Priscilla Shirer: Keep Your Eyes Fixed on Jesus

when you keep your eyes focused on the character of God when you refuse to allow yourself to question who God is you can ask questions of God without questioning God do you see the difference in the little Nuance there ask your questions I've got mine I'm sure you've got yours but you and I can ask questions about our situation and about all of these multitudes that we are facing without questioning the character of God keep your eyes on [Music] Jesus Lord I thank you I thank you that your word is living active sharper than any

two-edged sword Lord I pray that in these next few moments you would do what you do take these simple thoughts drill them deeply down into our souls make us different after we hear your voice today in Jesus name I pray amen amen my niece is name is Caris we've called her Care Bear since the day that she was born I you know she's a grown woman with children now and I still call her Care Bear uh but Caris when she was little I remember on this one occasion she was at my parents house so her

grandparents house we were all there hanging out and she was running around in the backyard and this stray dog came out of nowhere the dog was barking and in her mind this dog was incredibly vicious and was getting ready to attack her we were a little bit older so we could see that the dog really wasn't that big and the dog really wasn't going to do any damage he was probably just hyper and active and excited to see some humans in the backyard that day but to Caris at 3 years old really small that dog

looked vicious and so she was running away from this dog in Terror now you know the more you run the more the dog thinks you want to play so the dog is chasing her and chasing her more frantically and more feverishly and barking more loudly and the more all of that escalated the more fear was rre in kris's heart so she ran she ran and my dad her grandfather saw the chaos outside walked outside onto the back patio opened up his arms so that Caris would be able to run directly into his arms so she

ran as fast as she could ran directly into his arms and he scooped her up and once he scooped her up she was now high above the ground level where the dog was she looked down at the dog looked back into the face of her grandfather look back back down at the dog looked back up into the face of her grandfather over and over again tears streaming down her face finally she was able to compose herself and wipe them away as the dog continued to bark and she looked down at the dog finally and said

because now everything changed cuz she was in her father's arms and she was looking into her grandfather's face Everything Changes based on what you are looking at that's the challenge I have for you today what are you looking at cuz listen there's so much to see when you scroll past your uh Twitter feed when you scroll through your Instagram feed when you watch the news whatever Channel you tend to watch no matter where you are your vision is centered you're going to see and look at things that are vying for our attention and some of

those things when we give them our attention they cause discouragement to settle in on us I mean you can literally feel it the anxiety like a cloak weighing you down burdening you keeping you up at night making the tears fall from your eyes if you look at your problems too long in your personal life or the struggles that we're facing collectively in our culture and in our world if you look at them too long they're going to make the tears flow from your eyes they're going to make your heart palpitate they're going to keep you

from being able to have a sense of stability emotionally and mentally in your life so I ask you again what are you looking at what are you giving your attention to doesn't mean avoidance doesn't mean denial it doesn't mean awareness of the realities that you are facing in your relationships or in dynamics that we are facing culturally it doesn't mean you're not aware it just means that you give not just the same amount of attention but you give an escalated prioritized amount of attention that you are looking at who your God is the promises that

he has has declared and his truth as he has written it down in his word I'm asking you where have you been looking what have you been giving your attention to maybe so much of the struggles that we've had to have a sense of peace and stability and ease is because we've been fixing our eyes on the wrong thing the writer of Hebrews would put it this way fix your eyes on Jesus he's the author he's the finisher of our faith meaning he is still Sovereign he is still in control he's still Seated on the

throne he still is who he said he is and he can still do everything that he says that he can do nothing that is happening in your personal life or mine in our culture or yours nothing that is happening is outside of the control of our great God but you might forget that if you keep looking at the chaos swirling around you you've got to be intentional so do I about meditating on the truths of God about looking into them and finding out what are his promises that he declares to be true about my family

about my health about my son about my daughter about my church about my country about my culture that I live in what has he declared to be true I'm going to meditate on this more than I meditate on everything else where have you been fixing your eyes there is a story in Scripture that I'm continually drawn back to I have been for years in fact in 2 Chronicles chap 20 if you still use a Bible you know a Bible with actual paper pages and you want to turn back there with me you can otherwise your

iPhone your iPad any manner of iness that you have available to you you can get to Second Chronicles it's in the Old Testament there's a first Chronicles but also a 2 Chronicles and in 2 Chronicles chapter 20 there is a verse that leaps out at me every time I see it part of the reason it leaps out at me is because I've underlined it and I underlined it back in 2010 okay so I have several things that I've underlined throughout um this Bible that my parents gave me when I was about 17 years old uh

different color highlights different color underlines and I I just value this Bible so much because it's actually like a little bit of a track record of my relationship with God back in 2010 for reasons I don't know I underlined this verse I can't remember what was happening but I put the the date right beside it it was December of 2010 about 10 years from where we are right now 10 years ago and I underlined this verse it's a verse that still speaks to me as poignantly today as it did back then and listen if you

underline stuff or highlight stuff on your electronic Bible or your paper Bible this is a verse that deserves to be emphasized 2 Chronicles 20 verse 12 King Jehoshaphat prays and says we are powerless God before this great multitude who are coming against us we don't know what to do but our eyes are on you I'mma read it again Jehoshaphat prays he's honest and he says because of this great multitude we are powerless and we don't know what to do but Lord this is one thing we do know we do know where we're setting our eyes

our eyes are on you Jehosaphat was the king of Judah and he was a good King he was known for revering God he was known for leading people into relationship with God he was known for acting resolutely and trying to get everyone under his jurisdiction to honor Yahweh as the one true God in fact what's so interesting is that that is actually what comes right before this segment of scripture in chapter 20 where we're going to find out what made Jehosaphat have to pray like that what made this king who had so much power at

his disposal who had tactical teams at his disposal who had weapons and armor at his disposal what is it that would make a king that great call out to God and say I am powerless and not only am I powerless I'm planless this multitude this Army this trouble that I'm facing is so chaotic and so overwhelming and so disparaging that I know I am powerless in the face of this multitude what would make make a king pray like that right before chapter 20 where all of that unfolds the last line of the previous chapter the

verse that came right be before that tells us that Jehosaphat acted resolutely and he was upright now listen I think that's interesting that the verse that comes right before all of this chaos unfolds in chapter 20 is a verse telling us that this King has made a decision to act resolutely and to honor God now if this don't tell us about the schemes of the enemy I don't know what does cuz I can tell you right now as soon as you make the decision to honor God in some area of your life as soon as

you decide that you're going to be Resolute in your integrity that you're going to honor God in the tithes and offering that you're going to offer the Forgiveness that the spirit of God is telling you to offer that you are going to lead your family in the ways of the Lord that you're going to honor your commitment to be in the word of God on a daily basis as soon as you like the king of Judah determined to act resolutely you can know that chapter 20 is on the way and in chapter 20 there is

a multitude that is going to come against you a scheme of the enemy to try to water down the resolution that you are making and in this day and age you need to know that the enemy is scheming against you and against me particularly right now as the people of God because more now than ever our light needs to shine now more than ever we need to be salt so that people can taste and see that our God is good he's going to try to water down our resolutions so Jehoshaphat makes this resolution and the

very next chapter chapter 20 he finds such a great multitude coming against him that he admits I feel like I'm powerless I feel like I don't even have a plan to be able to handle this Army this multitude that has come up against me but this I do know my eyes Lord are going to be on you so follow me back up to the first verse of chapter 20 and you'll see what was happening in jehoshaphat's experience it says now after this after what jehoshaphat's resolution to honor God right after that resolution it says that

the sons of moabit and Ammon together with the minites came to make war against Jehoshaphat now let's just let that sit right there for a moment we've got not one Army not two armies but three armies that have chosen to come up against Jehoshaphat the moabites the ammonites and the minion ites now what you should know is that two of those armies Judah had faced before two of them weren't new the moabites and the ammonites were two people groups that Judah had faced previously you can find record of it throughout the Old Testament those two

particular enemies that had come up against Judah they had made war against them before in other words Judah knew about the strategies of those two particular enemies they had faced them before they had probably studied their tactical P plans they were aware about these two enemies and so had it just been these two armies that had come up against the king of Judah I wonder if verse 12 would have ever been uttered I wondered if Jehosaphat would have ever said Lord I don't have the power God I don't have a plan but my eyes were

on are on you I wonder if it was just those two would jehoshaphat's prayer not have been as fervent as specific I wonder if he had been as intentional about focusing on Yahweh and having his eyes secured to Yahweh if his Circumstances had not been quite as dire because he'd faced these two enemies before just like those enemies you've faced before you know the ones that honestly if you just pay a little bit of attention you can see them coming because they're nothing new you know the the trouble you had in your marriage in year

two now you're dealing with it in year 20 it ain't nothing new it's just an escalated version of the same difficulties you were having before or that child now you know he's 15 and the stuff you're dealing with at 15 really when you think about it it's the same stuff you were dealing with when they were three it's just an escalated version of the exact same issues or the anxiety that you face this is not a new anxiety it may be attached to a new scenario but honestly if you you look back you can see

that this is the same kind of anxiety that overtakes you about these kinds of issues and you've been dealing with this for the last decade or so if we are careful and if we are watchful and if we are mindful we can actually see that the enemy ain't that creative the enemy has always come to steal to kill and destroy and if we'll just take a moment we'll be able to detect where his fingerprints are where he tries to stop us or discourage us or to cause us to think that we are defeated even though

he knows he can never defeat us if we are Sons and Daughters of the most high God have you paid attention about the enemies the issues the dilemas the schemes the tactics that the enemy has been trying to use against you because if you and I will look carefully we'll see that he's been trying to trip our child up in that way for a long time he's been trying to trip our marriage up in that same way in different varied forms but that same general direction for a long time he's been trying to discourage us

in our ministry or in our careers are on our jobs culturally and collectively he's been trying to trip us up in that same way for a long time these ain't new enemies and when you are facing the same enemy over and over again that means you should be girded you and I should be prepared we should be proactive about making sure we can stand firm against that scheme of the enemy I was thinking about this in relation to my son JC he's my second son I have three boys Jackson is the oldest Jerry Jr is

my middle son we call him JC and then Jude is my youngest they've been with me uh to Hillsong New York many many times and my second son had an allergic reaction early on in his life to the change in seasons and you know we're in Texas so around the fall and coming out of winter into the spring we could have 40 degrees one day and then you know 78 degrees the next day it just fluctuates and goes up and down and he was having um allergies in related to that but it seemed to be

more than allergies it was something with his bronchial tubes his respiratory system just was not responding well I took him to the doctor and she said yeah his bronchial tubes are definitely inflamed but she said I really don't want to label him an asthmatic because I think it's something that really we can get under control but she said Priscilla here's what I need you to do I'm going to give you a breathing system so that he can have treatments at home you'll give you a little a little um antibiotic that you'll put inside of this

little breathing system you'll put it on his nose and put it in the mask and have him breathe through it so that he can ingest this medication and do his bronchial tubes and she said Priscilla don't wait until he's wheezing to do it do it proactively meaning if you can see because the meteorologist is telling you that the weather is getting ready to change suddenly we already have enough years enough track record with JC's Health to be able to know in advance that if the weather's going to shift suddenly he's going to have a bronchial

reaction to it so Priscilla if you as a responsible parent will be mindful of the weather changes and will proactively give him this um preventative medication beforehand it will keep his lungs or his bronchial tubes from spasming in the way they've been spasming in the past it would be irres responsible parenting for me to know how his bronchial tubes are going to react and not prepare proactively think about the ways that the enemy has been seeking to take advantage of you in the past think about the ways he's tried to make you feel unstable or

he's tried to infringe upon the sanctity of your marriage think about the ways he's trying to trip your son or daughter up because of the weaknesses that they already have in their flesh or the tendencies that they may have think about them and pray pray to that end search the scriptures for the promises of God in regards to that specific issue post those promises in your home so that you can have your whole family alert to What God Says in that regard Paul says Ephesians chapter 6 put on the full armor of God so that

you can stand firm against the schemes of the enemy what are some things that you were facing that honestly when you think about it it's like these two enemies that Jehoshaphat Judah was facing there nothing new we've faced these enemies before so for Jehosaphat two of these were common enemies so the reason why in verse 12 Jehosaphat likely says I'm powerless and I'm planless I can't even come up with a plan even if I had the power I wouldn't have the Insight the knowledge the discernment the wisdom to be able to figure out a plan

to stand against this multitude the reason why he says it is because of this third Army it's the minion ites it's the alliance and the merging of all three of these difficult situations these armies these multitudes coming against them all at one time that's what causes him to say I'm powerless that's what causes him to say I can't even come up with a plan the reality is that for many of us it's not just the pandemic it's that the pandemic was piled on to a time in our life where we already were dealing with our

own problems it's not just the isolation it's the isolation layered on top of the issues we were already dealing with it's not just the virus it's the virus piled on to the fact that we felt like we couldn't get Victory before any of this started it's not just the new Army it's that we were already dealing with other ones when the third one showed up so now we feel like we're surrounded on all sides kind of reminds me lot of the children of Israel in Exodus chapter 13 right after they've been freed from Egypt they

come up against the Red Sea it's not just the Red Sea that actually causes the problem it's that pharaoh and the Egyptian Army are coming up behind them and Scholars say that there would have been so many thousands of them that they would have spanned out around the west and the east side of the children of Israel as those refugees tried to escape to the promised land so it wasn't just that the Red Sea was in front it's that pharaoh and his army were behind and beside so they were surrounded on all sides I know

that you know how that feels cuz I know how it feels it's when you've got a struggle in this part of your life and then another one pops up on this side of your life and then just when you feel like you've taken care of that one then this one pops up and then just when you got a little bit of a handle on that one then this one pops up and then when your personal life is a little bit settled today then culturally something strikes up in our country or in our culture or in

our world or in the life of a friend and all of a sudden you're surrounded all over again and in the face of all of that surrounding Calamity and Chaos sometimes we can say exactly like Jehosaphat did now I can admit I'm powerless I do not know what to do but here's what we can say even when we are powerless and even when we are planless we can say I don't know what to do but this I do know my eyes are going to be fixed on you fixing your eyes on Jesus when you're surrounded

is what I believe is one of the benefits it's one of the outworkings of God's purposes when he allows his children to be surrounded Ed by difficult circumstances I always hesitate to say when God has caused something I've heard folks say maybe that God has been the cause of some of the negative things that we've been facing in our country and in our culture and in our world I always hesitate to say what God is or is not doing but this I do know everything that happens in your life in mine in my country in

yours in my culture and in yours every everything that happens has to first pass through the fingers of God before it ever enters in into our experience so whether or not God caused it I don't know but this I can say with a sure level of certainty he has allowed it and if he's allowed it that means it's going to be for your good and it's going to be for his glory that means there's something that is supposed to be birthed out of it if we'll just pay attention and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus

not only will US keeping our eyes on him like Caris keeping her eyes on her grandfather was able to give her a sense of steadiness and security and stability even though trouble was still um in her sphere of influence not only will it keep you stable but it will allow you to see that there is a good God who is still Seated on the throne who has not been displaced from his position of omniscience and omnipresence and sovereignty and complete control he is not surprised by the things that have surprised us why would he allow

them we may never know on this side of Eternity but what we can know is that our God is good that he is faithful and if nothing else all of the chaos that is swirling around us and the multitudes that we are facing in our midst they may make us afraid as they do with Jehosaphat in 2 Chronicles chapter 20 you'll see Jehosaphat say I'm afraid I don't know what to do but you can make the commitment that your eyes will be on Jesus change the way you handle this situation it'll change the way you

face the difficulty it'll change the way you wake up each day instead of being hopeless like so many others and they are now questioning their faith and they are doubting who God is when you keep your eyes focused on the character of God when you refuse to allow yourself to question who God is you can ask questions of God without questioning God do you see the difference in the little Nuance there ask your questions I've got mine I'm sure you've got yours but you and I can ask questions about our situation and about all of

these multitudes that we are facing without questioning the character of God keep your eyes on Jesus Jehosaphat says my eyes are fixed on you and if there is one thing that being surrounded on all sides is supposed to do in our lives it's supposed to refocus our attention so that since we've tried everything else and since we've run to all these other resources and we' found them lacking that there is no solution that they're not powerful enough that they're not calculated enough that they're not diligent enough that they are not able to stand up against

this great multitude that we are facing finally this kind of difficulty is the one that makes us drop to our knees and look to the kills from whence cometh our help do you realize this is what he's been after all along refocusing our priority our attention calling us back to him calling us back to a fervent fresh fiery relationship with him where we don't just you know read a verse a day to keep the devil away where we don't just say a casual prayer because it's what we're supposed to do where we don't just tune

into online services because it's what we're supposed to do since we can't go to actual church anymore that least I can do is give God this hour of tuned in fellowship with him on a Sunday it's got to be about more than that Jehosaphat says my eyes daily are now going to be fixed on you that's intentional it's deliberate it's proactive it means that you are making it a priority to meet with God over the scriptures in a time when so many people are choosing now to trust the opinions of everyone else they're choosing to

hear and lean into and look to everyone else as the source of Truth this is the time when the Sons and Daughters of God fix our eyes back on the truth of God's word that we cultivate friendship with God in prayer that we remind ourselves that the holy spirit of God lives on the inside of us so that we can have insight and Revelation and walk in wisdom and discernment and integrity all the days of our life I don't know what the Army is that has surrounded you I don't know the multitude that has surrounded

you I could tell you the multitude that's surrounding me and 2 Chronicles 20:2 reminds me that when I am surrounded when I feel powerless and when I can't even come up with a plan cuz stuff has gotten too thick for me to even come up with a plan this is the one thing I can do I can make sure my eyes are focused on Jesus I want to be vulnerable with you for a moment and tell you that since I last saw you in person uh there has been so much that has happened in my

life difficult stuff I feel like I've been surrounded on all sides kind of like Jehosaphat was explaining a few moments ago surrounded by difficulty obviously there have been so many things that have surrounded all of us globally but even before we got to 2020 can I just tell you that the 18 months leading up to it were particularly trying and difficult for um me and for my family it started a couple of years ago when my uncle my dad's brother passed away and then 6 months later my cousin winter she was not just my cousin

she was my best friend she suddenly died at 37 years old left a husband and four young girls she was fine we were planning to go to the movies the next day as a matter of fact I still have the voxes on my phone as we were boxing each other back and forth about what movies we were going to go see together the next day um and then suddenly she had a malfunction of the heart and her heart stopped beating and she died 6 months after that my aunt my dad's sister so this is the

same side of the family she passed away 3 months after she passed away my uncle James her husband died we were just trying to catch our breath reeling from all the losses in our family when just several months later another cousin in her 30s passed away from a mass that they found in her chest just a couple of weeks after she started coughing and realized that there was something that even needed medical attention she left a husband and two small children and then all of this time my mother's health had been ailing it was a

diagnosis of cancer a rare and aggressive form of cancer that had come out of nowhere my mom was an extraordinarily healthy 69 at the time 69 year-old woman she still went to the gym she ate right she was healthy and active and we had a great relationship um our whole family and the doctors told us that there was a cancer that they had found there was nothing they could do about it we tried everything that we could but in December 2019 we could see that my mother's health was rapidly declining and just about the time

when my mom was getting to her 70th birthday December 1st of 2019 right around those days as we were now taking care of my mother pretty much day and night my sister and I sort of moved back in we were there during the nights and there during the day right about the time that December rolled around and we were all focused on her my grandfather my my father's father who we affectionately called two Daddy he passed away at 90 years old and so I remember right there at the beginning of December celebrating my mother's 70th

birthday at the same time I was jumping on a plane me my husband and I to rush with my father to go see his father before two daddy passed away our beloved grandfather and then having to be there to funeralized him while half of us siblings stayed home with my mom to take care of her and so it was just a juggling of emotions and hardship and struggle we felt surrounded on all sides and then it would only be about 30 days later on December 30th 2019 that my mother would slip away to Eternity while

her four children and my dad were all surrounding her we funeralized my mother a week after she died and it would be a week later that I personally would have to go into surgery um for them to remove the upper lobe of my left lung because of something that they found there that had to be taken out and the only way to get it was to remove the whole lobe of my lung that took us into January of 2020 when I had that surgery and then while still trying to even get my breath back reeling

from that surgery and then the losses especially the loss of my own mother then of course for all of us the pandemic hit civil unrest racial unrest bubbled up to the surface in our country the political climate became more adversarial the chaos was swirling around us if there's ever a time in my life and I'm sure in your life as well that we feel like Jehosaphat where we're surrounded on all sides that time is right now and here's what I came to tell you that the solution and the encouragement is tucked away in in Elijah's

prayer admit that you are powerless God I can't do it I can't have emotional stability and security I can't even take care of my own physical body I can do the best that I can but still even when I'm doing the best that I can there are inner workings of my physical frame that only you can tend to so father even with the best that I can do in my relationships or in my finances or uh being an instrument to be used in culture For Your Glory and to stand up for righteousness and Justice I

can do the best that I can do but father I recognize that against an army like this with everything I see happening on my Twitter feed and my Instagram feed on social media on the news channels that I'm watching with enemies like this I admit like Jehosaphat did I am powerless against this great Army and not only am I powerless but God I am plan lless I don't even I don't even have a plan the highest Heights of my wisdom can't even figure out how to handle this difficulty I'm having in my personal private life

or in the culture and Country in which I live father I am powerless against this great multitude and I don't know what to do but here's what I can tell you my eyes my eyes are on you here's what I wonder I wonder if that is what he he's been after anyway a church whose eyes are back on him not the programs not the buildings not even the services collectively Gathering physically like we've grown so used to and of course we'll come back to at some point but I wonder if this is the time where

he wanted to shake us awake out of spiritual complacency and draw us back to him get your eyes on me he calls out to the Church to you and to me let's look back to Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith he is still where our help comes from one of my favorite movies in recent years was The Incredibles too I like The Incredibles the first one and the second one but I got to tell you if you didn't see the second one you must because it was really good and in this one

alasa girl you know the wife she kind of comes up to the Forefront just a little bit and so do the children they are all using uh Mr Incredible AA girl and their kids those kids are all using all the superpowers that they have to stand against the evils of the day and at one point alaster girl in True Mother fashion she's worried about her kids there are just too many demands on them there's too much they're having to do they're they're basically having to grow up real quick and mature in their superpower skills real

quick and she's worried about them and she says to her husband in a sweet moment she says to him but they're just kids miss incredible looks back at Elastic Girl and says yeah but they're kids with power whether or not they choose to use that power is up to them but they sure do have access to it listen to me yeah you're a child but you're a child of God you're a child with power and that power is found when Our Eyes Are Fixed On Jesus Lord I thank you that you are worth looking at

I thank you that the answers that we need in our personal private lives and collectively as a church and as a globe the answers we need are found in you father by your spirit would you give us the tenacity would you give us the discipline would you give us the encouragement to look to you and you alone you are where our help comes from in Jesus name amen