Seeing As Jesus Sees [Part 8]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. I know it can sound heretical, but everyone needs to listen to this.

When Jesus looks at you, what if He isn't frustrated with your unwillingness to serve Him as much as with your resistance to letting Him serve you? That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light.

I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you with that tagline, see your life at a whole new light. And this book that is coming out soon by Pastor Alan is titled, Seeing as Jesus Sees. And we were gathered in the studio today to bring you more inspiration from this soon to be released book. And I want to let you know that when you pre-order it right now, and let us know that you pre-ordered it, you'll receive as our thanks, a daily reading guide, a companion video course, and the free audio book version as our thank you for supporting the launch of Pastor Alan's new book. When you let us know that you've taken that important step of pre-ordering, we're going to send you these wonderful additional resources as our way of saying thanks. By the way, when you pre-order the book, it also guarantees you the best sale price when it goes on sale. So that's a good thing to note. You also are the first among the first to get the book.

That's makes it nice and convenient for you. So you're taking care of that business now and it's helping, and this is a big one, helping to propel the message forward of this book, Seeing As Jesus Sees, How a New Perspective Can Defeat the Darkness and Awaken Joy. And it certainly is a vital message for our day and age. All of that when you pre-order, and then let us know that you've done so.

Again, this is on its way to you and instructions and information coming when you do that. PastorAlan.org or SeeingAsJesusSees.org. And sitting again here with Pastor Alan in the studio as we're diving into the principles and the concepts behind this book, we're moving into seeing yourself. I just think that seeing ourselves accurately is this pathway to living out of our true identity in Christ. I want to invite people to see themselves there in the first century, shoulder to shoulder with the Messiah, and try, in your mind's imagination, to look through his eyes at the various scenes that he is in. And that's a different way to read the Bible. It's exciting.

And so here's one. Imagine that you're there and every listener, if you can, just put your mind there. It's Passover.

Jewish pilgrims filled Jerusalem for the holiday. And you're there to celebrate the feast with Jesus in a borrowed room. So there are no household servants there. And as usual, you recline at table. That's where your left elbow resting. And then you stretch your feet away from the low table. And all these grown men's feet tromping in dust. You don't want to get that near the food.

So that's back away from you as you lean on your left elbow and you can eat food with your right hand. There's nobody there, no servants, nobody washing feet. So maybe you think about washing your own feet. You look around to see if there's a basin and water, and then you notice Jesus taking off his outer garments and grabbing the towel, wrapping it around his waist. And you're just stunned as the Lord pours water in the basin and begins to wash one of the disciples feet. Imagine yourself there, you know, jaws dropped.

The Lord taking on the task customarily assigned to the lowest ranked servant in a household. And you watch as he approaches Simon Peter. And if you know Peter, you know how Peter is. Peter will speak what's on his mind.

And you're like, well, this is going to be interesting. And then you hear Simon, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? And Jesus says, you don't understand, but afterwards you will.

And now the room's tense. And you watch Jesus' face as Simon blurts out, you'll never wash my feet. Now, just if you could see yourself there, imagine looking at Jesus as he looks at the disciple.

And how does he see Simon's well-meaning humility? You've seen this look in the Savior's eyes before. It's the way he looks at someone before healing them. The way he looks when someone has a need, it's mercy. When Jesus then says, if I don't wash you, you have no share with me.

And you feel his urgency. You have no share. You know the meaning of that. It's legacy language.

It's inheritance language. And then Simon Peter cries out, Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands, my head. And you feel this relief in the room and the hearty laughter around the table. I think if being washed by Jesus is necessary for us to be with him and to share in his kingdom, then he can douse us all. And so how does Jesus look upon the dirty feet? How does he look upon the uncleanliness of our own lives? Is he looking for us to be the one that cleans ourselves or helps him? What he sees is, well, there's someone who needs to be clean.

He takes up the towel and wants to help. What if Jesus came to be your servant and then ends up calling you his friend? And what if, unless you can see yourself as the one that Jesus came to serve, that you would never be able to fully receive all that he has come to secure for you through his life, death, and resurrection? And he's interceding for you now, advocating for you.

You have an advocate in the heavenlies. And the Holy Spirit has come who is the spirit of Jesus, who is the helper who wants to help you. It is to me utterly eye-opening and life-changing when you begin to see yourself in this light, Daniel.

It changes everything. It's a new perspective that can defeat the darkness and awaken joy. And that's the subtitle of the book, Seeing as Jesus Sees. And you've heard Pastor Alan talk about it today, and it comes out October 10th of this year. You can pre-order the book right now, get ahead of the line, guaranteed the best price on the book, and help propel the message forward in this day and age.

This is the way pre-launches work. And this is a great way that you can have a part of this ministry, even by securing the book for yourself. And we're happy to send you, as our way of saying, thanks for doing that, some wonderful resources like a daily reading guide, a companion video course, and the free audio book when it comes out as well. All you have to do is pre-order wherever you find your books, and then let us know you've done that at pastorallen.org.

That's pastorallen.org, or this special website we've set up, seeingasjesussees.org. Pastor Alan, the book began with a story of one young girl named Joy. We'll call her Joy. And throughout the book, we kind of weave back and forth into her story. And so we've gone from this moment where you were talking about being in the upper room and take a break here to kind of revisit the story of Joy. You want to recap a little bit of this?

Yeah. And I wanted to give a few little pieces of Joy's story without giving away all of it and kind of spoiling the story as you read the book. But my heart became like a father to this 13-year-old who, after she had been, well, in a terrible night dream that was more than just a dream, she suffered in a spiritual attack, and it was demonic.

It was awful. And she began to see herself and life through the eyes of all these lies about who she was. And she began to see herself and life through the eyes of all these lies about who she is. And remember Satan is the father of lies and came to shut spiritual eyes. And that's what happened to Adam and Eve. The devil promised, your eyes will be open when you eat of the due to be tree, as Dudley Hall calls it, the forbidden tree.

But instead their eyes were shut. And that's the problem. That's Alan Wright. And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Seeing as Jesus sees, it's the title of Pastor Alan's newest book soon to be released. And it's the giant secret of real transformation. Followers of Christ tend to focus on doing. So we've been told to ask, what would Jesus do? But even our noblest efforts to be more like Jesus ultimately fail for the same reason that pledging to keep the law never works. There's no gospel power in our self-striving. But what if the secret to personal transformation and victorious living isn't found in doing as much as in seeing. Anyone who's ever had an aha moment or has suddenly discovered the truth of the situation knows that fresh vision changes everything. In his eye-opening new book, Alan Wright invites readers into a new simple spiritual practice, a little breath prayer that can be prayed throughout the day. Jesus, how do you see this?

It's a prayer that the savior loves to answer because after all, Christ came to be the light of the world. Clear away confusion, win over the darkness and open your heart to wonder and joy by pre-ordering the book today. Though the book releases October 10th, if you pre-order now, you'll receive over a hundred dollars of bonus resources. Simply pre-order the book at Amazon or your favorite online book seller.

Visit SeeingAsJesusSeas.org or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Give us confirmation that you've pre-ordered the book. And when the book releases, you'll be given a free audio book from the publisher and you'll also receive a free six-week Seeing As Jesus Sees companion video series from Pastor Alan, along with a study guide and a daily reading plan. All these valuable bonus gifts are only for those who pre-order the book.

So place your order today with your favorite online book retailer and visit our website for instructions on receiving all the extra resources. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. Well, this 13-year-old, she was so beautiful. She's so lovely. She so loved the Lord. And yet she came under this horrible attack, which we talked about some days ago. And Daniel became so bad that she quit eating. And it literally, her eyes became dilated and fixed. And she was like, she couldn't see. She wasn't communicating with anyone. She wouldn't talk to her parents. She wouldn't talk to a psychiatrist. She wouldn't talk to doctor. And she was hospitalized and she was catatonic. And they had to feed her through a tube just to save her life. And I tell the story because it shows how much is at stake in seeing the truth. And I tell her story also because you can follow along her narrative and see how if God could awaken her, he could awaken joy in us as well. So joy is her middle name, but she, she she'd quit eating and everybody was begging her, please, joy, eat something, please, please talk to us. A lady in our church named grace had committed because God had just called her to be on the journey of helping joy along the way.

And she would become a prayer partner to me. I just had, was out of town when she was initially joy was hospitalized. And when I got back from and, uh, when I got back in town, I immediately went to the hospital and I just wasn't prepared for what I saw. When I got there, Daniel, her parents were in the room. Grace was there.

The security guards sat in the corner on suicide watch. A nurse had just finished taking joys, blood pressure, and there she was so beautiful, but now weak and thin and distant IV in her arm, feeding tube in her nose. And I just sat down next to the bed. And this is the thing that anybody who has ever experienced that can understand that sometimes you get eyes of faith and it's, that's what Jesus has eyes are.

He's not limited by what you see in the natural. And I just, Daniel, I began to love her with a supernatural love as if she were my own daughter. And I began to see and feel about her.

I think at least in some measures, the way Jesus does. And then suddenly with these eyes of faith that God, I think just gave me that heart that had so much love for her also just felt a great spiritual authority rising up in me. And I didn't always feel this way in the hospital.

You know, it's sometimes awkward when you're the pastor or the chaplain and, you know, you know, the doctors and nurses that technicians have an important job to, to do. And, and, but in this instance, I just knew that everything else was failing and it was no time for polite prayer and nobody seemed to have any answers. And this was real spiritual warfare. And I just began to feel strong in the Lord. And listen, there's nothing more spiritual about me because I'm a pastor or a writer or any other thing. But I just like any Christian, I just, I just felt a faith, but I also knew I was Joy's pastor and her shepherd and a deep well of this faith sprang up me. And I thought the darkness shall not have her. No, in Jesus' name. And in the midst of all of that, I just said, Joy, it's Pastor Alan.

She's just staring straight ahead. And I said, I come to you today and I'm going to tell you today in the name of the living God. And then everyone in the room froze because for the first time Joy moved her head slightly. And for the first time in many days, she spoke and she said, the living God. And I said, yes, Joy, I come the name of living God and the name of Jesus Christ has all power and authority in heaven and earth. And I've come to rebuke this darkness and to bless you and pray for you. And so I began blessing her. I began blessing her, the real joy that was inside of there. Not this afflicted, oppressed catatonic outer shell you saw in that hospital bed, but the real person, Joy, you've been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. You're blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. If God's for you, who can be against you? God's for you, Joy.

You're more than a conqueror. I began just blessing her from the word of God. I recited Psalm 103 over her. I told her, I love you. I bless you today.

I rebuke this darkness. And as I was speaking like this and I just, this went on for a long time, just everything that the spirit would bring to my mind about who she really is. Then she began moving about some, her mouth trembled and foam, the feeding tube became agitated. It was a powerful scene and could feel the presence of God.

The security guard got uncomfortable and scrambled out of the room. Nurses came into by the bed and were shocked to see Joy that was, she was sitting up. She was looking at me and she was beginning to talk some. And all of this you see is the power of truth. And the reason that I first time ever I'm telling Joy's story is that I think this is what it's about. It's about seeing. And she had come to see herself through the lies of the enemy rather than the truth of the gospel.

And that's how much is at stake. And that day, which would begin a long journey for Joy of us wondering if she would ever really be whole. But that day I saw the power of God and I saw the power of seeing, and I saw the power of God coming to help us. And I think that for so many of us, we're like Peter, you shall never wash me.

I'll be your helper. Well, that was in a sense what had happened to Joy as we talked about in our earlier broadcast, where she said, it'll be my prayer to be what I do. I'll be the faithful one and God will use me. But what she needed more than anything was to see it the other way around. God had come in the person of Jesus to help her. He's the helper. The Holy Spirit's the helper.

We're not the helper. And so that calls us not just to relax into his love, but it can change everything and defeat the darkness. The book is written by Pastor Alan Wright. And this is not just theory.

This is not just something that just looks good and sounds good on paper, but something that is personal. And you've experienced it, Pastor Alan. And it's something that's contagious. Seeing as Jesus sees how a new perspective can defeat the darkness and awaken joy releases October 10th. And you can pre-order the book today. And with it, when you let us know, we're happy to make sure that you receive the daily reading guide, the companion video course, and the audio book all free of charge is our thank you for supporting the launch of this new book and the important message here, Seeing as Jesus Sees. And that title is the website, seeingasjesussees.org, where you come and let us know that you've pre-ordered and that's how you get the freebies. We'll send those out to you. PastorAlan.org, also the website for everything related to this ministry.

And we'll connect with you there as well. Stay with us. Pastor Alan is back joining me here in the studio, sharing his parting good news inspiration to see as Jesus sees in just a moment. Wondering what you need to do to find more freedom, wonder, and joy.

What if you don't need to do more as much as see more? What if victorious breakthrough and enduring transformation comes not by striving, but by seeing. For years, Pastor Alan Wright has been practicing a new spiritual discipline, a simple prayer. Jesus, how do you see this?

It's brief enough for a single breath, but deep enough for lasting life change. It's a prayer Christ loves to honor because the savior came to open blind and blurred eyes. Jesus is after all the light of the world. In his new groundbreaking book, Seeing as Jesus Sees, Alan Wright leads readers into a fresh kind of Bible study where they're invited in close side by side with the savior to see themselves, others in the world through Jesus's eyes. There's good news on every page because divine revelation and spirit filled living isn't reserved for the spiritually elite.

Every Christian can live with wide-eyed wonder and spirit revealed vision. The beautiful hardcover book releases October 10th, but for a limited time, when you pre-order the book from Amazon or your favorite retailer, you'll receive over a hundred dollars of bonus resources. Simply pre-order the book, visit seeingasjesussees.org, or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Give us confirmation that you've pre-ordered the book, and when the book releases, you'll be given a free audio book from the publisher. And you'll also receive a free six-week Seeing as Jesus Sees companion video series from Pastor Alan, along with a study guide and a daily reading plan.

All these valuable bonus gifts are only for those who pre-order the book. So place your order today with your favorite online book retailer and visit our website for instructions on receiving all the extra resources. Christ's Call to Discipleship isn't an invitation to strive to do what Jesus would do, but to come and see what Jesus sees. So pre-order your copy of Alan Wright's newest book and discover and start seeing yourself, others, and the world through Jesus's eyes. Back now with Pastor Alan and our closing inspiration directly from his new book, Seeing as Jesus Sees.

Here's Pastor Alan Wright. I share also Joy's story, not just to show how stark and how important these matters are of seeing, but could you just for a moment, put yourself in the place of Joy's parents, pleading with her to eat, pleading with her. What do they want? What's their heart aching for in their depths? Are they frustrated that Joy's not serving them? Is it that they mainly want Joy to get up and do some chores?

It's absurd, but they want them more than anything else. It was Joy to let them serve her. Let us feed you. Let us listen to you. Let us help you. Let us in.

Please, honey, let us help. And I think it's so important if you're going to see your life as Jesus sees you, that you're going to have to remember this story of Jesus washing Peter's feet and saying, unless I wash you, you have no share. That he's pleading, let me serve you. Peter, if you won't let me wash your feet, how will you ever let me die for you? If you can't let me wash your feet, how will you let me wash your soul? If you won't let me serve you in this small way, how can I serve you in eternal ways? I came to do much more than clean your feet. I came to cleanse your sin, to bear your penalty in my own body on the cross.

I came to give you my life, to share my own spirit with you. Before long, he's saying, I'll send you the helper of the Holy Spirit. He'll teach you and empower you if you'll let him. Oh, Peter, if I don't wash you, you'll have none of this. So when Peter said, yes, yes, then wash all of me, he is prefiguring not only the cleansing power of God's forgiveness, but the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And Peter will end up preaching the Pentecost sermon and watch the wonders of God. This is how much is at stake, seeing yourself through Jesus's eyes. When you see him as he sees you, you see yourself as beloved. And I always loved a Presbyterian pastor, Lloyd Ogilvy, who had set a TV show and the name of it was Let God Love You.

And I loved Lloyd and I loved that title. Maybe the show could have been even better and more scandalous if it was called Let Jesus Serve You. When you see yourself through Jesus's eyes, you'll see how much he wants to help you. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.