How to See in the Spirit: Seeing People Through God’s Love

Seeing people through God’s love opens our eyes to what the Holy Spirit is doing in their lives. As a teenager, I went from feeling like I couldn’t hear God’s voice to having many experiences in which the Holy Spirit showed me what the Father was doing. I’ve shared many of those experiences here.

Today, I want to explain how I see in the Spirit—not just what I’ve seen. The key is learning to look at people in the light of God’s love.

Examples of Seeing in the Spirit

Once, I was in the pool thinking about our mission the next day. God showed me five different conditions that will be healed. I shared those conditions the next day, and every word hit the mark.

On another day, a neighbor had a friend in the pool at our condominium. I looked at her, saw a dark spot in her knee, asked about it, and she had a knee problem. Jesus healed her. Then that night, we visited a rehab. I walked in, looked at the people, and saw a new man. I walked up to him and said, “You have a stone in your body, don’t you?” He confirmed it, and Jesus removed the stone from the gallbladder

It would be too much to tell all the similar experiences in drug rehabs. Many were related to physical healing. Other times, I saw a spirit oppressing them that Jesus was driving out, or a family situation where God was working.

Just this week, I went for a walk in the park and saw three Jehovah’s Witnesses. I looked at them through the eyes of God’s love and saw that one lady had lower back pain. When I asked, she confirmed it.

I asked, “Do you want to be free from that?” She started to argue, “I already pray. I pray to Jehovah. Whom do you pray to? Which God do you pray to?” I said, “Jehovah is one of many names of God in the Bible. I also pray to Jehovah, in Jesus’ name.” She said miracles ceased with the apostles. I responded, “That’s not Biblical, and it doesn’t fit church history or even our experience today. This year alone, I’ve seen Jesus heal people of cancer and blindness. About 30 people were healed on Sunday from different pains. It was either God or the devil, but you can’t tell me it doesn’t happen. If God didn’t do miracles, what would you have to lose by letting me pray for your back? But if He does, you can be free from that back pain.”

Sadly, she didn’t want prayer. But I felt that the Holy Spirit was convicting her friends of truth even as she hardened her heart. They saw that God sent someone with His love to her, and she was resisting God’s love.

Twenty minutes later, on the other side of the park, I saw an older couple walking and saw pain on the left side of the woman’s back going into her hip. I stopped, talked to them, asked about it, and it was true. After praying, she walked pain-free.

I prayed for a man on Saturday. I looked intently at him as I prayed, and I saw a dark spot on the left side of his abdomen. I put my hand there, prayed, and began to command the liver to be cleansed and healed.

Then he told me that he’d had liver problems, and there was a tumor right where I’d put my hand. I believe he’s fine now. God’s light enables us to see what God sees, and God’s light drives out the darkness.

None of those situations was cases of God suddenly speaking to me while I wasn’t paying attention. Rather, I intentionally looked at people and situations with spiritual eyes. Relaxing in the pool, I looked at the outreach we would have the next day. When I saw those people, I looked at them in the light of God’s love.

So how does God’s love enable us to see in the Spirit?

God’s Love is Spiritual Light

Just as we have natural senses, we also have spiritual senses. And just as there is natural light, there is spiritual light. Scripture teaches that God is love. Those who don’t love don’t know God, and they walk in darkness.

“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”

1 John 4:8 (KJV)

“God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”

1 John 4:16 (KJV)

“He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.”

1 John 2:9 (KJV)

“He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.”

1 John 2:10–11 (KJV)

Jesus is the Light by Which We See God and See People

Because of sin, all of us once sat in darkness. But Jesus came as the light of the world!

“The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.”

Matthew 4:16 (KJV)

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

John 8:12 (KJV)

Nobody had ever seen God, but

Jesus revealed the Father.

We see God by looking at Jesus. Jesus is the light by which we see the way we should go. He is also the light by which we see God, and He is the light by which we can see other people.

Spiritual sight begins with seeing Jesus and seeing God’s love in Jesus. To see other people in the light of God’s love, you first need a revelation of God’s love for you.

To look at other people in the light of God’s love, we first need a revelation of God’s love for us.

“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

1 John 4:10 (KJV)

Every Manifestation of God’s Spirit Comes From the River of His Love

Growing up in a charismatic church, it seemed like the “gifts of the Spirit”

were complicated or were a level “beyond” the basic truths. Today I understand that every manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s power comes from the same river of God.

Lots of people talked about the “gifts of the Spirit,” and we saw them once in a while, but few people ever taught how to walk in God’s glory and flow in the river of God. And walking in God’s glory is about a deep heart revelation of the most basic of truths.

God loved us, and he revealed that love in Jesus. When we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He carried all the wrong things we ever did on himself so we could be free and righteous before the Father.

Why is it that so many Christians accept this truth, but have so much trouble actually verbalizing it by explaining the gospel to someone else? We think we know it because we’ve heard the information, but we really don’t know it as we need to.

The many manifestations of the Holy Spirit are abundant in the River of God’s love. So many Christians think they just need to pray more, fast long enough, or do something more to experience God’s power. It leaves them frustrated. What they need is a deeper revelation of God’s love.

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:8 (KJV)

Meditate on God’s Love for You

How did you first come to Jesus? Did you weep when you understood that Jesus died on the cross for you? Maybe a worship song about the price that Jesus paid has brought you to tears.

If you have ever understood God’s love for you and wept, how can you bring your heart back to that place again? I remember what I felt as a young teenager singing “Once Again” by Matt Redman.

“Jesus Christ, I think upon your sacrifice. You became nothing, poured out to death. Once again, I’m humbled by your gift of life. And I’m in that place once again.

Once again, I look upon the cross where you died. I’m humbled by your mercy, and I’m broken inside. Once again, I thank you. Once again, I pour out my life.”

Keeping your heart in that place is the secret to flowing in God’s river and walking in His glory. I call this  “Tending the garden of your heart.”

Think first about how Jesus died for you. Then think about everything you read about Jesus doing in the Bible, and how He revealed God’s love through His life and actions. Think about how he was moved with compassion and healed all their sick. And think about everything Jesus has done in your life today, and everything you’ve seen him do for others.

Look at Jesus with the eyes of your heart. When you see Jesus, you can see others through Him.

Meditate on God’s Love for Other People

Love for God and for other people flows from the revelation of God’s love for us. We begin to feel the love God has for others. Seeing who He is changes us, and it changes how we see people.

When I understood God’s love for me and the price Jesus paid on the cross, I felt God’s love in a way that was so tangible, it was like my body vibrating. In my 20s, I began to feel that same love touches my body and reveal physical problems in the people around me. For example, I would feel God’s love like tangible power on my neck. I asked who had pain in their neck, and God healed them.

The more I prayed for people and saw God touch them with His love, the more I meditated on His love for others. And I started having more of these experiences of seeing what God is doing in their lives.

How to See People in the Spirit Through God’s Love

In our post,  “Why I Pray in Tongues More Than All of You,”

I shared about meeting a man who would accurately see and name dozens of physical conditions a person had. I saw him look at someone, name more than a dozen physical conditions, and the person confirmed everyone. And Jesus healed them.

His mentor had taught him to practice praying in tongues for eight hours a day. His story inspired me to pray in tongues more, and I also began to  receive words of knowledge for healing

as I saw physical conditions in people’s bodies.

Now I understand that praying in tongues was valuable because it helped me focus on God’s love and let go of natural prejudices and the “filters” through which we tend to see people.

Look at People in the Light of God’s Love

The light by which I was seeing was the light of God’s love.

How do I “look” at people in God’s Spirit? The first thing I think about is what God is doing in their lives. The first thing I see about the person, more important than anything else, is that Jesus died to save them.

When I look in that way, it’s like I’m looking past all the natural things. God’s love sees their need.

When I feel God’s love for someone and look at them, sometimes it feels like Jesus is looking at them through my eyes. It’s no longer me. I gave myself over to God’s love, and Jesus is now the one speaking with them.

Looking Beyond Appearances, Fear, and Prejudice

We often see people through prejudices and outward appearances, but God’s love sees beyond them. We often see people for what they can do for us (a self-centered perspective), or what they might do to us (fear).

Look Beyond What Others Can Do for You

When I was a young single guy, I sometimes felt attracted to a beautiful young lady. Nothing’s wrong with that! But we can easily see someone through a lens of “What can this person do for me?” For example, “Maybe she can make me happy. Maybe I’ll marry her!”

But I learned that when we are walking in God’s love, the first thing we see is that Jesus gave his life for that person. So that attraction, while it’s not wrong, becomes submitted to something even greater: God’s love for the person.

You may meet someone who has power, influence, or money, and the natural perspective sees that person through a lens of “What can they do for me?” Maybe they can help me! Maybe this person will give me a job. Maybe this person can promote me.

But when you look at someone in God’s love, you are no longer looking at what they can do for you, but at what the Holy Spirit is doing in their life.

Don’t Let Fear Determine How You See People

We have all kinds of prejudices, but God’s love sees beyond them. I’ve met people who seemed intimidating. Some were violent or involved in organized crimes. I could see them in the Spirit because God’s love for them took precedence over any fear.

Sometimes that fear is simply the fear that the person will reject you. Maybe they will get angry. Maybe they won’t want me to pray for them. They don’t look very “approachable.”

Others were homosexuals or transvestites. When I look at them in the light of God’s love, the one thing that takes precedence over everything else I see about them is that Jesus gave his life for them. That is what I’m looking at. It’s not that I don’t see everything else, but I look beyond it.

That’s how looking at people in the light of God’s love and seeing them in the Spirit works. You look at them and gaze past their appearance, your natural prejudices, what they could do for you, or what they might do to hurt you.

Remember How Precious Each Person Is to God

Think of the Heavenly Father’s love for that person, that He gave his Son to save them. Think of Jesus’ love for that person as he went to the cross. They were the “joy that was set before him.”

I also like to look at people as children. I imagine that person as a one-year-old baby, or a five-year-old little boy or girl and think of how precious their life is to God.

That day when I was in the pool, I was thinking of God’s love for the ladies at the recovery house and what He was going to do the next day. When I see the disease in a man’s intestines, the stone in a man’s gallbladder, or how someone struck a woman on the head, I can see that because I look beyond the addiction, the appearance, the failures, the fear of how the person might hurt me, or the consideration of what the person could do for me. I see God’s love for the person.

When you look in the light of God’s love, you will also discern where the darkness is.

This sounds too simple, but I wish somebody had taught it to me! How many Christians’ first consideration when they look at someone is that Jesus died for that person because He loves them? It is so simple that it is “hidden from the wise and learned and revealed to babes.”

“At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.”

Matthew 11:25 (KJV)

Seeing in the Spirit Means Responding in Love

I still have a lot to grow in seeing with God’s perspective. Yet I’ve now had many experiences in which I looked at someone in God’s love, saw what He was doing, and experienced the supernatural.

It’s easy to say, “Wow! I want to see it like that all the time! It would be amazing.”

Yet I think the more that we experience, the more we realize how much it is to handle. And the limitations aren’t on God’s end, but on ours.

Seeing in the Spirit comes with the responsibility to stop for the people God loves and partner with what the Holy Spirit is doing. How big is your capacity to love?

Walking in the park, I looked at a Jehovah’s Witness and saw her back pain. I looked at an elderly lady and saw Jesus healing her. But what about when I’m tired, and I want to get back home and continue my work? What if I already stopped for two people and I’m “not in the mood” to talk to another person?

Have you ever wept because you felt God’s love for someone? What if you felt God’s love like that for every person you looked at? It can feel overwhelming. Sometimes you don’t feel like looking again.

We often don’t see simply because we don’t look. And we don’t look because we don’t feel like it. We have other priorities at the moment.

Growing in spiritual sight often means growing in our capacity to love—and being willing to partner with the Holy Spirit when we see what He is doing!