Seeing the Invisible
“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2Co 4:16-18).
You are a spirit, you have a soul, and dwell in a physical body. you can contact two spheres of existence or two realms: the visible and the invisible. The visible realm consists of the material universe all around us. The invisible is the realm of God and the world of spirits. This is the higher realm. “Through faith we understand that the worlds came into being, and still exist, at the command of God, so that what is seen does not owe its existence to that which is visible” (Heb 11:2, Weymouth). So the Scriptures tell us that there is a seen realm and an unseen realm.
According to this passage, the visible realm came out of the invisible. The things we see came out of the things we do not see. The invisible realm rules the visible, and everything that happens in the visible realm is a result of what already took place in the invisible world.
With our outward eyes, we see physical things, the things in the material universe. With our mind’s eye or our imagination, we can see things in the mental universe: we can see reason and see things that are mentally or psychologically apparent. However, we cannot see into the invisible realm with our physical or mental eyes. The realm of the invisible belongs to the spirit man.
The dictionary defines the word “visible” as “capable of being seen, manifest or apparent.” “Invisible,” on the other hand, refers to things that cannot be seen: “not accessible to view, hidden and inconspicuous.”
“How in the world,” you might ask, “can anyone look at the invisible?” Definitely not with these external eyes of ours, but with the eyes of the spirit. The eyes of the recreated human spirit can see the invisible world to which it belongs.
If we always look with our external physical eyes only, we would only see circumstances, weakness, failure, defeat, inability, poverty, and “giants in the land” arrayed against us. This is because our enemy, the devil, dominates the physical realm and can manipulate external evidence to gain advantage over us. But if we walk in the spirit, look up into the spiritual realm above the visible, and fix our eyes on the Only Potentate whom no human eye has seen or can see, we will constantly see supernatural ability, strength, health, wealth, success, and victory in store for us, and we will declare like Caleb and Joshua that we are well able to overcome the giants in the land (Num 13:30).
Caleb and Joshua fixed their eyes on the Word of God, the Word of promise made by the One who dwells in the invisible realm, rather than on the giants in the land they went to spy on. The other ten spies fixed their eyes on the giants, and on the land that devoured the inhabitants. As they kept looking at the giants, the odds against them kept growing, until they overwhelmed and defeated them and their whole congregation. But Caleb and Joshua, gazing at the Word of Almighty God, even though their external eyes saw the giants like the other ten spies, declared, “We are able to go up and take the country” (Num 13:30).
“By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible” (Heb 11).
How did Moses endure affliction? He endured affliction by faith. The Bible says he endured by looking at Him who is invisible. The Amplified Bible renders this verse as saying, “He never flinched but held staunchly to his purpose and endured steadfastly as one who gazed on Him who is invisible.” Another rendering of the verse, from the New International Version, reads, “By faith he left Egypt not fearing the king’s anger, he persevered because he saw Him who is invisible.” Moses did not fix his eyes on his circumstances. He had many of them if he wanted to, but he was steadfast in holding on to the Word of God, and so endured all the trials, afflictions, and seeming rejections, because he saw Him who is invisible.
Let’s consider for a moment the faith of Father Abraham. God called him to get out of his father’s house, out of his inheritance, and go to a new place that God would give him to inherit. When he was called, he did not receive instructions concerning exactly where he was going, yet he set out. He left all he had and set his face toward the country that he had been promised by God.
Can you imagine what people would have been saying to him? Some concerned relatives probably stopped him by the roadside and said, “Abram, I hear you’re leaving home. Where are you going? Why are you leaving home, and who told you to leave?” I can picture Abraham replying to these pagan people that the God of heaven, who is invisible, spoke to him and told him to leave his family and go to a place, not yet specified, that would be his for inheritance. They probably looked at Abraham from toe to head and concluded, “His elevator no longer goes all the way to the top.” They were sure that Abraham was out of his mind.
But the Bible says that Abraham believed God, stepped out by faith, and set his eyes like a flint on the “city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb 11:8-10).
Abraham was not looking for an earthly inheritance; his gaze was on the things above. He was a man of faith and therefore set out when he was called, although he did not know where he was going. His eyes were fixed on the words of Him who cannot lie. Even his name, Abraham, was after this light. His original name, Abram, was changed by God to Abraham, which means “the father of many nations.” This was while they had no child, for Sarah was still barren and Abram was 99 years old. Yet he believed God.
“As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations, before God whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things that be not as though they were.”
Looking at the invisible is calling “those things that be not as though they were.” Faith teaches us to fix our eyes on the invisible. All our provisions are kept in the invisible realm. Our salvation, our deliverance, our health, our wealth, our strength, our safety, our peace—all we need has been purchased and kept in the spiritual realm. All we need to do is to reach up into that higher realm, and in the name of Jesus, cash the check.
All the answers to our needs and all the solutions to our problems are given to us when we ask God for them. God answers when we call. The gap between our prayer and its manifestation in the visible realm is filled by faith. Faith sees the answer immediately; it gets there in the spiritual realm and rejoices. In the meantime, while we wait for a visible manifestation, faith is the substance of the granted request. Faith is the evidence that the answer to our request exists in the invisible dimension.
Faith can be considered as the link between the visible and the invisible world where God dwells. He dwells in the realm of faith and operates by faith, calling those things that be not as though they were.
In the key text for this section, taken from the Epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle started by talking about the outward and the inward man. He said that though our outward man, this physical house in which we live, is waxing old and perishing, yet the invisible man, the spiritual man, or the hidden man of the heart is being renewed day by day. He went on to state that our light affliction, which is momentary, will result in an eternal weight of glory if we look not on it, but on the Word of God, the invisible realm.
Let’s consider this statement for a moment. Paul’s afflictions could be described as anything but light. He was beaten thrice with rods, was stoned and left for dead once, suffered shipwreck thrice, spent a day and a night in the deep, received 39 stripes five times from the Jews, was in peril of water, peril of robbers, and peril in the city, and so on. You call this light affliction? No, not at all! But Paul was not looking at the things that are seen. His attention was focused on the things not seen. Therefore, all these afflictions faded away and became light as Paul kept his eyes on “things not seen.”
Notice that this passage clearly identifies the two worlds that we have been describing: the seen world and the unseen. People often misunderstand invisible things as being unreal or as nothing. This is erroneous. Hebrews 11:3 does not say that God created the world out of nothing, but that He did not create the world out of visible things:
“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Heb 11:3).
The world came forth out of the invisible realm of God. God created the universe and the reaches of space using His building blocks, which exist in the invisible world of spirits. He created them all by His Word. Starting on the first day of creation when He said, “Let there be light,” He created the firmament, and the ocean, and the dry land, and the sky, and the flying creatures, and the ones that live in the ocean and on land. He created them all. He brought them forth out of things which did not yet appear.
Therefore, if seen-things came out of unseen-things, the unseen-things must be at least as real as the things that we see. God dwells in the unseen realm. God’s building blocks, His creative blocks, are in the unseen realm. He spoke His Word, and His Word operated on the things that were not seen to produce the things we now see. The unseen realm is eternal and mightier than the natural, physical, seen and can-be-seen world.
We believers belong to this unseen spiritual realm, though we live and walk in the flesh. Yes, we belong to the two worlds, but we should primarily walk in the realm of faith, for we are spirit beings and are destined to live by faith. We walk by faith, not by sight.
Notice the passage states that the things that are seen are temporal or subject to change, but the things that are not seen are eternal. This means that the sickness, poverty, unemployment, economic meltdown, and any other physical, mental, or financial difficulties facing you today are subject to change. They are temporary, but the words of promise from God are yea and Amen and are eternal.
Why should you fix your eyes on something that will soon vanish, when you have the immutable Word of the Almighty? Whose testimony will you believe? Why not trust and rely on something that will survive and last? Look not at the problems, but fix your eyes on the Word of God who has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you, that you may boldly say, the Lord is my helper.”
How did Paul say we would get our afflictions to work an eternal weight of glory for us? He said it would happen while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. If we keep looking at the afflictions and the financial depression, they will grow worse and worse, but if we fix our eyes on the Word of God, the problems will work for us an eternal weight.
The negative circumstances that we’re in today are temporary. The financial difficulties facing you today are temporary. The health issues facing you today are subject to change. Circumstances change, situations change, man changes, and time changes things and people, but God lives on and on and remains the same. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for ever.” He is the God and His Word is forever settled in heaven.
“For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, returneth not thither, watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; So shall my word be that goeth forth out my mouth, It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that to which I please and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isa 55:10-11).
If we always remind ourselves that the circumstances we face are temporary and subject to change, but that the Word of God never changes, it will help us act in faith. We will not meditate on the problems, but on the Word.
As we keep looking at the Word of God and looking at Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, the unfavorable circumstances will begin to change. This is how to change the seen by looking into the unseen.