“Neither ‘flesh’ nor ‘The Flesh’ is the real person!” That’s what I heard the Lord saying when I woke up. The thought emerging in my mind wasn’t a shout. But its insistence brought me fully awake. Somehow, I knew I was being given a key. Could I use it? Who is “the real person”?
Heaven’s Perspective Is Liberating
Seeing things from heaven’s perspective is always a key of freedom. Heaven’s keys release us from limitations that our earth-bound understanding imposes, contaminated as it often is by the enemy’s perspective. Sometimes the liberation is instantaneous and complete as when Jesus is first revealed. With that flash of heavenly vision, you can never go back to not knowing He is alive and He is Lord. (See “Two Facts of the Resurrection.”) Other keys may languish on the shelf. Forgiveness, for example.
It may be hard to see things the Lord’s way, but living bound by a false perspective is far harder. So, I gratefully grabbed for this key and have been using it ever since. I often pray for eyes to see people as He sees people. I sensed right away that this would unlock my inner vision. But would I use it sufficiently to pry me loose from past “programming”? Don’t be smug, you may have some too!
Admiring Flesh and Blood
We look at “flesh” and think better than we ought about people, especially if we like what we see. By “flesh” I sensed the Lord was referring to the way we look at people’s physical manifestation. This is what the Bible calls “flesh and blood”–the natural body. Typically, we try to “read” people from the outside in. We like a good exterior.
The better a person looks (think younger, healthier, lovelier, etc.), the more we tend to rate them highly. Our eyes are hooked by the outer shell. Advertising and the media exploit this fatal flaw in our vision. BIG MISTAKE—PEOPLE ARE NOT THEIR BODIES.
Revolted by Sinful Flesh
Conversely, we look at “the Flesh” and think worse of a person than we ought. In this sense, the Biblical word “flesh” describes our fallen nature. Everybody has one. If we could see it in its full depravity, we would recoil from everyone in horror (ourselves included). Mostly “the Flesh” is covered up by “flesh”—good thing!
However, when we see even a little of a person’s sinful nature showing, it’s a huge turn off. In recoiling from it, we may bind them to it, as if their fallen nature is who they really are. BIG MISTAKE—NO ONE IS THEIR FALLEN NATURE. See “New Birth = New Creation” at our website for spiritual growth, forerunners4him.org.
The Real Person
Do You Have Spiritually Adjusted Vision?
It takes a tremendous commitment to God’s grace-filled perspective to look past what is fallen and “see” the true possibilities of every person. Likewise, it takes genuine spiritual eyes to look past the physical exterior and “see” the real person on the inside.
They may turn out to have a soul far more lovely than their exterior would suggest. Or, we may see that the person who appears to have it all together, is actually in crying need of a rescue. Why such reversals? Because “neither flesh, nor the Flesh, is the real person!”
How am I doing? All I can tell you is that I’m working this new key for all I’m worth, and it’s really been working for me…
About the Author: Steve Evans
For over a decade Steve Evans and Healing Streams have been helping people recover inner peace and freedom. Through Forerunners4Him he has been showing how we can be saved for heaven and teaching the way to live a Spirit filled life on earth. Go now to receive a completely free primer, Getting to Heaven and/or an introduction to Living in the Spirit at forerunners4him.org. 
