Seeing God

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall SEE GOD!” Matthew 5:8

The whole purpose of life as a human being is to come to a knowledge of God in our own life and to be used by God to spread that knowledge to those around us. That is, our human existence is to “see God”.

Most people go through several stages of seeing God.

1.) SEEING GOD IN NATURE

In our unconverted days, God usually begins to deal with us by a recognition of Him in the beauties seen in the world of nature around us. I begin to see the beauty of the spiritual in the beauty of the physical - the flowers, the animals, the mountains and the meadows, etc. I come to an understanding that there had to be a Creator to account for the complexity and yet the simple interaction of all of the biological species. I see God in the rhythms of nature. I recognize that blind chance could not have produced our intricate material universe.

2.) SEEING GOD IN SIN JUDGMENT

The next step most take is seeing God as a judge for what I come to recognize as total lapses in my ability to live morally. The Holy Spirit of God deals with the soul of each person to recognize his immorality. I see that I just do not have it within myself to live as my conscience tells me I should. I try, but I fail! I hear about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and I call out for a Savior. God applies the death of Christ as the penalty for my sins. I begin to see myself as a “converted” person who the Bible calls “born again”. I begin to see myself as a brand new person, forgiven and ready to build a whole new life-style. At this point, I know very little about HOW to be a “Christian”, but at least I know that I have made contact with my Creator and that He can “help” me.

3.) SEEING GOD IN MYSELF

At conversion and the new birth, Jesus Christ comes to dwell in my human spirit, right here within me. But I didn’t KNOW THAT, and most new converts don’t recognize this awesome happening. Through the Holy Spirit Teacher, now within my soul (intellect, emotions and will), I begin to see God IN MYSELF by a living union of the Spirit of Christ and my human spirit. I begin to see that I must TRUST Christ to direct my life in order to be successful. “Independent-I” does not have the power to live life by God’s standards. But as I come to the awareness of Christ’s ability living within me to direct my ways, I grow in the “Dependent-I” recognition of living. I can’t do it! But Christ in me can do it! Therefore “Christ-I” can do it!

4.) SEEING GOD IN OTHER PEOPLE

As I see Christ in myself as a Christian, then I begin to see God in other people. I begin to see every other Christian united to Christ and thus united to me in Christ. Christ is the Head of His Body, the Church. When I see other Christians not acting very Christ-like, I accept God is dealing with them and will turn their actions and attitudes for the good. I see in my own life that when I fall into independent thinking and sin, Jesus calls me back to the awareness of union with Him, probably even stronger than before. And I expect the same results of independent attitudes in my fellow Christians. Their sinful actions will be used by God to draw them closer to Him. No longer do I focus on the human weakness of my fellow believers for I see Christ’s strength made perfect in that weakness. When I see need in a brother, I confess supply - that God will manifest His Positive in apparent negative. No longer do I fret over my brother’s apparent “sins” and “worldly” tendencies, for this mentality is destructive and useless anyway (John 8:1-11). I rather focus on the Christ in my brother, and expect in faith to see Him manifested in God’s time, knowing that even his apparent slip into sin will have redemptive purposes in “growing him up into Christ”. Certainly this is what Paul meant when he stated that “henceforth, I will know no man after the flesh”, for rather than concentrating on the vessel, I point out it’s precious content.

And then, even further, I begin to see God in every human being, whether converted or not. Paul said in Acts 17:28 to a group of pagan Greeks at Athens: “For in Him (Christ), we live, and move, and have our being.” Rather than thinking negatively regarding a person’s awareness of the spiritual, I want to see everyone as God sees them - being dealt with by God on GOD’S OWN SCHEDULE! Jesus was the friend of sinners before He could be their Savior, and we must be the same. We have often driven away those whom we should be drawing close by our foolish and hypocritical condemnation of lifestyles and habits, for the Holy Spirit of God is already in the world convicting of sin (John 16:9). We beat a dog already dead by constantly pointing out sin in the lives of the lost, for we are solution people bringing hope to those who know that they have a problem (regardless of what they may say). No doubt, there will be times when, in compassion, we state what is true about sin to honest seekers, but our main mission will always be to announce to a thirsty world that “whosoever will, MAY COME AND DRINK”.

OUR MESSAGE IS NOT THAT IF SOMEONE BELIEVES, THEY WILL BE FORGIVEN. THE MESSAGE IS THAT THEY ARE FORGIVEN, NOW WILL THEY HAVE IT??!!

When I look back on my own life before conversion, I can see God dealing with and drawing me by trial and error to the knowledge of my need for a Savior. And I see that acceptance of a person where they are - which is love - is what wins people. God in His wisdom happened to reveal this to me before revealing it to someone else. So what? It is just a different human time schedule. Time means nothing to the eternity of God. Every unconverted person is being brought to the end of his rope. But we all have different lengths of rope. Some can hear God in their conscience and rather readily accept His message. Others must go through the school of “hard-knocks” before they will even BEGIN to listen. So we learn to “hate the sin but love the sinner!” And sin in nothing more than trying to live independently from self-effort - doing our own thing.

As long as we keep in the front of our mind that God is dealing with and drawing everyone to Him, to accept Him, to accept Christ’s sacrifice for sin, to see and understand the spiritual reality of the living union of Christ in our spirit, then our actions toward others will reflect that. We can deal with everyone on the level that GOD IS DEALING WITH THEM! And we can TRUST in God’s time schedule.

5.) SEEING GOD IN CIRCUMSTANCES, SITUATIONS AND TRIALS

As we grow in our spiritual awareness, we reach what I consider the pinnacle of SEEING GOD. We see God in everything that happens to us. I want to spend some time here considering God in our trials and sins. The knowledge that Christ is now living our lives totally and spontaneously is so liberating that we sometimes forget that there are “interruptions” in our liberation, occurrences which the Scriptures call “trials” and “temptations”. “Every man is tempted,” said James, and we who know Christ as Life are not excluded.

Of course, the matter is now seen in an entirely different light than when I labored under the illusion of separation and self-effort. I begin to realize that everything, even my sin, is used by God to draw me into greater awareness of my union with Christ. Therefore, I no longer fear temptation as if it were some “test” which I may or may not pass. I no longer fear a “problem” in my life as some “hurdle” which I may or may not jump over. I see temptations and trials as “negatives” which, through my faith and TRUST in Christ, bring forth the “positive” of the Living Christ.

But, as Paul said, “Therefore should I sin all the more so that God may be glorified? Absolutely not!” Even though we are drawn back to Christ and forgiven of our sin, there are lingering physical effects in our life: possible disease from sexual encounters; emotional problems from hatred, anger, pride, envy, etc., physical deterioration from alcohol and drugs. So we want to avoid sin, if for no other reason than to stay physically healthy.

There are many places where we want to see God, but also many places where we don’t. We want to see Him in all the good things, the beautiful things, the pleasant things, the “righteous” things. However, we don’t want to see Him in the bad things, the ugly things, the unpleasant things, and yes, the sinful things. BUT HE IS THERE. David said, “If I make my bed in hell, You are there” (Psa. 139 :8). Through Isaiah, God Himself said, “I am the Lord, I create evil” (Isa. 45:7). We are uncomfortable in the absurdity that a loving God could author suffering. We recoil at the idea that a beautiful God could produce ugliness. And we Christians totally reject the “sacrilege” that a holy and righteous God could “create evil”.

But He said it - and more than that, He showed it. Who nailed Jesus Christ to a cross of shame and death? Who committed the greatest crime ever perpetrated? Who sponsored the worst thing that ever happened in the universe? Roman soldiers? Yes. Jewish Pharisees? Yes. Satan? Yes - and one more guilty party. “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of GOD, you ... have slain” (Acts 2:23). Can it possibly be that the worst thing that ever happened in the world, the greatest injustice, the most heinous crime, was perpetrated by God Himself?! Can it be? Did God kill His own Son?!

Of course, we know the answer is yes. But we also know the flip side of the story. We who have believed know that the worst thing that ever happened is also the best thing, for “without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin”. We know that apart from Christ’s death, there could be no life for us. And so we see through the appearance of evil and are absurd enough to call it the abounding love of God, the reason of our faith and hope. We who have believed have been silly enough to not live in the appearance that the cross was shame, and evil, and devilish. We have decided to see it as life, as beauty, and yes, as God, and we have experienced salvation for having done so.

Therefore, our faith sees through everything to God. No longer do we blame ourselves, others, or Satan for the situations and events in which we are involved. No, we “blame” God — in the form of praise and thanksgiving, that the One who “does all things well” is at work through human and even devilish agencies.

We say that WE ARE SEEING GOD - in nature, in sin judgment, in ourselves, in other persons and even in everything that happens to us. And we find ourselves at perfect peace because we have said it, and wonder of wonders, we begin to see that what we have said comes forth in open manifestation. We see that our temptation to believe that this or that is the devil, or the flesh, or the world, is really our wake-up call to SEE THAT GOD REALLY IS (AND HAS BEEN) ON THE SCENE NO MATTER WHAT THE APPEARANCE.

The key of simply SEEING GOD is in our hands, and when we learn to use it, all of life becomes a seeing of the “glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. Perhaps the world will tell us that “no good thing comes out of Nazareth” (John 1:46), but we know Joseph’s secret, that, “YOU THOUGHT EVIL AGAINST ME, BUT GOD MEANT IT FOR GOOD” (Gen. 50: 20).

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