What Are You Looking At?
I.
The spirit of faith
doesn’t pay any attention to how it feels or what it perceives with the
senses-2 Corinthians 4:18
A. People with the spirit of
don’t direct their attention to, fix their eyes on, consider, contemplate, or
pay attention to what they perceive with the senses, what they see, or how they
feel – They don’t pay attention to what it looks like or how they feel
1.
Paul
has got to be having some feelings and he’s got to be seeing some stuff that
doesn’t look real good, but he pays no attention to it
a. Look-Direct one’s attention to, fix one’s eyes on, consider, take
heed (pay attention), to mark, contemplate
b. Seen-Of the bodily eye, to perceive by the senses, to feel, to
perceive by use of the eyes
2.
If
it doesn’t look like it’s working, if it doesn’t feel like it’s getting better,
if what they see with their eyes is telling them that the situation isn’t
changing, that they’re never going to win, that they’re never going to be free,
that they’re never going to overcome, here’s what the spirit of faith does with
that – IT DOESN’T PAY ANY
ATTENTION TO IT --- If the spirit of faith doesn’t feel healed, feel
strong, feel courageous, feel joyous, here’s what the spirit of faith does with
that --- IT DOESN’T PAY ANY ATTENTION TO
IT --- If the spirit of faith feels like quitting, giving up, not living by
faith, not walking in love, here’s what the spirit of faith does with that
– IT DOESN’T PAY ANY ATTENTION TO
IT
B. We don’t pay attention to
what we can perceive with the senses because
the things that we can perceive with the senses are fleeting and brief and
changing, but the things we can’t see are never changing; this word isn’t
changing, God isn’t changing, who I am in him and what I have in him isn’t
changing and it doesn’t matter what my senses have to say about that (EX: I’m rich and I’ll always be rich and
I’m not paying attention to something temporal trying to tell me I’m not)
1.
Things
that you can see with your physical eye and perceive with your senses are
temporal
a. Temporal-For a season, Enduring only for a while, Temporary,
Short-term, fleeting, passing, brief, being changed soon
b. Circumstances that oppose
the Word are subject to change; If you can see it and it’s not in line with
God’s word, it’s subject to change
2.
God’s
word is eternal (Eternal-That which
always has been and always will be)
a. I have been and always
will be healed, free, rich, victorious, full of joy and peace, strong, wise and
what I see or how I feel will never change that
C. People with the spirit of
faith direct their attention to, fix their eyes on, consider and pay attention
to what they can’t feel or see
1.
When what I see and feel
doesn’t line up with the Word I turn my attention to what I can’t see and feel
a. You can’t see it with
your physical eye or feel with your senses, but you’ve turned your attention to
it and fixed your eyes on it
2.
What he sees and feels is
death and pressure and affliction but he ain’t
looking at that; he’s looking at we having the same spirit of faith according
as it is written we also believe and therefore speak knowing that he that
raised Jesus will raise us up
a. 14-He can’t see this, but
he’s looking at, he’s fixed his eyes on it, turned his mind on it
D. *There are two big
questions you have to answer when it comes to the spirit of faith: Who are you looking to? What are you looking at?
1.
Are
you looking at and thinking about the evil report, how things haven’t been
changing, how the situation has not gotten better, how it doesn’t look like
it’s working, how you don’t feel like continuing stand, how things are so bad
and so hard?
2.
Prov4:20-Can
you direct your attention where you choose? Your mind is your mind you can
think on what you choose to think on; Your eyes are your eyes and you can look
at what you choose to look at; Your ears are your ears and you can listen to
what you choose to listen to
a. Attend to my words-Isaiah
26:3-You can think on and pay attention to what you choose to
b. Incline your ear unto my
sayings-You can listen to what you choose to
c. Let that not depart from
your eyes-Hebrews 12:2-You can look where you choose to look
d. You want to know what you’re truly paying attention to? What
have you been thinking about? What have you been taking about? What have you
been listening to? What have you been looking at? Has it been the Word?
3.
Many
are paying more attention to what they see and how they feel (the seen) than
they are the unseen (The Word)
a. Most are talking about how they feel and what they see and
it’s detrimental to their faith
b. You ignore stuff all the time and don’t pay attention to it
all; Why don’t you do that with what you see and how
you feel?
II.
We walk by faith and not
by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7)
A. We’re not supposed to
regulate and conduct our life based on what he see or how we feel or what we
perceive with the senses
1.
Walk-To regulate one’s life,
to conduct one’s life – Sight-Perceive
with the eyes, Perceive by any of the senses
2.
We
are not to be moved by what we perceive with the senses
B. What we see with our
eyes, what we feel, what we perceive with the senses doesn’t determine the
conduct of our lives; it doesn’t move us
1.
What
we believe and what we see won’t always line up; when that happens we conduct
our lives based on what we believe and ignore what we see
2.
If
what I see doesn’t line up with what they Word says it doesn’t move me
C. Live and conduct your
life based on what you believe from the Word and not based on what you see or
how you feel
1.
EX:
An orchestra doesn’t move until the conductor move; in the same way only the
Word moves us and nothing else
III.
You can’t pay attention
to what you see and how you feel and walk by faith because if you pay attention
to what you see and how you feel you’re going to be moved by it and walk by
sight
A. If you direct your
attention to, fix your eyes on, consider and pay attention to things which are
seen (what you perceive with the senses, to how you feel, to what you see with
your eyes) then you are going to be moved by what you see
1.
Romans
8:5-If you mind what you see and you feel, then you’re going be moved by what
you see and how you feel
2.
Whatever you direct your
attention to, fix your eyes on, consider and pay attention to is what’s going
to move you
a. If you look at the seen and pay attention to the seen you
will be moved by the seen
b. If I look at it, it will move me, so I’m not looking at it
(Numbers 13-Joshua and Caleb saw what they saw, but they didn’t look at it)
B. Whatever you neglect and
don’t pay attention to you’re going to harden yourself to
1.
You
can harden yourself to the voice of God if when he speaks you pay no attention
to what He says; If God speaks and you ignore him and this keeps happening
eventually you’ll become hardened to His voice and He’ll still be speaking, but
you won’t hear Him b/c you’re hardened; You won’t be sensitive to what He’s
saying (what he says won’t move u)
2.
When
you’re hardened to His voice it means His speaking doesn’t move you; You’re not
sensitive to what He’s saying or moved by it
C. What you look at it, pay
attention to and yield to, you’re going to be most sensitive to
1.
Your
feelings and what you perceive with your senses can become the biggest thing in
your life; they carry more weight than the word
a. EX: Somebody will speak
the Word to you and it will mean nothing to you, while your feelings govern
you)
2.
You
can become desensitized to the Word and become ultra-sensitive your senses
D. Believer have become
overdeveloped in their sensitivity to their feelings and their senses and what
they see; That means we have been too moved by what we see and how we feel and
if we are moved by those things we are walking by sight and not walking by
faith
1.
If
you ignore the Word and pay attention to what you see and how you feel you are
developing yourself in the walk of sight
2.
The
walk of sight is a defeated one; you can’t walk by sight and when; you can’t be
moved by what you see and how you feel and walk in victory; IT CAN’T HAPPEN-2
Corinthians 5:7, 1 John 5:4
E. The way to not be moved
by what you see and feel is to pay no attention to it
1.
Whatever
you pay attention to is going to move you, whatever you don’t pay attention to
you’ll be hardened to and it won’t move you
2.
You
can harden yourself to how you feel and what you see and become a rock in that
you are not moved by those things; You can become calloused to how our feel and
what you see to the place that it will not effect you
F. People with the spirit of
faith are hardened to their senses and feelings (That simply means those things
don’t move them)
1.
People with the spirit of
faith have a disregard and disesteem for what they see and how they feel
2.
Satan
works on the level of your senses and feelings and when he starts working on
those areas you’re supposed to not be moved
3.
You
can become a rock, immoveable, unchangeable if you’ll look at the right thing
(the unseen)
a. Isaiah 50:7, 7:4-Jesus
set his face like flint (rock) and God told us don’t be fainthearted (soft)
b. 1 Corinthians 15:58-Therefore,
my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord
c. 1 Peter 5:9-Whom resist
steadfast in the faith (Whatever the
enemy throws your way resist without moving)
d. Hebrews 10:23-Let us hold
fast to the confession of our faith without wavering (firm, immovable)
4.
Isaiah
41:10 (AMP)-Hardened to difficulties will come by not paying attention to them
G. Romans 4:16-21
1.
Considered-To consider attentively,
to fix the eyes or mind upon
a. He sees both their bodies
everyday, but he ain’t looking at them; if he looks
at it, he’ll be moved by it
b. Considering what you see
and how you feel weakens your faith; Not looking at will strengthen your faith
2.
He
didn’t stagger at the promise (waver), because he wouldn’t look at what he saw
a. He was strong in faith
because he looked at what he couldn’t see (18-According to that which was
spoken)