Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] I want to do a one off talk today on asking you the question. Can you see anything now?
[00:00:13] Do you miss things that happen around you? Do you have a propensity to be one of those people that there could be chaos taking place around you, but you just never notice it? Are you one of those people that get so locked in? I can be like that sometimes. There are times I'm hypervigilant when I'm preaching. You'd be amazed what I can spot that's happening in this room. You'll be amazed at the noses I can see being picked. You'll be amazed at the digs in the ribs of husbands and wives. You'll be amazed at what I spot. So be very careful this morning.
[00:00:50] But if you give me a book, the world could be experiencing an earthquake and I am locked into that book. And I can be so easily locked in and miss things that are around me. It's important to know. As desirable as it might feel to be blissfully unaware of things happening, it is important to be fully aware that's really important in our lives.
[00:01:19] Over the years of our marriage, I've learned a few things, many of them through mistakes. But one of the things I have noticed over the years is that I must notice when Nita has had her hair done.
[00:01:38] It's really super important. In fact, it's so important that I now put in my diary Nita is having her hair done today.
[00:01:55] A few weeks ago I was on the road and I was out other places and it flagged up in my diary that day that Nita is having her hair done.
[00:02:05] So I drove back later on a few hour drive, I got home, I walked into the house and I said, nita, your hair looks wonderful.
[00:02:17] Nita is. She said, do you like it? I said, I love it, it's amazing. She said, do you prefer it to normal? I said, it's really, really nice.
[00:02:26] And she said, funny that because the hairdresser cancelled earlier on today, I thought, well, we could save money on that basis because it does look great.
[00:02:46] And then this week, I was away again this week.
[00:02:49] And on the way back, I phoned Nita to say what time I was going to get home. And she said, oh, I had my nails done today.
[00:02:56] So come on, mark, you can do this.
[00:03:02] Get into the home. It'd been a busy few days. I've been away a few consecutive days and I walk into the home. I've been clued up. I've been told on the phone a few hours earlier, she had her nails done.
[00:03:13] And I completely forgot.
[00:03:17] I didn't mention it.
[00:03:20] I didn't get anybody waving their nails in front of me. I just completely forgot. I went to bed that night and then at three in the morning, I woke up in a cold sweat.
[00:03:31] The nails. I forgot to mention the nails. No.
[00:03:39] And I'm thinking, do I wake her up?
[00:03:43] Do I grab her hand and look at the nails? Say, Nina, I love the nails.
[00:03:48] So I got up early that morning. I went to the kitchen and I made a lovely cup of fresh coffee and I took it up to her room, our room. And I said, Nita. Yeah, still our room. Yeah. At least it was before today.
[00:04:07] Nita, here's a cup of coffee. Can I look at the nails, please? Sorry.
[00:04:12] You know, sometimes there are things that it's really important to notice.
[00:04:19] And I want to ask this question. Can you see anything now? Is there something that God is trying to help you and I to see? Is he dropping hints? Is he showing us some things that he is really wanting his church, his people to resonate with and to understand and to see that we are completely missing and distracted because of other things.
[00:04:41] And I want to just unpack this a little bit over the next few moments. Looking at our ability to see what God wants us to see, I wonder what it is that God is wanting you and I to look at right now. What is it that he is trying to get our attention for? I wonder if there is something that he is revealing that we are just missing. Well, you might say, surely if God is revealing something, I will see it. But history says otherwise.
[00:05:16] History reveals that there have been many times when God has done things that people have completely missed.
[00:05:26] Whenever God has revealed something, there have been those people who have had no idea. In fact, even people who love Jesus have denied that he is doing something that history reveals he did.
[00:05:40] I want to be someone who sees. Do you?
[00:05:44] Do you want to be someone who sees what God is doing? Do you want to be someone who can hear what God is saying, to be aware of what he's up to in the earth?
[00:05:54] Matthew 13 says these words, but blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see, but they didn't see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn't hear it. I want to talk about blessed eyes today. I want to talk about eyes that are blessed in order to see what God is up to in the earth, because he is up to many things in this day, the psalmist said in psalm 119, he said, open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.
[00:06:34] Anoint my eyes. Give me eyes to see what you're doing. Give me an understanding to perceive that I may not miss what God is up to. God is at work in the earth. The kingdom of God is advancing powerfully across the nations of the earth. And those who have eyes to see are perceiving it. But there are many who are not seeing what he's doing.
[00:07:02] Can you see anything? Now this is a question that Jesus asked the blind man whose eyes he had just spat on.
[00:07:13] Let's look at that story together. Found in Mark's gospel, chapter eight, verses 22.
[00:07:20] It says this.
[00:07:21] When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus and they begged him to touch the man and heal him.
[00:07:31] Jesus took the blind man by the hand and he led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man's eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, can you see anything now?
[00:07:44] The man looked around.
[00:07:46] Yes, he said, I see people, but I can't see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around.
[00:07:58] This man could see shapes, but he couldn't see definition.
[00:08:02] And I believe this is a place where many believers get stuck in their walk with Jesus. They see shapes, but they don't see detail.
[00:08:11] They have a hazy, undefined, blurry, confusing understanding of what they're seeing, but they don't see the fullness of what it is that God wants to reveal to them. Why didn't this man see clearly?
[00:08:25] This is a really unusual moment in the gospels because everyone else that Jesus touched and healed got healed completely. First time we don't read of the woman with the issue of blood bleeding less. We read that she was completely healed. We don't read that the man was lowered down through the roof on his bed by his friends, got up with a limp. We read that he ran, he walked from that place and he experienced the fullness of healing. So what went wrong here? Was Jesus running on half batteries this day. Was there something less powerful about Jesus? Was this man only operating in half faith? Well, we will see in a moment that there's nothing that gets written down in this bible that is incidental or doesn't have a clear purpose. Jesus was trying to teach us something really important, that this man wasn't partially healed because God wasn't able to do the fullness of the healing. This man was partially healed at this moment because God was wanting to teach you and I something today there is nothing written in the scriptures that isn't intentional.
[00:09:38] But the healing of this man. That Jesus took the man outside the village.
[00:09:44] And he spat in his eyes. And he asked him, could he see that this incident happened. After some other stories and accounts in the same chapter. Let me take you back a few verses. To some of those other things that were happening.
[00:10:03] Let me take you back to verse eight.
[00:10:06] It says this. They ate as much as they wanted.
[00:10:11] Afterwards, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food. There were about 4000 men in the crowd that day. And jesus sent them home after they had eaten.
[00:10:25] So a great public miracle of provision had just happened.
[00:10:30] And they had seen it. They tasted and seen that the Lord was good. And then the following happens in the next few verses. Verse eleven says. When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had arrived, they came and they started to argue with him, testing him. They demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven. To prove his authority.
[00:10:56] When he heard this, he sighed deeply. Can you just imagine, out of all the images you have of jesus. Can you imagine him sighing?
[00:11:08] Can you imagine that exasperation that he was experiencing? He sighed deeply in his spirit. And he said, why do these people keep demanding a miraculous sign?
[00:11:21] I tell you the truth. I will not give this generation any such sign. So he got back into the boat and he left them. And he crossed to the other side of the lake. So these incidents are the feeding of the 4000. Which was a different miracle to the feeding of the 5000. These incidents. And then the demand by the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, for a miraculous sign. To evidence that he was the Messiah. These things happened directly before jesus prayed for the blind man. So what's the connection? What's the link that there is here? Well, Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, how many miracles do you want? You've just seen thousands of people being fed miraculously. You've seen other miracles happen. What more are you looking for? And the question is, how many signs do we demand? You know, have you ever been in a situation where things are difficult? And you say, God, if you will do this for me. If you'll just give me that job, I'll serve you forever. I really believe in you. If you'll give me this one. If you'll open this door, I'll really trust you from now on. And it's so easy for us to have, like a pharisaical approach to say, God, if you will just do this next thing. Then I will believe in you fully. How many signs do we need?
[00:12:36] How many signs more than the salvation of our souls do we need? It's no greater miracle than the transformation of your life and my life. There's no greater miracle in the world.
[00:12:47] How many more signs do we need? And they demanded a sign. You see, Jesus knew that it wasn't a sign they were looking for because they weren't seeing the signs that he was given. Because there was a prejudice in their vision.
[00:13:00] Their vision was blocked because of their own paradigms and expectations.
[00:13:06] Maybe you've met someone. Maybe you are this person that because of some past experience you've had in your life, you judge all present experiences with this as a block. For example, maybe you've experienced deep rejection in your life. And now every time someone tries to love you, you can't see it because you keep feeling the rejection of the past, and there's a blockage in your vision. They are being kind, they are being loving, they are being gracious. But you are hearing it from a place of rejection, and they are not rejecting you. You are just hearing it because of a past prejudice or experience of pain that you've had in your life.
[00:13:44] We know that that person can't just keep being test in the world to see. Will you reject me now? Will you reject me now? That the answer is to deal with the pain or the rejection in order so they can free up the vision, so they can see the love.
[00:14:00] Jesus was saying, there's something blocking your vision here.
[00:14:04] Let's look onto verse 14, the next verse. But the disciples had forgotten to bring any food.
[00:14:16] They only had one loaf of bread with them in the boat, unless they were crossing the lake. Which is quite funny because they just didn't fed 4000 people. Like, when will these guys learn? You know, like, you sort of think, well, maybe they just got really casual about the catering arrangements. Just thought, you'll sort it out. Jesus will sort it out. He'll be okay. But they got no bread. And as they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them. He said, watch out. Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.
[00:14:46] Jesus was talking about the infectiousness of visual impairment.
[00:14:52] He was saying, be careful. That poor vision can be passed on from one to another, not physical visual impairment. But when you have something blocking your ability to see things that God is desiring us to see, that can cause an infectiousness. So you can have a community where one person's lack of faith can begin to infectiously speak around where someone's grumbling can begin to speak around where someone's pain can begin to share around. You can have a scenario where things that stop our visual capacity get shared.
[00:15:27] And Jesus was saying, be careful because there's a visual impairment that stops you seeing. That will stop you from seeing the fullness of what it is that I'm bringing to you.
[00:15:40] You and I, we can watch with cynical and disappointed perceptions, and we can share those or take them on, and we can cause other people's cynicism to become our cynicism and so on. Beware. Jesus is saying that these things are like rising agents in your life, like easters in bread. These things can grow within a community. A little east works through the whole batch of dough, says later on in the scriptures.
[00:16:06] And Jesus highlighted that there are two sources of toxic issues that can affect our sight, our vision.
[00:16:14] First of all, he says, the Pharisees, the religious naysayers, they sound articulate, they present themselves righteously, but they lacked authenticity. Jesus described them as like whitewashed tombstones. They looked very presentable, but inside there was death. They look good in public, but there's a toxicity in their inner world. And when you walk away from an encounter with them or a conversation with them, you usually leave that conversation feeling more bound than free, more inadequate than valued, more cynical than faith filled. And Jesus said, beware of that in your vision.
[00:16:53] Beware.
[00:16:55] Then he said, Herod.
[00:16:57] Herod is one of the kings.
[00:16:59] And I believe this is symbolic. Herod is not alive today. So Jesus words to us is not, beware of Herod, but beware that from those representing the ruling forces of our day.
[00:17:10] Beware of the prevailing powers of our day.
[00:17:14] Beware of the prevailing powers of the culture that you and I live in. Ideologies are swirling around us in abundance. A series of competing narratives are knocking on the doors of our hearts. And Jesus says, beware of those ideologies that divert your vision from the kingdom of God.
[00:17:33] See, Jesus was teaching his followers not about recipes to make bread. He was talking to them about having eyesight to see what God is saying.
[00:17:45] Jesus was teaching his followers that their eyes can be contaminated from seeing a kingdom vision. And let's look at their response. Verse 16.
[00:17:56] At this, they began to argue with each other because they hadn't brought any bread.
[00:18:01] Jesus knew what they were saying. So he said, why are you arguing about having no bread? I wonder how many times in church history, Jesus looking onto the church saying, why are you arguing? What are you doing? What's going on? This church history is laden with fallouts. It's laden with people disputing different ways of saying things, doing things, behaving in church. Fallouts offense. She's like, what are you arguing about that for? What are you doing?
[00:18:36] Don't you see? I've got something for you to see here.
[00:18:39] So easy to get lost in the wrong thing. Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don't you know or understand even yet?
[00:18:47] Are your hearts too hard to take it in?
[00:18:50] You have eyes, can't you see?
[00:18:53] You have ears. Can't say that as a welshman. You have ears, can't you hear?
[00:19:00] Don't you remember anything at all?
[00:19:03] When I fed the 5000 with five loaves of bread how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterwards? Twelve, they said.
[00:19:11] And when I fed the 4000 with seven loaves how many large baskets of leftovers did I pick you up or did you pick up? Seven. They said, don't you understand yet? He asked them, don't you understand?
[00:19:25] Jesus was teaching them a lesson about the kingdom of God.
[00:19:30] I'm glad he's so patient with us. I'm glad he's so kind. There are lessons that you and I probably could have learned years ago that we're still learning today. But he's still patient with us. You know, we look at the story of when the Israelites were brought out of Egypt and we see that God provided wonderfully and miraculously. And he made a way. He made a way through the wanderings of the wilderness. He made a way throughout all that story. But we see that the journey could have been shorter.
[00:20:00] You know, a few months ago. I remember sharing with us as a church that last year we felt God was asking us to make some decisions that felt like we were being cornered. We felt that we were doing the right thing obediently with the Lord. We felt that there were some things he was asking of us that felt like they were instructions of the Lord and he was testing us because they didn't really make a lot of strategic sense. But we felt that obedience was important to respond to a sense of discerning what God was saying and to say yes to him no matter what it was. And I remember there was one of our elders meetings. We meet on Thursday mornings and there was one of these elders meetings. We said, it feels like that moment when the Israelites were brought out of Egypt and then they were cornered. They were at the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptians chasing behind them. They had no way to get through the water and they had no way of defeating the Egyptians. And Moses. What did he do. He raised up a staff and he lift up the staff. And there was a way made where there was no way.
[00:21:00] And we prayed that morning, God, would you make a way where there seems to be no way? Would you open up the possibilities? Would you do a miracle that afternoon? One of the ladies in this church is very prophetic. She actually arranged to see me about five weeks previously, but she had to cancel because she was unwell. So she had rearranged for this day, the day that we met with the elders that morning. And we had prayed, God, would you make a way? We lift up a staff. Would you make a way where there seems to be no way? And she walked into my office that very afternoon and she was carrying a staff and she said, God told me weeks ago, you need a staff.
[00:21:35] God told me that you need to lift up a staff because God's going to make a way where there seems to be no way. I believe you and I are sat here this morning in the place of that provision where God has made a way where there seems to be no way, because that's what God does. That's who he is.
[00:21:50] And I believe the timing of God, if she'd come to me four weeks earlier or five weeks earlier when she had intended to, and she brought me a stuff, I went, thank you.
[00:21:58] It's a stick. Thank you. But the fact that the timing of God is impeccable, he knows the moment to say the word. He knows the moment to lift our faith. He knows the moment to reveal his truth. He knows the moment to open our eyes.
[00:22:14] But people keep asking us, you know, how long have we got this place?
[00:22:18] What do we do when we havent got this place any longer? Theyre good questions, arent they? And as someone that God has called to lead this church, you expect me to have all the answers, right?
[00:22:31] And I dont know, but I do know this, that God who brought us this far will be the God who leads us on.
[00:22:41] As long as we keep trusting him, we can't say we trusted him on the last thing. Therefore the next thing, we can live off that trust. No, it has to be fresh trust today, every day. We have to keep holding on to him.
[00:22:55] And I know that in that analogy, that story, rather, that the Israelites went through the Red Sea, the sea folded in on the Egyptians, and their enemies were overcome and they were free from their slavery.
[00:23:09] I do know this, that God had promised to take them into a promised land.
[00:23:14] And as they were on the journey for that promised land, which was actually just a few days away from where they were. It took 40 years.
[00:23:22] Why did it take them 40 years? Well, God made an observation about their hearts.
[00:23:29] God made an observation that their hearts were so vulnerable and weak that they wouldn't have the stomach to fight some of the battles that were needed in order to take them into the promised land.
[00:23:40] I do know this, that we can't rely on just the fact that God has brought us here, that he will take us to the next place where our hearts have to be brave. We have to be courageous. We have to keep obeying and trusting God today in order to step into the promises tomorrow. I believe God will lead us. There are promises over some lives here, some prophetic words that you've had over your life, and you're wondering, why have I not stepped into them? Well, some of them is because the timing of God has not been right, but some of them is because the trust has not been right in our own hearts. We're not ready for them.
[00:24:12] Some of them are because we have played around with the things of God and we've not stepped in fullness. We haven't seen clearly. We've seen like men walking around like trees. We haven't seen clearly. And I want us to be a church. Believe God wants us to be a church. We see things as God desires us to see them, that we're not infected with the yeast of the religious. We're not infected with the yeast of this world that we're in, that we are cleansed. Our vision is clear, and we can see what God wants us to see.
[00:24:43] Jesus was revealing the kingdom principles to them here. He wasn't giving them recipe tips.
[00:24:49] That's what dulled eyes do. They reduce the words of Jesus to pithy advice.
[00:24:56] There are churches you can go to today that the beatitudes are like a series of moral ideas.
[00:25:01] That's not what Jesus does. That's what religion does. It redacts down God's powerful truth and it makes it like proverbs for life, inspirational ideas.
[00:25:12] God's word is powerful. It's a sword. It cuts through. It's a promise on which we stand. It's a firm foundation on which we stand secure. God's word, the promises of his word, they're not ambiguous. They're not mild words. They're powerful words that have the ability to move mountains, to shake environments, to transform cities, to empower regions, to change nations. That's what God's word does.
[00:25:37] And if we are living with dull vision, we transform them into nice little devotional thoughts.
[00:25:48] If we do that, the Bible becomes a mixed ideas book, not a revelation.
[00:25:54] Christianity becomes a moralistic code, not a transformational experience.
[00:25:59] The kingdom of God becomes a matter of talk, not power.
[00:26:03] Dulled vision obscures the power of the possibilities that you and I have in Christ.
[00:26:09] We see shapes, but with little definition.
[00:26:14] We have mild revelation, but not clarity. We can't make out whether this a person or a tree, whether the words of Christ are a promise or a nice idea, whether God's word is a sword or an iron bar.
[00:26:27] And we need our vision to be clear.
[00:26:30] God anoint our eyes to see you.
[00:26:35] So Jesus previous words said, this, don't you understand yet? He asked them.
[00:26:44] And then we arrive at the account that we started this talk with the blind man meeting Jesus.
[00:26:52] Let me read it again.
[00:26:54] When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus, and they begged him to touch the man and heal him.
[00:27:03] Jesus took the blind man by the hand and he led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man's eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, can you see anything now? The blind man looked around. Yes, he said, I see people, but I can't see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around.
[00:27:24] There's a parallel between these two questions that Jesus asked in this passage. The first question he asked his disciples, don't you understand yet? And the second question he asked the blind man, can you see anything now?
[00:27:37] This was an intentional teaching moment by Jesus. He was revealing that in the same way that this man's physical eyes were not seen clearly, that we can have blurred spiritual vision and not understand the fullness of what God is doing. We see shapes, we see themes, we see ideas, but we don't see revelation.
[00:27:56] I've met people who live here, live in this place, in this half seeing, half not seeing place.
[00:28:05] Year after year, their vision is obscured. Year after year, their perceptions are blurry. Year after year, they stumble around with a lack of clarity.
[00:28:15] They could sing the song, I once was blind, but now I see men walking around looking like trees.
[00:28:24] But the story didn't finish there.
[00:28:27] It says in the next verse. Then Jesus placed his hands on the man's eyes again, and his eyes were opened.
[00:28:35] His sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly.
[00:28:43] Jesus wants to open our eyes.
[00:28:49] He wants you and me to see clearly.
[00:28:57] But we need to get rid of the yeast, of the Pharisees and the spirit of this age.
[00:29:06] We need to get rid of the prejudice that stops us from seeing clearly.
[00:29:14] We need to ditch our personal preferences in surrender and submission to the preferences of God.
[00:29:21] We need to ask the Lord to instruct our eyes.
[00:29:30] Repentance isn't just saying sorry.
[00:29:36] Repentance is a transformative experience, a change of thinking, a change of living, a change of behavior, a change of attitudes.
[00:29:47] It's transformational in its nature.
[00:29:50] It's allowing our lives through repentance to be transformed by a greater revelation that opens our eyes to see the people of God.
[00:30:04] You, me, were called to see.
[00:30:11] We're called to see clearly.
[00:30:15] We're called to see a revelation of what the Lord is saying and doing.
[00:30:24] We are called to see beyond the things that are around us.
[00:30:28] That song we sang a few moments ago that talks about the wind blowing and the waves crashing.
[00:30:36] Like, you don't need a gift of discernment to know when the waves are crashing and the wind is blowing. Oh, I just feel a word from God right now. There are waves crashing. I know you're soaking wet. We can see that. That's not discernment. Discernment.
[00:30:50] Discernment says, but I feel the rock beneath my feet.
[00:30:58] And these waves are not going to get you and they are not going to get me because I see the rock.
[00:31:04] See, that's what the church is called to have. It's not called just to observe the circumstances of our age. It's called to discern the rock beneath our feet, the truth that's in our heart, the revelation that's in our life. The spirits are empowering us today.
[00:31:16] That's what the church is meant to be. That's why we're meant to stand out. Not because we go somewhere different to garden centers on a Sunday. That's not what makes us distinctive. It's not that we sing songs and have a different repertoire of songs in our world. It's not even that we pray and read the Bible in the morning. What makes us different is that we know we see things differently.
[00:31:40] Are you seeing clearly?
[00:31:42] Can you see yet?
[00:31:46] Do you need Jesus to lay his hand on you again, to open your eyes?
[00:31:51] Do you need to deal with the yeast that's infected our vision?
[00:31:59] There's infected vision all over the church, across the nation.
[00:32:07] Strategy to infect the vision of God's people.
[00:32:12] Because without a vision in the church, the people will perish.
[00:32:16] And the vision is not a good idea. The vision is not our plan, our three step plan to reach in the nation for Christ. Our vision is Jesus.
[00:32:26] And if when you look at Jesus like, is that a tree?
[00:32:30] Is that the son of God?
[00:32:33] He wants to open your eyes.
[00:32:36] In a moment, I'm going to ask those who want to see, to invite the Lord to come and to open their eyes afresh, to cleanse and purify their vision.
[00:32:53] The people of God are meant to see beyond the things that are within us.
[00:32:58] Oh, there's plenty of wrestles and battles within us, but we're meant to see beyond those.
[00:33:05] The people of God are to be people with vision, to see solutions, opportunities, possibilities and resolutions, not problems, difficulties, challenges and offences.
[00:33:24] Our news media in the next few weeks is going to be filled with people telling us ideas that are going to be listed as transformational opportunities for our nation.
[00:33:40] I pray they are and pray for our political process in this country. Will you? The scripture encourages us to pray for leaders.
[00:33:51] Let's pray that you know when in a time of change, and I think I read somewhere, is it two thirds of the world are at the polls this year voting for leaders.
[00:34:05] This is a seismic season of change in the world. There are shifts.
[00:34:11] There are tectonic plates of power that are shifting all over the nations of the world and the people of God.
[00:34:18] We need to see Jesus clearly because he is the hope of the nations.
[00:34:28] So I pray that you and I will not be a blurry eyed community.
[00:34:34] This world needs clarity, not a blurry eyed church who can't help very much.
[00:34:40] Lord, may we be a church of clarity and revelation, a people who hold the revelation of your word and speak it to the world with authority and with power, with its truth pulsating through our very souls. May it be a daily experience. May the kingdom of God not be a matter of talk, but a matter of power for the saints of God. I believe we are about to step into a season where signs and wonders and the miraculous are going to rise up in our nation than ever before. I believe that we're going to see a restoration of a revival spirit that captures the hearts of God's people. But if you look around, if you just look at the signs of a time, you don't always see those things. But when you begin to see Christ and you begin to fix your eyes on him and you have your vision liberated and anointed to see what God is doing, there's an excitement that bursts in our spirit. And God's looking for a people of prophetic excitement.
[00:35:35] He's looking for a people who will see what he is doing and discern it and say, God, I'm in.
[00:35:43] If you want God to open your eyes to see clearly, why don't you stand right now, say, God I want to see you. I want my eyes to see what you want me to see.
[00:35:58] Put your hands with you on your eyes. Be careful if you're wearing glasses.
[00:36:06] Oh, Lord Jesus, you've been so patient and so kind with us, Lord, because these eyes have looked on to all sorts of things over the years.
[00:36:20] And, Lord, I pray if these eyes are being filtered, our perception is being filtered by disappointments of the past.
[00:36:27] I pray that if our vision is blurred by the yeast and the toxins of this world, by the toxins of religion.
[00:36:38] I pray, O God, that you will set our vision free. That we would see you in your fullness and in your glory. I pray, O Lord, that we will see you high and lifted up. I pray, Lord, that the train of yero will fill the temple of our lives. That we would see clearly. God, I pray for clarity in the body of Christ. I pray, o God, that as we read your word, that there will be a clarity that comes from your word. Lord, I pray those things that have been hidden, those things that have felt like mysteries, those things that have felt like just tame ideas. Lord, I pray that you will spark our eyes to see with fresh revelation of the truth of your word. And it will stir up our hearts, oh, God. And we will orientate our lives to follow you wholeheartedly.
[00:37:28] So, Lord, we long to see you.
[00:37:34] To see you.
[00:37:38] Blessed are your eyes.
[00:37:53] I'm fully believing that as many of you are praying now, that it's almost like you've just checked into the operation table.
[00:38:03] Some of you have had cataracts removed. You've had laser treatment. You've had all sorts of things over the years to try to help your natural eyes.
[00:38:11] But I'm believing right now, in the presence of God, that he's doing the skillful work of a surgeon in removing the obstacles and the offenses and the grief, the pain, the disappointments, disillusionment, the failures.
[00:38:32] He's removing them so you can see clearly.
[00:38:40] Holy spirit. Spirit.
[00:38:44] Weighty, powerful Holy Spirit, open the eyes of our heart. Lord, we want to see you.
