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I am a strong proponent of visualization in prayer!
We must remember as children of God to have more faith in God than fear of the devil. Satan is not an originator; he is an imitator. Many of the things that are labeled as cultic or belonging to the devil by the religious community are labeled that way out of fear and ignorance of spiritual truths. Don’t be fearful, brethren. All things are yours in Christ. Those who practice witchcraft steal God-given spiritual principles and truths using them for selfish and evil purposes. But nothing is evil in and of itself. A thing is only evil when it is used by evil people to do evil things. But as we learn to walk in the spirit and yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit of God, we will find that many spiritual principles will be unlocked and many keys of revelation will be given for the edifying of the body of Christ to the glory of God.
Our thoughts are our personal visions! They are literally mental visions that we have within ourselves, conjured up by our own mental faculties. For example, if I were to say a word, say ‘apple’, our mind automatically posts a picture of an apple on the canvas of our imagination. Our thoughts are just pictures drawn within the image-making factory of the mind. Everything that we do is an outer working of these inner images.
I am a strong proponent of visualization. Visualization is simply using your imagination along with your prayers. It is when you align your mind’s eye with the convictions of the heart. To visualize is to allow your heart to paint a picture of what you believe and spiritually perceive on the canvas of your imagination.Visualization can revolutionize your prayer life! It can literally be the key that breaks you into deeper levels of Christ- consciousness. It can turn your dry, uneventful ‘prayer time’ into another world of exploration and adventure in faith.
Our imagination is a tool that God has placed within our hands to utilize for the purpose of reaching out to Him. Embrace His promise with the imagination of your mind! Invite Him into the room, in your mind! See His face, in your mind! Hold His hand, in your mind! Cast your cares on Him, in your mind! Let Him lift you with His arms into heavenly places, in your mind! Kiss Him with the kisses of your lips, in your mind! See the angels around about you, protecting you, guarding you, in your mind! See the healing of your body! Visualize Him meeting all of your needs! Hold out your hands and receive the blessings falling from heaven upon your household right now. Grab your sword! Lift it high! Give that devil a finishing deathblow in Jesus’ name! Don’t be afraid or ashamed! Just do it! It is an act of faith! And because it is an act of faith, visualizing God’s word is literally activating the power of God on your behalf!
We all know that pictures are worth a thousand words. Our imagination gives us the ability to embrace and digest concepts and ideas that transcend the boundaries and limitations of common speech. Communication,in a nutshell,is more about the concept being conveyed than the words used to express the particular concept. I think the point of communication is that we get the point of the communication!
Even the letters we use to form the words we speak are just picture symbols and images (A B C) simplifying concepts and triggering in the brain certain sounds. As you know, you can say the same thingin many different languages and, though it may not sound similar at all, the concept that is being expressed and the objective point can be precisely the same in every language it is communicated in. Cheerio, adios, aloha, goodbye, arrivederci, adieu, au revoir,and ‘hasta la vista baby’ are all different ways of saying the same thing,
When the Spirit of God conveys a thought or idea to us, it is usually through a pictorial impression in the mind.When we use our imagination to communicate with God or receive communication from God, itcan be a communication of adulation, thanksgiving, agreement, concern, direction, request, and even strategy. When we embrace visualization, we are opening ourselves wide to receive the pictorial images of the Lord’s communications(almost like a radio receptor). When we embrace visualization, we are literally propelling ourselves into higher forms of fellowship and oneness with the Father.
Of course,we shouldn’t visualize solely on our own without submission to the leading of the Lord. This revelation is not written for those who would even consider doing that. As you visualize, you are to remain yielded in the spirit, praying in the Holy Ghost. And as you start the vision or picture,I’ve found, in my personal relationship with God, that the Lord will usually (if not always) step in and bring correction to the picture if it is not aligned with truth. He will add to the picture, subtract from the picture or completely take over the vision if need be. In a sense, it is like wading out into the waters of faith, letting the Lord know that you are ready and available for His inspiration. I assure you, if your heart is right, He will meet you at that place of seeking and you will be pleasantly surprised by His response.
Now, I am not ignorant regarding the powers of visualization! And, as it is powerful, I am aware that it can also be very dangerous. We are learning advanced kingdom concept. These principles should only be used by those in subjection and alignment with God. Visualization is using your will to stimulate the images of your mind. To practice doing so with the evil intention to manipulate or control, dominate, hurt, harm, or damage another person falls into a category of the spiritual sin called witchcraft. Witchcraft will attract the presence of evil and evil spirits to your house like fruit flies to a barbeque on a warm Sunday afternoon… in the summertime… down south.
Though all men use their imaginations every day, most are blissfully unaware of the power that they have in their hands to control their destiny and manipulate the destinies of others.Those in power positions in the business world use images to control masses of people. Through media, television, advertisements and such,they force-feed images into the soul of the public. Through the means of these kinds of propaganda vehicles, the powers that be appeal to the lusts of the people;playing to their desires and the fears that are in their hearts. Those under the diabolical influences of these powers are easily brought into the bondage of serving their personal agendas.
Lyoto ‘The Dragon” Machida is the UFC Fighting Champion of the World. His father,who is a martial arts master who also trained him from childhood, was interviewed in ‘Sports Illustrated’. The key that he said was most important to Machida’s undefeated success was that, through visualization, he defeated the spirit of his opponents before the fight was started. A key factor in the lives of many who excel and experience great success in natural affairs (whether sports or business or any other discipline) is the powerful tool of visualization.
The Lord speaks of the power of imagination numerous times throughout scripture. I think of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11 where it speaks of the unstoppable force of unified visualization.I also think of God promising Abraham, when He took him to the top of a mountain, and said to him(using an allegorical symbol) that “all that he could ‘SEE’ he could literally have as an inheritance for his seed”. All of scripture was founded upon the vision of Abraham.
Even the name Abraham (meaning: father of many nations) was given to him by God so that God could get Abraham’s image of himself corrected. He was impotent and his wife was barrenand both were around an hundred years of age (and that’s no spring chicken, even for them), but to get Abraham’s mind in faith and in alignment with God and the miracle that God had determined to do, God changed his name! What else did He do, you ask? He took him for a walk down to the beach. What did God say to him? Look up at the stars! Your children will be like that! Look down at the sand, Abraham! Your children are going to be that many!
Why did God do all that? Why didn’t God just snap His big ole humongous God fingers and say, SHAZAM! Many nations! God needed Abraham’s faith. God needed Abraham’s image of failure to be replaced by an image of success! Faith is not simply ‘not seeing’, faith is seeing what is not seen!’ Seeing with the eyes of the heart.
The Lord works with man and through men. It is a cooperation or covenant between heaven and earth. What we don’t all understand is, Heaven doesn’t have authority over the things that transpire in the earth. Mankind has been given authority on the earth! For Heaven’s will to be manifested upon the earth, heaven and earth must have an agreement! God and man must literally make a deal. That is the meaning of testament; it just means agreement or deal.
What is the deal you ask? What is the agreement? The deal is a deal of faith! God wants your faith in Him for the exchange of goods! In the beginning, unbelief was the cause of the fall of mankind. Now the lord wants our belief to undo the sin, restore the order, and to lift man up again to his rightful place. The Lord says, if you would just believe My promise and see it with the eyes of your heart and not let go or take your eyes off of the heavenly vision, you shall receive it and I will manifest it in the earth.
2 Corinthians 11:3For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Visualization is a tool and a weapon in the kingdom of God! But it is also a weapon the adversary can and does use against the kingdom of God. Our battle is over the souls/minds of men. In this text, Paul the Apostle (as he does so often for teaching purposes) restates the same concept in three different ways. Thoughts, imagination/high things and strongholds are all the same thing. The building up of strongholds and images of victory, health, prosperity, and truth within the hearts of men,while at the same time(through the preaching of the good news)destroying the images of failure, error, evil disorders, and deceptions in the heart is a synopsis of the whole spiritual war that we are engaged in. Pulling down! Casting down! And bringing into captivity adverse thoughts and images is half the war.The other half is erecting, planting, building and freeing.First releasing the minds of those held captive to all the diverse forms of the enemy’s perverse images, then escorting them into the knowledge of their God-given seat of success, glory, power, and honor.
Darkness and light are in the mind. The world is so dark and people are so evil because the enemy is effective in brainwashing the masses with his filth. But as we arise in the power and the knowledge of Godly visualization (both projecting God’s image upon others through the preaching of the gospel and allowing it to assist us in believing and receiving God’s promises) we recognize that we have a most powerful and effective tool with which we might serve God and crush the adversaries under our feet. Arise and shine, for thy light has come!
Your servant,
Dr. Nathaniel Duffey III
