Divine Imagination Part 1 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you tuned in today. We’re gonna be talking about the divine imagination. And my son Aaron, is gonna be sharing today. I’m gonna be chiming in, working with him, but he’s got great, great teaching on this subject of imagination. And did you know what? Your imagination can work for you and not against you if you allow God to use it that way. Blessings. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re here today. So glad to have my son, Aaron. We’re actually beginning one of his teachings on the divine imagination. And you know, when you look at the scripture, the scripture actually talks quite a bit about the imagination. But most of the time in the Bible, it talks about the imagination being used negatively. But you can turn that around through your relationship with God-

Aaron Mm-hmm.

When you understand it and begin to get the thing working on your behalf, working so you can move into God’s purposes and plans for your life.

Amen, and God’s redemption, you know, it redeems every part of our being. You know, God wants to redeem us, spirit, soul, and body.

Lawson Amen.

You know, the moment you believe on Jesus, your spirit is made just like his.

Right.

You actually have the righteousness of God inside of you. You have the same righteousness that Jesus has, but that’s in your spirit,

Lawson Right.

And your spirit’s eternal, but God wants to redeem your soul as well. And that’s an ongoing process. You know, the Bible says to not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Lawson Amen.

Yeah. And so that’s an ongoing process. And our bodies will be redeemed, you know, we will be given an eternal body that can live forever in heaven.

Amen.

So God wants to redeem every part of us. And our imagination is a very important part of who we are. A lot of people don’t have an imagination at all. But that’s not God’s will. I believe that God is very creative. God is a very imaginative and we’re created in his image.

Lawson Right.

And actually, I believe that before God created you, he imagined you.

Lawson Right.

You know, when God was speaking light into existence, when he was speaking this universe into existence, I believe he was imagining every person who would live on the face of the earth.

Paul, this is kind of an amazing scripture, but in Second Timothy chapter one, Paul was talking to Timothy, his son in the faith. And Paul actually tells Timothy that God saved us and called us before the foundation of the world.

Aaron Mm-hmm.

So before the foundation of the world, at that point in time, Paul was talking, we’re at least 4,000 years prior to Paul and Timothy where he says, “God saved us and called us with a holy calling.” So

Mm-hmm.

God had that in his plan, in his thoughts, in his imagination. And you know, the way that we enter into the thoughts and plans and purposes of God, first of all, is receiving Jesus as our savior.

Aaron Mm-hmm.

And being born again in our spirit. But then as we, you know, renew our mind in the Word of God and there’s different areas that you’ll be talking about how we can really develop our imagination.

Mm-hmm.

And I know this is something that you’ve learned. You’ve got a doctorate degree in music, but you’ve taught many students, right? From young students, clear up, to students in their sixties. And you learned that many times, students that are young have a good imagination. It’s working. But when they get into middle school, high school, it almost goes away.

Aaron Mm-hmm.

Because the negativity of people around them. But the gospel is very positive.

Aaron Mm-hmm.

And actually be one way to develop it, and you’ll probably talk about this throughout the series, is praying in the Holy Spirit.

Aaron Mm-hmm.

When you pray in the Holy Spirit, it uses a whole different part of your brain. They’ve done studies on this. And praying in tongues actually, I believe, develops you and helps you move into, again, the purposes, the plans that God has for you.

Mm-hmm, and when I was teaching this a while back, I did a Wednesday night series with the church on this. But there’s a woman who has a ministry to Israel, and she, you know, has a lot of Jewish friends. But she said, when I was teaching this, this reminded her of something in the Jewish tradition, Rosh Hashanah is the first of the Jewish year.

Right.

And they also believe that’s when creation happened.

Right.

So the day before Rosh Hashanah, there’s some traditions in Judaism that believe that’s when God imagined everything he was gonna create. So, you know, on that day, the day before Rosh Hashanah, they say you can make a wish and it’ll happen. Imagine something and it’s gonna happen, ’cause that’s when God imagined things and the next day creation began. So kind of like here, you know, we say on your birthday, you can wish as you blow out the candle or if you see a Shooting star to make a wish and it’s more likely to happen. They say the day before Rosh Hashanah to imagine something, make a wish, because it’s more likely to happen. So God does have an imagination, you know, and really for things to come into fruition, you have to imagine it first

If you can see it on the inside, you can see it on the outside.

Aaron Yeah.

But you gotta change the picture on the inside.

And I wanna share this scripture too, ’cause a lot of people don’t realize this, but First Thessalonians 5:23, this is a really important verse because it talks about, you know, our three part being, you know, God is triune in nature.

Right.

Father, son, Holy Spirit, you know, human beings we’re also created in his image. We have a triune nature as well. We have a spirit, a soul, and a body. And we see it really clearly here in First Thessalonians 5:23, it says, “Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.” So God cares about every part of you, your complete being.

Lawson Yeah.

And it says, “May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Amen.

So, you know, the spirit side of you, that’s the eternal part of you.

Mm-hmm.

You know, every single person on the face of the earth has a spirit. You are indestructible. There is something inside of you that is indestructible.

It’s gonna live forever.

That’s gonna live forever somewhere. And God wants you to live forever with him in heaven in eternity with him. You also have a soul. You know, traditionally we say the soul is your mind, your will, your emotions, but your soul also includes your dreams, your imagination, your attitude is part of your soul. You know, if someone has a really bad attitude that they have a problem in their soul. And your body’s-

Right.

The physical part of you. It’s the thing that can, you know, has the five senses. It’s what you can see-

Right.

In the mirror and sometimes you might look at someone and not really know what’s going on in their spirit or in their soul. You know, sometimes people are good at masking what’s happening in their soul, but the soul, you know, we’re gonna be talking a little bit about the soul, because this is where the imagination occurs. God cares about your soul. You know, I love hearing First Thessalonians 5:23. It says may the God of peace. And I looked up that word for peace in the original Greek. And it says to have rest, peace, wholeness, prosperity, tranquility, and exemption from the rage and havoc of war.

Lawson Yes.

And I thought about that, you know, where the enemy, where the devil really attacks people, oftentimes where he wages war is in their soul.

Lawson Right.

But God wants you to have peace in your soul. He doesn’t want you to have constant war going on, you know, in your soul and especially in your imagination.

You know, when we’re born again, our spirit is at peace with God.

Aaron Mm-hmm.

But as we renew our mind in the things of God and the soul that you’re talking about, we should be at peace not only in our spirit, but also in our soul.

Aaron Mm-hmm.

And if you can get the peace that’s working in your spirit, working in your soul, you’ll begin to manifest the good things of God in your body. You’ll begin to see the good plans and purposes of God come to pass in your life.

Mm-hmm, and I was just thinking about the soul, you know, I actually added several things. You know, your mind, will, emotions. It’s your thought life.

Lawson Right.

Your attitude, your overall outlook on life.

Lawson Right.

You know some people get A very jaded outlook on life.

Lawson Mm-hmm.

That’s very dangerous. You know, actually it’s against God’s will for your life to just have this jaded-

Lawson Mm-hmm.

Just constantly pessimistic outlook on life. You know, your soul includes your hopes or your fears.

Right.

Your ambition or lack thereof, if you have-

Yeah.

Just a constant lack of ambition, that’s an issue with your soul. Your plans, your imagination. You know, your soul is very important because this is where you live,

Right.

You know, you are constantly there. This is where you dwell. You can’t escape it. You know, you might be able to temporarily escape. You know, we’re in Colorado. The winters here are pretty cold. You know, snow afoot. People will try to, you know, escape. They’ll go to Arizona for the winter or Florida or fly to Cancun. You know, you can temporarily escape the weather. You can temporarily escape your job. You can even temporarily escape your wife and kids and go golf. But your soul, you know, this is where you dwell. You can’t escape it, so it’s really important. You know, you’re supposed to possess your soul.

Yeah, the Bible actually says, “In your patience, possess your soul.”

But a lot of people’s souls possess them.

That’s right.

Their emotions, their attitudes. Even just-

Lawson Right.

Whatever’s going on in their thought life, it possesses them and really directs them.

You know, your emotions will follow your dominant thoughts.

So you can actually change your emotions.

And I don’t believe that emotions are all bad. I believe that, you know, God has emotions, the Bible talks about-

Aaron Mm-hmm.

In certain areas, and God created us with emotions. But we can direct our emotions by our thoughts.

And that’s why we want to possess our soul.

And not let our soul possess us.

I’ve not always been the best of it at it, I’ll be honest.

Aaron Mm-hmm.

But at the same point in time, I’ve learned, you know, recently, I’m 60 years old as we sit here and film this, but I’ve learned some things about myself, and that’s helping me use my soul in a lot more positive way. I’m moving forward. I believe it’s gonna move everything forward in our ministry, everything forward in our church, because I’ve had a change. God revealed some things to me.

Aaron Mm-hmm.

You know, actually used some different people. One was your wife.

Aaron Mm-hmm.

Another lady in the church, Dr. Delron Shirley’s wife. And then, you know, another person that’s very close to me, Pastor Max Cornell was ministering at a camp meeting that we were doing on the East Coast.

And God had been speaking to me about some things. And I put all that together and it’s brought me to a lot more positive place in my soul.

But if you get there in your soul, it’ll change what you’re receiving in life.

You know, and the Bible talks about you can have a continual feast. And I’m living in that place right now.

It’s really amazing.

And your imagination, it’s so important. It’s actually where it can work for God’s good, or it can work for the enemy, you know? And if your imagination is kind of being controlled by negativity, by these thoughts that kill, still and destroy.

You know, your imagination’s gonna work in a destructive way. You know, God is a creator.

And he’s very creative, very positive. He brings restoration, brings life. Likewise, the enemy of the devil. He’s against God. He’s anti-God. He’s anti creator. You know, God created mankind, male and female. The enemy wants to-

Lawson Mm-hmm.

Attack that. He wants to attack that clear delineation between male and female and say, well-

Lawson Right.

“Well, you can just choose what you want to be. Or this doesn’t really exist. It’s just part, you know.”

You know, if you’re going against God, you’re actually using your imagination.

Aaron Mm-hmm.

Right, and that directs your emotions and other, but you’re actually using it and going against God, and you don’t want to do that.

Well, and then it can be very destructive, so-

Lawson Right.

The devil is a destroyer. God is a creator. When you use your imagination-

Lawson Right.

The way God directs you to, you’ll actually create things rather than destroy things.

Right, so, you know, we have trained prayer ministers that are here. We’re gonna go on a very short break, and you can call in during the break or call in later during the program or later in the day. But we have trained prayer ministers that are here and ready to receive your call. We’re gonna have a short break, and we’re gonna come back and we’re going to continue teaching on the divine imagination. Friends, we’ve been sharing today on the divine imagination, and we have this entire teaching online, downloadable audio, downloadable video, absolutely free of charge. We actually have hundreds of hours of this, plus syllabuses, plus children’s curriculum, all of this free of charge. Go to our website, Charis Christian Center, and get it. Listen, storms come to everyone. The man that built his house on the rock, and the man that built his house on the sand and the storms came, and the wise man’s house stood strong and the foolish man’s house fell flat. You know what the difference was? What they did with the work. Friend, I’m so glad that you stayed with us. We are right here sharing on the divine imagination. And you know what? You want to use your imagination in a positive way.

Aaron Mm-hmm.

So that you can see the things that God has promised you come to pass.

Mm-hmm, and because the imagination is so important, God actually has a lot of instruction for how to use your imagination or how not to use it.

Lawson Right.

And, you know, because your soul is such an important part of who you are. You know, the Bible says, “As a man, thanks in his heart, so is he,” you know.

Lawson Yeah.

That’s talking about your soul, the heart, you know, your will, your emotions, your thought life.

Lawson Right.

That’s gonna dictate who you are. So there’s a lot of scripture that really encourages us and teaches us how to direct our soul, you know, possess your souls.

Let’s talk about this word heart, Aaron. In the scripture, you know, a lot of people used to teach that your heart is your spirit.

And there are scriptures like Ezekiel 36, 26, and 27 that talk about having a new heart, God taking out the heart of stone, giving you a heart of flesh. That’s actually a prophecy of the born again experience.

But only about, I’ve studied every word in the Bible about our heart. And only about 3% of the time, the scripture, when it talks about the heart, is talking solely about the spirit of man.

About 97% of the time, the scripture, such as in Proverbs 23, verse seven, where the scripture says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

That’s talking about the soul.

Aaron Mm-hmm.

Right.

But about 97% of the time, when the scripture talks about the heart, it’s either talking about your soul, your mind, and your will, and your emotions, your imagination being part of that, or it’s talking about a combination of the spirit and soul, the whole inward area of man. So, you know, you need to get a clear delineation and then begin to understand that when you read the word heart in the scriptures, many times it’s talking about your soul.

Mm-hmm, so one point I wanna make is actually this, your thankfulness directs your imagination.

Lawson Amen.

And you know this is where the enemy tries to wreak havoc in people, is in their soul, in their thought life. And we can see this in scripture, Romans One verse 20 and 21. It’s going back to creation and God is a creator. Everything he creates is completely good. You know, one thing I’ve realized recently too is that, you know, it’s the goodness of God that leads people to repentance.

Lawson Yes, that’s right.

And everything that God creates is good. You know, because the goodness of God leads people to repentance. This is where the enemy wants to deceive people.

Right.

You know, the enemy is a deceiver and the way he tries to deceive people and their perception of God is making them think that God’s not completely good.

Yeah.

That, you know, some of these atrocities that happen in the world, that God somehow caused them. They’re somehow part of his plan.

Yeah, you know, I have a good friend, and he shared this with me years ago, and I believe it’s very, very accurate, but most, if not all, people who claim to be atheist, that there is no God. Those, you know, and we’re gonna read a scripture that proves that wrong. There are no atheists in the foxholes. Everybody knows there’s a God. But most people who claim to be atheists are actually mad at God.

Mm-hmm.

Because they think God did something that if we studied the scriptures and the truth in the Word of God, we’d find out that God didn’t do it.

Mm-hmm.

You know, God didn’t kill your kid with cancer. You know, God didn’t run over somebody with a Mack truck.

God’s not the author of evil.

He’s not.

He’s completely, completely, completely good.

That’s what the scripture says. That’s what the Bible says.

So that’s where the enemy tries to deceive people. And when he does that, it can shift people’s thinking. You know, repentance actually occurs in your soul.

Lawson Right.

You have to know in your soul. And that’s where the Holy Spirit ministers to people to repent and to come to salvation. So it says here in Romans 1:20 and 21, “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 in Godhead, so that they are without excuse.” So it’s just saying, whenever you see creation, it points to the creator.

Right.

You know, my wife and I, when we got married, we went on a honeymoon to Italy, and we went to Rome and saw a very famous, you know, work of art, the Sistine Chapel, you know, Michelangelo painted this roof there at the Sistine Chapel. And at the center of the painting is a depiction, artistic depiction of creation. It’s the finger of-

Lawson Right.

Adam touching the finger of God. And when you see that, you know, I think millions of people go to see that every year. But when you see that, you don’t think, “Wow, that’s amazing that, you know, just there was this big bang. This explosion of paint that happened and just happened to just create such beauty.”

Lawson No.

You know, accidents don’t create beauty and order.

Lawson Right.

You know. God, you’re not an accident.

Yes.

You know, in Psalm 1:39 it says, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous-

Right.

Are your works. And my soul knows very well.”

Right.

So wherever there’s beauty, wherever there’s order, where there’s thought, there’s ingenuity, there’s creation, there’s creativity, there’s a creator.

Lawson That’s right.

There’s not a destroyer, there’s not nothing. There is a creator. So it says there without excuse, everyone knows that there’s a God, it says, “Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful.” That’s a really key verse here. And God showed me something from this, when you’re not thankful for God, for the goodness, you know, for the good God that he is and the good things that he’s given you, it says, “It leads to becoming futile in their thoughts.”

Lawson Yes.

“And their foolish hearts were darkened.” Again that heart there-

Lawson Yes.

That’s talking about your soul. So when you don’t really glorify God, you don’t honor God, you don’t serve God, you don’t thank him, it affects your soul. It says you become futile in your thoughts. Your thought life.

Lawson Yeah.

Your imagination, it becomes futile.

Right, that word, in the King James, it uses the word vain and it’s talking-

Mm-hmm.

Without purpose, without direction, you know.

And that’s really a huge problem in society today, is a lot of people don’t have purpose.

Right.

They don’t have a sense of, they do have purpose, but if you deny the creator, you know, as a society,

Lawson Right.

Culturally, you deny creator, then people aren’t gonna have that foundation for why they’re alive and why they need to, you know, why they need to get married and have children and be educated and work and be productive and have meaning in life.

Right, you know, Aaron, your brother Peter and his wife Kendra, they’re both Princeton graduates and graduated with honors, and then Kendra graduated Duke Law, number three. But they went to a graduation at a top university here in the United States where her brother graduated. And they were like, you know, and they’re pretty young.

Mm-hmm.

And Peter was really upset that a lot of these students coming outta these top universities in areas have very little purpose if none.

Mm-hmm.

And he’s just like, “How?” You know, of course Peter’s very focused. You know.

Aaron Mm-hmm.

And Kendra also, very much people of purpose. And they’ve been able to really move forward in life, in their careers, so on and so forth, and in eliminating debt and different things because they’re very focused. They live with purpose.

Aaron Mm-hmm.

And I believe that God has a purpose for our life.

Aaron Mm-hmm.

And we should be people of purpose.

And you know, to parents there, you know, if you have children that are in high school, you know, getting ready to go to college, if your children, you know, older children, youth, if they don’t understand their purpose already, don’t let them go to a university or out in the world to try to find their purpose. If they know their purpose, they’ll be on target.

Lawson Right.

And not be affected by some of the wonkidoodle stuff that’s out there.

You know, the Bible says this, it says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Really talking about that. You know, and I’m not afraid of God, so to speak.

But we need to respect our relationship with God.

Aaron Mm-hmm.

And when you get to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and then secondly, I talked about this in the broadcast yesterday but when you get to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, you will get a revelation of your purpose.

Mm-hmm.

And it’ll help you move forward in the good things of God.

Mm-hmm.

And your imagination can begin to work in a positive way in your life.

Mm-hmm, and you know, your thankfulness really directs your imagination. You know, when you’re unthankful, your imagination will not be creative. It’ll actually be destructive.

Lawson That’s right.

When you’re unthankful you actually start imagining problems that aren’t really there.

That’s correct.

Or you’ll start imagining solutions that are actually terrible solutions. You know, if you’re unthankful. You know, if you’re unthankful for your spouse, you’ll start imagining, “Well, life will be so much better without my spouse. life would be so much better if I-

It’s terrible.

Married someone 20 years younger and got rid of… You know, you’ll imagine things that would actually ruin your life.

That’s right. You don’t want to go places in your imagination, in your thoughts, that you don’t want to go physically.

And if you don’t want to go there, you know, in the natural, then you better stop the thoughts in your mind. These destructive negative thoughts that the devil wants to use-

Aaron Mm-hmm.

To destroy you.

Mm-hmm, something I realized too, in my classical music background, a lot of musicians are very creative, very purpose driven.

Lawson Mm-hmm. But if they become bitter, it’s terrible.

Lawson Yeah.

And sometimes creative people are more susceptible to becoming bitter.

Yeah.

And you know, when I was in the classical music world, my professors, they loved me. because I was very positive, I was very thankful. I had a great attitude.

Right.

But I was very diligent to keep that in line.

Lawson Yeah.

But they just said, you know, a lot of people, you know, it’s just a very jaded profession. You know, people who play in classical, you know, orchestras, they’re at the top of their field, very talented, very creative, but many times a large percentage just are very miserable.

Well, I remember we went to your graduation at Carnegie Mellon and they had this person, he was the head of the Boston Pops-

Aaron Mm-hmm.

Speaking to the music school, right?

Aaron Mm-hmm.

And, you know, for their specific graduation, ’cause they had the main one, and then y’all went to your specific ones. And he said, “When you get one of these coveted positions, don’t forget how hard you worked to get there and-

Mm-hmm.

How you coveted that position.” ‘Cause a lot of people get a bad attitude and they forget. A lot of people get something from God. And we need to be thankful wherever we’re at.

Mm-hmm.

With whatever we have.

We need to be thankful. And if you become thankful, God will get you where he wants you to go.

And your thankfulness will really direct your imagination.

Lawson Yeah.

You know, and just thank God. And one of the greatest ways to thank him is do it verbally.

Lawson Yeah.

Do it with your family. When I drive my, you know, son, who’s in the fifth grade right now, I’m just thanking God, I’m like, “Look at that view. Isn’t this amazing that we get to see Pikes Peak every day when we drive to school?”

Yeah.

As we pull up to the school I’m like, “Look at this school.” “Isn’t it amazing?”

Amen.

You know, he goes to a school that’s K through 12. I’m like, “Look, you got that.” “You can use that high school football field for PE. This is incredible what you get to have.”

Lawson Yeah.

You know, we’re just thanking God and that actually helps set the tone for his day too.

Lawson Right.

I’m gonna be thankful. I’m gonna look at what I have, look at what God’s done, and it helps him. You know, by the time I pick him up, he’s still excited about what’s happening.

And that’s the way we need to direct our life. I start out my mornings early exercise, and looking at the peak, looking at garden of God’s. Looking at all this-

Mm-hmm.

Beauty that God’s created, your mother the same way. If you need prayer today, I want to encourage you to give us a call. And we have trained prayer ministers waiting to receive your call right now. Blessings.

Announcer God’s plan for you is greater than you can imagine. And God wants to bring peace and purpose to every part of your life. In Pastor Aaron’s series, The Divine Imagination, he reveals how understanding your divine imagination can unlock the incredible destiny God has for you. Get your copy of this audio and video download free of charge when you go to CharisChristianCenter.com today.

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