IMAGINATION STATION: RENEW TO RESTRAIN

 Greetings O Ye Dreamers...welcome to Imagination Station.

Imagination is a good thing...a God thing...but if our imaginations are allowed to run rampant...they will become strongholds in our lives. Anxiety is nothing but our imaginations out of control. Anxiety becomes the shackles of our minds that will keep us from walking in the Spirit...and lead us down the pathway of the flesh.

IMAGINATION: dianoia (dee-an'-oy-ah)=deep thought, properly the faculty (mind or its disposition), by implication its exercise: - imagination, mind, understanding.

 

IMAGINATION: yêtser (yay'-tser)= a form; figuratively conception (that is, purpose): - frame, thing framed, imagination, mind, work.

 

Back in 1971 The Temptations had a hit with a song called JUST MY IMAGINATION (Running Away With Me)  It is smooth and draws your imagination in as they croon...

 

But it was just my imagination
Running away with me
It was just my imagination
Running away with me

 

 

Imagination can be a good thing...or a bad thing.  I believe that we have an imagination...because God has an imagination.  He is a CREATIVE GOD...who had a thought (imagination)...spoke out His thought... "Let there be..." and the cause and effect of God thinking and speaking was CREATION.  But after the fall...the high treason of Adam and Eve...this thing called imagination...is based on an unrenewed mind.  The principle is the SAME...as when it was first in us.  We think (imagine)...we speak (words)... we do (action).  The saying that we use in The Ruminator Sunday School Class...is:

"Unrestrained thoughts (imagination)...produces unrestrained words (what we say)...resulting in unrestrained actions (what we do)." (Kenneth Copeland from How To Discipline Your Flesh).

In the fat part of the book (Old Testament) there were a group of people who were coming together with one language and one thought...to build a city and a  tower (a ziggurat)...to (1) make a name for themselves (2) so they would not be scattered.  God came down to see what is going on...and determined that they needed to be stopped and scattered. (Genesis 11:1-9)  The key to their building process was their IMAGINATION which was not a good thing.

"And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have IMAGINED to do."         (Genesis 11:6)

IMAGINED: zâmam (zaw-mam')=A primitive root; to plan, usually in a bad sense: - consider, devise, imagine, plot, purpose, think (evil).

 

We have mentioned the power of the UNRESTRAINED thoughts, words, and actions.  The key to dealing with this is to RESTRAIN our thoughts, words, and actions...by restraining our IMAGINATIONS.  In the book of PRO-VERBS (the book of positive action) we see the cause and effect of not having vision (insights) into the Word of God.

"Without a VISION the people PERISH...but happy is He who keeps the law." (Pro-verbs 29:18)

This word PERISH in the New American Standard Bible...reads this way..."Without a VISION...the people ARE UNRESTRAINED..."

The question is...how can we RESTRAIN our thoughts (imaginations)?

To RESTRAIN...you must RENEW.  In the words of Bob Dylan...on his first gospel album..."Changed my way of THINKIN'..found myself a brand new set of rules."

In the movie...It's A Wonderful Life...George Bailey had dreams, visions, and imaginations...that were constantly being deferred until he changed his way of thinking...via the help of Clarence... the angel without his wings.

We must change our way of thinking...and for the believer in the Death, Burial, Resurrection...that can only be done by RENEWING THE MIND (the place of our imaginations).  The Pro-Verbs 29:18 verse with the renewed mind would read this way..."For with a vision (renewed and restrained)...the people FLOURISH...happy is he who renews the mind with the Word of God." (Pro-Verbs 29:18 Ruminator Style)

"I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual/reasonable service of worship.  And do not be CONFORMED to this world, but be TRANSFORMED...by the RENEWING OF YOUR MIND, that  you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."   (Romans 12:1-2)

"But you did not learn Christ in this way...if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus...that , in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self...which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit...and that you BE RENEWED IN THE SPIRIT OF YOUR MIND...and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been CREATED in righteousness and holiness of the truth." (Ephesians 4:20-24)

"For those who are according tot he flesh SET THEIR MINDS (mindset) on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For the MIND SET (mindset) on the flesh is DEATH...but the mind set on the Spirit is LIFE and PEACE." (Romans 8:5-6)

"The steadfast of MIND...Thou wilt keep in perfect peace (shalom shalom)...Because he TRUSTS IN THEE" (Isaiah 26:3)

"This book of the Law (the Cud of the Word of God) shall not depart from your MOUTH (speaking)...but you shall MEDITATE (ruminate...mutter under your breath what you are thinking on the Word)...on it day and night (time frame)...so that you may be careful to DO (action)  according to all that is written in it...for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success." (Joshua 1:8)  NOTE: Take the renewed mind...speak it...and do it. The cause and effect will be biblical prosperity and biblical good success.

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY

We began this Rambling with thought about IMAGINATION and ANXIETY.  The question is...what is your IMAGINATIONS.  Are they RESTRAINED or RENEWED?  The indicator will be your ANXIETY LEVEL.  Adjust accordingly.

"Imagination is a good thing...a God thing...but if our imaginations are allowed to run rampant...they will become strongholds in our lives. Anxiety is nothing but our imaginations out of control. Anxiety becomes the shackles of our minds that will keep us from walking in the Spirit...and lead us down the pathway of the flesh." (R.L.B.)


Love and Renewed and Restrained Kisses.
Rodney "Just My Imagination" Boyd