2020 Vision: Seeing Spiritually

Welcome to the year 2020!

I predict that there will be some really good times this year.

I predict that there will be some really hard times this year.

I also predict that we will see God’s goodness and faithfulness through both the good times and through the hard times.

If we could only see beyond the natural and beyond our circumstance, we would see that God is aligning things both in heaven and on earth to accomplish His purpose.

Last summer Karie had cataract surgery on both eyes. Her right eye was especially bad having contracted tracoma during her time overseas. Tracoma is rare in the US, but is the world’s leading cause of blindness. The disease was diagnosed and treated but it permanently damaged the lens, especially in her right eye. She was told that nothing could be done for her vision and that it would probably only get worse.

However, despite her physical condition, Karie occasionally experienced a manifestation of clear vision. This had been happening before the illness, almost since the time she became a believer. She came to recognize it as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit at times when God was speaking to her or trying to get her attention.

She was delighted to find that cataract surgery could give her nearly perfect vision (about 20/25). But she had one concern: how would she know when God was speaking to her? What would be her sign?

It was about that time she read a book by a man named Blake Healy who has a gift for seeing in the spirit. He literally sees angels and demons and things that God is doing as if it were with his natural eye. Karie thought that if her eyes were better maybe God would enable her to see beyond the natural and that would be her gift.

Well, to this day that has not occured, though she does still experience a certain sharpness to her vision at times when God is speaking. Her overall eyesight is much improved by the surgery, only needing glasses for reading and some distance. She is however constantly looking to see in the spirit, not so much with the natural eye, but to be aware of what God is doing beyond just what she can see.

2020 Vision: Seeing Spiritually

Probably half the churches in America are preaching about 2020 vision today. The analogy is so perfect you can’t miss it!

20/20 is the standard of perfect vision. It means you can read the 20 ft line on a Snellen Scale Chart from twenty feet away.

But, as I think of the year 2020, I want to see what God is doing.

It’s going to be a year of transition, for the church and for our family. But I really want to know, What is God saying that will help us to set the right course?

It is an election year, so expect to be bombarded by contentious advertising and politically motivated news stories. But what is God doing behind the scenes?

We have been hearing prophecies of a coming revival, but I have not seen anything yet that resembles what has been foretold, as least not in America. Could this be the year that we see the great end-time harvest come to our country?

Along with the vision of “Seeing Spiritually” in 2020, I would like to suggest some specific goals:

In 2020 our goal is to enter into our spiritual inheritance, experience spiritual growth and produce a spiritual harvest.

My thoughts go to Numbers 13 and to the Israelites spying out the promised land.

Numbers 13:1–3 ESV

1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.” 3 So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel.

We are “spying out” 2020 as we are about to enter into it.

Whether we actually enter in and accomplish what God has for us or merely wander around while the year passes depends on how we chose to see it.

As we move through this chapter, think about what it means to see spiritually.

Let’s talk about our goals as we observe what happened with the Israelites.

In 2020, let’s enter into our spiritual inheritance.

Numbers 13:17–20 ESV

17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up into the Negeb and go up into the hill country, 18 and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, 19 and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, 20 and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

When you are looking at something to acquire it, which do you see first the problems or the possibilities?

Chances are, you will see both, but according to your personality (if you are an optimist or a pessimist) you will chose one side to focus on.

If you are an optimist, you will see the flaws, but you will immediately come up with solutions. “I can fix that!”

If you are a pessimist, you may see possibilities but they will be soon outweighed by the number of “worst case scenario” issues that you can think of.

What if everything you are receiving is given to you? Will you choose to possess it, or will it only be a burden to you?

For the believer, life is a gift from God and our situation in life is largely to be seen as an assignment for God.

Do you like your life or do you wish you had a different one? (Refer to EH teaching on Spiritual Rebellion.)

What could you do if you chose to focus on the possibilities and find solutions for the problems?

You have an inheritance in Christ that is yours if you take hold of it.

Romans 8:15–17 ESV

15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

The suffering that Paul speaks of here is to willingly embrace the difficulty of living as broken people in a broken world.

We are not denying that there are some problems in life that need to be fixed.

We are going to begin the year by looking at developing some spiritual disciplines which will help us to overcome this problem.

After that we are going to look at the book of Ruth and see how God redeems - turns bad things into good things.

Later in the year, we are going to study through Paul’s letter to the Romans which will help us to get a perspective on who we are in Christ and what is our inheritance.

In 2020, let’s experience spiritual growth both personally and corporately.

Numbers 13:23–29 ESV

23 And they came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them; they also brought some pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster that the people of Israel cut down from there. 25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”

When you go to a place you have never been, you come back changed.

In 2013 I travelled with my seminary cohort to Vietnam and Cambodia. I had traveled a lot before, so I didn’t expect this trip to really change me, but it did.

Most of the trips I had been on I was only ever around Christians and spent most of my time in churches. On this trip we visited a lot of temples and most of the people we interacted with were not Christian.

We visited the war museum in Saigon, the Toul Slang Prison and the Killing Fields. We were told not only to observe what was around us but to look for the “light places” and the “dark places”.

In one village there was a great idol and it was festival time. Some of my colleagues who did not previously believe in spiritual warfare got a first-hand experience of demonic interference. Some were tormented with bad dreams, one woman suffered a sudden panic attack. I experienced some strange malfunctions of my computer that stopped as soon as we left there.

As for light places, I remember sitting in the courtyard of Toul Slang Prison and having a powerful encounter of God’s presence in what was once a place of death and torture. I remember thinking, “Really God? Of all the places you show up, why here?”

God showed me on that trip just how limiting my perceptions can be. God is working in people and in places that I might have otherwise written off. I needed to have eyes to see it.

The spies traveled for forty days covering the southern desert all the way to the mountains of what is now Lebanon.

They found walled cities which meant advanced civilization with organized defense.

They found a cluster of grapes so big they had to carry it on a pole between two men.

They found giants which were the subject of legends.

All of these things must have seemed very intimidating, except to those who were seeing it all with spiritual eyes.

Caleb and Joshua saw everything that the others saw. Except that they saw God in everything.

2020 is new territory for all of us. We don’t know what the next year holds, but we will all be changed by it. Will it be for the better?

Change in inevitable, but spiritual growth is intentional.

If I had not been intentional about seeking God, I would have never found Him in the place that I did.

I was looking for the light places. Every place I went I was asking, “God, where are you in this place?”

Psalm 24:1 ESV

1 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,

There is no place on earth that God is not there.

And there is no person or circumstance that God is not already at work in.

Not everything turns out for the better, only where people are intentional about knowing and following God.

Romans 8:28 AMP

28 We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.

Spiritual growth happens when we choose to see God in every situation.

We are going to practice seeing spiritually in 2020.

We are going to ask “God, where are you?” in every situation.

We are going to partner with God by exploring spiritual transformation and how that happens.

We are going to ask the hard questions.

In fact, I have reserved some time during the summer months to address topics by request. So begin thinking about what hard questions or difficult passages you would like to see addressed. We will have a box for those in plenty of time for me to start praying and researching.

In 2020, let’s produce a spiritual harvest of souls for the Kingdom.

Numbers 13:30–33 ESV

30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 Then 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 are.” 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

Spiritual growth produces a spiritual harvest.

Caleb and Joshua did eventually possess the promised land.

*Siriach is a book from the intertestamental period. It is included in the Apocrypha, not considered authoritative as scripture but useful as a historical reference.

Sirach 46:9–10 NRSV

9 The Lord gave Caleb strength, which remained with him in his old age, so that he went up to the hill country, and his children obtained it for an inheritance, 10 so that all the Israelites might see how good it is to follow the Lord.

However, the others talked themselves out of entering the promised land.

Suddenly, not only were there giants, but everyone was giant compared to them.

They were not only sons of Anak - now they were also called Nephalim (demi-gods which were supposed to have been wiped out in the flood)

The land which God had promised to them, and God only gives good gifts, was said to be evil, vicious and unsuitable.

The purpose of seeing the land was to show them what God was giving to them, it was not to determine whether or not they would enter the land.

They were not seeing spiritually, they were thinking in the natural, “how are WE going to do this?”

God has only good things in store for His people.

James 1:17 ESV

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

That doesn’t mean that only good things can happen to us, it means that only the good things come from God.

The bad things that happen are either a result of our poor choices, the choices of others or simply part of life in a fallen world.

Can we trust God to give us everything that we need to navigate this new year?

Speaking of good gifts, in a few months we are going to study the scripture to see what spiritual gifts God has given us and how we can use them to further His Kingdom.

We are also going to celebrate the fall feasts of Israel and see how they are a prophetic picture of what God is doing in these last days.

God wants to give you what you can see spiritually!

The difference between Joshua and Caleb and the rest of the spies is not what they saw, but how they saw it.

The ten spies kept asking themselves, “how are we going to to take all of this?”

Joshua and Caleb saw everything as having already been given by God.

Joshua 1:3 ESV

3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses.

As we enter into this new year let’s be mindful of who we are in Christ and of the inheritance that is ours in Him.

We are going to work at obtaining what has already been given and growing into the people that God made us to be.

As a result, we will see the increase, in ourselves, in our areas of influence and in the church and it’s impact in the world.