Open My Eyes by Rev. Christie Bature: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Eyes of the Heart

Paul's prayer for believers wasn't for physical sight but for their inner sight, "the eyes of your heart," to be flooded with light. This inner sight is the imagination: the faculty by which people perceive possibility, envision the future, understand purpose, and respond to what God reveals. Because so much flows through it, it becomes a prime target for the enemy to occupy.

2 Corinthians 10:5 speaks of casting down imaginations and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. The real battlefield isn't public debate; it is what happens between a person's own ears. Actions follow imagination — a destructive habit, an addiction, or an outburst of anger typically begins as a single unchecked thought that is entertained rather than taken captive.

Seeing Before It Manifests

Scripture shows a consistent pattern: God changes what a person can see before He changes their circumstance.

• Abraham was shown the stars before he had a son.
• Joseph saw sheaves and stars bowing before he became ruler.
• Ezekiel saw dry bones become an army before revival came.
• Jesus endured the cross because of the joy set before Him.

Imagination misused for lust or bitterness is a distortion of its purpose; rightly used, it is the God-given capacity to perceive what He is saying and doing before it becomes visible.

A Testimony of Activated Sight

A minister shared her story of growing up in a culture where women were treated as property with little voice or room to aspire. Encountering Scripture, texts on sons and daughters prophesying and having "the mind of Christ", reshaped what she believed she could see for her own life. That shift in sight led her to found a rehabilitation center for addicts, built initially on a single small plot of land over eight years of prayer and fasting before there was money to lay the foundation. The work grew to draw people from multiple countries, and later expanded into a shelter for women escaping abusive situations, with further land acquired for continued growth despite having no natural means to fund it at the time.