Faith is Seeing

Faith is seeing. It's just not seeing with our physical eyes. It is seeing with the eyes of our hearts through the revelation of the Holy Spirit as He unveils the truths of God's Word.

There is a spiritual world that is real. It is actually more real than the physical world. It created the physical world, and without question, the parent force is greater than the force created. Faith is simply seeing through the eyes of our hearts into the spiritual world and basing our thoughts and actions on those spiritual realities instead of being limited to the physical perceptions alone.

Faith is not denying that physical realities exist. It is just denying that the physical world is all there is and that spiritual reality will trump physical reality if firmly believed and acted on.

The Christian life is to be regulated and conducted by faith, as opposed to the external and outward appearances of physical sight. There is a sense in which sight is involved, but it is the spiritual seeing of faith rather than seeing with the physical eye.

Hebrews 11:27 says that Moses "By faith. . .forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the King: for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible." In other words, Moses' faith allowed him to carry on despite hardships, because he could see, that is, apprehend as if by physical sight, visualize, understand and comprehend, the God who is invisible (incapable of being seen [ Joh 1:18 ]).

Faith sees and understands with the heart as stated in Matthew 13:15, ". . .lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart. . ." Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:18 "That the eyes of your understanding being enlightened" (NIV).

Faith is responding positively to God's promises. A particular promise of His Word must be seen, heard, understood and believed in the heart (Mt 13:15, 23; Ro 10:8, 10) so that it may be acted upon and bear fruit (Mt 13:23; Jas 2:17-18). One Greek word for "believe" is "peitho," and means "to be persuaded," and signifies "to allow oneself to be persuaded by hearing, which comes by the Word of God" (Ro 10:17).

Abraham was strong in faith because he was fully persuaded that what God had promised, God was able also to perform (Ro 4:20-21). The object of all true faith is God Himself, and not having faith in one's faith. Faith, like a seed, must be planted, watered, and nurtured (Mt 13:18-23). It must always go back to the promise of God and the God behind that promise. Faith carries the idea of being certain and assured of the reality of what is believed (Heb 11:1).

2 Kings 6:15-17
15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked.

16 "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."

17 And Elisha prayed, "O Lord, open his eyes so he may see." Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

What a great exhibition of faith! And this was an absolutely true statement. There were more angels with them than there were Syrian soldiers. But the angels were in the spiritual realm while the soldiers were in the physical realm. Those who only acknowledge what they can see in the physical realm as truth would say that Elisha was lying. They would say he was one of those "name-it-claim-it, blab-it-grab-it" guys who said things that were not so in hope that they would become so. But that's not what faith is at all. Faith is perceiving what is true reality in the spiritual realm and just speaking it forth into the physical realm. Those who criticize this are simply showing how carnal (dominated by the senses) they are.

This servant's physical eyes were already wide open, staring at the thousands of Syrian soldiers. This was a prayer for God to open his spiritual eyes and let him see into the spiritual world. When this servant saw the horses and chariots of fire on the mountains round about them was not when they arrived. They were already there; he just didn't perceive them until the eyes of his spirit were opened. But they were always there. The supernatural power of God always surrounds those who love Him (Ps 34:7).

Just because the horses and chariots of God were there didn't mean that the Syrians or the problem disappeared. The problem was still there, but he knew that the power of God to handle that problem was there too. Notice the horses and chariots of fire were said to be surrounding Elisha, not anyone else. God wants to protect all of His children, but we have to believe it in order for it to be so.

There is no indication that Elisha saw these horses and chariots of fire. He didn't need to see them. He believed they were there. Faith is better than sight (2Co 5:7 and Heb 11:1). Elisha had seen these same horses and chariots of fire when Elijah was taken up into heaven (2Ki 2). It is probable that he lived with a constant awareness of their presence.

This is the same process but in the opposite direction of what happened to Adam and Eve. They were created to walk by faith (2Co 5:7). But when they took of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, their spiritual eyes closed, and their physical eyes began to dominate. Since that fall, man's eyes have been opened physically but closed spiritually. Here, the servant's spiritual eyes were opened.

If your saying to yourself that you need to increase your faith then the response is read and meditate on the word. Romans 10:17 "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." The only place to obtain God's kind of faith is from God's Word. Notice that this verse says faith comes by "hearing," not by "having heard." People cannot rest on revelation they received from God years ago, unless they are still hearing the Lord speak those same truths to them now.

The Lord doesn't fail to speak; we fail to hear. Therefore, we can keep our faith in the present tense if we will open our spiritual ears to hear what God's Word is saying.

This is a very simple principle which is very difficult to do. Most of us are more dominated by our sense of sight than we are by our faith, and therein lies our basic problem. When we renew ourself to the point that faith dominates sight, then miracles happen.