Seeing As Jesus Sees [Part 16]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Makes us like Michelangelo, of whom they said that he would look at the stone, look at a rock, and he said that he saw the figure in the stone, calling to him, seeing it, like seeing his famous David sculpture in the stone, clamoring to be set free.

I think people are like that. You can see them with Jesus' eyes, and then you can help call them forth for who they're designed to be. 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 today to be in the studio with Pastor Alan as we're celebrating the release of his brand new book, Seeing as Jesus Sees, how a new perspective can defeat the darkness and awaken joy. It has just been released. It's out now. The wait is over, and you can certainly get the book wherever you find good books. Then let us know that you've bought the book, and we'll be happy to send you some wonderful resources free, is our way of saying thanks for being wonderful friends of this ministry. It's a daily reading guide, a study guide, companion video course. It's going to be a wonderful batch of resources coming your way, all for just letting us know, getting in touch with us that say, hey, I've already gotten the book. I'd love to have these other resources.

We'll send that to you. Over $100 in added value, and it's yours simply when you ask for it at seeingasjesussees.org. That's seeingasjesussees.org, or pastorallan.org. Now, Pastor Alan, the book is divided into some wonderful sections. We're currently spending time here on the radio in the section of seeing others, and as we're diving into our discussion today, let me see this fellow brother or sister as a true child of God forgiven.

If we can admit how limited we are in our vision, remember that we were born in sin, and we have these blinders on, and instead start saying, Jesus, I really do need you to help me see. It draws you in. This little prayer is a pause in the midst of the busyness, pause in the midst of us thinking we know, so it's a pause from all of that, a pause from thinking, oh, I've got that person figured out.

Oh, I know exactly what's going on with them. Well, you don't, and then it is a connecting with Christ. This is the spiritual connecting. This is why it's a prayer, and I like praying it to Jesus because he's the author and finisher of our faith.

It's a biblical thing to do, just to talk directly to Jesus, the second person of the triune God, but we're talking to God, and we're saying, I would like to have your very own eyes, and one thing's for sure, he doesn't want us judging other people. He wants us seeing them so that we can accept them, as we talked about last time, but also so that we could bless them, and that to me is seeing the potential in people, and any of our listeners, and maybe have read my recent book on the power to bless, know that it's all about being able to see a vision over someone's life of who they're designed to be and speaking it out, and you know, Daniel, it is a beautiful thing, just an ordinary daily life, to be able to bless somebody. I had unintentionally blessed him, and it made the trucker feel generous towards me. So, it raises the question, if people change when we bless them by accident, what might happen if we start blessing people on purpose? So, if you have a child, a spouse, a friend, a co-worker you'd like to help grow and flourish, the best way to help them is to bless them.

And I think other than prayer or direct visitation from God, blessing is the most powerful tool for change in the world, but it all starts with being able to see them as Jesus does. The book is titled, Seeing as Jesus Sees, How a New Perspective Can Defeat the Darkness and Awaken Joy. Hey, the wait is over. The book is out now. It's available wherever you find good books. And as our way of saying thanks for supporting the launch of this new book, when you buy it right now for a very limited time, when you let us know that you've already ordered the book somewhere from your favorite book retailer, we're happy to send you, as our thanks, a bundle of resources, a daily reading guide, a study guide, and a companion video course, all free of charge. Again, simply our thanks. But it's over a hundred dollars in value, and it can certainly help in your study and even in your small group. So get in touch with us, pastorallen.org or seeingasjesussees.org.

Either one of those websites will connect you to us to request that free bundle of resources. As we're sitting with Pastor Alan, the author in the studio today and talking about, well, blessing, and you've heard him talk about blessing before. This is one chapter out of many in this book where they really go hand in glove and how this perspective can really enable you to see others the way Jesus sees them and speak life into them then. Pastor Alan, we have no better model of a blesser than Jesus Christ himself.

He is the blesser par excellence because he sees potential vividly and has wondrous faith for people to flourish. So as we've been doing, and as I invite readers in the book all throughout, and as I'm inviting now listeners to with us now, imagine that you're there. No ordinary Bible study where you're just thinking about Jesus or thinking about the principles of his teaching, but imagine yourself next to him.

Imagine yourself up close. And so we want to journey now 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee to Caesarea Philippi and see yourself seated next to Jesus as you learn how to bless by watching the master. It's your first visit to the region and you find yourself engulfed by his beauty.

You're taken by the town's position on the terrace of the southern slope of the snow-capped Mount Hermon. Maybe you wonder as Jesus brought you here so far north just to enjoy the scenery, it's worth the trek. Lush plant life surrounds, stumbling waterfalls, all that are powered by an ancient spring that serves as the headwaters of the Jordan River. It's a beautiful place. And you, like every visitor, are overwhelmed by this big stony bluff and in it, all these idolatrous shrines.

So imagine yourself there. Beauty, water, lush plants, and a big stony bluff with idols. And you join Jesus and the disciples there. For a glimpse of the famous grotto of Pan, it's a seemingly endless pit of water in a cave that leads into that solid rock cliffside. One of the disciples explains to you this is where they cast their sacrifices, slain animals. But some say children have been sacrificed here to the god Pan. They think he lives in that cave. Someone else says, I've heard that the fertility cult creates a frenzied pandemonium in their worship of Pan and other gods, all in attempt to awaken the gods from winter slumber and bring fertility to the land. Maybe somebody points to the arched entryway to the grotto.

They call that the Gate of Hades because they believe it's the portal into the pagan underworld. And you're just there taking it all in. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. 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 is a reserve for the spiritually elite.

Every Christian can live with wide-eyed wonder and Spirit-revealed vision. For a limited time, when you've ordered a book from Amazon or your favorite retailer, you'll receive over $100 of bonus resources. To order the book, visit SeeingAsJesusSees.org or come to our website, PastorAlan.org, 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.

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. As we're sitting with Pastor Alan, the author, in the studio today and talking about, well, blessing. And you've heard him talk about blessing before.

This is one chapter out of many in this book where they really go hand in glove and how this perspective can really enable you to see others the way Jesus sees them and speak life into them then. Now, imagine yourself there. You've heard these things.

You're seeing these things. And you observe the huge moments that people in front of the cave built by Herod, dedicated to Augustus Caesar. Then you turn your attention to the sheer rock wall, judged so dramatically upward, and you look closer at all these nooks that are carved in that rock wall. Every indentation devoted to a different God and every one of those nooks shelters a different idol. Again, you're wondering, why has Jesus brought us all the way up here?

Yes, Caesarea Philippi is beautiful. But it's clearly rife with idolatry, fleshly sin, and the middle of it all is a huge temple in honor of Augustus, who claims to be divine. Why are we here? And then Jesus asks you and your friends, who do people say the Son of Man is?

Probably you concur with a variety of answers. Some say John the Baptist, others, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. But who do you say I am? Jesus asks.

Now, the setting makes sense to you with this pagan temple and a cultic grotto, rock full of idols in the background. Jesus is asking whether you and the other believers believe him to be the one true Son of God, or is he just another among the many gods? So, as we've seen before, no surprise, impetuous, impulsive Simon Peter, first one to answer. You're the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now, imagine you're standing next to Jesus, looking at Simon through the Messiah's eyes.

What do you see? A man whom is so bold and brave, he sometimes seems brash. Everyone seems to like him. He's exciting, vivacious, emotional, but this all-in attitude can quickly turn into all gone, you know. Remember Simon, he's the guy who walked on water and then sank. He's the guy who's really fun, but then fickle. All his good qualities just don't seem to last.

The last thing you'd label him as is rock solid. But you're there, and you listen, and Jesus says, you are blessed, Simon Bar-Jonah. This wasn't revealed to you by flesh and blood. Oh, it's about revelation.

It's about seeing, seeing. I tell you, Jesus says, you are Peter, and on this rock, I'll build my church. And the gates of Hades will not overcome it. Simon has not proven himself to be rock solid, has he? But Jesus names him Petra, the rock. And you realize that Jesus names people not according to their past performance, but for who they can be.

And now you see Simon Peter in new light. Peter's imperfect in every way, but it's not a person's personal responsibility. It's a person's responsibility, but it's not a person's personal righteousness that will ground the church of Jesus. It's their faith in Christ and Jesus' righteousness that will become the foundation of the church. And you look back to that pagan cave of Pan, over-arched by the gate of Hades, and you feel the power of blessing stirring in your own soul. No deception, no religious system, no demon will ever be able to stop the church of this Messiah. Jesus knows how to bless because Jesus can see people for who he made them to be. He sees past the little blemishes and even the besetting sins and calls forth who we're really going to be.

And indeed, Peter does become a rock upon which the church is built as he proclaims the Pentecost sermon and upon faith like that, all of the church is built. And so that, Daniel, really is how the power of blessing works. You ask Jesus for his eyes, you see someone, and then you speak that positive vision in accord with God's word and God's plan for their life. And when you do, it really empowers a person to live out that blessing, to become the very one that they are proclaimed to be. It all begins with seeing people through the eyes of Jesus. I like what you wrote there and what you said, that Jesus names people not according to their past performance, but for who they can be, who they're destined to be. And I think the enemy, Satan, would label you and therefore tie shackles around you to hold you back.

Whereas what you're talking about is destiny and freedom and forward movement. That's blessing. That's blessing in action. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, Genesis says. And he said, let there be light. And there was light. And then he affirmed what he created. He saw the light.

He said it was good. So this is the nature of God. He envisions, he makes, and then he celebrates. Another way to put that is he imagines, he creates, and then he blesses. So God never makes something and leaves its future unaffirmed.

He blesses what he has designed and created in order to empower that destiny. That's why when God fashioned the masterpiece of creation, human beings, he lavishly blessed the man and woman, male and female, he created them and God bless them, Genesis 1, 27 and eight, and God bless them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion.

So the order of events is so important. God blessed Adam and Eve. And then he told him to be fruitful. With God, blessing isn't the reward for productivity, it's the fuel for it.

And I think the world's message is a perversion of Genesis 1. The world around us says be productive, perform, prove your worth, and then you'll be blessed. So parents and teachers and coaches and bosses, they often worry that overly affirming people will make them prideful or lazy.

But the opposite is true. And we talk of this often as one of the real true pillars of the message that God's entrusted to us. And I think when we reverse that order of God's blessing, and we withhold the blessing, what we're doing is we're fostering shame. And the unaffirmed and ashamed soul becomes filled with angst, wondering, what must I do to be blessed? Anxiety then motivates a person in fear, the currency of hell takes over, but God loves faith. He doesn't want people worried about their worth.

He wants them convinced of their value. God releases people into their destiny by speaking life into them long before they deserve it. Just like Jesus, who speaks to Peter, who seems so unreliable and calls him a rock, because that's who he actually is designed to be. And it makes us like Michelangelo, of whom they said that he would look at the stone, look at a rock. And he said that he saw the figure in the stone calling to him, seeing it, like seeing his famous David sculpture in the stone, clamoring to be set free.

I think people are like that. You can see them with Jesus's eyes, and then you can help call them forth. You can help call them forth for who they're designed to be. Alan Wright, our good news message from the writing of the pages, Seeing as Jesus Sees, how a new perspective can defeat the darkness and awaken joy. You stay with us, Pastor Alan is back joining me in the studio, sharing his parting good news inspiration to see as Jesus sees from the new book 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 is a reserve for the spiritually elite.

Every Christian can live with wide-eyed wonder and spirit-revealed vision. For a limited time, when you ordered a book from Amazon or your favorite retailer, you'll receive over $100 of bonus resources. To order the book, visit SeeingAsJesusSeas.org or come to our website, PastorAlan.org, 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.

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 closing inspiration directly from the pages of his new book, Seeing as Jesus Sees, here's Pastor Alan Wright. We've been talking some about a precious young woman we call Joy, actually her middle name, who was so overtaken by the lies of the devil that she found herself catatonic in a hospital, a beautiful girl that loved Jesus, but had been terrorized in the spirit, no longer eating, no longer looking at people, no longer talking to anyone. And how the first breakthrough began by simply seeing her through the eyes of Jesus and beginning to declare to her the possibilities of really living out a destiny that God had given her and rebuking the darkness and affirming who she was. Well, her story is woven throughout this book and there's so much to be said. It's such a beautiful story, but you wonder how would we minister to someone like that over time?

And the way we would minister is by blessing, by speaking over and over her identity in Christ. Sometimes I remember young Joy saying it feels like the darkness has taken me, I've gone too far. And we would say to her, oh Joy, you've not been taken. Any Christian can be attacked spiritually, any Christian can be afflicted by the demonic, but no Christian can be taken. You aren't possessed of the devil, you belong to God. But it feels like it has me, she'd say it.

I still have the dreams, I still have weird sensations, I still see darkness. Are you sure Jesus is with me? Oh yes, beloved daughter of the living God.

Oh yes, we're sure. Remember Romans 8, who can separate you from the love of Christ? Neither death nor life, nor angels, nor demons, nor the present nor future, nor any powers will be able to separate you from the love of God in Christ. Hell's strategy has a lot to do with from the love of God in Christ. Hell's strategy hasn't changed.

The serpent lied to Adam and Eve when they believed the deception and their eyes were shut to truth. Lies and fear, that's all that hell knows. And while you might not be able to relate to someone in such a stark condition as what befell Joy, we can all know what it's like to feel weakened.

We can all know what it's like to not feel like that we matter. And we need some kind of power beyond ourselves. And I say what we need is we need someone somehow that has the eyes of Jesus that can see us. And like God asking Ezekiel at the valley of the dry bones, can these bones live? And we need to have the eyes of God. So we can say, yes, yes, it looks like a graveyard, but God can do all things and could see an army being formed out of dry bones.

Peter hadn't proven himself before Jesus saw him as a rock. And though Joy had no joy, we kept calling her Joy. And that's the way people are going to be transformed. And we tell Joy's story in the book. Oh, I hope you'll get it and read all about it. And I hope that you more so you'll read so that you can understand how you can get Jesus's eyes for other people and learn to bless their lives. Because when you do, a grumpy store clerk can become pleasant. A gruff truck driver can become polite. An unstable disciple can become a rock.

And maybe a hopeless teenager can laugh again. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.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 pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.