God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7.
Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:16-17.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
To control your thoughts you must see as I see. When you see Jesus you see Me and how did He see? When He saw the sick, He saw healing, He saw them well. And that was what He immediately tried to do for everyone who needed healing, He came to undo the works of the devil, and He marveled at people’s unbelief and hardness of heart that would block Him from working a miracle, as they did in Nazareth. The power to heal was flowing from My Spirit through Him and everyone could have received the benefit but very few did compared to the vast numbers He encountered. But this was not His fault, it was the fault of the one hindering its flow.
The same was true of provision. My Son never saw lack as an obstacle, He saw provision. He looked at a crowd of well over five thousand and then at five loaves and two fish. Most people would have seen hopeless lack, impossible to fill up the gap. But My Son did not see that, He saw provision, thanked Me, blessed the bread, and you know the rest. Everyone ate their fill and there were twelve baskets full of fragments left over.
My Son did not worry. Lazarus was dead, his life cut short, but My Son did not see death but life and called him back. Same with Jairus’ daughter and the widow’s son.
So see as I see, just consider My Covenant Names and you will know how I see. I am the LORD who heals you, the LORD who provides for you, the LORD who answers you, the LORD your refuge, the LORD your Shepherd, the LORD your deliverer, the LORD your helper, and the LORD your peace.
Today, I want to address how I see you and teach you from there. I am the LORD your righteousness. I see you as righteous with My righteousness.
Unless your control your thoughts about others and yourself you will never have peace and joy. It is that simple. Your unrest, anger, shame, fear, blame, depression, jealousy, low self-esteem, and hatred of others are based on the thoughts you have about yourself and others. And the problem is you are not seeing what I see in you and what I see in others. You need to put your mind above where you are seated with Christ at My right hand.
Gideon saw himself as a weak person of no account, the least important in his father’s house. He hated the enemy nation that was oppressing his people but put all the blame on Me. He saw Me not caring they were being oppressed and no longer performing miracles. He worshipped an idol.
But do you know how I saw him? A champion with the strength of an entire army that would take down the enemy as one man. And that was how I greeted him in his first encounter with hearing My voice. And with My guidance and input into his life, he became just that. I was not taken aback by the accusations he leveled against Me when I first opened the conversation with him. I saw the champion that he had never seen in himself.
And I see that in you and in every one that I created, for there are no mistakes or castaways in My plan. If you choose to insist on going that way as the Israelites did in the desert, seeing themselves as no better than weak grasshoppers, and so they became. But I saw champions, more than conquerors, who would capture giants, cities, homes, vineyards, and beautiful broad places flowing with milk and honey. But until they saw themselves and others the way I did, they went nowhere except in circles around the same mountain—grumbling, complaining, and blaming one another for their defeated lives. It grieved Me and it grieved them.
Do you remember when Balak hired Balaam to curse the Israelites. Balaam could not curse them, he could only bless them. And he tells you why, he was a man whose eye was opened with sight into spiritual realities because he heard My words and I shared a word of knowledge with him, he saw as I saw. Numbers 24:3-4.
“Behold, I have received a command to bless; when He has blessed, then I cannot revoke it. He has not observed iniquity in Jacob; nor has He seen trouble in Israel; the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. God brings them out of Egypt, He is for them like the horns of the wild ox. For there is no omen against Jacob, nor is there any divination against Israel; at the proper time it shall be said to Jacob and to Israel, what God has done!” Numbers 23:20-23.
I did not see iniquity or trouble in them, and yet this event came after they had spoken against Me to My face that I had deceived them about giving them the promised land and had refused to go in with Me. But they had the tabernacle and the blood of the unblemished land in their morning and evening sacrifice. And they never stopped believing in Me. I saw their fear and I saw their hearts. They just needed more training after the many years of slavery in Egypt. They had seen My works but did not yet have enough Word in them to know My ways. But their children, the new generation, learned the Word from them, Moses, and Joshua and they received it and went into the promised land and conquered with Me at their side.
In them, I saw the line from which My Son would take flesh and dwell among you, just as I had dwelt among them in the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle that I built with them according to the plans I gave Moses and the supplies and skill I gave them. And they ran with it.
And I saw a people who would treasure My Word and hand it down and write it meticulously on scrolls without losing even the smallest stroke of a letter. And I saw back to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Leah, and Joseph. I saw Moses, Joshua, and Caleb. I saw Deborah, Gideon, Hannah, Samuel, Ruth, Boaz, David, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Isaiah, Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, Esther, and so many more who had My Word and ran with it. And in them I saw Mary, Peter, John, Paul, Lydia, and so many others. I saw a royal priesthood and a people set apart. But above all I saw Jesus. And that is how I see you today. Clothed in Christ, released from your sins by His blood to be a kingdom of priests unto Me. A royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people set apart, for I have called you out of darkness into My own marvelous Light.
And I have sworn never to be angry with you again. I see a champion in you. Sometimes buried deeply, as Lazarus was in the tomb for four days, but I call you by name to come out of that grave and live out your blessed life in full.
I want you to look at your children, your spouse, your students, your friends, your relatives, your co-workers, your boss, and above all yourself, the way I see—healed, strong, joyful, prosperous and more than a conqueror. A royal priesthood.
And I want you to lead them, speak that into them, and love them into that. The way I did with Gideon. And he called Me the LORD is peace. (shalom). And just as I refused to quit with Gideon, the same for you. Do not change your stance, take it relentlessly without backing down.
No matter how much Balak tried to bribe, threaten, and entice Balaam to curse the Israelites, he could not do so. Balaam saw as I saw. He later trapped them by lust to violate My Covenant laws, and he eventually had a bad end for that. Never veer away from seeing as I do to entice another to sin.
Do not just look at the outward appearance and the flesh of a person. See as I see, look through to the heart. And try to light that up with My Word about them. Exhort, edify, encourage. That is what I had My prophets do.
And you need to encourage, exhort and edify yourself as well in order to control your negative and self-destructing thoughts about yourself. You must see yourself as I do. And I have seen you and planned you since before the foundation of the world. You are unique. There is no one else with your fingerprints, DNA, or the iris of your eye. I love you and I call you by name. I have amazing plans for you and give you the grace to do them. I have given you talents and skills that are uniquely yours. Do not bury them in fear and worry of not succeeding. I am with you. Boast in Me for in Jesus I have given you wisdom from Me, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. I have made you more than a conqueror. I have given you the victory in Him and have given you His authority to cast out demons and heal the sick. Step up and enjoy your inheritance NOW.
David, on one of the worst days of his life, as he lay on the ground crying and his friends blamed him for the disaster and spoke of stoning him, rather then giving up, he picked himself up and encouraged himself in Me. He remembered all the miracles and victories I gave him in the past and he grabbed hold of My promises for the future. And then he turned his attention to Me and inquired what he should do. And I sent him on a mission to recover all. And he did. And he was not angry with his friends who sought at their lowest point to stone him to death but shared everything they recovered with them generously. He saw champions in that unlikely group and they became his mighty men, champions that led his army to victory on every side once he had become king, and that was the fulfillment of My promise to him of the kingship which he never let go of through thirteen years of very contrary circumstances. He already saw himself as a king.
And Jesus has made you kings and priests. What do you see in yourself? See the new creation, the caterpillar has become the butterfly.
And what did I tell you by My apostle Paul? “Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:16-19. So who are you now? See yourselves as ambassadors for Christ, as though I am making an appeal through you to those you know on behalf of Christ that they too, like you, be reconciled to Me and receive all My magnificent promises as “yes” in Him. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:20-21.
However, for you ever to enter into the rest of controlling your anxious and negative thoughts about others and yourself, you have to look at what your thoughts are about Me.
For I know the thoughts I have towards you, thoughts for your shalom and not evil, to give you a beautiful eternal future and a hope, the anchor behind the veil. Do you believe that? Do you believe that I only bless and never curse you? Do you really believe I am not the one that sends you illness, accidents, storms and poverty? Do you really believe in your dominion authority and exercise it in Me? Do you really believe in My promises to you in My Word and that are all yours already in Jesus? If so you will not be afraid of the terror by night, or of the arrow that flies by day or of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not approach you. Psalm 91:5-7. Do you know and trust that if anyone fiercely assails you it will not be from Me. Whoever assails you will fall because of you? Isaiah 54:15. And are you confident that no weapon that is formed against you will prosper; and every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. That this is the heritage of My servants, and your vindication is from Me? Isaiah 54:17. All My promises are “yes” to you in Jesus. You have only to receive and enforce them. And you do that by your thoughts, words, and actions that agree with Mine.
Or do you see Me as the Israelites did at the edge of the Promised Land? They did not see Me for who I really was to them and many of you do not either. You see Me as Gideon did and as the disciples even accused Jesus in the storm on the Sea of Galilee. “Do you not care that we are about to perish?” And you beg and whine at Me and tell Me how righteous you are on your own merits like Job did. I cannot help you out of the pit you are digging if you are treating Me as an enemy and cause of your problems, as Gideon was doing until he got to know Me.
Will you take the time to know Me and the one I sent to save you so that you would never perish? It is all in My Word and it is available to right where you are. All you have to do is get it in your heart and your mouth.
David had the answer for you, just read Psalm 34 all the way through.
And what is his challenge to you? “O taste and see that the LORD is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! O fear the LORD, you His saints; for to those who fear Him there is no want. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; but they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing.” Psalm 34:8-10.
I love you. When you seek Me with all your heart, you will find Me right there with you and I reward those who seek Me.