I have an active imagination. In my Journal of 1995 I was thinking the following:
I have been trying to do away with my imaginations. I wonder if they do not short circuit good that I might do. I live vicariously through the imagination. I imagine it, therefore I have “done” it, therefore I do not really have to do it.
Yet God says “without vision the people perish”. Some sort of thinking about what will happen is good. How can an event take place without there first being an idea? But I wonder if my imagining takes away from positive action. Certainly the negative imagining is not good for it sets an evil cast upon events which have not actually happened.
Maybe my mind being so full of imaginations keeps me from hearing from the Spirit of God. For example, I imagine “others do not want me around” and I launch my imagination off in that direction. What I should rather say is, “I resist that [negative] thinking; God said, 'resist the Devil and he will flee from you, draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh unto you'. In the name of Jesus I resist that thought.”
I need to walk “by faith and not by sight”. But surely “by faith” has a good deal to do with inward thought and therefore imagination. Perhaps God's inward voice to us originates partly through the imagination. Is it not possible he can use this tool?
It's important to know what God says and believe it is true (the faith part) and thereby order my behavior. If I listen to only what I say, I have a motor but no rudder. If I also listen to what other men say, I have a motor and rudder but no map or compass. If I listen to what I think, what other men say, and primarily to what God says, I have a motor, rudder, a reliable map and compass. I must use all sensibly.
