The Divine Imagination Part 1 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

The Divine Imagination Part 1 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

The Divine Imagination Part 1 from Pastors Lawson & Aaron Perdue. In this episode of Grace For Today, Dr. Aaron Perdue begins to expound on how your imagination is portal that brings God’s promises into reality.

The Divine Imagination Part 1 – Transcript

Friends, I’m so glad that you’re with us today. I have my son, Aaron, and we’re teaching actually, a teaching that he shared on the “Divine Imagination.” And when he shared this, I got so excited. Today, we’re gonna be upon point number one of the very first sermon, and it is great information that will help you from just understanding there’s a promise to seeing those promises come to pass. God bless you. It’s in this series. Blessings.

We are so glad to have you here today. And I have my son, Aaron. We’re actually teaching one of his teachings, and he shared this, and he shared some insights that I’ve never heard in my life and I thought they were amazing. And I really think they’ll help you go to a new place in your walk with God. He’s talking about the divine imagination. And most of the time, when you read the word imagination in the “Bible,” it’s negative. And that’s because people, a lot of times, are negative. But, praise God, we don’t have to be negative, we can turn that around and use it positively. And I believe we all have a picture on the inside of us that we’re moving toward. And if we can change the picture on the inside, by the Spirit of God and by the word of God, change our imagination, we can move into those things that God has for us.

Yeah, so today, I’m gonna kinda talk about how to actually direct your imagination, how to point your navigation in a godly direction, in the divine way it’s intended to work. And the way we direct our imagination is through thanks giving, through thankfulness. So, we’re gonna show some scriptures that kinda talk about how important thankfulness really is and how it directs your imagination in a positive way. You know, if you’re unthankful, it actually causes your imagination to work in a destructive way, in a negative way, in a way that the enemy wants it to head. And we don’t want the enemy to rent space in your head, you don’t want him to rent space in your heart, in your imagination. So, when you’re thankful to God for what He’s done for you, it actually directs your imagination in a positive way and causes it to be productive, creative, godly. And man, this is gonna really help a lotta people. Well, a good friend of mine said, when I taught on this before, it really set him free. He said he really struggled with his thought life, just imagining bad things, just kind of beating himself up all the time, always imagining negative scenarios, these what-if scenarios just constantly. He said it spiraled outta control. But he said, “When I just started being thankful, it just directed my imagination in a godly way.” So, we’re gonna gonna talk about the imagination. I wanna first talk about spirit, soul, and body. A lotta people don’t realize that, man, you are a spirit, you possess a soul, and you live in a body. We can see this in “I Thessalonians,” five. You should go ahead and turn there, “I Thessalonians,” five, I wanna start actually in verse 16. So, kinda we’re talking about thanks giving and how that affects your imagination. “I Thessalonians,” 5:16, Paul writes, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing.” And when he’s talking about praying without ceasing, he’s not talking about whining when you pray. You know, when I was in college, I was a part of a lotta different Christian Bible studies and prayer groups, and a lot of people when they pray, they’re not really thanking God, they’re just whining and complaining. And man, when Paul is talking about praying without ceasing, he’s saying it, do it with this joyful attitude. “In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit.”

You know what? I think through complaining, people can quench the Spirit. In fact, I was just reading yesterday in “Numbers,” chapter 11, about the children of Israel, and this is after they had come out of Egypt. But, it says this in “Numbers,” chapter 11, verse one, “When the people complained, it displeased the Lord, and the Lord heard it, and His anger was kindled.” And you know what? I thought, “Man, I am godly.” To be godly is to be godlike. And I do not like complainin’.

Well, a lot of the Israelites were complaining ’cause they were imagining the wrong things. They were imagining, you know, they were getting manna, they were getting pheasants to eat, they were getting water outta the rocks. But, they were just imagining. You know, those cucumbers in Egypt were so good, I could just imagine what that garlic tastes like.

Onions, and the garlics, and…

So, they weren’t being thankful, they weren’t rejoicing. Their imagination worked in a very destructive way. So it says, you know, “In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things. Hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.” Now, I like what it says here, in verse 23. So, it says, “Now, may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely.” So, Paul’s gonna write about your complete being, what God wants to sanctify completely. To “sanctify” means to set apart. I love that he calls Him the “God of peace.” We’re talking about the imagination, which is a part of your soul, right? God wants to bring peace to your spirit, soul, and body. That word in the Greek for peace, it’s “eiríni,” and it means to have rest, peace, wholeness, prosperity, tranquility. And I like this, even the exemption from the rage and havoc of war. I think the devil wants to wreak havoc in people’s minds, and their hearts, and their imaginations, that’s really where the devil really beats up people.

The battleground is in your mind. And we’ve gotta move from complaining, right, from whining to rejoicing, to thankfulness. And when we’re thankful, notice he says this, I wanna just look a little bit about what you talked about, he says, “Quench not the Spirit.” I think if we’re whining, if we’re complaining, if we’re unthankful, we are quenching the Holy Spirit. And we’re despising what is prophecy. He says, “Don’t despise prophesying,” right there in verse 20. So to prophesy, according to “I Corinthians,” chapter 14, in verse three, is to speak to men, edification, exhortation, and comfort. So when you complain, you’re not rejoicing, you’re not being thankful, you’re not really relying on God, you’re quenching the Holy Spirit. You’re despising what the Spirit of God would be speaking as far as edification, exhortation, and comfort. And you’re not moving into the peace that God has prepared for those who love us. And where is the battleground? The battleground, again, is our mind. And that’s where many times, Satan wants to attack you in your mind. So if you can win the battle here in your mind, Aaron, like you’re talking about, then that is the key. The battle has already been won in your spirit when you’re born again. But, you have to win the battle in your mind so you can walk in the victory that Jesus already paid for you to have in the body.

Yeah, I’m gonna kinda share a little bit. So it says, “Now, the God of peace Himself sanctified you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” God, He wants to take care of you, spirit, soul, and body. So, I just wanna just briefly kinda summarize what is the spirit, what is the soul, what is the body? Your spirit is the eternal part of you. Everyone has a spirit. And that spirit inside of you, it is the eternal part of you, it is indestructible. Every living, breathing person on the face of the Earth does not want to die. It doesn’t please them when close ones, when loved ones die because they know that there’s something inside of us that is eternal. And your spirit is gonna spend eternity somewhere. And God wants your spirit, your inner man, to spend eternity in Heaven with Him. And man, if you don’t believe on Jesus, that is the only way to spend eternity, in Heaven. And man, now is the time to believe on Jesus. Eternity is a long time to be wrong.

That’s right.

So you know, your spirit’s the eternal part of you. Your soul, people often say, this is your mind, your will, your emotions. You know, you possess a soul, your soul should not possess you. A lotta people let their soul, they let their thoughts, their emotions, their whatever desires they might have, just possess them.

You know, Jesus said this, He said, “In your patience, possess your souls,” you know? And that’s where a lotta times, you know, the seed is sown, the seed of the word of God in our spirit. We’re born again by the incorruptible seed of the word of God in our spirit. And I like to say, you know, Jesus likened everything in the Kingdom of God, in “Mark,” chapter four, He also did it in the “Gospel of Matthew,” and in the “Gospel of Luke,” in the “Parable of the Silver.” He said, everything in the Kingdom works like this. And so, the seed is sown in the spirit of man. You’re born again by the incorruptible seed of the word of God, which is living and abiding forever. That’s “I Peter,” chapter one, verse 23. But, in your soul… So we call that, when the seed is sown and it germinates, that’s in the spiritual realm. And that, I believe, is when you’re born again. And also, when you hear the word of God and really begin to understand it, right, you begin to believe it, then you move from germination to gestation, you know? And if you’re gonna grow corn, for instance, there’s 90-day corn, there’s 120-day corn, there’s 180-day corn. It takes different gestation periods for different things. Like I used to have cattle, and cattle have basically a nine-month gestation period like a human person. And so, you know, it takes nine months from when the seed of a bull goes into a cow and you have a calf. It takes 11 months in a horse, you know, for the seed to go from the time the egg is fertilized until the foal is born. And in the human, it’s nine months. But, you know, elephants are longer, right? But generally, the bigger the harvest, the longer gestation period it is. Now, I’ve had God give me words, and you could see this in Abraham’s life, I’ve had God give me words and show me things that took over 20 years before I ever begin to enter into them. But, it’s patience. So, it’s germinated in your spirit, but the gestation period is in your soul, and that’s where you have to be patient. The “Bible” says that we should be followers of those who threw faith in patience, inherit the promises, in “Hebrews,” chapter six, verse 12. And that’s this area of the mind, the will, and the emotions. That’s where the enemy tries to attack us. And many times, we don’t get things from our spirit to our body because we don’t hold on in this realm of the soul. And then, in our body, is where we have the harvest, right, or the manifestation. So, I call it in the spiritual realm, germination, gestation, and harvest. And it’s not like a natural seed, it’s the seed of the word of God. It’s planted in our spirit, it germinates in our spirit. Gestation is the process it’s going through in our soul, in our mind, our will, and our emotions, so that we can have a harvest over here in the physical realm.

That’s awesome. So kinda the soul, I like what you said about being the mind, the will, the emotions. But, I wanted to add a few other words that kinda go along with the soul. So, the soul is also your thought life, right? You know, a lotta people try to find a way to escape. Maybe they wanna find a way to escape their job, maybe it’s a way to escape their responsibilities at home. Maybe golf is your escape, or maybe you want to escape the cold and vacation in Florida. You can’t escape your soul, you live in your soul. Your thought life is there. You need to take care of your soul. You need to have Jesus take care of your soul. You cannot escape your thought life.

I wanna comment, Aaron, on one thing you said about golf. Golf is like one thing that if you’re gonna do it well, you have to focus on it so much. It actually, with me, takes my mind off other things. So, it’s actually a good area because I mean, if you’re gonna do golf and do it well, you’ve gotta focus. And it actually will take my mind off a lotta other things. But that’s, like you said, you know, you cannot escape your soul. We all have thoughts. And you have a lot of good things to say about it.

Yeah, I mean, some escapes are good, like golf, you know, to some extent is good, or goin’ on vacation to Florida in the middle of a cold Colorado winter, that’s a fine escape. But, you can’t escape your soul, that’s what I’m saying. You know, you can even alter your body slightly. You can put on makeup, or you can work out, or you can… But, your soul, you can’t really… You can’t just put paint on your soul and get by. Your soul is your soul, you can’t escape it. So, your soul is your mind, your will, your emotions, your thought life, also your attitude. You know, someone has a good attitude, a bad attitude, that is part of the soul. Your overall outlook on life. And some people are just very jaded about life. Some people are very excited about life, they wake up feeling excited, they know that it’s a gift from God every day. Your overall outlook on life is part of your soul. Your hopes, your fears, your ambitions, or even your lack thereof, your plans, and even your imagination, is all part of your soul. So we’re gonna talk a lot about the soul over the next few days, but you’re specifically talking about the imagination, the future thinking, the creative part of your soul. You know, God has an imagination.

Amen.

We’ll talk about this more in detail later on, but God has an imagination. You know, before God created the Heavens and the Earth, the universe, before He spoke it into being, I believe that God spent a long time just imagining.

Well, you know, in “Genesis,” chapter one, verse one, it says, “In the beginning, God created the Heaven and Earth.” But, verse two says, “And the Earth was without form and void, but the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep.” And if you study that out, the Spirit of God, now this may have lasted a long time, but the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep. Or in the Hebrew, it has a connotation of brooding, like a hand brooding over her eggs before the little chickens are hatched. And then, immediately after that, God began to speak creation into existence. So, I believe that he had a plan, and then the Holy Spirit was creating that plan. And then God the Father, God the Son, were there, and He spoke that into existence. It came to pass. And even for our life, God had a plan for our life. “Jeremiah,” 29, talks about this in verse 11. “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a hope and an expected end.” God has a positive good plan for your life.

And Jeremiah had an awesome revelation about that, you know. God spoke to Jeremiah, and Jeremiah said, this is God speaking to him, “Before you were formed in the womb, I knew you.”

Right.

So, God imagined he knew Jeremiah before he was even formed in the womb. And like, I liked what you were saying about creation, I wanna expound upon that a little bit more. But, when a great creator creates something, they usually don’t do it by accident, they usually think about it beforehand, even imagine it beforehand. You know, I have a doctorate in classical music. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart would often imagine entire symphony in his head. He could imagine every single note, every single instrument, just in his brain, and then just write it all out in one day. Something that would normally take an entire month to work out. But, he would just imagine it in his mind. I believe that’s what God did when He created the universe. He imagined what the Earth would look like, what rivers would look like, what the mountains would look like, what Adam and Eve would look like. He even imagined what you would look like. Just like Jeremiah had that revelation that God knew him. God has this amazing imagination that’s creative, that’s productive. And the way the devil wants to warp that imagination in you is to make it destructive, and often self-destructive or a way to hurt other people.

Yeah. And we’re gonna have to take a break, and we’re gonna take a short break. But, I wanna come talk about this because you aren’t just on fire for God serving God one day, and then fall off the cliff the next day. You start goin’ places in your mind that you should not go. And you need to guard your mind, and you need to take care of it just like a field, you know, or a garden. And who are you allowing to sow seeds in your garden? And what seeds are you allowing to stay in your garden? So, we’ll talk about that when we come back just after this break. Thanks and blessings. Stay with us. 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 wanna 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, were back, and we were just sharing about how your mind is like a garden. And you have to watch who you allow to sow seed in your garden, and you have to watch the thoughts that you allow. You know, God said this in “Jeremiah,” 29, verse 11, “I know the thoughts that I think towards you, said the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a hope, and an expectation to give you an expected end.” And God has a good plan for your life. Just like in “Jeremiah,” you were talking about, you know, God spoke to Jeremiah when he was a child, and he said, “Don’t say that I’m a child.” And Jeremiah said, “I can’t speak, don’t say that You can’t speak, because I’ve called You to do these things.” And we need to know God and get to know what God has planned for us. We can know that in His word, by His spirit. You know, we can know that by hanging around people of God that are going places and accomplishing things. But, if you listen to the wrong thoughts, if you just listen to the world, if you just feed on all this information that the world feeds on, you will become a bitter, negative, unproductive, challenged person.

Yeah, and God’s imagination, like I was talking about how he imagined things before He created them. Actually, there’s certain Jewish people that believe the day before the Jewish New Year, which is called Rosh HaShanah, the day before, they believe it’s a day to dream. ‘Cause they believe that God dreamed about the universe before He created it. And Jewish people, Rosh HaShanah, they believe that’s when God created the Heavens and the Earth. And that’s when they celebrate the New Year. It’s the day of creation. So, the day before, Jewish people often believe that that’s a day to dream, a day to imagine. And they say, you know, “Make your wishes, make your imaginations,” because it’s a special day where it will come true. It’s like in our culture, when it’s your birthday, and before you blow out a candle, you’re supposed to make a wish because it’ll come true. Or if you see a falling star, make a wish because it’ll come true. So, the day before the New Year, the Jewish New Year, which is when God created the Heavens and the Earth, that’s a day to dream, to make an imagination, and it’ll come to pass.

Well, the fact is, Aaron, every day we are thinking thoughts, either positive or negative thoughts. And you have a teaching that you do about this actually. And the average person thinks how many thoughts a day? You read this.

I’ll look it up and share it tomorrow. I wanna look it up and give the specific study.

The average person thinks 60,000 thoughts a day. You shared this from a study, 80% of them are negative, but 95% of our thoughts are repeated thoughts. And so, we need to learn to meditate on positive things. And guess what? I have to practice this myself. And I’ve recently just, you know, in the era of finances, I’ve done really well, but sometimes in other areas I struggle because you see natural things that we’re dealing with in the world. Even in finances, it can be challenging, you know, when we’re looking, and you have a lotta money invested, and the overall markets are down 30, 35%. And it’s challenging when you look at that in the natural. Now, God’s protected us and helped us a lot in showing us certain things by the spirit. But at the same point in time, you still have to guard your mind because the devil wants to get in your mind, create a stronghold. And that’s what really… When the “Bible” talks about a stronghold, it’s talking about a fortified place in our mind. And we have to guard our mind. Our mind is like a garden. And you cannot allow the devil to sow thoughts. And thoughts, there’s gonna be thoughts come, but thoughts of sin, thoughts of sickness, thoughts of poverty, thoughts of anxiety, you have to take authority over those thoughts. And you do that by going to the word of God and seeing what God promises you, and you realize that’s already in your spirit.

Yeah, God doesn’t imagine negative things about you. You know, as spirit-filled pastors, sometimes people come to us with a dream that they might have had. And so, I can usually tell if a dream is from God or if it’s just, you know, something that they ate the night before. But, if it’s a very negative dream about other people, I know it’s not from God. God doesn’t imagine negative things. Like, God doesn’t give you dreams that, you know-

And some people can’t sort this out.

Yeah.

Some people just don’t know how to take authority. You know what? I have dreams that come from God, they’re amazing, but I’ve had some dreams that I know came straight from the pit of hell. And you know what? I know what to do with them. I trash ’em. I take authority over ’em. I’m not going there, I’m not doing that, that’s not who I am.

Just for an example, you know, shortly, I married my wife, we’ve been married three and a half years now. But, someone came to my wife at church on a Sunday morning shortly after we got married. My wife had lost her previous husband. She was married seven years, he passed away, so she moved here to go to “Bible” college. We met, dated a year, got married. So, she moved here with her four-year-old son, he was five when we got married. But, just like a month after we got married, a very prophetic type woman came to my wife and said, you know, “I had this terrible dream that your husband Aaron died and you were devastated, and Fisher was devastated.” And you know, typed it all up and gave it to my wife, and I just tore it up and rebuked it. I said-

That’s right!

And I said, “That’s not from God.” And she couldn’t sort it out. And don’t even let it rent space in your head.

Amen. That is the gospel. And you know, there are some of these super spiritual nuts, I’ll just be honest with you, and they do not know how to discern between the devil and God, and good and evil. And the devil will try to attack you with stuff like that in your mind. And you know what? The devil’s only power over us is deception. And so, you have to break those lies, and you do it by the truth of the word of God. That is not what God said, that is not what God promised. I’m not going there. I’m gonna live a good life, I’m gonna live a long life. I’m gonna live a healthy life, I’m gonna live a blessed life in the name of Jesus Christ. Because God promised it, and Jesus paid for it, and the Holy Spirit gave me the power to get it.

Yeah, and God has done awesome things in our life and our marriage. You know, we now have a two-year-old daughter, just turned two. You know, this person didn’t dream that we’d have a baby girl. So, time has proven that that dream wasn’t from God, and I was right.

Amen. And I just don’t accept any… You know what? When I got baptized in the Holy Spirit and began to hear the full gospel, I found out that there is a “Bible” full of promises that I can believe, and I started believing. And you know what? I started believing to prosper. I’m talking about 44 years ago, and I’d already been saved for six years, but I started believing the promises that I could prosper. I started believing the promises that I could live a good, healthy life, that I could provide well for my family. And man, my dreams, positive, faith-focused, word of God, secure dreams have come to pass. But, do you know what? The devil’s tried to kill me. The devil’s tried to make me go broke. I’ve had opportunities. But, you know what? I just passed him up because I kept believing God.

Yeah, Amen. And keep dreaming big. Keep using your imagination in a positive, creative, godly, divine way. Maybe one thing that you could do is actually get a journal and just take an hour and just ask God for some ideas, for some dreams, and write down some wild, big, huge dreams that maybe God is giving you. Just write it down and see what God will do with that.

You know what? We’ve touched on about one point of about a 12-point, probably 16-point series that Aaron’s got today. But, if you want this information, just give us a call. We’d like to get it to you. If you need prayer, call us. God bless you, we love you.

[Announcer] Imagination is a very powerful force that works on the inside of everyone. The thoughts of your imagination create the framework of your life. Get the “Imagination” package, which includes “Insights into Faith,” with Jesse Duplantis, “Divine Imagination,” and “Power of a Positive Imagination,” CD series, all for $49 when you call 719-418-4000 or visit charischristiancenter.com.

Praise the Lord, friends. I wanna invite you to church this coming Sunday morning, whether you’re in Colorado Springs or whether you’re wherever you’re at. if you’re in Colorado Springs, you can see us Sunday morning at 8:30 or 10:30 AM live. But, you can also watch us with our livestream congregation at 8:30 or 10:30 AM, or you can go to our website and get it anytime at charischristiancenter.com.

[Announcer 2] 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: PO Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80962. See you next time on “Grace for Today.”