Seeing Beyond the Natural Episode 2

Within a world with competing voices, confusion, deception and distraction, the ability to discern has never been more important.  In this second episode of Eyes to See series on discernment, Lois addresses the necessity of being able to see beyond the natural, its availability to all believers, and how the fear of the Lord applies.  

This podcast is based on her new book, Eyes to See - walking in wisdom, discernment, and spiritual clarity.  Get your copy on loisflewelling.com or Amazon.  Check out her Thrive & Wholeness Series that takes you on a journey from surviving to thriving.  

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:04

There's a level of walking with God that most believers never reach. Not because God is withholding it, but because no one ever taught them how to see what he's already showing them. You felt it. A moment when you knew something before anyone told you. A room that shifted the second you walked in. A conversation where every word sounded right. But something underneath it just didn't sit well with you. You've had access to more than you've realized. It just didn't have a name for it. It's called discernment. And it's the door to a new level. Welcome to A New Level Await You. I'm Lois Fawelling. And if you're new here, this is a space where we can talk about what it actually looks like to grow. Not just in knowledge about God, but in nearness to him, clarity with him, freedom in him. Because I believe with everything in me that no matter where you are right now, no matter how far you've already come, there's always a new level available to you. Today I'm gonna do something a little different. I'm opening a brand new series, and it's one that's close to my heart. Closer than almost anything I've taught before. Over the next couple episodes, we're gonna walk through the subject of discernment. What scripture actually calls the gift of discernment spirit, and what I believe is one of the most misunderstood, most neglected, and most necessary gifts to the body of Christ today. This series is a companion to my book, Eyes to See. And here's how I want you to think about it. The podcast is the door, the book is the room. Each episode is going to open something up for you, give you real teaching, real scripture, real stories. But I'm not gonna hand everything over to you in these episodes. Some of what I've learned, some of what has changed my life, it's only in those pages. My hope is that this series creates a hunger in you that the book was written to satisfy. There is a new level of seeing available to you, and it starts with learning to trust what God has already been showing you. Horses, chariots, soldiers, as far as he can see. And he panics. He says, Master, what shall we do? His master, the prophet Elijah, didn't panic. He just said, Don't be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them. The servant had no idea what he was talking about. So Elijah prayed one line, Lord, open his eyes. And the very next verse says the young man looked, and the hillside was full of horses and chariots of fire. Same hillside, same morning, two different realities. That's what we're talking about today. So welcome back. This is episode two, and today we're calling it seeing beyond the natural. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Now notice the order. Not the fear of the Lord as a nice add-on, once you've got some spiritual insight. The fear of the Lord is first, before the wisdom, before the knowledge, before the sight. And here's why that matters for today's topic specifically. The moment you start talking about seeing beyond the natural, perceiving things in the spirit, discerning what's unseen, you're standing very close to something powerful. And power without reference is how people get hurt, or worse, how people start chasing the experience instead of the one who gives it. Look at what happens to people in scripture the moment their eyes actually get open to something beyond the natural. Isaiah sees the Lord high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filling the temple. And his first words are not amazing, they are, woe is me, for I am undone. Ezekiel sees the glory of the Lord and falls on his face. Daniel, after his vision, says his strength left him and his color changed. Real spiritual sight doesn't puff a person up, it brings them low. That's the tau. If insight into the unseen makes you feel more impressive, that's a warning sign, not a confirmation. If it makes you more sober, more reverent, more careful with what you carry, that's the fear of the Lord doing his job. So hold that thought as the frame for everything else we do today. We're not chasing an experience, we're asking to see rightly. We start with fearing rightly. Because we ask, can I see beyond the natural? The better first question is, did Jesus? And the answer all through the Gospels is clearly yes. Now, Nathaniel's skeptical. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? But he comes anyway. And when Jesus sees him come and he says, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit. Nathanael's confused. How do you know me? And Jesus said, Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Now there was no way naturally to know that. Nathaniel's response tells you how he took it. He doesn't say, Lucky guess. He says, Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. Something landed on him in that moment that only makes sense if Jesus was actually seeing him beyond the reach of natural eyes. John chapter 4, the woman at the well. Jesus tells a Samaritan woman he's never met that she's had five husbands, and the man she's with now isn't her husband. She doesn't argue. She says, Sir, I perceive you are a prophet. Then she runs into the town and says, Come, see a man who told me all things that I ever did. That's not a lucky observation about a stranger. That's someone whose whole history got read in a single conversation. And it goes deeper than knowing facts about people. John 2, 24 through 25 says something remarkable about Jesus in general. It says he did not commit himself to people because he knew all men and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. Now that's just not seeing events, that's seeing hearts. Mark 2 and Luke 5 both describe this happening in real time. Religious leaders are questioning Jesus in their hearts, not out loud. And scripture says Jesus perceived in his spirit what they were reasoning within themselves and answered it before they ever said a word. And then there's Luke 22, right? Before Peter denies him three times. Jesus tells him, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat. Now Peter had no idea of that happening. Jesus is seeing a spiritual transaction taking place around his friend that hadn't showed up in the natural world yet at all. So when we say seeing beyond the natural, Jesus is the pattern. All while walking around fully human, fully within his body, in real conversations. Now here's what I want you to catch, though. This capacity didn't stay locked in Jesus. Scripture shows it opening up in ordinary people again and again, before and after him. We already talked about Elijah's servant, and before that there was Balaam riding his donkey, completely blind to the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a sword drawn. The donkey sees it before he does. And then Numbers 22, verses 31 says, The Lord opened Balaam's eyes and he saw the angel of the Lord. Same pattern as Elijah's servant, a prayer or an act of God, and eyes that were closed suddenly aren't. Fast forward to Acts. Stephen is being stoned, and right in the middle of it, scripture says he was full of the Holy Spirit and gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God. And Jesus standing at the right hand of God. In the middle of the worst moment of his life, natural sight and spiritual sight overlap for a second. Peter on a rooftop in Joppa falls into a trance and sees a vision that redirects the entire early church's understanding of who the gospel is for. Paul in the night, he sees a man from Macedonia pleading with him to come help. And the missionary journey that shapes half the New Testament starts with that vision. Paul later writes about being caught up in the third heaven and hearing things he had never been permitted to repeat. And on the road to Amasis, two disciples walked for miles with the risen Jesus, talking with him the whole way, and didn't recognize him. Until Luke says their eyes were opened and they knew him. Same face, same voice. The difference wasn't in Jesus, it is in what their eyes were given to see. That's the thread running through all this. Seeing beyond the natural was never framed in scripture as one man's unique ability. Sometimes suddenly, sometimes after a prayer, sometimes as the fruit of a whole life postured towards him. So why is this available to all at all? A few verses give us the actual mechanics, not just the stories. Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That's not prophetic language, that's Jesus stating plainly that this kind of sight isn't a natural skill you sharpen. It requires a new kind of life first. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2 that the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God because they're foolishness to him. He can't know them because they are what spiritually discerned. But he says believers have received the Spirit who is from God, that we may know the things freely given to us by God. That's the access point, not intelligence, not intuition, the spirit. And Paul says over the Ephesians, not that they tried harder to see, but the eyes of your understanding. In fact, some translations say, the eyes of your heart be enlightened. He's asking God to do something to their perception that they can't do themselves. So put it together. This isn't a technique, it isn't a formula to follow to unlock spiritual vision like a video game achievement. It's the overflow of a life that has been made new, dwelt by the Spirit, and postured. Here's that thread again in the fear of the Lord. That's why I didn't want to skip past the opening piece today. The people in scriptures who saw beyond the natural and stayed steady: Elijah, Daniel, Stephen, John on Patmos, they weren't running towards the experience. They were living close to God. And the sight came as fruit, not as the goal. Instead of, how do I get this to happen to me? So where does this leave us practically? If you want to grow in this, in genuinely perceiving what's happening towards what your eyes report, start where Proverbs starts. Fear the Lord, take him seriously. Let reverence be the ground you're standing on, not a footnote. Then ask, like Elijah did for his servant, Lord, open my eyes. Not so that you can perform something impressive, but so you can walk faithfully with more of the picture. Pay attention to the fruit he produces in you. If it's making you humble, sober, and more dependent on God, you're on the right road. If it's making you feel elevated above other people, stop and go back to Isaiah 6. Go back to woe is me. The next episode, we're going to build on this and get practical. How you actually cultivate this kind of perception in everyday life, not just in dramatic once-in-a-lifetime moments, but until then, fear him first. Ask him to open your eyes and pay attention to what's already there. So, Lord, I thank you for blessing each one that is listening to this message today. I pray, dear Heavenly Father, that you will open their eyes because we need believers whose eyes are open to discern the things that are going on around us today. Lord God, we need your help. So open up their eyes to see, see beyond the natural, see into the spiritual realm. And Lord God, let them be wise about them, let them fear the Lord so that they can be uh who you want them to be and be used as you want them to be used. Lord, I thank you for this in your precious name. Amen. So God bless you, and uh I'm excited for the next time that we get together. Listening to this episode of Eyes to See. If something here has stirred you today, I want to invite you to go deeper. Eyes to See is available now on Amazon, and it's just one part, one book of my Thriving and Wholeness series. I've written five books to help you move from surviving to thriving in every area of life. Tenacious Warrior, get some strength for overcoming life's trials. Then freedom after betrayal for healing, restored trust and renewed purpose. I updated it for because it's about divine encounters, it's about intimacy with the Lord. Encounters that will change your life forever. Book four is the one we're going through right now. Eyes to see for wisdom, discernment, and spiritual clarity. And book five, my latest one, my newest release, is intentional. And that one discusses how we can live every day with purpose and power. You can find all five of these books, along with many more teaching and resources at lowest beloved.com. I want to thank you for being here. I want you to just encourage you to keep pursuing the giver more than the gift. Keep asking him to open your eyes to see. I'll see you in the next episode.