DIVINE VISION by BILL BURNS
Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision the people perish.
God is redirecting vision. We, like the apostle Paul, must have our vision redirected according to God’s purpose rather than our own. If we purpose in our hearts to attain heavenly vision, we shall acquire the gift of discerning of spirits. And, we shall see God’s purposes and perceive God’s will, His desire for us.
I want to focus on how God sees us. Many Christians don’t know how God sees them, and they have a wrong concept of the character of God.
Divine Vision
How does God see me? Is He disappointed with my performance? Does He dislike me because I don’t measure up? Does He condemn me?
Romans 8:
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
1 John 3:20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
How does God see me?
Key scripture: Romans 4:17 God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as
though they did.
So, when God sees you, He sees you as you will be – perfected in the same likeness that Jesus is:
2 Corinthians 3:17-18 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 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 by the Spirit of the Lord.
God has called us to be found in the image (likeness) of Jesus is and He has to see us this way so that we will be transformed into His image. And because He calls us into His image, He causes all things to work for us.
Romans 8:
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
How does God see you in adversity?
He does not see you as a victim; He sees you as victorious.
2 Corinthians 2: 14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.
Romans 8:
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As overcomers!
Revelation 12: 11 "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
It is like this – God has to see you victorious for you to be victorious. He cannot see you as a victim, and He cannot see you as defeated, or you would be.
Exodus 17:
10 So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
11 And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
12 But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
13 So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
God holds us up in His heart, and with His hands always, or we could not win the battle.
Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
So, the secret of victory is to see ourselves as God sees us and not as we see ourselves when we believe the devil’s lies!
Hebrews 12:
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
6 For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives."
7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
Even when God sees our disobedience, He does not see us a losers. He sees us as His sons, being perfected. And, because we are sons, and because He loves us, He corrects us so we will conform to the image of who we are in Christ.
God Is For Us
But, if we don’t believe it, His word can’t work on our behalf.
Hebrews 4: 1-2 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
If we know that God has called us into victory, then we must believe it!
1 John 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world––our faith.
God Sees You:
Victorious over:
Sin
Satan
Illness
Poverty
Oppression
Depression
Fear
God Sees You As:
Prospering, having wisdom, having strength and health, having anointing, having spiritual gifts, having eternal life, and by seeing you in this way, He has made it possible to possess all that His Word say you can have.
God calls those things that are not as though they shall be.
Our job: only believe!