The Power Of A Positive Imagination Part 1 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue
The Power Of A Positive Imagination Part 1 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue
The Power Of A Positive Imagination Part 1 with Pastors Lawson and Aaron Perdue. In this episode, see how your positive imagination can be used to bring about the dreams and purposes in your life.
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The Power Of A Positive Imagination Part 1 – Transcript
Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you tuned in today. We’re beginning a brand new series talking about the power of a positive imagination. Most of the time in the scriptures, when the word imagination is used, it is used in a negative context. However, I believe that by the grace of God, you can turn that around and you can begin to see the dreams of God come to pass in your life. Stay tuned.
Friends, I’m so glad that you’re with us today. We’re gonna be talking about the power of a positive imagination. And for the last couple of weeks we’ve been teaching from Aaron series, “The Divine Imagination”. But today we’re gonna teach on my series “The Power of a Positive Imagination”. Inevitably, most of the time in the scriptures, when the word imagination is used, it’s used in a negative context. And I believe that when God created us, he created us with a positive imagination. But because when Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he allowed the knowledge of evil to really over overwhelm his soul. And so I believe that we moved away from positive imagination to negative imagination, and it became more and more negative as time went on because man focused more and more on sin. In fact, in Genesis 6:5, this is about 1,650 years after Adam and Eve transgressed in the garden in Genesis 3. But in Genesis 6, this is 2,350 years before Christ, God came down in the days of Noah. And it says in verse five that he saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that the imagination of his heart was only continually evil. You know what? When we began to live by the knowledge of good and evil by our consciousness instead of by our relationship with God, it does not lead to positive things. And this was the consciousness of man without Christ. And so the–
That’s really a philosophy of the world today, is just to be led by your own thoughts. If you think something, it is true. That’s a big philosophy in the world today. But just because you thinks something is true doesn’t mean it’s true.
You know, Jesus said this in John 17:17, he said, “Sanctify them through thy truth.” Thy word is truth. And if we’re gonna move into positive things, number one, we’ve gotta get it down in our soul that the word of God is true no matter what.
That philosophy has been in the world for a long time. It’s been since Adam and Eve living by their own conscience, by their own understanding of what is good and evil. But even when Jesus was led to Pilate, Pilate washed his, he said, “Well, what is truth?” I think he said it kind of mockingly like there is no such thing as absolute truth. But even today, people deny that there is absolute truth. It’s your truth, it’s subjective, but truth is not subjective.
No. The truth of God’s word is the foundation of creation. It’s the foundation of the world that we see, and we’re set apart by the truth. And if we, I don’t believe God wants to take us as believers out of the world. I believe he wants to keep us from the evil that’s in the world. And I believe that the way that he does that is he sets us apart by the truth of the word of God. And it’s a challenge when we begin to be governed and act like, and talk like, and think like the world. And for instance, if you take a biblical stance on abortion, and that is that abortion is completely wrong. It’s death, it’s murder. A lot of people in the world will get mad at you. Now, at least the last studies that I know, 67% of Americans are still against partial birth abortion. And that’s like they can crush a child’s skull coming out the womb and call it an abortion when it’s being born. It’s terrible. It’s just complete atrocity, complete, but abortion itself is completely wrong. It’s completely against God. It’s against the nature of God. Abortion stops a beating heart, and God is the author of life. But when you take that stand, sometimes people in the world will get mad at you. But you know what’s really sad is when you take a stand like that on what the word of God says, and people in the church get mad at you. And I’ve had many times people start saying something and it just doesn’t line up with what the word of God says. And they think that God is leading them. God will not lead you contrary to the basic principles of the word of God. The word of God is truth. And we need to just set it down in our soul. Whatever the word of God says, we’re gonna go that way. And so God came down in the days of Noah, he saw that the imagination of man’s heart was only continually evil. And I believe this happened because of Adam’s transgression in the garden. The fall started a downward spiral. The fall of man opened the floodgates of sin, of sickness, of disease, of death, of lack. All this destruction came as a result of the fall of men. Now, when you look at this word in Genesis 6:5, “For imagination,” it is the Hebrew word “Yetser,” and it means a form, a framing, a purpose, a framework, and imagination. Your imagination can build a form for the concrete things of God to be poured in. Your imagination can build a framework for the house of God and the things of God to be built in your life. But you have to begin to see from God’s perspective. And I believe if we’re gonna do that, we are gonna have to turn from having evil or defile conscience or imagination to having imagination that is positive. And another example is just a little bit after Genesis 6, Genesis 8, this is after Noah got off the arc when he built the arc. And, and then the flood came, and Noah made an offering. And it says in Genesis 8:21, “The Lord swell smelled the sweet saver. “And the Lord said, ‘I’m no longer gonna destroy the earth “‘for man’s sake, for the imagination of man’s heart “‘is evil from his youth.'” Neither am I gonna destroy every living thing as I’ve done. So God’s never gonna do that again. He promised he’d never do it. And that’s the truth. However, it says the imaginations of man’s heart was evil, and it’s because of this sin nature that took over because of Adam’s transgression and begin to dominate the human race. But I believe when you get born again, you get a brand new nature. And just like you get a brand new righteous nature, a nature of life, you can renew your mind in the word of God. And you can begin to use your soul, your mind, and your will and your emotions, your imagination in a positive way. And so the imagination is part of our soul, and it’s closely connected. One definition of imagination is the faculty or action of forming new ideas, images, or concepts. The ability of the mind to be creative or resourceful. Creative ability, I believe that we have creative ability. You begin to talk about in your series on “The Divine Imaginations”, how God spoke to you to begin to dream about, begin to see, begin to imagine seeing people raised from the dead. You can see that, and you can buy words, actually create pictures in people’s mind where they can begin to see the promises. One thing Smith Wigglesworth would do, Smith Wigglesworth had lots and lots of miracles in his ministry, but he would get someone up that had this physical obvious disability or whatever, and he’d get them healed, and it would create a picture in other people’s minds, or he would bring a person in and have them testify about what God had done. And as they testified about what God had done, it creates a picture in other people.
What changes people’s framework in their minds, running their people there who never could even picture just the framework, the constructs, the limitations of their mind, just wouldn’t even allow God to do the miraculous. But then when you see it and hear it talked about, and that changes the framework of people’s minds so they can begin to receive.
Amen. I just recently prayed for a person and they were brought here from another state. They traveled over a thousand miles to get here. And we prayed for this woman, I would guess was between 25 and 30 years old. She was given, less than 12 months to live between six and 12 months. The doctors told her, they told her, “There’s nothing that we can do “diagnosed with stage four cancer.” And the first thing that I begin to do when I begin to minister to her, is I begin to testify to her about people who have been healed, who were given basically a death certificate by the doctors. And we’ve seen this happen over and over. I prayed for a younger woman in Dallas, and she had stage four cancer. She didn’t have long to live according to the doctors. And I told her, “Listen, in a little bit, very short time, “you’re gonna have a very positive report by a doctor.” And she went within the first two weeks back to the doctor, and they had basically told her she was gonna die. And she, in a short time, and the doctor came back and told her that she was cancer free. And he said, I’ve heard about these things in foreign nations and I’ve never heard about them in America, but now, and I’ve never seen them with my own eyes. But he said, “Now I’ve not only heard about it in America, “I’ve seen it with my own eyes.” And there are miracles like that that are available. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And I told her about that. I told her about another woman that we prayed for in 1990, shortly after mom and I became full-time pastors within a couple years. And this woman had been sent to Mayo Clinic and given less than six months to live. They sent her home, said there’s nothing we could do, go get your affairs in order. And they brought her to our church. She was from a traditional church, and we laid hands on her and prayed for her, believed God with her, but we also gave her scriptures and told her to put these scriptures up in her home. Psalm 118:17, “I will not die, “but live and declare the works of the Lord.” And we told her to speak that scripture. Every time she thought about it, when she got up before she went to bed. And every time she thought about it in the day, say these words, “I will not die, “but I would live and declare the works of the Lord.” And within two weeks, she came to Colorado Springs and the doctors somehow looked at these tumors and they said, “Where did you go and get those things frozen?” She said, “I didn’t go anywhere but the church. “And I had them pray for me.” Well, praise God, when the world gives you no hope, they’re still hope in God. And you know what? You need to by faith, hope in the scriptures, hope in the promises of God, and that woman’s alive to this day, over 30 years later. She is healthy, she is strong, she is well, she is blessed. She is talking about the goodness of God. And you know what? You can go in your mind in places by the promises. But you know, here’s something people say sometimes, “Use your imagination and get us out of here.” Praise God. If you want to get out of a negative circumstance, you need to begin to use your imagination in a positive way. The scripture says this in Proverbs 23:7. It says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” The way you think your spirit was changed immediately when you’re born again, but your soul still needs work. And you gotta work on your soul. And I believe that every person has a picture on the inside, and the picture on the inside ultimately determines the picture on the outside. So if you wanna change the picture on the outside, you gotta change the picture on the inside. You talked about that. You gotta begin to dream big and think big. Think beyond where you’re at to be able to go to a new place.
God really looks at the heart of people too. The Bible says that man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. God’s very concerned about what’s in your heart, what’s in your soul, what are you dreaming about, what are you imagining. We see that in the story of Noah, that he looked at the hearts of men and just saw that their imaginations were continually evil. He was looking at their heart, looking at their imagination, and just saw it is just going in one direction and it’s the wrong direction. And he had to do something about it. So God’s looking at the heart. So you need to invite him into your heart, into your dreams, into your imaginations.
Amen. We begin to dream about what God says, come in the past. You’ve talked about this before, Aaron, but you read a study that the average person thinks 60,000 thoughts per day. About 80% of them are negative, and 95% of them are habitual repeated. So if you wanna change the picture right on the outside, you’ve gotta change the picture on the inside. And I believe that has to do with this thought realm. I believe your heart is a central part of man, a combination of your soul and your spirit. And about 97% of the time when the Bible talks about heart, it’s talking about either a combination of your spirit and your soul or your soul. Your mind, and your will, and your emotions. And so you gotta change from the negative to the positive. And I believe that you can do that by the word of God, and letting the word of God dictate your thoughts. Praise God. And moving out of this negative thinking, moving into possibility thinking. Praise God. My grandmother years ago listened to Norman Vincent Peele and he helped a lot of people. And by changing their thoughts, now, your spirit, you gotta be born again in your spirit. You gotta receive Christ, invite God into your life, but then let the word of God begin to change your mind. So you can begin to receive the good things of God. Amen. We’re gonna take a very short break. We’re gonna be back right after this break. Stay tuned. We’ve got a lot of great things to share, and we’re gonna be talking about how you can begin to move from a negative to a positive imagination through the work of God. Amen. Blessing. Friends, I wanna share with you about our special product that we’re offering. I’m teaching and with my son Aaron, also with Jesse Duplantis on a couple of different things. Number one, insights to faith. Jesse Duplantis made a statement years ago in my churches he was ministering and I just haven’t been able to let go of it. He said, “Most of the time, in the realm of faith, “I made a decision and God backed it.” We’re gonna talk about that. We’re also talking about this. My son, Aaron’s one of his newest series, “The Divine Imagination”, tremendous, tremendous revelation that I believe will help you move into the plans and the purposes of God. And also my series, “The Power of a Positive Imagination”, one of my most requested series. You want to get this product? If you can’t call in and get it physically. You can watch it online for free, or you can pay a small fee and download this information on our website at CharisChristianCenter.com. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us. We’ve been talking about the imagination is part of our heart or soul, and how most of the time in the scripture the words used negative, but you can turn it around and have a positive imagination, and the imagination actually has phenomenal power. We wanna talk about that for the rest of this broadcast. And we’re gonna turn to Genesis 11:1-9 and begin to read the scriptures. Aaron, if you want to go there, Genesis 11, we’ll read verse one through verse nine in Genesis chapter 11.
So it says here, “Now, the whole earth had one language and one speech, “and it came to pass as they journeyed from the east “that they found a plane in the land of Shinar. “And they dwelt there. “Then they said to one another, “‘Come let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ “They had brick for stone, “and they had asphalt for mortar. “And they said, “‘Come let us build ourselves a city “‘and a tower whose top is in the heavens. “‘Let us make a name for ourselves. “‘Let’s we be scattered abroad “‘over the face of the whole earth. “But the Lord down to see the city and the tower, “which the, the sons of men had built. “And the Lord said, ‘Indeed, the people are one “‘and they all have one language.’ “And this is what they began to do.” Now, nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come let us go down and there confuse their language that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, they ceased from building the city. Therefore, its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the Earth. And from there, the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the Earth.
So these people, through their own effort and power, began to think that they could build a tower that reached to heaven. They could make their selves a name. And the Lord came down and to see it and he said, “Because they’re one, they have one language. And this they’ve begun to do because they were in unity. Nothing will be restrained that they have imagined to do. And so history tells us that this was a seven tiered tower, that at the bottom that they had shrines to different demon deities. And at the top they had the zodiac, and it was really talking about worshiping other gods rather than the one true God. And this was in the days of Nimrod, the great grandson of Noah. And so you could see how in a very short time when man was living by his ability to govern himself in the days of Noah, that they corrupted themselves again because of the sin nature. And so God, I believe that in Genesis 10:25, just before this, it says, in the days of peg, the earth was divided. So this is where God separated. The Earth separated the nations and gave them different languages because this, in their own human efforts, apart from God, they were trying to reach God. And so he had to bring a stop. However, you can see that the imagination in this aspect is a very, very powerful element. And when people get together and get in unity, they have one speech and one language, They can do about anything that they imagine. There are people in the earth that some of them may not even be born again, but they have a good, they’re visionary people and they understand how to use this imagination. Some of them even in a positive way, some of them are more positive than believers and make a lot of difference, but they’re visionary people. And I believe God wants us to use this power of an imagination as believers in a very positive way in the kingdom of God to accomplish the purpose and the plans of God. 1 Corinthians 3 says, “In a great house, there’s not only,” well, that’s actually 2 Timothy 2. “There’s not only vessels of wood and hay and stone, “but there’s also vessels of silver and gold.” And he talks about we can purge ourself from these and become a vessel of honor. But I believe when you study 1 Corinthians 3, Paul’s talking about building on this foundation of the apostles and prophets. And he says, “We don’t want to build “with wood, hay and stubble, “because those things in eternity “will ultimately be burnt up.” I believe if we’re just using a natural imagination, and we’re not using it positively in the way that God wants us to do, even, well, even some people can, they can do positive things, but ultimately they’re not focused on the divine purposes and plans of God. I believe that in eternity, that’s wood, hay and stubble. That’s like these people in Genesis 11, they were building something, God said, they are one speech, they’re one language, they’re in unity. They’re using their imagination. Nothing will be restrained from them. However, I believe if we use our imagination in positive way and get connected with the purpose and plan of God, and what the scripture says, “We can use it and move into the good things “that God has for us.” And we can use our imagination to move into the things of God. Ephesians 3:20 says that God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all we can ask or even think according to the power that works in us. Now, when you begin to study that scripture, thinking about the power that works in you, the context is actually the power of the love of God, understanding that grace and the love of God, the goodness of God towards you. But there’s a lot of things when we begin to understand Christ is living in us. He lives in our spirit. We’ve got the spirit of Christ in us. We’re born again by the incorruptible seed of the word of God. We have the Holy Spirit in us. And we have the love of God. All those things. When you begin to understand that it says God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all you can ask or think according to the power that works in you. You’ve gotta begin to think in a realm before you can move into it. Praise God. I’ve used this with you. When you were younger and you were already going there, you were already dreaming things and thinking big thoughts and your mother and I raised you that man, if God called you to do, if God anointed you, you can do anything. God’s called and anointed you to do. That God’s gifted you to do. And so we didn’t tell you guys very much that this wasn’t something you could do when you were young. So you had already accomplished great things. But I remember when I encouraged you if you didn’t get your dream job after you got your masters to apply for a doctorate and you were going back to get your doctorate, and I told you, “Aaron, if you’ll believe God “by the time you graduate with your doctorate, “you’ll have a hundred thousand dollars.” Well, you didn’t have a hundred thousand, you had 200,000. Praise God. You were able to buy your first house right outta college here in Colorado Springs. It’s not a cheap market. And because you begin to think that way, you begin to dream that way, you begin to go that way. Your brother Andrews had great thoughts and done amazing things, Peter the same way. And I believe part of it is because how we raised you, but we raised you guys with faith. We raised you guys to believe God. And you guys think big, you think good. Praise God. But part of going where God wants you to go and possessing what God wants you to possess is–
You ain’t thinking right.
Thinking right. I had this with your son, Fisher. I’d just did this for him the other day. It was his ninth birthday and you know what, I gave him a hundred dollars. He had already saved 500. And I said, Fisher, when you add 500, when you add 400 to this, when you work for your dad and do these different things, then I’ll give you 500 more. And man, Fisher caught right on a little bit. I mean, it snowed a few couple days after that. He was out there scooping that snow because he’s gonna make some money and he’s gonna, listen, it’s gonna cost me 500 more dollars in just a little bit. And you know what, Fisher got this picture on the inside of him, of, “Man, I could have a thousand dollars, “I’ll get 1500 when I get a thousand.” I did that because a banker told me years and years ago that there are two kinds of people. There are savers and they’re spenders. And generally the spenders spend more than they should, and the savers save more than enough. And I’ve seen that to be true. And so, listen, I’m gonna do it with all of my grandkids. I’m gonna do it with your brother, Andrew’s kids in just a little bit and get them to start a savings account when they save up 400 more dollars after I give them a hundred then I’m gonna give them 500 more to go with it. So they’ll have a thousand. And you know what I believe Fisher will never be poor. I believe Fisher will never lack, but it’s getting this picture on the inside of him when they’re little and beginning to get them to think in a different way. Praise God. I was so proud of him because he caught right on. And you know what? He wasn’t whining and complaining about going out there. He was chomping at the bit to get out there in that cold and scoop that snow and do that work.
Yeah. The Bible says in all labor there is profit.
Yeah.
And I think some people need to have a dream so they have something to work towards. A lot of people aren’t really imagining much in the future. They’re just existing or imagining worse. But you need to have a positive imagination. That’s actually gonna motivate you to do what God’s called you to do, to be eager to get out there and apply yourself. In all labor, there is profit.
Amen. I taught you that. Praise God. My dad’s favorite scriptures. “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.”
Yeah. Maybe you’re kind of between jobs right now, or trying to figure and just do something.
Amen.
The Bible says whatever your hand touches will prosper, will be blessed. So just set your hand to something, don’t do nothing. That’s the worst thing you can do.
If you wanna prosper. You need to believe the scriptures. Praise God.
Amen.
Well, thank you so much for tuning in. We have trained prayer ministers. They’re here to pray for you, to minister to you. We have lots of testimonies. We had a lady come in the other day that had broken her arm. The doctor told her that she needed surgery. And my prayer minister’s here to pray for her. And the next week she got a report from the surgeon. You don’t need the surgery. So if you need prayer for healing, if you want to become a partner, if you want product, give us a call. Thank you, and God bless you.
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Friends, I’m Pastor Lawson Perdue, and I love church and I’m excited about church. Jesus said, “I will build my church “and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” And I want to invite you to come to church, whether you’re in Colorado Springs, or wherever you are in the world, you can connect with us online Sundays at 8:30 and 10:30 AM, or you can just get on our website and watch us at CharisChristianCenter.com. Blessings.
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