They Shall See God (Pt. 2) Series

THE WAY OF THE KING

A Heart That Sees God

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Mt. 5:8).

Your God-lifed heart has the ability to

• show great mercy,

• see great value,

• extend extreme forgiveness,

• believe for the impossible,

• endure the unbearable,

• love the unlovable,

• to fellowship God,

• to touch with tenderness,

• to respond with gentleness,

• to pray unceasingly, and

• to see God.

Unfortunately, for many of us, our hearts are buried under unforgiveness, bitterness, doubt, disappointment, double-mindedness, fear, and other debris life has dumped on us.

Our failure to “see God” is not a matter of His invisibility or unavailability . In most cases it is merely a matter of focus. We tend to make self and problems bigger, and take them closer than God. A small dime, when drawn close to the eye, can blot out the sun. Likewise, tiny problems can blind us to the presence, power, promises and provisions of God.

Our natural man tends to nurture fear and starve faith.

• It cultivates and encourages doubt while discouraging hope.

• It believes the worst.

• It waxes eloquent in explaining away the mystery of the miraculous.

• It allows unanswered questions to keep us from enjoying what we do know.

• It blinds us.

All four of the Gospels tell the story of Jesus feeding the five-thousand, but John tells it this way:

6:2 …a huge crowd kept following him wherever he went, because they saw his miracles as he healed the sick. 3 Then Jesus went up into the hills and sat down with his disciples around him. 4 (It was nearly time for the annual Passover celebration.) 5 Jesus soon saw a great crowd of people climbing the hill, looking for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, "Philip, where can we buy bread to feed all these people?" 6 He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip replied, "It would take a small fortune to feed them!" 8 Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. 9 "There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?" 10 "Tell everyone to sit down," Jesus ordered. So all of them -- the men alone numbered five thousand -- sat down on the grassy slopes. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and passed them out to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate until they were full. 12 "Now gather the leftovers," Jesus told his disciples, "so that nothing is wasted." 13 There were only five barley loaves to start with, but twelve baskets were filled with the pieces of bread the people did not eat! (John 6:2-13, NLT)

When confronted with Jesus’ intention to feed the multitude, the disciples selfishly focused on what they could not do and what they did not have. They limited the situation to themselves. In contrast, Jesus, before any bread was broken, already knew what He was going to do. He prepared the people to receive an unseen out-of-hand provision sufficient enough to satisfy the hunger of the entire multitude. Jesus saw what the disciples did not see.

I say, do you see God?

An impure heart tends to focus on

• adversity and

• adversaries and

• lack and

• inabilities and

• past sins and

• a thousand reasons why it can’t happen,

while the pure heart is able to see God even in the midst of the most difficult situations.

We may not see things as clearly as Jesus did, but we can see enough to dispel fear, doubt and despair. We may not know how God is going to meet the need, but we can know that God will meet the need.

I say, do you see God’s provision?

The Emmaus Road travelers did not realize that their traveling companion was the resurrected Christ, but upon reflection they said, “Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way…?” (Luke 24:32). Although they failed to perceive the identity of their traveling companion, either intellectually or physically, their spirit was warmed by His words. If they had given place to their burning hearts, they would have realized who the speaker was.

Like them, our heart can perceive God, even when our natural senses are unaware of His nearness.

I say, do you have a burning heart?

The Psalmist David wrote, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim His craftsmanship” (Ps. 19:1). Paul pressed this idea when he wrote: “…since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what had been made, so that people have no excuse for denying God” (Ro. 1:20, TNIV).