Learning to Use the Eyes of Your Heart

I desire earnestly to live as Jesus did, out of the Father’s initiative, doing only what He saw His Father doing (Jn. 5:19,20; 8:38). However, before I could live that way, I needed first to learn how to become a seer.

I am convinced that the spirit world is there, whether or not I am seeing it. In becoming a seer I am simply learning to see what is. In learning to see, I am learning to bring alive an atrophied sense (i.e., my visionary capacity) and then present it to God to be filled.

Once my visionary sense has been rejuvenated and presented before Almighty God, I am offered the opportunity to live as did Jesus of Nazareth, out of the continuous flow of divine vision.

The Prophets of Israel could simply say, “I looked,” and as they quieted themselves before God, they saw (Dan. 7:2,9;13). I have found that once I have reclaimed the use of my visionary capacity, I too can simply quiet myself in the Lord’s presence, look, and see the visions of Almighty God. I am a “seer” simply because I have become a “looker.”

The Bible says we have not because we ask not. For years I never saw, because I never looked. As I teach people to look, I find that they become seers. This sounds simple, and it is for many, particularly those who are intuitive, spontaneous, and visionary by nature, and who have not allowed the pressure of a culture which idolizes logical, analytical and cognitive functions to cut off their natural, spontaneous openness to vision.

However, for those like myself, who were born naturally logical, analytical and cognitive and have had these inherent leanings reinforced by the rationalism of their culture, seeing the vision of God may not be so easy. Often the intuitive and visionary functions have literally atrophied and died through lack of use; therefore, for these people, the process in not as simple as just “looking” and “seeing.” Even as a muscle which has atrophied through lack of use must be exercised in order to restore its vitality, so must an unused, and thus atrophied, sense be exercised.

This involves three steps:

1. Repenting of the sin of scorning that which God has created,

2. Asking God to breathe new life into this inner sense of seeing, and

3. Developing this sense which God is restoring.

I began the process of restoration by repenting of my scorn toward my visionary capacity. I asked God’s forgiveness for not honoring and using that which He had created and given me. I also repented of participating in the idolization of logic and analytical thinking which had swept over me, as well as over my culture. I covenanted to honor and seek His ability to flow through vision as much as I had honored and sought His ability to flow through analytical thought.

Then I asked God to breathe upon my visionary capacity and restore it, to bring it back to life and teach me how to allow Him to flow through it.

Now I was ready to take my first few wobbly steps. As I sat in my study seeking God’s face, I was drawn to a scene from John 4 in which Jesus sat by the well and talked with a Samaritan woman. Sensing that God wanted to sit and talk with me, I pictured the scene with a slight adaptation. Instead of seeing the woman talking with Jesus, I saw myself talking with Jesus.

As I peered intently into the picture and looked to see what might happen, it came alive through the Holy Spirit and Jesus moved and gestured, as someone often does when he is talking. With His movement, there came into my heart His words and directives for my life. I sensed God’s voice as spontaneous, good thoughts.

This was the first time I had ever sought for vision in this way, and I was thrilled to see it so readily come alive and be taken over by the power of the Holy Spirit. You see, I had in essence poised myself for the divine flow by setting the scene and then asking God to fill it. I found as I repeated this experiment in subsequent days that God continued to move through these “self-made” scenes, causing them to come alive with His own life and become supernatural visions direct from the throne of grace.