The Power Of A Positive Imagination Part 4 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

The Power Of A Positive Imagination Part 4 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

The Power Of A Positive Imagination Part 4 with Pastors Lawson and Aaron Perdue. In this episode of Grace For Today, you’ll understand that having a purpose in your positive imagination is necessary to usher you into the favor and blessing of God.

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The Power Of A Positive Imagination Part 4 – Transcript

Welcome friends of the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today. I have my son Aaron. We are teaching on the power of a positive imagination, and we’re gonna be talking about becoming purposeful and positive in your imagination, and how purpose can lead you in to the favor and the blessing of God on your life. So thanks so much for tuning in. You have a very great time enjoying the Word of God today. Bless you.

Friends, it’s great to have you on the broadcast today. I’ve got my son Aaron. We’re talking about the power of a positive imagination, and we’ve been talking about how to move from a negative to a positive imagination, and the Word of God gives us the answer. And so, we started reading in Romans 1:21, where Paul’s talking about the unbelieving world or the Gentile world’s need for righteousness. And he says, when they knew God, they did not glorify him for being God. Neither were they thankful, but they became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. And so, we’ve talked about the first way we can turn that around. And so, the first thing we need to do is begin to glorify God for being God, begin to magnify him and praise him. Let God be God in our life. And the second thing is to become thankful. We have so much around us. A lot of people, you could put two people in the very exact same situation, circumstance, and one of ’em will praise God, thank God, see the good, and the other one will look at the negative all around him. And you know what? If you wanna move into what God has for you, you need to quit being negative, start being positive, become thankful for what God has around you. The third thing he says there, is they became vain in their imagination. So I believe we can turn that around and we can begin to use our imagination and become purposeful and positive in our imagination. Begin to dream the dreams of God. And you know what? You have to go places in your mind before you can go there physically. And I know for instance, in 1998, I went, I came from a background, rural background where my parents didn’t have a lot. My dad had struggled with sickness a lot, disease. My mom was a school teacher. But when we got into the Word of God, I began to believe the Word of God, believe the promises of God. And that was in 1978, I was just 14 years old, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. But it wasn’t until 1998 in that realm, and I’d actually been pastoring in 1998 for 10 years. And I was invited to meetings where Mark Hankins was preaching and in Billy Epperhart’s church in southwest Denver. And Mark was saying some things that really challenged my natural thinking. And when he said that, I didn’t grab ahold of it immediately, but the Lord began to work with me. And when I began to accept what he was saying as true, your mother got ahold of it quickly. She said, “He’s right, and you’re wrong. You need to get over it.” But when I begin to accept those things as true, my imagination began to go places that it hadn’t before. And for instance, in business, I was at that time pastoring in eastern Colorado in a really small town, Kit Carson. I had cattle on the side, and I had run two or 300 head of cattle and borrowed $100,000. And I immediately began to go in my mind to where I could think about owning 1,000 head of cattle and borrowed $0.5 million. I didn’t do that immediately, but I borrowed $0.25 million and I bought five to 600 head of cattle, and they all made money. And that was really miraculous. But also in the realm of church, I began to think about if I could pastor this church of 100 people and give away 50,000 a year to missions in other ministries, which is what we did, I begin to think about I can pastor a church of 1,000 and give away $500,000 a year. That was in 1998. That happened in the year 2016 and nearly every year since. But I begin to go places with my imaginations that are far beyond where we’re at today. And I believe that there will be a time come when this church will give millions and millions of dollars away to missions and other ministries. And we’ve already given millions of dollars away, actually over time. But I believe we’ll do that every year on a consistent basis. And I believe when we walk in the blessing of the Lord, that we can come to places where we can do that, praise God. And, but you have to go there in your mind. You can’t get there by just staying in the same place in your mind. And sometimes when you go there and begin to do these things at a new level, it’s a little bit uncomfortable in the natural. It’s a little bit challenging. I know it was a big challenge for mom and I to move to Colorado Springs. We had to go to six banks before we could found a bank that would finance us with 50% down on our house. And then when we moved from where we were in Colorado Springs to where we are, it was challenging then. Two weeks into this dip, two weeks before we had to close, we had a buyer on our other house that backed out. We had to go find a new bank with two weeks to close on the house that we bought. And God gave me a Word and said, listen, I know how to bless the righteous, and I know how to reserve the unjust of the day of judgment. And that person that I dealt with was one of the most wicked people I’ve ever dealt with in my life. And you know God turned that thing around, praise God. I don’t know what happened to that person, but God ultimately blessed us and helped us and increased us. And he does that, if you’ll begin to go there. But you gotta go there in your mind before you can go there, so you become positive, and purposeful in your imaginations. So I believe in God today for more than I’ve ever believed him for. Some people are trying to believe God for $1 million and they never believe God for 10 cents. And you gotta start out where you gotta believe God for $100 before you believe him for 1,000. Believe him for 1,000 before you believe him for 100,000, believe him for 100,000 before you believe him for a million, praise God. I actually believe in personally for more than I’ve ever believed God for in my life, hallelujah. And I believe in God for the ministry more than I’ve ever believed him for, praise God.

I think, what I’ve kind of learned is over time, the greatest things that we can get in life usually take time to get there. We kind of live in an insta-bake society, in a microwave society. And sometimes when you look at people who are successful maybe in business and their families in ministry, sometimes you think, “Man, this just happened overnight.”

Praise God.

But a lot of things don’t happen overnight. People, it takes time to grow, grow your root system. Man, a lot of the best things in life, it takes time to develop and consistency.

Yes.

In your marriage, in your relationship with your children, in your job and your career.

When we bought this church and we had a little bit debt in the beginning, but I said with my mouth, I believe in that by five years from now, I’m gonna have $17 million cash, praise God. And we’re not quite there. Amen. And investments for future ministry. And I’ve had other people say at the same time, “I believe in, yes, at the same time, I’m gonna have my business paid off,” so on and so forth. And you ask ’em a few years, “Oh no, I’m not believing that anymore.” They just, and they had opportunity. But like you say, it takes diligence, you’ve gotta stay at it. In the realm of faith, you have to be diligent. And the devil doesn’t give up territory easily sometime. So you gotta break down some barriers. Sometimes the barriers are in your mind. Psalm 78:41 says, “They tempted God and they limited the holy one of Israel.” Did you know what? It wasn’t like before 1998 when I went to Mark Hankins meetings in Denver, Colorado, that God didn’t have more for me. My challenge was in my thinking. Now I had to break out before that, right? And God sent specific people with specific skills in my life, and to be mentors to me that help me break certain barriers. But if you’re gonna go farther, you gotta get the right people around you. There’s different aspects that can help you move into what God has for you. In this last year, God separated us from some people. He connected us to other people. And I know you’d been wanting Mark Hankins to come on our board, and I said, “I can’t do that because of certain people.” They don’t agree with him. And then they separated themselves. We didn’t separate ’em. They separated themselves. And we brought Mark Hankins in. And man, it’s like we’ve had some of the most positive board meetings. We’ve had some of the best things that have happened. Mark thinks at a very high level, praise God. But you have to begin to think at a higher level before you can go there. Before you know what? A lot of people think they’re believe in for something, but they’re not, it’s really hope before it’s faith. But praise God, you can begin to operate. If you can believe God and learn how to believe God for $1,000, you can learn how to believe God for 10,000, for $100,000, for a million. Praise God for millions and multi-millions, praise God. And if you can learn how to believe God for $1 million, you can learn how to believe God for $100 million, praise God, but it goes in stages. I believe in longterm for phenomenal things in this ministry. When we came here to Colorado Springs, there was sometimes on a Sunday morning that we had less in the offering than $100, and I put 50 in there, and we were receiving no money at that time from the ministry. But you know what? We believed God, I started believe in God for 5,000 a month, and then I believed him for 10,000 a month. And then I believed him for 0.25 million a year, and then 0.5 million a year and then, a million a year and then 2 million a year, and then 3 million a year, and then 7 million a year, praise God. I’m not, we’re just believing in, we’re moving into these things, but God is bringing these things to pass, praise God. But longterm, I believe in God for way more than I am. I remember when the first time Jesse Duplantis came, the church was about 10 years old. And Jesse came and spoke for me. And then at the end, he got me up in his jet, he got another jet. So I went and sat with him, his new jet, 16 passengers, and he got this $50-some million jet with very few hours. If you bought it new, it’d been over 50. And the people were asking over 12 million for it. They did nearly $2 million of work on it. And that Jesse, they asked him what he wanted and they sold it to him for just $4 million. They just wanted to bless his ministry, praise God. And it’s like a 16-passenger jet. But I got up there, but when he got me in his first one, I told him, “Jesse, I believe in God, I was at a million a year in the ministry. I believe in God for 2 million a year and longterm I believe in for 10 million.” He just looked at me and said, “When you get there, don’t stop there.” Praise God. And I remember when we paid off the building at Elkton, Jesse Duplantis came and preached for us. And Andrew Wommack and Jesse Duplantis in the same week told me this very same thing, “Now that you’ve paid this thing off, don’t sit on your laurels, don’t stop, believe in God.” And man, when we got in this building, it stretched us. It still stretches me sometimes, some of the different aspects, that we deal with. But you know what? The Lord is with us. The Lord will help us if we’ll trust him, if we’ll believe him. But you gotta become purposeful and positive in your imaginations, praise God. We’re gonna talk in just a few minutes about Daniel. You know, Daniel was an amazing visionary person. He was an amazing leader in his time. He ruled, lived under four different world leaders, three different world empires. He was promoted, but I believe it’s because he understood this, the power of a positive imagination. He had great understanding, dreams and vision, so on and so forth. And so, we’re gonna take just a very short break and we’re gonna come back and we’re gonna talk a little bit about Daniel and how Daniel moved into these things that God had for him by becoming positive and purposeful in his imaginations. We’ll be back right after this break, blessings. 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 1, 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, I’m so glad that you stayed with us. We’re talking about becoming purposeful and positive in your imaginations. You know, the Bible talks about Daniel, he was a foreign exchange student, and he had been brought into this other country. And he has three Hebrew friends, we know they’re Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah their Hebrew names. And how God brought them and promoted them. But one thing that Daniel did, and I talked about becoming purposeful and positive in your imaginations, it says, Daniel purposed in his heart, Daniel 1:8, that he would not defile himself with the meat that the king ate. It was against his covenant with God.

Yeah, I love that, he knew that he was different. The Bible says that we’re a chosen generation of a royal priesthood, a peculiar people. Daniel really understood that. That’s why it said he, he did not defile himself. As new covenant believers is people who’ve been bought and purchased with the blood of Jesus. There is something that separates us from the world around us, and that’s gonna really help you, just realizing that, that I’m not of this world. I’m in here for a divine mission. But don’t defile yourself with the junk that’s in the world. Don’t try to pacify the world, satisfy the world… The world is gonna constantly strive against the things of God. The world is, it’s a dark kingdom, and we are the kingdom of light. So and as Christ coming, his return gets closer and closer. There’s gonna be a stronger and stronger contrast between the world and between the people of God. So don’t just try to blend in with the world. Don’t defile yourself, don’t compromise.

Amen, you know what, Daniel stood out as different. The person that was over these children didn’t wanna do it ultimately, but he said, “Well, we’ll try it out for 30 days.” And they tried it out, and they found that Daniel and his three friends were fair and fatter in their flesh. They were doing better than these people that were eating all this other food that the King’s people were eating, so on and so forth. And so then, it says that God made Daniel, and this is in Daniel 1:20, 10 times wiser 10 times. He wasn’t just 10% better, he wasn’t 100%, they were 1,000% better, praise God. Because the spirit of God gave them revelation. This is in Daniel 1:20, “In all manner of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians, astrologers that were in all of his realm.” Praise God. You know what? The spirit of God set them apart, Then later in Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar who was the ruler of Babylon, which was the greatest empire on the world, you were talking about something the other day in one of your lessons in a church. You were talking about Benjamin Netanyahu and how he’s just been recently voted in, and how his father told him to study history. And he said, we should specifically study the history of the Bible. And as the leader of Israel, did you know there were actually a number of nations that persecuted Israel in the Old Testament, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and then Rome. And did you know what? In every nation that persecuted Israel, ultimately Israel rose to the top and they prevailed. And if you study the history of the Bible, it’ll show you that. You don’t fight the people of God, and win.

Well, it was kind of interesting when I listened to this interview with the prime minister of Benjamin Netanyahu. He was talking about his father. His father was a very famous Jewish historian. He was a professor at Cornell University. And his father had a conversation with Eisenhower when Eisenhower was still a general. And this is the time, shortly after World War II, when nations were trying to decide what to do with Palestine. And Benjamin Netanyahu’s father, this Jewish professor, told Eisenhower, “You need to side with Israel.” And Eisenhower said, “Well, why should I side with Israel? There’s only 600,000 people there. It’s kind of a small fish.” But he just said, “Well, you saw how the Jewish people fought, for the allies in World War II. Just imagine how we’ll fight for ourselves.” And he just kind of prophesied to Eisenhower that you need the nation of Israel. We’ll be your strongest ally in the Middle East as communism tries to advance and goes further and further in the Middle East. Russia tries to advance. And it’s still happening today, Russia’s siding with Iran, with Afghanistan. He said, “You’re gonna need, you’re gonna need an ally there, and you’re gonna need the nation of Israel.”

Praise God, you know what? There has never been a nation in modern history or history before that has stood against Israel and has passed the test of time. One historian said, “Israel is like, Jerusalem is like a golden bull set in the top of mountains. And whoever sticks their hand into it is bitten of deadly vipers.” And Daniel lived during this time. We talked about Egypt as Syria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, right in there, Babylon. This was in the Babylonian times. Then he lived in the Medo-Persian times under Cyrus the Persian, and Darius the Mede, he ruled under Belshazzar and Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. And God promoted him. One thing that promoted him, the king had a dream, forgot the dream, couldn’t interpret the dream, it troubled him. None of his wise people could interpret. He was gonna, let’s stop the expense of paying these wise people, because they can’t tell us anything. And Daniel went into the king and required, asked for time, said, “Give us some time and we’ll tell you what it is.” And so Daniel and his three friends went and prayed. They prayed together, stayed together, they literally stayed together. The king didn’t cut their heads off and so he went and requested, and God revealed this dream to the king of this head of gold, an image with the head of gold breast and arms of silver, a belly of thighs of brass, legs of iron and feet of iron and clay. And when God revealed this dream unto him, Daniel said, “You oh king, are the head of gold.” And that represented the Babylonian Empire, then the Medo-Persian Empire, then the Grecian Empire, then the Roman Empire with the eastern and western parts, the legs of iron, and then the feet of iron and clay, which is the time that we live in today of the revised Roman Empire. We live in that time today. And then there was a stone cut without hands. I believe Jesus is that stone that the builders rejected, and it hit the image not in the head, but in the feet. And the image fell to the ground, and the stone became a mountain that filled the whole earth. I believe Jesus Christ will reign in this world, praise God for 1,000 years of peace. And then we’ll go into a new heaven and a new earth where dwells righteousness, 2 Peter prophesied about that. And so, Daniel lived in this kingdom, and it was a powerful thing. And so, Daniel did this, Daniel did many other things, but he became purposeful and positive in his imagination. And we need to become purposeful and positive in our imagination. And if you wanna go places, you gotta begin to use your imagination, not in a negative aspect, but in a positive aspect. Later, when Nebuchadnezzar’s son Belshazzar reigned, he was drinking out of the vessels of gold that he took from the temple in Jerusalem. And a hand came and wrote on the wall, the finger of God wrote on the wall and said, “Mene, mene, tekel, parsin, your kingdom is numbered and divided between the Medes and the Persians.” And they didn’t know what it said. And Daniel came in and interpreted it and told him exactly what it said. And Daniel was chosen, because an excellent spirit was in him and wisdom. But it started out with like he purposed in his heart, he would not defile himself with the meat that the king ate. Praise God. And we as the people of God can live with purpose. Your brother Peter, Aaron, went to Stanford University to watch his brother-in-law graduate. And this was a few years after he had graduated, and his wife had graduated from Princeton University. And Peter was really appalled that a lot of these students coming outta these top universities today have no purpose in life. And we need to live with the purpose of God.

That’s kind of one of the main tragedies of a lot of people today, and especially young people just not really living with purpose. Even people who are giving great opportunities, great education, great resources, just having no sense of purpose. It’s a great tragedy. And really, people lose their sense of purpose when they kinda lose sight of who God is or the value of having a relationship with God.

Yeah, we need to value our relationship with God. And I believe purpose comes from our relationship with God. The fear of the Lord, is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. I believe that means when we respect our relationship with God, that’s where we begin to get wisdom, that’s where we begin to get understanding, that’s where we begin to get direction in life. It all stems from our relationship with God. And so, we need to have a relationship with God. The people who know their God Daniel says, “Will be strong and do exploits.” We have a relationship with God, we know God. I believe the goal of the gospel is knowing God, having this relationship with God where you live, not from your mental aspect or from your physical aspect, but you live from the spirit of God on the inside of you, and you let the spirit of God direct your steps, the spirit of man, there is a spirit in man. Job said this in Job 32:8. “And the inspiration of the Almighty gives him understanding.” We can get purpose from the spirit of God in the spirit of man. Proverbs 20:27 talks about the spirit of man. And I believe the spirit of God gives counsel to the spirit of man. And it says this, Proverbs 20:27, “The spirit of man is the candle, is the lamp of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly.” I believe from the spirit of God, and the spirit of man, we can get purpose for our life, and we can begin to walk in the direction of God for our life. And there will be great blessing, there will be great favor in that direction.

And your purpose is greater than what you think it is. And your purpose is greater than your job description. Your purpose is greater than what other people think of you. It’s greater than what maybe your friends think of you, what your family think. Your purpose is greater than what society thinks of you.

Amen.

Your purpose is so much greater. Your purpose comes from God and God thinks very highly of you.

Amen.

So don’t let your sense of value, your sense of purpose, just be limited right by certain things. And don’t let that stop you. Don’t let that put a cap on you. I know some people who just won’t be motivated, won’t work hard, because they think, “Well, this is all I’m getting paid. This is all that’s in my job description. So I’m just gonna…”

Aaron, I just had somebody tell me yesterday that they refused to train another person, and this other person makes very low salary or wages, and this person makes very high wages for a ministry. And you know what? I determine in my heart that I’m not gonna use that person longterm, because I’m not gonna let somebody dishonor somebody else like that. And the truth be known, if I look at it, this person that’s on the low end of the totem pole has given, has sold a lot more seed percentage-wise than that person on the high end of the totem pole. And God’s getting ready to reverse that thing, praise God. God says the the law will be exalted and the high will be brought low in the kingdom of God. And we’re gonna let people who honor God be promoted. Praise God.

Amen.

We are not into holding people back, praise God. You know what? Talking about that. I believe this ministry has an anointing of prosperity and increase. And if you’d like to become a partner, I believe that you’ll see increase far beyond that. I just sat with a banker yesterday and I told them when they came to this church and started giving, they would see great increase. And they told me, “It’s happened, just like you said.”

That’s awesome.

And you know what? If you wanna become a partner, I believe that you’ll receive great increase off the seed you sell, blessings.

[Narrator] 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.

[Narrator 2] Did you know that you can stay connected with us?

[Lawson] We have a church app, you can get it for your phone. You can get our most recent videos, audio, stay connected with the church, all of it’s absolutely free of charge. Stay connected with the different things that are happening in different departments. We’d love to have you get our new church app. Blessings.

[Narrator 1] 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”.

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