Heavenly Perspective - How We See

This series is critically important to the life of a believer - because if you have become one of God’s children you are no longer who and what you used to be.

“If you don’t know who you are, you will live like someone else.” - Unknown

How God Sees:

1 Samuel 16:7 NKJV

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

God sees us perfectly-accurately because He is the One who made us & designed us for a specific purpose & destiny.

One thing is clear - we don’t see ourself the way that God sees us!

Insert yourself into this verse of scripture:

Your Name, Do not look at your appearance or qualifications because God has refused those. God is looking at your the core of who you are!

When we see ourself in a way that God doesn’t see us, our way of seeing is inaccurate.

You Are What You See:

Numbers 13:30–33 NKJV

30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” 32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. 33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

How did Caleb (& Joshua) know that they could take the land?

Numbers 13:1–2 NKJV

1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.”

God said He was giving this land to the Israelites.

God knew what lived there, but said that His people were able anyway.

We can hear it, but we must choose to believe it.

Romans 4:3 NKJV

3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

Many times, the longest distance is from your head to your heart.

Story:

Real Beauty Sketches explores the gap between how others perceive us and how we perceive ourselves. Each woman is the subject of two portraits drawn by FBI-trained forensic artist Gil Zamora: one based on her own description, and the other using a stranger’s observations. The results are surprising…

Until we see how God sees, we usually see ourself through the filter of our experiences and the words that have been spoken over us.

Some of those words are words we spoke to ourself.

Ephesians 4:29 NKJV

29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

Corrupt: (G4550 & G4595) Def. Rotten, worthless, putrefying

Hebrews 12:24 NKJV

24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

Jesus’ blood, shed on our behalf, washes away our all our sins & gives us His righteousness when we accept it.

Jesus’ righteousness says much better things about us than our own righteousness.

It’s worth a mention that:

Some of us see ourselves as better than we really are.

Romans 12:3 AMP

3 For by the grace (unmerited favor of God) given to me I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought [not to have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance], but to rate his ability with sober judgment, each according to the degree of faith apportioned by God to him.

Whether too low or too high, if our view doesn’t match God’s view it’s inaccurate.

Time for a Change:

Stop being who you have been - be who God created you to be.

Ephesians 4:22–24 NKJV

22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

Putting off old ways is done on purpose - like changing your clothes, it doesn’t happen accidentally.

Change involves loss & struggle & sometimes inconsistency as we do things a new way, and fight our way out of old habits and thoughts.

Can you trust God to tell you who you are?

Can you trust God’s process and timing of taking you from where you are to where He destined you to be?

Just One Thing:

Let’s begin to challenge what we think with what God says & let God win Every. Single. Time.

Discussion Questions:

What did you like / dislike about where you grew up?

Would you say that your general view of yourself is higher than, lower than, or in-line with how God views you? If you don’t know how God views you yet, look into the Bible, and/or ask some of your group for some insights.

Please read 1 Samuel 16:7 and share from the best of your understanding about your ability to not look at the outward appearance of yourself & others, but to see what God sees.

Answers these two questions posed in the sermon as authentically as possible with your group:

• Can you trust God to tell you who you are?

• Can you trust God’s process and timing of taking you from where you are to where He destined you to be?