Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

Greetings in the name of Jesus. This is 15 Minutes With Jesus. My name is Rob Haymes. In Mathew chapter, 18 verse 20, Jesus said, Where two or more are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. So that's what we're doing, we're gathering together in the name of Jesus. I want to start off with a song which I think is very appropriate for this time. The way this song was originally written was, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of Earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. So, when I was a very young Christian, I had the privilege of going to a fellowship with Paul Merkle and his wife Evalyn who were dear Christian people, retired missionaries, they had received the Holy Ghost in 1968, and they were holding a prayer meeting in their house in Estes Park, Colorado where I originally got saved. And one night we were going to worship and His wife Evalyn made the point, she said, "We like to say, KEEP your eyes upon Jesus". That's the way we're going to sing it. We're going to start out with the original version, and then go into KEEP your eyes upon Jesus. That's what I want to encourage all of us to do, and for those that don't know Him, I say to you, TURN your eyes upon Him, look full in His wonderful face;

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of Earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of his glory and grace. (Repeat)

Keep your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of Earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace. (Repeat)

Turn with me, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 12. I want to give a word of encouragement, really, that the Lord has given me. He's been saying to me and my wife; we meet every evening here in our home. We read scripture together, and we worship together, and we pray together. And many times the Lord has visited us graciously with His presence., and sometimes we have a tongue and interpretation, or a prophecy from Him, and one thing He has been saying to us repeatedly over the last several weeks is to look up, to look unto Him, and be of good cheer. Gross darkness is clearly covering the Earth, and right now we are in what they call a pandemic with this corona virus, around the whole world. The whole world is having to stay home, basically. Most of the people in the whole world are having to quarantine or stay home. Many people are dying. Many people are suffering. Many people are afraid. But the Lord has been telling us, "Look up, look unto me, be of good cheer, and as you do, my light will shine upon you, and it will shine in you, and it will shine through you in the world."

Those of us that know the Lord, we know that Jesus' returning could be very soon, probably not tomorrow, but certainly within the next so many years, not hundreds of years. We know that He is coming back soon, and the Bible says, if we have this hope in us, that we should be purifying ourselves, even as He is pure. The Apostle Peter said, purify your souls by obeying the truth through the Spirit. So that's what we need to be doing. As we look to Jesus, going through this, in Philippians it says cast your care upon Him, pray, don't be anxious for anything, but with prayer and supplication, let your request be made known to Him. If you're afraid, well, humble yourself before the Lord, be honest, Lord, you know, I'm scared about this thing. I don't know what's going to happen, but I don't want to be that way. So I cast this care upon you for myself, for my wife, for my kids, for my loved ones; pour out your heart to Him, and the Bible says the peace of God, which passes all understanding shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I'd like to read from Hebrews chapter 12, verse one, Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses; and that is referring to Hebrews chapter 11, as many of you know, what we call the roll call of faith, which talks about many people of God that loved God, served God, believed God, did works of faith, did mighty works, served God, died for God, suffered greatly for God. It says, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, that also tells me, they can see us, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. So I just want to encourage my brothers and my sisters, all of you out there that love Him, don't faint! Be strong and of a good courage, and look unto Him ! Have faith. Stir up the gift that's in you. If you're somewhere and there are some sick people, and the Lord tells you, not if you just feel sorry for somebody, but if you know the Holy Spirit is leading you, and you know the Lord wants to heal the person, I want to encourage you not to be afraid. Remember when the leper came to Jesus and said, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." And Jesus said, "I am willing" , and He reached out and He touched him, and he was a leper, and that was totally contrary to the law, you were not supposed to touch a leper, you were supposed to keep six feet apart, so to speak; He reached out and He touched that man and He said "I will, be thou clean", and, BOOM, the leprosy left him, immediately he was cleansed. Don't be afraid to pray for someone that has this sickness, or any other sickness, and see God move, but remember, it's when He sends you, when He is leading you to do it. But don't be timid about it. Perhaps you've never done that , and you really feel an unction in your heart; pray for that man, pray for that woman, see what God does. So I just want to encourage us to be bold, to trust the Lord, to not faint, to keep pouring out our heart to Him. He will give us His peace, and He will be with us. That's one thing He said to those who trust in Him; "I will be with you always, even unto the end of the world."

I want to share something from my personal experience, recently that the Lord did. We had a situation where we had to go to the hospital at 2:00 in the morning, just as this corona virus situation was beginning to build. We were admitted to the hospital at 2:00 in the morning, and needless to say, I was doing a lot of praying, and I spent the night in the hospital with my wife, I won't go into the details, but Satan was attacking. We got through it by the mercy and grace of God. We had some dear Christian nurses and really nice doctors helping us, and God was with us. We prayed. We got through it. And I got a tongue and interpretation from the Lord; He said, "I sent this into the Earth. I'm watching my people to see if they will humble themselves, if they will seek my face, if they will pray, if they will turn from their wicked ways." God spoke that out of my mouth, and I looked up the scripture, and I'd like to invite you to turn there, second Chronicles 7 :13&14, If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Jesus said in John chapter 3 that He did not come into the world to condemn the world. God is not condemning us, but we are His people. We call upon the name of Jesus. We are called Christians, and there's no condemnation with what I am saying. I've been through this myself. I'm not condemning anyone. I'm including myself in this. Many of us have fallen into sin. Some have repented, but some of us have justified ourselves, and said, "I'm under grace, everything's ok. Jesus took care of it", and we have not come to the Lord and confessed our sin. We haven't humbled ourselves. We've actually deceived ourselves, or been deceived by the devil, or by lying preachers. By the way, in case you haven't realized it, there are many false preachers in the world, in the United States, ravening wolves in sheep's clothing. I'm not even here to condemn them. We condemn ourselves when we reject the Words of the Living God, and when we won't come to Jesus. That's what we need to do. We need to come to Jesus and confess our sins. In 1Jn 1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. If we do have sin, there's no condemnation. Come to Him. Confess your sin. He will forgive your sin and cleanse you of all iniquity. Come to Him. Humble yourself. See what God will do in your life. Don't let the devil deceive you into not confessing your sins. There's no condemnation. God will not only forgive you, He will cleanse you, and He will lead you forward in His righteous way for you. God bless you. I just want to leave you with these words: Mat 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.