Seeing in the Spirit

Teaching by Billie Johnson, 10-25-08

At Dominion Living Training Center            

Let’s recall from some of the teaching we’ve had from Tim Jorgensen’s book, Spirit Life Training on imagination.  It is a teleportation devise that we use as a tool of the Holy Spirit.  We remember that the imagination gives us the power to go places we’ve never gone, to do things we’ve never done; to experience things before we’ve even experienced them.  We want to see things that are not seen but are in the spirit realm.  Of course our imagination should be lined up with the Word of God.  Just because the New Age people use the imagination in a wrong way doesn’t mean that we cannot use it at all.  God gives us our imagination and we can use our sanctified imagination for his glory!           

 What do you think of when I say the word “see”?  Let’s look at some definitions.  There are many meanings but I’ll list some of the meanings of see: See -- to give light, bring to light, enlighten, illuminate, make to see, foresee, take heed, perceive, appear, look up, observe.   It is exciting to see that some of these include light as part of the seeing.  Remember Jesus is the light of the world!Let’s look at some scriptures. Job 42:1-6 “Then Job answered the Lord and said:² “I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You^{. 3} You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.⁴ Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’⁵ “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You.⁶ Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes.”             I have used the longer scripture so you can understand that Job is talking to the Father here.  But in verse 5 he says “Now my eye sees you.”    He is enlightened.  He has been made to see by what God is saying to him.  He perceives is another New Testament word. He is seeing God in his imagination.  This is his inner eye that he is talking about.  Too often we don’t ‘see’ what is being said sometimes it has to be seen by our inner eye.             We know that we live in a physical world but we Christians also live in the spiritual realm. Hebrews 11:1-3 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.  By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”   If something is not visible we say it is not seen.  But we can see it by faith, in the spiritual realm or as we say by the spirit.  2 Corinthians 4:18 also says “while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.  For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”           

To see in the spirit God uses our imagination and we cooperate with him.  For those of us who the Lord uses in visions -- the imagination is part of that. The picture just is there in our mind’s eye as we ‘see’ a vision. We can say that the spiritual (invisible) world is open to us at that moment. We ‘see’ the words in our mind when we have the beginning of a word from the Lord in prophecy.  .  . "And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams."  Act 2:17 Peter is quoting from Joel 2:28.            An example of receiving a prophecy is the ‘word’ that the Lord gave through me last week.  It was first seen in my mind, in my imagination.  We are able to be in that spiritual place where our imagination is tapped by the Holy Spirit.  For me that sometimes comes during worship or prayer.  I start ‘seeing’ the words in my mind, only a few at first.  If I start to write them down more come to mind as I write.  That is stepping out in faith.  I’ve done it enough so that I know if I am obedient to start putting those words on paper, that the rest will come.  That also happens with prophecy that is not written down, once you start speaking the few words you have -- the Spirit supplies more.  We encourage you to take the time to learn to do this as Paul said he wished we all would prophesy. "PURSUE love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy" 1Cor 14:1. "For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged" 1Cor 14:31. Do you know that we are all encouraged by someone’s prophesy?  We learn from others and from the Holy Spirit!            In Matt 13:11-17 Jesus is asked by his disciples why he speaks in parables.  “He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.”  What are the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven?  The good news that Jesus came to earth and made it possible for men to have the Holy Spirit!  “But to them it has not been given^{. 12}"For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. ¹³"Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” Here seeing is connected to understanding.  He later explained to his disciples so that they could understand. Let’s continue on in verse 14:  "¹⁴And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: 'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; ¹⁵ For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.” Isaiah was talking about non spirit filled men, Jesus hadn’t come yet.  So their eyes were blinded.  They couldn’t understand. But I think this is also a warning to us – use it or lose it.  We can keep our hearts from growing dull and our ears hard of hearing.  We can open our eyes and train them to see in the spirit. ¹⁶"But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; ¹⁷ for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” Jesus says we are blessed because our eyes see into the spirit world because we have the Holy Spirit.  Many righteous men wanted to see in that realm, wanted to know what God’s full plan was for salvation and they did not – not before Jesus came.  We are blessed!           

In Matt 21:19 we have some verses that show Jesus seeing in the spirit. "And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, "Let no fruit grow on you ever again." Immediately the fig tree withered away."   Jesus saw in the spirit that  fig tree dead as he prophesied to it! The disciples only saw the tree but the next day they saw that it was physically dead and called it to Jesus’ attention.  As we train our spiritual eyes to see what we are involved in  then we can embrace what we want to do.  We do this by seeing what we are saying first in our mind’s eye before we say it.  As we watch Curry pray for people he is holding their hands with his eyes closed. This is just my opinion but I think he is seeing in the spirit what healing he wants done.  He is quiet for a moment and then he commands the healing or the deliverance. He has mentioned to us that we have to focus when commanding healing!           

 We have another example in Acts 14:8-9 where Paul was seeing in the spirit, this was a perception that he had given through the Holy Spirit.  " ^[8] And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked: ^[9] The same heard Paul speak: who steadfastly beholding him, and perceiving  that he had faith to be healed, ^[10] Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.” In the new King James it says it this way^{: [8]} And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother's womb, who had never walked^{. [9]} This man heard Paul speaking. Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed^{, 10} said with a loud voice, "Stand up straight on your feet!" And he leaped and walked.”  How do you “see” if someone has faith to be healed?  Sometimes there are bodily expressions, facial expressions that give you a clue.  Sometimes it may be just a ‘knowing’ or “seeing” in your spirit that this person is ready and really has embraced his healing.  We do know by the verse that Paul observed him intently or steadfastly, he was really focused on this man!  We are learning how to focus like we should!            

Is 49:23b . . . “and you shall know (with an acquaintance and understanding based on personal experience) that I am the Lord, for they shall not be put to shame who wait for, look for, hope and expect me.”   This scripture connects looking or seeing with understanding and here in the amplified it includes the idea of experience (I’ve added personal experience).  This is something we personally know, personally experience not just something we hear from others.            

 Dont W.  will be using this scripture next week but it fits with my topic as well.  2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”  Verse 5 in the King James says casting down imaginations which goes well with my topic of seeing. Arguments could also mean those little thoughts that Satan plants in our heads!  Our imagination is used by the evil one to keep us in bondage to those things that we need to take and put into obedience to Christ.   Our imagination can be a vessel for God to use as I’ve talked about earlier.  We need to see it in that light.    We can imagine a person sick being healed; imagine a person who needs deliverance being free.  We can give them a picture of themselves free by painting that picture with our words.  There is a person we are working with can’t see herself free yet, even though she has been given her freedom she doesn’t know how to walk in it. Part of the discipling process is to help her ‘see’ herself as free, ‘see’ herself as the correct weight where now the devil has her ‘seeing’ herself as fat.  We (as well as others who are trying to help her) are working on doing that. When she can imagine or see a picture of herself the way God sees her she will know her freedom, she will be free indeed!           

Do you think God gives more power to an ungodly imagination than to a positive imagination?  No, he wouldn’t do that!  Paul tells us to set our minds (imaginations) on things above, on those good things.  Don’t fill your mind with the negative, fill it with positive. Look at Matthew 5:28.  “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart!”  That is a negative example that Jesus uses but it shows a principle that we need to learn. Jesus is saying that if you lust it is just like the physical act!  That’s hard to believe but that is what he is saying.  He said you will be judged as though you did the real thing!  So if you put that in a positive context you can look at something in a positive way it is just like it is happening!  God has given you power to create with your imagination – looking or seeing something in a positive way.  A verse that I had to take a long time to understand is Romans 4:17b “who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” KJV “calls those things which be not as though they were.”  How could we call or say that those things that don’t exist as though they did exist?  I guess I had a lot of sacred cows to get out of the way before I really understood that verse.  But that is what we do when we command healing, right?  We say those things that are the positive things to say about that person.  We say he is healed even though at the time he still may have pain or symptoms. But we are bold and call those things that we cannot see into existence with our words! So we are in our imagination making a picture of how the person really wants to be – well and healed!  And Jesus said that it is the same of doing the act – this is in a positive sense.  We look at the right outcome.  We see the healing, we see the blind eyes open, the lame walking and that is what we command in the name of Jesus! That is amazing isn’t it?             Hebrews 11: 13 shows us a process of using our imagination.  This is after Paul has listed the heroes of the faith and he says “These all died in faith not having seen the promises but having seen them a far off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were!”  Sounds like the verse in Romans doesn’t it?   These persons died in faith without seeing (in their lives) the things they really wanted to see.  But they saw them a far off – saw them in their imagination, in their mind’s eye.  They were assured of them (they knew that they would get them one day. We know they did when Jesus descended into hell and brought captivity captive).  They embraced them (took them as their own in their mind or imagination) and then they confessed that they were theirs!            

In one of Timothy Jorgensen’s teaching he says that God gave him a revelation about the verses of the prodigal son.  We take up the story in Luke 15:20-24 “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.  ²¹And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²²But the father said to his servants, Bring out the best robe and put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found and they began to be merry. ”Look at those verses. The father saw him, had compassion, ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.                     See     access           embrace                  

 And then later in the verses he declares that this is my son.       confess

So these are the steps we use: See, assess, embrace, and then confess.         As we use these 4 things we can be more effective in praying for the sick.  See with our physical eyes the need first then, in our mind’s eye, or imagination or in the spirit, we access what is needed (we imagine the person being healed; we see the body part restored; we see them walking or whatever is needed) , we embrace (we put our imagination and our emotions into the healing in our mind). We can get excited about it even want to jump up and down because we are so excited about what we are seeing!  We then have the final result – we ‘see’ the person healed and then we confess – say it out loud.  We are commanding it to happen all the while seeing it in our imagination as our spirit uses those parts of our soul to bring this about.  This is how we can focus more intently when we are praying for someone.  I am not saying that you tell the person to imagine something as some of groups of people do.  You are the one who is seeing in the spirit and you are just telling him what you see.  We are responsible to train our own imagination not expect someone else to tell us what to SEE! We in JGLM want to do what Jesus did and say what Jesus said.  We don’t see Jesus in scripture telling people to imagine anything.  We do see him seeing in the spirit so we ourselves can do that.