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When I come with a veiled face I see ugliness. That’s not
how God sees me. I see my sin. That’s not how God sees me.
I see my weakness. That’s not how God sees me. I see all my
faults. That’s not how God sees me. That’s what Paul meant
when he says, “By the renewing of your mind.” I will never
think like God until God renews my mind.
I see my sin and God sees me clothed in the righteousness
of Jesus. I look in the mirror and I see Ed Miller on earth. God
says, “That’s not what I see. I see Ed Miller sitting in the
heavenly places.” I see myself as inadequate and helpless. I
see Jesus victorious. In my own eyes I’m a barren branch. God
sees me as a branch attached to the vine and having that life. I
see me; God sees me in Christ Jesus.
Sometimes I get discouraged with some Christian
because I don’t see Christ in that Christian. One time the Holy
Spirit rebuked me. He said, “You are trying to see Christ in that
Christian. Try seeing that Christian in Christ.” It made such a
difference. I was so critical. I said, “He’s not growing. I want
to shake him. I want to do what the child did to the flower and
say, ‘Grow!’” But God’s seed is in Him. Even though I don’t
see it with my natural eyes, he’s being conformed to the Christ.
God engineers everything to conform us to our parents; from
one degree of glory to another we are being changed as we see
Christ in the mirror. Every new revelation of Christ makes me
more like Christ.
I want to show the relationship between the gaze and the
glory. He said, “As I gaze, I’m changed.” The more I gaze, the
more I’m changed. James 1:24, “…for once he has looked at
himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind
of person he was.” Do you hear what James is saying? If I walk
away from the mirror, I’ll forget who I am. I’ll forget who I am
in Christ. That’s why we’ve got to keep looking in the mirror;
not to learn about the mirror but to see the Lord. Then, as we
see the Lord, we are changed!
Two things happen if you stop seeing Jesus. Number
one, you are going to forget who you are. Number two, the
process will stop. As you gaze, you are changed. If you stop
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