he who has eyes...

“We live by faith, not by sight.” [2 Corinthians 5:7]

God has placed a heavy burden on my heart. Well, it’s not heavy so much as really, really exciting — but really, really challenging. I fully believe that He’s called me to give my entire life — all my dreams, talents, passions — to the service of advancing His Kingdom here on earth. As many of you know, I believe that God desires for me to lead a congregation of worshipers (that is, a church) through casting vision, preaching, pastoring, and serving alongside a group of people. I think (but do not know) that this will involve planting a new church. And, God has placed on my heart several key dreams/visions for this group of people that over years of praying over simply will not go away. These are the thoughts I’ve had about leading a church that have stood the test of time. So, as a first go-around of casting vision for a church plant, I wanted to share what I believe are God’s visions for the group of people I feel that He’s calling me to lead. I’ll do so in series form, starting with this one. I could be wrong with all of this, and if I am, so what? They’ll just go away. But, if they are God’s plans, I fully believe they will come to fruition.

(By the way.. it’s Easter. He is risen!!)

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See the Father.
Do as He does.
Be the Church.

To fully summarize all that I believe this church will look like, I only need to use these three sentences. Jesus Christ, the very Son of God and perfect example of humanity fully realized, said in John 5:19, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” There is nothing more perfect that we can strive to do with our lives than what Jesus did with his: doing as the Father does.

In order to be better at this, notice that we have to see what the Father is doing. I think the act of seeing God is of the utmost importance not because “seeing is believing,” but because “seeing is transformative.” Paul says, “So all of us who have had that veil* removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image” [2 Corinthians 3:18 NLT].

* (The veil is a reference to the covering Moses wore after seeing God on Mount Sinai so that his radial reflection of God’s glory wouldn’t frigthen the Israelites — see Exodus 34:29-35.)

So, how do we “see” God? I believe the answer falls out of the idea that we’re supposed to live our whole lives as acts of worship [Romans 12:1-2]. This doesn’t mean worship simply as singing songs to God, but worship in all aspects of your life. Let’s look at the two words used for worship in the New Testament:

proskyneo – This literally means either to kiss the hand of, or more commonly to fall facedown (to become prostrate) before someone as an act of respect or supplication. In his book Facedown, Matt Redman says,

When we face up to the glory of God, we soon find ourselves facedown in worship. To worship facedown is the ultimate outward sign of inner reverence… Facedown worship always begins as a posture of the heart. It’s people so desperate for the increase of Christ that they find themselves decreasing to the ground in an act of reverent submission.

When worshiping God through song, studying His word, or any other action that confronts us with Who God is, we should naturally seek to become less and less of ourselves so that Christ can become more and more. Living a life of proskyneo worship means to meet God and seek to make Him the totality of who we are. And this type of worship is the natural response of seeing God.

latreuo – This literally means to serve for hire, or more commonly to render religious service as an act of worship. This is the word used in Romans 12:1, for instance. What this means is that in all things that you do, do them as acts of worship to God. Since we have been bought with a price [1 Corinthians 6:20], the death of God’s only Son, we now are God’s hirelings, whose sole purpose should be to serve God. And, just as Jesus did, what we do should be bound up in what we see God doing.

So, how can we “see” God so that we can do as He does? I want to highlight two ways.

First, as we get to know who God is and the character and nature of His heart, we come to know more and more what He desires and therefore what He is doing. The whole arch of creative history is bound up in God’s story of redemption for mankind and His creation in general. With the Fall of man [Genesis 3], all of creation fell into disarray and chaos. With the culmination of God’s Kingdom brought about by the return of Jesus, all of creation will be restored [Revelation 21]. Every action by God between the former time and the future time is an action to restore order and bring things back into peace, or shalom. To know more and more what the Kingdom of God will look like in its fully realized glory is to know God’s heart for changing the world and to know what God is doing right now in our world.

In short, we “see” God by knowing who He is in an increasing manner. We do this by studying His Word, praying and communing with Him as our living, breathing Father, and fellowshiping with other believers so that we can learn what truths of God they have unlocked that are still mysterious to us.

The other way I think we can “see” God so that we can do what He does is by opening our spiritual eyes to actually see where He is moving and what He is doing. I believe the Holy Spirit has enabled us to have eyes that can interpret what God is doing in different situations. If we allow it, the Spirit can lead us to do exactly what God is doing by using us as instruments in bringing His works about. Paul highlights how the Spirit moves in His believers in 1 Corinthians 12.

If we’re open to it, God can use us to heal those with illnesses, to prophecy and share God’s heart for those who need it, and to speak with the very wisdom of God, among other things. How we become open to it has always been mysterious to me, but we shouldn’t sit idly by expecting God to use us through the movement of the Spirit. No, we should “eagerly desire the greater gifts” [1 Corinthians 12:31].

So, in summary, just as Christ did only as He saw what the Father was doing (and what Christ did was amazing) we can and should strive for the same. I believe a church body that is actively seeking to worship God in this way and that is living within the paradigm of seeing what God is doing so that they can partner with Him in doing it — this church body can be used to do amazing things, greater things even than Christ did [John 14:12]. Can you imagine that?

So, see the Father and do as He does. That’s how you can be the Church.