Could we just turn our Bible to Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, I will read verse 18. “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” In the same 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18 again, there it reads, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Brethren this morning, I want to take my text from chapter 4:18 where it says, “while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” and so I will want to title it, SEEING AS GOD SEES. The things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal. You know, many times, we by virtue of our being born into this earth, putting on the flesh, we have grown to seeing things as they are naturally, so when we look at someone, we see the features. We look at probably the way the person is dressed, whether he is dressed good, clean or he is in rags and based on the things we see, we make conclusions because there is a limitation to our seeing.

We are told in the Bible that when God sent Samuel to the house of Jesse to pick up one of the sons of Jesse and anoint him king over Israel. When he came and the sons of Jesse were being brought, as he saw the first born, huge, well-built, tall, a man naturally good looking, befits kingship; and so he concluded immediately that this was the one. Why did he make that conclusion? Because he saw the natural, the things that our physical eyes see and it appealed to the eyes. But the Lord quickly cautioned him and told him no, that’s not him. You look at the outside, you see the temporal but I see beyond. Brethren, I believe that as we step in and move through this New Year, that it will be for our own benefit, for our own growth in the Lord that we begin to see things as God sees them.

And so Paul writing to the Corinthians says, while we look not at the things which are seen, we do not focus on the things which are seen, we do not make our conclusions based on the things which are seen, because the things which are seen are temporal, but we look at the things which are not seen. When we see the face of a man, we are seeing the natural, we are looking at this individual as he was born naturally. Someone who has not met with me before could see me on the way and just looking at me make some conclusion. This is the way he is and maybe there are some features as a result of my natural birth that this person sees and through those ones make those conclusions. Those conclusions will not be true indeed unless this person could look at me not through my natural birth but through my spiritual birth, my new birth and when he looks at me from the side of my new birth, he will see something completely different; seeing as God sees. And because we see the way that is natural, the way that we now see, we are met with a lot of things that are quite discouraging. A lot of things that will dismay us, a lot of things that will cause us to give up, and many other things; because we see them the way man sees.

The Bible says concerning Moses in Hebrews chapter 11: 27, “by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” You know, there is no way Moses could have braved up to forsake Egypt the way he did because the king Pharaoh was a very tough one. He will do everything possible to get a hold of him. But something changed the complete outlook of Moses and we were told it was because he saw the invisible. When a child looks up to the sun, I know when we were little, we used to look up to the sun to see the sun and when you gaze at the sun especially, the mid-noon, you just gaze up at the sun; when you take off your eyes and look around you, you will find out that everything around you changes. Has anyone tried it? You gaze at the sun brightly and when you take off your eyes, everything around you changes. You see everything different, why? Because you have focused your eyes on the sun and there have being some imprints, the glares of the sun in your eyes is now affecting the way you see things. And so Moses because he saw the invisible, it affected everything about his life and so he was no longer afraid of what Pharaoh could do because he saw the invisible. That changed the way he saw things. The way he looked at things, was completely changed.

Samuel C. Okonkwo
Chapel of Restoration Ministries
Belize, Central America.