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HOW
YOU SEE THINGS
Matthew
6:22-23
- The light of the body is the
eye: if therefore thine
eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be
evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is
that darkness!
The
way you see things that happen in your life has a great effect on your
state of being according to the verses above.
“Single” or good, healthy, or whole vision is seeing God in
everything. If God is your
hope, your salvation, your security, your peace, then God must be the One
Who has charge of everything. Otherwise,
you will fall apart with fear and dread.
The future becomes a monster that threatens you.
But, if your “EYE is SINGLE,”
leaving no room to consider anyone or anything other than God being in
control, you have peace and rest in Him.
WHO
IS FLYING YOUR PLANE?
A
little boy flying in a commercial airplane was sitting in the seat next to a
lady who was shredding her Kleenex, trembling with worry and fear.
“Little boy,” she asked, “How can you be so calm as we fly
through this storm?
Aren’t you terrified?”
“No,” the lad responded as he played with his toy airplane.
“How can you be so calm in a situation like this?”
The boy stopped flying his toy plane and looked her straight in the
eye and said, “I’m not worried.
You see, my dad is the pilot.”
Matthew
5:8 - Blessed are the pure
in heart: for they shall see
God.
According
to W. E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary, two Greek words (hagnos &
katharos) are translated “pure” in our English Bibles.
Hagnos means pure from defilement. (Phil. 4:8; 1 Tim 5:22; James
3:17; 1 John 3:3)
Katharos means “unmixed.”
Wine mixed with water may be “hagnos” – not being
contaminated; but it is not “katharos” when there is the admixture of
any element, even though the water and the wine are both “pure” in
themselves.
(Mat. 5:8; Titus 1:15; 1 Tim. 1:5; 3:9; 2 Tim. 1:3; 2:22; Heb.
10:22; Jas. 1:27; 1 Pet. 1:22; Rev. 15:6; 21:18; 22:1)
So,
if you have a clean glass of water and a clean glass of wine (both are
drinkable) and you pour the water into the pure (unmixed) wine. The
wine, although still drinkable, is not pure having been "mixed"
with the water. That is the meaning of the original Greek word in
the text. "Blessed are the UNMIXED in
heart for they shall SEE GOD."
GOOD
AND EVIL
We
are not to look at life based on our perception of "GOOD
AND EVIL."
In the garden, Adam was told that if he ate of the "Tree
of the KNOWLEDGE
of Good and Evil,"
he would die.
Genesis
2:16-17 - And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat
from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you
will surely die."
But
Satan interpreting God said, "You will not surely die.
For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and
you will be like God,
knowing good and evil."
The
only GOOD
is GOD.
And God is working
IN
ALL THINGS. So the ONLY
good in all things is GOD.
Everything else is good and evil. You are good and evil. Your
pastor is good and evil. You
church is good and evil. The
best thing you ever did was good and evil.
Everything is good and evil, except God.
He is GOOD. He is the
ONLY GOOD and He is in all things.
GOD
is the ONLY GOOD IN ALL THINGS. So, having a pure (unmixed heart, you will look for God
in ALL
THINGS
and you will be practicing what we call SingleVISION.
Read the Scriptures for your self:
Romans
8:28 - And we know that in
all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have
been called according to his purpose.
Mark
10:17-18 - As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on
his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must
I do to inherit eternal life?"
"Why do
you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No
one is good-- except God alone.”
God
is the only interpreter of what is good and what is evil.
God in His Sovereignty will even send evil in order to accomplish
His good.
First, see that He has made one as well as the other.
Ecclesiastes
7:14 - When times are good,
be happy; but when times are bad,
consider: God has
made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover
anything about his future.
Isaiah
45:7 - I form the light
and create darkness,
I bring prosperity
and create disaster;
I, the LORD, do all
these things.
Lamentations
3:37-38 - Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?
Is it not from
the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?
EXAMPLES
FROM SCRIPTURE
Job
is
an example of SingleVISION living:
he lost all his wealth and the lives of his sons and daughters in
one day.
How would you "see" such a horrible experience? Nothing we have experienced could equal this, but note his
response:
Job
1:21 - "Naked
I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The
LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be
praised."
There
is no mention of Satan by Job. We
would do well to talk more about the LORD and what He is doing in our life
than so
much about Satan.
Job said
“the LORD”
is the ONE Who did this evil in my life and the Scripture says He didn’t sin in saying
it. Later when Job was struck with sores all over his body and he was in
extreme pain and his wife told him to curse God, notice his response to her:
Job
2:9-10 - His wife said to him, "Are you still holding on to your
integrity? Curse God and die!"
He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall
we accept good from God, and not trouble?" In all this, Job did not
sin in what he said.
Job
is saying that the good came from God. That isn't hard to accept.
Job is also saying that this horrible evil also came from God. Job
is always seeing all things coming from God. He is secure in the
midst of chaos by this SingleVISION
life style and so much so that he later exclaims, "Though
HE slay me, yet will I hope in Him." (Job
13:15) What an
example Job is to us today.
Joseph
is
an example of SingleVISION living:
his brothers sold him as a slave, which took him all the way to
Egypt as a very young man.
Notice his response to his brothers years later when they thought
he was going to revenge his suffering by their hands:
Genesis
50:19-20 -
"Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God?
You intended
to harm me, but God
intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of
many lives.
Another
time Joseph told them:
Genesis
45:4-8 -
"I am your brother Joseph, the
one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not
be angry with yourselves for selling
me here, because it was to save lives that God
sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in
the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and
reaping. But God sent
me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your
lives by a great deliverance.
"So then, it
was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to
Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.
Is
there any question that his brothers did sin against him?
No. But, we see that
Joseph had SingleVISION as he told them God used their sin to accomplish
His purpose. Joseph
seeing God in all things was practicing SingleVISION.
Paul is
an example. Paul was in jail,
kept from his missionary travels. Paul’s
way of looking at this hardship was a SingleVISION approach:
Philippians
1:12-14 - Now I want you to know, brothers, that what
has happened to me has really served
to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout
the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I
am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers
in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more
courageously and fearlessly.
Paul
was clearly declaring that God was working in this "evil"
circumstance to bring about good for the church. Paul knew the principle
that we call SingleVISION.
Moses gives us an excellent
example of how to endure, persevere and not fear the powers that be.
How? By SingleVISION - "seeing
God (the invisible)"
Hebrews 11:27
- By faith he forsook
Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured,
as seeing him who is invisible.
Jesus
is
the best example.
What is the worst thing that man has ever done?
Wasn’t it when Jesus was crucified?
Look at what the Word says about that:
Isaiah
53:10 - Yet it was
the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer
Acts
2:22-23 -
"Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man
accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did
among you through him, as you yourselves know. This
man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge;
and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to
the cross.
(It
was “wicked”
but it was according to God’s “set
purpose and foreknowledge.”)
Acts
4:27-28 - Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles
and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy
servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They
did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
Don't
Be An Expert of Evil
How
we see things is extremely important.
Our “eye”
affects our whole “body.”
(Mat. 6:22) We are to be mature about what is good,
but infants about what is evil. Some people think that we are to be “experts” about evil
to protect ourselves from it. No!
Read this:
1
Corinthians 14:20 - Brothers, stop thinking like children.
In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.
Romans
16:19 - Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over
you; but I want you to be wise
about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
LOVE
NOT POSSIBLE
SingleVISION
is necessary if we are to fulfill the Scripture command to love.
We CANNOT LOVE without
a PURE
(unmixed) HEART,
according to Paul’s instructions to Timothy:
1
Timothy 1:5 - The goal of this command is LOVE,
which comes from a (1) pure
heart and a (2) good
conscience and (3) a sincere
faith.
1.
A Pure Heart –
A mixed heart
is seeing “good and evil.”
The reason you can see evil is because it is there.
According to Matthew 5:8 coupled with Romans 8:28, an unmixed heart
sees God in all things. This
would include the evil things as well as the good.
With a mixed heart of seeing good and evil you will be filled with
“FEAR.”
Paul said the object of his command is LOVE.
The opposite of love is fear according to John.
1
John 4:18 - There is no
fear in love. But perfect love
drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The
one who fears is not made perfect in love.
If
you have SingleVISION,
then
ALL
THINGS
are PURE.
If you don’t have SingleVISION,
NOTHING
IS PURE.
Note the extreme contrast in the Scriptures:
Titus
1:15-16 - To the
pure (unmixed
– seeing God in all things as in Mat. 5:8), all
things are pure (unmixed), but
to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing
is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.
They claim to know God, but by
their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit
for doing anything good.
In
other words, those “experts” in seeing evil are disqualified and are
“unfit for doing anything good.”
The “identity” they give themselves contradicts their
usefulness. Remember, there
is evil in everything and everyone. So
seeing evil is not that difficult because it is there, but
SEEING
GOD
is a deliberate choice based on the truth of the Scriptures that
God
is IN ALL THINGS
working for our GOOD
(Romans 8:28).
2.
A Good Conscience
–
Since the best thing you have ever done has enough sin in it for you to
deserve hell, how could you have a good conscience no matter what you do?
Your good conscience cannot be based on what YOU do.
It must be based on what HE has done.
After describing what the New Covenant is about, the writer of
Hebrews says:
Hebrews
10:19-24 - Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most
Holy Place by the blood of Jesus (not
by what we have done) by a
new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,
and since we have a great priest (not
our works) over
the house of God, let us draw near to God with a
[note
the same 3 things] (1)
sincere heart in full assurance of (2)
faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty (3)
conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
(Here
is what we must do) Let
us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is
faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love
and good deeds.
So
hold fast to the good conscience
we have because of Christ Jesus.
Since the very best thing we ever did has enough sin in it to send
us to hell, how could we
truly have a good conscience?
It has to be by His righteousness
and not our own. In the
same way we partake of the Lord’s Supper, “discerning
the body of the Lord,”
not our worthiness apart from Him. If
you don’t have a PURE HEART
you won’t have a good conscience.
And your pure heart comes from knowing who you are IN
CHRIST.
Titus
1:15-16 - To the
pure, all things are pure, but to those
who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both
their minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God,
but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit
for doing anything good.
Paul
knew what it was to be guilty and yet have a “clear
conscience.”
In the following Scripture Paul said he was guilty,
but he had a clear conscience.
How did he do that? Read
this:
1
Corinthians 4:3-5 - I care very little if I am judged by you or by any
human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.
My conscience is clear, but that
does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore
judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will
bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will
expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive
his praise from God. (not
condemnation, but "PRAISE."
Why? Because there is NO
CONDEMNATION
TO THOSE WHO ARE IN CHRIST JESUS.)
Romans
8:1 - There is now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
JUDGE
YOURSELF IN CHRIST
There
are so many people who think we should go around judging ourselves all the
time, that is, condemning ourselves through self-examination.
The trouble is that we always come up short.
Take
your motives for example. If you examine your motives,
can you really ever say they are pure. Which of us has ever had totally pure motives?
What good thing have you ever done that was without sin?
Paul said he didn’t even “judge
himself.”
When the Scripture tells us to judge ourselves, it means to judge
ourselves correctly
IN JESUS CHRIST. IN
HIM is
our only safe haven. That’s where there is no condemnation.
If we observe the table of the Lord with an eye on our own
worthiness, we do not rightly discern the Lord’s body and we observe the
table of the Lord in an unworthy manner.
1Corinthians
11:28-29 A man
ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the
cup. For anyone who eats and
drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment
on himself. In Him we are not
condemned.
ALWAYS JUDGE YOURSELF IN CHRIST,
and there will be no condemnation, just “praise
from God.”
3. A Sincere Faith
–
Not only must we have an UNMIXED HEART
and an UNFALLEN CONSCIENCE,
but also, an UNFEIGNED FAITH. Faith does not cause or originate anything.
Faith is a response. The
Word (Rhema) must come into us first and then we respond in faith.
The Word of God is spoken by the Spirit and we then have faith.
Romans
10:17 - So then faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word (Rhema)
of God.
Matthew
4:4 - Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word
(Rhema)
that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
John
5:27 - My sheep hear
my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
It
is BY FAITH that we receive wisdom from God and if we do not have SingleVISION
we will not receive anything from God according to James.
James
1:5-8 - If any of you
lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without
finding fault
(there
is no condemnation to us in Christ)
and it will be given to him. But when he asks,
he must believe and not doubt (The
word “doubt” is from the old English “double thought”, or two
thoughts),
because
he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord;
he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
Don’t
have two thoughts – good and evil – have one thought – GOD
IS ALWAYS GOOD AND HE IS IN EVERYTHING.
CONCLUSION
The
way we see things greatly effects our life, even our health.
The reason people can see evil is because it is there.
Only God is good.
God is working in everything for our
good,
so having an unmixed heart we will see God
in everything whether it be considered good or evil.
The quality of our life and the ability to “hear” God is
greatly influenced by whether or not we SEE GOD IN ALL THINGS,
i.e., SingleVISION.
If any one is double-minded they will not receive anything from
God. SingleVISION
is a serious issue. Practice SingleVISION
and discover for yourself how God is always working in all things for your
good and according to His purpose.
BLESSED
ARE THE PURE IN HEART (unmixed – not mixed with the knowledge of
good and evil)
FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD.
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