win this battle. You are gonna have to be proactive. You're gonna have to seize those thoughts. You're gonna have to arrest those thoughts that contradict the word and cast them down every time. You know, in order to do this, we really have to have a heart that's full of faith. We have to be paying attention in life. It's really, and I've said this so many times before, it's a full-time job policing your thoughts. You know, the Bible teaches us in Romans chapter 12 that we are supposed to renew our minds with the word of God. We're not to be conformed to this world, but we're to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. That's a process. Transformation is a process, but it can be done. And every day that you spend renewing your mind with the word of God is a day of transformation in the right direction. It's a day moving forward in health. It's a day moving forward in prosperity and provision for your life. You know, God doesn't want anybody to fail. Now, we see this. This verse in Proverbs chapter four in verse 20, really there's three verses here that are so critical to what I'm talking about. In verse 20, it says, "'My son, give attention to my words. "'Incline your ear unto my sayings. "'Do not let them depart from before your eyes. "'Keep them in the midst of your heart.'" So that's telling me that there is a process of diligence here. This is not a passive attitude toward policing our minds. And then it goes on to say, "'For my words are life to those that find them "'and their health or healing to all their flesh.'" I've taught many times before that word health means medicine. So God's words are not just life, but they're medicine to all of our flesh. And then verse 23, "'Keep your heart with all diligence.'" That's a big word for some people, but it does require diligence to live this way. "'For out of your heart spring the issues of life.'" In other words, back to what we were talking to, keeping your mind on what God says, imagining yourself with what God says keeps your heart full of the right thing. That's how we're keeping our hearts. And because it's out of our heart that the issues of life spring forth from, whatever's in the heart is what's gonna come out. So you wanna be careful that what you're guarding and protecting is actually right thinking, that you're protecting the word of God and not wrong thinking or things that contradict what God said about you. Now, I know that this is not something that just happens casually. I know because I've been doing it for decades. And there are days when you get up and you think, oh, this negative thought is facing me again, and I feel weary of trying to deal with this. Well, I want you to know, you don't have the luxury of getting weary if you wanna win this battle. And the Bible says that I can do all things through Christ who gives me the strength. And so sometimes when I wake up and I feel weary and I feel like, can I do this another day? I quote that scripture out loud to the devil. And I say, I can do all things through Christ. He's giving me the strength today to stand on his word. He's giving me the strength to resist every wrong thought from the enemy. And I start rejoicing in God's presence and then quoting what his word says about my healing, about my finances, or whatever it is that I'm standing and believing God for. You know, this is something that's so important for life that we use our words to speak to wrong thoughts. We have to say, I refuse those wrong thoughts. And then we say what God says. And I want you to know you can do it. You're not a victim, you're a victor. And God's given you all the equipment you need to overcome. But one of those things that he's given us is the ability to imagine ourselves with what he says. So I wanna encourage you today, begin to see what God says about you in your life. Begin to not only see that God's bigger than what you're facing, and God in you, the greater one, is bigger than anything you're facing. But begin to see yourself with what the word says. And I guarantee as it becomes bigger in you, it will begin to manifest in your life for the glory of God. Hallelujah, I wanna pray with you right now. If you've been facing serious struggles in your life, know this, God doesn't want you to face them another day. And the answer begins with what you're seeing in your own life, with what you're imagining. So Father, I pray for those that are watching today. I thank you, Father God, for supernatural release from wrong thinking, from weariness, from despair and discouragement. I command you, Satan, to take your hands off of their minds and off of their bodies in the name of Jesus. And we release the power of God into their lives to do a great work in them today as they begin this process of renewing their minds to think like you think, Lord. And we thank you today in advance for your goodness in their lives in Jesus' name. Now, we wanna hear about your testimonies, so please make sure that you write to us and let us know what God's doing in your life. Also, remember to like and share this video with other people, and please subscribe to our YouTube channel if you have not already. Also, if you've been blessed by these messages, we wanna invite you to become a partner with us. You know, as you sow seed into a good ministry, you help other people to come up higher and to receive the truth that you're hearing. And so we thank you in advance for your help. Also, I wanna remind you that God has a great purpose for your life, and it's so much bigger than you know. God bless you.