Prayer Through Seeing Jesus

Throughout the Bible, God instructed His people to see the outcome before the promise was to be fulfilled. He did so with Abraham by showing him the stars and asking him to count them in order that he might SEE how numerous his seed was going to be. “And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.” (Gen 15:5). 

If we go to Hebrews 11, most of these men in the faith “hall of fame”, had to first see the end result in order to endure the wait. Moses “esteemed the reproach of Christ as greater riches”…(Heb 11:26).–The way they could endure was through seeing the end result. Even Jesus was able to endure the cross because He saw the end result of all mankind being given redemption, and the inheritance of righteousness which allowed the re-uniting with the Father.

When we are coming to God in prayer, we must remember not to spill out doubts, fears and worries. That’s not the formula that Jesus gave us in Matthew 11:24 when He said, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them”. .. It is when you pray that you believe and visualize the desired outcome, and you never move from that visualization. You focus on it, and you stay fixed on it.

Everyday Linda and I go on a “praise walk”. And we usually start by saying “we are so blessed…” If you start enumerating all that the redemption has provided for us, you’ll go on for a long time, just bathing in God’s awesome love. The devil’s greatest trick is to get our eyes off the promises and to look at the circumstances and the impossibilities.

The very best way for us to keep our eyes on the outcome is to keep our eyes on the initiator of our victory, Jesus, who paid the ultimate price for us to attain all that is promised. Jesus said, “No one  comes to the Father except through Me.” (Jn 14:6). No one can receive the promises of the Father except through the sacrifice that He paid for all of us. He is the door to all that is promised. He is the one that makes provision for us to experience everything that God has prepared for us. All of God’s promises are fulfilled through Jesus, because the only way to the Father is through Christ. “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1Tim 2:5).

Suppose you are window shopping… –The only way you can even dream of acquiring anything you desire is by knowing you have a checkbook to pay for it. It’s the same in prayer. You look at the promise through the payment that was made. Jesus paid for all of God’s promises to be fulfilled in you and through you and for you. Everything is made available to us in the redemption. He said that you can use His name, His credit card. Show God that you have in your possession a receipt of the payment made in full. “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” Jn 16:24). 

Behold the Son. You can only find your new identity through beholding the Son’s victory. The secret of faith is to get your eyes off your troubles, your sorrow, your lack, and onto the victory provided through Christ. You have been turned into “more than a conqueror”. There is no need to rehearse your problems, your anguish and your woes. None of those have a place in any prayer. The power of answered prayer is in seeing Jesus and how every promise is fulfilled through Him.

When God asked Joshua to walk around Jericho, He told him to see the city delivered into his hands. He talked to Joshua in the past tense as if it were already done. Look beyond and see the victory Jesus has won. See yourself walking with Jesus, healthy; not with a cane, not with cancer, but tall and straight and healthy, smiling and victorious. Jesus hooks you up to the power of God, the power of health, of light, of truth, and of life.

For as long as Peter saw Jesus, he could walk on water. The secret is always to look through and beyond the impossibilities. You have to see in order to receive. If you can’t see the outcome, you can’t receive it. “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us.” (1Jn 5:14). We have confidence through seeing. Whatever I pray for, I get, because I see Jesus’ redemptive power.

When Linda and I were in Africa, we received an award at the hand of the Minister of Finance. The event was televised, and this opened just about every door for us. All we had to do was mention his name and people associated us with him, and doors would open immediately to help further or work in the city. Well, in the spirit world, we happen to know the highest authority and the most important name. The name above every name. Faith is more than what you see, it’s WHO you see.

We must not see ourselves as mere religious people. “I’m a baptist, or I’m a deacon or I’m a prophet.” Rather let people know that you are filled with Jesus and that makes you an actual world changer. See Jesus alive in you and never move from that vision. Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ: (I am a dead man) nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Gal 2:20). The life you see through my eyes is actually Christ reaching out to you.

Reject all contradictions to the promises of God. God told Joshua,“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein… ” (Jos 1:8). God’s Words are the seeds of your faith. Get those seeds into your heart, because seeds always produce after their kind. And the seed of God will turn you into a son, an actual Christ.

Your thoughts are ideas, and your words are the actual formulation of those ideas. Therefore, you must make sure that your thoughts are aligned with God’s purpose for your life. When Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you”, He was saying that all the creativity of God is made available for you and through you.

Let’s not be limited or confined by education, religion or culture. They all tell you how you must be and how you must behave. They tell you how important you can be or not be; how guilty you should feel or how sickness-conscious you ought to be. –How poor; what you can and cannot afford, what car you can drive, what salary you can have.

Rather, listen to God and tune in to His opinion of you, and how it was all made possible through Jesus. Never go without your checkbook, “the name above all names” that paid and still pays for everything. That name tells you how holy you can be, how prosperous you can be, how generous, how happy and joyful, how much peace you can have, and how much freedom you can have.

That’s what faith is really all about. We see the Victor. We have a firm conviction, unshakable confidence, and indisputable expectation that all God has said, in His Word, is established forever through Jesus, and will come to pass.

We must see Jesus at work in us. We must refuse to see arthritis or cancer or diabetes or asthma. Jesus is perfection, He is life, He is light and He is health. All of the cells in our body will align themselves to His will and to His purpose for us, as we see Jesus.

We should never feel defeated. It says, “Give no place to the devil.”  (Eph 4:27). We are made to win. Let’s keep our eyes on the One WINNER who paid for our victory. He’s triumphed over principalities… It is done, and in the past, therefore it is real and it is here.

Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed (seen through the eyes of faith) (Jn 20:29). 

But without faith (seeing Jesus) it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. (Heb 11:6) 

But let him ask in faith (seeing Jesus’ victory) nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. (James 1:6) 

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith (seeing the victory) giving glory to God. (Ro 4:20) 

And he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. (They did not see Him as the Christ.) (Mat. 13:58).