Let Me See - Pastor Oneka McClellan

And I need you to know, some of you are Lone Rangers and have a Lone Ranger spirit and haven't yet recognized that God is surrounding you, that he sees you, that he loves you, that he is a holy plan and purpose for your life, that he's in the midst with your eating disorder. He's right there with you saying you can get up again, eat again, get strength again. He's with you in your brokenness saying I'm in your midst. I can heal you. I can restore you. He's with you feeling overwhelmed, feeling burdened. The title of my message tonight is Let Me See. Turn to the girl next to you and say, let me see. Let me see. We're going to start off online. Say it. Frisco, say let me see. We're going to start off in Second Kings. I'm going to set it up a little bit and then you guys can read all the scriptures that I'm talking about. You can read them in your quiet time or tomorrow or listen to them on audio. But basically, Elisha's friend comes to him in a panic and he says, they have surrounded us. The army is massive. Have you ever had a friend or a family member come to you in panic and you start to feel and pick up their energy by their intensity? So that's what's happening here. His friend comes and he says, they've surrounded us. The army is massive. Elijah's Second Kings 6 through 7. And Elijah prayed. And sometimes you have to pray for your friend who is just a little extra or just exaggerating or not filled with faith at that moment. There's no judgment, but you got to pray. And this is what he did. He said, open his eyes, Lord. Or for us, it would be open her eyes, Lord, so that she may see. Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elijah. And we're praying tonight that your eyes would be opened, that my eyes would be opened. And the way that I wrote it here is the servant saw the army surrounding them, but he didn't see the angels that surrounded the army. I don't know what's surrounding you, but you might not see what's surrounding what's surrounding you. Your God has you. So a medical report could be surrounding you, but the God of angel armies is surrounding your medical report. Fear could have a stronghold over your life or a foothold. And all you can see is fear. But tonight I'm praying that God would show you his angel armies that are all around you. You're dealing with frustration or loss, or you just feel like my life is lifing and I don't have time to do the things that I want to do. And you feel surrounded. You feel defeated by your schedule. I don't know about you, but do you ever feel defeated or bullied by your schedule? That your schedules will try to bully you and make you feel like you don't have time for church,

that you don't have time for a connect group, that you don't have time to work out. It will bully you. But we're praying that tonight that God would give you fresh eyes so that you could see the army that is surrounding you. Some of you have had relationships or friendships where you've just had bad experience with girls. And you have a wall up because you had close friends. They hurt you. They isolated you. So you have a wall up over your eyes so that when someone who actually has your best interest in mind wants to be a strength to you, you don't see that they're actually trying to surround you. But we're praying that by the Spirit of God, every wall, every scale, every lie, everything that would try to bully and surround you, that you would see the presence of the Almighty God who's surrounding what's surrounding you. Eyesight is so important. We all need it. I happen to not be blessed with like the best sights. I can see close, and I can see you girls back there, but I can't see like riding far away. So like street signs, that's why you don't catch me on the road that often. I'm not much of a driver. I just do not see very well. So whenever I go to take my eye test, have you guys ever gotten like an eye exam? And they make you put like one hand over one eye, and you put those binocular things on, and you have to guess the letters. I think we have an example of one of those charts, and it helps you see. You learn so much when you take those tests, and you think, oh, I'm 20-20. And then you're messing up an R for a T. And it's kind of stressful. And it's intense because you want to get the answer right. Well, every year I have to, not every year, but every so often I have to get my driver's license renewed even though I'm not a road warrior. So we went once with our friend Tyler. Aubrey is in the theater. Hi, Aubrey. And he came with Earl and I. I don't remember why we were all together, but he came with us for me to renew my license and to take my eye test. But I wanted to leave there with my license.

But I also know that on my driver's license, it says must wear corrective lenses. But do I have corrective lenses? No. Do I have contacts? No. So I'm like, how am I gonna, what am I gonna do on this test? So they give me, cause they make you take the test again to make sure you're safe on the road. So I get up there and they start quizzing me and showing me the letters and whatnot. But I can't see all the letters. So my friend Tyler, he helps me. Don't judge me. But I needed to pass that test. So if the letter was a T, he would say something like, oh, that car T-boned. And I was like, okay, T. And, or if it was like an A, he would say, Earl, can I have an apple? And I was like, okay, A. And so that is how, to this day, I got my driver's license. But sight is not my thing. But we're gonna walk through a few sight stories because your sight can really dictate some of the choices that you make in life. But if your sight is off,

or if you have like a stigmatism, that it's something that's impairing your vision, you can go for the wrong thing, thinking it's the right thing, because your sight is off. And tonight, we're talking about sight. Go with me to Genesis 3, one through seven. Now, the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God really say? Anytime someone says to you, did God really say, and they're not a mentor that's like amazing, that has a great track record, you don't wanna be close to someone who's always questioning you living for God. Did God really say you need to build the church? Did God really say it takes all that to serve? Did God really say you should be generous? Did God really say you should open up your heart again in a friendship? Those are the voices that you wanna be very careful of. So here's the enemy talking to her in the garden, having a conversation. Did God really say? Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? Even though in chapter two of Genesis, God laid out the playbook of the garden, told them what to do, that they could have everything except for this one tree.

So she already knew the answer, since sometimes we already know the answer, and then the enemy plants a seed to make you question the right thing. The woman said to the serpent, we may eat from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you will die. The serpent already is twisting words, and that's what the enemy does. He subtly tries to come against the character of God. Verse four, this is the enemy. They're having a whole conversation. Then he says back, you will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened. Sounds so like magical and kind of like shining. Your eyes are gonna be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. First of all, she lets the serpent rewrite the truth, and it impacts her sight. He made her see the fruit differently. She had 20-20 vision from God. She knew clearly, he already told her in chapter two, but after she hears the lie, she puts on a different pair of glasses. So, so she first can see really clearly,

but then she starts listening to the serpent, and it's dimmed. So I can still see you guys, but it's like a little bit dimmed. And instead of checking the enemy, and saying, I'm not gonna have a conversation with you, God already told me. God already told me I was fearfully and wonderfully made. God already told me he had a plan for my life. God already told me that I don't need to settle. God already told me that I'm his royal daughter, that I'm a royal priesthood. God already told me that I have a holy inheritance. But instead, she engaged in a whole conversation, a whole conversation, and she should've shut him down. And I think tonight some of us get caught in conversations with the wrong people, the wrong voices, and God tonight, there's no shame, is just saying, it's time to shut them down. Tell the girl next to you, shut it down. Shut it down. Verse six, when the woman saw the fruit of the tree, is going back to verse six. We're just gonna kind of like layer by layer go through this Genesis moment because it talks about sight so much. So she saw the fruit, but she has seen the fruit before you guys, but now she sees it differently because her eyes are veiled and she's wearing those glasses.

So what you hear, so she heard the voice of the serpent, so what you hear impacts what you see. I'm gonna just like get deep, y'all, so you gotta lock in. What you hear impacts what you see, and what you see impacts your decisions. So it's not the first time you saw that guy. It's not the first time. But your family is pressuring you saying, when are you gonna get married? Aren't you tired of being single? So your family says that. It impairs how you now see said guy, and you find yourself settling in this relationship because of something you heard. Sight is important. Adam and Eve had perfect eyesight, but their eyes got off because their ears got poisoned. What you hear, I can't say it enough, impacts what you see. I have a friend who was a soccer player growing up, and she loved playing soccer. Sometimes after school, she would work out with the guys on the soccer team. One guy in particular started commenting about how big her thighs were. He didn't know that that was a harmful thing to say to her the way that he said it. Because of those words, it started a whole chain effect

that started an eating disorder that she's been battling for years because something that she heard. Because she heard those words, you have big thighs, and it didn't feel like a compliment. It then impacted how she saw her thighs, which then impacted that she decided to start starving herself because of what she heard. What you hear can impact what you see. That's why it's so important that we hear the word of the Lord and hear from him and read scripture over ourselves so that when we hear something that's a lie, we can address it as a lie and not have a whole conversation in the garden. Because you guys, the tree didn't change. It was the same tree. But what she heard impacted what she saw, just like my friend. We're talking about vision. We're talking about what you see. I have a friend who was like a new mom, and she heard that the only way that she can be a winning mom is if she has a natural childbirth. That's what she heard. Instead of hearing, you carried this baby for nine months. You're already a hero. You're a hero.

You're a hero no matter how your baby comes into the world. And you can have a plan, but sometimes life's, and you have to pivot your plan. But she felt shame and felt like she failed her child because she heard that there was only one way for her to have a baby that was winning. So we have to make sure that we have the right filters so that when someone says something, we can filter it accordingly so that we don't beat ourselves up or starve ourselves or compare ourselves or leave healthy friendships and relationships because of something we heard. The tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some and she ate it. And she also gave some to her husband who ate it. And so when our sight is off, it doesn't only impact us. It impacts our friends. It impacts our family. You can have a friend group and one person or friend can be off in that friend group. But before you know it, everybody gets off because that one friend of negativity can impact and turn the whole friend group sideways. And so the hearing impacts us. And so it's so important that we hear correctly. So then when that one friend is off in our friend group, we can do the right thing. Okay, so I'm gonna just do a quick little demonstration

because this happens all the time. Your friend's off in your friend group. Sometimes you. grew up and you just like walk away from the friendship. Because you didn't have the tools to know, how do I handle this conflict and this friendship? And you just kind of ghost, you stop returning their text messages, you stop being locked in, you stop calling them back, you stop hanging out, you just ghost them. But a healthy way is to say, hey, when this happened, it made me feel this way. And I know we've had this conversation before, and it's feeling like a pattern. And I know it's not your heart or your intention to steal my joy, to discourage me, to make me question if I should stay in this friendship, but I'm trying my best to believe the best. And I really wanna fight for our friendship, but I also need you to know that how you're treating me is not honorable. And I wanna give you a chance to apologize. And I wanna give you a chance for us to have a fresh start. And if for some reason this doesn't resonate with you, you're kind of telling me my answer. But if you wanna build and have a reset, I'm down to have a reset. That's how you do it. That's how you do it. Man, her ears impacted her eyes

because our ears and eyes are connected. There's a powerful progression in the Hebrew that helps us understand what happened with her in verse six. Okay, so she saw, she saw the apple, then she took it, then she ate it, then she gave it to her husband. The visible steps are saw, took, ate, gave. But it seems like the first step was that she saw, but there was an invisible step that led to her eating that fruit. And it was that she heard. So actually it was, she heard, she saw, she took, she ate, she gave. Verse seven says, then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Adam and Eve had their sight, but ended up having their eyes open the wrong way. We're gonna look at someone else who could not just, who could not see, but had their eyes opened by Jesus. Turn with me to Mark eight, verses 22 through 26. They came to Bethsaida. How do you say that, Bethsaida? How do you say that, Earl? Who knows how to say it? Where are my Bible scholars at? Bethsaida? Okay, how do you say it? Bethsaida?

Someone like Bethsaida? Okay, okay, say it? Bethsaida. They came to Bethsaida and some people brought a blind man, we're talking about sight, and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand. And I love how it says took him by the hand. It shows how gentle his nature was. It showed that he wasn't looking down on him because he had vision problems. It shows that he was not judging him. It shows that he tenderly cared for him. And I think sometimes when we have sight problems and our sight causes us to get into the wrong situations, we think that God in heaven is judging us and looking down on us because we had family that looked down on us when we didn't do the right thing. But I love that God, Jesus just grabs him by the hand and let him outside the village. And I love that he did it kind of like, feels like privately. Then when he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, do you see anything? He looked up and said, I see people. They look like trees walking around. Once more, and I love that it didn't happen the first time. And I think sometimes there's things that we're believing God for and it doesn't happen the first time.

And we question like, God, are you there? Are you still good? But sometimes it takes a second time, a third time, a fourth time and a fifth time until that miracle happens. And so he did it a second time and Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened and his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly. And that is our prayer for all of us tonight, that our eyes would be opened, that our sight would be restored and that we would see things clearly. There's some decisions that some of us need to make and we need sight from heaven to help us walk into this next season. There's some things, some problems, some weights that are facing us and we need vision from heaven to direct us. our steps and tonight our prayer for each of you is that you're going to have clear sight from heaven from heaven and i wrote this down when blind you might not when you're blind you might not understand what i'm giving you so like when you can't see and you're blind in a situation someone could hand you you know a toy car and tell you it's a remote because you can't see and i think when we're in blind seasons or veiled eye seasons or our eyes have stigmatisms because of life or things we heard someone will hand you a job opportunity and it's not filled with integrity but you'll think it has integrity because your eyes are veiled or you're trying to make the right decision of what school you should put your kids in but you're stressed out from other things in life and so you have this little veil over your eyes you end up putting your kids in the wrong school because you didn't have the insight from heaven because you're clouded with other things what we're believing we're believing and praying that god is going to give

sight to blind eyes that we're going to see more clearly we're going to hear the right things and we're going to step into situations and moments knowing that we are backed by heaven you can fall for anything here's a big truth you guys when you can't see correctly you ever been my club goers or past club goers have you ever like danced with someone and it's really dark and you're like oh this guy he's like yeah like look at that look at that and you're dancing you're having so much fun you're like hoping that you're gonna go out again you're just having this moment this chemistry on the dance floor but whenever you're dancing at a wedding or at a club or wherever it's dark so your eyes are a little dim and then you step into the light to have a conversation and you're like oh eyesight is very important because you almost went on a date with that guy on the dance floor but then when you could see more clearly you realize you know what that was just the dark lights talking to me that was just the dark lights seeing clearly can cause right now you know you can like this guy he couldn't see at first so he saw people thinking that they were trees so when you can't see clearly you can think a good opportunity is a good opportunity but really it's just trees and he was discombobulated because he couldn't see all the way and i don't know if you've ever been discombobulated but when it's like late at night or the middle of the night and something stars you you're not like startles you you're not all the way awake and i remember recently my husband um startled me in the middle of the night so i'm a deep sleeper so when our kids like are having a moment in the middle of the night earl is like chief i'm chief during the day he's chief at night we know our strengths and so i sleep like hardcore so i feel somebody standing over me like by my nightside table my bedside table and i'm like why would somebody be standing over me in the middle of the night like so this is this is the bed right here this is my nightstand right here and then someone is standing over me so i partially open my eyes and i'm like what are you doing and earl is standing beside me and i'm not kind in the middle of the night i wasn't like hi honey i love you so much thank you for how you honor our family thank you for the man that you are i was like why are you i was like why are you standing here and he was on his phone and he was trying to play it cool like it was normal to be standing over me in the middle of the night with his phone and i it was my phone i kept trying to fall back asleep but then you know the light of the phone when you're asleep but you can feel that light the phone light and then i'm trying to fall back

asleep and then if these sunglasses were my phone all of a sudden earl takes my phone puts them on my eyes and then i'm fully awake and i was like what are you doing he said i have football tickets and they're on your phone and i afraid that i lost them so i just do a facial scan to make sure i have my tickets at two in the morning it was dirty so dirty talk about being discombobulated i was seeing trees i was seeing trees just like this man but i love i have not let you live that down because that's just wrong sleep is a gift and you robbed me but this man in the story he's he's He's thrown off, but Jesus helps him have full sight. And, love y'all. I remember before I understood like who I was in Christ. And I remember when I was like that blind man, and I thought people were trees. And I would pick the wrong relationships, go out with the wrong guys, and settle because I didn't have sight. And then I met someone who brought me to church and helped me get the stigmatism out of my eye and helped me to see clearly. Because there's a difference between a man of God and a man who says he's a man of God. Yeah, put that in the chats online girls, put it in the chats. So it's important that you have clear sights so you can discern. Acts 9 verses 17 through 18. Another story about sight. So Saul was a man that thought he was doing the right thing. He was religious, he was passionate, he was smart.

But he was working against God when he thought he was working for God. But Jesus found him on the road to Damascus. And he has this vision. And after the vision, he's blind. The friends he's with hear the voice, but they don't see the vision. So he gets up and he goes blind. But he's not going to stay that way for long. The Lord talks to a man named Ananias and says, go lay hands on Saul. Verse 17, then Ananias went to the house and entered it. And I'm sure Ananias might not have understood what he was stepping into because at that time Saul didn't yet believe. Saul was persecuting Christians, but he heard from the Lord that this is what he should do. So he placed his hands on Saul. And he said, brother Saul. And one commentary that I read said that he called him brother before he was even a brother in Christ. Just by faith and that love that oozed out of him. And the Lord Jesus who appeared to you, now he's comforting him. Because I'm sure Saul's like startled, like what's happening? I know I had this dream, but is it really happening? You know when something is supposed to happen and you hear from God, but then it happened, but you still kind of trip out.

So I'm sure he was kind of tripping out. And he goes on to say, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here. And I think about all of our first time girls. I think about the girls that were brought by friends. I think about those of us who feel like we're in a season of blindness or life is just impacted our sight. Or we've heard so much because we've been listening to all these podcasts and getting lost in all these algorithms on TikTok and Instagram. And we're just hearing, hearing, hearing, hearing, hearing. And then we start seeing, seeing, seeing, seeing, seeing the wrong thing. But we've been praying and we've been praying because I feel like all of us in some area of our life, we're not seeing it correctly. But the good news is, is Jesus is here to help restore our sight and heal our vision. And I love that he said, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus so tender who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here, he sent me. And I feel like by the spirit of God that he sent me tonight so that you may see again. I think about the guys that are in the parking lot. God sent them so that you could see again. I think about the host at the door and the worship team and the tech team. God sent them to help us see again

and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Verse 18, immediately, everybody say immediately. Something like scales fell from Saul's eyes. And that is what we are praying happens in all of us tonight. Happens in the theater, happens at Frisco, happens online, happens in this room. Something like scales fell from Saul's eyes and he could see again. Do you know that feeling when you can see again? When you come to your senses again, when you come out of that slumber, that haze, you have fresh clarity, fresh fight, fresh vision, fresh direction, that is what we're prophesying and believing is going to happen to you. that you're going to be able to see again. It says he got up. Some of us have been sitting on the sidelines for too long because life knocked us out. In life, things we heard, lies we believed, impacted our sight and we just sat down and called ourselves out. But I called, took ourselves out of it. But I love that it says he got up. And I believe that tonight God is calling us to get up again. And it says he was baptized. And so many of us are getting baptized tonight. And listen to this. I love the word of God. And it says, after taking some food, he regained his strength. After taking some food, he regained his strength. I don't know what scales are on your eyes. I don't know what lies you've listened to. And I just want to say, we're going to worship in just a little bit. You have the authority to put your phone down. It's very addictive. You know, and I love my phone. I'm always getting links. I'm always getting recipes. I'm always, I'm, girl, my inspo is inspo on inspo. So there's no judgment for loving all things creative and all things lovely. And you can get so, you can gain so much. But you also can lose so much if you fill yourself with a diet of the wrong things. And sometimes the wrong things feel like the right thing in the moment, because you're just curious. But I think about Eve, who was in that garden. The enemy was able to talk her out of a promise

that God gave her because she was listening to the wrong thing. And so I just want to challenge us in this era to be women who listen to the right thing, to be women who get sight from the Holy Spirit, to be women who frame things correctly, to be women who says, you know what? This is what God says. And I don't even have it memorized, but I'm going to read it to you from scripture. And this is what my Bible says. And if you don't have a Bible, if you don't have a Bible, we have them here. They're in the courtyard. Sometimes the dry air comes for me, so I'm going to hydrate for a second. So Anias was sent so that Paul could see again. And God wants you to see again. And there's this song that we've been singing, and it's called In Our Mist. And every time we sing it, the presence of God fills the atmosphere. And I need you to know, some of you are Lone Rangers and have a Lone Ranger spirit and haven't yet recognized that God is surrounding you, that he sees you, that he loves you, that he is a holy plan and purpose for your life, that he's in the midst with your eating disorder. He's right there with you saying, you can get up again, eat again, get strength again. He's with you in your brokenness saying, I'm in your midst. I can heal you. I can restore you. He's with you feeling overwhelmed, feeling burdened. And as we sing this song, I'm going to pray over you in just a second. But we're praying that the spirit of God, we can start singing too, that as you feel his presence, the scales would begin to fall off of your eyes, that you would see again, that you would get fresh sights, that revival would happen in your life, that anointing would happen, that you would see him in your midst. When you get in the car tonight, that he would be in your midst. When you go back to work, when you put your kids down for bed, that you would invite the presence of God to give you sight to see. The scales would fall off of your eyes as you recognize the presence of the almighty God. Let's worship him and let's watch scales fall in the name of Jesus. In our midst, fresh revival opening then. In our midst, just imagine working in our midst. In our midst, there is fire, all consuming wisdom. In our midst, there is oil of anointing. In our midst, fresh revival opening then. In all of us, just imagine what could happen Holy Spirit of God, we surrender our hearts again Move however you want, right here

Like a fire, like a whisper, like a wave Move however you want tonight, right here There is fire, there is fire All consuming, in all of us There is oil, we believe it, we receive it Fresh revival, hope in heaven In all of us, just imagine what could happen In all of us, there is fire All consuming, in all of us There is oil, hope anointed In all of us, hope in heaven In all of us, just imagine what could happen In all of us, surely the Lord is here, he is here In all of us, anything can happen Anything can break, anything can move In all of us, you give sight to the blind You raise the dead Jesus, Jesus, Jesus In all of us, there is fire All consuming, in all of us There is oil, he is here right now Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Just imagine what could happen Holy Spirit of God We surrender our hearts again Move however you want Right here, in all of us Like a fire of blood Like a wisdom of the flesh Move however you want

Right here, in all of us Move right here, in all of us Move here, you can move here In all of us, you can move You can move In all of us, we need a fresh touch from heaven Fresh touch from heaven In all of us, all across this room just raise your hands And call on heaven for your family, for your mind For this nation, for this city, for this church, you are here Spirit of the Lord is here, you are here Surely the Lord is here, he is here right now Surely the Lord is here, you are here right now The scales are falling off in the name of Jesus Jesus, and as we lift our hands to heaven, just like you grabbed the hand of the blind man, I thank you that you're grabbing us by the hands, that you're laying hands upon us, and you're saying, daughter, be healed, get up and walk. I thank you that we are seeing in the spirit, that we're seeing miracles, that we're seeing breakthroughs, that we're seeing freedom, that we're seeing ourselves the way that you see us. I thank you for rewriting the story that we tell ourselves. I thank you for strengthening us, for fresh fire, for fresh anointing. Thank you that you are for us, that life has tried to knock us down and lie to us, but now we see clearly, now we see clearly,

you are in our midst, you are fighting for us, you're surrounding us. I speak of blessing in Jesus' name.