Look Only to Jesus

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2—NIV)

It would seem that keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus would be the easiest thing in the world. But it isn’t. There are many things each day that call for our attention.

The classic scriptural illustration of keeping our eyes on Jesus is as follows:

"Lord, if it’s you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." "Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. (Matthew 14:28-32—NIV)

We all know the story. Peter asked the Lord, "Tell me to come to you on the water."

There is an important lesson in the above sentence. Peter did not attempt to exercise presumptuous faith by jumping out of the boat and walking on the water. He looked to the Lord for directions.

Joshua did not just address the sun during the battle, he sought the Lord first.

On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: "O sun, stand still over Gibeon,

O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon." (Joshua 10:12—NIV)

"Joshua said to the Lord"?

The so-called faith message of our day emphasizes that we should speak the creative word and command the elements. This is to have faith in faith. Here is the basis for the False Prophet of the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation. We are to pray always to Jesus and not to go around trying to cast out demons and get what we want "by faith." We are not to seek to use the name of Jesus in this way. This is not Christian faith but metaphysical faith, and the adamic nature remains in control.

Jesus said one word: "Come." But eternity was in that Word, as it always is in the Word of Jesus Christ.

We must never get down out of the boat until the Lord speaks.

It is interesting to speculate on how the other disciples must have felt when they saw Peter walking on the water toward Jesus. If they had possessed the fervency of Peter they all could have danced that night on the water of the Sea of Galilee—and this in the middle of a storm!

Peter’s desire to experience the miraculous power of Christ is commendable. How many wonders we ourselves could experience if we spent more time in God’s Presence! There are more gifts ready to be handed over the balconies of Heaven than there are people who care enough to ask for them.

But no matter how fervent we may be, or how certain we are that we can perform the miraculous, we must pray until the Lord speaks and gives us Divine faith.

Peter asked. Jesus spoke. Then Peter got down out of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus, not just in any direction where whimsy might direct him but toward Jesus. Peter apparently was gazing at the face of Jesus.

And then something changed. Peter noticed the wind.

How often it is true that we step out in faith and walk toward the Lord. Then Satan bangs on his pots and pans until we take our eyes off the Lord.

Then we begin to sink.

Peter did the right thing. He did not say "I believe, I believe, I believe," hoping to generate enough faith to deliver himself.

Peter cried out to the Lord.

This is the error of the current "faith message." It counsels us to look to our faith instead of to the Lord. The problem is, the faith it proclaims is not the faith of the Scriptures but metaphysical faith, that is, the effort of the adamic nature to believe the miraculous.

I have been healed miraculously of arthritis and near-sightedness—near-sightedness that I had from an early age. In neither case did I first make an attempt to believe or "speak the word of faith." The healings were sovereign acts of the Lord. The only faith I was required to exercise was a determination to keep that which had suddenly and sovereignly taken place.

When my knee began to hurt again, I jumped up and down on that leg and told my knee it had been healed and I was not going to accept anything less.

The point is, I was walking on the water and Satan was trying to get my eyes off Jesus and onto the symptoms. It was Jesus who initiated the healing, not I. My part was to go with the flow, as we say.

Peter cried out, "Lord, save me." The Lord Himself reached out his hand and caught Peter. Peter did not set in motion "faith principles" or anything of the kind. Peter was dealing with the Man, Jesus of Nazareth.

May we always deal with the Man, not with spiritual principles!

Then Jesus rebuked Peter. "You of little faith. Why did you doubt?"

Peter doubted because he took his eyes off the Lord and considered the howling wind, the tumultuous state of his surroundings.

When the wind and the waves are roaring in the days to come we are to keep looking steadfastly at Jesus, not considering the impossibility of our surroundings. Then we can experience the miraculous as we never had thought possible—the powers of the coming age.

Who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, (Hebrews 6:5—NIV)

One thing Satan cannot tolerate is to have people fasten their eyes on Jesus. He demands attention and worship.

I spoke previously of the current practice of addressing Satan when we are afflicted in some manner. We are not to address Satan or rebuke demons unless Jesus tells us to do so.

The name "Israel" means he struggles with God. As Jacob of old, and as also was true of Job, our struggle is with God. Even in the case of the wicked lords in the heavenlies, we fight against them by the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony, and by loving not our life to the death. In other words, we fight against Satan by interacting with God.

Our presumptuous flesh desires to ride gloriously into the battle, trusting in the name of Jesus. Satan enjoys this bravado immensely. While we are hurling defiance against the enemy, preening ourselves on our spiritual might, Satan sneaks in behind us and leads us astray.

Satan could not care less about what we think we can do in terms of spiritual warfare. Satan is terrified only of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is only as we are filled with God and moving in God that we can do any harm to the enemy.

The New Testament does not counsel us to rebuke Satan. Rather, it warns against this.

In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them. (Jude 1:8-10—NIV)

We are as "unreasoning animals" when we boast about the power we think we have over the fallen lords of darkness.

If Michael the archangel did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against the devil, what do we think we are doing?

The Bible counsels us rather, to draw near to God and resist the devil; not rebuke the devil, resist the devil.

The point is, if we first draw near to God, and then refuse to yield to the temptations of Satan, Satan will flee in disarray.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7—NIV)

We of today do not submit ourselves to God, we yield to temptation such that we are not living a righteous, holy, obedient life, and then we attempt to rebuke the devil. We are totally unscriptural, and unrealistic in terms of spiritual facts. The result is we are continually being deceived.

We of the Pentecostal-Charismatic persuasion are buried under a superabundance of spiritual formulas ranging from how to lose weight to how to take control over the fallen lords who govern the geographical areas of the world. Isn’t it dandy how informed we all are, how ready we are to be raptured into Heaven so we can watch the 144,000 Jewish evangelists without the Holy Spirit preach the Gospel of the Kingdom (which they themselves cannot enter because they cannot be born again without the Holy Spirit) in the face of Antichrist. The Jews shall suffer every kind of torment, but we Gentiles will be eating popcorn in our mansion while we are watching the battle on our television.

Just think! We have ten thousand years to praise God for His "grace," meaning we have never become a new righteous creation but God accepts us in our moral uncleanness. It truly is a come-as-you-are party.

Then, after we have had seven years of lolling around in the Paradise of God, we suddenly shall be summoned to the rallying point where the Lord Jesus is gathering His troops. We shall be issued armor, a sword, and then mounted on a war stallion.

The Lord Jesus will sound the trumpet. At that time we, who had supposed that we would be reclining forever on our couch in our mansion, find ourselves hurtling down through the clouds to form our battles lines on the dried-up bed of the Euphrates.

Then we will begin to ride toward the forces of Satan, Antichrist, the False Prophet, and the armies of the earth who have drawn up their battle lines on the plain of Megiddo.

We shall gallop to the attack, having been prepared to confront the wicked by seven years of ease in our mansion, being able to eat all the ice cream we want without getting fat.

After all the wicked fall over in a faint, we then will canter to Jerusalem where our Lord, Jesus Christ, will be crowned King on the Temple Mount. At this point we, who never have lived the victorious Christian life, will cheer and cheer because God refused to see the sins of Gentiles and welcomed the prodigals as they returned home with their whiskey and their girlfriends.

Now the Lord will tell us what city we will govern, and we will rush off with our rod of iron. If any of our citizens resist our will we shall hit them over the head with our rod of iron, because we have never learned to control our temper.

Because they have never been converted from their adamic nature, there shall be numerous fights among the "saints" concerning who is to govern the larger cities.

This is the garbage that is being preached. The believers remain dwarfed spiritually because the preachers stand in line to tell them how wonderful they are, how God loves them so much He would never, never permit them to suffer one teensy-weensy bit, and they can forget about their sinful behavior because Jesus has "done it all" for them.

This is how it goes today in the Charismatic movement.

The truth is, we are facing devastation in the days ahead, and it appears few Christian believers are prepared to stand spiritually. They may have dried beans stored up so they won’t go hungry physically, but their spiritual nature already is starving.

The only way out of this confusion is to look to Jesus—not to the formulas for health, wealth, and happiness, but to the Lord Jesus. He Himself is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. When we fix our gaze on Him, He will lead us to a place of spiritual growth. We may suffer for a while when He requires us to deny ourselves. But how much better to suffer for a season now if it means we will be secure in Him when the bombs fall.

If we will look to Jesus we can save ourselves and our family.

But if we continue in the American religious foolishness, always seeking new ways in which we can improve our condition without it really costing us anything, we will be totally unprepared for the future.

We prepare ourselves today by setting aside a place and time for prayer.

We prepare ourselves today by meditating in the Scriptures continually.

We prepare ourselves today by placing everything on the altar of God.

We prepare ourselves today by living in and by Christ.

We prepare ourselves today by putting on the whole armor of God.

We prepare ourselves today by learning to live in the heavenlies.

We prepare ourselves today by confessing and renouncing our sins promptly.

We prepare ourselves today by refusing to fret about the prevailing evil.

We prepare ourselves today by fixing our eyes on Jesus, refusing to look at Satan or to consider him in any manner. Satan is not our god. He is not all-powerful. He goes about accusing the righteous before God, but he cannot harm us while we are following Jesus. He will flee from us if we will submit to God and refuse to yield to temptation.

Jesus is our Lord. Let us consider Him always and not the spiritual darkness around us. Christ is greater than all and we are safe in Him.

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