Chapter 3 “Imagine”

More than we can imagine? Wow, now that’s difficult to wrap our minds around, isn’t it? Who of us hasn’t had wild and incredible images of us being radically blessed? Until, of course, someone comes along to burst our bubble with words about “reality” that cause us to come back down to earth.

Yet no matter what anyone else says, the Bible says, “I pray that out of his glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (Ephesians 3:16-21 NIV).

None of us can read the Bible or listen to the testimonies of others and not come away with the fact that God can do anything, and do anything far beyond what we can imagine. Yet, being able to imagine it happening is where faith begins. How do we move our mountains? We have to start by imagining that it can happen!

Just the other day I was telling my oldest son, who is soon to marry, that his wife will have pain-free, uncomplicated childbirths when they have children. And I was shocked when he didn’t agree; he snickered. How could this young man, my son, who has seen countless miracles happen not readily agree? Well, unfortunately, where his faith is concerned he has also “witnessed” most of his siblings being born. Not that I was clearly suffering, and, thankfully, I am not a screamer. Ooops, I just remembered something, something I have to confess. Even though my son didn’t see my last baby being born, he most definitely heard some of it.

My last baby weighed close to 12 pounds; that’s 5.44 kilograms. So as a last-ditch effort on my part, I decided to scream. Not in pain, but to get my husband’s attention. Though I am not happy that my children heard me scream from the other room, the fact is, my one loud scream did cause my husband to “cry out to God” which led to a supernatural “didn’t push, but GOD pulled” birth! But the point is this: my son has seen natural childbirth first-hand; therefore, it will take a lot more for him to imagine differently for his wife.

The next part of our conversation was my son’s comment about his future children when he said, “One thing is for sure, our children will be very faired-skinned since both of us are.” That’s when I told him to believe that they would have olive skin without the burden of easily burning in the sun. Again, he chuckled. Until I said, “Hey, why not? Many of our family has olive skin” and went on to list them all. His face lit up, because for the first time, he could imagine that this was possible! Fast forward: Not all my grandchildren are fair skinned, but most can be out in the sun and not burn, unlike their parents.

Imagining, my dear bride, is the beginning of moving a mountain. You must be able to imagine the mountain moved, the unimaginable happening. So, since I never imagined when I was bearing children that having a baby pain-free was even possible—therefore, it never happened.

And before I heard about RMI and read about someone else having a restored marriage, I could never have ever imagined that restoring a marriage after adultery and divorce was possible. That’s why I would never have believed God for my own restoration, not until I heard her testimony and read about several others. Only then I believed it could happen. Soon after I began going through the book several times and looking up the verses myself, only then was I able to imagine the impossible. Then, I discovered that the next step in moving mountains is sensing something is going to happen.

Dear bride, let’s make one thing clear from the beginning. If what you need to believe God for is something you’ve never heard of, something that’s never mentioned in this book or in anyone else’s testimony you hear, then you, dear one, have been given the privilege of being called to be a pioneer—a true trailblazer.

Do you realize that God needs people like you who will believe what no one has seen or heard? God is looking for incredible people like you who are willing to build a bridge of faith over the deep ravine of doubt that keeps so many of us from gaining our promises!

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

Dear bride, are you a Bridge Builder?

 

The Bridge Builder

By Will Allen Dromgoole

 

An old man, going a lone highway,

Came, at the evening, cold and gray,

To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,

Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;

The sullen stream had no fears for him;

But he turned, when safe on the other side,

And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim, near,

“You are wasting strength with building here;

Your journey will end with the ending day;

You never again must pass this way;

You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide -

Why build you the bridge at the eventide?”

 

The builder lifted his old gray head:

“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,

“There followeth after me today

A youth, whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm, that has been naught to me,

To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.

He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building the bridge for him.”

Thankfully, many years ago God called Erin to be a pioneer for women, like you and me, who found themselves in a hopeless marriage that had crumbled or ceased to exist. I wondered how she was able to believe God for the impossible, since most of you know she had never once heard of a marriage (where a husband left to be with someone else) that had ever been restored.

Part of her faith, she told me, was based on witnessing her own parents’ marriage being restored after they were separated for nine years. Yet, I believe it started further back. On one of our many visits together, Erin once told me she was faced with something significant when she was just thirteen years old, something that altered the course of her life. She and her best friend were talking about the blue-eyed, blonde hair baby boys each would have after they married, and it’s interesting to me what Erin determined to believe and imagine.

Erin’s Blue Eyes Testimony

When I was 13-years-old my friend and I would imagine getting married, then talk about the children we would have. We both decided, as 13-years-old do, that we would have boys first. And I went on to say that my little boys would have blonde-hair and blue eyes! I could honestly see my little towhead boy in my mind just as clearly as if I were looking at my son Dallas and his adorable baby pictures today. It wasn’t difficult for my friend to believe the same since she had blonde hair and blue eyes. Yet having dark hair and brown eyes didn’t alter what I hoped for. A baby boy with blonde hair and blue eyes is what I wanted, so I imagined it and spoke about it often for years.

Later, when I was in college, I began as a premed student, which meant that one of my classes was genetics. In it we were asked to conduct a personal research. I chose to research the chances of my children having certain characteristics based on genetics, statistics, and gene strengths. Of course, since it was my dream to have a blue-eyed child, I based my research on this statistic. Since my eyes are brown, I discovered my odds were not good. I had, in fact, only a 1 in 4 possibility of having a blue-eyed child—and only if: I married someone who had blue eyes. In addition, for this 1 in 4 chance, both his parents would have to have blue eyes, and at least one of my parents would have to have blue eyes. Unfortunately, neither of my parents had blue eyes.

Nevertheless, I had more than statistics on my side. I had a mother of faith who told me that when she was a little girl her father had all of her dolls’ eyes changed from the normal blue to brown. She said she prayed for brown-eyed babies, and she got seven of them! True, brown eyes are dominant, but I just knew, like my mother, He would give me the desires of my heart.

Even though I saw what my paper concluded, that it was an impossibility, and I received an “A” for my research to confirm that what I hoped for was impossible, I simply prayed and believed that when I had children I would have a blonde haired, blue-eyed baby boy. And because the visions of having that little boy were stronger than facts—the result of me being able to imagine and believe resulted in—my first three children were boys with blonde hair AND blue eyes! And, for years everyone made sure to tell me my first son’s eyes would change color, but they never did. As a matter of fact, they are just as blue today as they were when he was a baby, and he is complimented on just how blue they are all the time!

By the way, the chances of having a blonde-haired child were better, since 5 out of my 6 siblings were blonde when they were young—but it was still a long shot because both their father and I were born with dark hair.

It was after my last baby, when my daughter Macy was born, who still has blonde hair and blue eyes that I fully realized that God can do anything—more than we could imagine or hope for. Just like it says in Ephesians 3:20 TLB, “Now glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes.”

So now my dear bride, after reading Erin’s testimony, what sort of things have you desired and maybe even imagined but were afraid to really hope for? I am sure if you’re like me, there are hundreds of things that you may have never even spoken about or haven’t spoken about in a very long time.

Today is the day to set aside a special time to talk to your Heavenly Husband. Talk to Him about your deepest most innermost treasures of your heart and pull them out one-by-one, and ask Him if you should let go or begin to believe and imagine and not give up on them happening. It is not too late for any of them, but if you have outgrown the impossibility, like I have for a pain-free childbirth, because you’re past childbearing years, be sure you pass the impossibility on to the next generation!

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for well-being and not for trouble, to give you a future and a hope’” (Jeremiah 29:11 NLV).

“Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you For the LORD is a God of justice; how blessed are all those who long for Him” (Isaiah 30:18).

“Instead of your shame you will have a double portion, and instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land, everlasting joy will be theirs” (Isaiah 61:7).

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear…” (1 John 4:18).

“Ask Me about the things to come…” (Isaiah 45:11). “Your ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right or to the left” (Isaiah 30:21).

Just be sure to “think on” each of these promises, so you can then begin to IMAGINE the impossible!!