But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Love beholds and love becomes. The more you look at Jesus, the more you behold Him, and the more you keep your eyes on Him, the more your sins fall off and you become like Him.
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2.
You become what you keep before your eyes. Remember the instruction I gave Jacob in a dream so that he would prosper even though Laban, his father-in-law, was out to cheat him out of his wages for shepherding his flock?
Laban kept cheating Jacob out of his wages so that he would have to stay and work for Laban because Laban saw how all he had prospered and greatly increased since Jacob had worked for him to acquire Rachel for his bride. He did not want to lose such a productive treasure. You see, Jacob had the blessing of Abraham on him that his father Isaac had bestowed upon him. So Jacob, wanting to be on his own with his family, asked to leave. But Laban told Jacob to just name his wages and stay. So Jacob asked only one thing, that all the speckled and spotted lambs and sheep be set aside for him and the rest of the pure flock would be Laban’s flock. Laban agreed but during the night he sent his sons to remove all the speckled and spotted livestock from the flock and take off with them at a great distance. So they did. But Jacob did not have to fight or chase them. He lifted his eyes to Me and I had the answer, Genesis 31:1-16, and Jacob did it and something happened that you can learn from. It all has to do with the principle that what you are looking at is what you will produce in your life.
Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white which was in the rods. He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the gutters, even in the watering troughs, where the flocks came to drink and they mated when they came to drink. So the flocks mated by the rods, and the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he put his own herds apart, and did not put them with Laban’s flock. Moreover, whenever the stronger of the flock were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the gutters, so that they might mate by the rods; but when the flock was feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s. So the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys. Genesis 30:37-43.
Just as an aside I would like you to note that when Jacob was later telling Rachel and Leah of what I had said to him, though he did not tell them about the rods for that was our secret to be kept for you who are reading My Word, he told them this:
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.’” Genesis 31:11-13.
Do you remember the vow he made to Me when I appeared to him in a dream and showed him the ladder to Heaven that Jesus later told you He fulfilled? It was a vow to tithe one-tenth of all his wages and increase to Me.
So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. He called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name of the city had been Luz. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me bread to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God. This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.” Genesis 28:18-22.
And that is one way to keep Me before your eyes in all your increase, in all I give you, the tithe. To Jacob it proved I was his God who took care of him and prospered him.
Where your heart is has your attention, and that is where your treasure is and that is where you will be looking.
Where is your heart? People that refuse to tithe have no heart for Me, no trust in Me as their provider. But many of these will spend large amounts on their hobbies, families, friends, entertainment, devices, and fashions and have nothing left for My house. They will even run up debt for these that then drain more of their finances. This is not a financial issue, it is a heart issue. Where your heart is that is where you will be looking first and that is where you will put your money first.
I tell you that you are not fit for My reign, for doing your Kingdom assignment on earth, if you put your hand to the plow and keep looking back. What does that mean? Remember Lot’s wife. I did all I could do to change Lot and his family’s longing to stay in the lustful perversion of the evil people of Sodom who had totally given themselves body and soul to the devil to carry out his plan for them, but finally My angels had to pull them out of the city so as not to be destroyed with it. I did this for My servant Abraham who had interceded for any righteous people in Sodom to be saved and not swept away with the wicked. But with longing, Lot’s wife kept looking back trying to return, at least in her heart, and it dried her up into a pillar of salt in the barren land. A dried-up withered branch cut off from the divine vine, good for nothing but firewood.
The harlot Gomer, Hosea’s adulterous wife, had a beautiful marriage with Hosea but she kept looking back to return to her lustful ways of the harlot until she was old and shriveled and could no longer attract her paramours, but then, good for nothing and up for sale on the slave block, with no one to buy her, Hosea ran in at My direction and offered a huge sum for her, more than the traders were asking, and bought her out of the slavery of sin. And then she knew true love that never quits. And that is My story with each of you.
Think of Mary Magdelene from whom My Son cast seven demons, seven capital sins, once she saw Jesus, she never took her eyes off Him again and she never looked back. She followed Him wherever He went, even to the Cross, close by His side through it all, standing with Mary and John, and she was the first one out to the tomb on the day of the dawn of the new age of grace when she fixed her eyes on My Son raised by Me from the dead.
The Israelites whom I rescued and redeemed out of slavery, freeing them by amazing wonders, signs, and miracles, kept looking back with longing to return to slavery so they could again sit and eat out of their fleshpots. But when you keep looking back you cannot go forward. Your focus is on the past and on the bad things you see in the present, which make you want to return to a bad situation thinking where you now are is worse. But that may not be the case. If you think about what the Israelites had in the desert it was not bad. They were free from daily back breaking labors under the hands of taskmasters, they were free of idols and pagan gods, I gave them a perfect food from Heaven every morning with no labor except gathering it on their part, I made water, fresh clear pure water, flow in rivers out of rocks for over two million people and their herds and flocks, I gave them a cloud by dry and a pillar of fire at night for perfect temperature control and so that the sun would not smite them by day or the moon by night. And the cloud led them where they were to go. I gave the creative skills and wonderful activities in building My tabernacle, I forgave their sins in the offered sacrifices in that tabernacle, I gave them My Word and My laws, and I let them experience My glory and My presence. But best of all was what was ahead of them in the land I had promised them—beautiful cities, large houses with vineyards and fruit trees, and deep clear wells. A land I watched over day and night to which I gave the early and latter rains for their crops. And a nation where they would rule and reign with Me as their King, Lawgiver, and Judge. A nation that would be a light and example of My goodness to the world.
But they would not look ahead, only behind and the present, colored by fear of the future. They dreaded the future so instead of pressing forward through the wilderness for the joy that lay before them, the place where they would enter My rest from all the labors they had known in Egypt, they kept trying to return to the slavery behind.
I could take the next generation into the land I had promised their forefathers, however, because little children look forward with trust, they do not look back because they have not much to look back on. They have a heart of trust for the parent to take them to the right place of provision.
To look forward with joy you have to trust My promises to you of healing, prosperity, peace, love, goodness, and perfection, but more than that, to trust My promises you have to trust Me. And there is only one way you will do that, by keeping your eyes on what I have done for you in Jesus and My promises that are “yes” to you in Him. He is your good Shepherd and your great High Priest, and He is where you must focus and keep your eyes to go in the right way to get to your promised land of abundance and enter My rest even now.
Jesus went forward for the joy of saving you, pleasing Me in your salvation, reconciling you to Me as My family whom I so love and long for, and to sit down again at My right hand but this time not alone but with all of you whom I raised with Him in your spirits and sat you there with Him in Heaven.
The first generation of the redeemed Israelites out of the slavery in Egypt never went forward because they saw no joy in their future, only death. They refused to believe in the reward I promised them and that I would help them to conquer and take possession for I had already assured them the victory. The battle was Mine they just had to follow Me, as they did when I parted the Red Sea with the cooperation and authority of Moses.
And think about the Israelite army under Saul when he was king of Israel. When Goliath challenged them all they saw ahead was defeat, death, and doom. Saul had promised a great earthly reward to the one who would fight Goliath and win. But when David came he did not so much regard the giant Goliath but focused on the promise of great rewards from Saul for the man who took Goliath down. And he knew with Me, because of the Covenant of his nation with Me, he could and would take him down for Goliath was attempting to take what I had promised them since Abraham.
When you believe in the saving work of Jesus and confess Him as Lord, for you who believe in My Word, the FUTURE HOLDS NOTHING BUT JOY UNSPEAKABLE FILLED WITH GLORY. For it has not so much as entered your mind the greatness, the beauty, the treasure which I have promised to those who love Me.
I showed the Kingdom of Heaven, that is, the third Heaven to My apostle Paul and he was so overwhelmed he said he preferred death to staying on earth, even though it meant productive labor for him that would be rewarded as well if he stayed on earth longer. So, he chose to stay for your sake to give you more revelation and leadership. Read his letters with diligence to know how to conduct yourselves in this life to be assured of your reward. I want you to have your full reward so your joy will be complete, lacking in nothing that you left undone of your assignment.
Stop looking back, I am doing something new—with you. And it will be a joy. See your future as a joy for the path of the righteous, and that is who you are in Christ, like the light of drawn, gets brighter and brighter as you go along. Never retreat or admit defeat, let My Word be your song to make you strong, to make you strong. Momentary light affliction has great reward if you are an overcomer. And you can be. I have fully equipped you in Jesus and set out before you a life of good deeds all prepared for you in advance so you may walk in it. Time is short so if you have lagged behind it is time to run!
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2.
And remember this, it all has to do with what you are beholding, where your attention is, where your focus is, and that is where your heart is.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
And what did Jesus tell you about beholding Him and believing?
For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:38-40.
Remember Jacob’s rods. Keep your eyes on My Word, do not let it depart from your eyes, keep it in your heart, for My Word is life to those who find it and health to all your flesh. Proverbs 4:20-27. Write it on your doorposts, put it before your eyes, meditate on it day and night, talk of My Word when you rise and when you lay down, when you go out and when you come in, and all along the way. My Words are not idle words, they are your very life.
If you keep your eyes on My Words and treasure them in your heart you will not sin but go from glory to glory. Behold! Watch Me with love for love beholds and love becomes. You must watch with love, or you will look back at other gods that you knew before you crossed the Jordan. Selah.
I love you. Keep your loving eyes on Me for My loving eyes are on you. Radiant days and nights are the joy before you. And of course that great and glorious Kingdom of Heaven which is yours in Jesus even now.