For we walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5.7 ESV)
Faith, not sight
This simply means to base our lives on the truth of God’s word rather than what the world and the devil are telling us. The truth is that the world and the devil will always tell us what is contrary to the truth of the word of God.
In this short scripture we have read, we see Apostle Paul contrasting faith and sight. He recommends that our walk with the Lord be not by sight but by faith; that it should not be based on what we see but faith.
We have two sets of eyes
The believer or child of God has two sets of eyes. We are supposed to have two sets of eyes. The first one is the natural or optical eyes. All this set of eyes can see are natural things. Beyond the natural, these eyes cannot see anything.
The second set of eyes the believer should have is the eye of faith. This eye of faith sees further and more clearly than the natural eyes. It sees what the natural eyes cannot see. It looks at things God’s way.
There are some of us whose natural eyes fail us when we don’t wear glasses. But the eye of faith looks beyond the natural and sees further and more clearly than what the natural eyes can see. It looks at things the way God looks at them.
The child of God operates with the eye of faith
The child of God does not operate with the natural eye but with the eye of faith. God expects his children to walk with the eye of faith rather than the natural eye. If your eye of faith has been blinded, may the Lord touch it in this week of fasting and prayer so you can see the way God sees—beyond the natural, seeing the unseen. The difference between the one who walks by faith and the one who walks by sight is that the one who walks by faith sees beyond the natural and his focus is not on his surroundings or the environment.
On the other hand, the one who walks by sight only sees what the natural eye tells him or her. If you are going to succeed, it will take an eye beyond the natural—an eye of faith to see beyond that which is seen.
The man who walks by faith does not only see God but also what God is saying. His focus is not on the natural or the environment. Hence, the natural could be telling him the opposite but the man walking by faith sees God and sees what God is saying.
There are two important reasons we shouldn’t walk by sight.
1. If you walk by sight you will sink
In this year, if you walk by sight you will sink in the middle of the sea. Walking by sight will not get the believer to his destination. There are many of us who at one point or the other have failed to get to where God wants us to get to because we have walked by sight and not by faith.
I remember Peter on the sea. When Jesus asked him to come and he got out of the boat to walk towards Jesus, he was able to do it as long us his focus was on Jesus. However, when he saw the wind, he became and began to sink.
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29.11 ESV)
God has an amazing plan for us. He wants us to get to a certain level. We have the potential to grow and break forth. God has put a lot of things in our hearts and minds. But If we begin to walk in the flesh and begin to look at things with our natural eyes we will not get to where he wants us to get.
There are great and amazing things God has prepared for you, irrespective of the challenges you may be gong through. The Bible says,
But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— (1 Corinthians 2.9 ESV)
There is something waiting for you in this year. There is a kind of blessing God has prepared for you but if you walk with the natural eye you will sink and not get there.
2. If you walk with the natural eye, the only things you will see are the sons of Anak
It’s amazing that, for those who walk by sight, apart from seeing the sons of Anak, they see themselves as grasshoppers.
Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” (Numbers 13.31.33 ESV)
Walking with the natural eye makes you see yourself as a grasshopper and so you will seem to them. Refuse to be a grasshopper for you are a child of God born not by blood but of God—of the spirit.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1.12 ESV)
If you walk by sight, what you see are the sons of Anak and the Nephilim. Besides, the dangerous thing is that you begin to see yourself as a grasshopper and so do you seem to them. This is a year of faith—a year in which we must be lifted up by faith.
3. Sight only shows the surface of things
Sight gives you an impression that is not the reality. It gives you the impression that you are poor but we aren’t poor because he became poor that we might become rich.
Sight does not show how God is working. When you walk by sight you don’t see how God is working.
Sight does not show us what God has prepared for us. You see failure, impossibilities, “I cannot do it,” and “it cannot work.”
Keys that open the heavens
I believe that there are keys that open the heavens—keys that give us access. One of them is obedience. When you obey, God blesses you. Another key is prayer. Another is tithes and offerings. Another, a major one, is faith. There are things that God says that it takes faith to obey. Abraham sacrificing his son took faith. Abraham leaving his father’s house took faith. It takes faith to obey. Prayer is a key but it must be made in faith. In fact, it even takes faith to fast.
Sight will always give you the wrong impression.
May your faith begin to rise. This is a year where we are going to activate our faith and walk by it. The devil will attack but we are not afraid of his attacks. By faith we shall crush the works of the enemy so, no matter the schemes of the evil one, we know by faith we shall succeed.
The whole Christian walk is a walk of faith. How were you saved? By faith. It is by faith we are justified. So, the Bible says that without faith no one can please God. (Hebrews 11.6)
Main reference
2 Corinthians 5.7
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