Daring To Imagine More Series

Daring to Imagine More

Series: Daring Faith

Brad Bailey – October 6, 2018

Intro

Today we are continuing in our Fall venture “Daring Faith.” There are lots of ways we have described the nature of faith. In the largest of ways…I have said that:

Faith is how the we as finite beings enter into the larger reality of the infinite.

There is a larger reality that is beyond our finite nature to fully understand…let along control. As finite beings we need the infinite to reveal itself to us… and God has done that.

Jesus reveals …this world has become separated… darkened…but what human beings represent… is revealed in him… restored through him. And he provides the path for the human heart to follow.

For some listening… maybe this venture into a wider world has just begun. faith has brought you here… first step.

For some… that bigger world opened up long ago… caught the dream…but perhaps you feel the stagnation… familiarity has made your life too settled.

Maybe you your vision has been leaking.

I want to begin with a brief experience… I’d like to ask us all to spend just one minute with our eyes closed. Would you relax…and join me in closing your eyes.

Imagine you have never had visual sight. It simply was not a part of your physical make up.

With your eyes still closed…consider… do you believe that this room still exists?

How would you move through this room?

[Open eyes… discuss]

When your eyes were closed…did the room exist?

It would be a little harder to navigate. Perhaps you found a certain comfort that you were siting in place. If you were to have been told to move step out… and move….how would you seek to navigate?

Likely… by what you hear…and by trusting what others who are familiar.

What this can help us appreciate is the nature of faith.

The room exists… it is simply navigated by different senses.

Reality was not bound by what you saw by your physical eyes. Your awareness was guided by the voice of another…and by what you could imagine…or see in your inner mind.

And that is a way of understanding faith.

Today… I believe God is daring us to imagine more.

Your imagination is simply your inner vision.

One of the greatest gifts that God has given you is the gift of imagination.

It is the ability to see things in your mind, to think and to create with mental pictures in your mind. God gave you this gift of imagination. [1]

Albert Einstein said…

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Logic will get you from A to B; imagination will take you everywhere. There’s no limit to imagination. The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” - Albert Einstein

Erwin McManus

“Every man and woman has been given the most vital, foundational tool for creative work: the human imagination. It is the one way you can see the ideal, go to places you’ve never been, step into experiences you’ve never known. In your imagination, you have unlimited resources, unlimited capacity and an unlimited range of influence. In some ways, in our imaginations we are most like God. Unfortunately, the material for our imaginations is primarily filtered through our hearts. When our hearts are separated from God, our imaginations can be corrupted. As we draw near in intimacy with our Heavenly Father, our imaginations can be the birthplace of the dreams of God for our lives."

You were given the gift to see what is more ideal…to see what has yet to come.

Our imagination is a key to living by faith. I want help us clarity the relationship between imagination and faith….and then how we can develop it.

Imagination: A Key to Living by Faith

There is a vital relationship between imagination and faith.

First and foremost, God wants me to understand that …

1. My imagination (inner mind) is essential to living by faith.

The unseen is engaged by what transcends the visual. God is Spirit. As Jesus said…

John 4:24 (CEV)

God is Spirit, and those who worship God must be led by the Spirit to worship him according to the truth.

God is Spirit. God is not bound by the same physical state. He speaks to our inner being…and that involves our imagination.

As was reflected by having closed our eyes…and imagining life without that sense… living by faith involves your inner mind.

As you may recall from recent weeks together… he starts off Hebrews

Faith… is the evidence of things we cannot yet see. – Heb. 11:1 (NLT)

God gave you two ways of seeing. He gave every human being two ways of seeing. First you can see through your physical eyes. That’s one way of seeing. And second you can see by the imagination in your mind. You can picture things in your mind.