The Power of Imaging, Part II
"Then He touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you."1
Imaging—picturing in your mind's eye—can help you achieve that which seems nigh on impossible.
One day (many years ago) when I was working on our church building, I borrowed my boss's heavy circular-saw bench. When returning it, it fell off the truck, right in the middle of a major highway. It had taken four of us to load the saw bench onto the truck and here it was, lying in the middle of the road with only two of us to re-load it!
No problem ... all we could see was getting it back on the truck. And, with seemingly super-human strength, heaved it back onto the truck in a flash. We fastened it securely, and were on our way in no time at all. We amazed ourselves with a strength we didn't even know we had. This type of thing is fairly common.
Where did the extra strength come from? I'd say that the picture in our mind of getting the saw bench back onto the truck as quickly as possible, plus the urgency of the situation, triggered an extra supply of adrenaline, making it possible for us to lift it. Had we focused on the problem and our inability to lift it by ourselves, we never would have been able to achieve that task.
Imaging can also help in the healing of sicknesses.
Dr. Norman Vincent Peal in his book, Imaging, tells about Harry DeCamp who was healed of cancer. He was not a religious man, but was challenged to believe in God when a friend sent him a card which said, "With God all things are possible."
Harry chose to believe that through faith and prayer, God could heal him, and started to visualize in a dramatic way the healing process taking place within his body.
"He began to imagine armies of healing white blood cells in his body cascading down from his shoulders, sweeping through his veins, attacking the malignant cells and destroying them. A hundred times a day, two hundred, three hundred, he went through this imaging process. He worked at it constantly, day and night."2
Harry also kept on with his chemotherapy and in six months he was healed. What cured him? His faith, the chemotherapy, or his creative imaging? Probably all three!
For some unknown reason, when the image we create in our mind is vivid and clear, the desire to achieve it, and the faith to believe it is possible are strong enough, the untapped powers of the mind come to our rescue and help us achieve the very thing we image and believe in. Unfortunately, the same principle is effective for those who wish to perform acts of evil. Actually, all of us are visualizing things in our mind much of the time. Just think how temptation works! We just need to use this ability for good.
To be continued ...
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, help me to see what You want me to become and do for Your glory, and picture these in my mind until, with Your help, one by one, they are all achieved. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus's name, amen."
1. Matthew 9:29 (NIV).
2. Imaging, by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, p. 22.
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All articles on this website are written by
Richard (Dick) Innes unless otherwise stated.