Good Morning my brothers and sisters in Christ. I pray you’ve spent the week living intentionally and with purpose. I was reading in the Gospels this morning. More specifically, John 1. Towards the end of the text, we find Jesus preparing to journey to Galilee. He calls, Philip to follow Him. Philip then goes to get Nathanael to whom he says, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Skeptical, Nathanael replied, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Once they arrived the conversation went like this:
When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.” John 1:47-51 NIV
After reading the text I immediately felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit asking me, “have you ever limited Gods ability?” I can remember times where all I wanted was to know that God was listening to me. Not understanding that He knows all, sees all, and has a plan for my life. Maybe like me, you’re someone who needed healing from their past, control of their finances, or peace. All circumstances that Jesus Christ sees.
The Holy Spirit continued to speak to me. Saying, “What we perceive as hard times doesn’t even qualify as an issue to God.” I can look back over my life and glimpses of the times where I was stuck in my hurt, pain, and loss of identity will pop up. They serve as a reminder that I spent so much of my time focused on how I saw myself and what I was going through when God already knew. Not only did He know me but in spite of my flaws, there were things he wanted to do in me that I couldn’t even begin to imagine.
I believe that sometimes when we spend so long desiring to be healed, financially stable, or just to have consistent peace that’s all we can see. We pray without ceasing for our circumstance to change, for our living situation to change, for our relationships to change. Then we find out that as we seek God more He changes less of those things and more of us.
So how does this all tie together with Nathanael and Jesus? Nathanael believes that Jesus is the Messiah because Jesus sees Him under a fig tree. Guess what? No matter what your prayer is or what you’ve been through Jesus sees you. Jesus then goes on to say, you believe I’m the Messiah because I told you I saw you under the tree? He may be saying to us, “You believe I’m the Messiah because you got that promotion?” That’s not even the beginning of what I can really do in your life. Just wait and see what I’m really capable of doing. Heaven will open up and angels will appear. The God that we pray to over relationships ending, doors closing, and our finances. Is the same God who will open the windows of Heaven. Heaven! While we’re worried about Him blessings us with a new car.
We have to stop asking God the perform a miracle on circumstances that He has equipped us to handle. Not everything we pray about requires fire from heaven. This is why He changes us instead of the circumstance because if He can change us then we can change the circumstance.
God sees you. He hears you. You are significant. So much so that he knows the number of hairs on your head. I challenge you today to change how you see Jesus. Understand there’s more to Him than just helping us which means there’s more to us. God has placed all these amazing talents and gifts inside of you. We have to allow our vision to be more like God. I encourage you to see yourself. Get a good look. Then realize that the God who opens Heaven Spirit lives within you. You’re capable of more than what you think. Stop limiting the capacity of the gift that is Christ Jesus. Remember, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Blessings.
Mindful of Me 