Eidetic visualization is the ability to construct internal visual images of something using details described or only briefly experienced by the senses. It involves imagination and is much more prominent in children than in adults. It is akin to reading a book or a series of books and constructing what you are reading in your mind as an image. You have never seen the characters but because they are described to the reader and the reader has seen other things that meet that description so they construct a mental image. The Greeks explored this concept and wondered about the reality of these mentally constructed images thinking that perhaps if many people 'saw' something in their minds that perhaps what they were seeing was a higher plane of existence... a realm of the Gods. Modern authors like Neil Gaiman use a variant of this idea creating stories where fairy tale characters have a reality (or life) based on the number of people that believe in them.
The Apostles spent time with Jesus as disciples and because they did they knew what it was like to be loved. God supplied them with materials that would be used later when Jesus was gone. They had revival muscle memory. When we have been loved we know what it is like to be loved. If we have been in a culture of love we long for it when we have to be in a another kind of culture for any period of time.
The Bible is a very black and white book. It makes the claim that what God thinks is real. He imagined us and we became real. The atheist wants to believe it is the other way around.
"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth." - Psalm 139:14-15 ESV
Jesus said,
"But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you." - Luke 11:20 KJV
Which is interesting because He is God's finger. He Is the manifestation of the eternal that God placed in time and space so that we could experience divine reality. Humanity was cut off so God reached into time so that we could experience Him again.
"The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing." - Psalm 34:7-10 ESV
Our belief in God doesn't make Him real. His belief in us makes us real. If we taste and see the goodness of God then we are blessed and a capacity is built in us for blessing.
In Romans 4:17 God made promises to Abraham and declared things that had not happened yet in this man's experience. He said that Abraham would be a father and Abraham mixed faith with that promise. Abraham had the beginnings of a mental structure that matched God's structure because Abraham mixed faith with God's promise. Today we see that Abraham is the father of many. God was faithful.
We have been given the ability to bind and loose.
"Assuredly, I am saying to you, Whatever you forbid on earth, shall have already been forbidden in heaven. And whatever you permit on earth, shall have already been permitted in heaven." - Matthew 18:18 (Wuest Expanded Translation)
We have that ability because of exposure to God's kingdom. The Bible gives us objective exposure and the people of God manifest the life of God in degrees so that we experience Him in other ways. One on one relationships contribute to that and corporate ones do also.
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;" - 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 KJV
Revival muscle memory give us the ability to cast down mental structures that are lifted up as accusations. Exercise in love can make us mighty in warfare also if we discern the warfare.
These are lofty ideas but they have day to day application. When we let God love us and when we love people in the same way that we have been loved God builds capacity in people and us at the same time. God builds things using eternal building blocks. We function as ambassadors for a kingdom. The more details that are given to people the more complete the image is. Teaching and speaking about the Bible is so vital. It explains the love. It gives a context for suffering. Deception is recognized and resisted. Reality begins to make sense. Hope is born in the heart.
God helps us today. We love because You first loved us. Let Your love be manifested as a culture of love in new places today. Bring light into darkness. We trust You for this as we dream dreams of redemption.
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