Envisioning With God

Envisioning with God

I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. Genesis 22:17

GOD LOVES TO SPEAK IN PICTURES. Some may think of the languages of Scripture—Hebrew, Greek, and a dash of Aramaic—as his favorites, and others imagine him speaking in their own tongue. But even though his authoritative revelation is written in words, those words are filled with images, parables, stories, metaphors, and lots of other devices that bring pictures to our minds. In fact, he often gives his promises in scenic rather than contractual terms. He wants us to envision his purposes.

We’ve seen how God established that pattern early in his conversations with Abraham. He told Abraham to look to the skies and try to count the stars as an illustration of his numerous descendants (Genesis 15:5). He reiterated that scene and added a picture of the sand on the seashore to emphasize the magnitude of his promise after Abraham was willing to sacrifice it all in obedience. Abraham had proven his obedience as a servant, but God wanted to lift him up into friendship and expressed his thoughts, desires, and plans to Abraham through unforgettable images.

When we enter into that kind of friendship with God to hear what’s on his heart and express what’s on ours, sharing dreams and desires with him to bring about his purposes in this world, he imparts his visions to us. He gives us pictures to hold on to because they sink much deeper into our memory and emotions than contractual language does. We cling to the bare statements of a promise, but we’re inspired by the vistas he plants within our hearts of what those promises will look like when fulfilled. He provokes our imagination so he can fill it with his desires.

Don’t reject your imagination because of its potential to deceive. Give it to God because of its potential to see the Kingdom playing out. Let God engrave his pictures in your mind so you can pray them, believe them, and enter into them. He builds his Kingdom through friends who are willing to see what he sees.

There is no vision but by faith.