Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8.
This is a simple little statement in many people’s thinking: “If I’m pure when I die, I’ll go to heaven and see Jesus.”
But none of these beautiful Beatitudes are simple statements; they are involved with very complex principles and doctrines of the Scripture.
Of all the Beatitudes, this one requires more Scriptures for the definition of seeing the Lord. Here is an explanation before you get into the Scriptures so they will open up to you even more when you know what to look for.
When we think of seeing God, it isn’t this way, “Well, I’ll purify myself this week, and then I will see a great vision in heaven and see God.” A Scripture was brought late in the New Testament period which says, No man has seen God at any time… John 1:18. Seeing God the way we are speaking about has to be revealed, though there will be a day that we will see Him. But when the Bible speaks about seeing the Lord now, it is speaking about the spiritual revelation of the Lord, not the sight of your natural eye. We can learn how to see Jesus with the eyes of our imagination, the screen of the mind. Many people do not see what God is doing, nor do they see God when He moves. There is no revelation of Him to their hearts at all.
The reason people can’t see what God is doing or see the hand of God moving is not because God is not moving, but because they have spiritual cataracts.
If we can’t see the Lord in this hour, it is because the impurities of our own heart form a cataract over the spiritual eye, and it is impossible for us to understand or see spiritual things.
The purer the heart, the clearer the vision of the Lord. You may say, “Well, how am I going to see Him? If I can’t see the Lord, how can I arrive at the purity of heart so I can see the Lord?”
It looks like an impasse, but in the graciousness of the Lord there is a beautiful thing that God does for us: He begins with a limited revelation of Himself.
Our own hearts at that time may not be pure, but even the limited revelation of the Lord always strikes us with a great awareness of our own need and impurity. Then as we seek the Lord in that light He begins to purify us, for purity of heart is not something we do ourselves; it is that which God does in our lives.
In the book of Revelation, the word from Christ to the church of the Laodiceans was, “Anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. Thou knowest not that thou art wretched, poor, miserable, blind, and naked.” It was a spiritual blindness. It is a sad commentary that people can be in the midst of God’s working and not see it. If they were pure in heart they would see it. There are Bible students who can quote Scriptures expertly, but cannot see God move because their eyes are veiled: a covering is over them; there is not that purity of heart.
There are people who caught a little glimpse because of a heart pure to serve God. They may have had a lot of problems—that is never an issue—and they may have had many things in their lives that were not pure. But they had the beginnings, and God would give them a little glimpse; then as they would press on, seek God, and open their hearts, He would give them a greater vision.
A walk with God leads you in two directions. One, God deals with your spirit that it be purified and made right. Two, God keeps revealing Himself to you in a greater way—revelation keeps expanding. Because they go hand in hand, as God has a people who are purified and made white, He will have a people who know Him and walk with Him. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord; he shall come unto us as the rain… Hosea 6:3. The more you listen to God, search your heart, and dig in on the things that have to be taken care of, the more real walking with Him becomes. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
You say, “I’d like to have that, but how am I going to be pure in heart?” Believe me, it is not something you can work yourself. You cannot set about to purify yourself and do it. When even your unclean hands touch the handiwork, then that defiles it. You cannot think to make perfect in the flesh what was begun in the spirit, as it says in Galatians 3:3.
In Isaiah 6 we can see how being pure in heart works in seeing the Lord. The purer the heart becomes, the clearer our vision of the Lord becomes. The first revelation of the Lord generally emphasizes the impurity of our own spirit and leaves us crying out, “Woe is me,” and we start repenting and calling upon the Lord for the impurity to be taken away. He answers our prayer, and as He takes it away our vision of the Lord expands. As we are purified in heart we see God’s hand. We see His moving.
Blessed are you if you have eyes to see, even though you may have had a lot of problems and be a long way from the perfection of your spirit. Yet you have enough want in your heart that your first revelation showed you your need and showed you the Lord in a clear vision. That is what happened to Isaiah.
In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Isaiah 6:1–4.
Is that true? Is the whole earth filled with His glory? You say, “No. Well—I don’t know.” Yes, it is. But when the heart is impure, the only thing seen is the work of Satan. So many people live on the impure level, and that is the way magazines, newspapers, radio programs, television programs, and news commentaries are sold. They report the terrible things that are taking place. The average Christian does not see what God is doing in the earth at all. It is very human to see what the devil is doing. Newspapers are filled with crime stories, not with what God is doing. It is good editorial policy to scare people.
It is fear that sells newspapers, not the love of God. No one ever reports, “What a marvelous spiritual activity was moving over the city today! Hosts of angels were there. God was moving. People were being blessed. Do you know that Bible days are here again? Prophets are in the earth, and they are prophesying by divine revelation over people.” People would not pay any attention to that, in fact they wouldn’t even see it. If you would tell them that, they would say, “It’s a lie! We don’t believe it!” But if you would tell them a minority group they dislike has some dread germ bombs stored in a cellar which they are getting ready to loose on the city and everyone will be killed, they would say, “I believe it!”
The earth may be filled with many things God is doing—who sees it? But up on the other side the seraphim have one voice: “The earth is filled with His glory.” Elisha prayed, “Lord, open the eyes of this young man that he can see” (II Kings 6:17). Until then, all he had seen were the hosts of the enemy encamped about them. Elisha could see the hosts of the Lord. Oh, that we could have the faith of Elisha and catch one glimpse of all the things that are on our side, the things that are working for us. How great is He that is within us, greater than he that is in the world (I John 4:4). How great are the hosts of the Lord that are for us. The Lord will come with ten thousands of His holy ones (Jude 1:14).
Who knows the mighty hosts of the Lord? Who knows the forces that are released in your behalf? Your strength and your wisdom is not the little margin that turns the tide between a strong devil and a weak Jesus. Believe me, it is not. You would not last until midnight if it depended on what you know, your ability, and what you are in the natural. It is God who is your keeper. It is the Lord who is watching over you. How few people see what God is doing. You wonder, “Why don’t I see it?” It is a lack of purity; it takes the pure in heart to see God. If we seek for the purification of our spirit, one day we will be like the seraphim, seeing all that God is doing in the earth—that the whole earth is full of His glory.
When you dwell in the mire you are aware of the pigs. You smell the pigs, and you look like one yourself. When you get out of the mire, and you clean up and move up into other realms, you are aware of those realms. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Impurities are like cataracts that blind until you cannot see God, but when they are removed from your spirit, just as God said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. Matthew 22:37.
The seraphims were crying to one another, …the whole earth is full of His glory. And the foundation of the thresholds shook at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he touched my mouth with it, and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips; and thy iniquity is taken away, and thy sin forgiven. And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. Isaiah 6:3–8.
The seraphim took the live coal in his hand which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar, and he touched Isaiah’s mouth with it and said, “This cleanses you.” It was a release, the beginnings of the revelation of God to his heart which were to continue all of his life. The prophecies of Isaiah are beautiful, revealing even the great restoration, the Kingdom, and the age to come. No other prophet dwelt upon the great changes in the whole universe that will take place in the Kingdom of the Lord as Isaiah did. He saw fantastic things, but it all began with enough revelation of the Lord to show him his iniquity, the uncleanness, and what he really needed. When he saw that, he cried for deliverance, and the seraphim came and purged his lips and said, “Now it is taken away.”
The revelation of the Lord made Isaiah see enough that he saw his own need and started crying for cleansing. The cleansing came, and when he heard the Lord saying, “Whom will I send?” he said, “Here am I, send me.” He was mounting up in dedication because the more he saw the Lord, the more he cried for purity of heart. The more he cried for purity of heart, the more he saw the Lord. Blessed are they who seek to be pure in heart, for their vision constantly expands, and their focus on the Lord becomes sharp.
Do you want to be pure in heart? When you have that preliminary revelation of the Lord, and it reflects upon yourself inwardly and you see what you need, then as you begin to cry unto the Lord, He begins to minister your deliverance. And it is after you are delivered, purged, and cleansed that you are ready to say, “Here am I, send me,” and your dedication is made perfect. Isaiah walked all the days of his life in that dedication.
Notice in the teaching which follows, this same principle is revoiced. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? (How long am I to do this?) And he answered, Until cities be waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land become utterly waste, and the Lord have removed men far away, and the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land. And if there be yet a tenth in it, it also shall in turn be eaten up; as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remaineth, when they are felled; so the holy seed is the stock thereof. Isaiah 6:9–13.
Isaiah had shown that in the purifying of his own spirit he came to greater revelation. Then God painted the negative side of the picture. “Now go and give them the word.”
“How long shall I speak the word of the Lord?”
“Speak the word of the Lord until the people can’t hear anymore, until their ears are heavy and they have shut their eyes, until there is nothing left that they can perceive, and I have driven them out of the land, taken them into captivity: until the cities are destroyed and without inhabitants. That is how long you are to prophesy.”
What do you think God is doing today? He meets your heart, you seek Him, and you want a pure spirit, but for what purpose? So you can come to the place where you can speak His word. What will His word do? There will be some who hear it, who have a heart to follow Him, to love Him, and it will start the revelation in them. Yet there will be others who, even if they see it, will shut their hearts up to it, but when they do, the darkness will work the same as light.
You do not need two messages: one to the sinners, “Thou art damned, and down you come,” and another to the righteous, “Thou art surely blessed, and surely you live.” All you have to do is speak the word of the Lord: “Thus doth God bring forth in the earth today… Thus saith the Lord.” When a man hears it, his heart opens, he repents, he cries for the Lord, his vision is made pure, and his eyes are opened to what God is doing in the earth. When a man will not hear, he says, “I don’t believe it!” Then his ears grow heavy and his eyes close. He stumbles, and he knows not at what he stumbles because he has no spiritual perception left. He rejected the word and his light turned to darkness.
Thus it is that God speaks a word and it creates a situation like I Thessalonians 5:5 brings out: those who are walking with God are not children of the night, but children of the day; the others who do not hear are children of the night. How can night and day exist simultaneously? Because God sent a word into the earth: to the pure in heart, the just, the path was shining more and more unto the day of the Lord, but to the ungodly it was the day of darkness (Proverbs 4:18, 19). The more they heard of the word and rejected it, the darker it became.
Don’t look for more light in the revivals in some of the churches that are rejecting the light they have. It will turn to darkness. The only place you will find a progressive, unfolding revelation of God and the overwhelming presence of the Lord will be in churches where they are listening to the word and receiving it. Around them the wicked will do wickedly. Daniel prophesied: Many shall be purified and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. Daniel 12:10. It will be the time of demarcation, and it may be through a word such as this message. Some will read it, laugh at it, and the next day will be a little darker. Others will rejoice in it, and the next day the vision will be a little clearer.
When the gospel is preached, and the Holy Spirit moves upon a person and he sees his need and cries out to God, the work of purifying that life begins. God saves him and begins a sanctifying work within his heart. But if he hears that gospel and turns his heart against it, his impurity only grows. Instead of it being like a cataract upon the eye, it grows in densely until the light itself is shut off.
Spiritual darkness is not natural to the state of man; he works hard at it. He rejects words that come from God and his light turns to darkness. But if he listens to a word that comes from God and cries to the Lord, then the Lord purifies him and makes him clean. The only thing you can rely on is not how pure you are at this point, but are you still open to the voice of God so that every revelation of the Lord brings a corresponding repentance as your need is revealed? If you keep repenting as God continues giving you the light, God keeps up that work of purifying your life, and your vision becomes clearer and clearer.
This is voiced again in the book of Proverbs. But the path of the righteous is as the dawning light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble. Proverbs 4:18, 19. This Proverb shows how God gives to the wicked a word, and his way becomes a way of darkness because he rejects the word. Jesus said in Mark 16:16, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. Yet the same word is preached to both.
How can the word of God come in this day and bring such revelation of God to some and such darkness to others? One sees his need and cries for a pure heart, and God fulfills a promise. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. He sees God in everything He is doing. But those who are not pure in heart argue and criticize. They are against the saints of God, and they go on in their old religious ruts, not knowing how blind they really are. They stumble off, blind leaders of the blind. They say, “We don’t believe it! There’s nothing there!” How long shall we preach to them? Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes… The word still comes. It closes hearts. People don’t receive it. But blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Why in this end time is there a new day with greater revelation, greater moving of God, greater knowledge of the Lord, and greater sensitivity to the spirit realm than has existed for generations? At the same time, why is there more darkness and more unbelief? Why are there more atheists in the world than ever before? Why is the world filled with that darkness? It is because God is speaking His Word, and as the Word comes, the moving of God upon the earth is bringing one of two things. You will see your need, and continuously cry and become pure in heart.
The more God speaks and gives light to the Scriptures, the darker it will be for those who do not know God and will not listen to Him, but brighter will be the path for those who listen to God.
The same sun that beats down on the wax and melts it, beats down upon the clay and hardens it. Likewise, the same Word of God that is spoken which will bring a remnant into the exploits, signs, and wonders, will also bring the judgments of God upon the earth. His Word will judge men in the end time (John 12:48). Only speak what God is speaking and faithfully bring forth the revelation as God gives it, and they who will not hear will be plunged to catastrophe, destruction, tribulation, and anguish. They will not even know at what they stumble, yet they are responsible. Their own reaction to God causes it. But, blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. They become the pure in heart because with every word they hear from God they repent of the impurity in their spirit, and God in His mercy cleanses them. It is like wiping the eye or washing the windowpane when you can’t see out; things become a little clearer. First you see through a glass darkly, you see in part, and before long you see face to face (I Corinthians 13:12). To him who has shall more be given, but from him who has not shall be taken away even that which he seems to have (Matthew 25:29). That is the way the Lord does it.
Do you see why it is necessary for you to respond to every word God gives you in this end time? You can never afford rebellion. Satan will do everything he can to bring rebellion in your heart, to get you to turn away from the word God is speaking and from the servants He sends to speak His word, so you would treat them shamefully and smite them with your tongue. Satan cannot break through the defenses which God has given you, but he can bring the forces of rebellion against you, and if you succumb you will destroy yourself, for you will place yourself in a position where your light is turned into darkness. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Every time you see the need, be quick to repent. When you hear a word, don’t falsely assume it is not important. Cringe at every truth God gives you; weep and mourn and afflict yourself. Come before God and cry, “O God, for a pure heart before You!” And when He answers, you will see Him a little clearer than before, and it will be true of you as it is in the book of Psalms: How precious is thy lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou wilt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. Psalms 36:7–9. The Scriptures are so full of this promise: “In Thy light shall we see light.”
Revelation comes by an earnestness of people’s spirits to be pure and walk before the Lord. As they cry unto the Lord, He meets them. What will it lead to? It can lead in one direction, as long as they are sensitive to hear and let God move upon their hearts to be made pure. When they in all faithfulness and readiness of mind embrace the word that comes and endeavor to follow it, it will lead to greater revelation than ever and break through strata of darkness that have veiled the church for many centuries. God’s unseen world will open up and suddenly become more real than the material world. But those people who have not sought God to purify their hearts will tremble and fear because they do not see God’s world, and they do not see God. They will see only the devil’s world and all the fearful things, and they will be among those whose hearts will fail them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming to pass upon the earth (Luke 21:26). But the pure in heart will stand when the powers of the heavens are shaken and glorify God, because they will see God’s world in God’s hand. They will see the Lord.
A good test of where you stand is how you react when you read the book of Revelation. If it makes you want to crawl under the covers and shake you are not pure in heart, because God’s Word says it is a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ that God gave to His servant. It is a revelation, and those who are pure in heart look at it and glorify God because it is the final chapter when all things are brought under His hand, and it ends with the story of the fearful and the unbelieving who lead that parade into the abyss (Revelation 21:8).
Why do we preach the gospel? So they that would hear it by the Spirit and believe on it will come into a new birth and a new sight. A new world is opened up to them, …but he that believeth not shall be damned. Mark 16:16. We preach the gospel so they can be damned? Yes, God has to send the Word. That is why His Living Word will come forth now, as it did in the crisis and judgment hours of every age; so people who hear the word and reject it will not know at what they stumble, and their calamity will come upon them suddenly. God declares that people are going to get His Word, and if they hear and receive that word and repent, a new world will open to them. If they will not hear it, their darkness will increase.
Through the years, one of the greatest tragedies has been the people who have heard the Living Word of the day and turned away. A walk with God has never been easy for anyone, but it is never a man’s inner problems or the things in his own nature that will keep him from it. It is nonsense when a man says, “Well, I’m hung up on this habit, and that is what’s throwing me.” The only thing holding him back is the pride and arrogance of his heart, so that he won’t get down and do some real God-fearing repenting. It is something people don’t seem to have a knack for, but if they say, “God, let Your Spirit teach me how to repent,” God can take care of sin. Repent of sin! God can take care of all your problems and weaknesses. No one walks with God because he is strong; he walks because he repents and accepts God’s Word and opens his heart to see.
If God has been good to you and given you enough revelation to walk with Him, you are in a unique position. You can be one of the most blest men upon the face of the earth or one of the most cursed. When God finds a man whose heart is turned enough toward Him that He gives him a revelation of walking with Him in this hour, and it begins to live—if he believes it and walks in it—though he were only one thousandth the man of any other man, he will walk in the greatness of God. God will be with him. But, whoever you are, if you hear the words and know what you are to do, and you do nothing about it and play with it, you will have no eyes left to see. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
So we begin to cry, “Lord, purify my spirit. Make it right.” Come to grips with the thing in your heart. If something is wrong with you, seek God about it. You will never fail or falter because of the impurities of your heart; you will fail or falter because you don’t repent of them and look to God to cleanse your way. You may have a lot of problems, but if you continually repent and seek after the Lord that your spirit be right, God will deliver you. You will never fail; you will never be on the outside. You may run into all kinds of dealings from God, but you will always make it. All the time you are stumbling along, God will be revealed in a greater and more marvelous way to your heart.
You could take this to its ultimate and say, “Yes, we’ll see God. Just think, the more we are purified, soon we’ll see God Himself.” Don’t misunderstand this. There will be a time, according to Revelation 22:4, when we will see Him just as He is. It will be beautiful. But for the present, when the Scripture tells about seeing God, it is speaking about something other than the brightness of God.
In the writings of John, both the gospel and the epistles are very rich in reference to light and the spiritual capacity to see light (to see the truth). Of all the books in the New Testament they concentrate the most on the light and the revelation of the Lord. We read in I John 2:3–6: And hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoso keepeth his word, in him verify hath the love of God been perfected. Hereby we know that we are in him: he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked.
I John 4:7–14 becomes a little doctrinal, but if you read it carefully, it will well reward you for your attention. In it is quite an explanation about seeing the Lord and the spiritual way in which we are to see Him according to the Beatitude. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath beheld God at any time: if we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us: hereby we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he hath given us his Spirit. And we beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
“Oh,” you say, “I can’t understand that! It requires a little explanation!” Very much so. No one has seen God in His full glory and power. God has veiled that. Eventually we will see Him. Revelation 22:4 says we are going to see Him. But now He is not revealing Himself in a way that would utterly destroy the human race if He were to reveal Himself in His glory. Yet the Father does reveal a great deal of Himself and His ways and His moving.
Did Moses see God on the mountain? No, he saw the glory of God. His prayer was, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. Exodus 33:18. When God passed by, Moses peered through the fingers of God and saw just a little of the glory of God passing by. What an amazing experience! He did not see God in His fullness but he saw His glory. It was a visible manifestation of God’s presence. It was like looking at His aura, but it wasn’t God. It still was amazing, because it was an emanation from God. The Word says that no man has seen God at any time. Yet this message is about, Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Is it a contradiction? No. It is not saying that we won’t see Him, but it tells how God reveals Himself to us, and it is a progressive, open revelation the Lord is giving.
We love him because He first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth His brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? John 4:19. Tying this in with one more passage of Scripture in the Gospel of John will bring an understanding of what we are talking about here. John was always writing about light, revelation, darkness, and that which pertains to spiritual insight in seeing God.
Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go, ye know the way. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how know we the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also: from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. John 14:1–7.
No one has seen God, yet Jesus said, “You have seen Him.” To see God in His full manifestation would be impossible, for Paul says He is …dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.I Timothy 6:16. But the fullness of God dwelt in Christ, and to see Jesus was to see the Father in the same way that the pure in heart can see God. The passage in the Gospel of John tells about the Father living in the Son so that people can see Him the way that we are going to see the Lord in our walk with Him. Hosea 6:3 says, …let us follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is sure as the morning; he will come to us as the rain, as the latter rain that watereth the earth. He will dawn upon our hearts.
And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure. I John 3:3. For the pure in heart will see the Lord. If you are waiting for those prophesied appearances of the Lord to come here and there, and hoping to be one of the lucky ones, you are mistaken. But if you get ready and start purifying your spirit, Jesus will come to you, and you will see Him.
Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Verse 8. Could a disciple like Philip be so close and not have a revelation of the Father? Yes! Could you be so close and yet say, “I don’t see the Lord in my life; I don’t see what He’s doing”? Yes! You can be that close to it.
“What should I do? What magic doctrine should I study in order that I might understand it? What shall I read?”
Get down and repent, for Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God,” and, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.”
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. John 14:9–11.
Can we see God? Yes, we can see Him. What makes the difference in what you see and what you don’t see? The purity of your own heart. How do people become pure in heart? With every glimpse they get of the Lord, they draw closer to Him. They repent of their impurities. They cry out to be found in His holiness and His righteousness. He hears them. The more you seek, and the more you cry, the more God will open your heart and make you see. Cry, “Lord, purify my spirit. Let me be pure in heart.”
Will God do anything that He does not reveal to His servants the prophets? Does He move in the earth and the pure in heart not see it? The world laughs at the people who sing, “How marvelous are Thy works, O Lord,” because they have never seen them. God is not recruiting anyone through signs and miracles that are visible to men of unbelief. A remnant will walk in signs and wonders of judgment in the earth, but they are not recruited by signs and wonders. They are believers who walk in the ways of God.
If the gospel is hid, it is hid from the hearts of those that Satan has blinded. The blindness is so great. Light is something for which you are held accountable in its availability. If you could turn on the switch, it is your fault that you sit in the darkness. As I open my spirit to God and I cry, “God, make my spirit and my heart right, let me be pure in heart,” God does the work, my vision expands, and I see a thousand times more than I saw before. But if I began rejecting one ray of light, it could start a course, and oh, what awful darkness would be mine! It is creative and it is destructive. He kills and He makes alive (Deuteronomy 32:39).
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul into falsehood, and hath not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek after him, that seek thy face, even Jacob.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory will come in. Who is the King of glory. The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle? Lift up your heads, O ye gates; yes, lift them up, ye everlasting doors: and the King of glory will come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Psalm 24:3–10
A world is going blind; darkness is creeping over it, but walk in the light that you may become sons of light. This is one of the great principles of the Kingdom. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. If a man will heed this he will walk in God’s fullness.