Control Your Imagination or it Will Control You

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Success by the Book Podcast, the place where Christians who want to experience the extravagant goodness of God in all areas of their lives come from mentorship. I am your host, Dr. Inn, and I'll be unpacking the secrets I have learned from the Word of God over the last two decades. Let's dive in. Today we're going to talk about one of my favorite topics, which I need to start saying, stop saying that because all the things in the Bible are my favorite subjects. But this is going to change your life forever. There's so many things that have been a big challenge for you that today you are going to get a strategy that is going to turn it around. Okay. So today we're going to look at something real fun. Okay. Your imagination is not a leftover habit from your childhood. I hope you never forget what I said. Your imagination is not a leftover habit from your from your childhood. Like, oh, this is what I used to do when I'm a kid. Now I'm a grown-up. No, that's not what it is. Your imagination is an asset given to you by God to control the outcome of your life. Okay. So it's not, it's not this, oh, you know, a cute thing that kids do. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is an asset. Now it is so powerful an asset. I'm going to give you some examples. This is so powerful because the Bible says in Ephesians 3.20, which you hear me quote all the time, it says, and to God who's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or imagine. Okay? Exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or imagine. And asking, what is asking God? That's prayer. So he's putting prayer and your imagination side by side. So your imagination is powerful. The Bible says that in Proverbs 423, it says, guard your heart, your inner life, your mind, your internal pictures. I'm just giving different ways of looking at it. Guard your heart with all diligence. Why? Because it determines the course of your life. Your life will follow what is predominant in your mind. Okay? So your imagination is not powerless. Your imagination is powerful and it will either serve you if you submit it to God or hurt you if you allow Satan to have access to it. And let me tell you something: God wants your imagination, and Satan wants your imagination. You must understand this, okay? Both and your imagination is not neutral. Think about it. If you try not to think about anything, you're going to think about a lot of things. We live in a fallen world. Let the garden always be your example. If you buy a piece of land and you don't plant anything, weeds will grow. It's the same thing with our imagination. So it's nothing like, oh, you know, I just don't want to do the imagination thing. No, no, no. You have the imagination. It was given to you by God, and you will do it one way or another. The question is, who will dominate it? Is it God or is it Satan? And whoever dominates it controls it by, you know, like by extrapolation, controls the outcome of your life. Your life will mirror your imagination. It will mirror your imagination. Now, why is this important? Okay, so John 10 10 says this. John 10 10 says, This is Jesus talking. He says, the thief has come only to steal, kill, and destroy. So the thief has three assignments steal, kill, destroy, which are all progressions of the same thing, right? Still, kill, destroy. That's on one side. Then Jesus said, But I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly. Okay. So there are two people who want your mind. One person's agenda for you is to steal from you, to kill from you, and to destroy you. That's Satan. Jesus' agenda is that you may have life and you may have this life more abundantly. And they both want your imagination. And whoever you yield your imagination to will determine what your life will look like. If you yield it to Satan, what you'll see as the outcome of your life is stealing, killing, and destruction. If you yield it to Jesus, what you will see is having life and having more abundantly. Who do you want to control the outcome of your life? Because it's one or the other. It's one or the other. So you can see that your imagination is very powerful for you, but you can have it very dangerous for you. You get to choose. When we use it under God, beautiful. When we allow Satan, go for it, then we are just asking for trouble. And we're smart enough not to ask for trouble. I mean, like if this is a multiple choice question, you didn't know the answer. When you see thief, I mean you're you're not gonna say yes to a thief, right? You're not gonna say yes to a thief. Okay, so this is so important because we know this, this is so important that we have to take the time to understand what our imagination is, how our imagination works, how we can use it, right? And all of those things. And if we because if we don't understand it, the Bible says, My people perish for lack of knowledge. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. So we're gonna get some knowledge today. And after today, we will recognize this tool as what it is. We will use it like savvy people. We understand, like if you're a parent, maybe you remember this, okay? Um, initially, the child doesn't know they have hands. After a baby's born, they don't know they have hands, they're just flailing it all around and stuff like that. And you can remember the moments when your child looks and it's like, huh. Interesting. What is this? Right? It's out there. They're like, oh, okay, you know, and then they start learning to grab things. First, they're just eating their you know, eating their hands, and then they learn to grab things, they learn to use their arms. Now we have this body part, quote on, it's not a body part, but it's a part of us called our imagination, and we're gonna learn how to use it, right? We're gonna be like the kid. We're like, huh, imagine imagination. I didn't know, I didn't know I had that. It's gonna be so fun, okay? All right, so let's look into the word of God again. This is guys, okay. Let me let me let me look for some, let me give you an example. Every challenge you faced in your life, Satan has tried to use that to shift your imagination. That's what he's tried to do. He's tried to convince you that this is the way your life will always be. He gets us to buy that picture. Why is he so interested? Because he knows once I can get this bad thing that happened to you to fill your imagination, you're on a self-destruct path. I don't have to do anything. I can retire as far as you can't concern, and you will destroy your own self with the power you have, which is your imagination. So this is serious stuff. Really serious stuff. Okay. Okay, so let's get started. So, what what is imagination? Okay, let's start from there. What is this thing called imagination? Now, it basically means the you know, the mind's ability to create mental pictures. Okay, so for instance, if I tell you, oh, Sunday service was so amazing. Um, you know, there was there was really powerful worship. Um, Pastor Steve brought the word. I had this cute outfit on, it was a black top with big flowers on, you know, a big black flower on the sleeves, like really dramatic, and these blue and white pants. You don't see B-L-U-E. That's not what you see. You imagine the pants. Okay, so in in the chat, stop and evaluate what you did and tell me if this is true. As I started talking about that, did you create a movie in your mind? Did you create a movie in your mind, like, oh, this is what did you imagine people on a stage leading worship, people in the congregation worshiping, you know, the pastor preaching, you know, and you know, being very um maybe animated is the word because he's all anointed and stuff. Did you imagine my outfit? Like, was this a movie? Or did you see words? What did you see? The reason I'm asking this is because sometimes we think, oh, I'm not good at this imagination thing. We imagine all day, every day, and twice on Sunday. We're always doing this stuff. We are always creating mental pictures, always, right? Okay, so Sheila's like, yeah, Angela's like, mm-hmm, right? That's that's what we do. That's what we see. Okay, if I start this, if I start describing a wedding dress, you don't see W E D D I N G D R E S S. No, you see a wedding dress, and the more words I give you, the more you fill out the picture. So we are always imagining, we're creating mental pictures in our minds. That's what imagination is. Okay. Now, the thing with this is if you do it on purpose, you can create, you can create in accordance with God's word. If you leave it to default, it just gets filled up. I remember when I I think I've told you guys this, you know, when I was um um actively seeing patients, I would drive to my office, about a 30-minute drive from my house, and there was not maybe, maybe there was a day. So 99.999% of the time, once I get on the highway, I would get a visual of getting into a car accident. And it's a it's a movie. Like you then this happens and then that happens, they're not able to go to work, you have to cancel your whole clinic. This other like, and I would have to address that because it happened every single day, like almost every single day, until I got to the point where I said, okay, this is ridiculous. Let me take the word of God and paint a different picture. And so I found the word of God where it says, and the Lord would give his angels charge over you. And when I would get into my car, I would imagine the angels that are with me, that surround me, and so that even if a car wanted to run into me, it couldn't run into me because it will run into the angel. Do you do you guys see what I'm saying? Like, and I had to replace that picture. So that was the dominant picture. So anytime the picture of the accident will come, there was another picture to answer it. Okay. So this is mental, we create mental pictures. This is what we do all day, every day. Okay, all day, every day. When so when something happens and it's, you know, something unfortunate happens to somebody, a friend, or whatever, it you have this tendency to then take and imagine, like what would it be like if it happened to me, even though it's not something you want, right? And people give you statistics. Oh, children, when they go to college, then they don't serve God anymore. You start imagining your choice. It's it's all imagination, okay? Okay, so it is creating mental pictures, and we're all good at this. If you've ever found yourself worrying, that is evidence that you're very good at using your imagination because you don't worry about words, you worry about pictures. Gonna say that again. You don't worry about words, you worry about pictures. It's a picture of, oh, what will happen with my spouse? What will happen with my children, what will happen with my schoolwork, what will happen with it? All of those things are all pictures. They're all pictures, they're all movies, they're not words. So if you've ever found yourself worrying, you are great. You are great at this thing. We're just going to learn how to use it properly. Okay. Okay. So, um, so that's that's the definition of imagination. Creating mental pictures with your mind. Why are we going through this step by step? Because I want you to be a master of your imagination. Okay. Okay, number two. What is the outcome of your imagination? Your imagination always produces. Why is this important to know this? Because then when you're imagining, you can ask yourself, if this produces, because my imagination always produces, am I going to like it? And if you're not going to like it, then we can stop. It means it's something we shouldn't be thinking about at all. We shouldn't let in there. Okay. Okay. So, what is the outcome of my imagination? What is the child of my imagination? What is the return on investment of my imagination? Okay. Now, this scripture, I've I've quoted it, but you know, let me let me read it. So, Proverbs chapter four. I'm gonna pull it up on my phone because I can give it to you in a different translation. Proverbs chapter four, verse 23. Okay, it says this. It says, Let me give it to you from the New Living Translation. It says, Guard your heart above all else. Do you see how important it is to guard your heart? Right? Where's your imagination house in your heart, right? Like in your mind, okay. So guard your heart above all else. So, what we're talking about is very, very important. Why should I do this? For it determines the course of your life. Your life will follow your imagination. Okay, the good news translation says, be careful how you think. So I hope you see the words the Bible is using. The first he uses is a guard. Who is a guard? A guard is somebody who protects a gate, an entry point, right? So it could be a gate, it could be a door, whatever, but they protect an entrance. Okay, so protect the entrance of your mind, protect what you allow into your mind. Why? Whatever you allow into your mind, whatever you allow into your imagination will control the outcome of your life, it will determine the course of your life. So it is an active thing. We don't imagine passively, we don't allow imagination, just go passively. The Bible says guard, guard what you let in there. Okay. The good news translation says, be careful how you think. So should I be careless with my thinking? No. Should I not pay attention to my thinking? No. Why? The Bible says, be careful. Okay, so be careful how you think. Your life is shaped by your thoughts. Your life is shaped by your thoughts. Your life is shaped by your imagination. Your life, because what is that? It's it's your it's your thoughts with pictures, right? Your thoughts are your thoughts shape your reality. And so, because of that, be careful. That's what we're learning to do. We're learning to be careful about how we think. We are learning to guard our hearts. Okay, all right. So that's number two. Number two, what is the outcome? The outcome of your imagination is whatever you imagine. Whatever you imagine becomes your reality. It determines how you act, it determines what you expect, it determines the results you get, it determines everything. Okay, now I want to give you another outcome, and that outcome is it creates faith. Okay, now let's look at how how um fear comes. Fear comes by brooding on what you are afraid of, and usually in the beginning, if it's fear of failure, for instance, in the beginning, it's not as nerve-wracking, it's not as much of a stronghold, it's just a passing thought. I'll give you an example. I was talking to um, I've talked to a number of married people, right? They're there, my people. I love I love marriages. If you didn't know that, I love, love, love marriages. I love seeing them work and all of that. So, and I would tell them as, you know, like a story about myself. So after I got married, this was in the first year, like the first few months, I didn't know how to control my imagination. I didn't know what I'm teaching you now. And so I would wake up in the morning, and this is literally eyes open, feet have not touched the ground, not been awake for more than 30 seconds, and here come these thoughts. Oh, what Pastor Steve did to you the other day he did that to you, and the next day he did that to you. And if you've been married long enough, you know, half the time nobody did anything to you, okay? These are mind games, but anyway, not even half the time, like 80% of the time. But anyway, so it's like, oh, what Pastor Steve did, Pastor Steve did, and I would take those thoughts and make movies out of them, and then I'll say, Yeah, because he did that, that means in two weeks he could do this, and in four weeks he can do that, and I'm doing all of these things, and I'm spitting mad. I'm mad, I haven't gotten out of bed, and sometimes this doesn't take more than two minutes. I'm already there, mad, afraid. Steve didn't do anything. This is all uncontrolled imagination. I wasn't a guard and I wasn't careful how I thought. And one day God told me, He said, You know what? You keep doing this, you are going to be divorced. You keep doing, you keep up with this, you will be divorced, and it'll have nothing to do with the marriage and everything to do with the way you think. Right? Because I didn't understand it was a trap, I didn't know that's what it was. So there are people who've been hurt in relationships, and they've taken that and they've brooded and brooded and brooded and brooded and meditated on it and imagined it and built movies and did all of that. What does it create? Fear. Fear. Some people have taken finances, like, okay, we're here, we're doing kind of okay, we're able to pay our bills, but what's gonna happen when I'm 70? And they brooded on it, created movies and talked to friends who, you know, couldn't take care of themselves when they're older and all this stuff. And what does it create? Fear. Oh, you know, who does well in this course? And you took that and you brooded and brooded and brooded, and you're like, I can't pass this thing, or somebody sowed a seed and told you you're not a good test taker, and you took that thought and you extrapolated and you made movies out of it, and you saw yourself filling multiple exams and all of those things over and over and over again. What did it produce? Fear. Because you will get thoughts, and those thoughts are an invitation. Take this, meditate on it, take, take this, imagine it, imagine it until it becomes a stronghold. And you have to learn after today to say no to that. Okay? Now, when God wanted to build, and we're gonna look at this a little later, so I won't go too deep into it, but when God wanted to build faith in Abraham, what did he do? He told Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, he said, I'll bless you, I'll I'll make your name great, I'll make you into a great nation. Okay, you have so many descendants, all of that stuff. Genesis chapter 13, no child. God comes to him, God says, Huh? He said, Do you see the sand of the of the shore the the dust of the earth? Essentially, that's how many your descendants will be. Why did God give Abraham a picture? Because he wanted him to have faith. Why did God give Abraham a picture? Because and a pick, not just a picture he would see once and go away, but this is a picture of you know something that he would step on every day. Every single day he would step on the ground. He said, You see how how many, how many you know, grains of sand there are? That's how many descendants you'll be. So that he could take Abraham's um imagination and produce an outcome called faith. So there's Genesis chapter 13, uh Genesis chapter 14, then we get to Genesis chapter 15. God tells Abraham, God comes and talks to Abraham. Abraham's like, what uses are all these blessings that you've given me, since you have given me no heir, and so this Eliezer of Damascus will be my heir. So clearly, what was his imagination? His imagination is oh, I won't have a son, and then I won't, because I don't have a son, this you know, servant in my house will be the person who inherit all my my wealth and my legacy will be gone forever, and the promise of God won't have come to pass. Clearly, that was his imagination. What did God do? God took him outside and said, Look at the stars. He said, If you can number them, that's how many your descendants will be. God gave him another picture. God gave him another picture. God wants you to have word-based movies in your mind at all times. Word-based-based movies, not based on whatever Satan is saying or his word, God's word not coming to pass or whatever, but words, movies based off of the word of God. So he sold Abraham, and then the Bible says that now let me read that part for you. So this is Genesis chapter 15. I think it's verse six or so. Hold on, let me get there. Because right after God gave him this next picture, the Bible said something. The Bible said, Um, yeah, he said, Well, from verse 5, and he brought him outside and said, Look now towards heaven and count the stars if you're able to number them. And he said to him, So shall your descendants be. And then He said, and he believed in the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness. So, what was the product of his imagination? Faith. You want to be a person of faith, you're going to be a person who understands how to use your imagination. Okay. I almost think we should practice. Okay. Let's practice, and then I'll go to the third thing. So I want you to imagine this. The Bible says in Psalm 91, verse 16, says, With long life, I will satisfy you. What does that mean? It means, hmm, with long life, you'll satisfy me. So you can actually, so I'm 47, right? So I can imagine my 50th birthday party, my 60th birthday party, my 70th birthday party. I can imagine planning my 90th birthday party. I can do the math and see how old my kids will be. And, you know, if they have kids, how many kids those are, and you know, like all of that stuff. I can imagine, you know, being strong at that age. I can imagine all of those things. It is a word-compliant movie. Okay, it's a word-compliant movie. We read this a lot in in um uh we read this a lot on the rise and shine, Genesis chapter 26, verse 13, where it says, and the man Isaac began to prosper and continued prospering until he was very prosperous. Do you know you can lit literally sit and imagine yourself? Imagine yourself out of debt. Imagine yourself getting promoted at work. Imagine yourself being able to give. Maybe the most you've given at a time is $1,000. And you can imagine $5,000, $10,000. You can imagine $100,000. You can imagine signing your first million-dollar check. Because that's how much God has prospered you. You imagine when you get that promotion, what your tithe will look like. But imagine get what are you doing? You're traveling, right? You're you're traveling, you're creating movies based off of the word of God, right? And you you have you have this fear because you've come to a certain age and you have friends who are, you know, cousins, all these kinds of people who are your age who start having all these terminal diseases. You best believe if you leave your mind to itself, it will paint pictures, it will paint pictures of you having the same thing and you dying as well. So it's up to you to then say, okay, um, by the stripes of Jesus, I am healed. And God is my physician. And if God is my physician, there's no disease that is incurable for him. And if that same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in my mortal body, he gives life for my mortal body. So he's giving life to every organ in my body, life to every ligament, life to every tendon, life to every nerve, life to my bloodstream. He's renewing my youth is being renewed like the ego. Like this is your imagination. This is what we're called to do with our imagination. And what that means is when we have this flash, like, oh, you're gonna die at 50, it's your job to use your mouth to interrupt the picture by saying, with long life, he satisfies me, and then take that and make it your imagination. Do you guys see that? Like, that's our job. Okay, so that's number, that's number two. So we've we talked about what imagination is. The second thing, what is the outcome of imagination? The outcome is whatever you imagined, and the outcome is faith. Faith. So you see how your imagination leads to faith. When you submit your imagination to words that don't line up with the word of God, it leads to fear. So whenever you see fear, you have seen an uncontrolled imagination. Well, I mean it's controlled, but it's controlled by the kingdom of darkness, right? And so the more we uh we line up our imagination with the word of God, the more faith we have. Okay, number three. Um, what is the raw material for word-based imagination? What is the raw material? The word of the word of God is the raw material. The word of God. You want to be a person of faith, you want to be a person of peace in the midst of chaos, you want to be the person who is winning when everybody is not, you want to be a person who has a life that is a sign and wonder. You want to be that person, you have to feed your imagination with the word of God, you have to constantly feed it with the word of God, you have to constantly give it this raw material because this is what you use to paint the pictures. Imagination follows words. What words? The word of God, if you want to have an imagination that will create faith. Okay, so the word of God, the word of God, the word of God. So I want to show you, I want to show you a few um scriptures here. Well, one scripture. Okay. So that also tells you, because remember the Bible says, be careful how you think. It also tells you that the words that are against the word of God should have no place in your mind. Sitting and thinking, oh, I'm gonna, you know, like, oh man, all my family members are dying, I'm gonna die too. Like, that is a dangerous thought. Why? Because it is against the word of God. Oh, you know, after there's there's no way I can have a life that tops what I had in 2025 in the past, that is not in line with the word of God. The word of God says the path of the just shines brighter and brighter. It is against the word of God, so it is a dangerous thought. Oh, I'm not smart enough is a dangerous thought because the word of God says that you have the mind of Christ. The word of God says Daniel was 10 times better than his peer, not because he was born with a superior IQ, but because God gave him unusual aptitude in all manner of learning. So, can you have unusual aptitude in all manner of learning? Yes. Do you guys see that? So on Horizon Shine, this is what we say. I consecrate my imagination to God. What does that mean? That means that from now on, I have decided that what I will leave in my mind, what I will choose to brood on and create movies about, will be things that are in line with the word of God. I consecrate my imagination to you. That's you being God. Okay. Okay, let me read this scripture here, Psalm 119, verse 97. Psalm 119, verse 97. Let me get there. Let me get there. You guys that are doing this, oh, you're gonna see, you're gonna see what this is gonna do for your life. Okay. The psalmist said this. He said, Oh, how I love your law. And even if you feel like you don't like reading the Bible, you can say that and you say it until you love it. Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. I'm thinking on this, I'm painting pictures about this, I'm imagining this, I'm hanging out with your word all the day. Is it any wonder that David was such a powerful warrior? Is there any wonder that he fought fought all those battles and when he was done, he laid in his bed and died? He did not die in war. Is it any wonder that he was somebody who has an everlasting dynasty, which is what God promised him? That's why Jesus had to be born through David's lineage. Is it any wonder that he funded the building of God's temple? Is it any wonder? Your word is my meditation all the day. All the day. So he's reading the word, feeding it to the raw material, and then painting movies. Okay, so what do we want to constantly do so we can have our imagination work for us, not against us? We gotta engage with the word of God. Now, you guys know that we are doing the you know, the 365 challenge, and part of that challenge is that we're reading four chapters of the Bible every day. Four chapters, and someone will say, Oh my goodness, that's so many chapters, it's so much reading. And we spend more time reading the comments on Facebook or TikTok than we would need to read our Bibles. Okay, so four chapters a day. This is for everyone, and take time to meditate in the word and take time to make movies of the word, and take time to make movies of the of the promises of God and imagine it being your reality and all of that. Okay, okay. So, what is the raw material? The word of God. Listen to me. One of the biggest tricks Satan has pulled off is convincing believers that the word of God is too much. So either it's too hard to read, or it's too long to read, or it's too boring, or it's too old school, or it's too whatever. But the Bible says this it says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. Please hear me. In the this is John chapter 1, verse 1. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. If you don't know the word of God, you do not know God. You don't. If you don't know the word of God, if you're not looking into the word of God, you don't know his ways, you don't know his plans for your life, you don't know his character, you don't know him. So why do we stay in the word of God? Because we want to know him, we want to know what he said about us, we want to know his promises for us, we want to know his plans for us. Like, for instance, I quoted Proverbs chapter 4, verse 18 the path of the just shines brighter and brighter. The path of the just shines brighter and brighter, the path of the just shines brighter and brighter, your path shines brighter and brighter. We do not have better yesterdays. When you read the Bible, you read the story of Joseph, it dawns on you like it doesn't matter what things, like even when it seems like things are challenging, in the midst of challenges, I still win. I still win. I can, we we still win. You have to understand, but without the word of God, you won't know. And so you cannot have a word-compliant imagination if you don't have the word. Okay, so even if you're like, oh man, I'm one of those people, I haven't been reading my Bible. We don't judge here, we observe. Okay. So if you haven't started reading your Bible, you just Genesis chapter one, let's go. Okay, so now you've started. You can type Genesis chapter one in the chat, and now you've started. Okay, all right. So read your Bible. Read your Bible, read your Bible, study your Bible, meditate in the Word, do all of those things. The raw material for your word compliant imagination is the word of God. Number four, what are the gates into my imagination? Your imagination has gates. Okay, now so the inputs, what goes into the imagination is the word of God. Well, how does it get from the Bible here into me? How does this happen? Why is this important? Because if you don't know what the gates are, you won't guard the gates. And if you don't guard the gates, then you're gonna have weird stuff getting to your imagination that shouldn't be there. Okay, gate number one. So there's there are three gates I'm gonna give you. There, there are more, but I'll give you three. Okay. Your eyes, your ears, and your mouth. Okay, your eyes, your ears, and your mouth. There's a woman in the Bible, we do not know her name. She's called the woman with the issue of blood. Okay, she had been sick for 12 years, she had had a 12-year-long period, like it just never stopped. Okay, and so you can imagine a woman like that, she would be anemic. Imagine a woman like that, she'll be weak. Imagine a woman like that, maybe there's some self-esteem issues, right? Probably never got married, the whole nine yards. So we just have a lot of stuff going on, okay. What was the turning point for her? Now, yes, Jesus healed her, but what was the turning point for her? The woman said, What the Bible says is, and she she had heard of Jesus. What was the entry point? Her ears. She had heard of Jesus. Now, obviously, she then took what she heard and made a movie out of it because she then said, She heard of him, and then she said to herself, if I can only touch the hem of his garment, that's a movie. If I if I can only touch the hem of his garment, I will be healed. But what got her to that point? Her imagination. How was her imagination fed? It was fed with the word, with stories about Jesus. How did it get to her? Her ear. Her ear, what she heard. Now, let me flip it. Let me flip it so you can understand what the enemy does. That's why the enemy wants you to sit and hear all kinds of atrocities and bad reports and bad predictions and all of those things because he needs you to make a movie out of it so that you get the opposite of what the woman got. The woman got a breakthrough. He wants you to get chaos. I had a client of mine who had a conversation with one person. One person. This person has now my client has been in business for a little under five years and all of that stuff, building a solid practice, you know, getting, I mean, like wild results, all of that stuff. And I she was questioning like, should I even be doing this? Should I shut down my business? Should I change my business model from one conversation? Why? Because what got into the ear gates and then the imagination, is this even working? I don't know if this is working. What if it fails? If it fails, what will happen to me? What will happen to my family? Like on and on and on and on and on. So now you know how to be a good guard and protect your ears. There's some conversations that are too expensive because they cost you your faith, they birth fear, and the fear paralyzes you. So when you know those people, you you you you don't talk like I have people I talk to them about the weather because I can't get rid of them. So I we talk about the weather, I talk about how nice their outfit is and all this stuff, and I'm out. Well, we are not talking about kids, we're not talking about marriage, we're not talking about church, we're not talking about faith, we're not talking about any of that, because it takes too much work to undo what you do. I'm not talking to you, I'm not talking to you. I'm not talking to you. Okay, okay, so it's your ears, it's your eyes, right? Now I'm gonna I'm gonna flip this and do this from from the negative side, right? Okay when you see something, and before it wasn't possible, once you see it, your imagination has pictures. So now it's possible. Let me tell you something. You can argue about God, you can wonder if God is real, you can do all of those things when you see a miracle happen, when you see it, it changes you in ways that you cannot describe why, because it's a different picture, it's a different picture. This is why your environment, I'm gonna say your environment, I mean the people in your world, they're so powerful. It's so powerful. Okay, let me give you an example. It's seen in a way, but this happened recently. Okay, last month we had a prayer-thon. We had a prayer-athon on Horizon Shine. And if you're not part of Horizon Shine, come join us. Horizon Shine, we pray every morning, 6 a.m. Eastern for an hour and five minutes. Absolute best way to start your day every single day, best way to invest an hour of a day growing in God. Okay, so we had a prayer-thon, and it was a three-hour prayer meeting from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Okay? Now there were many people who came on, they they said they said this later that they had never prayed for longer than an hour. And for the three-hour prayer meeting, they were just like, Well, I'm gonna come, I may stretch to two and I'll go away. Well, what happened is that they saw people praying for an hour, an hour and a half, two hours, two and a half hours, three hours. And because they could see it, they could imagine themselves doing it, and they did it. They prayed for three hours, and afterward, they're like, Oh my goodness, I have never done this before. What changed what they saw, what they saw, and so what they saw controlled their imagination, and it created the outcome in their lives, it created the fate to pull it off. We when what you see gives you raw material for your imagination, and you will produce that. We have another prayer-a-thon coming up this Saturday. Okay, so if you're watching this live, you know, good for you. You're watching this week, amazing. And again, we're gonna go for three hours. We're gonna go for three hours. And if you've never prayed for three hours, come join us, and you will. Okay, all right. So your eyes, your ears, and then your mouth. This is why God told Joshua, I said, Joshua, you have a big assignment to pull off. You're gonna take my people into the promised land. Shavanter was like, You are so good, can't wait for the next one. Yeah, next one is this Saturday, July 11th. All right, come join us, dcgeorgia.org forward slash prayer. Okay, so um, team, you have a J in there, so type the link again. Um, so this is why God told Joshua, he said, This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. It shall not depart out of your mouth. It shall not depart out of your mouth. You're constantly declaring the word. Why? Because what you declare, you hear, what you hear, you create pictures about. By the stripes of Jesus, I'm healed, I'm whole from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. As I begun to prosper, I continue prospering until I become very prosperous because I'm diligent, I will stand before kings, not before men. Just like Jesus did, just like the Father did for Jesus, God gives me the words to say and how to say them. Do you guys do you guys see that? Like you're constantly declaring, I'm blessed in the city, I'm blessed in the field, I'm blessed. Am I going out? I'm blessed. Am I coming in? Everything I lay my hands to do, prosper. I'm the head and not the tail, I'm above and not beneath. What are you doing? You're creating because when you say that, you're creating pictures. That's what your mind does, right? That's what your mind does. So, what is the gate? Your ears, your eyes, your mouth. These are the gates. So you allow into your ears what you want to allow into your life. You allow, like you have all these friends who constantly talk about, you know, their bad mouth marriage, they're like, oh man, cheat, they they're like, you know, you know, um, they're talking about their finances, how nothing is working, and all of that stuff. You're feeding yourself with what will overwhelm your imagination and show up in your life. It's too expensive. You can't afford to do it. You need to stop. Okay. Okay. So don't allow things in your ear you don't want to see in your life. Don't allow things in your eyes you don't want to see in your life. There are movies too expensive for you to watch. Yes, it comes free with your $7.99 Netflix subscription, but it's too expensive for you to watch. The problems it will create are not worth the temporary enjoyment of watching the movie. There's certain people who live a certain way, hanging out with them means you're putting it in front of your eyes, is too expensive. There are things that are too big to come out of your mouth. Why? They come out of your mouth, they show up in your life. Do you see that? Okay. Okay. So now how do I, if my imagination is an asset, yes, how do I use the asset? How do I use it? Please pay attention to this. I trigger my imagination by feeding it. What do I feed it with the word of God? How do I feed it through my ear gate? I was about to say nosegate. That is so funny. Through my ear gate, my eye gate, and my mouth gate. I'm feeding it. I'm I'm I'm putting inputs, the word of God, and I'm keeping the things not in line with the word of God out. So I'm feeding it with the word of God. And then I'm practicing creating those movies, practicing, imagine it until it takes. Okay? Now let me um let me give you, let me give you an example. That's what God did with um God did with Abraham. He told him, he showed him the sand, the the sand. He said, your children will be like this. Then he showed him the stars. He said, This is how many your children will be. And he kept putting it in front of him, putting in front of him, put it in front of him until Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Right? Okay. For for for you, you may be a student, and all your life you've been convinced that you're you're horrible at taking tests, you fail exams, you're you all of this stuff, and you're like, huh. Okay. Then you start imagining, just like Daniel, God gives me unusual aptitude. So it's not just my IQ, but God is giving me an unusual understanding of all manner of literature. So you pull your courses, you're like my chemistry, my biology, my anatomy. God gives me unusual understanding of these things. Above my IQ, I'm able to understand it. You imagine yourself reading the books, understanding, having discussions with your course mates. You imagine the people in your class who are the top of the class, and you're like, We the people, we the people that are the top of the class, and you're imagining that, and you're imagining, you know, taking your exam, you look at the score, you had you know 93%, and you look at that, and how proud you felt, and all of those things. Yeah, and you're imagining that, and you sit on that, and you're saying it out of your mouth, and you sit on that, and you're imagining it until your identity as a person who is not a good test taker and all of that stuff, it goes away. You do it until, okay, I think let me read this scripture, it will it will help you get this, okay? Okay, 2 Corinthians chapter 10 from verse 4, verse 3. It says, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds. Now, what is a stronghold? Because back in the day, when people read the scripture, like we're pulling down strongholds in the name of Jesus, but pay attention to this. It says, pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the kingdom of the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. There are thoughts we have thought for so long and painted movies and created movies for so long that they are strongholds. There are people who are like I can never have money, and it says stronghold because they have painted movies of that since they were 12. What is that person's job now? That person's job is to feed through the gates, feed themselves with the word of God. What does the word of God actually say about me and money? Thou shalt not forget the Lord your God, for it is He that gives you power to create wealth. That's what the Word of God says, right? Deuteronomy 8:18. So you sit with that. God has given me the power to create wealth. And the first time you're just like, I don't know what Dr. Una is talking about. Like, I just I just can't. But you sit with it, you pull up the dictionary definition of wealth, you're like, interesting. God has given me power to get wealth. God has given me, God supplies all my needs according to his riches and glory. Jesus, even though he was poor, even though he was rich for my sakes, he became poor that through him I might be rich. Interesting. Interesting. And the man Isaac began to prosper and continue prospering until he became very prosperous. Interesting. And God blessed Abraham, and the Bible says in Genesis 13, 2 that he was very rich in silver and gold and cattle. Interesting. God has given me power to get wealth. So you imagine yourself, you're on the job, but you're somebody who has the power to get wealth. And one of the laws of wealth is the law of value creation. So which means that your job, you create higher and higher value that leads to more and more promotions, that leads to more and more income. And then you become an entrepreneur, and God is giving you the power to get wealth. He opens doors for investment. And your mind will go like, oh no, no, no, you can't do that. You allow yourself to go there. You're like, and you know, like I could have investment stock, I could have this, and you're creating all these movies. What are you doing? Bringing yourself to the point where you create a new stronghold, but a stronghold based on the word of God. The word of God. Right? Okay, so you trigger it by feeding it, and you imagine and imagine and imagine and imagine until I've told you guys this story. I'll tell it to you again because it's good for you. I in this was um my first year as a resident. So this was 2005, 2006. I got into a car accident. So I'm I'm at a red light, there's a car in front of me. Here comes a car behind me. Don't know what the person was thinking, rams into me at full speed. I run into the person in front of me. So my car is banged up on both sides. Okay. And so what did that what happened? What gate was that? My eyes, I saw something. So because I didn't know what I'm teaching you today, I then took that picture and then it started playing over my mind, over and over and over. So every time I stop at a red light, I would see a car ram into me, and I'll ram into the car in front of me. This picture of side playing, so it became a stronghold. There was not a red light I would stop by, that that thing wouldn't happen. And then I then God said, He says, if you don't take care of this, remember, guard your heart with all diligence, for it determines the course of your life. You're just gonna keep reproducing accident after accident after accident. So I then took Psalm 91 and God will give his angels charge over you. And then I started imagining that, imagining that until I got to the point where I was so aware that there were angels guarding me that I knew I could not get into an accident because the car will have to run into the angel. Like that's just what will have to happen. So, what did I do? I took one stronghold and I got the word and fed it till I built another stronghold that drowned that out. We have to do that with every area of our lives. If you are here and you are afraid for how your kids will turn out, you have to go and pull scriptures like my children are taught of the Lord. Who is their mentor? Who is their teacher? When they're alone by themselves, who is doing this? My children are taught of the Lord, and great is their peace. You're gonna have to do that. You're gonna have to do that. The children of the generation, they're successful everywhere. The children of the of the righteous, like successful everywhere. You remember the covenant that God made God is like the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was the God of David, and because of that, the God of Solomon. And so your service to God is not in vain. Your service to God, the ripple effects will be seen in the lives of your children. He will be a father to them, he will defend them, he will protect them. You take the Lord's prayer, you're like, God, rescue us from all evil. God is the one who rescues us from all evil. All. Right? And you start creating new strongholds. So, what I want you to do, because this is powerful, but the most powerful part is when you start applying it. The most powerful part is when you start practicing it, putting in the reps. I want you to identify an area of your life. And the easiest way to do this is think of the place where fear shows up for you the most. That is a pointer to a place where there's a stronghold, where there's an imagination, a picture that is running your life, right? Okay, so find a place where there's a fear, find one you want to work on, and then find three antidotes to that fear based on the word of God, then start reworking your imagination. Start creating movies based on the word of God. And you can literally have times where you just block off 10 minutes, 12 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever, you just sit and you imagine based on the word of God. You can do that, and you start doing this and doing this and acting accordingly until you create a new stronghold. But my friends, I'm telling you this. If you will take your mind and consecrate it to God, which means that your mind is going to be word compliant, the only stories you let sit there, the only pictures and movies you let see that sit there are pictures and movies planned based on the word of God, your life will begin to look like this book. Your life will become, it will become a sign and a wonder. There are limitations that have held you for so long that will lose their hold. When you may have seen people, you're like, this person is such a visionary. I don't know how they can think of think like that. This word will make you the kind of person who can think like that, who can have big dreams, who can pull them off, who can have a life that's a sign and a wonder, have a life that preaches the gospel before you even say a word. The starting point is working the tool God gave you, which is your imagination, and recognizing that Satan, Satan knows how powerful this is. So he will constantly try to use it against you. Don't let him. There's a battle for your imagination, but it is yours. Be the guard over your imagination and win the battle for your imagination. If this has helped you in any way, I would love for you to join the movement and share this episode with your friends, family, and the Christians in your world. By doing this simple thing, you could be changing the trajectory of someone's lives, their family, and their community. That makes you a world changer and they will love you forever.