Looking at the Unseen
2 Corinthians 4:18:
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.
At first, this verse appears to be a contradiction. How can you look at something that’s invisible? The answer is that you have to look with your eyes of faith, not your natural eyes. The things you are to look at are eternal, but they are invisible to your sense of sight.
Notice that Paul did not say that we look at things that do not exist. He said that we look at things that are unseen. They exist. You just can’t see them with your natural eyes. This is crucial to understand. The things of the Spirit are real and they exist. They are just invisible. Your healing already exists. If your natural eyes could see spiritual things, you would see that Jesus Christ has already provided your healing for you, and all you have to do is receive it. It is there now in the spirit realm.
Too many people think of their healing as something that doesn’t exist. Therefore, they cry and beg and plead and holler and try to talk God into doing something about it. They think that God has to “create” their healing. That is not true. Your healing already exists in the realm of the Spirit. Your faith is not creating something new, spiritually speaking. Your faith is receiving something that already exists in the spirit realm. When you receive it with your spirit, it manifests in the natural realm where you and everyone else can see it. From the world’s perspective, you are healed when your healing manifests in your body. From God’s perspective, your healing already exists and belongs to you as a believer. All you have to do is receive it with your spirit so that it can manifest in the physical realm. God doesn’t have to do anything new for you. You just receive what Jesus already made a heavenly reality a long time ago when “by His stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
Your faith takes hold of something unseen and it then becomes seen. This is what God’s definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1 talks about. Faith is the certainty of something unseen. It is being certain that you have something real that your regular senses cannot yet detect. Your basis for believing that you have it is the Word of God on the matter. God says you were healed. That means that your healing exists now. You can receive it now and enjoy the benefits. But while you are in faith, you are certain of something that you can’t see. You have it and are convinced that you have it, even though you can’t see it.
That is the essence of faith. For example, you already believe that your salvation from hell exists, even though you cannot see it. You believe that you have citizenship in heaven, but you have no proof outside the Bible that such citizenship is yours now. It’s real, more real than the physical world around you, because it will outlast the physical world around you. The physical world around you is temporal, but your heavenly citizenship and salvation from hell are eternal. You simply need to start doing with healing what you are already doing in other areas of your life.
When something changeable meets something that cannot change, it is the changeable that will change! Applying this to your body, the physical facts are temporal. They can change. God’s Word is eternal. It cannot change. When the facts of your condition meet the eternal Word of God, the Word of God will not be what changes! Your circumstances must change to line up with the Word.
Once you have believed that you have received your healing, it is important to stay active, rather than passive, with your faith. Look at eternal things. Continue to meditate on God’s Word concerning healing. It is possible to receive something and then let it slip away through neglect, fear or doubt. Peter received the ability to walk on water but he let it slip when he got into fear. Keep encouraging yourself in the Lord. Keep speaking what God says about your healing. Keep thanking Him that healing is yours. You are not trying to make something else happen; you have already prayed to make it happen. You are just staying in faith and refusing to get into doubt or unbelief of God’s Word.