Starting Chapter 1 - Cleansing the Imagination, Intellect, and Will

Hello, Companion Mustard Seed Library book readers,

How interesting that the author of this book starts out with so much emphasis on our imaginations. The dictionary definition of imagination is "the act or power of forming mental images of what is not actually present; the act or power of creating mental images of what has never been actually experienced or of creating new images or ideas by combining previous experiences; creative power". The dictionary definition of mental is "done by, or carried on in, the mind."

The author writes: "Imagination, intellect, will, and memory comprise our minds or psyches. Each of these functions is given to us by God to reflect or image a part of Him (Genesis 1:27) and each is supposed to do something unique and good within us according to God's plan. However, each part of us was darkened by sin in the Fall of Adam and Eve; and so the imagination, intellect, will and memory are darkened and lead us into the darkness of the false self until they are consecrated to God. They on their own can discover and cling to nothing of eternal value, nothing of all the important things for which mankind longs; we must be reborn in Jesus for our minds to enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:5). (Jesus answered him - Nicodemus - "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.")

Back to the introduction, the author writes:

"For example, an inner healing prayer suggests to us to be in the presence of Jesus, Who is smiling at us. We might most naturally SEE this picture in our imaginations. On the other hand, we might SENSE His presence, just as we can sense the presence of another person with us in a room even though we did not see that person enter the room. Or we might FEEL that warm feeling inside that we have had in the past when someone important to us smiles at us. Or we might hear His voice. What is important is that we do, in some way, use our imaginations when we pray for inner healing; for, while we KNOW ABOUT a thing or person with our intellects, we DIRECTLY KNOW that thing or person with our imaginations. In other words, imagination carries knowledge from abstraction to experience, from the head to the heart, and it is in our hearts that God first touches us for healing and helps us to grow spiritually."

All the capitalized words above were what the author stressed in italics. Have you ever thought much about your spirituality and your imagination? That God also gives each of us our own imagination? Or do you think imagination is your stuff that you alone bring into being? The first chapter of the book starts out with the belief that inner spiritual healing has to do first of all with "cleansing the imagination" and tomorrow we can look at the author's first suggestion as to how to go about this.

God bless,
Sharon