Heart Issues – Part 7 - How We See God

Heart Issues – Part 7
How We See God

By Pastor Gary Wayne

Text: Ephesians1:15-18 Matthew 5:8

How we see God greatly affects our relationship with Him, and our overall Christian life. In our head, we know how we should see God, while the heart sees something entirely opposite.
I can have head knowledge of Him and not really know Him.
You can be a Christian and can know Him intellectually but not know Him at a heart level.

Some think this text is saying that if you are a Christian, when you die, you will get to see God.
Which is true, but this verse is not just referring to the physical sight, but that we will come to know Him on a heart level here and now.
Jesus was saying we come to understand and embrace God for who He actually is, not just our theological knowledge, but to KNOW Him.

If you were to expose a blind man only to the trunk of an elephant, what would he believe the elephant to be like?
There are certain aspects about God that each of us have been exposed to, but there is far more for us to experience and come to know.

Jer.29:13 “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”

Eph.1:15-18 You can be a believer in God, and yet need the eyes of our understanding enlightened. (Luke 24:45 “Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”)

The more pure our hearts are, the more of God we will begin to see.
Our problem is not that God isn’t trying to reveal Himself to us, but that our hearts get plugged up with different things that stop the river of love He desires to have flowing into us.
The more debris we remove from our hearts, the more our hearts become pure, the more the love of God flows.

Draw picture in your mind of God’s heart flowing into our hearts with a logjam.
A MAJOR goal for these messages on Heart Issues is to work on removing the rubbish that plugs that flow. Bitter Roots. Lies from our enemy. Unforgiveness.

A major part of the problem of how we see God can come from our parents.
Scripture tells us the role of parents, and especially fathers, are to build up each child to know God.
Through love, discipline, and teaching us about who God is.

When sin entered into the picture, it damaged God’s plan.

I don’t know if I have ever met anyone who didn’t project the image of their earthly father onto God.
Our impure hearts see God as if he is like our earthly father.

If someone had a dad who was harsh, distant and unconcerned about them, usually their heart understanding of God is they believe Him to be distant from them, often angry with them, unconcerned about the things of their life.

In real life, even the best of dads cause wounding in our life.
Now add the equation that many didn’t have fathers who were good representations of God, but many have had hard, mean, destructive fathers.

This wounds our hearts, leaving debris of bitterness, unbelief, mistrust, un-forgiveness – causing our hearts to be impure.

You are still a Christian – if you died, you would go to Heaven, but the love of God isn’t flowing through our lives.

We see Jesus as the nice one, and God the Father as the harsh one – ready to punish us every time we turn around.
Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father…” Jn.14:9
Jesus is the perfect representation of the Father’s love.

Often our head says, “God is Love.”
But our hearts believe God loves people, but I’m not sure He cares for me individually. An orphan heart.
“I’d better not make a mistake, or else!”
“If I’m good He loves me more.”
“If I have fasted and prayed and read my Bible, then I have more of God’s approval.”

Read Eph.1:15-18

Pray:
Forgive me for projecting my childish picture of my dad onto You.
Restore my heart. Open the eyes of my heart.
Break old structures, habits, and lies that the enemy uses against me.
I choose to forgive my father for….
God enlighten the eyes of our understanding. (Eph.1:15-19)
Purify my heart.
Remove the debris that hinder your love from flowing.