TACF Journal

"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. SEE I am doing a new thing! NOW it springs up; do you not PERCEIVE it? I am making a way in the desert, and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 43:18,19 NIV

"From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you. They are created NOW, and not long ago; you have not heard of them before today." Isaiah 48:6b, 7a NIV

While driving on a recent Saturday, the Lord told me, "I need to see how you see." I couldn't understand why he said that! I thought maybe it was me saying that to him, which is possible, because we all need to see how God see things, right? But the very next day Pastor Bob’s message was entitled “Overcoming the Grasshopper Complex.” The message talked about the account in Numbers when Caleb’s returning spies said they felt like grasshoppers compared to the giants they encountered. Now I think it was God asking me how I see things. I thought, “why would God need to see how I see? Doesn't he already know how I see, and doesn't he see what I see? He knows everything!” Well, yes he does, but he will also make a statement or ask us a question to get us to come into a new understanding of something he wants to reveal.

So listening to Pastor Bob’s preaching, it all began to make sense. I feel God really wants us (me, the church etc.) to focus in on how we see things, because how we see is vital to moving forward. How I see will affect what I see; and what I see will affect where I am going and where I am willing or unwilling to go, as in the case of the 10 spies.

To take it a step further, how I perceive something or how I see something, is based on my understanding of the thing, and that understanding will ultimately affect the decision I make and the direction I will go. It's just like that grasshopper mentality thing Pastor Bob preached on. How you see something determines what you are seeing, and what you are seeing determines where you choose to go, or, as in the spies’ case, where you are unwilling to go.

This is as important for us today as it was for them back then. That's why God wants to show us that the way we see is very important because it will determine where we are willing or not willing to go personally, and as a church. We know from the story that if all we see is ourselves then what we are seeing is messed up. Remember what we see, according to our understanding of it, determines where we are going.

It is critical for a local church to have a people willing to go where God is leading. So in order for us to be willing to go, we must understand where God is leading and be willing to go there. And since ‘where’ to go comes from ‘what’ we see, which comes from ‘how’ we see, then ‘how’ we see is very, very important. I guess that's why the Lord had me focus in on it when he told to me, “I need to see how you see.”

Since the 'what' comes from the 'how', let's look at the 'how'. How does one see? Paul prayed, “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe...” All of this is based on seeing! This was so important Paul prayed it for the whole church knowing that it would be prayed down through the ages.

Paul asked God for the eyes of our understanding to be enlightened – for us to have eyesight that comes from the Spirit of God. It doesn't come from our own natural sight but from our spiritual eyes that have been made alive through the Spirit of God. Then it's His Light that comes to enlighten us and to grant us understanding. Notice how he connected eyes to understanding? Our spiritual eyes are so very important because they bring understanding and it is our understanding that determines how we see, what we see, and ultimately, where we are going. All is based on understanding which comes from the Spirit of God which comes from our relationship with God.

Let’s begin to look at the world through wide-open spiritual eyes. And when we have seen, let’s be willing to go!!!