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There is a great revelation for us when we are able to see spiritually. We can finally see ourselves the way God sees us. How do we see ourselves the way God sees us? This kind of vision involves a change in our mindset that only the spirit of God can help us achieve. Many times, we tend to see ourselves from the mirrors that the world hands to us rather than the one the Lord has given us through the Spirit. The Word of God teaches in James 1:23-24 that “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” In essence the Word of God plays a big role in helping us to see ourselves as God sees us. When we read the Word, we do not read it just for the sake of it, but we must read to understand and then use the wisdom of God to apply it. The Spirit of God helps with understanding and application of the Word of God.
Often, we tend to see ourselves based on the kind of job we do, our appearance, our financial successes and even the type of church we attend and of course what other folks say about us. What happens then is when bad things are said about us, we see ourselves as bad, when our jobs or finances fail, we see ourselves as failures. But we are not our jobs, and we are not whatever anyone may say about us. We only know this fact when we see ourselves the way God sees us. Some people have been called poor, some folks have been labeled barren, and many have been labeled useless, hopeless, and all kind of unedifying names. This is not how God sees us. When we see ourselves the way the world wants us to see ourselves, feelings of inferiority, insecurity, hopelessness, and all other kinds of unhelpful feelings set in. There are also people who see themselves in ways that result in pride, arrogance, feelings of superiority and other kinds of harmful feelings.
Each one of us are part of God’s creation and when we read the Word of God in Psalms 139:14 which says, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” That is what the Word of God says about me and about you. We lose sight of this when we are not familiar with the Word of God. We must study the Word often so it can help us to see ourselves through the lens of the scripture and not through the distorted mirrors that the world offers us. Our identity is defined by our faith in Christ Jesus and not by anything else. We must therefore reject any other mirror that only emphasizes our imperfections or exaggerates our past mistakes. We must reject every mirror that causes us to feel we are less or more than we are. We must reject every mirror that overwhelms us with shame, fear, and feelings of inadequacy
How does God see us? Ephesians 1:3-7 gives us a glimpse, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” We are a blessed people, and God has given us every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. We are a Holy people, and we are blameless in God’s sight. Every one of our sins has been forgiven through Christ Jesus. This is how God sees us, me must begin to see ourselves like that. We walk in power, we walk in miracles, temporary afflictions are only meant to strengthen us, and we are never failures. We must see ourselves like that. May God continue to sharpen our vision and cause us to see ourselves in the right light. Amen.
September 5, 2021– Pastor Simbo Odunaiya
