Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. ESV
The enemy’s plan is to condition us in such a way that our hearts are easily seduced by the things we allow to captivate our imagination.
I’m continually shocked by the lack of filter on people’s preferences for entertainment. IMDB offers a parental guide for all movies that will tell you every detail of foul language, nudity, violence, etc. When I was the Principal of our school students would sometimes be sly with a device to listen to music during school. When I would catch them I would take their device and transcribe the song they were listening to. I would give the device back when the parent came in with the student and would read the lyrics to me in front of their child.
I looked up the most common movies of 2024 and “Deadpool and Wolverine” was one of the most popular. After looking at the IMDB I learned that it has 117 uses of the F-word. This is a 120-minute film which translates to about one F-word every minute for two hours in addition to all the other foul language, sexual content and many other things that war against God’s desire for your imagination to be pure.
God directs us to judge every thought according to God’s word.
2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. NIV
Anything that is against the knowledge of God and isn’t obedient to Christ should be met with very purposeful hostility in all seriousness. If you’ve ever been out of the country, you know you don’t play around when you’re going through immigration at the border. You have borders.
Psalms 147:14 He grants peace to your borders and satisfies you… NIV
Open borders of your imagination are a threat to your soul. Taking every thought captive requires thorough interrogations as your border:
Certain things must never be allowed to enter the borders of your imagination! You were created to be fascinated. You can't afford to be impressed by the devil.
Cell phones without accountability open the borders of a person’s imagination giving access to the enemy of your soul. For you to give a child a cell phone that they have privately in their room at night is the equivalent to having a stack of pornographic magazines in their closet, telling them now don’t look at those. Faith was 15 or 16 years old, and some guy sent her an inappropriate message on Instagram. You know how I knew? We went to great lengths to monitor our kids’ phones. This isn’t something kids need. This is something we all need! I’m not the only one with my social media passwords. If you’re messaging me privately, you’re messaging me and the people I’ve invited into my life to help watch for my soul. Why allow temptation in the future that I’m able to eliminate today?
Faith and I had a convo when she turned 18, “Maybe give me a little more space, but I think we all need healthy accountability if we’re going to be at our best.”
You can have a reverse osmosis water purification system installed in your home that is so sophisticated that it forces water through a semipermeable membrane eliminating microscopic impurities and toxins. It’s not cheap! Neither is your purification process with God. But we are called to bring living water to a thirsting world.
Exodus 15 tells the story of Moses leading the Israelites through the wilderness when they came to a place called Marah where there was water. But the water wasn’t pure, it was poisoned. Moses throws a large piece of wood into the water and supernaturally, the poisoned water becomes pure. God is able to heal and restore the polluted streams of your imagination through the cross of Jesus Christ. He can purify you and release this living water rather than leaving you contaminated.
Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. ESV
If you take care of the purity of your imagination it’s supernaturally natural to see and hear God.
GP2RL: Uncover your wounded soul to someone you trust to pray for you and believe with you for healing.
