ENCODING THE IMAGINATION

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sislt777

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[FONT=&quot]ENCODING THE IMAGINATION[/FONT]


Let's turn to the gospel of Matthew 22: 37 Jesus said you shall love with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. The same is expounded in the gospel of Luke 10: 27 So he answered and said you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. This is also repeated in the gospel of Mark but we shall not turn to that. In all these three gospels that Jesus mentioned about loving God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind and all of our strength, Jesus used a special word for the word mind. And the word for mind that He used is the word dianoia, which refers especially to the imagination part of our mind.

Turn to Luke 1: 51 in Mary's exaltation it says, He has shown strength with His arms, He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart. The word imagination here is the word dianoia. That is the special word that Jesus used when He referred to the word mind. Sometimes in some of your bibles the translation keep changing for the same Greek word. I believe in being consistent; if you translate word in a certain way it must carry the same weight of meaning in another place. That word dianoia is the word imagination.

There is another Greek word logismai also used for the word mind that is translated thought or reasoning. And that is the Greek word. I show you a few places where it occurs. Lets turn to Luke 9: 46-47 Then a dispute arose among them as to which of them is the greatest, and Jesus perceiving the thought of their heart. This verse talks about their thinking and how they were arguing with each other over which of them is the greatest. The thoughts were in their minds. The Greek word here is dialogismos. In the Greek the word dia means through. So when the bible says through him it always uses the word dia. And so they add it to the word logismos and it become dialogismos. The other word that uses dia is the word dianoia. It comes from the root word noia. The word logiosmos refers to the analytical side of our mind. Most of our human training and education is in the realm of reasoning or dialogismos.

Second Corinthians 10: 4-5 says that we are to pull down strongholds. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they are strong to the pulling down of strongholds. Verse five it says casting down argument or reasoning. It is the word dialogismoswhich refers to the reasoning part. In the Old King James version it is translated as imagination. But that is not the word for imagination. That is the word for reasoning. The New King James has amended it as reasoning. Some translations translate it as casting down argument. It is referring to human reasoning. All human reasoning that are against the word of God are to be pulled down. That does not mean that we get rid of the laws of logic and reason because in Acts 18 talked about Paul preaching the word of God and reasoning using the word dialogismoswith the word of God or reasoning with the word of God. As he was in the synagogue and later he was in the school of Tyrannus, he was expounding the word of God to them. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath. The word reason here is the word dialogismaiwhich comes from the root word dialogismos. The same root word is used in a verb form instead of a noun. Paul was reasoning or analyzing from the word of God to show that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. He used the Old Testament scriptures to prove that Jesus fulfilled the scriptures. He was analyzing the word of God for them. We can use analysis of the Word by saying, for example, if Jesus took my sicknesses therefore I am free from sicknesses. Jesus came in the form of man because man was under condemnation. It is man that is condemned not the angels and not Jesus. Jesus died on the cross for our sin. He has to die as a man because a sinless man has to die for the sin of man. See we are using our analytical part. We are using the dialogismos. Dialogismos mean the reasoning part of my soul.

We are focusing on the other part called visualizing in the spirit and we are not focusing so much on that area. Now we are focusing on the area which we call dianoia. Now that refers to a different part of your soul. It refers to the part of your soul that perceive, that sees the picture. You see how limited our English language is. When we say mine, it is mine that's all. When we say thought, it is thought that's all. But the Greek has so many words for thought. They differentiate between analytical thought and picture thought, vision thought, imagination kind of thought. The modern world live on the analytical side and the demonic world is trying to get people into that realm of that mind where they do occult. The church of God has neglected this realm. In fact we should not neglect both realms. The word of God brings understanding to our soul at the analytical side. We should develop that realm so that we could present the gospel and understand how the word of God apply to our life.

Our dianoia part of our soul needs to develop in creativity and imagination The root word of this word dianoia has been translated as behold, see. So you can see that the root of it actually refers back to imagination. And imagination is a picture. Instead of just using the analytical part of our minds and say A = B and B = C therefore C = A, we could use the imaginative part of our minds and say visualise yourself on a beach sitting under the coconut tree and lying down in the shed enjoying the breeze. You could see the picture. What are we doing? We are using the imagination part of our mind. And that is the part of the mind that modern man has neglected. Some people go into the area of the psychic. They try to move into the area of imagination. But the word of God has been talking about all these things long ago. God knows because God is the one who created our soul. See our bodies have different parts. Our hands are different from our eyes. Our eyes are different from our ears. They each have a special function. Our soul has many faculties. There is a part of our soul for analyzing and reasoning. There is a part of our soul for imagining. And God did not create all these things for the devil to use. They were created because we were made in the image of God. It is the image of God in us that causes us to have the ability. God Himself has all these faculties within Him.

Turn to the book of Genesis 6. Something that God said before He destroyed the earth in Noah's time. In verse 5, then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. In the Old King James it is put as of the every imagination of his heart in place of every intent of his heart. Now that word intent is translated as imagination also is the word from another Hebrew word yetser that talks about the picture part of our mind which is equivalent to the Greek word dianoia. Five times it was translated as intent or imagination. The root of it talks about picture. There are a few special times that yetzer is translated as something solid. They use that word to refer to something that is molded.

Turn to the book of Isaiah 26: 3 You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you or whose yetzer is stayed on you. The word mind here is the same word translated as the imagination or intent of the hearti n Genesis 6:5. The reason yetzer is translated as mind in Isaiah 26:3 but not translated as mind in Genesis 6: 5 is because it is very funny if they put it as the mind of the heart. So even the translators are struggling when it comes to all these things. How to put the mind of the heart? They couldn't. So in the Old King James they put it as imagination of the heart. And in the New King James they put intent of the heart. But based on a thorough study of this word yetzer, it talks about a solid form, a solid imagination.

Psalms 103: 14 For He knows our frame, He remembers that we are dust. The word frame is the word yetzer. Isn't it amazing they translate the word yetzer here as frame? Now let see if the translators could translate yetzer as imagination. For He knows our imagination, He remembers that we are dust. The translators find it very difficult because in the Hebrews in this sentence they were referring to something solid. But in English translation the word imagination is not something solid. But here in the Hebrews it was referring to something solid. We understand because the things that are seen are made of things which are not seen. We have no problem with that because we know that the spiritual is as real as the physical. And the spiritual has its own tangibility. The spiritual realm has its own material that forms the physical. So we have no problem with that if we understand that the imagination is where God forms the thing to come. And the imagination part of you is the part that has the creative force within you. It is the part that sees and forms.

Habakkuk 2: 18 What profit is the image that its maker should carve it the molded image, a teacher of lies, that the maker of its mould should trust in it to make mute idols. Now here the word yetzer is used in the negative sense. But he is talking about the prophet rebuking those idol worshipers who make those dumb idols. The word yetzeris found in Habakkkuk 2: 18 in the word mould. That the maker of its yetzer should trust in it. In some of your Old King James it says the maker of its work. I am showing you that the word yetzer which is translated as imagination in Genesis 6 and many other times is the same word translated as mould, work. What are we saying here is that the word yetzer refers to something solid like a mould. Here is what I want you to see that actually the word yetzer refers to a blueprint. And the blueprint is referred in a solid way. It is referred as solid as if it is a real object. It’s a blueprint for those dumb idols. It is the blueprint for our imagination.

For He knows our frame even before we were made. That refers to our small little coded DNA, those things that are coded in us before we were conceived. When you were conceived, you were just a one cell creature. In that one cell is encoded a gene which will determine the color of your eyes, the color of your hair, how tall or short you will be, the color of your skin. The yetzer, the form, the blueprint is inside. Some of you are in the mold of your father. Physically we receive part of our physical look and make up from our fathers. Now what I am holding is a seed. Inside the seed is encoded what type of plant it will be. The blueprint is inside. No matter how this seed try to change, it will never change beyond what is encoded inside. Now it looks insignificant but inside this is a great plant. Now here is a seed; you don’t see much in that seed. But when God looks at it, God sees the plant, God sees how tall it will be. God even knows how many fruits it will bear before it dies off. God knows the extent of the life of this seed. But when you and I see it, we say it is dark brown, it is wrinkled etc. That is all you and I see. That is the way many of us treat our imagination.

That is the way many of us look down on our imagination and the things we are receiving inside our yetzer of our mind, inside the dianoiaof our mind. We despise it, we put it away. We have allowed the world to cause us to be analytical creatures so that have totally lost our creativity. And so we despise the imagination part of our life. We don’t think much of it. We think it as day dreaming. That is what the world calls it. And we think about it as distracting thought, distracting pictures. And yet the seed of your future, listen very carefully, the seed of your future is in your imagination. Jesus used this word when He said you shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your dianoioa. With all your mind. Give Him your mind. Your imagination, don’t despise it. Don't look down on it because the seed of your future is inside that. Something is taking place inside.

Look at Genesis 1 before the world were formed. We read Hebrews 11: 3 by faith we understand that the worlds were framed or formed by the word of God. Lets look at Genesis 1. See God Himself has an imagination. God has an analytical part to His nature. God is not like us. We were made like Him. We have an imagination because we were made like Him. Genesis 1 before God said anything, I want you to see what God was doing. Before He said any word what was He doing through His Spirit. Look at Genesis 1: 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was without form and void. That means nothingness, completely nothing. You and I didn’t exist. The universe didn’t exist. And darkness was on the face of the deep. Not on the face of the earth. There was no earth yet. God started forming the image. In verse two and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. God was not wasting His time. There was a purpose for the scripture to record this. The word hovering in the Hebrew is the word brooding. It is the same word that would have used for the chicken that hatches on the egg.

Take the image of Habakkuk 2: 18 There was this idolater before he make that idol. They have an image. And many times those images came from the devil. There is something inside that they see and then they make it. God began to see the animals. God began to see Adam and Eve. God saw all these things in Him. Before it came out from His mouth it was in the mind of God. I was in Him. He had me in mind. He saw that is why in John 17 He prayed for others who will come to know Him through those He had at that time. And that prayer included you and I. We came to know Him through somebody else who knew Him. So God was forming it perfectly. Many of us don’t form something clearly inside before we start acting on it. So when we started acting on it, half way we have to re-think and sometimes re-make. God doesn’t make mistakes. The moment He has conceived it, speak it, that's it. There is nothing more you can improve on it. But most human beings conceived it partly and do not fully formed the image in their minds. They try this and that and along the way they find that it is not a perfect work. When God was conceiving the image of the creation, the Spirit of God was hovering to birth it forth. And finally God saw everything. Before the first to the sixth day happened He already saw the whole of creation inside of Him. And when it was all formed nicely He just has to say what He wanted. He said what He wanted and all was made. He formed in Himself the yetzer. And God said let Us make man in Our image. He made us like Him. We have the same potential and ability to create physically what we conceived in our imagination.

When they were building the tower of Babel God said let us go down and confound them, for if they are in one accord nothing is impossible to them. They can do it. So God divided the languages so that they could not do anything against the Lord. Today the devil have make use of our fallen imagination to conceive the wrong thing. Before you act on a scene you saw a scene. You saw it inside you and you conceived it in your mind. Jesus said in Matthew if you look at a woman with lust, you have done it in your heart. Jesus was referring to the imagination and the thought of the heart. The dianoia of the heart is important. You have to guard it and nurture it. That is the part of your heart that God wants to paint a new image of your future which is the blueprint for your life.

The same word in Hebrews 8 and 10 when it says that God says I will write my laws in their heart and in their mind. The word mind is the same Greek word dianoia. I will write My word in their imagination. Don't despise the seed of your imagination. The seed of your imagination is vital and powerful. And that seed is the seed of your future. You are going to build on it and God is going to use it to build your life. He is writing on your imagination. How does He writing on our imagination?

Turn to the book of Hebrews 4: 12 For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joint and marrow and it is the discerner of the thought and intent of the heart. See the word of God comes right between our spirit and our soul. And it began to act on the soul part of our imagination. When the word heart is mentioned it always has a reference to the dianoia. Jesus said that out of your heart proceeded all these things. He refers to the creativity part of your being. And its that part of your soul that the word of God right now is writing on which becomes the blueprint for your life. And it’s a special word that is used here in Hebrews 4: 12. The word intent of the heart is the word from the root word noia. So the word of God must come into our heart and into our life and written in the corridors of our imagination. The word of God must come into our imagination. Don't use the word for analysis, but use the word for imagination. Let the word be written in the corridors of your imagination so that you begin to see the blueprint in hour life.

You start with the logos of God, the written word. The sword of the Spirit discerns, judges and removes those things that are not in line with the word. There are a lot of imaginations in our life that are in the past, from our unrenewed mind, from the world, from the things that you see today. It is very difficult for God to write. You have to clean it first. And so God says guard it. It’s the seed, the blueprint of your life. It is very important for us to guard it.

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