So another one of course is imaginary companions. Now little kids have imaginary companions, but if they're deeply wounded it can turn into a familiar spirit which the child sees and no one else does. We had to pray for people in the Philippines, had a little - I don't want to call it a dwarf spirit but it's a little companion and it was a familiar spirit. In Ireland they call them leprechauns, a similar kind of thing. So there it is. Those are some of the doorways, some of the things and Job 31 says, he said I will make a covenant with my eyes, verse 1 and in verse 7, lest my heart follows my eyes, so whatever's captured your imagination will catch your heart. In Matthew 6 he says the eyes are the lamp of the soul, so whatever's got your sight, your imagination, will capture the focus of your life and direct you. This is what we need to be able to deal with it, and I'll show you how to do that. We're going to talk about how to tear it down, but I just want to go a couple more things and then I'll give you the key things to root it out.
So the next thing I want to look at, just I want to give you these quickly, but just the impact of fantasies, the impact of fantasies when they're unrestrained. There's several of them. Here they are: number one, it creates tracks in your mind that make it very, very easy to go there. Literally there are mental tracks in your mind. You just go back there all the time; same fantasy, same place, same thing, like a mental track is in there like a mental rut. The second thing, it causes you to avoid responsibilities that you should be facing. You go away to daydream land instead of facing responsibilities. Thirdly, it becomes a place of false comfort, where you find comfort with imaginations and demons instead of comfort from the Holy Ghost. It's a place of false comfort and connection to familiar spirits. The next thing, fourth, it becomes addictive. It becomes addictive like alcohol, just the same way alcohol, people go to the bottle, people can go to fantasy the same way and think they're much better than the alcoholic. It becomes a drug that opens your life.
The last couple of things, it opens the door to your soul to seducing spirits. It opens your life up. That's why we've got to deal with fantasies very, very clearly. It creates blocks to intimacy so you can never build good relationships within marriage and family. Many families are suffering because of this issue of fantasies as a way of escaping working things out. And lastly, it increases selfishness, self-centredness, because you actually become unaware of what anyone else is doing and you're locked up in your own world. Quite a pretty grim thing fantasy does. Now fantasy is a misuse of the creative gifting God gave us. We have to deal with this misuse and abuse. If you don't use something the way God intended, you've abused that and there's a consequence. How can I root out the fantasy? How can I root these things out? I'll look at it in more detail next week but I want to give you just the keys for rooting it out. Number one, you have to recognise it. You have to recognise it. Psalm 51:6, God desires truth of the inner parts.
So what is my fantasy? What is it my mind goes to? What do I begin to dream about? Am I dreaming about fulfilling the call of God, or am I going somewhere else? See, what shows up in the fantasy, what happens in the fantasy? You just ask yourself a few questions: when I daydream and go away in fantasy land what's happening? What goes on? Where does it end up? Just ask yourself the questions. How long has it been going? Am I addicted to this thing? Has this been a long-term pattern? Ask the questions and own it: I've got a problem. That'd be the first step. The second thing is it requires deep repentance. We have to abandon the false comfort. Matthew 4:17, if I want the kingdom to come in my life I must abandon the things which oppose it. This is something that opposes it. I have to make choices that this will no longer be part of my life. Even making the choice is a powerful step.