Does the sight of what is going on in our nation leave you with feelings of despair? The recent train derailments and their devastating aftermath aren’t receiving the attention they should. Food shortages, inflation, an ongoing border crisis, child trafficking, bank failures, subversive infiltration in our schools — all these are seemingly ignored. If we take our focus off of Jesus and become fixated on the current events, we may get swept up in the ever changing narrative. We don’t have to look very far to see evil — but are you also looking to see what God is doing?

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In Hebrews 5:14, the epistle writer speaks to us about having our senses “exercised” — trained — to discern between good and evil. This refers to our spiritual senses, and it’s extremely important, because the unseen world around us is very real. Just as we have senses that function in the natural realm, so do we also have sensory gifts for the spiritual realm. I am going to focus on seeing in the spirit, something that is crucial in this hour. Discernment isn’t only about calling out every devil, which is certainly necessary, but it also confirms whatever is of God.

Ears to hear and eyes to see — both are gifts from the LORD (Proverbs 20:12 NLT).

The book of 2 Kings relates a story about the prophet Elisha and his young servant, in which the enemy king of Aram has sent his forces to capture Elisha, and those forces then surround the city of Dothan. As the astonished young man beholds the surrounding troops and is overcome with fear, Elisha offers an encouraging word and a prayer:

“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2 Kings 6:16–17 NIV).

Imagine an entire army surrounding a city in order to capture and destroy just one man. There was no earthly way Elisha could have escaped. His secret is something we can all learn: It’s called faith — specifically, faith in God. Elisha was confident that the God he served was with him. He even took it a step further and prayed that his servant would be enabled to see that same truth.

Daniel the prophet fasted and interceded for his nation, never knowing what would happen. The Lord opened Daniel’s eyes to see His messengers. And indeed the prophet did come to see those angels, but what he could not see was the warfare being waged in the spiritual realm even while he prayed (see Daniel 9:21 and 10:13).

There is a lot more going on behind the scenes in the spirit realm than we know.

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear” (Matthew 13:16 NLT).

Again, we understand that eyes and ears are both a blessing from God. I believe we tend to get so caught up in the hearing that we sometimes forget God says the eyes to see are equally a divine gift. Many of you see in the form of dreams and visions while you sleep. Some of you have seen or had encounters even while you are awake. If you don’t dream often, or if you do not see in your spirit, don’t feel bad. Here are two ways we can activate the spiritual senses of seeing in our spirit.

The Clean Heart Principle

As Jesus tells His disciples a parable in the Gospel of Matthew, He explains that the reason the Pharisees and many others could not perceive what He was doing was due to the hardness of their hearts:

“ ‘For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes — so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them’ ” (Matthew 13:15 NLT).

What causes hardness of heart? Well, continual sin, rebellion, bitterness, pride, hurt, rejection, unforgiveness, and unbelief will all affect you. Not only can these things defile you, but the outcome will eventually be a hardened heart that is no longer sensitive to the things of God.

And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith (Matthew 13:58 NIV).

Pray and ask Holy Spirit to reveal to you anything that could be hindering you. Ask him to point out any blind spots in your spiritual life. If you are already aware of any such thing, repent of it, renounce it, and turn away from it completely. Ask the Lord to create a clean heart within you (see Psalm 51:10).

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8).

The Sight-Faith Connection

According to Romans 12:3, all believers have been given a measure of faith. Your measure may differ from that of your brother or sister in Christ, but that doesn’t matter. Jesus tells us that faith as small as a mustard seed can uproot a mountain (see Matthew 17:20).

Why are sight and faith connected? Because it takes faith to see what God is doing when the circumstances look impossible. Our physical eyes can only see the natural, but by faith we can see into the unseen. This is supernatural.

Faith assures us of things we expect and convinces us of the existence of things we cannot see (Hebrews 11:1 GWT). This Bible chapter speaks of the heroes of the faith. All of them passed on without having seen (physically) what God had promised, but they did see the promises with their spiritual eyes, and they received those promises by faith.

The great thing about faith is that it can grow — under the right conditions.

Faith comes by hearing the word of God (see Romans 10:17). Faith comes through obedience; we are called to be both hearers and doers of God’s word (see James 1:25). Faith is built up when we pray in the Spirit (see Jude 20). We are called to live by faith (see 2 Corinthians 5:7).

When you do these things, you are exercising your faith and sight.

If you want to see beyond your circumstances — or beyond what is happening in this nation — your faith, hope, and expectation must be found only in the Lord. We must have eyes to see what God is doing and then partner with Him. As intercessors, we believe in the power of prayer, even when it looks impossible. In fact, we know that the word impossible itself means nothing when it comes to our God.

We see catastrophe, corruption, and evil in the natural — but behind the scenes, we know that God is allowing all this, and if He is allowing it, there is a purpose to it. We’ve seen some unimaginable things of late, but we are also seeing revival. We see corruption, but we are also seeing exposure.

Open my eyes so I can see what you show me of your miracle-wonders (Psalm 119:18 MSG).

If you want your spiritual eyes to be opened, let’s pray together:

Father, thank You for being with us in these dangerous times. You are faithful to Your word to never leave or forsake us. Thank You for my ears that hear and for my eyes that see — physically. But I want more. I see so much evil around me that it overwhelms me at times. Lord, I want to see what You are doing.

 As I examine myself before You, I invite Your precious Holy Spirit to search me inside and out. Remove from my eyes any blinders that are keeping me from seeing Your truth. Reveal any unsurrendered areas in my life. Forgive me for allowing unforgiveness and bitterness to take root in my life, causing my heart to harden and my eyes to grow dim. I surrender it all to You. I don’t want anything to be between us. Give me a heart of flesh, not stone, one that is repentant, obedient, and sensitive to Your will.

Touch my eyes Lord — I want to see. Give me dreams and visions in the night, or even in the day. Open my eyes as You opened those of Elisha’s young servant. Remind me that there are more with us than there are against us. As I stay faithful, obedient, prayerful, and in Your word, increase my faith to see how great You are. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

What do you see God doing? Share that with us in the comments below!

IFA contributing writer Gloria Robles is a passionate intercessor with a prophetic voice for today. For more from Gloria, go to Spotify or Anchor and listen to her podcast, Something To Share. Photo Credit: Canva.