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I am offered – no, pressured – to experience “good” and evil. The evil is not quite so hard to figure out, or so it seems. Or maybe it too is sometimes so subtle that I don't realize I am immersing myself in it. My penchant for assuming ill motives by others upon hearing about any problem is not only dwelling on evil but can even be producing it. Allowing my heart to be terrorized by stories of atrocities and abuse by those in power is part of evil. Do those things really happen, are they true? I'm sure many of them are, and they are impossible to avoid some of the time. But my choice to gravitate toward those things, to dwell on those things, to feed on them and distribute them perpetuates the atmosphere of fear which is exactly what they were intended to produce. By allowing them priority in my imagination I become an unwitting agent for their distribution and amplify their power.
The other choice from this tree is what is, by contrast, better than the evil and often labeled good. These are the things, activities, relationships etc. that give me pleasure that distracts my attention from the ill feelings I want to avoid from all the evil in the world. They are also used very often to glaze over the attachment pain I am unwilling or seem unable to face. There is certainly no end to this list and it is shaped to fit my culture and personality. Entertainment in all its myriad forms is the primary medium for much of this “good”. I notice how much I and everyone around me try to justify and rationalize our heavy addictions to this area of our life, either to ourselves or publicly. It is very true that immersing my mind into a movie will easily mask the pain and fears in my life for a period of time just like a drug can. It also consumes hours of time that I am not investing in deepening important relationships that are suffering atrophy. I have noticed that the internal but usually unspoken inducement suggested to entice me to watch yet another video with my family or friends is the idea that in doing so we are doing something together and thereby bonding. Of course, it never seems to produce stronger bonds with each other after the fact. The only bonds that are obviously strengthened are our attachments to the heroes and villains on the screen and our increased desire for yet another "fix". These have become major false gods that further dictate how we think, act and relate.
I was impressed this morning of another reason my imagination is so important to guard and nurture in the things of heaven. I believe my imagination, that part of my brain that can piece together ideas, pictures, concepts and inspiration, is like a living antenna that was designed originally to receive communications from heaven. It is one of the important elements of my receiving apparatus to pick up and decipher signals from the supernatural. Being a living organism and not just a static antenna, it continuously grows and adapts toward the configurations needed for the signals that it is most used for. It increases its ability to fine-tune itself to the signals that it becomes accustomed to receiving and filters out conflicting signals and information. It works in conjunction with other parts of the brain that are used to decode the incoming signals and interpret them in the light of previous information, beliefs and the influence of whatever spirit is controlling us at the time.
When I submit my imagination to be manipulated by the gods of Hollywood or Disney, the tendrils of the antenna will grow and adapt to the criteria and values promoted by those gods. But at the very same time my antenna is becoming more and more limited in its ability to easily pick up messages from the True Reality. I become more and more stunted in my spiritual life while enjoying more and more the pleasures and the drugging effects of the various mixed messages received from the dark side. Simultaneously I am also discounting the effect this is having on me and rationalizing my choices to myself, to others and even to God.
The immense danger in this is like the danger in building a house on the sand instead of on the rock. There appears to be no problems until the intense times come and then it is too late for proper construction. I have to take it on faith now that choosing to abstain from many things that everyone around me considers benign and recommendable is actually in my long-term best interest.
Even so, I can often notice the effects almost immediately on my ability to hear the things of heaven. I have noticed that if I keep my imagination guarded and protected the delicate receivers began to pick up more clearly the excitement and joy and healing love that permeates all of heaven's atmosphere. The Bible begins to come much more alive to me as I am able to experience the guidance of the Holy Spirit more readily. I start to experience more hunger for God and more desire to link my heart with others who are on the same quest. It is not far into this experience that in a moment of dullness or boredom I am again enticed into what is often billed as an innocent pleasure and my delicate imagination antenna receives a round of clipping and redirection that leaves me rehashing the latest scenarios embedded into my mind by enchanting gods that want to keep me under their control.
This all seems so silly and exaggerated. That completely depends from what side of the issue you observe it from. It is either viewed as fanatical and extreme and over-religious, or it is possibly a real and intense warfare for the entrance to my soul. One thing is becoming clear – my imagination, the equipment I received from the original designer, is a crucial point of focus in this war. It starts to make a lot more sense the warnings about the time coming when the Holy Spirit will be poured out on many all around us without us ever realizing it is happening. If my equipment has been tuned by practice into the frequencies of the world, either good or evil, I will not be tuned correctly to hear the messages beamed to the whole earth from the Deliverer on His way to finish the battle. However, it is also my privilege to live in full surrender to the light and have my receiver fine-tuned to it's highest capacity so that it will be ready to be linked together with thousands of other receivers when the time is full. I can learn now to live from my heart and allow myself to be led by the Spirit and die to my “flesh”. It all pivots on my power to choose who I will serve and believe in.
