The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are.” Genesis 13:14.
After He had sent the crowds away, Jesus went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone. Matthew 14:23.
Six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them. Mark 9:2.
Jesus said, “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.” John 4:35.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
Come up higher. Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. Colossians 3:2. Get a new view, My view. I have raised you up with Christ and seated you with Him at My right hand, get your vision from there. Keep seeking the things above, don’t just focus on what is below. Colossians 3:1. Behold! I have set before you an open door to Heaven, come up here and I will show you what must take place after these things. Revelation 4:1.
Most people limit themselves to primarily considering and talking about the circumstances that surround them at the present time or what happened to them in the past—things they experience with their five physical senses, that is, things of the earthly sensual flesh realm and not things of the spirit. In other words, they have no vision. And in limiting yourself to looking down instead of lifting your eyes above you limit what I can do in your life.
Without a vision, the people perish and with no revelation they cast off restraint (self-control). Proverbs 29:18.
People talk with confidence about their circumstances now and in the past, but they have no confidence about their future. But I tell you that you can be confident about your future, for I know the plans I have for you, plans for your shalom and not evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11. For you are My workmanship, I planned you before you were born into the world, I formed you in your mother’s womb fearfully and wonderfully, and I had eternal plans that outnumber the stars of the sky and the sands of the seas for you, and I created you in Christ Jesus for good works, which I prepared beforehand so that you would walk in them. Psalm 139; Ephesians 2:10. You can be sure that, if you walk with Me, you have a good, bright, fruitful, healthy, prosperous future filled with favor, mercy and grace. And you should declare this so that Jesus, the High Priest of your confession, can bring it to pass. I watch over My Word to perform it.
And how do you do this? Just what I told Abraham when I turned him into a visionary rather than a man with no vision and no hope of a future. “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are.” Genesis 13:14. And I showed him a vast and beautiful land that I was giving to him and to his descendants, and I showed him this when he had no child. But later Abraham looked back down again only at the place where he was and saw himself with no child and no future, so again I had him lift his eyes from the place where he was to where I was taking him. I took him outside and made him lift his eyes from the place where he was to look towards the heavens and see the vast array of stars beyond what he could count and the story they tell and I told him so his descendants would be. I was enlarging his vision, and thus enlarging his heart and his capacity to receive in faith. And He believed Me and I reckoned it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:1-6.
When I called Moses, I summoned him up a mountain to get a new look at above where he was and open a whole new panorama to him from My viewpoint. I told him of his amazing future of setting My people free from slavery and taking them to the land I promised Abraham. And the sign? I told Moses, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.” Exodus 3:12. Moses would bring the people out and come to worship on My holy mountain so they could lift up their eyes from the place where they were and see with new eyes. My eyes.
I taught this to Joshua. He needed a vision of the future to have victory leading My people into the promised land. I taught him to keep his mind on My Word, which gave him new insight and made his way prosperous and successful. Joshua 1:8. I taught him to look for help from above, not below—from the spirit realm and not the flesh realm. The flesh is useless, it is the spirit that gives life and My Words are spirit and life. Joshua learned to lift his eyes from the place where he was. Remember? “Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” He said, “No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the LORD.” Joshua 5:13-14. He saw My Son as leader of the angelic host with him to battle according to My Word. And when he needed more time to finish a battle, he turned his eyes on Me and then looked up from the place where he was and told the sun to stand still. And it did.
I told Jacob to lift up his eyes and in a vision given in a dream I showed him how to breed sheep that were speckled and spotted so that he would prosper and increase. Genesis 31:11-13 (“Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘Lift up now your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating are striped, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth.’”).
I am always ready to show you how to succeed if you will just lift your eyes to Me from the place where you are. When David was caught in trouble for taking the census against My Will and set the law of sin and death in motion, he lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven with sword drawn in his hand and I stopped the pestilence that he set loose. 1 Chronicles 21:16.
Daniel lifted his eyes and saw visions and dreams that revealed mysteries and future events to him. Daniel 8:3, Daniel 10:5. I instructed My prophet Zechariah the same: “Then the angel who was speaking with me went out and said to me, “Lift up now your eyes and see what this is going forth.” Zechariah 5:5. I showed My prophets to lift up their eyes to look from the place where they were. And I showed them things in the Spirit that they could not know in the flesh. Call on Me and I will answer you and tell you great and mighty things you could not know. Jeremiah 33:3. Seek a new vision and write it down so others can also run with it. What do you think the Bible is?
You need to begin seeing things with a new pair of eyes, eyes that look not only at the natural but into the supernatural. Paul understood after he saw the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. He began from that day to see with a different pair of eyes, the eyes of his heart (the inner man of the heart, which is your spirit) and he prayed that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened so that you would know the hope of My calling, what are the riches of the glory of your inheritance in Me, and what is the surpassing greatness of My power in you who believe. Ephesians 1:8-9.
Jesus would often go up a mountain and remain there alone to pray. On a mountain you have a different vantage point. When He called His twelve disciples, He went up a mountain and called them there. “And He went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach.” Mark 3:13-14.
When He taught the people, He would take them up to sit on the mountainside as He taught from the mountain. And when He was transfigured before the apostles, Peter, James and John, He took them up on a high mountain by themselves to give them a new vision.
Jesus fixed His gaze above. When He blessed the five loaves and two fish, He first raised His eyes to Heaven. When He stood outside the tomb of Lazarus, He first raised His eyes to Me. And at the Last Supper, “Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:1-3.
Come away to our secret place, high above where you are seated with Me in Christ and see things as I see them. Remember the words of Balaam? “The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor, and the oracle of the man whose eye is opened; the oracle of him who hears the Words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty.” Numbers 24:3-4. Open your eyes and lift them up and look from the place where you are.
Begin seeing things from where you are with a different pair of eyes. Be vision driven, not circumstances driven. See what I see for your future. As Abraham learned and as Moses learned, My vision for their future was very different than theirs. Be led by My Spirit and He will enlighten the eyes of your heart. Vision is seeing what I see and saying it, pursuing it, and living it. One moment lifted up with Me is worth more than a lifetime looking down. Living with vision is your choice. Fear can hold you back as it did the Israelites that came out of Egypt with Moses. They never saw things as I did, and they never had the fun of entering the promised land. Selah. Do not let your heart be troubled, do not let it fear, just come up here and look at the world through My eyes. All I have is yours.
Arise, shine, lift up your eyes and see, My glory is upon you and an abundance of good things is coming, streaming and pouring, into your life. Isaiah 60:1-5. Declare it for it is the truth, and the truth will set you free to give you a future and a hope that will come to pass. I, the LORD, will teach you to prosper and show you the way you should go. Just ask Abraham, Isaac and Jacob about it. Genesis 13:14, Genesis 24:63-64, Genesis 31:10-12.
I meet you on the mountain. I bring you to My holy mountain and make you joyful in My house of prayer. Isaiah 56:7. Jesus went to pray on the mountains. Elijah met Me on the mountain. Moses met Me on the mountain. Abraham went to the mountain to offer Me Isaac. Jesus was transfigured on a mountain and was revealed there in glory to His disciples. Why? To see things as I do you need a higher view. That is why I have seated you with Me in Christ, so you can pray from above, from My view, and know the strategy. Out of the depths of the swamp I draw you to place your feet on a height. Come up here to where I have seated you and let Me put a new song in your mouth, a song of glory, victory and might.
I love you. Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are. You will not stay there.