Notes on Visualisation: This is my interpretation/understanding of “visualisation.” It is an occult spiritual practice whereby the person imagines what they want to manifest spiritually and it can then become a reality because demonic spirits are being entitled to become active in the world by this. An example; a group of Christians wanted healings to occur in their meetings but nothing was happening due to their lack of direct faith in God. In self effort they then agreed together as one and started imagining God would appear in that meeting as a powerful light. Occult influences then started appearing in their meetings which lined up with their imaginations. They mistakenly thought these were of the Holy Spirit. No one in the bible ever engaged in such a practice. As Christians we cannot control God or decide in what way He will move, manifest or reveal Himself, that is Gods choice not ours. The Lord God is not like an occult spirit that can be summoned up. Visualisation is an earth bound, man centred, form of spirituality. If we take the Day of Pentecost as an example; the disciples did not decide to imagine God would appear as a great wind and thereby cause Him to respond that way in obedience to their imaginations. Instead the disciples had been in prayer for days leading up to this, humbly seeking God and trusting, in faith, for a response and help from Him. On a day that the Lord chose, in a way that He, not man, chose, God then sent His Spirit as a great wind and as tongues of fire that rested upon them as they spoke in different tongues.* The disciples were not expecting this, it came as a great surprise to them. They never tried to replicate that experience by imagining God would do it again, either. God is a person, the creator of the Universe and we can’t control Him.
A more subtle form of visualisation is often found on healing or soaking tapes. Often relaxing ambient music is played which a softly spoken has voiced dubbed over it, saying, for example, “feel the Holy Spirit is coming like a wind, or a light, to heal you, relax and... etc.” This is an easier mistake to fall into but it is nonetheless still visualisation. It can also open a Christian up to occult influences. Any type of moving in the spiritual through self-effort or self-will, (which is of the flesh), dependant on one’s own imaginings can open us to the same. There may be times when a powerful anointing from God is upon a person and will subdue their flesh and not allow it to manifest in any way. If it’s a false anointing imitating that though, or if there’s only a normal level of anointing from God, and the person then engages in visualisation, I believe that they will almost always open themselves up to an occult influence. We have to be careful as it’s actually quite easy to slip into a false anointing without realising it through self-will or visualisation. Derek Prince had some good teaching on this type of thing and witchcraft. Witchcraft isn’t just something unbelievers involved in the occult engage in. There are degrees of it that come through an attitude of self will, manipulation or control that can permeate our souls and many areas of human behaviour and activity are influenced by this. I guess it all originates from the fall and is on a sliding scale.
*The scriptures don’t record the disciples ever losing control of themselves or rolling around on the floor as if drunk either though, (see Acts 2), that would have been a bad witness. Instead they were falsely accused of being drunk by the unbelievers who mocked them and mocked that move of God. This is another great error that seems to be opening Christians to occult influences. The drunkenness may appear harmless whilst that’s the devils intension, as he’s trying to keep the practice beneath the radar whilst spreading it across Christendom. However, when he wants to the devil can then use any occult spiritual influences that Christians have received to do them great harm in the future. And the devil will always try to use such things to induce as much deception and to ruin a person’s discernment whenever he can. It’s a fallen world and we are all going to get deceived some of the time but it’s not good to make a habit of it.
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” (Hosea 4:6, KJV).
S. Dobbs, Nov 27th, 2020.