Isaiah 49:16
"See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.’

The prophetic verse above starts with the verb ‘see’. It’s a command. It signifies that the promise only happens if you can see it.

The command ‘see’ sounds may sound quite simple, and should be easy to obey. It is, however, not a very easy one to obey. You may be tempted to think that ‘see’ means to ‘imagine what it would look like.’ This is the interpretation that the sensual (intellect-dominated mind) will succumb to.

But that’s not what it means.

When God says ‘see’, it does not mean imagine.

Imagine is what happens when you paint a mental picture of something. It is your imagination using word pictures and descriptions to form a mental picture of something. There’s a world of difference between imagining and seeing.

Let me illustrate.

If I were to ask you to imagine what a gold-covered mountain looked like, you would refer to pictures stored in your mind; recorded pictures of gold (maybe, gold dust) and that of a mountain (probably from a magazine you’ve seen). Then you would try to forge these fragments of recorded pictures into a complete whole to set up a mental picture of a gold-covered mountain.

If, on the other hand, I asked you to see a gold-covered mountain, you would turn towards the direction signaled by my eyes, pointing finger or any other method I would have used to indicate its location. And if you were unable to see it, you would respond with something like, "where is it?" I could then show it to you by referring you to a picture, a video, or probably a definite point in space.

The mountain I would have shown you — the one you would have seen — unlike the one you would have imagined, would not be a product of your mental brush. It would exist outside your mind as an independent reality.

To see means to look at; it means that I’m showing you something.

With regards to God’s word, to see means that you know with absolute certainty and unwavering conviction, that His Word is your unshakeable and unchanging reality.

Beware of the supplanter

When God precedes His promise with ‘see’, He is saying that it won’t happen unless you see it.

Satan understands this – the power of sight; so he supplants God’s command to see with something else – something from the soul; the stuff from which new age and occultism is made: imagine.

There is definitely room for our imagination in God’s purpose. God created our minds, and the imagination is an aspect of it. So, there is nothing wrong with using your imagination. In fact, you should be able to harness your imagination profitably.

However, the imagination is not supposed to be used when God says, "see." When God says "see," and you imagine, you are bound to miss it; and if you are not careful, you may fall into the fowler’s snare.

The following incident will illustrate my point:

³⁵ The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. ³⁶ When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!"
 ³⁷ When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.

John told his disciples to ‘look’, or, see. What if, after he had said that, they had attempted to imagine the ‘Lamb of God’? What do you think the picture in their minds would have looked like? Would they have thought of a ‘human being’ or a literal lamb?

If they had tried to imagine what ‘the Lamb of God’ would look like, using their natural human brains, they would certainly have painted the wrong picture.

Similarly, if you try to merely imagine God’s promises, God’s word, you will paint the wrong picture.

But this is exactly what the enemy’s wants you to do: to imagine, rather than see what God is saying. His aim is to disconnect us from God through his deceptive interpretations of God’s word.

Therefore, be warned. To see is not to imagine what it would look like.

Seeing is spiritual

Thinking on something again, and again, and again – what New Age gurus, and most folks ignorantly refer to as meditation – is not the same as seeing. Furthermore, it does not lead to seeing either. Seeing does not come by mental gymnastics, a.k.a meditation; it comes by divine revelation.

When God says, "see," it means that he has a reality before you. He is showing you something; so, when He says, "see," you should respond with something like, "where?"

When God says, "see," it is an invitation to come and look. He is simply calling you into fellowship and intimacy.

God says, "See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.’ ~ Isaiah 49:16

You respond, "Show me Lord. Help me to see. Open my eyes to see what you are saying; what you are showing."

Here’s how David did it:

"Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law."

~ Psalm 119:18

David understood that only God can show you His word. Only God can show you what He is saying.

You don’t need any explanations

Recently, one of the pastors in our church asked me, "How do you get the money that you give in your offerings?" My guess was that she was amazed at the amount of money I give in each service, since I do not earn any regular salaries, or receive obvious income.

I replied in the words of the Apostle Paul, "God supplies seed to the sower."

"How?" she persisted, "please explain."

"You don’t need an explanation," I answered. "You need a divine revelation; you need to see what I’m saying."

Now, that might sound a bit too simplistic. In reality, however, it is a profound mystery; and it doesn’t need any explanations. I mean, you can’t understand it literally. It must be discerned spiritually. God has to show it to you.

In short, to see what God is saying, you need revelations, not explanations. And when you can see it, you can become it. Revelation is the key to awareness, which in turn is the key transformation. Faith comes by hearing the word; transformation comes by seeing the word.

Abundance is not just God’s nature. It is your nature. You realize and release this nature through awareness. This awareness comes from God through revelation. As far as God is concerned, you can only become what you can behold.