Atlanta GTS Session 3 Exercising Your Imagination

Jesus thank you Father father we give you thanks for sending your son to pay for our sins and to provide our healing and our prosperity and our deliverance to make our life worth living father we just thank you Jesus we thank you for sacrificing yourself we thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit and we believe that the Holy Spirit is here tonight to reveal yourself to us to manifest your power in our life we receive the wisdom we open up our hearts tonight and believe that the Holy Spirit will have freedom to change us father we drop all of our defenses we exalt the word of God above the word of men above our own word and we receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save our souls and so we thank you and receive it tonight in the name of Jesus amen hallelujah praise God you can be seated I've been sharing about imagination and I haven't got time to go back and rehearse everything I've said but the first night last night I basically just shared about what an imagination is and many Christians think that imagination is immature that it's like childish it's fantasy there's a difference between a fantasy that is based outside of reality and an imagination that is based on the reality of what God's Word says and what he has promised us and so I spent the first night basically just talking about what imagination was this morning I shared about the power of imagination and I began to share some things like in Genesis chapter 11 verse 6 where the Lord said nothing that they have imagined will be restrained unto them and let me go back and just read the definition of the hebrew word that it was used for imagination in the old testament it's the hebrew word yes sir ye ser and it means a form or figuratively conception your imagination is where you can see things miracles don't come from the outside they come from the inside they are conceived you have to conceive a miracle and we've been talking about this the dictionary defines imagination as the process or power of forming a mental image of something not real or present creativity inventiveness resourcefulness and I'll tell you this is powerful I've been trying to emphasize how important an imagination is and I've already used this verse but I want to go back in Genesis chapter 6 verse 5 it says God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually there's a lot of things I said some things about this this morning but this is the natural state of man not just men but mankind male/female this is the natural state of all of us ever since the fall our imagination gravitates towards evil you have to conceive sin sin doesn't come upon you like a seizure sin doesn't just happen you aren't just walking down the street and sin jumps upon you sin has to be conceived and it's conceived in our imagination that's exactly what these verses are saying here's another verse that talks about the same thing Genesis chapter 8 verse 21 and the Lord smelled a sweet savour and the Lord said in his heart I will not again curse the ground any or for man's sake for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth neither will I again smite anymore everything living as I have done this is the way that flesh is it's just got an evil imagination if anybody in here thinks well I don't have an evil imagination you've never really given much thought to it and you haven't intentionally tried to just see the things of God come to pass in your life but you don't feel that you have an evil imagination you're deceived this is what the Bible is saying that the imagination of people is evil continually from our youth this is the way it is we are self-centered we think about ourselves and that's not the way that God created us to be God did not intend for you to be serving yourself and living for yourself and promoting yourself the way up in God's kingdom is down the way to prosper and to rule and to reign is to put other people ahead of yourself this is not the way that the average person thinks and so I'm just using these scriptures to show what the word says about an imagination Deuteronomy chapter 31 this is just a few moments before Moses was gonna leave the children of Israel climb Mount Nebo and die and he was giving his last instructions to the people and he went through and reminded them of things and the Lord gave him a song and he told them that he told Moses to teach the children of Israel this song about all of the miracles that God had done with the deliverance out of the land of Egypt going through the Red Sea how he provided for him in the wilderness and he said I want you to teach them this song so that in years to come when they reject me they will remember and this song will testify against them you know this just amazes me if I was going to help somebody and I knew that eventually they were gonna take all my help and reject me and turn against me and just take everything I've done to help him and they were gonna use it against me you know and if I knew that that was gonna happen I probably wouldn't help them I'd say what's the use the Lord knew that the Jews were gonna reject him he knew that they were gonna do these things and he says I want you to teach them this song so that when they do reject me this song will testify against them and here's what he said right after he said this about the song he said in Deuteronomy 31 21 and it shall come to pass when many evils and troubles are befallen them that this song shall testify against them as a witness for it shall not be forgetten out of the mouths of their seed for I know their imagination which they go about even now before I brought them into the land which I swear them the Lord knew that they were going to reject him and he says I know their imaginations which they go about and again this is just another confirmation that our actions are result of our imagination the way that you think in your heart which is specifically talking about your imagination that is the way that your life goes proverbs 23:7 for as he thinketh in his heart so is he your thoughts control your imagination your imagination go inline with your thoughts and if you think negative thoughts if you think on evil if you think on failure if you think on fear it forms images in your imagination and that is where you can see things and whatever you can see gets birthed in your life and then in first chronicles chapter 29 verse 18 this is important it says O Lord God of Abraham Isaac and of Israel our fathers keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people and prepare their heart under thee the context of this is that David had already given the equivalent of 20 billion dollars towards the building of the temple the Lord told him he couldn't build it but his son could so David gave out of the government Treasuries 20 billion dollars to the building of the temple but on this day first chronicles chapter 29 he started giving out of his own money and he gave over five billion dollars of gold silver precious stones to the building of the temple out of his personal treasure and he did it before all of Israel as they were assembled together and the people were so touched to see his sacrificial giving that the people started giving and all of the people gave five billion dollars worth of gold silver and all of these things so this was like a ten billion dollar offering in one day and David was so touched by it he began to pray a prayer and he said Lord who are we that we could give this we were slaves at one time we had nothing and now look at this abundance all we've done is take and give back to you what you have already given to us well there's a message in that that's true of every one of us and then he prayed this prayer and he said Lord keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of their heart and prepare their heart unto you what he's saying right here he's talking about help them to remember this did you know that you can't remember without an imagination it's your imagination that enables you to remember that's a important truth right here and there's so many scriptures like in Psalms 103 says bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits we're commanded not to forget because our tendency is to forget but if you can remember matter of fact as they went through the wilderness experience there's many times that the Lord said they soon forgot how he had done all of these things you know the Israelites came through the Red Sea and saw God part this water I just you know I just watched the Ten Commandments again and saw that depiction of that and you know what that does that helps you to imagine I'm not sure it was the way that it was but sometimes you have a vague concept and you don't really think about when you see something depicted it helps you to imagine better and I was thinking about that what a great miracle this was and how that all of the Egyptians contrary to the show of the Ten Commandments Pharaoh did not escape he drowned a man right there he did not go back to nipitiri in and say something to her he was dead and anyway I was thinking about this and three days three days after rejoicing and seeing this great miracle they said God brought us out here to kill us let's go back to Egypt let's become and I think what's wrong with these people how could you forget this and it says specifically in Psalms 107 as it is rehearsing all of these things it says they forgot what happened in the Red Sea this is the reason that the Lord told us not to remove our neighbors landmarks this is why he gave us feast it's why he gave the Jews feast the the Passover and all of these things they had to on a yearly basis go back and remember what God had done for them and you know there's a New Testament counterpart to this over in 1st Peter where it talks about that we are supposed to add to our faith virtue and debate virtue knowledge and the knowledge temperance and cetera and all of these things and if you do these things you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of God but he that lacks these things has forgotten that he was redeemed from his sins did you know if you were to just constantly remember the good things that God has done for you it would transform your life but people forget you know I had because of a match nation your imagination is how you remember in the sad fact is most of us are more influenced by the light of our television than we are by the light of God's Word and the world is not going to remind you of the goodness of God instead it's going to put fear in you about the future and tell you all of these negative things but if you just were to focus your attention on the Lord and remember all of these good things it says twice in the book of 2nd Peter he says I stir you up by putting you in way of remembrance i stir up your pure Minds memory is a powerful force you know I was outside one day and I don't remember exactly what it was right now but I smelled something boom like that I had a flashback to Vietnam I had smelt that exact same thing in Vietnam and I began to start thinking about this and it's amazing how your memory can arrest you and how your memory can affect you and this right here is saying Lord keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of their heart he's praying lord help them to remember you need to feed your imagination you know there are very few days in my life that I haven't gone back to March the 23rd 1968 and remembered when God touched my life nearly every day of my life I go back and I think about that and I think about where I was and you know Jamie and I we were so poor we couldn't pay attention because of my own stupidity I thought that if you were called to the ministry it was sin for me to go work a job so far I don't even know how many years six years I tried to minister without working a secular job and we only had like five people I think the largest church I had was like 10 people 12 people and we nearly starved to death because of my own stupidity and anyway we struggled and Jamie and I we do this on a regular basis we go to the grocery store and we walk out buying anything we want and we will nearly always look at each other and says do you remember when we we would go two weeks without food when she was eight months pregnant we went two weeks on the force fast nothing but water we just had a situation with my niece she was supposed to be here this morning and I don't know all the details but they couldn't make it it was because of a financial problem Jamie and I were talking about do you remember you remember when we got evicted because we couldn't pay or we were given an eviction notice but we had a miracle happen the day that we were to be evicted and we got it paid but we remember all of these things I remember this stuff you know over in Romans chapter 1 let me just share this with you real quickly I got a great teaching on this I'm not gonna go into this in depth but in Romans chapter 1 it tells you why these people walked away from the revelation that God had given them and it gave four things here in Romans chapter 1 verse 21 because that when they knew God here's the first thing they glorified him not as God the word glorified means to put worth in value upon render our esteem glorious in other words they didn't fully appreciate what God had done this is committed by us on a regular basis every day the Sun comes up and many of us don't even thank God for we just take it for granted we don't esteem it we you know what you ought to be praising God that the Sun came up today what would happen if the Sun didn't come up you only be praising God did you know that there's enough air on the planet for you to breathe you don't even think about it God's provided for you he's provided rain he made causes his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust God has blessed us you're sitting here tonight your breathe your breathing the Bible says let everything that hath breath praise the Lord you know one of the signs the end times second Timothy chapter three is that they will be unthankful it's listed right along with being unholy adulterers all of these things and people are unthankful this is one of the reasons that I made it mandatory that in order to graduate from Carius Bible College you have to go on an overseas missions trip you can't graduate if you don't do it and one of the reasons is to get us out of this culture where we are spoiled rotten and we think that if we don't have five flat-screen TVs and the newest car and the fanciest phone you got one that works but you want the newest one you're gonna pay five hundred dollars for the newest deal and your phone works just fine we think that if we don't have that we're poor I heard David Barton say that I forgot what the criteria was but it was under some circumstances if a person doesn't make 61 thousand dollars a year they list them as poor mercy man we don't understand what's going on in the rest of the world you know it's a statistic that if you have $10 in your pocket right now you are more you have more money than 90% of the people breathing on this planet if you have $10 not in your bank account uptime under your pocket you are blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed and we don't know it we take things for granted and so one of the things we do is make people go on a missions trip and I guarantee you without exception our students come back and just nearly kissed the ground thank you Father for our problems in America thank you for my poverty most people on this earth would love to have your poverty but see we don't even appreciate what we've got that's one of the signs of an end time and this is what this is talking about one of them things that keeps God from moving in your life is because you don't glorify God you aren't appreciative you don't even recognize how blessed we are the next thing it says they aren't thankful did you know that if you don't value what God has done if you take for granted the fact that you're breathing the fact that you live in one of the most prosperous nations in the history of the world at one of the most prosperous times in the world at a time when God is pouring out his miracles things are happening if you take this for granted and aren't thankful it's because you didn't place the proper value on what God has done you are taking things for granted man it could be a lot worse than it is boy our parents our grandparents most of them if somehow or another you could take your grandparents your great-grandparents and just translate them into your lifestyle they would be overwhelmed at your convenience is the fact that you can put something in a microwave and push a button and in two minutes it's done they'd be shocked the way that your cars work the way that you can call and you can make a phone call without being hooked up to something we take all of these things for granted it's because we didn't value what God has done and that leads to being unthankful and then the next thing here in verse 21 it says that they didn't glorify Him as God neither we're thankful but became vain in their imaginations if you don't really value what God has done in your life and if you don't thank him continually which is part of memory you have to go back and remember and rehearse all of the good things that have been done then your imagination just automatically becomes a vain it doesn't mean it doesn't work but it means it starts working against you if you aren't valuing God and what he's done in your life then you we'll be unthankful and your imagination will start gravitating towards the negative did you know people that fight depression there is nothing wrong with them whatsoever the world tries to come up with ho you got a chemical imbalance and oh you got this and all this stuff your your body's working perfectly you are thinking on negative things you aren't valuing what you've got you aren't thankful for what you've got you're thinking about what you could have or you're fearful of what's going to happen to you you're looking and focusing on the negative and the scripture teaches that your emotions follow your thoughts proverbs chapter excuse me isaiah chapter 23 verse 6 the Lord will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon him because he trusted in him your peace which is not only an emotion but it is it involves your emotion peace is a byproduct of what your mind is stayed upon stayed upon God if you have a lack of peace you're working just perfectly the way God made you your emotions are following your thoughts and your thinking on depressing things thank you for that thunderous eyes see again this is one of the things that happens wheat most of us have a different image oh no you don't understand I am a victim I can't control this you can control your emotions 100% it has been 48 years since I've been depressed I don't get depressed I don't believe in being depressed and I've had a lot of depressing things happen I've had my son died and I refuse to be depressed you do not have to be depressed it's the way you process and think about things that cause you to be depressed the Lord will keep you in perfect peace if your mind is stayed upon him and guess what the word and mind guess what the Hebrew word that was used in Isaiah 26:3 years yes sir ye ser the exact word that was translated imagination it's talking about if you will keep your mind specifically your imagination stayed upon God if you will keep seeing yourself winning if you will see the promises of God coming to pass if you think about what God is promised instead of what you see and feel in the natural realm I guarantee you you will operate in perfect peace regardless of what's going on around you I've had some really negative things happen to me no more than I guess anybody else I'm not trying to present it that I've had a terrible life I've been blessed but I'm saying I've had a lot of things happen I've been kidnapped I've been threatened to be killed I've had people spit on me when I'm ministering to them I've been slandered I got thousands of blogs written about me I've got people that hate me and say terrible things about me you know what I could be as depressed and discouraged as any person in here but I have just chosen to keep focused on what God says I keep my imagination my mind stayed upon God and because of it I perfect peace and there's people in here that you feel justified in being hurt and bitter and angry and depressed and discouraged because you point and if if I was talking to you personally you'd say but you don't understand and you would start pointing at your circumstances to justify your feelings and emotions and see that's the problem you think that emotions are controlled by what's going on around you but we have a peace that passes understanding we have something that is beyond what's happening to me it's what's on the inside of me you know what if something happened and if I was to die if the doctor was to tell me you're gonna die if I was imagining using my mind and keeping it stayed upon the Lord first of all I believe in healing and I believe that God's gonna heal me and it's not over yet so I wouldn't just fall you know fall apart like a $2.00 suitcase just because somebody tells me that I'm gonna die I believed God but if worse came to worse and if I didn't receive my healing all that's gonna happen is I'd go to heaven and I'm gonna live forever in heaven and that's gonna be a blast if I had the attitude of the Apostle Paul where he says for me to live is Christ and to die is gain and he says I'm in a great straight between two I have such a desire to go to be with the Lord that that's what I want to do but I think it's more necessary to stay here with you so I'm forcing myself to stay here with you if you had that kind of an attitude when the doctor says you're gonna die it would be all you can do to keep from reaching up and kissing the guy and just saying oh man this is awesome most of you wouldn't do it you know why because our imagination isn't staying on God we're to look we're thinking wrong we're thinking that this life is all there is and we would start thinking about what we would lose and we would start we see this life as being complete in itself then you are gonna live forever in eternity this life is like less than the snap of a finger compared to Eternity and I guarantee you when we get to heaven and see what a great place heaven is we're gonna wonder why it was that we were so resistant to going there the reason I'm here is because I've got a job to do and God has told me to do some things and I'm staying here because I got something to accomplish but I guarantee you I am Not Afraid of going to heaven I'm looking forward to it and the longer I live and the more people I have in heaven that I'd like to see man the more I like it if we had the right attitude if our mind would stayed upon God if our imagination if we were thinking about heaven you'd get to where it's hard to stay here I had a woman give me a book I don't know 30 years ago called interim euros I don't know if any of you ever read it it's got different names to it it's called my dream of heaven by ruth springer and it was back in the 1800s right after the Civil War this woman died and in her in from our perspective the people that were with her she was only dead for I think three or four minutes but in her perspective she went to heaven and she was there for three years and she wrote this book about my dream of heaven and she prefaced it by saying look I'm not trying to make a doctor and I don't I'm not preaching anything I don't have an agenda I'm just telling you this is what I experienced and because nearly every family in this nation lost somebody in the Civil War they were really struggling to how to deal with this and many of them just thought that when a person died they were gone and this became a best-seller in the 1800s it was published towards the end of the 1800s and I mean it was the number one bestseller and I read this book and I haven't got time to tell you about it but it was awesome if Heaven is 100th of what she described in her experience it's gonna be wonderful and I I was just gonna read a little bit of it I stayed up all night long reading that book and I had the minister the next day but it impacted me and I'm the I came home and I had it in my suitcase and I had to go to the office and when I came home from the office Jamie was sitting in a chair just awestruck she read it and the two of us for the next month or two we had to use our faith to stay alive man we were ready to go and I have given that book to many many many people who have lost someone and I guarantee you once you see what Heaven's like man you aren't gonna you know it's not you grieving for them man I guarantee you they are awesome if you're grieving it's you missing them not them missing you man in heaven it's so awesome it says that the former things never even come to mind anyway I'm saying that see we get so fearful the doctor when you don't understand my situation I'm dying or something if you were thinking correctly and if your mind was stayed upon God and if your imagination was working correctly that'd be awesome you can't lose for winning if you get healed you win if you die you win you can't lose for winning you're blessed if you had this attitude if you were focused on what the Word of God says I guarantee you you would have perfect peace you're just barking up the wrong tree if you're trying to give me excuses why you were depressed and why you're discouraged you can say what you want to but your mind's not stayed upon God your imagination that Hebrew word yes or you are not keeping your imagination you aren't picturing what God has promised what God has said what God is doing if you are disturbed if you're worried if you're stressed out your mind is not stayed upon God period was that too subtle anybody missed that and I know somebody walked the doctor says well you know they're entitled to their opinion but I'm not going to agree with them or we'd both be wrong I'm telling you that this is what the Bible says and I believe the Bible more than I believe any man Romans 3:4 let God be true in every man a liar it is not your hormones it is not your time of the month that causes you to act like the devil it's because your mind is not stayed upon God can't believe I said that but it's true you with your mind with your heart you need to picture success you need to see yourself winning look over in second Corinthians chapter 10 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 in verse 3 for therein for though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh for the weapons of our warfare this is talking about spiritual warfare and boy there's people that have wanted to make a doctrine out of this and they see a demon on every doorknob and they want to get in and wrestle with the devil and stuff did you know all of the New Testament Scriptures about spiritual warfare have to do with your mind and imagination the battle is right between your ears it's not in the heavenlies it's not some demon that's coming against you I believe that demons exist I believe that there are angelic powers in the heaven but the only way they think and any control over you is if they grab hold of your imagination that's their only inroad into your life this is saying that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God and look what the weapons of our warfare do they cast down strongholds pulling down strongholds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ all of these weapons aren't for just dealing with demons the only way that Satan can control you or have any access to you is if you're thinking stinks if it causes you to see things improperly you know we've got a woman that came to our school she's a student right now and she's from Nigeria and when she first came in September she came up to me and she's she's born-again she loves God she spirit fill and she says she had she was dedicated to the devil there was voodo voodoo witchcraft and all of this kind of stuff she was sexually abused and she had all of these demonic problems she was plagues she couldn't sleep at night and she was just telling me about all of the demonic stuff that happened and I acknowledge that it happens I said I do believe that that's demons but there's a reason why they have access to you the Bible says he goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour first Peter chapter 5 I believe it's verse seven or eight he's looking for who he can devour he can't just devour anybody why is it that everybody isn't totally devastated by the devil because he has to have your consent and cooperation to destroy your life and this usually doesn't bless people because you say you're saying it's my fault yep that's what I'm saying it may not be intentional it may be through ignorance that you're doing it but Satan cannot devour everybody he only devours people that give place to him and I begin to tell this woman that I said hey you're acting like the devil is this big force out there I said he exists and he goes about seeking whom he may devour but greater is He that's in you than he that's in the world and I said Satan couldn't be doing these things to you if he didn't have something in you that was cooperating with him and at first she was not blessed and she came up and she talked to me a number of different times and I began to tell her I said you were raised in this culture where the devil is a big thing and demons did things and you have a fear of the devil you fear hid you honor his power you believe in his power and I said that's what's in their life and anyway she just came up to me last week and she was just beaming and she says I am so free she has been totally delivered of all of these things she sleeps all night long and she she was telling me it's because I didn't know who I was in Christ I didn't know my authority and that ignorant was what was allowing Satan to do these things to me and if you got demonic problems if Satan's plaguing you sure he's a factor certainly he exists but he can't devour you unless you cooperate with him if you were to renew your mind and keep your mind stayed upon the Lord see you are use your imagination to picture then I'm the one with authority and power I guarantee you Satan would flee from you you know when I first got turned on to the Lord I was raised Baptist and we were taught that all the devils were in Africa that there weren't any Devils here and when I got turned on to the Lord and found out that there were Devils here and that sickness meant much sickness was demonic and a lot of things that were happening were demonic man I got to seeing a devil on every doorknob and I got so conscious of the devil and I hadn't got time to explain the whole thing but I had many demonic manifestations I had demons physically attacked me I would believe when there's nobody around I was nearly choked and thrown to the floor by demons I had a lot of demonic encounters and I was winning I was rebuking them and resisting them but boy I mean it was a struggle and Satan was whooping up on me and beating me up and we had this room in our house that I grew up in that my grandmother died in that room and she had she had lost her mind she went senile was what they used to call it a long time ago and she had demonic problems and when she died my brother and I used to share a room so man we were glad to get out of sharing a room I moved into my grandmother's room and I was only in there a few days and I left because her picture would come alive and go all over that room and there was things moving in that room and there was things happening and I knew that we weren't supposed to believe in this but it was happening so I never told anybody I never said what happened I just decided I'd move back in with my brother well my brother didn't like that so he decided he'd move in there in two nights he was back he never said and we used to keep that room locked nobody would go in there we wouldn't air condition or heat that part of the house it was just separate and I mean for 20 years nobody used that house I mean that that room in the house we would have Bible studies over there and that people would go back into every room to pray with somebody to lead them to the Lord but nobody went in that room my niece when she was born she was only six months old she'd be sound asleep he'd walk in that room and she'd wake up screaming you walk out and she'd go to sleep you walk in she'd scream everybody knew something was in that room but nobody would do anything about so when I first became aware of all of this I decided I'm gonna get rid of these demons and I was walking in that room and I was I shut the door and I started rebuking the devil and praying in tongues and meant all the hair on the back of my neck was standing up I was trembling and I was thinking oh god I'm so glad I can't see these demons because if I could see them I could just see these huge demonic things with claws ready to devour me and and I was walking through that room playing old God thank you for protecting me I was pleading the blood of Jesus and the Lord spoke to me and he says you got it all wrong if you could see into the spiritual realm you'd see little things about the size of an ant that are 90% mouth all the way ours they could just Bluff it's the wiles it's deception there's nothing says you if you could see in the spirit realm you would recognize that they are trembling at your presence and did you know when the Lord taught me that and I begin to see that did you know instantly fear left me and I mean it's like The Incredible Hulk I just stood up blessed God and man I've got rid of those demons it was over in a matter of minutes and that night I never told a single person this but did you know when we had a Bible study people started going into that room and it was no different than any other room it's never been the same and I'm telling you if you are having demonic problems if the devil's whooping up on you there's a reason for it and it has to do with you aren't keeping your mind stayed on God what God says about you what you have what you can do you instead are listening to the devil you're comparing yourself to everybody else is I'm only a man and that's not true and you aren't seeing who you are in Christ the weapons of our warfare cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and it brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ as I was teaching this morning Hebrews 11:15 you can't be tempted with what you don't think if you are tempted toward sin if you're struggling with sin if you're struggling with vices if you're struggling with these things it's because you aren't keeping your mind stayed on the Lord and in your imagination you have conceived something that is trying to get out and Brent be brought to birth the best way is not to try and abort it just don't ever conceive it don't conceive it don't let your mind go there keep your mind stayed upon the Lord look over in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 and Paul is talking about all the things that he suffered he listed all of these things saying it seems like we are put forth last we suffer more than anybody else the people we ministered to bless and yet we the Apostles are suffering more than anybody else and he lists some of those things and then he says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 and in verse 16 he says for it's cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day it doesn't matter what's going on in the outer man it doesn't matter what's going on in this society it doesn't matter what's going on in my body it determines what's going on in my heart which involves my imagination that dictates how I feel I have been in situations that there is no reason no reason in the natural to have peace and rejoice and hope and yet I am just hopeful and steady we had some things happen to us that made it to Paul Harvey's news broadcast went worldwide and he said this is the worst thing I've ever heard and he talked about Jamie and me called our names I remember Wendell calling me that day and saying you know you can't come in and minister today I know that you're bound to be struggling I said hey I'm coming in to minister and he said but you know what's happened to you and I said hey Jesus hasn't changed I'm gonna tell him about Jesus I'm not gonna tell him about me and I came into school and I ministered all day long it doesn't matter your outward man may be perishing but your inner man can be renewed your your thoughts determine how your life go it determines how your emotions going if your emotions are in the toilet it's because your minds already been there you keep your mind state on the Lord you'll have perfect peace so he says our outer man is being destroyed day by day but the inner man is being renewed day by day for our light affliction part this is huge Paul says it's just a light affliction there's probably somebody in here who just constantly is telling people how bad oh you just don't nobody knows the trouble I feel nobody knows my sorrow we delight in thinking our problem is bigger than anybody else see if you can convince yourself and other people of that well then that means you're excluded from the answer that helped other people Satan loves to get you to thinking that you're the only person that's ever experienced this that's the Elijah's syndrome I'm the only one left and yet the Bible says there's no temptation 1st Corinthians 10:13 there is no temptation taken you but such as is common to man but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able but will with the temptation make a way to escape that you shall be able to bear it Paul said it's just a light affliction some of you oh well that's the difference Paul had a light affliction I got this big affliction I'm not gonna take time to do it but turn over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 and Lee read about his light afflictions being beaten with rods being beaten with whips being stoned and left for dead put in prison a hungry thirsty stripped naked and on and on it goes Paul had more problems than any person in here has ever had and he says it's just a light affliction if Paul could call his affliction light what justifies you talking about how bad your situation is you know there's people sitting right here who do not like what I'm saying because you're I'm stripping away your excuses I'm not doing this out of anger I'm not trying to hurt you I'm trying to help you as long as you say I'm a victim because of what they did you can never be a victor and a victim at the same time you're gonna have to quit being a victim and say I don't care what's happened to me through Christ I can do all things as long as you have a victim mentality and see yourself inferior and it's this government and it's this system and it's this that it made you the way you are you'll never be a victor you got to quit blaming other people and you need to get that teaching I just did on Joseph it's awesome and so anyway he says it's just a light affliction and here's two reasons why he considered his affliction light he says because it's just for a moment our light affliction which is but for a moment see if you would put everything into the light of eternity did you know you would find out that what's happening to you is not that big of a deal let me ask you a thousand years from now in eternity is what's bothering you today gonna make a hill of beans different you know I keep a journal and I've done it since 96 so it's been 20 years I've been keeping this journal and I go back and read to help my memory and to help me be thankful over what God has brought me through and I read this journal and I go back and read about some of the things that were bothering me and I've totally forgot them they weren't important it wasn't any big deal and yet it bothered me that day you ought to do that you would find out that some of the things that are bothering you right now a year from now if you went back and read it you think why did I ever let that bother me so what if you had a flat tire why would you let that ruin your day what does that have to do with anything so what if you had a fender bender No big deal Jamie and I bought a brand new car drove it to church in the very first day at church a woman but backed into it and hid it and she got out and when she saw it was me oh I'm so sorry and she's all this as a brand new car she saw the dealers tagging she just was beside herself I can't believe I did this day and I said hey it's just the cars no big deal we'll get it fixed it's okay but some of you I guarantee you if you bought a brand new car and wrecked it the first day did it bother you for a week I got home from a trip I won't even go into the details but it was the worst trip I've ever been on 72 hours with no sleep I got home my car broke down I had to go rent a car it got stuck I had to go borrow a car and I put a scratch on it so I decided I'm gonna go buy me two new cars so that I don't have to deal with this I bought two new cars in one week and I backed out of the garage one new car into my other new car and wrecked both of them the first week but it's just cars it doesn't matter it's not a big deal I survived it you're laughing in my tragedy but see there's some of you you're taking away my justification for being defeated and bitter and angry and having discouragement in grief and sorrow and stuff I'm telling you Jesus is bigger than anything you're dealing with and if you would get this attitude of the Apostle Paul if worse comes to worse if you've been struggling in a marriage for twenty or thirty years it's just a light affliction it's just for a moment but I've been dealing with arthritis for 20 or 30 years it's just for a moment compared to Eternity it's like that it's not a big deal go to thinking about heaven and thinking about what a blast it's gonna be in heaven if you never saw manifestation of your healing in this life you're gonna spend eternity healed and go to thinking about that and seeing yourself well and I guarantee you you could rejoice just understanding it's a light affliction it's just for a moment it would shrink any problem you've got down to just it's no big deal it's not a big deal that's what the Apostle Paul said he gave two reasons our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen let me ask you how do you look at something if it's not seen that's your imagination he's saying we were looking at the things that cannot be seen and then he says everything that can be seen is temporal or temporary everything that cannot be seen is eternal spiritual truths are much greater than physical natural truths anything that's in the natural can be changed cancer can be changed aids can be changed any physical problem can be changed finances can be changed anything physical natural is subject to change but the things that cannot be seen or eternal what God has spoken to me what God has said to me those things are reality that is more real than anything physical that I could ever see the physical problems have to bow their knee to the Word of God the Word of God is superior to it and that's what I'm looking at I'm looking at what can't be seen then that's important this is easier to preach than it is to live but I'm telling you it's worth the effort it's worth the effort to get to where you take the Word of God and it paints such a picture that you keep your mind your imagination stayed on that and if you do that you'll have peace I don't care what's going on in your life no exceptions zero exceptions no excuses there's reasons God has compassion he's not mad at anybody who's discouraged beat down but I'm telling you you do not have to leave Jesus bore your sorrows and carried your grief you don't have to carry it he says we were looking at those things that can't be seen and then he starts talking in Chapter five about that if this if worse came to worse and if this body was to be dissolved I got a body a spiritual body waiting for me in heaven he's still talking it's men that put chapter 5 in there and made a new chapter he didn't change what he was saying this was one letter that was written and he's still talking about the same thing looking at things that can't be seen and he's saying if worse comes to worse and this body dies no big deal I got a glorified body waiting on me and that's what he's talking about and then he says in verse 6 chapter 5 verse 6 he says therefore we are always confident notice always confident not just when we're at church not just when we're doing our devotions during certain times of the day this is the way he always is he his mind stayed upon the Lord and because of that he had perfect peace therefore we are always confident knowing that whilst we were at home in the body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by faith and not by sight he's stating that this is the way of Christians should live is to live by faith and not by sight but sadly most Christians walk by sight and not by faith most Christians hear about faith they talk about faith and they confuse a belief system just an acknowledgment of truth as faith but faith is when you're acting on it faith without works is dead to know that by His stripes you are healed but then if you are still worried if you're struggling if you're stressed out if you're worrying at night what's gonna happen oh god I got it you can say what you want to but it's not faith it's not faith until you get to where you walk by this where you see it where you're resting in that and I'm not trying to condemn anybody it's a process I use this definition that your imagination is the process of seeing things with your heart that you can't see with your eyes it's a process you know we just had to quit construction on our second building that we're building and we've spent fifty million dollars we're doing it debt-free and we ran out of money so I had to stop construction and I had some people I had a couple people on staff come to me and say are you discouraged as this bothered you and I said no I'm not bothered because you know what honestly I can truthfully say I see that building done it is a done deal in my heart now I'm not sure about the exact timing I don't know how much effort it's going to take I'm you know not perfect I've never done anything perfectly in my life and so I'm not sure when it's gonna get done but I'm absolutely sure and I'm resting in that and see that thing done and I have had not one nanosecond of worry about that thing and did you know we that we stopped it at the end of December we started back up construction on March the 1st and we're now building it we're gonna be occupying part of it by August of this year and it's working it's all coming to pass and you know it's a process but I can truthfully say that because I've kept my mind stayed on the Lord I have had nothing but peace I haven't stayed up one single night I don't worry about it you know I have to have I forget the exact amount but it's over five thousand dollars every hour of every day three hundred and seventy sixty-five well three hundred and seventy days a year I've got to have it all of the time every day that the Sun comes up I have to have five thousand dollars an hour that's over what a hundred and twenty thousand dollars a day and I don't ever worry about it it doesn't bother me I don't stay up at night worrying about oh god what am I gonna do Paul said he does it for me I hired him to do my worrying he says what are you gonna pay me I said that's your first worry but you know what I just don't worry about these things they meant I'm telling you brothers we're living below our privileges I know some of you think you can't live this way well don't wake me up because this is how I'm living you can ask the people who are here with me and honestly this aren't not exaggerating this is the way I live I've had people in the past come to me and say you aren't getting it we're in trouble and they just keep trying to impress it more and more because I don't get upset and you know what I'm still alive and I'm still kicking in we're still blessed I think we brought in what was it last year fifty six million dollars and I give everything away overfit over fifty three percent of the people that contact us we say for a suggested donation because some people want to know what is it that you need and so we tell them what we think it's worth we price it comparative to other people but fifty three percent of the people that contact us don't give a penny and we send whatever they ask for how do you do that how do you give everything away and wind up with fifty six million dollars income I don't beg people for money I don't condemn people I don't use gimmicks and you know what God blesses me and it works I'm telling you I'm living this you can't you're too late to tell me it doesn't work you can keep your imagination stayed upon the Lord look over here in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1 this is a passage that most people should be familiar with now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen he says faith is the substance of things hoped for I don't have time tonight but tomorrow I'm going to show you some things about hope and relate it directly to your imagination all hope is is a positive imagination and I'm going to show you some scriptures that will say that pretty clearly but this says faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen it didn't say things that don't exist they do exist they just aren't seen they aren't in this physical world a person who thinks that if I can't see it taste it hear it smell it or feel it it doesn't exist forgive me for being blunt but that is just dumb to the second power that's dumb dumb did you know right now we're using a wireless microphone to transmit this signal back there there's a receiver and then it broadcast it there is this signal going in this room and there's not only this one wireless signal there's television signals in here there's radio signals in here and if you say oh no there aren't because I can't see it I can't hear it it doesn't mean they aren't here just means your elevator doesn't go all the way to the top floor these signals are in here there's television signals in here and all you'd have to do to prove it is take a television set and put it up here and plug it in turn it on tune it in and when you see the picture and here it is not when the broadcast start it's already here but in an unseen unheard realm you can't perceive it but it's here there's all kinds of things in here that you can't perceive with your little peanut brain for you to think that if it you can't see it taste it hear it smell it or feel it it doesn't exist is an indication of your lack of intelligence you know we now have microscopes that can magnify things even on an electron level and we electron microscopes and you can see germs you know we've become aware of germs and we Clint clean our hands and we do things that previous generations didn't do because we've learned that there's things around that you can't see but they do exist for you to think that well I don't see my healing I don't feel anything and for you to think nothing has happened because you can't see it or feel it is not smart there is a spiritual you and everything you receive from God comes from this comes through the spirit and through your soul and then out into your body and sometimes it takes a period of time to get through your mind and through your thinking but the truth is a Bible says that we have the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead living on the inside of us it's not out there somewhere and you've got to pray it down and get God to come touch you see this wrong thinking this wrong imagination is reflected in so many of our statements and we say things like Oh God just stretch forth your hand go and touch this person God doesn't need to stretch forth his hand he doesn't need to touch a person they're already touched they've got God living on the inside I'm and all you got to do is release what you got but see lack of understanding this leads to statements like well their prayer didn't get above the ceiling as if we have to get our prayers up through the demonic realm and up into the heavenlies you don't need your prayers to get above your nose because God lives right here that's why you bow your head pray and say father but I our statements show that see we don't understand that we've already got we're thinking that God's out there and he's got to send us hell the truth is God's already done it the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is already on the inside of you and it's at your command this is what's behind mark 11:23 where the Lord turned that curse that fig tree and the next day within 24 hours it was dead dried up from the roots and when his disciples saw it they were shocked saying Lord look at this tree that you cursed and he said have faith in God what's wrong with you guys he says if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed talking about this tiny if it was just infinitesimal if you've only got a tiny bit of faith you can say unto this mountain be thou removed be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in your heart but believe that those things which you say shall come to pass you will have whatsoever you say in there he says you don't talk to God about your mountain you talk to your mountain about God most Christians will sell Cod I've got this problem the doctor said this see my diagnosis old God would you please do something I am nothing I have nothing I can do nothing but I believe that you can do all things o God please heal me you'll die praying like that what you've got to do is quit telling God about your problem and understand that God put this raising from the dead power on the inside of you and you say sickness in the name of Jesus get out of my body cancer I curse you I kill you cancer proverbs 18:21 death and life are in the power of the tongue use your tongue like a weapon and say can't serve dying Jesus name infection die fungus die virus die talk death to it you talk death to yourself talk death the virus commanded to die and then speak life over your self father I release your anointing and see the anointing of God flowing through you and see all of your selves being changed by the power of God I know some of you think this is weird you know I had a woman I know many have you've heard me give this illustration but it's just to me one of the most classic examples that I've ever had in my ministry that this woman came over for prayer she had pain all through her body she had had it for seven years the doctor said she'd be dead two years before I meant her they said on a scale of one to ten she had a constant eleven in pain and the only way that she could cope she was nearly invalid she had to put magnets all over her body and then she sewed magnets into a blanket and encompassed herself in this and somehow or another this magnetic field lessened her pain and that's the way that she lived everyday just laying there in pain anyway her friend told her to come over she came over and I started to pray with her and she was the Presbyterian lady and she entered in and she says I know God has a purpose that all things work together for good that it's God's will that I have this sickness and the first thing I did was say no that's not true God doesn't have anything to do with you being sick God doesn't control that she was shocked and I explained all of that and then she says but I believe that God could get a testimony and I said the greatest testimony you can get is to get healed and I just started countering her wrong thinking and getting her to thinking properly and then I prayed for and she'd had constant pain 24 hours a day for seven years I prayed for and instantly she was pain-free and she stood up and started moving around took that blanket off and started moving her in and she says I don't have any pain but then she says but I got a stinging right here at my waist in the back why do I have a stinging I said you didn't tell me you had a stinging I didn't talk to sting he not talk to pain I said watch this and then I talked to stinging and commanded stinging to leave and it left so then I spent about 20 minutes teaching her mark 11:23 that you speak to the mountain you take your authority and quit begging God to do what he said he's already done by His stripes you were healed quit begging him to do it and stand up and take your authority and attack that devil speak to the problem so I spent about 20 minutes telling this woman all of these things and as she was getting ready to leave she put her hand on the doorknob and she just froze and she looked at me and she says the stinging is back and I said well I've been teaching you what to do so I'm gonna let you pray and I joined hands with her and I said you pray and you got to remember 45 minutes before this woman was a Presbyterian and she prayed a pretty good prayer for being a Presbyterian 45 minutes before she this is nearly word for what she said she says father I thank you that you did not give me this that this is not your will it is your will that I am healed by the stripes of Jesus I am healed I clean my healing in Jesus name did you know that's not a good prayer it's good things that she said that's a lot better than blaming God for what happened to her those were all nice things that she said and they were all true statements but it was not what God told us to pray so I asked her I said do you still have this thing and she said yes why it is the students still there and I said cuz you didn't do what God told you to do and she says what's that and I said you have to speak to the mountain you speak to stinging you talked to God you told God what you believe but you did not take your authority and speak to the stinging and this woman said you mean I'm supposed to say stinging the name of Jesus leader and I said yes she said I'll do it so we joined hands again and this time she said stinging in the name of Jesus and she stopped right there and she says it's gone and that was in 2001 and I see this woman nearly every year when I go to Pastor Dean's Church in Charlotte North Carolina and it's 2001 she's never had that problem again she said she's had a couple of times that some of those symptoms came back and she talked to it and takes her Authority and it leaves and she's been pain-free and she's living a productive life and that's now been what 15 years I'm telling you you have everything that you need to succeed if you are born again and if you are baptized in the Holy Spirit you do not have an excuse you might have reasons you might have problems but you don't have an excuse God has given us everything and I've told you the truth tonight and the truth will make you free you can walk by faith and not by sight you can see things that can't be seen you can everything that's seen is temporary call it temporary say problems you're temporary you're getting out of my life either in this life or in the next I'm not gonna have you a pen but you call it temporary and you walk by faith and not by sight the only way to do that is with your imagination you have to let the Word of God paint a picture on the inside of you of your success of your victory and then you see it and you think on it until you see it and brothers and sisters this is kind of like a muscle it has to be exercised there are some of you that have not exercised your imagination and it's not very strong and because of that it may take you a period of time it might take you a week a month before you could actually start seeing some benefit because you're so anemic and area but you know you can get to a place to where your imagination is strong and boy all you got to do is just have a thought and boy you're on it and it starts producing where regardless of where you are in this process you'll never get any further along in the process unless you start right now don't be discouraged about where you are just start and start seeing these things and start developing your imagination and start seeing the Word of God come to pass you know when we moved into this other building that we built in Colorado Springs it was only 3.2 million dollars to get it finished but the Lord told me not to take out a loan and at the time the rate we were saving money I figured it would take me over a hundred years to save 3.2 million dollars and so it was a big deal and you know what I had to believe God and and it took me a time to see how to do it I knew that eventually I was gonna have to share things with my partners and this is a separate teaching I'm not gonna take time but God doesn't rain money out of heaven the Bible says men will give into your bosom people are involved God doesn't have money there isn't money in heaven if God was create United States currency that's called counterfeiting he doesn't do that he's not just gonna put money in your pocket there's gonna be some way that it comes and for a minister the Bible says if you sow spiritual things you're supposed to reap carnal things God uses people to get the need that I have to me it comes through people he has never created any money heaven money is not gonna fall out of heaven God uses people so I knew that people were ultimately gonna be involved but I didn't see how to communicate this and so I just sat on it for about three or four months and I had my staff saying man we gotta have this money you hadn't even told your partners what's going on and I said it's not time yet see it I'm not talking about seeing with my physical eyes I'm just talking about seeing in my heart having a word from God about this is what you share with your partners and you know what I waited for nearly four months and then God told me what to do I just wrote it down in booth three and 3.2 million dollars came in in 14 months and we got it done I had a previous time when our ministry was very very small we only had 5,300 people on our mailing list and I was about to go under we were about to lose everything and my staff kept saying why don't you tell people why don't you let them know and I said I'm praying about it God just hadn't shown me what to say yet and you know what I had a dream and in this dream one of my partners in Dallas Texas walked up and said how are you and I said I'm blessed and he says I want to know how your finances are how are your finances and he just I said well to be truthful here's our situation and I just told him and this guy got mad at me and he says God raised me up to be a partner with you and you aren't giving me the information that I need in order to do what God called me to do and you're wrong it's your pride that's keeping you from telling people what's going on and man I woke up and I had a word from God and I wrote just about five or six paragraphs I told that dream and I didn't even put a return envelope in it I didn't ask them to give I said I'm sorry here's the situation I repent God told me to do this and I sent the letter and out of 53 hundred people or excuse me I think it was twenty-five hundred people or something we got fifty-three thousand dollars in ten days which back then was nearly a year's income because I had a word from God God showed me what to do and yet most of us we just panic and I got to do something so we go out and do it but you have you seen what God told you to do have you seen how God told you to deal with this sickness have you seen how God told you to deal with this person you've been for you need to take the word and not be so quick just meditating on it and incubate it and if it takes you a week if it takes you a month if it takes you a year you just wait until you see it and once you see it then you'll see the things come to pass I know that I'm not totally communicating with everybody this is hard to put into words things that you can't see and maybe some of you aren't getting this but I live this way right now we're in a situation where I need hundreds of millions of dollars and you know what I haven't done much I've done a little bit and said the things that I felt God and pressed upon me but there's praying and I'm just incubating all of these things and there will come a time that God will speak to me and tell me what to do and boom we are gonna have hundreds of millions come in I need a hundred and eighty million dollars in five years that comes out to three million dollars a month for five years and you know what it will come to pass but right now I'm not there I can't see it happening I can see that this is what the meat is but I can't see it happening God will showed me and you hide and watch many of you don't believe me and you think I'm up here just saying things you hide and watch you come back in twenty twenty and you're gonna see what God has done but the sad thing is you won't believe until you see it and you'll spend five years continuing in unbelief and it'll hurt you if you don't embrace this and receive it now but it will come to pass my words I will do if God told me to do I just need a little wisdom about how to do it and I'm meditating on it and taking the word and it's painting a picture and someday I'm going to see all of these things come to pass amen man that's awesome I don't know if I helped you but I helped me

Channel: James Taylor

Views: 99,458

Rating: 4.75 out of 5

Keywords: Andrew Wommack, Gospel Truth Seminar, Atlanta GA, Power, Imagination, revelation, God, Jesus, Scriptures, insight, God's Will, Peace, Healing, Prosperity

Id: wZTgFl8gXJ4

Length: 77min 41sec (4661 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 13 2018