A vitally important question disguised in simplicity...."What do you see?"
This is how the conversation began between the earthly man and the heavenly messenger (Zech. 4). Now, imagine with me that you find yourself in a conversation between the heavenly and earthly realms. Does it begin with such an obvious question? You might imagine something more mysterious, something more complex. I imagine my answer to this simple question would be delivered with a measure of self-doubt… Is it a trick question? Is it a Rorschach test? Why is he asking me what I see… doesn’t he see it too?
And here we discover the secret. It’s not a trick. It’s a starting point. Like the beginning of a polygraph test or the start of an interview, it’s a basic question to establish a beginning point for the conversation that is to come next. There is so much that is different between the heavenly and earthly dimensions that when they do come together, there has to be a common starting point to begin the exchange of information.
Recently, I felt the Holy Spirit whisper to me while I was praying, "if you could see the way I see, you would pray differently" This implied two things: First, God was inviting me to get a new perspective. And secondly, I needed to pray differently. But why would He say this? It’s because prayer is about agreement. Simply put, when I agree with God, my prayers are answered. And my prayers are shaped by my perspective. And if my perspective does not agree with God's perspective, then there's little hope that the rest of my prayer will agree with God's will.
Just like with Zechariah, the earthly man mentioned in the conversation above, there are conversations that God wants to have with us that will only begin when we have a starting point – a common perspective. Have you ever asked God a question and felt like He didn't answer you? Sure, we all have! But did you consider that He didn't answer because you asked the wrong question, with the wrong starting point, and with the wrong perspective?
God spends very little time entertaining wrong perspectives.
This is why Paul prays in Ephesians 1, "...that God... may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your heart 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, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe..."
In other words, if our spiritual eyes are seeing correctly and we have a common perspective as a starting point, then we can begin a conversation with God in which He reveals His hope, riches, glory, and power in our lives. It all starts with getting His perspective – the right perspective.
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