We are constantly being bombarded with images. We might think that most of them are marketing and advertising messages that we see on TV, billboards, or in the paper. And when it comes to the Internet, advertising is everywhere from email to almost every web page you visit.
Advertisers and marketers have long understood the power of imagery. If they can get a person to imagine a certain feeling, and then associate that feeling with a product, they have a much better chance of selling the product to that person. The use of the proper images is extremely important because of the emotions they cause. And once they get someone emotionally involved with something, once they have created or intensified the desire, the product is sold. The simple truth is that most of us will more readily buy something that we feel we really want over something that we just think we need.
A couple of years ago my wife was tired of driving around in our minivan. She really liked the Mazda commercials with the cute little boy that said, "Zoom, zoom!" And started talking about wanting a little "zoom, zoom" car. About that time she got refrigerator magnet that had one of those 3-D pictures that goes back and forth between two things. The one picture was of a van and the other of the Mazda.
Not long after that she was visiting some of her family and noticed how her nephew, his wife, and their baby, car seat and all, were crammed into their little car. They talked about it and decided to trade straight across, our minivan for their Ford Probe. What we found out later was that the Ford Probe was actually built by Mazda. She had gotten her little "zoom, zoom" car and didn't even realize it.
What would happen with our faith if we would do the same thing that the marketers do, but substitute the desires that God has given us? Would we find that our desire for the things of God would increase if we marketed them to ourselves? And would we experience greater faith if we had a clear picture in our minds of the things we are asking for? The answer is yes.
But a lot of Christians have a problem with the idea of visualization. The problem comes up because the New Age movement has tried to convince everyone that they invented the concept. But the truth is that visualization, picturing things in our minds that we are seeking from God, is an old biblical truth and not a New Age phenomenon.
We do need to be careful not to add some of the New Age trappings to our practices, because they are based in some wrong concepts about man. The idea that people are divine and that we create our reality through visualization is based on a false understanding the universe. We are not god-like beings who create through our own inner power.
In Mark 11:23 Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him." Faith is not something reserved for Christians, it is something that was given to everyone because we are created in God's image. In spite of what New Agers may think, it doesn't make us gods. But it can be so powerful that it's easy to understand how the false teachings about man being divine got started.
And when it comes to visualization, the use of images in our minds, we need to realize that everything we see, whether it's in God's creation or on our living room table, started as an image in God's, or some person's imagination. From the things we buy, to the way we spend our time, to the relationships that we have, all of them are the result of the things that we imagine for ourselves.
If we look at the example of moving a mountain with our faith, we immediately understand that the first step is imagining the mountain being thrown into the sea. And the same thing is true for everything that we bring to God in prayer. We will never be able to receive anything that we can't imagine receiving. Our hope, which is the basis of our faith, needs to be built on a clear picture of what we want.
One of the problems that we all face is that our minds are preoccupied with the way things are in our lives. We see what we have, and that makes it hard to imagine how things could be different. Our minds are too focused on what is rather than what can be. And for many people their thoughts center on all the things that they don't want in their lives.
Even Job said, "What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me." (Job 3:25) He had apparently spent time imagining losing his possessions or his family members. Was it those thoughts that led up to God removing the hedge of protection that He had placed around Job?
There are times when I think that the words, "As your faith is, so will it be done to you," can apply both ways. With faith we get whatever we want, and most of the time our faith is focused on the wrong things.
We don't want to get worried that every unpleasant or negative thought we have will suddenly appear in our lives. We have to realize that our thoughts have an effect on us, and that the goal is to become aware of them and consciously focus our minds on the things we want in life rather than the things we don't want. And if bad things show up, remember that God can work everything for our good, no matter what it is.
Our memories are rich images that not only contain the sights from our past, but the sounds and the smells. Have you ever been listening to the radio and a song comes on that you haven't heard in a while, and suddenly a memory comes back, something that you hadn't thought of in a while? And you find that you're able to sing along, even though you would never have been able to think of the words by themselves.
And smells are even more powerful because they go directly into our brains without any filtering. I'm sure that you've had experiences when you've caught a whiff of something, perhaps the scent of cinnamon baking, and suddenly felt like you were back in your grandmother's kitchen.
But not only do we remember all the sights, sounds, and smells, we also remember the feelings. The strongest memories are created when we feel a lot of emotion. Whenever we go through an experience, our brains try to find images, the memories that relate to what we are experiencing. When those memories are activated, we experience the emotions that are the result of all those memories.
What can cause problems for us is that our brains release chemicals in reaction to our thoughts. It's the release of those chemicals, and how our bodies react to them, that cause us to feel emotions. For example, if we associate good feelings with food, it can be really hard for us to control our eating.
It's not that we want to associate bad feelings with eating, but we need to realize that part of the problem is that our bodies have gotten used to receiving these chemicals. In one sense, we get a "high" from them and we become addicted to the behaviors that cause our brains to release those chemicals. In order to overcome the problem we have to become aware of it, and then find other ways, like exercise, to release the same chemicals and replace a bad habit with a good one. And remember that our cravings may just be our bodies wanting the chemicals, and not our appetite telling us we need to eat a third piece of cake.
And because our brain can interpret an unfamiliar situation with a threat, we could actually experience fear when we're simply doing something new or different. Something as simple as getting out of our comfort zones, which is something we have to do if we want to grow and change, can create the same kind of fear as a potentially life-threatening situation. And when we feel that kind of fear, we back off and fall back into our old familiar habits. So when we want to change things in our lives, we have to be aware that fear will hold us back.
The answer is to be aware that we will feel the fear, that we will experience some emotional resistance to change, and understand that this is normal. The way to overcome that is to begin to associate new feelings and emotions with the change we want to make in our lives. By doing that we make it easier to get out of our ruts. And one the tools that can help us is to use specific images combined with good emotions.
Visualization and the Bible
Throughout the Bible we see that God uses images. When Jesus wanted to teach about the Kingdom of God, He would use images that the people could relate to. When he wanted to teach them about faith, he told them about sowing seeds. The example was something that they could understand, and it helped them to remember His teaching. Every time that they went out to work in their fields, they could remember what Jesus taught them and that would help them continue to learn about faith, or the kingdom of God.
His example of using stories, even things that people do on an ongoing basis, is one that all teachers should learn from. The best way to help people learn is to link the new ideas to something that they already know. And it can be even better if the information can be connected to something that they do on a regular basis because that will help solidify their understanding, even remind them of what they learned, over and over. In one way, Jesus showed us how to turn a story into a truth that people continue to learn from for the rest of their lives.
An example from the Old Testament is the story of Abram. In Genesis 12 we read that God told him to leave all that he knew, everything that was familiar. The God promised him, "I will make you into a great nation." (Genesis 12:2) But after more than twenty years, Abram and his wife Sarai still had no children.
In Genesis 15 we read that God appeared to Abram in a vision. During the course of the vision, Abram told God that, because he didn't have any children, his servant would inherit everything that he had. But God said that the servant would not be his heir. It was then that God took Abram outside and told him to look up at the stars and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars-if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be." (Genesis 15:5)
Genesis 15:6 says, "Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness." God used a specific image, the stars, to help Abram's faith. It gave him something that he could see just about every night, and that would continually remind him of God's promise.
Then in Genesis 17, when Abram was ninety-nine years old, God talked with him again and told him that he would be a father of many nations. God then changed his name from Abram to Abraham, which means a father of many, or a multitude. We often see cases in the Bible in which God changes a person's name to signify a change in the person, and to continually remind the person about what God had done in their lives.
In Genesis 30 we read about Jacob using some branches to help him become very wealthy. Jacob had cheated his brother Esau out of his birthright and the blessing that he should have gotten, and had run away to work for his uncle Laban. Jacob spent many years working for Laban, and God blessed Laban so that he became a wealthy man with a very large herd of livestock.
But the time had come that God wanted Jacob to return to his father's house, and to go back to the land that God had promised to give to him and his descendants. The problem was that Jacob didn't have a herd of his own and had no way to provide for his family. So he decided to talk with Laban and find a way for him to begin to build a herd of his own, while still working for Laban.
They agreed that Jacob would take all the speckled and spotted livestock, and that the rest would belong to Laban. So what Jacob did was very creative. He took some branches and peeled off parts of the bark. He then used these branches and kept them where the herd came for water. And whenever he noticed that the stronger livestock were about to conceive, he would place the branches around them.
Now I have heard some interesting tales about why he did this. Some people believe that there was a superstition that the animals would be affected by what they saw when they conceived. And while there may be some truth to the rumor, I think that Jacob wasn't trying to communicate anything to the animals. Instead he was communicating a very powerful image to his own mind.
In Genesis 31:10-13 we read about a dream that Jacob had. In that dream God had spoken to him about spotted and speckled livestock. To me the simplest explanation for the branches was that Jacob wanted to have something to help him have faith in God. The visual image of the livestock through the branches was a strong reminder of the dream, the promise that God had given him. Because Jacob was able to picture the fulfillment of his dream, he was able to exercise the faith in God so that he would receive what he imagined, what he wanted from God.
How to Use Visualization
When we are looking for images to help us with our faith, we can learn from these two examples. The first thing we see is that the images simply represented something that they each wanted to from God. In Abraham's case, he wanted God to bless him with children of his own. God used the image of the stars, and that fact that you can't count them, to show Abraham just how large his family would become.
Today most people would simply go to a magazine and cut out a picture of a happy family, or a house, or whatever it is that they are praying about. What we use isn't that important as long as the image means something to us. And like Abraham, who could look at the stars every night and remember God's promise, we should spend time each day looking at the pictures we are using. I also like to think that looking at them right before going to sleep helps, just like it probably did for Abraham.
Something that people will do is to create either a vision, or dream board and put their pictures on that. Other people prefer to keep them in a journal and even add written descriptions of different things. For example, some people will write a script, a description of their perfect day. It's a day sometime in the future when they look around and see all of God's blessings in their lives. Imagining that day can help them escape the stress of the day without having to resort to watching a TV show of someone else's life. Instead they watch a perfect vision of their future life and become energized to start working on praying and making their own dreams a reality.
Jacob's idea of using the branches came out of a need that he had, he needed to have a way to provide for his family. He needed to have his own herd of livestock. And while it's a little unclear exactly when Jacob had the dream about the spotted and speckled livestock, one thing is clear, by using the branches in specific situations, when the strongest livestock were breeding, probably helped him remember to pray for the offspring.
I like to think that Jacob used the branches as action reminders. In other words, the branches probably helped him say a quick prayer and thank God that He was prospering Jacob. And when we do things, at work or in our own business, or just in our day to day lives, and we want God to help us with something, having a picture that we see while we are doing it, can serve as a reminder to pray and thank God.
When picking pictures what we want to look for are images that will represent the end result that we are looking for. And like anything we pray for, we have to be careful not to get too hung up on the timing of God's answer. God promised to give Abraham a son, but it took twenty-five years before Isaac was born. And it's not that we should expect that everything will take that long, but we do need to be careful not to lose heart, or abandon our faith, if we do have to wait.
We can do the most to help our faith if we simply see ourselves receiving what we request from God, and if we don't spend time trying to figure out how He is going to do it. Ecclesiastes 11:5 says, "As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things."
We may never fully understand how God works out just the right circumstances, especially times when a problem will cause us to take what looks like a detour, but we suddenly see that God worked out every detail. Trying to figure out how God will answer our prayers is like trying to understand how a baby is formed. It's just not possible, so we have to have faith and trust that God will work it out. After all, we are talking about faith.
As helpful as external pictures and representations can be, we need to internalize those images. Just like our memories, we need to form images in our minds that have all the sights, sounds, maybe even smells that we will experience when God has fully answered our prayers.
And, just like our memories, these images need to have emotions associated with them. We should imagine the feelings that we will have when we have what we are asking for. Some people like to get a picture in their mind of their perfect day. They imagine the warmth of the sun, the feeling of the breeze and the smell of the air. The look around and see their life as they want it to be, and feel the joy and gratitude from knowing that God answers their prayers.
Most people have trouble with the mental images they use because they don't associate any emotions with them. In order for these images to become a part of us, to become like the memories we have, they have to be emotional. The image will be the most powerful when it is associated with strong feelings.
We have to remember that everything we have in our lives at this moment has come as a result of what we have imagined for ourselves, both consciously and subconsciously. When we start to consciously choose certain mental images of the things we want in life, we want them to become a part of who we are. When we take those images and combine them with emotions, they become strong memories. What begins to happen is that these imagined memories get activated, just like our other memories, as we go through our day-to-day lives.
We will begin to experience new emotions as we do the things that used to be uncomfortable for us, and we will start to recognize the circumstances and situations that God is bringing into our lives to help us reach our dreams. We will become aware of what He is doing, and the excitement of seeing Him answer our prayers will grow as well as our gratitude for all that He is doing.
Philippians 4:6 says, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." One of the most powerful emotions that we can associate with these images is the feeling of gratitude. A deep, heart-felt sense of how grateful we are to God for answering our prayers will help keep our focus on the one who answers our prayers, and not just on the answers themselves.
Plus, when we look at Hebrews 11:1 and the fact that faith is the "evidence of things not seen," we realize that the greatest evidence for our faith is the fact that we are truly thankful for something that is nothing more than a hope. (See my earlier article on Gratitude and Abundance as well)
The practice of visualization has gotten a bad reputation because of some weird teachings that the New Age movement has added to it. But the idea of using images to help us with picture the results of our faith, the answers that we are seeking, was taught in the Bible thousands of years ago.
Our minds were created to work with pictures and images, and we should take advantage of that to help strengthen our faith. As we imagine our prayers as answered, seeing ourselves enjoying those answers and thanking God, we actually use our faith the way God originally intended for us to use it.
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