Imagine This …: Expanded Edition

By Steven L. Dickerson Sr.

Have you truly taken ownership of a Christ-like life--one that is based on wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and embracing the work we are naturally created and trained to do? Although God has given us various characteristics and traits to draw from when we encounter lifes trials and tests, he still holds us accountable in this process to change our mind no matter what pressures life brings.

Imagine This opens up our imagination to the knowledge that while are we born with everything already inside of us to survive successfully throughout today, tomorrow, and into the future, our heavenly Fathers presence is with us at all times to guide us, help us, and keep us from evil. As we begin to develop our spirit man--as God did with the tribe of Israel to illustrate how humanity is included in Gods overall plan--we can come closer to identifying the signs of our spiritual growth and maturity. We can then ultimately be encouraged to continue in spite of difficulties by supporting our own development and growth in this process of faith.

Believers are established in wholeness and completion. Once we have identified and isolated our personal insecurities and exchanged those beliefs with boldness, courage, and confidence, we will finally receive the blessings and wealth of a renewed mind--the direct result of what happens when the Holy Spirit inspires us to grow to achieve more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Jan 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781480825765

Steven L. Dickerson Sr.

Steven L. Dickerson Sr. was raised in Savannah, Georgia, and he enjoys the art and process of writing. He recalls first writing in the seventh grade to help see what he was thinking, and he is passionate about fostering the healing process for the broken hearted.

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IMAGINE THIS…

EXPANDED EDITION

STEVEN L. DICKERSON SR.

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Copyright © 2016 Steven L. Dickerson Sr..

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Archway Publishing

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4808-2574-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-2575-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-2576-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016900099

Archway Publishing rev. date: 1/18/2016

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Acknowledgements

REUBEN

SIMEON

LEVI

Escaping The Escape

This Place Called Void

JUDAH

The Great Give Back – Judah

Enter the New Priesthood

Made Over

DAN

Trial

NAPHTALI

Broken Down to Move

GAD

ASHER

ISSACHAR

ZEBULUN

Dinah: Time for Justice

JOSEPH

BENJAMIN

A Day Of Forgiveness

MANASSEH

EPHRAIM

Say Grace

I will fill in the blanks for you…

FOREWORD

T hink back to when you were a child at a birthday party, someone says it’s time to play games. The game is pin the tail on the donkey. Imagine how you were blind folded and given a tail with a pin at the end. Now, imagine how they would spin you around and tell you to try and pin the tail in your hand on the donkey. That is what your life is like when you have no direction or purpose in life. Reading the 12(+) points from this book, gives you direction and scriptures along the way. You can take off the blind fold and see the great wonders of the world God has already set forth for you. Take off the blinders of shame, guilt, loneliness, greed or whatever has kept you from reaching your full potential in the Kingdom of God. The scriptures say, I can do all things through Christ that strengthen me, Phil 4:13. So get your strength to move forward on your Christian Journey by reading and following the lesson plan set forth in this wonderful book written from a vision and through a man who is steadfast in Christ love. I am blessed to have this person in my life that I can laugh with and celebrate the goodness of the Lord. So I say to you, imagine this… Can’t you see it…? Don’t you see it…?

I can.

Imagine this …

Yvette Richards, His sister in Christ

The foxes have holes,

and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.

Matthew 8:20

INTRODUCTION

W hen God begins to develop our Spirit Man, He applies certain characteristics and/or tools in our life that distinguishes His children from worldly people. God births His Holy Spirit in our life. He works on the inside of us and He creates our inner man into the image and likeness of His son, Jesus the Christ. However, He does not change our outward appearance. We change our outward appearance in accordance to what we think is acceptable to God our Father. From the clothes we wear to the company we keep to the places we go to the words we speak all begin to change as our spirit man matures. God establishes His glory on the inside of our lives and allows us to change our surroundings that will be conducive with His presence and our new way of thinking. I believe God moves in twelve (+3) identifiable steps that will, for us, uncover His magnificent presence as we develop and mature our spirit man. God also gives us our reward for completing the process of becoming like Christ and shows us this through Jacob’s grandchildren, the next generation. The children of Jacob have given us the very keys to understanding the nature of our spiritual life, growth, development and completion. In addition to recognizing the awesome presence of God as a part of our daily life, we are able to identify areas in our life in need of improvement. Come with me and ‘Imagine this….’

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To the one and only living God Yahweh, thank you.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father,

I love you. Thank you for your awesome presence in my life. Your mercies endure forever. Thank you for grace. It is not by my strength nor is it by my understanding that I live but it is because of your power, your love. I bless your wonderful name and pray that you create in me what you desire and that your will be completed in the purpose and reason you fashioned me after the image and likeness of your first-born son, Jesus. Father you are Holy and God of all, you are the glory I long for and the hope I keep sealed within my heart. It is hard for me to believe at times but Father you imagined the person I am. I am grateful that you call me to be one of your own. Forgive me of my sins and guide my steps in this day and forever. My life is yours. Father, allow the information in this book to penetrate and free the understanding of every reader. Let these pages catapult our faith in you into reality now. I close my eyes to see your way, as I seek your Kingdom along this journey. I hope for you. Thank you for saving my life Lord. Thank you for the favor and grace you have placed in my life. You are my God forever and I love you again and again, amen.

Steven

SEASON I:

REUBEN

to look upon – to see

I believe what God births first in our spiritual life is sight, the ability to see more than the flesh of mankind but to see the needs of man. In this area of sight, we are able to see to understand and apply compassion towards those who have been afflicted. In essence, we are exposed by the power of the Holy Spirit to the light of the Father to begin a process that Christ, Himself lived through. I haven’t taken a survey but I am pretty sure that the majority of us would confirm that the ability to see is Numeral Uno of all senses. Genesis 1:3 reads, And God said let there be light: and there was light. It was not until verse 16 that God created the sun, moon and stars. The Light created first was not a light for the visible, physical or tangible eye but it was the Light (the spoken word of God) that shone the glory of the Father for the understanding of everyone and everything created. This Light was spoken into existence to set in order an earth that was, without form and void. This is symbolic to how God relates to you and me, His heavenly-earthen population. I want you to know that the very way creation began is the same way is the same way our spiritual awakening starts with God. When God called forth light, He saw that it was good. Then, after the light was seen first, Gods’ will is to bring every good thing in the earth out of the earth, in His time…. The position that God speaks to the earth first in the beginning is from without and the second time He speaks to the earth is from within. I want you to know that just how the beginning of the bible starts in the same way our natural life and our spiritual life began with God.

I Corinthians 15:44 let us know that there is first sown a natural body and then raised a spiritual body.

Because of His glorious presence in our life and the awakening given by the Holy Spirit, we begin to witness (or see) the affliction and suffering of His beloved children. We take the lives of our fellow believers in Christ and those who have yet to come to know Him more personally, even more serious as we begin to understand the balance of our existence with God. We begin to think within ourselves, What can I do to help my brother, my sister? I have to do something! We look for ways to correct that which has become out of order. We focus in on solutions and apply action to recover God’s property. Thus letting us know that in the beginning of all human kind was His glory and that glory is His presence. Revelation 21:23 says, "And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it: for the glory of God did light it. Jesus is the Glory of God. Glory to Glory.

It is our Heavenly Father’s plan that we all conform into the image of Christ. God has expressed His love for His children through manners subtle to those that have shaken the very foundations of this world. God’s nature is to give and give again. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:25-34 not to waste time thinking about clothes to wear, food and drink and the issues of tomorrow because the Father knows what we are in need of. He then says in verse 34, "But seek you first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things will be added to you. This lets us know that as we press into the understanding that Jesus is the Kingdom of God, our Heavenly Father will meet our every need. How is Jesus the Kingdom of God? 1. The word kingdom is derived from two words, king and domain. A king is defined as a supreme ruler. Domain is defined as property and originates from the Latin word, dominus which is interpreted, Lord. Therefore, you see, we seek the King’s Lord, Jesus. 2. Colossians 1:13 reads, "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the

Kingdom of His dear Son. Jesus. Let’s set the record straight where some of you may say that Jesus is not the King of Kings. At this stage of our spiritual development, we do not fully comprehend the office of Jesus in our life. It is not until we die to our flesh (really die to our flesh, carnal habits) and not be moved by the manners of how this world treats us that we come into the understanding that Jesus is King in our life. Matthew 28:18 reads, And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All power is given to me in heaven and in earth." Here, Christ no longer dwelt amongst man in the flesh (figuratively first then literally He was not flesh minded) but has received His reward after he performed a work for the Father. At this point of our Christ-like walk, Jesus is our only reference point and personal goal to achieve holiness unto our Father Yahweh. Jesus had to die a natural death in order for us to have the ability to die to a carnal mind. When Jesus is KING in our life, we will do as He does. We will have the self-control He has. We will help somebody come to know Him who knows our Father. Please do not be mad with me, I choose to be brutally honest about how we experience and come to know the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The one miracle Jesus performs more than any other miracle is the opening of blinded eyes. I believe that when Jesus opened those blinded eyes, He was the first person the individuals could see. In essence, Jesus was the Glory of God revealed to the blind man. These people would literally look to God to see as He intended them to see. God First! Secondly, I believe that Jesus honored the Father in giving sight as a reminder that the Father is the visionary in His lifework. Jesus saved blind people from a life of hopelessness and darkness and the insensitivity of others in that ‘sight’ is our number one means of how we quickly absorb information and affectively respond. I believe we are exposed to the light of His sight to see what we cannot see for ourselves and how life is more applied once we apply His kingdom principals into our lives and that of others.

The name Reuben means, to look upon or to see. Reuben is the firstborn of Jacob and Leah. Leah wanted desperately for the Lord ‘to look upon’ her affliction because of the neglect of her husband who preferred to love his second wife, her younger sister, Rachel. In our Reuben season, God begins to develop our spiritual sight. We can identify the sight of God in our life by how clear we understand where we are in Him, in terms of our spiritual growth and who He is in our life. And that may range from Jesus being King or a point of reference in our development.

When we learn new behaviors from family, school, church, or at play, we see the benefits of the learned behavior and apply it to our person. We use this behavior now because our mind, our way of thinking is open to understanding how to operate this new behavior to its fullest potential. When we learn something new about what is happening in our life as it relates to what we hoped for, it gives us peace. Hope is the brooding substance