The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: Ask Jesus, whatever your prayer request, ask Jesus. Secondly, ask him to help you to see the answer clearly. He’s going to bring you an answer. Ask him to help you to see it. If it’s not clear, keep working at it until you see it clearly and then pray, "Lord, as I see it, as you have given me the vision of the answer of a peaceful family, of companionship, as you’ve given me a vision of rising out of defeat and disappointment and failure, as you’ve given me a vision of no longer being jobless, now at this moment the blessing of God will come." And then thirdly, write down: give thanks.

Guest (Male): Faith enables us to see possibilities that our circumstances may tell us are impossible. Throughout scripture, God’s people learned to look beyond what was visible and place their confidence in the one who was with them.

As we conclude our Eyes of Faith series, Pastor Jack Morris encourages us to fix our spiritual vision on the living Christ. Pray with expectation and allow God’s promises to awaken fresh hope within us. Here is today’s message: Seeing with Spiritual Eyes.

Pastor Jack Morris: Seeing with spiritual eyes. Last Sunday, I introduced the concept of spiritual eyesight, seeing with the eyes of our heart, using our imagination to look back and see Jesus suffering in our place, experiencing our suffering, experiencing our pain, experiencing our sorrows, seeing him accepting all of this. When we can get a mental vision image in our mind and see him carrying it, then comes the realization we don’t have to carry it. It’s already been carried: the sickness, the sorrow, the pain, the sadness.

I look at the scripture, and you have an outline in your bulletin, and you may want to take your pencil and follow along with me this morning. I believe this morning’s message will bring a release of hope and faith in you and me, provided we hear it and receive it. We truly not only see with our heart, we are listening with that spiritual being inside of us.

Just to think what would happen when there comes this release of faith and hope in you. It’s released, it happens, the answer comes, the miracle happens. That’s what I believe is going to happen today. I truly believe this. Now Moses looked forward and saw Christ. It says in Hebrews 11:27, "By faith, Moses persevered because he saw him who is invisible."

We can’t see Jesus. He’s been gone for 2,000 years, but he’s here today through resurrection and the power of the Holy Spirit to make him real to each of us. If we strive to reach out and take hold of the image of Jesus and truly see him, because this is the very power and presence of God, Jesus is, he will come to us in healing and in wholeness.

Jesus is here right now. He’s not something that happened in history. He’s not something we read about like George Washington or Abraham Lincoln or some great saint in the past that died and was buried. No, he was resurrected for a purpose, and that purpose is to be a blessing to you and to walk with you and to be with you.

Think of what I’m saying today. Think of what the Schmidts said just a moment ago when he said that he had this heart condition, this numbing of the right arm, this numbing of the face. For moments he couldn’t hold a pencil and write. The scripture came to him: "Lo, I am with you. Lo, I am with you." Not a dead Jesus, but a live Jesus. Can you say "Lo, I am with you"? Say that.

That’s Jesus wanting to say that to you. You say, "I know that," but more than that, to get those words down into your heart and into my heart so that there will come this release. "Lo, I am with you." When you and I are not only able to say that but truly believe that, then comes that power, that energy, that healing, that wholeness. Whatever your need is, it’s met in him being with you. Can you say "Praise the Lord"?

So Moses, it says, by faith, he persevered because he saw him who is invisible, meaning he was able to keep going. There are things that happen in our lives that have a tendency to shut us down. Some of you have heard something, somebody has said something. Sometimes we hear it correctly, sometimes we put our meaning to what we’ve heard, and it just sort of takes the spirit out of us. It takes the energy, it takes the enthusiasm, it shuts us down.

Moses was in the wilderness for 40 years with the people of God. How he persevered for 40 years? I’ve been pastoring this church going on 28 years, and the purpose has been to glorify Jesus and to experience the power and living presence of Jesus. Because I was able to see Jesus when we hit hard places and when we come up against walls that seemingly were immovable, I was able to persevere.

Why did I do that? Not because of I’m anything at all, it’s because he is everything and I was able to see him and follow him and keep my eyes fixed on him. That way, I stayed encouraged and had the energy to persevere and go on because I saw him who is invisible.

Now, this is what God wants every one of us here today to see: to see Jesus. As Moses looked ahead and was able to go through the desert, the thirst, the starvation, the wars, what kept him going? Here it is: Hebrews 11:27. "By faith Moses persevered." How did he persevere? Because he saw him who is invisible.

Abraham, the same thing happened to Abraham. It says in John chapter 8, verse 56, "Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day, and he saw it and was glad." That’s where rejoicing comes from. Did you listen to what I just said? Did you hear this scripture? John 8:56. Abraham rejoiced. Why did he rejoice? At the thought of seeing my day, and he saw it and was glad.

To put perseverance in you, to put determination, to give you spiritual, physical, emotional forward thrust, to cause you to go forward with rejoicing, you and I have to see Jesus. He is visible today through the eye of faith. I want you to see him today. We’re going to look at him.

In your outline, I want you to look at point A and write down the word "darkened." Darkened spiritual vision. I’m going to use John chapter 9 as my text and make an analogy. Here was a man who was physically blind, but I want you and me to look at this today and see it as a spiritual blindness.

Look how Jesus patiently worked with this man. He’s not condemning this man for being blind, neither is he condemning you and I for being spiritual blind, at least not now after we hear the truth and we don’t respond to the truth he may condemn us for being spiritually blind. We don’t have to be spiritual blind anymore because Jesus the master teacher, the great physician, has come near to work with us to open our eyes that we might see.

It says in the scripture, verse 9, as he went along, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" There was something of that day that people taught, particularly the rabbis, that all sickness, all hardship, every difficulty was associated with something that you did wrong. You caused this to happen.

This was the teaching, and it was so inculcated in the thought of the people of that time through the teaching of the rabbis that they took it so far to think that the baby, the unborn fetus, could sin in its mother’s womb, or a parent prior to this child had sinned. Every sickness, every disease, every mishap, everything that went wrong, it was connected with something that you or somebody else did wrong. This is what the people taught.

The question was from the disciples, and the disciples had locked into that. We are his disciples also, but some of us have some erroneous thinking that we’ve got to get cleared up. When we get it cleared up, Jesus is going to help us and fix the situation inside of us with his healing power.

The disciples asked, "Master, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?" Now, everybody read verse 3 with me. Take your bible and read verse 3. Let's read the words of Jesus in response to this question together: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."

When Don was here, I didn’t know Don was going to say what he said, but Don said, "I believe that this condition happened, these little blood clots, this numbness of the side of my face, this numbness of my arm, this fainting, I believe it happened so that God could be glorified in bringing an answer of healing to me." Do you remember him saying that when he stood up here just a moment ago and gave that testimony? He believed that it happened. This is exactly what Jesus is saying here: "Neither this man nor his parents."

Friends, things happen in life. They just happen. Accidents happen, problems come, people get sick, people are afflicted. To look for a cause—why, there’s a reason—the Lord is telling us let’s not look for the problem, let’s look for the solution. To know the problem isn’t going to help with the solution. Jesus Christ is the solution, and he is causing us and helping us to look at him, the one that’s going to bring the healing.

Jesus is not placing blame. Jesus is not condemning. What is Jesus doing? He’s showing mercy. He’s here to bring healing. This is an opportunity for him to do something wonderful for somebody. Whatever’s going on in your life, don’t try to blame your husband or blame your wife or blame your children or blame your parents. Stop trying to place blame. Stop trying to place blame.

Some people say, "Somebody out at that church," and they want to blame somebody. The blame game. Take a little responsibility on yourself. Jesus said everything’s okay. Why are you making an issue out of this? Who sinned? Did his parents sin? Did he sin? I’ll tell you, we can stir and stir until we make an issue out of something that is absolutely nothing.

Listen, friends, if you hear somebody making an issue out of something, walk away from them. Mark them. They’re not of God. It smells like carnality. They’re upset, and they’re going to try to get you upset so that’ll make them look good. Somebody else caused this.

The Lord isn’t looking for a place to put blame, not at all. He’s looking for a place to put blessing. Did you hear what I said? He’s looking to put blessing. Now, if you find somebody that’s wanting to bless you, you know the spirit of God’s in that person. That’s Jesus. Don’t get caught up in the blame game. That’s not Jesus at all. It is not.

That’s what Jesus said. Jesus said, "Hey, you’re not going to sucker me into that argument. I’m not going to blame him, the blind man. I’m not going to blame his parents. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do: I’m going to open his eyes. I’m going to do something good." That’s what Jesus did. He went about doing good. Say that: "He went about doing good." He went about doing good. If you find somebody going about doing good, making you feel good, that person’s of the Lord because that’s the spirit of Jesus.

Now, I want you to look at verse 6. Having said this, Jesus spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. Now, what in the world is he doing? Have you ever heard of such a thing in all your life? Only two times in the bible did Jesus do that, but it’s just outstanding what Jesus did.

You see, the rabbis also taught that there was a certain curative quality to a great man’s spittle. That was one of the popular teachings of that day, particularly a rabbi who would take spit and anoint somebody or take his spit and put it on the person. There was curative quality. It was a very superstitious thing, but it was universally believed. No one would have even thought twice about it at that time.

Look what Jesus did. He spits on the ground, he makes a little bit of mud, he picks it up, and he puts it on the man’s eye. What is he doing? You see, Jesus meets us where we are. Jesus is not out to condemn anybody, not this man, the blind man, not his parents. He’s not trying to bring you up to some place where he can do something good. He’s saying, "I’m going to do something good for you right now, right where you are."

The great physician won the confidence of this blind man and the confidence of his disciples and the confidence of the blind man’s parents. Think of your own physician. Everybody here perhaps has a family physician. If you have confidence in your doctor, you’re going to listen to him, right? It'll go a long way to helping you toward healing.

But you let that doctor come in and you don’t have any confidence in him, you’re not going to want to take his prescription, you’re not going to want to do what he says. You don’t have any confidence in him. But if you have confidence in your doctor, if he has good bedside manners, then you’re going to have confidence in him.

This is what Jesus was doing. He was building confidence in himself. He knew that he was going to do something, and he was bringing this man up to a certain degree of expectation. Only a few Sundays ago, I put on the sign at the street: "Expect a blessing." That’s what the Lord is trying to generate in every one of us today: the expectation of something good and something wonderful happening. When he can get us up to that level, then he can do something good for all of us.

That’s what Jesus did for this man. He was making some mud that he might help this man’s expectation, help his disciples. He knew that they were wrong in their teaching, but he didn’t want to rebuke them and correct their teaching. He wanted to heal this man, and that’s exactly what he did.

The first thing to do, the first step, put down the word "enlightened spiritual vision." The first step in having your spiritual vision enlightened means God’s going to start deep down in your heart, down deep in your soul. This is where he’s starting. The first thing you need to do is to pray. Write down the word "pray." Pray about a particular need or situation.

God repeatedly tells us in his word that he wants to answer prayer. He is a prayer-answering heavenly father. He says in his word, Psalm 37:4, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." Just think of Jesus and find happiness in those thoughts about Jesus. Begin to let him be the source of your happiness and your delight. Think about him and get happy. Just delight yourself in the Lord. Let him be the focus and remember that God is yours and that you are God’s.

The first thing, you pray about a situation. Step number two, write down the word "image." After you’ve prayed, I want you to begin to image the answer to that prayer. I want you to see the answer to that prayer. I want you to see how things are going to look after God intervened. What I’m doing today, I’m helping you on another avenue to release faith and hope.

Have faith and hope released within you. Here’s an illustration. A minister, a wonderful pastor, pastors a large church far from here. He went in the hospital to visit one of his parishioners who had been in a terrible car accident. I believe this man was hit by a taxi cab. It broke his bones, crippled him up. When the pastor went in to see his parishioner, the man was just all in cast all over his body and was told that he would never walk normally again. He would walk with a limp and his one arm would hang and his shoulder would sag. The prognosis was very disturbing and very sad.

This is what the pastor said: "I’m going to pray for you. Jesus Christ is alive. Jesus is here with us right now. I want you to get an image of yourself healed. I want you to picture in your mind a healed, healthy, whole body, just like you were before you were hit by that cab and broken up like you are."

The pastor waited a moment and said, "Do you have that image?" The man said, "I’m trying to get a picture of myself well and healed." So the pastor said, "Come on, bring it up. When you see it, you let me know. I’m not going to pray until you see the answer in you. You just bring it up. You make it come before your image."

Then the man smiled, the crippled man in the hospital that was all broken up smiled, and he said, "I have it. I have an image." So the pastor wanted to test him, make sure he had the image. He said, "What do you see?" He said, "I see myself walking down Fifth Avenue. I see myself walking down the street straight and tall without a limp at all. I just see myself walking."

The pastor said, "Now, you hold that on the retina of your heart, on the retina of your soul. You hold that image." The pastor reached over, put his hand on him, and it was like taking a picture. Click! Click! He said, "Lord, let it be as he sees it."

The man went through the convalescent period. He’s healthy, he’s walking today, there’s no limp, he’s well. That’s what I’m talking about. First you pray, you ask the Lord to help you. Now, he’s going to be there to help you. Jesus is there. He’s going to meet you where you are. You pray about a situation, but don’t be too quick to put an "amen" on the end of that prayer. Say, "Lord, do this, this, this, and the other. Thank you, boom." You’re gone.

We’re so quick to say, "In Jesus' name, amen." The Lord is telling us, "I want you to see the invisible. I want you to see the answer. I want the answer to be wholeness within you. You see it, and in that cooperating with God, that’ll happen."

I know a minister that he used to preach to a congregation. He had this huge sanctuary, huge auditorium with lots of seats, and he only had a few people up here and a few people up here, and all the place was empty. Sunday morning after Sunday morning, he would get up, take his bible, and he would preach his whole sermon with his eyes closed.

People got a little bit annoyed. They said, "Pastor, eye contact, look at us. It’s a little strange." He said, "Oh, I’m picturing every pew filled with people." He said, "Every Sunday morning I preach to a packed house." There was only about two dozen of us here. Oh, no, he said, "It’s a full house." Today, he has multiple services and the crowd, one crowd leaves, another crowd comes.

You see, you’ve got to get in and get into it with Jesus and see it in your heart. Actually picture it and see it and then pray, "Lord, let it happen even as I am seeing it." You see, this is what happened. The Lord tells us to fix our eyes on Jesus, to see Jesus, to look at Jesus.

When I came to the communion table last Sunday, Fran and I knelt down over here, and I had my wafer and the fruit of the vine. I knelt down and I lifted my head up and I looked at Jesus. He was on the cross, crucified, and in my mind I saw his face battered, bruised, his beard torn, his eyes puffy. I read the scripture: "His visage was marred more than any man."

I read the scripture and then I formed a vision in my own thinking of what I had read, and he was looking down at me from the cross. I was there with him. I was at Calvary last week. I went there in my heart, and I got a vision of Jesus Christ, a mental vision. I was experiencing the reality of his passion.

What I’m saying today, you think, "Is that strange?" No, every architect does that all the time. Every architect. When they were going to design this building, I remember going into a meeting with the architect at his office, I believe it was. Maybe it was at a restaurant. He pulled out a napkin and he said, "Tell me what kind of building you want built over there."

I said, "I want a building that will bring the people up close to me. I want to be close. I don’t want a long building with people so far away. I want to be able to look them in the eye. I want to see them." He took out an ink pen and on a napkin, he drew a half circle and he drew in some pews. He said, "Are you talking about something like this?" Yes, that’s it.

I was seeing it. Now, he started seeing it. I remember when he designed this whole thing, the big hang up was the steeple up here. He had a funny-looking little steeple. It was a contemporary design, but the steeple didn’t seem to match the building. I told him, "That just doesn’t look quite right, that steeple." I kept telling him.

One of his aides would go out of the room, make up something, come back in with little pieces of cardboard. They were bending it and fixing it. No, it looked like a ski jump that he had. I said, "No, that’s not it, that’s not it." I kept trying to tell him the image that I had in my mind. Finally, he got it and he came out with that very steeple that we have up here now. I said, "That’s it! That’s it!"

You see it before it becomes a reality. I was so thrilled with that steeple that they put me on a great big lift and they hiked me all the way to the top, almost to the top, and then they had some scaffolding. I crawled all the way to the top and I put my hand up on the very peak of that steeple that’s up there right now.

This is what God wants you to do: he wants you to pray, absolutely he wants you to pray. And then he wants you to focus on him and see him doing the answer to the prayer. Let me see if I can make this a little more clear. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Ask God to help you see.

The Lord took spittle and made mud and he helped that man. He got involved with that man. It was a give and a take between Jesus and that man. Jesus is rising him to faith, and when he reaches faith, there will be released within him energy and hope. That’s what the Lord is doing today.

Now, I want you to picture, those of you who have difficulty in the marriage. There’s conflict in the marriage. You don’t want conflict in the home. You do not want arguing in the home. You don’t want bickering. You want peace. You want people not to yell at one another, but you want them to talk in a conversational tone to one another.

So this is what I want you to do. In just a moment, after a little while, I’m going to ask you to close your eyes and I want you to form a vision in your thinking of a peaceful family where people are talking, where people are eating together, where people are maybe having a family altar in your living room. See yourself, see your husband, see your wife, see your children there.

You get a picture of it and you say, "God, that’s what I want for my family. I don’t want this confusion. We never eat meals together anymore. Everybody’s in such a hurry. We’re always hollering at each other. We’re never really having any fellowship with each other." Get a picture of peace and then say, "Lord, that’s what I want you to bring about. That’s what I want to see happen in my family. As you have given me this internal vision, let me see it happening now. Come, Lord, and let me see it."

He’ll let you see it. If your body is sick, I want you to see yourself well. I want you to form a picture of a well person. If you’re sick, what would you be doing if you were well? You’d say, "Well, I’d be hiking in the woods. I’d be going on a vacation. I’d be mowing the lawn." Okay, get a vision of yourself mowing the lawn, going on vacation, hiking in the woods, going shopping. See yourself doing it and then pray that God will make it happen just as you see it.

I’ve talked to people that they say, "I’m so lonely. I don’t have any friends." I want you to picture yourself with a good person, a fine friend, somebody that is a soul partner with you. I’m not necessarily speaking about a spouse, but it could lead to that. You see, the church of Jesus Christ is many. Friendships are everywhere to be had.

I want you to see yourself with somebody who really knows you and understands you and loves you, that you know them and you can understand. You may not put an exact image on it, but somehow you know there’s somebody that you’re going to be able to pray with and share with and go places with and go out to eat with and do fun things with. You’ve got to get an image of it. You’ve got to see it, just like an architect sees the building in his mind, then he puts it on paper, and then he builds it and it becomes a reality.

That’s how faith works. It works the same way. Jesus used spittle. He made clay and he anointed this man’s eyes with the clay, and then Jesus asked the man, "What do you see?" That’s where it comes in. Most people see nothing. They don’t see any answer to prayer. They don’t really believe that anything’s going to change. They’ve already given up hope.

Jesus says to this man, "What do you see?" And the man struggles and he opens his eyes and he says, "I see men as trees walking." You remember that story? John chapter 8. This man had a vision, but it was not a clear vision, and Jesus did it again.

Jesus wants to work with you today. We want faith. We want to come in and have an altar service and boom, faith happens like that. Sometimes it does, but more often than not, it’s going to happen this way: you see the answer. If you don’t see the answer, pray that the Lord will help you see the answer more clearly. When you see it more clearly, like this man, "I see men as trees walking," Jesus touched him again, and then the healing completely happened.

Ask Jesus. Whatever your prayer request, ask Jesus. Secondly, ask him to help you to see the answer clearly. He’s going to bring you an answer. Ask him to help you to see it. If it’s not clear, keep working at it until you see it clearly and then pray, "Lord, as I see it, as you have given me the vision of the answer, now at this moment the blessing of God will come."

And then thirdly, write down: give thanks. Give thanks to the Lord for the answer. You begin thanking him before you get the answer. You begin thanking him for the vision that he’s given you that you’ve prayed over and that you’ve asked for. You’ve seen the answer, now you express thanks, which is an act of faith.

Under point C, write down "the spiritual vision becomes now an external reality." You remember in Numbers 21, Moses put a serpent on a pole, and what did he tell the people to do? "Look." And when they looked, the healing came. Jesus referred to that very time in John chapter 3. This is what our Lord has done.

Friends, I’m going to bow with you and I want you to bow with me. I hope maybe that you and I have a better understanding how to cooperate with the Lord and move beyond this stuck position that we’re in. This is how I have worked with faith through the years. When we wanted to buy the 43 acres over there, a group of men and myself, we went over, we claimed it with our feet, we got a mental vision of the parking lot, and now it is all becoming a reality.

It happened with this church. Look at your family. What do you want God to do in your family? You’ve got to get a picture of that. Ask him to give you a picture of the answer that he’s going to give you, and you hold that vision. What do you want him to do in your personal life? What do you want him to do in your body, in your finances?

How many men of this church and women also have asked that we would pray that they would get a new job? Many of them are working today. See yourself getting up in the morning and going to work. Get a mental image. See yourself with the money coming in and your bills being paid. Get a mental image and then look, lift it up to the Lord and say, "Lord, this is what I’m praying for. This is what I want." Now begin to give him thanks. Then it will become an external reality.

Guest (Male): The question Jesus asked the blind man is worth considering ourselves: "What do you see?" When circumstances cloud our vision, faith calls us to keep looking to Christ and trusting his presence, his promises, and his ability to work in our lives.

We hope this series has strengthened your faith. Visit thehealingword.com for more teaching from Pastor Jack Morris, devotional resources, and a place to share your prayer requests. And if The Healing Word has encouraged you, please consider partnering with us through your prayers and financial support as we continue sharing the hope and healing found in Jesus Christ. Until next time, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and remember: what you see today is not the limit of what God can do.