ABOVE ALL WE ASK OR THINK.

In his letters to the people of Ephesus, Apostle Paul had these words included in his letters, “Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energises you” Ephesians 3:20 TPT

One of the greatest tool God has given us is called imagination. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines imagination as “The act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality” (emphasis on words in italics).

In my own words, Imagination is the power to bring things to existence with our minds. It’s a power by which we conceive in our minds what can be or will be. Imaginations is the creation of possibilities and in our imaginations, possibilities certainly begin. Everything we see today came as the result of imagination, an idea, a thought that started in someone’s mind.

Created by God, we (humans) have been divinely endowed with an unthinkably powerful gift within us to shape our world, create the life we desire, overcome our limitations as people and eventually solve problems we face as individuals and communities. Solutions are created when we begin to imagine the possibilities of what an alternative can be to the problems at hand.

We learn this lesson from the creator himself in many of his affairs with himself and his creation.

Before God created the earth, the bible tells us that the earth was dark, empty and without form. Dark, empty and void word was all he had to begin with. In the midst of all that chaos the bible informs us something crucial; “The Spirit of God was brooding over the surface of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). Brooding.

The original Hebrew word used for ‘brood’ is ‘rachaph’ which means ‘to flutter in constant imagination of an outcome’. His focus wasn’t in the chaos before him but what could be contrary to that chaos. Seated in his throne, Elohim imagined how He wanted the earth to be, he constantly played the picture over and over before he begun to create. In essence, all earth was in him mind before nothing could be perceived physically. When he was done and began speaking, everything including the seven wonders of the world came from that earth that was dark, empty and void.

His imagination brought about all that change!

When God promised Abraham that he is going to be a father of many nations, Abraham had many limitations in his life. He was surrounded with unsurmountable evidence contrary to what God had in store for him. For starters he was old and so was his wife. The bible tells us that being 100 and his wife at 90, their bodies were as good as dead. But till this wasn’t the end.

To overcome this challenge, God started at the same place where all possibilities begin, the mind. He worked to give Abraham pictures of how his offspring would look like. Using familiar things already in his creation, he did help Abraham conceive in his mind what could and was to happen in his life. He told him, “I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies” (Genesis 22:17, 26:4) Stars in the sky, sands in the seashore. Images, Possibilities!

Can our imaginations, thoughts and ideas cost or poison our lives? Certainly.

Lucifer, whom we commonly refer to as the devil was once a high-ranking angel in heaven. He didn’t organise a boycott against God to cause the counsel of heaven sit down and vote him out. No! He just imagined. Imagine! The bible says, “For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of congregation on the farthest side of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the most high’” (Isaiah 14:13 NKJV.) Lucifer had it all figured out in his imagination to the exact position he was going to occupy in heaven and that was enough ticket for him to be cast out by God, eternally.

Stephen R. Covey said, “Sow a thought, reap and action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny”. We propel ourselves to our destinies by seed of our imaginations. Where you will be next year or ten years to come is highly dependent on what you will sit down and think or imagine of yourself today. The mental pictures of yourself and your surroundings determine who you will be because our imaginations shape destinies.

So, what makes up your imagination? What images keeps floating in your mind when you close your eyes? Where do you see yourself, your kids, your society now, ten years from now? Are you losing or winning? Are you breaking grounds or grounds are breaking beneath you? What possibilities are in your mind right now? Ponder!

If you are in Christ, and you know you are a child of God you should know that you are created in his likeness and image (Genesis 1:26-27). Better yet in the new testament, where the glory of God is revealed to us through Christ, who is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15-17), we know that as Jesus is in heaven so are you here on earth (1 John 4:17). You possess an infinite power to change the world, for yourself and those around you. God has uniquely gifted you to make a difference. You have the potential to change this world forever, for the glory of God. But as you have seen my friend, that starts with your imaginations. Until you see yourself there it will never ever happen.

Someone may be wondering, why do I have to be in Christ for all that to be possible?

The bible says that in Christ we live (we have life), we move (make progress) and have our being (identity) (Acts 17:28). Its only in Christ that we truly live and make a lasting impact in the world. On top of that, we know from the word of God that each one of us has things to do here on earth, things that God prepared before the foundation of the world for us to do them but he set for us to be able to perform them only in Christ. The bible says ”For we are his workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above-spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good work, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which he sets], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which he prearranged and made ready for us]” (Ephesians 2:10 AMP)

Only in Christ.

Concluding from where we started, God had to shape Abraham’s mind images before He could act. Why? Because that is how He works, above as we ask or imagine. Prayer alone isn’t enough. Allow your imagination to be bold, outrageous and in Christ. There is no impossible in the vocabulary of God and your being in his likeness and image, impossible shouldn’t be in your dictionary as well. Shalom!