Many of us are not seeing what God can do. what God wants to do because we don't have our spiritual glasses on. Dr. Tony Evans talks about curing spiritual short-sightedness. If you are living your life on human wisdom, man's point of view, independently of God, you will have restricted eyesight.
This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Dr. Evans says many of us with 20-20 eyesight lack the vision to see what God is doing right in front of our faces, but he's got the perfect prescription to clear things up for us today as he talks about what it takes to see the supernatural. Let's join him.
The newspaper Mogul Randolph Hearst. the father of Patty Hurst, was a newspaper guru on the west coast. A very successful, wealthy man. He also was a connoisseur of art. He loved.
Art. And he would collect major art pieces. from around the world. And he would get the best of the best because he could afford it. That was one specific piece that he wanted.
I don't know. that was not in his collection and he told some of his folks to go hunt this piece down.
So he could get it. He wanted not a copy, he wanted the original. And so his team went out looking for the piece that was missing in his collection. but they could not locate it. They came back and said, Mr.
Hearst, we can't find the original for this piece. You love the copies, but we can't find the original. He sent them out again. He says, you've got to find this peace. They searched and searched.
Finally, one of his staff came to him and said, Sir, We went all over and we couldn't find the peace.
However, I went down in your basement and Just stumming through some things that had been discarded, only to discover that the peace you were looking for, you already have. It was in your basement and you just didn't know it.
Okay. There are a lot of Christians who are looking For the supernatural. who are looking for God in all the wrong places. Not knowing That what you're looking for You already have, you just don't see it. It's a terrible thing.
To have something. Not know you have it. Simply because You can't see it. Paul says in verse 18 of Ephesians chapter 1. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.
Now he's writing to Christians. At the church at Ephesus. These are born again, saved, or on their way to heaven, people. But he writes I pray. that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.
And he's writing to believers.
So that means you can be a believer and be blind. You can be a believer and not see clearly. They were on their way to heaven. But they were not getting a clear perspective on God in their history. They were missing something that he knew Would not come through just ordinary means.
And so he says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. The reason he has to pray that Is because he understands. That it is far too tempting for us as human beings, even as Christians. to look at life Through the eyes. Oh.
Human wisdom through the eyes of the natural man, through the eyes of the physical person, and not look at things through the eyes of God. Many of us are not seeing what God can do. And what God wants to do. because we don't have our spiritual glasses on. And the refusal to wear those glasses.
Will keep you from seeing God move, God act, and what God is supernaturally up to in your life. Many of us are blocked from the supernatural because we insist on the physical and the human and the natural. And the Bible makes it clear that the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they can only be spiritually discerned. If there is a refusal to put on divine eyeglasses, you will not see what God is up to, and you'll be left to be. To see what you see, and that is all you will ever see, because you'll not get to see that which is unseen.
It is your ability to see the spiritual. That will change your life. When it is time for me to leave this earth. When it is time for me to go to glory. I want to see What Stephen saw.
In Acts chapter 7. Stephen was dying a very painful death. A very painful death, according to Acts 7. And before he died, he said, I see. Heaven open.
And I see the Son of Man standing on the right hand of the Father. And he was getting a standing ovation, getting ready to welcome him in heaven because he got to see. while still on earth, something that was unseen. See you don't mind leaving earth and going to heaven if God gives you a picture of heaven before you ever leave earth. Because he lets you see into the spiritual.
But I don't want to have to wait. Calvin To see that. I want to be able to see the spiritual. before the eternal, so I don't get shocked by the sight when I see the eternal, because I have practiced in the temporal.
So what God wants you to do is to put on a different set of glasses so that you begin to see and experience the supernatural. David put it this way in Psalm 119, verse 18. He said, Lord, open my eyes.
So that I will see. Wonderful things in your law. Don't let's let me read the book. I won't say something. I want to see the spiritual so that I can experience the supernatural.
You ought to be tired now. of just being in the natural. I know you think you're a natural man. And I know you think you're a natural woman. But for all the stuff we're going through, we need some supernatural sight.
to deal with all the issues we are facing in our lives, in our families, and even in our nation. Because a lot of these problems that come on television are simply myopic views. Near-sighted folk. who do not see the spiritual so they can't address the social, the political, the economic, the attitudinal, the familial. All of this emanates from not being able to see the spiritual so they have to react in the physical and things are never solved because God is not committed to your eyeglasses.
He's only committed to his sight line. And if you don't get to see the spiritual. then you have to live with what you do see. And most of us have been living long enough. that these glasses don't work that well.
Because the human wisdom will always have limitations.
So you need somebody in your life if you've not learned to look at life consistently from a spiritual point of view.
So the question now Next. is how do I begin doing this? How do I begin? Singing things from the supernatural.
Now watch. He says, I pray.
So first of all, it comes because you actually go to God or have somebody go to God with you or for you for the purpose of seeing the supernatural.
So we start with that. Then he comes and he says, I want you to experience the hope of his calling, the riches of the glory of all he has set aside for you. That's to call it your inheritance. And what is, watch this, the surpassing greatness. of his power toward us who believe.
Okay, let me pause. He wants you to experience their surpassing greatness of his power.
So here's when you know you've seen the supernatural. Power that's outside of your ability. It's the supernatural when it's power outside of what you could do, pull off who you know, how much money you have, how significant you are, all of that. God. Trumps it.
When God trumps it, then you know it was God because you couldn't pull it off. By the way, Which is why he lets things happen in your life that you can't pull off. And when you think you're pulling off, he'll let something else go wrong to show you it wasn't as pulled off as you thought it was pulled off.
Okay? Because he wants To show you the supernatural surpassing greatness of his power. He wants to show you the supernatural, but you got to have eyeglasses on to see him.
So he says, he describes the supernatural. Stay with me here. He said, toward us who believe, so it has to do with the faith issue, that are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might. which he brought about in Christ. when he raised Christ from the dead, seated him at the right hand in heavenly places, far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but in the age to come.
He describes the power he wants you to see. He says, It's the power that raised up Christ from the dead.
Now, I call that pretty powerful because I don't think anybody in here has seen anybody who you know that has died who has gotten up out of the grave.
So, I call that some supernatural surpassing greatness power. Not only the power that got Jesus up out of the grave, but the power that let him step on a cloud and be lifted up to heaven. That's ascension power.
So we got resurrection power. We got Jesus stepping on a cloud in Acts 1.
So we got ascension power. But not only do we have resurrection power, not only do we have ascension power, we've got dominion power. Because he's now over all rulers, all authorities. not only in the age to come, But in the nasty here and now. Not only in the sweet buy and buy, but in your messed up situation today.
So, whatever this supernatural power is, it's good for heaven and good for earth. It's good for eternity and good for time. But he says, in order to experience it, You have to first of all know where it is located.
So we got to get a location issue straight if you're going to see it. And doctor Evans will help us do just that when he continues our message in just a moment. First, though, if you need help building the kind of eye-opening faith that Tony is talking about today, You want to dig deep into his complete collection of messages called Believing is Seeing. Most of us tend to look at faith and experience upside down. But once we understand that believing comes first, we open ourselves up to see more of God's supernatural work in our lives, especially in the moments we need Him most.
Believing is Seeing is an eight-part collection of faith-building messages, and we'd love to send them all to you as our gift when you make a donation to the Alternative Broadcast Ministry. And if we hear from you today, we'll also include Tony's brand new devotional and prayer guide, Anchored by Faith, a powerful daily tool to help you stay rooted in God's promises and experience greater confidence as you walk with Him. This is the final day we'll be offering this select bundle.
So visit tonyevans.org today or call 1-800-800-3222 to make your donation and request. Again, that's tonyevans.org. or by phone at 1-800-800-3222.
Well, right now, let's get back to Dr. Evans as he talks about how to see the supernatural. The location is heavenly places. That's what he says. This supernatural power is located at a certain place.
And it's called heavenly places. The euphemism or the synonym for heavenly places is the spiritual realm. Heavenly places means the spiritual realm. He says in chapter 1, verse 3, all your blessings are located in heavenly places, which means if all you know how to do is search earthly places, you will never discover what God has for you, what he can do with you, and how he can work in you, because you're not even looking at the right place. You're looking at earthly places when he says what God's supernatural power comes from is heavenly places because it's the spiritual realm, which means you got to have heavenly glasses on in order to see heavenly places.
Now, in heavenly places, there is resurrection, ascension, and dominion. If I put all three of those together, that means. overriding the natural order of things. All three of those are override words. Resurrection, you override death.
Ascension, you override time and space. Dominion, you override other rulers.
Now, let me tell you what that means. That means nothing on earth has the final say over your life. Nothing on earth has the final say over your circumstances. Nothing on earth has the final say over your situation. You say, but my career is dead.
That is, unless Jesus decides to resurrect it. You say, but I'm stuck in this place that unless Jesus decides to ascend you out of it. You say, but all these folks are ruining my life.
Well, that's unless Jesus decides to overrule them because he has dominion power.
So what I'm trying to tell you today is that your circumstance on earth is not the final say if you put on some glasses that will allow you to see the spiritual realm. Stay with me here because he's just getting started. He says, and all of this is located in another sphere, another dimension. And if you don't look at heavenly places, you won't see it. And if you don't see it, you don't get it.
And if you don't get it, then you are stuck. with the earthly implications of your life. Because you're not giving God Override. He's not giving him override. Heavenly places now.
I want to explain to you, coming off of this, stay with me. God's philosophy of history. Here it is in chapter one. Let me begin by reading to you. Verse 9.
He, God, Made known to us the mystery of his will. It was mysterious. according to the kind intention which he purposed in him, that is, in Jesus, with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, the summing up of all things in Christ. That is God's philosophy. The summing up of all things in Christ in heaven and things on earth.
So this got to do with your everyday living, things on earth. In him, in Jesus. Also, we are to obtain an inheritance having been predestined according to his purpose who works all things after the counsel of his own will.
So if your relationship to Jesus is not intact, the response from God will not come because God relates to all things based on how Jesus relates to it.
So if Jesus is not Lord of your life, you will get very little attention from the Father God because the Father God relates to you based on how you are relating to his son because he summed up all things in his son, which gets the attention from his father.
So if you're a part-time Christian, don't look for a full-time God. If you are Christian light. Don't look for this marvelous supernatural presence. God has summed up all things based on Jesus Christ. That is why I am not ashamed of the gospel, Paul says, for it is the power of God.
to all who believe.
So you get to experience God by virtue of your relationship to the Father. That is why Romans chapter 10 says you must confess Jesus as Lord, King, ruler, master. Because if he is master of your life, you have just put on some eyeglasses in order to experience the spiritual in heaven from God for you in history. It comes by attachment to the rule of Jesus Christ because all things have been summed up. Look at the end of chapter one when he says.
the same thing another way he put god put all things in subjection under his jesus's feet and gave him Jesus as head over all things, not most things, not much things, but all things. And he's only given him to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. And if you don't have Jesus Christ, you don't get to see the spiritual. Because God has summed up all things, and I mean all things. Your family, your marriage, your singlehood, your money, your career, your mind.
He has summed up all things under Jesus Christ. Without those glasses, you live with a distorted view.
Okay, I got this. I can't look through human eyes if I'm going to experience the supernatural. I've got to look through divine glasses that come with recognizing the Lordship of Jesus Christ and willing to prioritize looking into the spiritual first. I got that. But I have a problem.
Jesus is way up there. You just said he rose from the dead. He ascended up to heaven. He's seated on the right hand of the Father. He way up there.
I'm down here. I'm down here with the practical stuff. Look at chapter 2, verse 4. of Ephesians, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, he made us alive together.
with Christ. By grace have you been saved. and raised us up with him. and seated us with him. In the heavenly places, Christ Jesus.
Okay, did you see those two words? With him. Enthroned. At 1600 people. Pennsylvania Avenue.
is the President of the United States. He has an office he works out of called the Oval Office. He sits in a chair behind that desk and that is the executive chair.
Now it's where he lives and it's where he works. But his influence goes beyond his location. Yeah, he sits in that chair But he just doesn't influence that house. He sits in the chair, he influences the house. But he doesn't only influence the house.
He sits in the chair, influences the house, and influences the city. And based on a decision that he makes or does not make, he can influence the whole world. Because he's in an executive chair.
So he sits. in the chair of influence.
However, When he wants to get something done, he has a cabinet. with him. These are men and women who have been elected and selected. to be part of here that ministration. You know what their job is?
Their job is to implement whatever he decides.
So when he makes a decision, depending on what the cabinet... Remember is He goes to his office to implement that decision utilizing the president's authority.
So whenever you see the cabinet member making a decision for his cabinet, he will always reference. The president. And he'll say, well, this is what the president wants me to do, because I was with him. in his office. We met on this subject when I was with him.
He gave me information when I was with him. If you are here today and you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are in his cabinet. You have been selected and elected for the purposes of him and he invites you to a meeting with him. But I hear your question. How can I be in a meeting with him when he's up there in heaven and I'm down here on earth?
See, you have to understand here that you are living in two worlds, not one. You are living on earth while being seated in heaven. You ought to receive instruction from heaven based on his word, the leading of the Holy Spirit, because you've exalted Christ, which freed God's up to give you glasses, so that while you're moving down here, you're hearing from up there. And when you hear from up there, you know the movement you ought to have down here. And when you do the movement down here, because you heard it from up there, you know the oval office up there is going to back you up down here because you're only doing down here what you got from up there, which is based on the authority of the throne.
And trust me, that throne can handle any instruction it gives you if you're operating on it. Dr. Tony Evans, wrapping up his eye-opening teaching series, Believing is Seeing.
Now don't forget, today is the final day we are offering this eight-lesson collection as a part of that special faith-building package I mentioned earlier. Believing as seeing explores the vital connection between taking God at His Word and seeing that Word transform our lives. If you make a contribution to help support the alternative broadcast today, we'll send you the complete audio collection as our gift, along with a special bonus, Tony's brand new devotional and prayer guide, Anchored by Faith. Take advantage of this deal before it's gone by visiting TonyEvans.org. You'll find all the details right on the homepage.
Or call 1-800-800-3222, where one of our friendly team members will help with your request. Again, that's tonyevans.org. or by phone at 1-800-800-3222.
In a world that celebrates fame and greatness, even believers can find themselves idolizing things that inevitably fade.
Well, next time, Dr. Evans reminds us there's only one whose majesty remains unchanged and is deserving of our praise. In times we feel it, and in times we don't. Be sure to join us for that.
