Image Bearer: Restoring the power and truth of the image of God in you

By Venner Alston

Restore, refresh, and renew the power of God's glory in your life!

Do you feel as if God loves someone else more than He loves you? That He will honor someone else's prayers more than He will honor yours? Do you ever feel that some people are the apple of God's eye, but you're the bad seed and God doesn't care?

Do yo

• Language: English
• Publisher: VJ Alston International Ministries
• Release date: Jul 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9780990858515

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Image Bearer

by Venner Alston

Published by VJ Alston International Ministries

10936 N Port Washington Road, Suite 226

Mequon, WI 53092

www.drvjalston.org

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked

amp

are from the Amplified Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked

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are from the Amplified Bible, Classic Edition. Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

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niv

are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture quotations marked

nkjv

are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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The Message

are from The Message: The Bible in Contemporary English, copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

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are from The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017, 2018 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com.

Scripture quotations marked

The Voice

are taken from The Voice™. Copyright © 2008 by Ecclesia Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2020 by Venner Alston

All rights reserved

Visit the author’s website at www.drvjalston.org

International Standard Book Number: 978-0-9908585-0-8

E-book ISBN: 978-0-9908585-1-5

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Contents

Chapter 1: The Power of Imagery

Chapter 2: After His Likeness

Chapter 3: Image Robber

Chapter 4: Out of Focus

Chapter 5: Restoring Your Vision

Chapter 6: Your Image Makeover

Chapter 7: Embrace Your New Image

Notes

Chapter 1

The Power of Imagery

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

—2 Corinthians 3:18

If I take a picture of you, is the photo actually you? No, it’s an image of you. Image is one of the most powerful mediums in our world that helps us to connect with ideas, feelings, each other, and just about any tangible or intangible sense. Image is defined as a reproduction or imitation of the form of a person or thing; it is the optical counterpart of an object produced by a device as a lens or a mirror or an electronic device; it is a likeness of an object produced on a photographic material.

¹ It is also a mental picture or impression of something, an exact likeness, or tangible or visible representation of something. This means that an image can be something that is tangible, something that is real and in front of us like a statue. It can be something that is a representation of a real thing, like the photograph of you we just mentioned. It can also be something we can visualize in our minds, something we recall by memory and see, or something we use our imagination to draw up.

Let’s try it now and see how it works. Close your eyes. Take time to see the following images in your head:

See yourself taking a bite of a shiny, red apple—and it is so crisp.

Now think of a black and white spotted dot.

Imagine a lion roaring.

Visualize a yellow banana.

Can you get a mental picture of a pink shirt? Does it have buttons or is it a pullover?

What about big slices of juicy, red, ice-cold watermelon on a hot day?

Can you imagine eating a nice, thick, perfectly grilled steak, with sautéed mushrooms and onions, a little rice on the side, with some hot biscuits and gravy?

Now open your eyes. How did you do? Were you able to see each image in your head? If you were, then your ability to see images in your head is well developed like most of us. You were able to draw up a mental picture of the things I called out but realize that obviously you were not looking at the items themselves. They were not concrete or part of your tangible reality. This is imagery created in your mind by your imagination, which is the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses, or never before wholly perceived in reality; it is a creation of the mind.² What you saw was not actually there, but sometimes images can be so strong that you can taste them in your mouth. You can smell them with your nose. Or feel their texture or presence with your skin.

When I asked you to visualize the meal with hot biscuits, you already had your honey, jelly, or whatever you put on your biscuits, ready to pour or smear over them. You could probably smell the butter and feel your mouth begin to water. But again, these images are mental images not images that are actually present to your external senses.

The extent to which we can use our imagination is part of the creative ability God gave to us. But for everything that God has given to us, the enemy tries to corrupt it and use against us. Let’s hold this thought for a moment.

By Beholding, We Become…

We need to have a clear understanding of how powerful an image is, how much we respond to it, and how it drives the choices that shape our lives. By God’s design, we are very visual. According to one expert, Almost 50 percent of our brain is involved in visual processing and although we have five senses, 70 percent of all sensory reports are in the eyes.³

Vision is our primary sense. We can see something, analyze it, and attach meaning and purpose to it in less than one-tenth of a second.⁴ In other words, we see something and make split-second decisions about where it belongs in our lives. We attach various levels of importance to the things we see. We determine the image’s relevance and value to our lives or to the thing we are doing at the moment. Our brain cells fire up to 2 billion times per second just to compute, integrate, and remember all of the visual information we take in through our eyes.⁵

Advertisers hinge their client’s success on how humans process visual images. They spend billions of dollars researching how to move and manipulate our decision centers so that we buy their products or engage with their brands. They know that the more we see the same image, the more likely we are to give it more space in our brain. The more we see an image, the more value we place on it. The more it begs for our attention, the more we yield our attention to it. The more attention we give it, the more likely we are to do what we see it do.

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