RNG Tear Here to Open Breakthrough
February 6, 2023

Listen: There is more to see and do in this world than what you currently see and do.

Ephesians 1:17-23
17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[f] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Let me set the stage for you as we journey together in the WOG and become relevant as a Kingdom

.

Back in the day, we used to sing a song entitled “Open the eyes of my heart Lord I want to see you”.

It’s a decision that happens in you that changes your life forever.

How many of you saw the movie “The Matrix”?

Morpheus is attempting to convince Neo that there is much more to life than what meets the eye on an everyday basis.

  • After introducing the possibility of more to life than what is currently seen, Morpheus gives Neo a choice.

    o He says, “This is your last chance”.

    • After this, there is no turning back.

    • You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe.

      • You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”
      • Wonderland… (Beyond the Atmosphere).

For many of you in this room today, I feel like the Lord is saying to you, this is it… “No Turning Back”.

  • Revolution Now or you believe whatever you want to believe.
  • Same old same old.
  • Groundhogs Day
  • Drowned in hopelessness
  • No purpose…

If you saw the movie, you know that Neo took the red pill. He wanted to see what he was missing and could not wrap his brain around it.

Now, some of us may wear glasses. Some may not see as well as we used to, but we can see the physical world around us.

  • What if I were to tell you that if you look at the world through your eyes, you are settling for the blue pill?

  • You need to step out in

    and take the red pill.

  • If you do, there is a completely different set of eyes that God has made available to you.

  • I want you to see and receive the surgery to get the “eyes of our heart opened”.

Let’s look again at Ephesians 1:17-19.

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of

and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength.

Today, I want you to allow the Holy Spirit to engage you through the word of God and what it means to open the eyes of your hearts.

What Does It Mean?
How many of you know the difference between book smarts and street smarts? My wife & I have gone on some trips that allowed us to experience other cultures.

  • India
  • Turkey
  • Greece
  • Emphasis
  • Italy
  • Hawaii
  • Barbados
  • Puerto Rico

All of these places had flea markets and places where you can buy stuff. I know that every price is negotiable. You can haggle for the best possible deal.

I don’t like to haggle! Whatever the person would ask, I would offer about half just to see what they would say… Take or leave it.

So, what was the difference here?

When God tells us to open the eyes of our hearts, he is basically saying that what you see with your eyes is only part of the equation when it comes to

Him.

Paul, right after praying for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to be given to the believers, adds that “the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened” as well.

What does he mean by this? Well, how do most of you get your information about God?

We can learn about Him by reading His Word.

  • We learn His attributes.
  • We learn about His nature.
  • We learn about His character.
  • By reading God’s word, we can learn a lot about

But you cannot move beyond eye smarts if you only get to know God through what you see naturally.

You must also experience Him.

You have to make a REVOLUTIONARY decision to live out what you read about God.

  • You can’t truly grow to love God just by reading about Him in His Word.
  • It should captivate you to read about His miraculous and Loving nature, but we can only fall in love with Him by having a relationship with Him… having your own personal interaction with Him.

    o That’s what happens when we get the eyes of our hearts open.
    o We move beyond seeing Him only through our physical eyes.
    o Reading and learning about Him through the Bible, we get to see Him for who He is – a loving God who wants a loving

    with us that moves us beyond head knowledge.

Like music, or a delicious dinner. You can represent these things logically and analytically if you choose.

  • Musical score, for instance, is the mathematical representation of music.
  • Symphony can be represented by the notes on a page.
  • Or an audio scope (wavelengths) of sound.

    o You can describe tasting anatomically.

    • You can describe the chemical reactions which occur when we bite into a lemon.
    • But you will never experience the pungent sour taste of a lemon until you bite into one yourself.

    We can describe God theologically.
    We can list His attributes and describe His work in creation and

    .
    But unless you experience God yourself, you will never truly know Him. ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good,’ says Psalm 34:8.”

Basically, Paul is saying that we must experience the Lord’s

.
If you were hungry, would a picture of a burger satisfy you? NO!
If we are to hunger and thirst after God, it means we have to do more than just know about Him. We must open the eyes of our hearts to see and know Him more.
What Can We See?
We can see the reason and purpose behind the Revolution Now… it takes your mindset of you out of the past and catapults you into the current reality of who God is and His that occur through Him for your future.

1 See the hope to which he has called us.

In Romans 5:2-5, “And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character, hope.

2 See the riches of our glorious inheritance.

We will never know how glorious it is until we experience it ourselves.
When the church acts like the true church, it is like a little slice of heaven.
But, we have to open the eyes of our hearts to truly experience it.

3 See His incomparable great power.

We want proof. We want to see it for ourselves before we truly believe. And, because we haven’t seen it happen, we begin to believe that it will never happen. We have to open up our other eyes.
As we spend intimate time with God, He will begin to reveal more and more about himself to us.
So, if we want to see His incomparable great power, we must spend time with Him so He can reveal to us where He is at work and we can go there with Him.

4 Take the Leap (Red Pill)

You will not know it until you ask for it…

Paul states, “I keep asking that God…the glorious Father, may give.” Only God can open these eyes. We can not do it on our own.

Listen, only part of this comes through reading the Word, fasting, & prayer.

  • The rest comes from you entering into a personal with Him in which you experience God.

Note: After taking the red pill, Neo turns to Morpheus and asks, “Why do my eyes hurt?”

  • And, Morpheus responds, “It’s because you have never used them before.”

  • I think many of us are

    of the same thing. We take in all of the sights with our physical eyes, and we neglect to use the eyes of the heart.

  • And because of that, you miss the bigger picture (Revolutionary) that God wants you to see (BE).

I heard it said that “A merely well-informed man is the most useless born on the earth.”

  • We got to have more than intellectual understanding.
  • We have to see beyond the natural.
  • We must see the hope to which He has called us.
  • We must see the riches of our glorious inheritance.
  • We must see His incomparable great power.
  • We must step out in faith, take the (pain) red pill, and get to know God in a more intimate way than we have ever before.

Today… Which pill will you choose? Prayerfully it is this “Gospel”!