The Imagination: A Place Of Escape

IMAGINATION: THE PLACE OF ESCAPE

You have learned that to walk in the Spirit is to walk in the love of Christ. However, if you are finding it very difficult to love even after comprehending the desire of the Word concerning this matter, I can simply say to you that, walking in the Spirit would resolve this issue, because to walk in the Spirit is to walk in the love of Christ. You need to understand why you are not able to walk in the Spirit regarding your interaction with people. You also need to understand how you use your fleshy mind to oppose yourself and utterly destroy your walk in Christ.

II Timothy 2:25-26

25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;

26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

When you yield your mind to the dark world of hurt, hate, lust, offense, greed, envy, strife, or any thing that is outside the boundaries of the faith, it becomes easy for the devil to take you as a willing captive at his will. I must say here that, according to the above, the sons of God can deliver themselves from such captivity. They have the power within. Paul instructs us to teach them how to use it.

We must always remain mindful of the things the scriptures teach us concerning the disposition of the sons of God. We must learn Christ in order to grow up spiritually into the fullness of His statue. Remember also that Christ was 100% able to be touched with all our infirmities and temptations. If this was not so, then what is it that He overcame when He boasts to have overcome the world? He was tried and tested in all points of life. But He walked in a posture that always afforded Him victory over the beggarly elements of this world.

*For those who have not been introduced to the revelation of walking in the Spirit, please consult my series, “Walking in the Spirit.”

WALKING IN DARKNESS

It is not sinful to desire a perfect or good relationship with those you love, or people in general for that matter. However, that is not always the case. In many instances where offense, hurt or just plain discontentment are present, if you refuse to walk in the Spirit, then you might seek out another false reality. Your false reality becomes a place of escape from the real-life situations with which you are faced. Usually, this hiding place is the imagination.

Having lived out perfect scenarios in your mind and heart, you have created emotions and desires relative to that perfect life or situation you have imagined. Nevertheless, the real world you live in and the people you have to deal with are not privy to that world locked away in your mind, so they do not know how they are supposed to respond.

Many offenses occur when you try to give people the scripture, but they fail the screen test. Your imagination can create lying emotions for those who are a part of your imaginary world. However, it never takes into consideration the true disposition, desires or feelings of others. It simply makes them feel the way that would make everything right and perfect according to the design in your secret world.

If you are living in your imagination, you need to discern that you are the one who is insensitive to the emotions and desires of others. But because you may not get what you desire from certain people, iniquity will not only drive you deeper into your own little world, but anger, bitterness, meanness and resentment are the things you leave behind for others to interact with.

Meanness and resentment, bitterness and strife are gendered by jealousy. When you are impure and interact with those who walk in the liberty of the Spirit and are not captive to their own emotions or yours, then it is easy to become jealous of their liberty. They live and enjoy life in spite of the negatives, but you cannot do that because you have excluded the Father’s influence.

Now comes the wall of impasse. In the space between your imagination and the real world of events and emotions, you will penalize people in your natural territorial sphere of influence for not responding the way you laid it out in your mind. Resentment and jealousy drive you back into your imagination and the wall of pride is fortified. This is sad because now love cannot come forth from you and neither can it be received by you.

II Peter 1:19

We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

Beloved, do not give the enemy the victory. He knows that he cannot live in you, so through iniquity he helps to create another world in which the influence of God is not allowed. Surrender to the light that is able to shine in that dark place. Tear down the wall of impasse.

II Corinthians 4:6-10

6 For God, who commanded the light (St. John 1:4-5: In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not) to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face (the countenance of peace, contentment and confidence) of Jesus Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power (complete and total, without lack in ability) may be of God, and not of us.

8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed (upset, anxious, worried or distraught), we are perplexed, but not in despair;

9 Persecuted, but not forsaken (abandoned or deserted); cast down, but not destroyed (shattered or traumatized);

10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

The life of Christ is without fear and intimidation. It is without pride or arrogance. It is a life of peace, joy and righteousness in the Holy Ghost. You have this life within.

For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16)