Imagine... THIS!

The Dream
There are two occasions when I have been given a dream in the night proving to be from the Holy Spirit. One was in 1998 when we lived in the Pacific Northwest as we were preparing for a move to Southeast Kansas. It was one of those sit-up-suddenly-fully-awake-sweating nightmares I had only seen in the movies and on television. I received a distinct warning from the Spirit which was confirmed later the same morning by the Word of God. It happened in less than two years exactly as it had been revealed.

The second Spiritual dream took place early this morning, Sunday, March 15, 2026, but was in no way like the first. On the contrary, this was a most pleasant experience that only awakened a curiosity in my spirit and drove me moments later into my Bible for confirmation. The validation I received is found in the paragraphs that follow my introduction.

In my dream, I saw what appeared as one end of a cross-cut log that, although resembling some variety of wood, had a jewel-like quality about it. It could be described as petrified, but it was not merely dead stone. Around the center appeared a ring of quartz-looking material with many cut surfaces, white to silver in color, sparkling like dew on morning grass. This was ringed on its outside by a progressively darkening reddish-brown toward a deep chocolate of what looked like tree bark, multi-faceted like small stones pressed into one another that glittered and twinkled in the light. The center inside of the whiteish ring was a blended light tan of the same sort of material, also glimmering and radiant.

The message written thereon was an unrecognized handwriting impossible for me to adequately describe. I could not read the words until I fixed my focus on them for a few seconds. The largest letters spelled out the message: “Imagine This.” As I continued to gaze intently at the characters, smaller words appeared below that read: “The Mind of Christ.” I arose moments later and began the study I share with you now.

The Word of God
“But, as it is written,

‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him.’

These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things but is himself to be judged by no one.

‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’

But we have the mind of Christ.” I Corinthians 2:9-16 (ESV)

The Limitation
Human imagination, reasoning, creativity, and speculation hit a hard limit in the very first verse of the Scripture. The gospel’s hidden wisdom, God’s eternal plan to glorify Himself through Christ’s death and resurrection, granting us salvation, union with Christ, eternal life, and all spiritual blessings, is not something the unaided human mind can dream up, figure out, or even picture adequately. It is not just bigger and better than we expect; it is categorically outside the sphere of what fallen human imagination can generate.

The paraphrase from Isaiah 64:4 emphasizes this truth:
No eye: visual and sensory experience fails.
No ear: no report or teaching from others can suffice.
No heart: our thoughts, imagination, and deepest notions cannot conceive it.

The Necessary Progression
Thankfully, we are not left on a dead end but are led through a transition to glorious truth. We are assured that God reveals the unimaginable by His Holy Spirit because the Spirit searches and knows even the deep things of God, just as our own spirits know our own inner thoughts. And although no one knows the thoughts of God except His Spirit, we, as believers receive this same Spirit, so we can know what God has freely given us!

In short, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, believers are given access to divine wisdom and perspective that the world cannot grasp. It is not that we become omniscient or infallible, but we share Christ’s own way of seeing reality: God’s redemptive plan, spiritual sensibilities, and kingdom priorities. Since these things are spiritually discerned, it is impossible for the natural, soulish, and unregenerate person who regards them as foolishness to receive or even understand their most fundamental meaning. Believers are endowed with new capacity to appraise everything with divine insight.

The Astounding Announcement
“We have the mind of Christ!”

This may be the most astonishing declaration in the New Testament. Think of what that means to us today.
1. We now share in God’s perspective and purposes
2. We share in the humility, obedience, compassion, self-sacrifice, and dependence on our Heavenly Father that reflect the values and attitude of Jesus.
3. We share the Holy Spirit’s discernment: His ability to evaluate life, relationships, culture, and decisions through a renewed, Spirit-led lens as opposed to worldly reasoning.
4. We are given wisdom for living, bringing the fruit of the Spirit into every situation, no matter the circumstances.

The implications are profound, encouraging, and challenging. We are not left to navigate life with mere human wisdom. The mind that was in Christ, humble, cross-centered, eternally oriented, is now ours to accept. This gift of grace demolishes pride as it is not a product of superior insight nor personal brilliance. We are empowered to live counter-culturally: seeing suffering, service, and sacrifice as pathways to glory, just as Jesus did. This staggering promise of intimacy with God through the Spirit invites us into the very thinking and priorities of Jesus Himself.

In other words, having the mind of Christ overcomes the barrier first described to us. Our natural imaginations are too small, too corrupted, too earthbound to grasp what God has prepared. But through the indwelling Holy Spirit we are given access to Christ’s own perspective and understanding. This does not mean we suddenly become omniscient. It means that our imaginations are renewed and expanded toward God’s realities. We value what Christ values. We see sin’s folly, grasp grace’s depth, and anticipate resurrection life in ways the world cannot.

The Heart of the Artist
Having the mind of Christ reshapes human creativity and artistry for believers: redeeming, renewing, elevating, and redirecting our creative faculties. Natural human creativity, however brilliant, is finite, fallen, and earthbound. It recycles existing patterns, reflects subjective experiences and biases, or chases cultural trends, but it cannot originate or fully grasp the depth of God’s redemptive wisdom.

When we receive the mind of Christ, our creativity is no longer capped by natural limits. It becomes Spirit-empowered and therefore able to glimpse, mirror, and express truths that surpass mere human invention. The creative process shifts from self-generated speculation to Spirit-inspired vision: art that points to Christ’s humility, grace, sacrifice, resurrection hope, and ultimate restoration, all things the world deems foolish but that carry eternal weight.

The mind of Christ is not abstract intellectualism; it is creativity aligned with Christ’s perspective and values. It is the mindset Jesus modeled: humble obedience, cross-centered love, eternal orientation, service over self-exaltation. This directly influences artistry as we allow our imaginations to be captured by Christ’s priorities rather than worldly ones. Our priorities shift from art that glorifies self, shock value, or fleeting beauty, to glorifying God, revealing truth, and serving others. Our themes deepen to be intuitively redemptive and healing, emphasizing light in darkness and resurrection joy amid suffering.

Because our minds now accentuate humility, we are equipped with a guard against idolatry. Our creativity remains our participation in God’s ongoing work and keeps us from treating imagination as a godlike power detached from revealed truth. The artist now permits the imagination to be set on fire by the Spirit to convey kingdom realities in fresh, compelling ways.

The Redeemed Process for Creatives
Prayer, Scripture, and Spirit dependence become integral to the creative workflow, not add-ons. Ideas flow from meditating on God’s character and works rather than pure introspection or cultural mimicry. Our own creative guesses or cultural dreams about what God might do become inspired works of what God is doing.

Submission to Christ’s mind paradoxically unleashes more authentic creativity than we possess in our own talent makeup. The boundaries of avoiding immorality and pursuing excellence for God’s glory prevent aimless experimentation while opening doors to innovative expressions of gospel truth. Art from this mindset has immense cultural impact as it can pierce secular blindness, offer beauty and meaning, and echo the unimaginable things God has prepared. It invites viewers to encounter divine reality rather than mere entertainment or provocation.

Creativity flourishes in the body of Christ, where discernment helps refine work and guard against deception. Human artistry moves from impressive but limited invention toward participation in God’s creative redemptive story: reflecting His beauty, truth, and goodness in ways that glorify Him and edify others.

This does not make every believer an artist, but it does mean that for those who are, their craft becomes an act of worship, a foretaste of new creation, and a Spirit-empowered extension of Christ’s own creative, redemptive work. What a shift from “no heart has imagined” to “we have the mind of Christ.”

Imagine that!