By Did you know the word “worship” comes from the Greek word “proskuneo” which means “to kiss.”
When we worship, we actually touch Heaven and “kiss” the heart of God. The act of worship is not merely an act, it is about having a relationship with the One who is worshiped. Worship is the way we come face to face with God!
So what do worship and imagination have to do with one another? Everything.
You cannot effectively worship if you are not also activating your sacred gift of imagination.
Imagination is the very conduit designed by God and placed inside you and I to help us ascend to the throne and see God face to face. Read that again and let it settle in.
You may be sitting here thinking, “Oh great! Well, I’m not very imaginative so I guess I cannot worship,” But that is not true!
Each one of us has been given this ability. The Scriptures refer to this ability to imagine as opening the eyes of our heart.
Everything in the Kingdom of God is built around imagery.
In fact, you are probably using your imagination each day more times than you can imagine.
Before man could walk on the moon, what happened to get him there? He had to imagine first, what it would be like to see it up close. A desire to be near it had to form. Next, he had to imagine how to get there, how it would feel to be in space, to travel to an unknown place. A desire for the impossible had to prevail over fears of failure and rejection. Belief had to overcome doubt! Then, he had to dare to dream that what he imagined could be made visible. The once impossible, only ever to be imagined invisible, would become visible.
The birthplace of ALL Creation, everything we see and is unseen lies in the womb of your imagination!
Our Father in Heaven saw it first, and then He spoke it into existence. In the gospel of John chapter 1 we are told, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God and all things were made through him…” The Word was already with God and this Word was the creative force that brought into existence “ALL things” whether invisible or visible.
We see this exchange of the Word and imagery appear later in the writings of the prophets, when Habakkuk says in his book chapter 2 verse 1, “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the watchtower; and I will keep watch TO SEE what He will SAY to me…” God often asked his prophets to see what is He is saying. Even Jesus himself professed that He only did what He SAW the Father doing, “Truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He SEES the Father do. For whatever He does, likewise the Son does. For the Father loves the Son and SHOWS Him all things that He Himself does. And He will SHOW Him greater works than these so that you may marvel” (John 5:19-20).
I love that last part. Why does God show us any of these things? Why does He implore us to see with our minds eye what He is doing? The answer is right there, “That you may marvel!”
Ask any inventor, scientist, or engineer how they came to discover something and most all of them will tell you it was from a dream, whether waking or asleep. You will see, like those who imagined a trip to the moon, they had to first dwell on the object of their desire, dreaming over it day and night, imagining what it would look like until the day it stood before them. Does a mother not activate her imagination also when she dwells on the color of her unborn child’s hair or desire to hear its laugh? As the child gestates unseen in her womb, the mother dwells on thoughts of how the child will appear in the visible and seen world around her.
You and I are no different. We may not be a scientist or an inventor, or have ever been a mother, you may not call yourself “creative” either, but you are a Creator! This is because God called man to co-create with Him. It is our calling as human beings to continue the creation process that God started when He spoke us into life. And, we are not to stop until every imagination of Heaven, according to the will of God, is brought forth invisibly or visibly into Earth!
Our imagination is one of our most important assets.
This is why I love movies, because they are a visible sign to us that imagination can manifest. If you can dream it, think it, and believe it then it can become seen.
You and I do this when we set goals. How many of us set one year, three year, or even five year goals? How do you do that? You begin first, by imagining where you will be in one, three or five years from now, and who you want to look like and act like and dress like and where you will be living…etc. How can you know this except that you have imagined it? It is not yet, but it could be then.
But first, you have to see it with your mind’s eye. Then, you have to keep that vision always before you, lest you lose sight of it and fall short of seeing it manifest. Finally, you have to do what is necessary on your part to keep moving toward it. And, in that process, you become the very thing you had set your heart’s desire to become in the very beginning.
This is the exact same process with the Kingdom of Heaven. We have to be able to use our sacred gift of imagination to look ahead, beyond what we see with our physical eyes and into a place we have never been to, a place that at first may seem distant to us, but a place that we long to know. We have to set our desire on things of God that we can keep that vision ever present before us, lest we turn to the right or to the left, and lose our way.
This is why the Apostle Paul says in his letter to the Philippians chapter 4, “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, [We are to] think about these things.”
We are called to dwell on Heaven. To put first before us the Kingdom of Heaven, and seek it first (Matthew 6:33).
To do these things, we must learn to use our imagination and exercise it daily, lest it become dormant and we lose site of its purpose in our lives and how to use it.
This is why it is so important to keep active in dreaming BIG for your future and setting goals for yourself, your family, and your friendships.
What kind’s of things are you dreaming for? What goals have you set for the year? How have you partnered with God to see your dreams come true? Are you dreaming BIG or are you dreaming GOD-sized dreams? If it’s possible for you to accomplish on your own, you are probably dreaming too small! If you’ve found that you have stopped dreaming, NOW’S THE TIME TO START DREAMING AGAIN – start journaling your desires and let the Holy Spirit show you the dreams you’ve long forgotten. He has the power to breath life into those dry bones and help you start dreaming again.
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