Imagination Techniques

Excerpt from 
EATING IN FREEDOM

The TV generation is being raised on the pabulum of sitcoms, cartoons and game shows. Its a generation of spoon-fed dreams and corrupt morality. There are a million images for impact. The target? Its your wallet and imagination. 

Watching TV is a full-time job.

Yet, God hungers for your attention.

Great achievements start with a vision. With time and effort, those visions sprout into reality. Dreams and visions give us direction. We head towards our dreams the way a plant seeks light. When we feel secure and comfortable in our minds with a dream, that is the path we will most likely take. Dreams make achievements reachable. Dreams remove our fear of sacrifice and build courage and desire to reach that goal. Visionaries become great leaders. For a person with a vision, accomplishment is the natural outcome. They believe it will happen, and success is just a matter of time and effort.

Imagination ties into the power of faith. Because we are created in God's image, we have the capacity to bring into being what we believe in the most, either for good or bad. Reflecting on my life, I realized that my thoughts and imagination preceded everything bad that had happened. I thought about it, imagined it, then it came into being. What I had believed was brought into being. My thinking preceded both the good and bad.

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.                                              
Matthew 21:22

Worry about getting a spot on new clothing and sure enough, it appears. Visualize negative imagery and the faith principle will work towards making that imagery a reality. If you see yourself as an unhappy, fat, sick, out-of-shape failure that is unloved and rejected, then those factors will multiply. Imagine disaster and the worst usually happens.

Stop imagining yourself negatively. Visualize yourself at your best: healthy, happy, composed, in control, full of joy and peace then believe it. Remember God's commercial. You are a child of God whom He loves. He values you. You are important to Him. You are one of a kind. Imagine what He feels looking at you. A father cannot help but love his child.

Imagination is a gift, and we need to use it to:

• courage us to achieve

• Inspire noble sacrifice

• Stir us to challenge

• Give hope in suffering

Imagination fuels our desires. The pizza was cooking in your brain long before it arrived at the door. If it is not pizza, we are imagining disaster, problems and creating horrible pictures to fuel our worry.

Fight against negative imagery by using your imagination constructively. Visualization is easy; just have a daydream of yourself enjoying a great day with everything just perfect. If you are to be playing a sport, see yourself giving it everything you have, playing the best game you have ever played.

My friend and I kept losing on the badminton court. Our opponents were really good, and we were just learning. But, we had just learned how to visualize, and this was a chance to try it out. We went in there with the attitude, we are going to return every shot. We are going to play the best we have ever played. I envisioned us winning, and it happened. We beat them with a score of 21 to 12 and 21 to 8. Twice we beat them. We were stunned as much as our opponents were. We never thought that we could win, never mind demolish them.

The imagination had stirred us to play harder. It had brought the best out of us. And that is how we want to live, at our best. Our imagination is a creative force.

God spoke a Word and the universe came into being. We have been given a minute aspect of that same power. We need to use it with caution and respect for the One who has given it to us.