SEEING YOURSELF THROUGH HEAVEN’S EYES – PART ONE

It is a pleasure, friends, to come to you again. Thank you for admitting me into your home. Today, I want to speak on Seeing Yourself through Heaven’s Eyes.

Seeing Yourself through Heaven’s Eyes.

Let’s read from Genesis 16:1-9; 13

Gen 16:1-9

¹Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. ²So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. ³Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. ⁴So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes.

⁵Then Sarai said to Abram, “My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me.”

⁶So Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.” And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.

⁷Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. ⁸And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”

⁹The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.”

Gen 16:13

¹³Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?”

PRAYER:

Thank You, Father, for this time; as we look into Your Word. We pray that the entrance of Your Word will give not only light but life to all who hear, in Jesus Name. Amen!

Seeing Yourself Through Heaven’s Eyes

There are two ways we tend to see ourselves:

• Through our own eyes
• Through the eyes of others.

Unfortunately, none of these gives us an accurate picture of who or what we are. There is a third and best way of seeing ourselves: seeing ourselves from heaven’s eyes. You don’t know yourself well enough. And how in the world can a fellow human being know you well enough even if he or she lives with you? Some people have altered their physical appearance surgically, based on how they see themselves or how people see them. Others have taken even more drastic deadly steps. A couple of years ago, a young man in England committed suicide because he did not like the shape of his nose; even though many people did not see anything wrong with his nose. He failed to see himself through heaven’s eyes. Ten years ago, closer to us, the beautiful wife of a Head of State lost her life in the attempt to alter physical appearance.

2 Corinthians 10:12 says that we are not wise when we see ourselves in our own eyes or in the eyes of others. It is how heaven sees us that is important. By heaven, we mean God. If you recall in Luke 15, when the Prodigal Son came back…in verses 18 and 21 he said to his father:

Luke 15:18-19

I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, 19 and I am no more worthy to be called your son. Take me as one of your hired servants.”‘

Heaven. Heaven is a way that Jews would use the word God because they treated the Name of God with reverence. They did not mention the Name of God as carelessly as many of us do today. Heaven – we mean God.

Seeing yourself through God’s eyes. This implies that God is looking not only at us, not only on us. He is looking into us. It is only God who sees beyond what man can see. He sees you through and through, friend.

2 Chronicles 16:9a

2 Chronicles 16:9a

⁹For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.

When you see yourself through heaven’s eyes, you will discover at least three things. And I want to mention those three things.

• When you see yourself through heaven’s eyes you will then discover your true identity.
• When you see yourself through heaven’s eyes you will discover your true character.
• When you see yourself through heaven’s eyes you discover your true contribution.

1. Your true identity as seen from heaven’s eyes.

From the scripture we read, Genesis 16, in verse 3, Hagar had an identity change – he identity from heaven’s eyes. She graduated from Sarai’s maid to Abraham’s wife. Verse 3 says she became Abraham’s wife according to Sarai. That is detected by Sarai’s faulty genius, because she made the plan. But in verse 8, when the Angel of the Lord met her (Angel of the Lord was a theophany – an appearance of God in the Old Testament; because that was God Himself)…in verse 8 her identity from heaven’s eyes did not change. She was still Sarai’s maid because when the Angel of the Lord met her she said, where have you come from and where are you going? Hagar, Sarai’s maid heaven knows who you are. Heaven knows your identity. We cannot fool God with false identity. No wonder Hagar confesses in Genesis 16:13, Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?”

Your identity in heaven’s eyes. Who are you? Are you saved or unsaved? Are you a Christian or pretending to be a Christian when you are not? What is your identity? Jacob took advantage of his father’s poor vision and fooled him with a false identity. In Genesis 27, in that sorry story of Jacob who deceived his father who was going blind.

Gen 27:19-24

¹⁹Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done just as you told me; please arise, sit and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.”

²⁰But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?”

[He was suspicious]

And he said, “Because the Lord your God brought it to me.”

[This is a second lie more serious than the first. The first one he said he was Esau, when he was Jacob; now he said, the Lord your God brought the animal to me]

²¹Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.” ²²So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” [Identity crisis] ²³And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him.

²⁴Then he said, “Are you really my son Esau?”

He said, “I am.”

Friend, without spiritual sight, without spiritual insight, feelings will fool you. Those who work by sight will be fooled. Isaac was fooled because he was working by feelings; and he was easily deceived. The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands feel like Esau’s.

When we come back we will continue from here.

PRAYER:

Father, thank You. Thank You for Your Word. Blessed be Your Name, O God. May we discover who we are as we go through Your Word, in this message, our true identity and more much more than that. You will help us, O God; and You will bring us to the point You would have us be, the people who know You – blessed by You, in Jesus Name we pray. Amen!