I have been thinking on the proper use of imagination. This verse, down there, sounds as if imagination, period, is a bad thing, to be controlled rigidly. But imagination is how our minds work! We think a thing and then we say it or do it. First is the thought, then the thing.
I think actually the imagination is a powerful two edged blade, like the tongue. It can be used to create and to defile. For what is prayer except a picture in the mind of the righteous thing to be desired, in accordance with God's intentions? It's not easy for me to explain what I mean, but I'm working on it. Seems to me that it can be a creative force in concert with God bringing something into being. They always say that you and God are a majority. Hard to beat that.
OTOH, if one listens to the dark voice in the mind, has the radio tuned to the devil's channel, harbors and pets the evil inclinations of the heart, grows them and nutures them..well then, that is the type of imaginations that the verse is referencing. It also can call into being an evil event. The test is love. Is your mental picture a working out of love, or is it selfish or haughty. I am lecturing myself here.
That's what evil spells were, evil imaginations held onto and wished into being. Things in this creation seem random, but they are not. We just don't see all the pieces in motion. But, yeah, evil spells work.
My little example of taking dominion over the physical world is funny but it was important at the time. It's very clear cut, so a good example. Long ago, we lived in a tiny cabin under the great huge Douglas Firs, as you know. There was no way possible to keep all the big woodland spiders out of that place. They just came in the places where there should have been insulation in the walls.
Well, they did bite the children. So, I decided to just tell the spiders that I would not smash them or harm them, but that they may not bite the children. I was able to make this real in my mind for some reason. The result was that though we still saw a few spiders around, they did not bite the children after that day.
King James Version
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Maybe I am being Captain Obvious, but I like to think about these things to see if they work.
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