Transforming the Imagination
Victory Life Church — Sunday, September 17, 2023
Introduction
Romans 12:2 (ESV) Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Living in the reality of the Kingdom of God, tuned in to the frequency of truth, the sound of the Kingdom is our goal in discipleship to Jesus. We are also commissioned to increase our capacity, grow in how much we are living in that reality.
Our lives move in the direction of our strongest ideas and images.
Ideas and Images
Ideas: models of or assumptions about reality; to us, our ideas ARE reality.
You live at the mercy of your ideas, they set the framework for your decisions and actions.
Idea: God is love. What are the surrounding ideas about love do we have? How do we understand and comprehend and experience love?
Image: Jesus (the Cross). How does Jesus show us the love of the Father? What is His relationship with the Father? What is the symbol of His love?
To live in the reality of the kingdom of God, it is necessary that the ideas and images that govern our lives (decisions and actions) correspond to the truth / reality of the kingdom of God – or be conformed to the kingdom of God instead of the world.
John 8:31-32 (ESV) So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 17:17 (ESV) “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”
We are transformed by the renewing of our mind — conforming the ideas and images that govern our thoughts (thereby decisions and actions) to God’s truth (reality, His Word) and away from the world’s lies (propaganda).
Images
What images are being nurtured and cultivated in your mind? What are the images that you hold about yourself, your marriage, your children, your relationships, your future, your work, your finances, your business, your health, your neighborhood, your community?
Ephesians 3:20 (MSG) God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
What is true in Christ (in heaven)? What does that look like? “Holy Spirit, show me how to see the truth in my life as it is in heaven.”
Hebrews 11:1 (ESV) Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
A way of looking at “hope” is “hope” is how we see the reality of the Kingdom of God, and then faith is living out that reality “on earth as it is in heaven.” Hope sees in the imagination touched by God what is not seen by the natural senses and feelings.
Faith is embodying in the natural what hope sees in the imagination.
Numbers 13:33 (NKJV) “There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Your life will eventually look like the images you nurture the most.
Numbers 14:6-9 (NKJV) But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’ Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”
Faith can see God’s higher reality in the face of contrary evidence.
1 John 4:17 (ESV) By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
What’s true of Jesus is true of you.
Conclusion
John 3:3 (ESV) Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”Extra Notes/Thoughts
Isaiah 26:3 (ESV) You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
Psalm 16:8 (ESV) I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
Philippians 4:8 (ESV) Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Colossians 3:2-3 (ESV) Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
1 Corinthians 2:16 (ESV) “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:15-16 (AMP) But the spiritual man [the spiritually mature Christian] judges all things [questions, examines and applies what the Holy Spirit reveals], yet is himself judged by no one [the unbeliever cannot judge and understand the believer’s spiritual nature]. For who has known the mind and purposes of the Lord, so as to instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ [to be guided by His thoughts and purposes].
Ideas and Images
Ideas: models of or assumptions about reality (DW); are never capable of definition or precise specification, mainly because we rarely can tell the difference between our assumption about reality and reality itself; to us our ideas ARE reality.
Science can teach us a lot about the natural world and the laws that govern it: gravity, thermodynamics, etc. These are “ideas,” but are observations and articulations about that natural world (reality) and how God structured it. We do well to learn them and live by them. But there are also ideas that are shaped that are not the same as laws, but philosophical principles that may or may not be true, but still shape our thinking. Things like “The American Dream” is an idea. Any “-ism” is a philosophical idea: capitalism, freedom, religion, happiness, progress, socialism, Marxism, communism. Ideas are powerful, but not always recognized. They shape our assumptions about reality, but may or may not be true.
You live at the mercy of your ideas, they set the framework for your decisions and actions.
There are also spiritual laws and ideas. There are laws of the spiritual world: like sowing and reaping, the power of your words, etc. There are spiritual ideas that will shape our spiritual life: blessing and cursing, unity and division, encouragement and gossip, etc.