You begin to perceive someone doesn't like me, someone's rejected me, someone's this, someone's that, pastor ignores me, hates me, all that kind of stuff. That's a vain imagination and the problem is when the vain imagination comes in, it comes in strong and it comes in with feelings and you can't feel the presence of God. You just feel the vain imagination. The only thing you've got left is not your feelings and not the presence of God because you don't even feel the presence of God. All you've got is the word of God, and if you've got that word you can beat the imaginations every time. Think about that. That's why it says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal; they are mighty through God. There's a dependence upon God where He will back up His word. They are mighty through God and I can tear down, cast down, pull down imaginations which will take me away from God down a path I don't want to go, a path of rejection, a path of bitterness, a path of anger, a path of loss, a path of independence.
All of these paths which look so attractive when you're going through the pressure, but they take you away from God. You go backward, not forward. I've seen heaps of people go backward, not forward, yet there they were sitting like all of us worshipping God, hearing the word of God, loving God. What went wrong? An imagination got in the heart, or was already in the heart and built upon because it had never been torn down. That's how the devil works. That's how it started in Genesis. The plan hasn't changed, it's such a good plan. You think about how a person goes off into sexual sin, a male goes off [unclear 00.41.45]. They begin to fantasise. They begin to get imaginations. Now the thought coming in, you can't do much about that except you can make a decision to reject it. But if you entertain soon sin has conceived and already the sin is alive in your heart. It's just waiting for the opportunity to express. If you take in an offence and begin to meditate on an offence what happens? Well then you begin to be angry on the inside and already you have now entered into, and will soon manifest that. It will control your future - certainly the future of that relationship.
How many relationships have been broken because a vain imagination got in the mind, a misunderstanding that was never checked out by asking questions, anything like that? The vain imagination got in, an assumption made, a pictured formed and the person then walked out of that imagination and the relationship was ruined? God says to walk differently, He says to handle things differently, not to walk after the counsel of our imaginations, but to walk in the counsel of God, in the word of God. You need to know what God says in His word. You can't rely on just feelings and sensations. When you're in a meeting the presence of God there is wonderful. When you're in a place of temptation you don't feel God at all. He feels like I don't know where He went, He's just gone. All you can feel is your mind filling up with pictures, desires forming, longings forming, and if you entertain it you'll eat it and very soon having listened to that imagination and followed its counsel, you'll walk it out and it'll change your future. That's how imaginations work.
So we have to actually get strategies to confront vain imaginations, tear them down, so we can walk in the word and the spirit of God and follow after God into His destiny and plan for our life. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal; they are spiritual and they're powerful and they can deal with all of this junk so we can walk with God and fulfil our destiny, and dream and see things. That's what God wants for every one of us. We've got to learn how to do it. We have to actually decide I'm in a warfare, I'm going to begin to watch what I'm imagining, what I'm thinking about, where my mind is going and begin to check it against what God says, is this true or is this a lie? And I'll follow the Lord. Can we give the Lord a clap? [Applause] Can we give the Lord a clap? Thank You Lord. We thank You Jesus that You overcame the devil's temptations and the imaginations he put into Your mind by the word of God. It is written, it is written, it is written of the word of God. Well we want to be word people, spirit people, follow in Your spirit, guided and held up by the word of God.