Grace Tidings: What do you see?

Eyes that look are common but eyes that see are rare.

“And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat”

 He answered and said to them, “Give them something to eat” (Mark 6:35-37).

The disciples saw the need, but they didn’t see themselves as having the ability to meet it. They wanted to send the people somewhere else to have their needs met. The church is doing this today. We are sending people to psychologists, bankers, doctors, and lawyers, when in reality we are the ones who have the answer. They don’t have to depart. We could meet their needs, but most of the body of Christ doesn’t see that. We don’t see ourselves as being able to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, or raise the dead, so we send them somewhere else.

The Lord said, “They don’t need to depart. You give them something to eat.” Most of us think, that was unreasonable. Jesus wouldn’t have asked them or us to do something they couldn’t have done. They could have fed these people. They had the ability to do it. But they had never seen themselves as able to feed five thousand people before.

“And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?” (Mark 6:37). They pulled their wallet out of their pocket and looked inside. They looked at their natural resources instead of their spiritual resources. We need to receive Spiritual Sight.

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 He said to them, “How many loaves do you have go and see?” And they told him five loaves, and two fishes. And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties. And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes he divided among them all” (Mark 6:38-41)

When Jesus looked up to heaven, He did more than just lift His head. This Greek word anablepo is a combination of blepo and ana. Blepo means “to see’ and ana—when used in a compound like this means “again.” Jesus literally saw twice or saw again. This same word is translated “receive sight” fifteen times in the Bible. When Bartimaeus received his sight, the word used is anablepo. (Mark 10:51.) When others’ blind eyes opened, the word used is anablepo. (Matt. 20:34.) It’s this same word. So when Jesus looked up, He saw twice. He saw differently than His disciples.

Do you know what He did? He saw on the inside. He saw in the spirit realm instead of seeing with His physical eyes. The disciples were looking at their physical resources and so they were limited to what they could see, taste, hear, smell, and feel. Jesus could see past the physical and into the spiritual realm. That’s what Mark 6:41 is talking about. When He looked up, He didn’t just lift up His head, He perceived the situation with His spiritual eyes. In other words, it’s talking about His imagination. He had a pure mind that was able to see things by faith. He wasn’t limited to what He physically saw with His eyes. He could see whatever God’s Word said. Jesus saw with His spiritual eyes that these five loaves and two fish were enough.

The disciples looked at them and at the crowd and saw it wasn’t enough. Most of us look at the little bit we have and at the need and say, “Oh God, it’s not enough. I’ll never make it!” We curse what we have. Jesus blessed it instead. We say, “Oh God, I could never do what You’ve called me to do.

He fed five thousand men and that’s not including the women and children. He fed over ten thousand people with five loaves and two fish, and the fragments left over after everyone’s seconds and thirds added up to much more than what they started with.

It is most likely that the Lord broke the bread once and gave it to the disciples. Then they went out with one little fish and one piece of bread, which they started breaking, giving, and seeing multiply in their hands. So Jesus, actually blessed this food and gave it to His disciples.

Then they had to have a lot of faith to walk toward each group of fifty hungry people with just this little bit of food and start passing it out. Some of them could have stopped and said, “But Jesus, I need more!” They didn’t need more. They had enough. That one little loaf and that one little fish were more than enough for thousands of people when they were blessed.

However, they had to see it spiritually. Whatever you have is more than enough if you could get your imagination renewed so that you didn’t see with your physical eyes. If you saw your true potential, you could start seeing with your heart what God has really given you.

Take God’s Word and let it paint a picture on the inside of you. Let it show you that you have the same power that raised Christ from the dead living on the inside of you. (Rom. 8:11.) You don’t need to plead with God to give you something more. You just need to look up, receive sight, and see what you already have. If you would do that, you could go to the masses and see people saved, healed, and delivered. You would have words to say and you could flow in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The problem is we aren’t looking up. We aren’t receiving spiritual sight. We aren’t seeing with our inner man. We aren’t using our imagination to see ourselves like God sees us. We’re looking in the mirror instead. We are listening to what everybody else thinks about us. We are looking at other churches and thinking, do other people do this? We’re making comparisons and letting other people paint the image inside us. You need to go to God’s Word and find out what He says about you. That’s who you are and that’s what you can do. You need to see yourself that way.

Most Christians have never seen their real self. If I asked someone what they looked like, they would describe to me their outward man, but they probably wouldn’t know who they are in Christ. Due to this, we live like beggars poor, depressed, and defeated. God has already given us everything, but we just haven’t seen it (2 Peter 1 :3). Jesus prayed for a blind man and made him anablepo look up. (Mark 8:25.)

He received his sight and his eyes were opened. You need to get the eyes of your heart opened.  Glorify God. Start putting value on and magnifying Him. Take Scripture and say, “Jesus, You are above every name. Cancer has a name. Poverty has a name. If I can name this thing, then You’re above it!” Make God bigger in your own eyes than this situation. Then start thanking Him for all the things He has already done. Use your memory to rehearse your victories. If you did all that, your imagination would start seeing good things happen instead of bad.

You would start seeing yourself succeed instead of failing. Your imagination would start functioning for you instead of against you. Then your imagination wouldn’t be vain. (Rom. 1:21.) But if you don’t glorify God, be thankful, and remember His goodness, then you’re going to be a negative person. See who you are in Christ.