DAY 3: When The Word Becomes A Picture
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.” Joshua 1:8 NKJV
“Meditation gives the Word of God time to paint His picture upon the canvas of your heart.” — Dr. Daniel LeBlanc
When The Word Becomes A Picture
Yesterday we discovered that what we see with our natural eyes may be real, but it is not all that is real. There is a spirit world reality, and God has called us to mature beyond living only by what our natural senses report. But how do we begin seeing our lives from the perspective of God’s Kingdom? One of the primary ways is through His Word.
God told Joshua to meditate in His Word day and night. Biblical meditation is not emptying your mind. It is deliberately filling your heart and mind with the truth of God until His truth begins changing the picture within you. God did not tell Joshua to ignore the battles ahead of him. He taught Joshua how to prepare his inner world before he faced them.
Think about what happens when you worry. A thought enters your mind, and you begin turning it over again and again. Soon you are imagining conversations that have never happened, experiencing disasters that have never occurred, and feeling the emotions of a future that does not even exist. Fear whispered the thought, but meditation helped paint the picture.
The same principle can work in the opposite direction. When you take God’s Word and continually meditate upon it, truth begins replacing the pictures that fear, temptation, condemnation, rejection, and unbelief have painted within you. Instead of allowing another spirit to dominate your thinking, you bring your imagination under the reign of the Holy Spirit.
The psalmist described the person who meditates on God’s Word as “a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season.” Psalm 1:3 NKJV. Meditation allows truth to put down roots. The Word moves beyond something you merely read and begins becoming something established within you.
Consider the familiar words, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Psalm 23:1 NKJV. You may have read that verse hundreds of times, but stop and allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate what it means. A shepherd leads, protects, provides, watches, corrects, and remains with the sheep. Now make that truth personal. The Lord is my Shepherd. I am not abandoned. I am not wandering through life without direction. I do not have to be ruled by fear concerning tomorrow. My Shepherd knows where I am, what I need, what is ahead, and where He is leading me. Now the Word is becoming a picture.
Perhaps fear has been painting a picture of disaster. The Word paints a picture of a Shepherd. Perhaps rejection has painted a picture of abandonment. The Word paints a picture of a Father who has received you. Perhaps addiction has painted a picture that says, “You will always be this way.” The Word declares that sin shall not have dominion over you. Perhaps condemnation keeps showing you your past. The Word shows you the righteousness you have received through Christ. This is where God Imagination becomes powerful.
We are not creating reality with our minds. We are allowing God’s revealed reality to correct the false pictures that have been ruling our minds. We are not imagining whatever we desire and commanding God to produce it. We are allowing His Word to determine what deserves our agreement. Scripture says, “The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” Psalm 119:130 NKJV. Imagine walking into a completely dark room filled with furniture. Everything is already there, but darkness prevents you from seeing it. Turn on the light, and nothing new has been placed in the room. You can simply see what was already there. That is what revelation often feels like. You may have read a Scripture many times, but suddenly the Holy Spirit turns on the light. You find yourself saying, “I have read that verse before, but now I see it!” The truth moves from information in your mind to revelation in your heart, and revelation begins painting a different picture.
This gives us an important progression:
God’s Word → Meditation → Revelation → God Imagination
Then that inward picture begins producing something outward:
God Imagination → Hope → Faith → Obedience → Transformation
God’s Word changes what we see. What we see influences what we believe, and what we believe begins influencing how we live.
We also need to recognize the world we are living in. Never before have human beings carried so many images in the palms of their hands. Through social media, TikTok, YouTube, entertainment, advertising, and countless other platforms, pictures and messages are continually competing for access to our eyes, our thoughts, and ultimately our imagination. Many things can become doorways through which temptation and destructive spiritual influences seek to gain our attention and agreement.
Just the other day, someone contacted me through TikTok and said they had a message for me. At first, it sounded as though they genuinely wanted to communicate something. But it quickly became obvious that the so called message was nothing more than an attempt to seduce me into sexual immorality. That moment reminded me of something important. The enemy does not always arrive looking like an enemy. Sometimes temptation arrives disguised as a message, an invitation, a video, a picture, a conversation, or something that simply makes us curious enough to keep looking.
The first image may appear before you without your permission, but what happens next involves your authority and responsibility. I did not have to continue looking. I did not have to engage the person. I did not have to entertain the thought or allow the temptation to begin painting pictures within my imagination. I could recognize what was happening, reject it, and move on. I decided long ago that I am no longer walking in the ways of this world. I am sold out to Jesus Christ, and through Him I have authority over temptation rather than allowing temptation to have authority over me. This is where many battles are either strengthened or stopped. What begins as a picture on a screen can become a thought in the mind. The thought can become an imagination, and the imagination can become a desire that seeks expression through our actions. This is why we cannot be careless about what we continually place before our eyes.
As I often say, we must guard our gates, our five senses. What we repeatedly allow through our eyes and ears can influence what is painted upon our imagination. We may not control everything that appears before us, but we can choose what we continue looking at, listening to, meditating upon, and allowing to remain within us. I choose a God Imagination. How about you?
We are not called to live afraid of technology or suspicious of everything around us. We are called to exercise dominion over what has access to our inner world. We can use technology without allowing technology to use us. We can live in this world without surrendering the canvas of our imagination to the spirit of this world. This is also where our God given authority becomes practical. We do not have to allow every thought that enters our minds to remain there. We do not have to allow fear, lust, bitterness, offense, addiction, rejection, condemnation, or unbelief to continually paint upon our imagination. We have been given the responsibility to bring our thoughts under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
The enemy may whisper, but he does not have the right to hold the brush. When a thought says, “You cannot overcome this,” the Word says you are more than a conqueror through Christ. When condemnation says, “You will always be defined by what you did,” the Word says you are the righteousness of God in Christ. When fear says, “You are surrounded,” the Word reminds you that greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
This is not positive thinking. This is Kingdom thinking. It is time to stop making excuses for low living and continually yielding ourselves to sin. Jesus has called His Church to rise up and live from the righteousness, holiness, and authority He has given us. Our Bridegroom is coming for His Bride, and we should desire to live fully surrendered and devoted to Him. We are learning to rule our inner world under the reign of the Holy Spirit. We are coming out of agreement with every imagination that contradicts God and bringing our thoughts, pictures, expectations, and desires into agreement with His Word.
Today, choose one truth from Scripture and stay with it. Read it slowly. Speak it aloud. Think about what it reveals concerning God and what it means for your life. Ask the Holy Spirit to turn on the light until you begin seeing what He sees. Do not rush the process. Give truth time to paint, and refuse to surrender the canvas of your heart to another kingdom.
Prayer
Father, teach me to meditate upon Your Word until Your truth becomes established within me. I come out of agreement with every lie, fearful picture, sinful imagination, and destructive thought that contradicts what You have spoken. Give me wisdom concerning what I allow before my eyes and what I permit to remain in my thoughts. Holy Spirit, illuminate the Scriptures and paint Your truth upon the canvas of my heart. Teach me to exercise authority over my inner world under Your reign so that what I see, believe, speak, and live increasingly agrees with You. Amen.
Today’s God Imagination
My eyes, thoughts, and imagination belong to God. I will not surrender the canvas of my heart to fear, lust, temptation, social media, the spirit of this world, or the enemy. I choose to meditate upon God’s Word until His truth becomes the picture within me. I will think from His Kingdom, live under the reign of the Holy Spirit, and walk in the authority Jesus has given me.
