Spirit-Led Eyes

Well, I certainly won't try to sing after that. Pardon me. That, I'm on now. I'm going to lower this down. Welcome to our guest. I still have the Demers here. Push down. No, I think maybe one. No. That way I don't have to see you. I can just keep it right there. Just a sec.

And the Demers family is here, and I will get to meet them. Janae's family is here. Nice to have them here. And with that, I will launch right in. Take my watch off. Stay on time.

I appreciate the sermonette. Thank you. I saw something that was interesting the other day. I was in a bookstore. And it's so interesting because I always like to look for books that have positive affirmations. You know, something's positive because I always think there's two forces in the world. There's negative and there's positive. To me, God's positive, Satan's negative. So I always like to look at these positive affirmations just so I can write them down to something new. Well, here they had a book, and it was negative or almost negative affirmations. So, of course, I had to look in it. I had to see, what's so inspiring? That's so negative. I know it's funny because the first one, I opened it up and it turned in the middle of the book, and it said, early birds get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. So I guess it's not bad to be second, they're saying. And it said, eels may soar, but weasels never get sucked into an airplane engine. So I guess that's a negative affirmation, which I guess if you're negative and being second to it, you know, or if you're a weasel, it's still not bad. Well, I want to dwell on something positive today as we finish this day up. The title, of course, I have behind me is called the Spirit-Let Eyes. Spirit-Let Eyes. I'd like to ask one thing. The percentage of people in here who either wear glasses, contact lenses, or have had surgery. Wow, that's most of you. So these, you that do not, you're kind of freaks in this room, I guess. I have to raise my hand because I had corrective surgery, laser surgery, 10, 12 years ago. Because I was nearsighted. Anyone here nearsighted? Most of you. Ah, nearsighted. I could see, but it had to be like right here. Nearsighted. Nearsightedness, or as it's called, myopia. Myopia means that you can see things close, but the farther out it gets, the more blurred. It becomes. And so, after it reaches a certain level, it depends on how bad your myopia is, you cannot see it. It becomes totally blurred. No longer fuzzy, but just totally blurred. So if you're myopic, as they say, that you can even use the word short-sighted, as they have used in many books, well, I ask you, are you short-sighted? Are you myopic when it comes to the spirit of God? Since my corrective surgery about 10 years ago, I've been able to see almost perfectly 20-20 out of one eye and 20-30 out of the other eye. But they told me, by the time you get to be 50, you're going to need reading glasses. So I'm fighting that off. Hopefully I won't. But I'm thankful for the surgery. I'm thankful for the corrected my vision. And those of you who wear glasses or contacts, which I wore both for years, you're thankful for those. I reflect back on receiving the Holy Spirit over 30 years ago. And the Holy Spirit helps us to not only see, but to see more clearly as we dive into God's Word, hopefully, or have an understanding. But you know, as I looked at His Scriptures, so many became more clear to me. The only problem was that after I received God's Holy Spirit 30 years ago, I didn't use it. I might have used it some. I might have said I had it, but it wasn't something I used all the time.

And that created a lot of problems, as we can all attest to. In Czar, when we don't use the Spirit, we kind of use our own mind, our own logic. We don't really turn to God.

And it reminded me of when I wore glasses, I'd get up in the morning and I needed my glasses to see. But sometimes I would be in such a hurry. I would take a shower. I would do all this stuff. I'd shave and do this. I didn't have my glasses. Then I would put my glasses on, find I didn't shave very well. I didn't do anything very well.

That happens with us. Those Spirit-led eyes that God says we do have, that we're led by the Spirit, do we sometimes keep them in our pocket? Kind of like glasses?

It took years for me to realize that I needed to use God's Holy Spirit daily. And then it took more years before I realized I need to use it hourly. Because it's a power, it's a force that I just kind of wanted to treat like glasses. Maybe you have gotten up in the morning, drove to work without your glasses, if you need glasses. Anybody tried that? I did, many years ago. Sure glad I didn't do it in Miami or Fort Lauderdale. You need your glasses. You need everything in this town, the city, on this I-95.

But you wouldn't think about doing that, would you? Without your glasses or your contacts. But yet how many times have we walked out of the house without putting on our Spirit-led eyes? So that we are led by the Spirit. That is the story of the mother who had two teenagers. She was worried that the kids were losing their eyesight. That they were going blind. Because the daughter couldn't find a thing to wear in a closet full of clothes. And the son couldn't find anything to eat in a full refrigerator. I wonder how many times God has looked at me and, why didn't you use it? Why didn't you see more? Why didn't you let me lead you a little more? There's TV commercial, American Express, that said, don't leave home without it. The nice thing about God's Holy Spirit is that it says in 1 John 4, if you'll turn there, 1 John 4. 1 John 4.

Verse 13. It says, by this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us His Spirit. The problem is the use. Do we use it?

This incredible power. Are we to what? How would you say it? To human? To fleshly? To carnal? Because that pops up sometimes, doesn't it? Those in my life know about you. Because we can see from the Bible there's two ways. There's God's way and there's man's way. They're not the same way!

You don't believe me? Read the newspaper or read the Internet, as I did this morning, in Miami paper.

The police shot and killed a man. He was naked. He was naked. They shot and killed him because he was on top of this other man who was naked, eating his face. I know, it sounds weird. That's why I had to read it twice. They told him to stop eating his face! And he just kept eating so they had to keep killing. Now the other guy whose face was eaten is in critical condition. Think I've designed a world like that? Where are we? Is that spirit-led? No! That's way out there! That's even out there for Miami! So let's face it. It's hard to be concerned with God's way when we're consumed with our own. It is hard, very hard, to be concerned with God's way when we're consumed with our very own. Remember Samson? Incredible story. He's an incredible, strong man of the Bible. You remember the story, right?

And it's amazing that God had this plan, but I don't know how many times he had to change it with Samson. It doesn't really say. But Samson was so consumed with his own way that I'm sure God got very frustrated. How many frustrated? Come on! I want you to be a judge! I want you to judge your people! I'm giving you this incredible power, for God had to do it his way. But it's amazing that, really, if you study the story and you read it, you see that Samson never really got it, did he? Right until the end. He never saw God's way to what?

Until they took these iron pokers, as they said they did back then, after they finally captured him after they cut off his hair. They actually took a poker and they put it on fire, and then they stuck it in both of his eyes. And then he spent, somewhere it depends on how long, which book you read, anywhere between two and five years pushing this piece of wood and grinding grain behind some other animals, walking all that time, pushing that piece of wood being blind. And then, after all that time, what happened? He saw. And what did he see? He saw that he needed to do what God wanted him to do.

It took being blinded before he could really see. Hopefully none of us. Because it's amazing to anyone that reads the faith chapter that you actually see, and you wonder, how in the world is Samson in the faith chapter? But he is. Why? Because I guess he could say I was blind, but now I see. I'm sure he gave him enough time walking behind and smelling waste from cows or horses or mules, pushing the grain with him before he could truly see, really see. Like you turn to 2 Kings, see another vision problem here. 2 Kings, as a matter of fact, 2 Kings 6, have the incredible story of Elisha, the servant. Most of you know the story. It's interesting just to touch on it here. But Elisha was surrounded, outnumbered, ten thousand to one, or more like ten thousand to two. He didn't know what in the world he was going to be able to do, except he believed in God, so he didn't worry about it. But his servant, his assistant, did worry about it. You see, Elisha was led by spirit-led eyes, as we are to be led by spirit-led eyes. And so in 2 Kings 6 and verse 14, Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army. This was the men who were coming to get Elisha. And they came by night and surrounded the city. And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army surrounding him, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, I lost my master, what shall we do?

A little bit late to try to figure that one out, isn't it? So he answered and said, what? How many times do we need to hear this? Do not fear. Do not fear for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see. And what did he see? You know the rest of the story. What did he see? Finally, he wasn't looking through. Human eyes, man's eyes. Turn back to Job, if you will. Job 42. Job had to come to this understanding, too. Job 42, verse 5 and 6. Job had gone through all this stuff. He'd gone through problem after problem after problem. That God allowed Satan to do. Because Job, God wanted Job to come to a deeper understanding. How many of us has he kind of talked about, well, I wish I would go a little deeper. I'm sure he has. Because I can go a lot deeper, and I need to. I need to. I want to. That's what this day is inspiring to me. Why is it inspiring to me? I realize I can do more. I want to do more. Because I'm spirit-led.

42.

Verse 5. Job finally came to a realization. He said, I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes, that's right, my eye sees you. Therefore, I abhor myself and repent. I like it. Have a New Living Translation said, I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. Eyes. Job had a deeper understanding. Go a little deeper in the well, as they say. So I ask you, do you see God? Do you see God every day, in every way, that He wants you to see Him? Or is it still just surface? Is it just still? I've got these glasses on.

Or do we really want that?

Peter quoted in Acts 2, and it was touched on, he actually talked about, as he quoted Joel, that in the last days, young men will see visions and old men will dream dreams. What do you think it's talking about? Young men will see visions. We're talking about another dimension. We're talking in the spiritual dimension. We're talking about the future. A lot of times, we don't want to go there because it can make us feel uncomfortable sometimes. There's a lot for us to do. God sees us, doesn't He? Do we see Him? Do we see Him? That's the question. I could go to 2 Chronicles, as we're in the Old Testament. 2 Chronicles 16. 2 Chronicles 16. Verse 9. Very, very powerful. If you remember nothing else from 2 Chronicles, because it's hard to remember everything, isn't it? The more you stay in the Bible, the more you realize, I don't know as much as I thought I knew. Because you keep learning more and more than God. You want to understand one Scripture? You go back and read that Scripture. He gives you another understanding of it. That's power. Verse 9 says, For the eyes of the Lamb run to and fro throughout the whole earth, To show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him. So he's looking. If you're loyal to him, he's looking for you. He's making sure that you know he's got his eyes on you. And he's there for you. And he's there for me. Psalm 34. Psalm 34. Psalm 34. Verse 15. Talking about eyes. The eyes of the Lord. See? He doesn't have human eyes. His spirit eyes. Powerful eyes. And he says, The eyes of the head are on the righteous. Righteous. Aren't we great? It's like having this big daddy. It's like having this bodyguard who's always there. He says, We have that power because his eyes will always be on us. I read a book one time. I can't remember the exact name of it. I don't want to misquote the book. But it was called The Fifth Profession. I remember that now. Because The Fifth Profession was a job of a bodyguard. The oldest profession, he named the first five. And the bodyguard was the fifth. And it's so interesting because it told about the modern bodyguard. And they always had their eyes and interest on their customer. Well, guess what? God has his eyes and his interest on you. His family. How many fathers out here had to swoop in and help their children, save their children at times? You didn't even think anything about it. You would just do it. We do that to our wives. Hopefully.

God is ready to do that for us.

Hmm. Remember Habakkuk? Habakkuk. He talks about God's eyes. He said, You are pure eyes unto behold evil and cannot look upon wickedness. Do we want to be like Dad?

And as Job reminded us in 36th and 7th, God does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous. There's a reason to be righteous. Right? Is that not comforting? Feel secure? Reassuring? Brings a certain peace to your life that no one else, nothing else can give you that peace. The human eye is an amazing piece of work. Faith could tell you, studying all she's done. I had a doctor tell me one time that one of the fastest-feeling parts of the body is the eye.

It happened to it and it feels so quickly. But it's just so amazing. It's an amazing wonder. But I took it one step and wanted to say, okay, the human eye is great. We need to be spirit. We need to have spirit-led eyes. What if we were just one step better than human eyes? We'd still be far away from spirit-led eyes. So I looked it up and tried to find the next best example to the human eye. You know what I found?

The eagle's eye. That's why they say, oh, eagle eye. Back in the contracting business, we had a customer, and he would drive by and everybody called him, oh, eagle eyes, because he could sit out in his vehicle and find something we did wrong 100 yards away. And so we all, here comes the, oh, eagle. I never understood that until I did this study, and then I found that the eagle's eye, God made it one of the best in the world.

And the amazing one, the eagle can see both forward and to the side at the same time. It can see this way, this way, and this way. Amazing. We don't know why. God just made it. And the eagle can fly directly into the sun and never be blinded. The eagle's eye is fairly large, the bird, almost as large as our eyes.

And yet, it is four to six times more powerful than the human eye, and four to six times more clear. Matter of fact, it's been proven that an eagle can see a mouse the size of a quarter. That's a small mouse. It's in six-inch tall grass from 300 yards away. And it can actually fly, if it's flying up high, it can actually see a rabbit one to two miles away. Powerful. Powerful example. Can we learn?

Can we learn any spiritual lessons from, not only the human eye, but also the eagle's eye? I think we can. We, brethren, must not be myopic. We must not be nearsighted, shortsighted, when it comes to the things of God. A myopic eagle will die. It's actually been noted that something happens to the eyesight, even in one eye. More than likely, die. Starvation. What about us? If we do not use our spirit-led eyes, we will die spiritually. Most of us know that, don't we?

We know that. We know that if we don't read this book, if we don't call on God, if we do not pray, we do not do this stuff, we're spiritually going to die. But we still have problems doing it, don't we? See, we need more clear vision. We need clearer vision. Remember when you first ride on an airplane? I do. I was about 16, 17 years old. 17, I think. Remember that airplane? We took off the airport, it was right near a building, a big 20-story building. And that was so strange, because I had stood at the base of that building so many times and looked up and up.

And then all of a sudden, when I was up in the air, I looked down at that building and it was like, not so massive anymore. And I went, wow! God looks at us and He sees our problems from way up there.

And you know, guess what? They're not big. They're not big. We're right here, and these problems we have, they're big! But because He has spirit-led eyes, they're not big. What happens when you turn a problem over to God? You have this big problem in your life, and you turn it over to God and you say, there's this peace that comes over you, and guess what? It's not so big anymore, is it? Not so big. I guess that's why Scripture, where there is no vision, the people perish.

We need vision. We need vision that that's not all there is. That I better eat somebody's face today, because that's all there is. That's all I know. See, there's more. He's offered and promised so much more. Like you turn back, you're at Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Verse 12. It says, Open your eyes. Have we prayed that you got a problem? Ask God to open your eyes, to see Him. What do you want to see?

What did Moses want to see? He said, God, let me see Your glory. Let me see it. Don't you want to see God's glory? I would love to see God's glory. Did it help Moses? I think so. I think he needed it. I think he was bogged down. I think he was beginning to wonder, Man, how long is this going to go on? These people? How many of us have said that? These people? May even be your mate. Do you mean these people? We need help. We need help from God. Let's turn back to Proverbs. If you will. Proverbs 4. Proverbs 4. Verse 25. Proverbs 4. Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before your path.

Ponder your path of your feet. Let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or to the left. Remove your foot from evil. But let your eyes look straight ahead. What was he telling? Let your eyes look to Him. The straight and narrow is where God is. It's His way. It's His law. Do we look up for our guidance? Do I look up for even some of my guidance? Do I look up enough for any of my guidance in certain areas?

Think of the man that Jesus Christ healed. They called Him in. And He said, how did this happen? This guy's a sinner, and He healed you. He said, I don't know if He's a sinner or not. But one thing I do know, I was blind, and now I see. Do we ask God to help us see where we are blinded in certain areas of our lives?

Because we work with ourselves and everyone. Unless you're somebody different or odd that I've not talked to before, and I've talked to a lot of people, most people have the same thing. I don't know who I was talking to. I think I was talking to somebody on the phone the other night. You know, when I work on myself, if you've ever been to one of these fairs or playgrounds or whatever, and they have this thing called whack-a-mole. You've seen it? You take this thing and you whack it. You know, and balls pop up and everything.

That's my life! That's my sins! I look at it, I knock this one down, I think, oh yeah, I got that one. And then that thing pops up over here. I cannot do it, and God knew it! That's why He gave us His Holy Spirit.

That's why it's such a gift. So that it will help us whack those balls! No, we need that. We need it not to be short-sighted, not to be myopic. In Zechariah 2, verse 8, you probably know the Scripture, but it talks about, He who touches you touches the apple of my eye. Isn't that great? He who touches you, that's as far as a guy! If they touch you, you, they have touched the apple of his eye. That's pretty powerful.

That's really great. Have you ever noticed, you may remember when you dated, or your dating, or your wife, or whatever, and you went, you're just in that love stage. We're going to talk about that next week. Matter of fact, I'm giving a gape sermon next week, and we're going to talk about love and different kinds, and go into that.

When you're in love, I remember how you could stand there, and you're just infatuated, and you can look in their eyes, and you can actually see your reflection in their eye. You have to get awfully close for that. Now, if me and my wife tried that, we'd both start laughing at each other. Well, you would do, and... You'd go, what are you looking so goofy for me? But that's kind of what it's here. God is watching us, looking at us, and He's so close to us that He...

If you were able to see His eye as a saint, you would see our reflection in there. The apple of His eye. Wow. That's pretty great. That's how close He is to us. It's upsetting when we do not get close enough to Him.

Romans 8, 14 said, what? As many as are led by the Spirit are His. That's you, that's me. We're led by the Spirit. That's what qualifies us to be His. Psalm 63, since we're back here.

Psalm 63. Could you see yourself writing this? Could you see yourself doing this, writing this, and memorizing this, and just knowing this was you? Psalm 63, verse 1. Oh God, You are my God. Early I will seek You. What? Seek You. Seek, seek, seek. Early, in the morning, first thing. Now, let me give you the last 10 minutes before I close off. Early, I will seek You. We're talking about His. Early I will seek You. My soul thirsts for You. My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have what looked for You in the sanctuary to see Your power, to see Your glory. Mmm, what? Have we prayed for that? Do we want to see? Do we want to see that power? Would we be able to handle it? Could we handle seeing that glory? Or would we be almost scared because then I know, I've got to do something different. I've got to turn it up a notch. Right? Now, sometimes when I've prayed, I've backed up in the middle of my prayer because I pray. I say, God, make me a better person. Make me a better Christian. Make me a better minister. Make me a better husband. Make me a better... And then I'm sitting there, and I've been doing it gently. And you kind of back up, and you say, oh, He can make me that, but I may not want to... I may not be ready to tackle. I need Him to do it with mercy. Mmm.

How powerful. How moving. I love Scriptures. David could see God, and God saw David. But what did he do? He said what? He is a man after my own heart. Heart. Can you read someone's heart?

You know, all the time somebody does something, and somebody else says, well, wait a minute, maybe you need to go correct that person. Well, I don't know what... I can't read their heart yet. But if I was dealing with God, Spirit, there's a certain discernment that comes with that. Do I want that? Am I ready to handle that? Are you ready to handle it? Because He looked on David's heart, and sometimes if we could really see someone's heart, we'd realize they didn't mean to do that. When we're led with the Spirit-led eyes. So, brethren, we're talking about another dimension. I know this may make some of you feel a little odd. This may be like, you're making me feel a little uncomfortable. Because we're talking about a spiritual dimension. It's talking about a dimension that God wants us to leave this dimension here and be able to look at things like He looks at things. Spiritual dimension.

How are we going to do that? Today I see my wife Mary. Over 25 years, Mary Durham. Saw her. Married her. But didn't really know her. I thought I did. We gated a little while. But I didn't really know her. I thought I did. But now I can say after 25 years, now my eye sees her. Because I've spent so much time with her.

Now I know. Why is it? I know if she does something, and I don't even, and I don't like it. But I don't just fly off anymore because I realize she probably did it for my own good. Because I know her heart. Because I know she cares and she loves me. So I try not to. I'm not perfect. I try not to question it.

God wants us that close to Him. So when something comes in our lives, and something happens, we can go, and we can go. Fine. Fine, God. You handle it. I trust you. Because why? We know God's heart.

It's amazing. And Berta, I mean, I've never married so long, I'm sure you can sometimes answer His questions before you even ask Him. I mean, it happens. Why? You spend more time, and you know what they're going to ask, or you happen to say the same thing at the same time. That's from spending so much time. God wants us to do that with Him. He wants us to be able. When something comes in our mind, that's what God wants me to know. And we can do that with Spirit-led eyes. It's a shame I don't know God as well as I do my wife. I've actually known Him longer.

Not God's fault.

The problem was I spent too much time concerned with my own way, and I wasn't consumed with His. Something I need to change. I never ask in the past like Moses to see His glory to the last few years.

Are you ready for that? Can you handle it? Brethren, can you delve into the supernatural? Because that's what we're talking about. Because it's not natural. It's not normal. It's not human to walk on water. Is it?

But He says we can do it. He gives an example of Peter did it, right? Peter did it! Peter got out of the boat and walked! Until his eyes got off of Christ. And he looked around and he saw this storm. And he saw the waves. And he saw himself walking on that water. And what did he do?

I'm sure he screamed probably like a woman. Because whatever Peter did, he did with the gusto. And Christ reaching God is good.

He wants us to be able to do that. See, I need to see God daily. My soul needs to thirst. I need to cling. I need to search earnestly through the Scripture. Just like David said. That's me. That's you. And we can do it with His Holy Spirit. Left to myself, I'm a carnal man.

Without God, I'll sow through the flesh and it'll all be about me. Me!

If you can remain righteous without God in your life, more power to you. I can't. I've never met anyone that could.

There's a song in our songbook. It writes out, Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

Do your eyes even look the glory of the coming of the Lord? We sing those words. Do you want to know God and be on such a high level, such a spiritual level, that you said, show me your glory, God, I can handle it? Because it would forever change your life.

We all attend the Feast of Tabernacles. If you went to last year's feast or go to this year's feast, we're going to be asked to do something. We're going to ask to be visionary, because that's what the Feast of Tabernacles is about, seeing into the future. It's seeing the Millennial Reign of Christ. It's when the good days will finally be here.

Well, did we? What kind of eyes did we have at the feast? Because that's kind of a little bit of a training, isn't it? And as I said many times at many feast sites before, if you can't get close, be close, see God, experience God, feel God at the Feast of Tabernacles, in eight days, do you think He wants you to spend eternity with Him? I don't think so.

Yeah, we have so many people who go to the feast and spend that time, and they saw the hotel, and they see the restaurants, they see the food, they see the sites, they see the friends, but they just didn't get around to seeing Him, God.

That's called being myopic, being short-sighted. Haven't we all done that before? It's probably we had that when we had a very lousy feast. But when we were able to see God, see Him! Seeing God is where we began building the passionate relationship with our Maker. It says, blessed are the pure heart, for they shall do what? See God! Boy, that doesn't smack you right in the face.

See, the Pharisees had a heart problem. They had a stony heart. It was all about head and no heart. Blind, leading the blind, as Christ said about that type of leadership.

See, God called His people to heal. They're myopic, spiritual eyes. That's why you're given the Spirit. To have not just 20-20 vision, not to have eagle's eyes, but to have spiritual eyes. Eyes that can see the things of the Spirit. Eyes that can see into the future. Eyes that can see the kingdom of God. Here.

Eyes that see God every single day when you get up.

Are we ready? Are we prepared?

Are our eyes wide open?

What happens if you close your eyes?

Nobody close your eyes. Close your eyes. Okay? What do you see? Dark, black, nothing?

It's dark. Yes?

Open your eyes.

Don't you like living there this way a whole lot better?

See, when we cannot see the spiritual that God wants us to see, we are blinded. We may think we see, but just like Job said, but now, now, now, my eye sees you. That's what he wants us to see. That's what this day is, why it's so important.

We touched about on the sermon at, but as I wrap up here now, since I have about four minutes, I have to have the discipline. Hebrews. Hebrews 11.

Hebrews 11.

See the faith chapter?

Verse 3, it says, By faith we understand that the world is reframed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made by things, were not made by things which are what? Visible.

I mean, things invisible, everything you see that you can see was made by something invisible. So it's another dimension that we're getting into.

As Orlando said earlier in verse 13, These all died in faith. Who were they? They were visionaries. They were our predecessors.

They were visionaries. They had vision into the future, into the spirit world.

That's what God is asking us to be and to do. Yes, it's tough to swallow. But if it's not true, Christ lied. And if he lied, he's not my Savior. And we're all in bad, bad, we're all in a bad place. And he said, if you have faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, you can tell that mountain to move and it will move. He's not lying. That's another dimension.

The spiritual dimension.

These men had it. These women had it, said in verse 13, These all died in faith, not having received the promise, but having what? Seen. Having seen. Them afar. We're assured of them, embrace them, and confess that they were strangers and pilgrims. Embrace them. They saw them from afar off, just like us. We're not there yet.

We need to be visionaries, dreamers.

What we focus on can change our mindset. It's interesting that we sometimes with these human eyes, we worry and we hurry. Don't we? We worry and we hurry. And yet I read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and except for the last few hours of Jesus Christ's life, it gives us a picture into His life of really the last three and a half years of His life, and except for the last day, not one time did He hurry. Not one time did He worry. Why? His Spirit led us.

And you know, if you knew, and He knew, He only had three and a half years of ministry, wouldn't you kind of be a little bit hurried and a little bit worried if we were doing that? If you knew, you only had three and a half years to live, and you knew, you knew the exact day. What would you be doing? I'm getting weird. I better do this. I better do that. Didn't do it, did He? He knew God was in charge.

With me, sometimes I worry, and I hurry, and I need to have a better, I need to have more Spirit-led eyes. I need the eyes and the vision and the focus of Jesus Christ, every day, all through the day. You know, when you lose weight, you have a certain weight you want to get at. I did. I always won, for years it took me a long time, to weigh under 200 pounds. And so then, I realized that for me to stay under there, I'd have to get on the scale every morning. I did, because I wanted that, and so I had that vision that that was perfect, you know, 199? And so, what would I do? I didn't try to get it 199. I just stayed 199. Then I would run, get on the scale after eating, and go, Oh, better do that, you better go down. Why?

That's a human mind, thinking that. Now I get on, I look at the scale, somewhere within the range, I don't freak out.

Sometimes with our problems, we freak out because all of a sudden, something's different, something's changed. He doesn't want us to do that. Today, we're gone from myopic eyes to the ego eye. To the spirit-led eyes. It's a visionary concept, for all of us, I understand.

Can we do it? Do we want to do it?

He's given us his Holy Spirit. We have the opportunity. We have the responsibility.

Why would we want anything else?

Let's go to the new level.

Let's take our minds, during the next year, to the spirit level.

Let's set our mind on the things above. He said, not on the things of the earth. Let's see where it takes us.

Let's see if our Father is really looking after us, and can really see us. And we really are the apple of his eye.