In order to fully understand the Beatitudes, you must understand the writings of John. John constantly talks about spiritual perception. He makes it very simple: there are those who see God, and those who do not see God. Of course, he is talking in mystical terms, but it becomes clear when you read Matthew 5:8: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
John shows the other side of this principle, saying, “If a man is living in sin he has not seen God or known Him.” Spiritual perception is related to our focus on God and the purity of heart with which we seek the face of God.
No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. I John 3:6, NASB.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” If we are focused on God, without any question the processes of purification are operating in our life. John speaks about those who have the hope of seeing Him, saying, … every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. I John 3:3. There is that within man which knows that without purity, he shall not see God. “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14, KJV).
There will be no spiritual perception of God and of the great things that He has brought forth without a preparation of heart and a purity of heart to see them. If people say, “I really see this walk with God; all of this has been revealed to me,” yet they are unrepentantly, deliberately walking in sin, they are lying to you. Deception is there somewhere. They claim that they see, but the real knowledge of the Lord comes to those who continually open their hearts to the purifying work of the Lord.
It is a deep thing that God does; and they go through every dealing and problem that is put before them, not to prevail over the circumstance, but to prevail over the darkness of their own heart. They constantly are focused upon the Lord because they know that ultimately, the breakthrough to see Him as He is will come only to those who have focused upon Him; and they are being transformed.
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. And every one who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. I John 3:2–3, NASB.
But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. II Corinthians 3:18, NASB.
With each new level of exposure, the Lord is more real to His people, and they change. They are reaching into the purifying work of the Lord. Ultimately comes the breakthrough when they shall see Him as He is; and they shall be like Him, for they shall see Him as He is.
Keep this truth in your mind as we look to the sixth chapter of Matthew, verses 22–23: “The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”
What does this mean? It is pointing out very clearly that there must be a correction in your sight. You have to be focused on the Lord. Jesus was talking about this all the way through the Sermon on the Mount. He was saying, “You cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). You will have to be focused on the Lord. If you are not, you are not going to be able to see things as you ought to see them.”
These verses lead to some of the most audacious statements. Your eye is not the factor by which you see; the heart is the factor that determines what you see. Weigh that very carefully. What I see with my eye is not really all that I see. I see with deception if deception is in my heart. I can see God in a situation, if God is in my heart. If I am focused on God in my heart, then what I see with my eye is greatly affected by that.
When the children of Israel wandered through the wilderness, what a terrible thing it was that they did not see God in their midst, and therefore they saw their circumstances as an evil thing. But Moses endured, … as seeing him who is invisible. Hebrews 11:27. Because Moses’ heart was set on God, he could endure the wilderness, he could go through almost anything, because his heart could see the Lord in all of it.
When someone comes along and says, “I’m discouraged,” there is a very simple answer, one which you have heard many times: “Get your eyes on the Lord.” That is exactly the truth. Get your eyes on the Lord. You will never be discouraged, you will never be defeated, and you will never be open to deception to any extent at all if you are constantly focused upon the Lord.
You determine that you are going to see the Lord. It is a wonderful thing to watch those people who walk that way. I have a blessed memory of one particular woman—an elderly sister who was a real prophetess of the Lord. She spoke many fine prophecies over me which met my heart at a time when, according to everything else, it seemed like I was ready to go under. She lived wholly for God, and she would always have such a precious word from God. She was one who could not be disturbed. Problems could be going on all around her; she also had her own problems among her family and relatives, who at times isolated her and were almost vicious to her. But she just kept right on serving the Lord. She ministered a lot to the young men of the church as they were growing up from childhood; she was filled with a great deal of faith for them. The most striking thing about her was that no one could ever get her to complain, no one could ever get her to say a discouraging thing about anyone. After a while, people got the idea that she was just a naive old woman who did not know what was going on. Nothing could have been further from the truth! She was so focused on the Lord and she so loved the Lord that she could see into every situation with a clarity of perception that many of the others did not have.
Did you know that it is possible for you to perform magic with your eyes? Just take one of your troubles, put it in your hand and start looking at it. Concentrate on it. Watch how it will become a paper dragon right in front of your eyes! It will grow bigger and bigger and bigger, and soon you will run lest that dragon devour you! That is what any one of your troubles can do. Have you ever done that by focusing on a problem? What can you do to shrink them down? Paper dragons have a way of just blowing away when you get your eyes on the Lord. The giants in the land of Canaan got bigger and bigger in the eyes of those ten spies until finally they declared, “Those giants were so big that we were just like grasshoppers!”
“There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” Numbers 13:33, NASB.
Those giants really were not that big. Joshua and Caleb never had any problem with them at all; they were so focused on the Lord, and the Lord became so great to them, that everything else shrunk down to its proper size (Numbers 13:25–33; 14:6–9).
It is so true: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Woe be unto those who are focused on anything else but God. It is the impurities of their own heart that are distorting their vision. When a Word like this one comes, many people begin to bristle. They think, “What kind of an impurity are you referring to? Just because I don’t see the Lord, that means there is something wrong with me?” That is exactly what it means!
One thing you must remember is that you are not being purified if you are not focused on the Lord. In II Corinthians chapter three, Paul wrote about how Moses went up on the mountain with one cry, “Show me Thy glory” (Exodus 33:18–23); and when he came down, he was glowing with that glory. His face was shining like the sun; and he was not even aware of the amazing transformation that had taken place (Exodus 34:29–35). Paul tells us that we, too, are changing, from glory to glory. And this is the reason for it: because we are focused on the Lord, the veil is taken away and we are being constantly exposed to God (II Corinthians 3:12–18).
The man who is self-righteous has never had a revelation of the Lord. His righteousness is something he has produced himself. He has been so inwardly focused that he has produced a counterfeit, a very poor facsimile of real righteousness. But the true righteousness from God comes forth in a man who seeks first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33). Because he is seeking the righteousness of God, so focused on the Lord, a righteousness comes forth in him. It is not a self-righteousness; it is a pure thing.
The man who is being purified is the man who perceives God. That man constantly reaches in to see God, and he sees Him on whatever plane He can be revealed to his heart. He goes on from glory to glory, reaching upward into it. Remember: unless you are focused on God, you are not being purified in your life.
You can listen to sermons and not hear them. You can look at God’s moving and not see it. It is the focus of your heart that determines whether or not your ears hear and your eyes see what God is actually doing.
“Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; for the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn again, and I should heal them.’ ” Matthew 13:13–15.
The people who really get something out of listening to the Word are the ones who are focused on the Lord. They come together with the Body to see the Lord and to worship the Lord, and they take with them a marvelous blessing. But the people who come and focus on their circumstances, focus on themselves, focus upon the problems and needs of others do not get much from God. For unless the focus of your heart is right, you do not hear, you do not see, you do not perceive. Isaiah prophesied of them, saying, “Hearing, they shall hear and not understand. Seeing, they shall see and not perceive. Why? Lest they should turn from the wickedness of their hearts” (Isaiah 6:9–10; Matthew 13:14–15). They cannot do it. They cannot move into something that they are not focused on in their heart. Nobody is going to make this walk with God real to your own heart but yourself.
Do you look at this walk and say, “Well, I see some real things of God in it, but I also see a lot of other things.” Let’s just face it: you are really seeing the “other things,” and that is what is causing your problem. Perhaps at one time you saw something from God, but now your focus has become distracted. It is easy to fall into that. As much as we have quoted about Moses, he ultimately missed entering Canaan over this one issue (Numbers 20). He got to the point where he was so taken up with the rebellion of the people all around him that one day when they demanded of him, “Where is water to drink?” he thought, “After all these years these people are still in their same rebellion!” God had told him, “Speak to the rock, that it may give forth water for the people.” But Moses took his rod and hit it like he had hit it the first time (Exodus 17:5–6). Then God said to him, “You did not sanctify Me before the people’s eyes.” God was saying, “You weren’t looking after Me, Moses. Your heart was focused upon these rebellious people. Now you have just lost out.” A minister can say, “We must look after the people. We must keep our eyes on the people.” You can get your eyes on the people and be so attuned to the pulse of the people that you find yourself falling short with God like Moses did. Every leader of God’s people, every one in authority, hear this Word of warning, for this is where you will stand or fall. Your continual focus on God is the key.
Moses got discouraged another time because there were just too many pressures coming in upon him. Instead of saying, “Oh, God, show me Thy glory!” Moses said, “God, just do me a flavor and kill me” (Numbers 11:10–16). Whenever a leader gets to the place where he wants God to kill him, it is usually not because of sin, nor because of a lack of awareness of reality or a lack of wisdom; it is because the load has become so great that he cannot bear it. Of course, in Moses’ case, he did not know that God had seventy men prepared to take the burden; and that changed the picture a little bit (Numbers 11:16–17). But Moses’ reaction to the situation was the reaction of people who are absorbed with their problems, absorbed with their ministry, absorbed with what they have to do. A shepherd can face devastating periods like that, when there is never enough time, never enough of anything. A church, or a school, or a business can grow so fast, mushrooming almost beyond what he could want for it, so that he cannot stay on top of things. What is that a sign of? It is time for him to get off and be alone with the Lord, or else he will become so focused on the passing scene that he will be in danger spiritually.
A local church may be more engaged in activities for God now than it has ever been. The people can be working hard on projects which God has led for them to do, and that dedication is wonderful. But they can be just busy enough that many of them could lose their walk with God, and become preoccupied with a lot of different things.
You can be so concentrated and focused on doing for God that you lose your focus on God. Jesus does not need anyone to work for Him! He needs people who are so tuned in to Him that He works through them.
You must never lose the vision of what you are doing. You are not focused on completing projects; you are building the Kingdom. For each of us this means, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). In that command is a focus that belongs to the pure in heart. Do you see God? Good. Then you can do these works in His name.
This is a Word that will bless you. This is your answer. Are you thinking, “But we have so many problems”? Forget the problems! I am counting on all the difficulties straightening out, because I am believing for that. Every problem is going to eventually straighten out. But I am also believing that there is going to be a renewed vision of the Lord Jesus Christ. Break through to it. Break through! Break through to a new focus of your heart on the Lord! Once you break through to that, you have every answer.
If you are not focused on God, you are not going to be truly objectively compassionate with your brother in his need. Why is that? If you are not focused on the Lord, you are not going to be in tune with God’s revelation over your brother’s life. And no matter how much you try to love him, you are going to have a problem if you see his needs but you are not focused on God so that you are in tune with what God has for him. The fact is that you do not even need a revelation of your brother’s problems at all! You certainly have enough problems of your own anyway; why should you look at his? But if you are in tune with the Lord—and you know the will of God for yourself and for your brother—you can come to him and say, “This is the will of God for you.”
Better is a ministry of revelation about your brother than the sharpest perception of his problem.
When I see you I want a revelation from God about you; I do not want to see your problems. Your problems will eventually be solved, or you are going to outgrow them. Who has the kind of wisdom to look at a brother and determine where he is “on the scale”? Who is qualified to judge, “Are you where you ought to be? You are not what you were, but you are not what you should be, either.” Who can judge whether he is moving fast enough? When you try to analyze a brother to find fault with him, you will get nowhere. But when you are focused on the Lord, with every man you look at, God keeps whispering in your ear, “He’s to be My prophet. This one’s to be this; this one’s to be that.” Never cease to have that faith for one another, because it is based upon a continuous, fresh revelation of him.
Through the years, if I had not had that flow of revelation, I would have given up on a lot of men. But when God had brought the perception in my heart to see other men in the light of His will for them, then He met me one day and said, “Thou shalt have faith for every man that I bring under your hand.” By then I could walk in that Word; because if I could see what God wanted over a man, I would not become discouraged.
Are you praying, “Lord, open my heart to see my brother in the light of the will of God. Whatever You want for that man, that is what I want to see!”
Unless you are focused on God, you will be open to temptation. Eve was open (Genesis 3). She looked at that fruit—it was good to look at; it was pleasant to the eye; it was good to taste. She surrendered to the temptation. You hear people say, “I’d like to beat the lust of the flesh. I’d like to beat this discouragement. I’d like to beat this thing in my spirit that’s wrong.” Okay, then the first thing to do is forget about what is wrong. You probably think, “That won’t work.” Oh, yes it will.
Once you are distracted so that you no longer focus on your need, but you focus on the Lord, with true repentance and faith, you will find your need met.
There is the old response that having a lot of willpower is going to get the job done. Oh, no it won’t! You hear people say, “I’m going off into the desert to contemplate victory over the flesh.” The Essenes tried to do that, back around the time of Christ. They were ascetics—they suppressed the flesh. They restrained it and held it back. They concentrated on it, and concentrated on it; and they ended up committing some of the most audacious sex crimes of history. Remember what was said earlier: Unless your focus is on the Lord, whatever you focus on will grow so big that it will become a dragon that will eat you up. Don’t focus on the negative thing. Focus on the Lord with true faith.
Are you beginning to realize that the answer for you is to be focused on God? You may be saying, “But you don’t know the extent of my problem. This thing has come up and defeated me again and again.” As you focus on the Lord you will find that the pattern will change. More and more, you will not be overwhelmed. You will be less distracted as time passes, and the Lord will be greater to your heart. The way to overcome is look to Him and be changed from glory to glory (II Corinthians 3:18). Look to Him and be changed.
“Fine; then what should I do? Should I read some good books on overcoming?” If you want a real battle, read all the sermons that you can on overcoming. Soon you will be so focused on overcoming that you miss it. That is exactly what will happen. “Then what should I do? How shall I overcome?” Find some good messages on the Lordship of Christ and on glorifying Him, messages that tell about how He is the Lord and the King. You will become so overwhelmed with the Lord that, before you know it, you will wake up to the fact that it has been a long time since you were bothered by that old problem.
I have never seen the problems of the flesh overcome the focused. But the ones who lose out are always on the outskirts of the camp, where people are murmuring against each other and focused on each other.
Let me reiterate something very carefully here. Unless you are focused on the Lord, you could be open to a great deal of discouragement. Both deception and discouragement come from a focus on something other than the Lord. When a man is focused on the Lord, he can be surrounded with problems and everyone can be coming against him, and he is still rejoicing.
That is the way Charles Wesley was. One day he was running down a street in London ahead of a mob that was throwing rotten eggs and everything else at him. He ducked into a little alley, and the crowd went running by. In those days, it was common for hunters to use hunting hawks. And as he was hiding in that alley, a hawk came swooping down, chasing a little bird. In its terror, that little bird flew into his coat, and he held it there until the hawk left. While he stood there, he came up with the words to a song. He may have been fleeing from a mob, but here was his focus: “Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to Thy bosom fly, while the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high.” That wonderful songwriter wrote it not because deliverance was so important to him, but because he realized that, like the little bird, he was in God’s coat.
If you are feeling sorry for yourself it is because you are focused within. Are you really “going through something now”? Don’t cry about it—rejoice! Keep your focus on the Lord.
When you are focused on the persecution, pretty soon you are wanting to fight back. No! You don’t have to fight back. Just rejoice in the Lord. Keep focused on the Lord. Everything is fine, everything is coming along just right.
This walk with God is the greatest expression that God has brought to the Church in hundreds of years. This is the purest Word that has come. There has been no Word in the history of the world that is as pure in unfolding the truths of the Kingdom as the Living Word that is coming now. Come on, get your focus on it! Here is God speaking; get your heart set upon it! “But I’m right in the midst of some problems.” Forget the problems.
I determine that I am not going to be open to deception or discouragement because I am going to keep my eyes on the Lord. Some people point out to me “all of the things that could happen to the walk now.” What could happen? Suppose everything fell apart and everyone scattered in different directions. At a word from the Lord I would take a Bible, go down on a street corner, and start another group that would move on in God, if such a thing could happen to the walk. Why? Because I have a Word from God—I am not going to forget that. I am in tune with God and I have a Word from Him. Does that mean I am not interested in you? Of course I am. Let’s walk together. Let’s walk in oneness with the Lord.
Some people say, “But I stumble because I see you as a man, and I don’t see you as an oracle of God’s Word.” There is no difference; they are one and the same. I am me. If I can put up with it, so can you. And if I can put up with you, you can put up with each other. What is our goal? We are not believing just to put up with one another. We are striving and laboring to see every one of us presented perfect in Christ Jesus, and you can never believe in perfection as long as you are analyzing the progress of the people who are striving for perfection. You can believe in perfection coming forth in your own life only when you are focused on Him who is perfect, and you believe that by one sacrifice He has forever perfected them that are sanctified. I believe that.
And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ. Colossians 1:28, NASB.
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13–14, NASB.
For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. Hebrews 10:14, NASB.
I do not get that faith from looking at you, or at myself, or at anyone else. I get that faith from looking at Him and believing that He made the perfect sacrifice; and if I look to Him, it is going to happen to me! We should have songs like that, saying, “Lord, You’re happening to me.”
… fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2, NASB.
Unless you are focused on the Lord, you will walk in a measure of deception and you will never be conscious of your own need. We have just talked about how we are not to look at our own need; this can look like a contradiction, so study it carefully.
When you are focused on your own need, it overwhelms you. But when you are focused upon the Lord, you become aware of your need in a way that enables you to do something about it. When you are focused on the Lord, you also become aware of your brother’s need so that you can do something about it; because the Lord’s revelation of your brother is very positive. It is the will of God for him that you will see.
To summarize this, if you are focused on the Lord, you have a continuous awareness of the Lord which produces a continuous repentance in your own spirit. That says it all.
What about a brother who is a bit proud, a bit arrogant? Very simply, he is not focused. A focused man is a humble man. If a man is focused on God, he is humble, he is repentant. He will not become arrogant; for as he stands in the light of God, it reflects back on him and he sees the penetrating analysis of his own need, and he does not walk in pride.
The next point is again based on our focus on God. Unless we are focused on the Lord we become self-righteous and we see ourselves with a deceived heart.
Actually all of these truths are interrelated. You cannot lay hold of the reality of this message without seeing all of these truths appear like the light from a prism. As the colors of the prism blend together, so these thoughts all blend together. These thoughts are not different distinct truths; it is really only one truth—it is the peril of not being focused on God, and the blessing of being focused on God.
The self-righteous see themselves, because that is where their focus is. And they always have a deceived heart. Those who see God have a pure vision of themselves. You cannot see God unless you truly see yourself.
So, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). Purity gives us the perception.
Very closely related to this is Matthew 5:6: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Now let the Word expound itself again, by looking to Matthew 6:33: “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.” Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Remember that unless the Kingdom of God and His righteousness has the priority in your life, it will never happen.
If your interest is divided in the least to include other pursuits, if you are seeking to serve two masters, then you are in trouble. That is why the Lord often said to people, “Take what you have, sell it, and lay up treasures in heaven.”
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
“But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:24, 20–21, NASB.
If you can adjust your focus, if you can shift the treasure of your heart so that the whole focus of your life is upon His righteousness and His Kingdom, then you will attain it. You will be satisfied. But if you say, “I’m interested in that, but I’m also interested in a lot of other things. I am working on all of these things and to tell you the truth, I’m just too busy to come to church and to get that involved.” Then you are also too busy to attain the righteousness of God. You may have enough to get by, but you will never be filled with it until your first focus is absolutely on the pursuit of His righteousness.
Righteousness has to have the priority, or else it is not going to happen in your life.
Let’s take this a step further. In your areas of responsibility you can get to the place where there is a gratification and a satisfaction that you get from what you do. But no matter what you are doing, if you do that because it gives you a feeling of self-importance, you will never attain the righteousness that you should receive from following God. You may be serving the Body, working hard every day. You may be doing a job, feeling, “I am the only one who can do this job. I am the only one who is faithful—everyone knows they can count on me.” But you are slipping off of that focus on the Lord’s righteousness and your hunger after Him. Someone may come along who does not appreciate what you are doing at all. He may even tell you that you are doing it all wrong! What would your response be? “Me? Faithful old me doing the wrong thing?” Your work may have really been letter-perfect; but if you have that bad reaction, then you were still doing the job wrong. You are not to be doing it unto man; you are doing it unto the Lord.
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men; knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. Colossians 3:23–24, NASB.
Anything that comes back to you from your work is not the issue. Are you serving God, serving the Body for what you are getting out of it? Are you saying in your heart, “I am doing all of this, and everyone better appreciate me. God, You too—watch what I’m doing!”
We see that in Nehemiah, when he was leading the Israelites in the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem. Whenever his enemies would make a move, he would start praying, “O Lord, consider their ways, and see how faithfully we have labored to build this wall” (Nehemiah 6:14; 13:14). In the Word of God, we see that he was always calling on God to remember how righteous his ways were. That is not the way. In the eyes of God, all of our works are incidental. You are seeking His righteousness. You are going to be that prophet of God. You are determined to walk with God—not out of any vainglory, but God has a plan for you and you are going to please Him. You want to be well pleasing unto Him. It is all heading someplace. You are just waiting to hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21, 23). Yes, be a “good servant,” and a “faithful one”; but down deep in your heart, seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness.
If you do not pursue righteousness, you never find it. If you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you will be satisfied. But if the hungers of this life rival that hunger for righteousness, if they equal it or even exceed it, you will never obtain the promised righteousness.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Matthew 5:6, NASB.
“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33, NASB.
It would help for you to read the sixth chapter of Matthew. At the end of it Jesus says, “Don’t be anxious for your life, as to what you will eat, what you will wear, etc.” He goes on to tell of all the things that the Gentiles seek. Every pursuit of life is hinted at there. But what you are to do is seek for His righteousness; all of those other things will be added to you (verses 19–33). Everything. Do you see that God is not adverse to those things? He is just giving you a law that will work. He is not saying, “I am so jealous that if you dare to want anything else, I will not bless you.” He is saying, “If you seek first for righteousness, if you are really in tune with Me and pursuing after it, do you think that I will give you righteousness alone? I will add everything else to you!”
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. Psalm 92:12a.
This Word is something that can help you so much. Are you saying in your heart, “Lord, I am going to get my eyes back on You perfectly now.” Just a wandering gaze can be so deadly.
The wandering gaze is dangerous to our survival. Let’s keep our eyes upon Him.
Some people will hear this Word and answer back, “You’re living in a dream world. You don’t know what the problems are!” A man of God had better not focus on the problems too much. If he keeps himself focused on the Lord in order to bring people a Word, and that Word solves the problems, what difference does it make whether or not he knows all of the details? In order to be a faithful servant, does he have to get his hands in the mud? No. All he has to do is give the Word that continues to bring revelation to people’s hearts. Does your brother have to stop and analyze your problem in order to minister to you? If he has a revelation from God over you and your destiny in the Lord, and he speaks that Word to you, and you believe it and focus on the Lord, what do you think is going to happen to those problems? There are some problems which God will lead a church to deal with in order to reestablish the right focus. But you would have every problem solved right now if in your heart you determined, “I am going to really see the Lord. My heart is fixed on the Lord” (Psalm 57:7; 108:1, KJV).
David, as he was going through all of his problems, said, “I have set the Lord always before me. I will not be moved” (Psalm 16:8, KJV). But when Peter went walking on the water he cried, “Help me, Lord, help me!”
“What happened, Peter?”
“I started looking at those waves, and now I’m sinking!” Peter looked at the winds which were boisterous and contrary, and down he went! Think of that wonderful faith he had to say, “Lord, bid me to walk on the water.” So Jesus told him, “Come on, Peter. Now’s the time!” Peter jumped right over the side of that boat and started walking. And he did very well … until he looked at the waves (Matthew 14:25–33).
Do you feel like you might be getting a little wet? If so, you know what you have done: you have taken your focus off the Lord. In this message, we have not talked about any one of your sins; we have talked about your focus. We have not discussed one of your failures; we have only talked about your focus. By the Word of God we declare where our focus is to be. If you have been sinking and you are crying, “Lord, save me! I’m about to go under! I think I’m going to lose out,” it is your own fault. Your walk with the Lord did not start out to be that way. Get your focus back on the Lord.
Your very survival depends upon your heart being fixed upon the Lord, where everything in your walk with God can be renewed.
You do not need a lot of revival sermons to revive you; look to the Lord! There is nothing wrong with you that cannot be solved by just lifting your eyes afresh to the Lord. Don’t struggle to get on top of problems; leapfrog over them! Get your eyes on the Lord. Wait upon the Lord, renew your strength, and mount up with wings.
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31, KJV.
The only man who stumbles is the man who looks where he is going. The man who walks without stumbling is the man who always has his gaze set upon the Lord. That man endures.
In just one service, a church could accomplish so much that would be of real value in sustaining the people by not worrying about the circumstances or the problems, but by reaching up into a fresh revelation of the Lord. Let there be prophetic proclamations with real faith, declaring the focusing of their heart upon the Lord. They should avoid exhorting one another too much, for we have all been exhorted enough; and instead they should bring revelation to one another of the Lord. Let there be positive proclamations of faith that turn hearts right to the Lord.
After hands were laid on me and the Lord imparted this ministry of the Word, the first message that I preached was on the sustaining revelation of Jesus Christ. I was filled with it; I had such a perfect revelation imparted to me of this whole walk into the Kingdom. Christ was so real. Of course, if I had stopped after that to think about what was happening to me, I might have gotten discouraged. Everything happened so fast, and I went through so much. But it was all God; it was so much the Lord, that I was sustained by that revelation of the Lord.
The message that I preached was on the Apostle Paul, who stood after many years and many, many troubles and told the rulers about what had happened in his life (Acts 26). He told of how, many years before, he had had this vision of Christ on the road to Damascus. It was not just something that he remembered as an experience; it was something that sustained him. It was real to him. In conclusion, he said, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19). Later, at the end of his life, he wrote, “I fought a good fight. I finished the course. I kept the faith” (II Timothy 4:7). If today we would ask him, “How did it happen?” Paul would tell again, as he did three times in the book of Acts, the story of his conversion. Luke, who was constantly close to Paul, was by the Holy Spirit the writer of the book of Acts; and every time Paul related that story, he spoke of one thing: “I saw Him, and it is still real to me. I’m sustained by the revelation of Him.” That is what you need, too.
Every time you waver, it is because you are getting your eyes off the vision of Him. That vision should be growing stronger, not dimmer.
Any time that you have to look back to an experience as the high point of your life, there is something wrong. Of course you look back to your experiences; but if you look back and say, “That was the greatest point of my life; it has all been downhill since,” something is wrong. You should be climbing! You should have open vision, open revelation. The Lord is greater to me today than He was when hands were first laid on me and He met me. He is more real to me now. We are sustained by Him.
We need to renew our revelation of the Lord. We need always to be doing this. We need to constantly turn our eyes toward the Lord. As we assemble ourselves together, some of the greatest things of prophecy and the greatest songs ever to come will flow from week to week and month to month during which we are constantly focusing upon the Lord.
Focus on the Lord. Turn your heart right to Him and keep your eye wholly upon Him. The other needs are going to be met; you can count on it. You are not ignoring problems by doing this; you are saying that there are no problems—only an answer. He is the answer to everything.
You are going to be sustained by the revelation of the Lord. One day you too will say, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. Everything that He revealed Himself to be to me inspired a faithfulness in me. When I was weary, I didn’t drop out by the wayside. I believed His Word and kept focused upon it; that is how I made it. I finished the course. I kept the faith. I was not disobedient to the Word, because I never got my eyes off of it! Never did I get my eyes off of the revelation of the Lord.”
This must be our way of life. Ours must be a determined focus—a determined focus upon the Lord. Reach up to Him and by faith proclaim it into existence.
When you determine where your focus is going to be, then your proclamation of faith looses you into it.
It is like it says in Romans 10:9: you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and you are saved. Do that with this Word. As you continue to believe in your heart and you confess with your mouth, there is a progressive salvation, there is an unfolding deliverance that comes to you. Focus and proclaim your faith on this one thing: you are going to walk with God without wavering. You are going to keep your eyes on the Lord.
God reveals Himself to those who are determined to see Him.
It is because they purify themselves and make themselves ready (I John 3:2–3). They have a burning hope within them that leads them to do the steps of faith they have to do in order to break through to the revelation of the Lord.
There is no true perception of God or of what He is doing until the heart is prepared and purified to see.
The critical eye sees distortion; the pure in heart see the revelation of God Himself.
The focus on the Lord is the best preventative for discouragement, and defeat.
The man who is being purified is the man who is perceiving the Lord.
The focus of your heart on the Lord determines whether your eyes see or your ears hear what God is doing and speaking.
You can be so concentrated on working for the Lord, that you lose your walk with Him.
Better is a ministry of revelation about your brother than the sharpest perception of his problem.
When you focus on the Lord, you walk without stumbling; for you are not looking where you are going, but with whom you are walking.
Both deception and discouragement come easily from a wrong focus.
A man focused on the Lord is a humble and repentant man.
His righteousness will never happen to you until it has priority.
A wandering gaze is dangerous; survival may depend upon your heart being fixed on the Lord.
The only man who stumbles is the man who looks where he is going and with whom he is going.