Equip: Gathering #2: God Gives Sight
Michelle Anthony
Michelle talked about how we have to gain God’s perspective and the difference between sight and perspective. Below are my notes from her session followed by my thoughts.
Why do we deal with symptoms rather than deal with the source.
It’s very easy for me to think that the story that we are apart of we miss it. We lose site even though we may be in every scene He is the author of our story.
We have to be awakened to see what God has put in front of us
Once we are awakened its an issue of the heart.If God gives us sight there is some non-negotiables
1. He is God he sees what I don’t. He sees what I will never see.
2. I will never be able see that my momentary affliction is producing a weight of Glory –
“If you tell me Christian commitment is a kind of thing that has happened to you once and for all like some kind of spiritual plastic surgery, I say go to, go to, you’re either pulling the wool over your own eyes or trying to pull it over mine. Every morning you should wake up in your bed and ask yourself: “Can I believe it all again today?” No, better still, don’t ask it till after you’ve read The New York Times, till after you’ve studied that daily record of the world’s brokenness and corruption, which should always stand side by side with your Bible. Then ask yourself if you can believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ again for that particular day. If your answer’s always Yes, then you probably don’t know what believing means. At least five times out of ten the answer should be No because the No is as important as the Yes, maybe more so. The No is what proves you’re human in case you should ever doubt it. And then if some morning the answer happens to be really Yes, it should be a Yes that’s choked with confession and tears and. . . great laughter.” Fredrick Bukerner
– In order to trust and have hope you need to have perspective. We need to see things in the way God see them.
John 9:1-25
Difference between sight and perspective.
Jesus didn’t see the sabbath the way we see it. –
Mud – our perspective = weird – Perspective point of view – act of obedience to follow Christ. – Faith and action brings sight.
It’s very easy to forget that God is pursuing us. (The insect and the buffalo – Book)
All we can see is our small world – We make judgments based on our small limited perspective.
Perspective is much more difficult to gain – Sight is what you see Perspective takes time.
Tea time – is about perspective. We don’t gain perspective on the go. You have to stop and breathe.
Where do you needs God’s perspective and where do you need God to be creator.
My Thoughts
Perspective requires empathy – Perspective is a work God has to do. Sight is our default mode. We look on the outside God looks at the heart. For us to see the way God sees we have to allow him to do what he wants to do.
What we have to continually remind ourselves is that he sees our story. Our whole story from beginning to end. We get fixated on a particular passage. When we can’t see past our situation and circumstance it keeps us from seeing things the way Christ sees them.
When Jesus healed the blind man on the Sabbath he was trying to show us he is the Lord of the Sabbath. He is greater than the Sabbath it was created for Him it’s about him.
One of the things that has been resonating in my spirit lately is the idea that we serve a God who in Genesis created a garden from nothing and then in Revelation we see a God in a city who makes all things new. I think what Michelle Anthony was speaking to was those two things.
1. Creator – We serve a God who makes new things.
2. Perspective – We serve a God who make all things new.
Lastly such a great quote by Bukener above – We must preach the gospel to ourselves everyday. Because we have a propensity to forget. If we don’t don’t see ourselves as we are we will never see Jesus as He truly is.