Divine Imagination Live – Aaron Perdue

Welcome, friends, to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you tuned in today. We have a great teaching today live from our church at Charis Christian Center on the divine imagination. Did you know, most of the time, in the scripture, when imagination’s talked about, it’s used negatively, but when you turn your heart to the Lord, you can begin to use your imagination in a positive way to see God’s plans perfected in your life. Blessings.

First point today, and this is a really great point. I think this is gonna help a lot of people in their soul and their thought life. But it is this, it is that your thankfulness directs your imagination. The enemy wants you to become unthankful, ungrateful, because it will affect your soul. Your thankfulness directs your imagination. So let’s look at Romans 1:20-21. So here in Romans 1:20, it says, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead.” So it’s saying since Genesis 1:1, all creation knows that there is a God. Wherever there is beauty, whenever there is order, that it points to a creator. Right? There is a lot of beauty in the world. There is a lot of order in the world. Whenever we see beauty, whenever we see order, you know that there is a creator. Beauty and order does not happen from chaos. Actually, the devil is the author of chaos. He wants to destroy things. He wants to take what is beautiful and make it ugly. He wants to take what is pure and taint it. He is trying to destroy God’s creation. He is trying to destroy the work, the purpose of the redeemer for creation. That’s why this kind of kingdom of darkness, this antichrist type of spirit, it’s really coming against God as a creator. God created them male and female. That’s why there’s such a huge push in the world today, in this kingdom of darkness, for distorting that, that male and female that God created. Whenever you see beauty, whenever you see order, you know that there was a creator. And the best of all creations, it shows you something about that creator. Like when I hear, you know, Mozart’s music on the radio, I love classical music. I have a doctorate in classical music on the flute. Whenever I hear, you know, a great Mozart symphony on the radio, I can almost picture what Mozart looked like, picture what his personality was like. I can almost picture… Because he was such a great artist, he left a huge imprint on his creation, especially his best works. God left, as a creator, He left his best imprint on the crown of His creation, which is you, which is me. When you look in the mirror, you’re looking at the crown of God’s creation. You’re not here by accident. You’re not here by chaos. God actually knew you before He spoke the universe into existence. And He cares about every detail of your life. All creation knows that there’s a creator. Again, whenever you see beauty, whenever you see order, you know that there’s a creator there. You know, I’ve been married almost four years. July 6th will be four years for Heather and Aaron Perdue. Praise God!

Congregation Amen!

And for our honeymoon, we went to Italy. We went to Rome first. And when we were in Rome, we went to the Vatican and saw the Sistine Chapel. And if I had walked into the Sistine Chapel and told the tour guy there, “Isn’t this just amazing that, you know, billions and billions of years ago, there were cans of paint on the ground and then a bomb went off and there’s this big bang, and all of a sudden there’s this beauty on the ceiling.” That’s so unrational, that’s so idiotic. I know that someone created that. Whenever you see beauty, especially like wonderful works of art, wonderful works of beauty, you know that there’s a creator. And right at the center of that masterpiece is a picture of creation, is a picture of God’s finger touching Adam’s finger, giving him the divine spark of life, that divine spirit that’s placed inside of us. Amen. All creation, there’s a creator, and it says, “That they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God.” I love coming to church and worshiping God, worshiping God, bringing glory to Him. Yours is the kingdom. Yours is the power. Yours is the glory forever and ever. Amen. It says, “They didn’t glorify Him as God, nor were thankful.” Now, look at this progression. God really spoke this to me, and this is where this entire message came from. “They weren’t thankful and became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Because they were unthankful, it affected their soul, it affected their thought life, it affected their imagination. And generally, in scripture, we see, whenever you look up the word imagination, it’s usually talked about in a negative way. It talks about how mankind’s imagination became corrupt. And it starts with this thankfulness. And God spoke to me and He said, “If you are thankful, it will direct your imagination. I can actually give you creative thoughts. I can help you solve problems. I can give you new and innovative ideas.” But it starts with thankfulness. Your thankfulness directs your imagination. Amen? It directly controls your imagination. I see this so many times in my own life, in my children’s life and people’s life. Your thankfulness directly controls your imagination. If you are unthankful, your imagination will not be creative. It’ll actually be destructive. And this goes back to the beginning as well. I believe it even goes back to Lucifer. Lucifer was created as an archangel, one of the highest positions in all of heaven. He was in charge of all of worship, just endowed with great musical abilities, led worship in heaven. And it says that he wanted worship for himself. I believe it started with thankfulness. He wasn’t thankful for what the Father, what God had given him. He actually became unthankful. And that created this spiraled for him. And he tries to do that in the hearts of people today. He tries to get people to focus on lack, focus on darkness, even tries to distort people’s image of God. He tries to distort what God has created. What is beauty, what’s holy, what’s pure, where there’s order, he tries to distort that. And if you’re unthankful, your imagination, it’s gonna suffer. And actually it’s gonna work in a destructive way. You’re gonna start imagining problems that aren’t really there. If you’re unthankful, you’re gonna imagine problems that aren’t really there. And you’re actually gonna take small things that are very minimal, very minor problems, and you’re gonna make it a huge deal. I’ve seen believers fall apart over some of the smallest, smallest things. And rather than be thankful for what God is doing in their life and their family’s life, and their job and their community and their church, they focus on something that’s so small, so petty, so foolish. I know it’s just the enemy’s work wreaking havoc in their soul. And I think you were born again in your spirit, but you need to get born again in your soul. Start being thankful. Also, this unthankfulness will lead to an imagination that actually creates solutions that are extremely destructive. You’ll think, “Man, I’m unthankful for my wife, I’m unthankful for my kids, I’m gonna just start imagining, man. I should just be married to someone else. Man, I’m unthankful for my boss. I’m unthankful for my job.” I’m just gonna imagine something else that maybe you’re not called to do. That unthankfulness will lead to an imagination that will create solutions that are extremely destructive. But if you are thankful, your imagination is gonna work the way God wants it to, it’ll be creative, it’ll be godly, it’ll be enlightened. The Holy Spirit can speak to you through your imagination. Your imagination is a powerful, powerful force. And God gave it to you for a divine purpose. A divine purpose. I think the enemy likes to attack creative people, artistic people in their souls and their hearts. Because he knows that if they can use their imagination for God, for his glory, it will wreak havoc to the kingdom of darkness. And, actually, when I saw this in Romans 1:20-21, it started just as a five-minute devotional for our worship team. Great worship starts with thankfulness. And as I shared it, a week or two later, someone on the worship team came back to me and said that, “What you said about being thankful, controlling your imagination, that just set me free.” He said, “For years, I’ve really struggled in my thought life and my imagination, just letting it just spin out of control in a negative way, in a destructive way. But when I sensed that happening, I would just speak out loud. I would speak out loud what I am thankful for.” And he said, “That would just shut that down right away. And that side of my soul, that imaginative side of my soul would be positive. It’d be godly. It just changed me dramatically, just by being thankful and by speaking it.” When you speak, man, you need to articulate your thankfulness to other people as well. You can’t just think thankful thoughts and think they’re gonna just read my mind that I’m thankful. You actually have to articulate. And sometimes you have to take and set an action to it too, right? Do something to honor that thankfulness that you feel or that you’re stepping out in. When you say things, that’s so powerful. And I think you should speak. For some of you who need to be just set free in your soul, set free in your thought life, you need to speak out loud what you are thankful for. Maybe write on Facebook what you are thankful for, than rather than what you’re complaining about, what you’re mad about. Maybe write about what you’re thinking. And I think about 80% of the thoughts that I see expressed on Facebook are negative, even from believers, even from believer about the church. Man, I’m so thankful for this church. I’m so thankful for the body of Christ. I’m so thankful that I get to stand up here. I don’t deserve this. I don’t… This is completely God. And just to live every day, I know I should be thankful for every good thing that God has done in my life.

Friends, I certainly hope that you’ve been enjoying the word of God today. Did you know we have a website, and on our website, we have hundreds of hours of free teaching, downloadable audio, downloadable video, a free children’s curriculum, and soon to come, a free youth curriculum, plus much more, on our website at Charis Christian Center. Check it out.

Look what God has done for you. You know, I mean, aren’t you so glad God restores all of us?

Yes.

And even to above and beyond, God brings, when He does it, when He restores something, it’s even more than you could have imagined. And I love that. Again, when God did something for us, it affects others, and then other people even see it and testify to the goodness of God.

Number two, you need to rehearse the victory. Rehearse the victory. Don’t rehearse defeat. The devil will constantly remind you of your weakest moments where you felt defeated, where you felt like you messed up. The devil will try to get you to rehearse that and make you identify with that. Don’t rehearse defeat, rehearse the victory. Let’s go to Exodus 17. Exodus 17. This is where God spoke this to me, rehearse the victory. We will start in verse eight. This is when the Israelites had just crossed the Red Sea. They saw a mighty victory that crossed, you know, on dry ground through the Red Sea. They saw, you know, the world’s largest army at the time. Pharaoh and his army of chariots, horses just get wiped out in an instant. Very cool. But now they’re early on in their wilderness journey, and the Amalekites are coming to fight with them. And this time, God is saying, “You’re gonna have to arm yourselves. You’re gonna have to fight as well.” So it says here in Exodus 17:8, “Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said to Joshua,” this is the first time Joshua’s name is mentioned in scripture. And there’s something very powerful about this time that Joshua is first mentioned. Joshua has not been mentioned to this point, but Joshua is here, told to get an army, gathered, trained, and go out and fight a battle to be the commander of this army. “Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.’ So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write this for a memorial in the book.'” This is why we have the Book of Exodus written, because God spoke to Moses and said, “Write this down for a memorial and recount it in the hearing of Joshua.” One translation says, you are to rehearse this before Joshua, rehearse this before Joshua. So he’s saying, but every battle that Joshua will face, every time he’s gonna, you know, be sharpening his sword, getting ready to go out and fight, he is to remember this, recount it in his hearing, tell it to him, but even rehearse it. You know, Joshua, you need to imagine this victory. Imagine what God did. This is the first battle you ever fought. You didn’t know what you were doing. That’s the first time you swung a sword. That’s the first time you tried to recruit an army, try to train an army. But I came through. You are victorious because I am victorious. “‘I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.’ And Moses built an altar and called its name.” Do not forget this name, the Lord is my banner. Our God, He is Jehovah-Nissi, Yahweh-Nissi, the Lord, our banner, who has lifted up the Lord, who fights for us, the Lord who is our victory. And you need to rehearse this in your hearts, rehearse it in your minds. You are victorious. You are my children. You are my sons. You are my daughters. You are not created for defeat. You are not created for death. You are created for life. You are created for victory. If the same spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead dwells in you, should you come to church and sing? I’m so confused. Probably not. Rehearse this. To every battle that Joshua faced, every trial that he faced, every giant that he looked in the eyes, he would do something. He would rehearse the victory. When he went to spy out the promised land, millions of people forgot to rehearse the victory. They forgot to rehearse what God had done, that He helped them pass through the Red Sea, that He helped him fight against Amalek. Joshua remembered because that was a part of who he… he wasn’t stuck on negativity, he wasn’t stuck on defeat. He wasn’t stuck on pessimism. He was rehearsing the victory. Rehearse the victory. When I was growing up, I grew up in a town of 300 people, a very precious town, Kit Carson, Colorado. Even smaller than Eads, Colorado. Eads were our rivals. Larry and Carla Gifford here have known me since I was five years old or something, since my hair was shining like the sun, piercing the night. And when I was in 4th grade, the band director there had me start playing the flute. And it was just like an instant thing. It was a God thing. It was like I was made to play that flute, but I needed training, I needed to plan and I needed to prepare. So my dad got me flute lessons and the flute teacher I studied with was in Greeley, Colorado. She was a professor at the University of Northern Colorado. So once a month, my dad would drive me three hours one way to go have a two-hour flute lesson, and we’d drive back. And there was no other flute player in Kit Carson, you know. It was at the edge of the flat earth there, you can just drive Kit Carson, you’ll see the edge of the earth. I’m sorry, I’m sure there, and I am not gonna go down that path. But what she told me to do one month was, “When you go back and practice your flute this month, I want you to do something different. Every day that you play the flute, I want you to imagine that you are James Galway.” James Galway was and still is the most famous flute player to ever walk the face of the Earth. He could take his flute and walk on water with it in my imagination. So for a month, every time I got my flute together, I’d put it together. I was just, you know, 11, 12 years old. I’d put it together, and I would imagine that I was the greatest flute player in the world. I didn’t really know any of the flute players that have anyone to look up to. But I had CDs, I’d seen videos, I knew this guy was good, so I’m gonna be him. And I used to practice in the kitchen when my mom was cooking. And I liked to, you know, there’s a nice echo. I like the acoustics of the kitchen. So, actually, all throughout my childhood and youth period, I’d always practice in the kitchen for that effect. You know, with that echo, it kind of, it’s a little forgiving to some of your mistakes. It kind of echoes out your mistakes. So as I was practicing in the kitchen, I realized if I’m James Galway, I need somewhere bigger to play. So that’s my dad. If I could go to church with him and practice in the sanctuary, that was the biggest place I could play. And then, in middle school, I asked the teachers, you know, “I had a free period, rather than studying in the library, can I go to the gym and play in the gym?” Kept getting bigger and bigger. And I was imagining that I was playing, not just in front of 20 people, I was playing in front of thousands of people. And when I came back after imagining that I was James Galway, that was the best I’d ever played for my teacher. She said, “Aaron, this is the most improvement I’ve ever seen in any student that I’ve had.” It’s because I was rehearsing victory. I was rehearsing greatness. I was imagining it. And my mom asked me to share this testimony. It’s a powerful testimony. When I lived in Houston, when I got my master’s and doctorate there at Rice University, I went to Joel Osteen’s church, to Lakewood Church. And I think it’s been almost 50 years ago, but his mother, Dodie Osteen, was sent home to die with cancer. The doctor said, “We can’t do anything else for you. Go home with your husband, with your kids.” She was sent home to die. But her husband, John Osteen, took pictures of her in the prime of her life. And there’s a certain picture that really resonated with Dodie. There’s a picture of her wearing a pink cowboy hat riding on a horse. And she looked at that and she wasn’t rehearsing her death, wasn’t rehearsing her pain, she was rehearsing victory. And she’s still alive to this day. She’s still serving, still on staff there. When I was there, you know, several years ago in Houston, she was once a month holding healing nights at the church on Tuesday nights, praying for the sick and just powerful. She was rehearsing the victory. Now, God spoke to me one time when I was out in my garden just escaping for a minute. I don’t need to escape that much. I’m like mega blessed. Actually Heather thinks I love being around her too much. She wants me to escape a little more. She’s like, “Why don’t you go outside? Why don’t you go shopping? Why don’t you…” I’m just so in love with her, I was just glued to her. But one time, I was out, you know, watering the flowers in my garden, and God spoke to me and He said, “Aaron, if you want to raise someone from the dead, you’re gonna have to first imagine it.” And God said, “If you’ve never imagined it, you’re not gonna see it.” So right around the same time that God spoke that to me, someone here at this church actually passed away, right between church. Herb Carter here on the front row, how rude of him, you know, right between church just gave up the ghost. He was, you know, in a prayer meeting with our prayer leaders. And they were back in the youth room praying before second service, and he passed away. There were a couple nurses there who took his pulse, it wasn’t there. They said that his skin had turned gray, his eyes rolled back. And Ms. Kim came and got my dad said, “Pastor, you need to pray for Herb Carter.” And he is like, “Well, I’m talking to someone.” She’s like, “No, come right now.” She just grabbed him. My dad went back there, and he said, “I laid my hands on Herb on his heart, and I commanded life to come into it.” I think he just sensed that his heart had failed, he prayed, you know, spoke life into his heart, commanded to start beating. And he said Herb came back to life. His eyes came back, his skin started turning pink again. And, you know, Larry here took him to the hospital. They checked his heart out. They kept him overnight. They couldn’t find anything wrong with his heart. They monitored his heart for several weeks, couldn’t find anything wrong with it. And he is still here to this day. But God said, “Aaron, you need to rehearse the victory. If you’re gonna see someone raised from the death, if you’re gonna pray for someone and see them raised from the dead, you gotta start imagining it. You gotta start dreaming about it.” So what I would do, I would imagine that Herb Carter dropped dead, and I just walked up to him and punched him right in the heart. So all of you have my permission to just imagine that you’re just gonna punch her right in the heart. But this is the thing about rehearsing the victory, about testimonies. Maybe you feel like you’re defeated, maybe you feel like you’re really stuck. But you can rehearse someone else’s victory. If they receive that miracle, if they receive that blessing, if they receive that breakthrough, that can be yours as well. If that woman with the issue of blood for 12 years, touch the hem of Jesus’ garment and received healing, power flow through her body, then you can imagine that as well. Right now, you can imagine that Jesus is here in this room, and then you can reach out and touch the hem of His garment. You can reach out and touch His presence and feel His power come into your body and heal you even in this moment.

Congregation Member Amen.

Rehearse the victory. So number one, the divine imagination. Thankfulness controls your imagination. Number two, rehearse the victory. And number three, be like those who dream. Be like those who dream. My dad is a dreamer. Remember, when he bought this place, he was ready to rock and roll. He believes that God is gonna grow this church. I believe that God is going to grow this church in a bit. I love this church. This is a God kind of church right here.

Friends, I certainly hope that you’ve enjoyed the broadcast today. We’ve been talking about the divine imagination and the power of rehearsing the victory. After Joshua won a great battle, God spoke to Moses and said, “Rehearse the victory in the ears of Joshua.” And Joshua went from victory to victory to victory. You see where to go from grace to grace, from faith to faith, and from glory to glory by the spirit of the Lord. And you need to rehearse the victories that you’ve seen in your life. Victories, whether they’re manifestations of miracles, physical healings, financial blessings, or just seeing people come to Jesus. If you need prayer today, give us a call. We have trained prayer ministers that are waiting to receive your call. Thank you, and God bless you. We’d love to hear from you today. Blessings. And give us a call if you want to partner also. Appreciate you. Hey everyone, I want you to mark your calendar for Family Camp meeting. We’re gonna have great teaching with Mark Hankins and Pastor Max Cornell. Great worship with Philip Renner, sharing the grace of Jesus all around the globe. And we’re gonna have great children’s meetings, great youth meetings, something for the entire family right here at Charis Christian Center in Colorado Springs. We want to see you here. Blessings. Friends, it’s great to have you with us today. And I want to invite you to attend services with us at Charis Christian Center in Colorado Springs. The atmosphere is amazing. Recently in one service, I had people from 10 nations and several states. They watch us on a regular basis online, and they said, “This is amazing.” So if you can’t come physically, come and attend online, at Charis Christian Center or YouTube. Blessings. Friends, in the last few months, we have heard from over 50 nations in the world. People from all around the world are downloading our curriculum, our syllabus, our downloadable audio and downloadable video teachings, our confession cards, and all of these great teaching materials. And you can go receive it too at CharisChristianCenter.com. Receive these resources and be blessed.

Announcer Thanks for watching “Grace For Today”. This broadcast has been made possible by our faithful partners. If you would like to become a partner, need prayer or have a question, please call us at 719-418-4000, or to partner online, go to CharisChristianCenter.com/Give. You can write us at P.O. Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80962. See you next time on “Grace For Today”.