POWER OF ENVISIONING

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. The mind is more easily influenced by pictures than words.

One of the possible practical reasons that Jesus used parables in his ministry is that parables teach a concept or idea by using word pictures. By using word pictures rather than a long essay, the essence of the message is not as easily lost over a period of time. Two thousand years later, even after tremendous technological advances  when we read the parables, we can still visualize the pictures and hence understand his message easily. 

To illustrate let’s look at Matthew 13:31-32

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
The plant referred to here is generally considered to be black mustard, a large annual plant up to 9 feet tall,but growing from a very tiny seed. 

So the picture painted here is suggestive of the growth of the kingdom of God. Starting small and then gradually growing to reach the entire world.

 Jesus was extremely good at drawing people’s attention by the pictures and visions he gave them. Everywhere he went, he inspired the imaginations of people such that the old and the young went without food just to hear him talk.

 Proverbs 29:18 helps us grasp the importance of vision. It says that without a vision the people perish.

 and that is why in addition to affirmations, having a picture of what you want to be or achieve is so important. Hence we need to practice a combination of what I call- right affirmations and right Picture.

Now let’s look at what happens when we use a wrong combination.

Right   Affirmations No pictures,

I can still remember as a child when people used to  ask me, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I would always answer “a doctor” without really knowing what it was all about. I simply could not visualize myself as a doctor; It was not my dream, it was in fact my parent’s dream for me. So while I was declaring that I am going to be a doctor; there was no picture in my mind.

 If you notice, many children face the same situation nowadays, where children are expected to achieve their parent’s dream for them. Parents may be doing it with the best of intentions; but unfortunately results in such cases are almost always counter productive.

 Point: We cannot achieve anything that we cannot visualize or picture it in our minds. We cannot achieve what someone else has visualized for us.  

Pastor may have a vision for the church, but if we do not share his vision, we will not be able to run with him. Our boss may have a vision for his company, but if the employees cannot visualize it, then nothing is achieved.

 Wrong affirmation Wrong picture

There was this lady whose pet topic for conversation was sickness. She had grown up watching people around her falling sick and this picture of sickness was so deeply embedded in her psyche that sickness was the centre of her existence. Additionally she used to hoard her money, declaring that it would be of help to her in the event of falling sick in her old age. True to her imagination and declaration, she fell very ill, for a number of years in her old age and large amounts of the money that she had hoarded, went in paying for medicines, doctor’s fees, hospital charges, specialized care etc.

Point:

Using the combination of wrong pictures and wrong affirmations is disastrous since whatever we visualize in our mind, whether good or bad, will definitely come to pass, if we concentrate on it  long and hard enough.

 Right Affirmations, wrong picture

 Let me illustrate this. Suppose you want to walk across a rope bridge over a deep ravine. It appears quite flimsy. You may be declaring with your mouth- “Yes, I am going to get across. Jesus is with me” But the picture in your mind is not very encouraging- the picture shows you  losing your footing and falling, or slipping or feeling giddy  or whatever. When you have a picture like that, forget walking across the bridge, you’ll never even dare to step on it.

 Point:

Even if you are using the right affirmations to achieve something, but the picture in your mind is contradictory to what u r affirming, possibility is high that you’ll never achieve it.

Ideally, visualizing your future should be very much the same as remembering your past. However it is not so; while recalling past incidents may be as simple as ABC, visualizing something in the future requires a lot of effort, time and practice. When we focus on the past , most of us tend to visualize areas of lack in our life. As we do this continuously, day in and day out, for months , the lack in our life gets more and more pronounced.

Instead of this,  we need to purposely visualize what we want to achieve in the future – continuously, day in and day out,  – then we will be able to achieve whatever we are focusing on  – love, joy, satisfying relations, job satisfaction, health, creativity, inner peace, happiness.

The question was once asked of a highly successful businessman, “How have you done so much in your lifetime?”

He replied, “I grow by dreams. I have turned my mind loose to imagine what I wanted to do. Then I have gone to bed and thought about my dreams. In the night I dreamt about my dreams. And when I awoke in the morning, I saw the way to make my dreams real. While other people were saying, ‘You can’t do that, it is impossible,’ I was well on my way to achieving what I wanted.” As Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the U.S., said: “We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers.”

 So the bottom line is, see yourself healthy in your own mind. See yourself happy, see yourself as a friendly person, being loved, loving, creative, successful

 As someone said- Do not let anyone steal your dreams, or try to tell you they are too impossible.

“Sing your songs, and dream your dreams, hope your hope and pray your prayer.”

Your life is limited to your vision. If you want to change your life, you must change your vision of your life.