HOW DARK IMAGINATIONS CAN DESTROY YOUR MIND

Christ gave you authority to bind and loose every thought and imagination. Refuse to let Satan introduce demonic imaginary into your imagination.

Your imagination can only incubate what you linger on, good or bad.
Imaginations create reality, even evil reality. There are over 400,000 registered sex offenders in the United States. The pornography industry, fueled by carnal lust and sexual fantasy, is larger than the combined revenues of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo and Apple. Driven by debased images this blackened smut is a $1 billion industry in North America alone. Engineered by wicked masterminds, pornography is the creation and distribution of sexually illicit images that have no literary or artistic value.
Through the contagion of erotica, Satan uses the imagination of man to sin against God, himself and society. Unrestrained sensuous pingere have a dark side that leads to wickedness, debauchery and destruction. The infamous serial killer Ted Bundy, murderer of 12-year old Kimberly Leach, was interviewed by Dr. James Dobson before his execution in the Florida State electric chair on January 24, 1989. Bundy murdered 28 young girls and women. He grew up in a Christian home, went to church and had loving parents. He describes pornography as the genesis of his fall into the abyss.
In the interview just hours before his electrocution, he tells of finding, as a 12- to 13-year-old boy, a pornographic magazine in the trash near his home. In time he became more and more addicted to pornography, especially violent images of tortured women. When that no longer satisfied his lust he fantasized of sexually assaulting and murdering women himself. He said, “The most damaging kind of pornography – and I’m talking from hard, real, personal experience – is that that involves violence and sexual violence. The wedding of those two forces – as I know only too well – brings about behavior that is too terrible to describe.”
In “The Road to Xanadu” Professor John Livingston Lowes wrote, “Fantasy and imagination are not two powers at all but one.” Bundy brought life to his perverted sexual fantasies. Commenting on the dangers of pornography he said, “I’ve lived in prison for a long time now, and I’ve met a lot of men who were motivated to commit violence. Without exception, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography – deeply consumed by the addiction. The FBI’s own study on serial homicide shows that the most common interest among serial killers is pornographers.”
Bundy is an example of the dark side of unfettered and incubated evil imaginations. He leaves us with a fagged warning, “There are those loose in their towns and communities, like me, whose dangerous impulses are being fueled, day in and day out, by violence in the media in its various forms – particularly sexualized violence.”
The good news is that Christ gave you authority to bind and loose every thought and imagination. Refuse to let Satan introduce demonic imaginary into your imagination. Bind every image and cast them down. You can choose how you respond. Bundy didn’t, you can.

RESPONSIBILITY
Everyday we are bombarded by secular television reminding us that we are in a spiritual battle against our minds. There is much concern about the economy, jobs, and housing prices, mortgage foreclosures, declining morals, attacks against family values, wars and rumors of wars, sickness, disease, terrorism and natural disasters of all kinds. It seems like the perpetual hostilities against our minds offers much opportunity to leave the realm of faith in Christ and enter the quagmire of doubt, unbelief and worry.
Once again I am assisted by the Apostle Paul’s statement: “Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” I love the power to imagine “all things possible to him that believeth.” Don’t you? Frequently, however, we have to battle the negative thoughts that war against our minds first. This brings me to the testimony of Viktor Frankl a survivor of the Nazi prison camps. In his autobiography, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” he pens an inspirational testimony of humanity’s potential for greatness whatever the circumstances. He wrote, “Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.” Frankl stated that no matter the mistreatment by his demonic oppressors they could never take away his choice of how he responded to them.

BUILDING STRONGHOLDS
Vain imaginations pondered will build damaging strongholds in your life. They war against your mind and keep you from walking in God’s perfect plan and purpose. Remember the degenerate progression. First the enemy challenges God’s Word in your life by introducing such things as doubt and unbelief. Next you have opportunity to ponder the thought and image it or cast it down. Further, you have the ability to linger on that imagination and speak it out or take it captive to the Word of God and cast it down. See the progression? The ability to give freedom to your imaginations belongs entirely to you.
The result of habitual negative thoughts and imaginations can send you spiraling into a state of depression. When we think something often enough, we begin to believe it’s true and our feelings match what we are thinking. To conquer depression psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck developed “cognitive therapy” in the 1960s to stop negative thoughts by replacing them with more positive ones. He believed that depression could be stopped before it ever started. The Apostle Paul developed the therapy long before Beck. He said, “Be careful (anxious) for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you” (Philippians 4:6-9).
God gave you freedom to choose how you respond to every circumstance in life, every thought that attacks your mind and every bad report that contradicts God’s plan. Like Frankl you have complete control over your thought life. All of us have thoughts. They can be good or bad but thoughts are only ingredients we use to make decisions. If your thoughts are carnal, then cast them down. If they are positive, feed them. Your imagination can only incubate what you linger on, good or bad.
You have control over your thought life and nobody can ever take away your freedom to choose how you respond to thoughts and imaginations. The Word teaches of a demon possessed man with an unclean spirit that lived in a cemetery. When he saw Jesus he ran to Him, bowed and worshipped (Mark 5). If a legion of devils could not stop him from coming to Christ then no devil, demonic thought or evil imagination can stop you from the abundant life in Christ Jesus.
The world has always been filled with doubt, unbelief and evil goings-on. The good news is that you, the born-again believer, are no longer part of that kingdom. You can escape the dark side. Christ has redeemed you and given you great and precious promises. Take control of your life and choose to respond to every circumstance of life, thought and imagination according to the truth found in the Word of God.

MEDITATION AND REFLECTION
Imaginations create reality, even evil reality.
All of us have thoughts. They can be good or bad but thoughts are only ingredients we use to make decisions.
If your thoughts are carnal, then cast them down. If they are positive, feed them.
Your imagination can only incubate what you linger on, good or bad.