The Perspective of the Believer

For a believer perspective and vision can mean the difference between obedience and sacrifice. In fact, perspective is everything for a believer. Hosea 4:6 represents The Lord's response towards His people whose perspective was polluted. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. Why did His people lack knowledge? It was not because there was no truth being spoken, the prophets of those days shared what God had them to say, so there was a word of The Lord being given. The issue was that when the word of The Lord was shared, the people rejected it because it was a challenge against their way of living, who they trusted in, their worship and such. In short, their perspective was skewed. So what causes our perspective to be wrong? Our senses. As human beings, we have five senses which gather information for us, our eyes grant us sight to see, our ears give us understanding through what we hear, our nose provides us scents that help define what we can neither see nor hear, our skin and nerve endings gives us the ability to touch and feel, while our tongue and mouth provides us with the opportunity to taste. Each one of these senses provides information that influences our heart and yet, they still limit our perspective and even skew our vision as it pertains to the things of God. As believers, each one of our senses have a deeper role in our walk with God and influence on our heart. Our eyes grant us the ability to see in the spirit, (Ephesians 1:18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,). Our ears are directly connected to our heart and allow us to hear the Spirit of the Lord (Revelation chapters 2 and 3 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches). Our nose, gives us discernment as we breath in the spirit of God (Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.). Our skin and nerves are designed to anoint with a level of sensitivity, (Mark 16:18 …they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”). Our tongue allows us to taste the pleasant bread of the word of God, (Psalm 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!; While our mouth releases authority and declarations in the atmoshpere through the word of God. (Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.; Romans 10:9,10 ...if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.). For believers, these are not merely niceties, they are designed construct spiritual insight, understanding and instructions that counteracts our physically senses, it is how we are called to live every day and every moment of every day. Isaiah 11:3 declares, His delight is in the fear of the Lord, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears. When we put on Christ this is a call for every believer, yet, every time we make a conscious decision that is contrary to our spiritual senses which are revealing the Holy Spirit's leading and guidance, we are rejecting knowledge and refusing to believe and operate in it as truth. This will ultimately result in a lack of knowledge and rejection from God. If we do not repent, change our mind, and our walk in faith, we can be destroyed. As believers we should always keep in mind that God knows our areas of weakness and through His grace and mercy He grants us opportunities to overcome them. Consider this, every time we find ourselves at a point of decision based on the circumstances that are around us, there are two perspectives that we have been granted, the perspective of our physical reality and the perspective of our spiritual reality, which ever one is a greater influence to us is where our belief, faith, reliance and ultimately our source resides. Our influence in the physical can be defined by one word, mammon, it simply means treasure and it is mammon which ultimately competes with God in our life for our attention and trust. Jesus’ words to us are very clear in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. If this defines where you are in your walk with God, what is the remedy? 1. Repent. Repent for not placing your trust and reliance in Him. 2. Pray. a. Pray that God would reveal the areas where you struggle and why. There is a reason why your reliance in our earthly things and it could very well be a stronghold due to how one was raised and what they experienced. Then renounce that area over your life, severe all ties to it, every alliance and allegiance. Tear up every contract and/or pact made as God reveals it to you and replace it with an agreement with God to go His way. b. Pray for the boldness to operate in the will of God and His word as He reveals it to you. 3. Read, study and feed. Do not just commit to reading God's word, study it to gain a greater insight and understanding. There are so many tools and resources online today that can assist you, but there must be a pursuit on your part to go after and get what God has for you.). When you gather your resources to read and study, feed on them confinually, increase your appetite, it is nourishment for your spiritual life in God. 4. Worship. Worship is more than simply listening to music, while that helps to set an atmosphere of worship there is more. Worship is a pursuit of God. I often say, that while praise brings God to us, worship brings us to God. It is one things for God to inhabit the praises of His people and something entirely different for God to bring us to heaven as we worship Him. John 4:23-24 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The Father is looking for you! 5. Write. Write the vision down for what God has you. Every believer has a plan and vision associated with their life, no one is exempt. Writing it down is essential, because it helps to track our progress, and serves as a strategic roadmap for where God is taking us. It keeps us locked in tandem with God, Proverbs 29:18 says, Where there is no revelation (vision), the people cast off restraint. Vision provides purpose, clarity and stirs up a desire in us to pursue. When we read it, we will run! Overtime God will add greater clarity and detail to the vision, so by faith, simply write what He gives you. 6. Become part of a local church. This is vitally important. a. The church is not simply a gathering place, it is where order, instruction and blessings are released. Whenever God wants to do anything, He first sets order. In Luke chapter 9:13-17, we the blessing of multiplication where there is order. And they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men. Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.” And they did so, and made them all sit down. Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them. In Genesis when God first forms the earth, he separates and sets boundaries and order. God is the God of order, they are synonymous. b. The church is where God establishes hierarchy and structure. Even while we are pursuing God, we must come under leadership. Even every wise pastor and leader has leadership and council in their life. The local church is where a shepherd/pastor is designated to watch over your soul and give and account to God as such. Hebrews 13:17 says, Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. c. The local church is where you submit your gifts and support. We are never to come to a local church to simply see what we can get, we are to come to see what you can give. Psalm 116:12, What shall I render to the Lord For all His benefits toward me?– Matthew 5:23-24, Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. d. The church signifies the Body of Christ, it is the way God moves in the earth. We are His vessels, His workmanship. The church places God on display to a lost and dying world by how it functions and operates and yet the local church is not simply a unit of the body of Christ, it is a place where unity is established and The Lord commands a blessing, Psalm 133. e. Fellowship, Hebrews 10:25, in the local church is more than simply coming together under one location, it is a burgeoning of relationships. Fellowship brings encouragement and stirs our faith. Fellowship can also enable productivity in the life of the church and in the lives of those individuals and their respective assignments both within and outside the church. Genesis 2:18 says, it is not good that man should be alone; man by himself could not fulfill the assignment within himself, he required a help meet, "suitable" to come together and meet the assignment. Finally, our perspective is paramount to what God has for us, we cannot do without it! Father, may this word strengthen the resolve of every reader who sets their eyes and attention on it as they pursue You, in Jesus' name, Amen! Be encouraged, be blessed!