Priscilla Shirer: Keep Your Eyes Fixed on Jesus

Welcome to the Going Beyond Ministries with Priscilla Shirer YouTube channel! Our ministry is focused on the expository teaching of Scripture. Our desire is not only to see people understand His written Word but for all to experience His Power!

Priscilla Shirer has equipped believers through her Bible studies, films and books including Discerning the Voice of God, God is Able, and two New York Times Bestsellers – The Resolution for Women and Fervent: A Woman’s Battle Plan for Serious, Specific and Strategic Prayer. Her movies include War Room (2015), I Can Only Imagine (2017), Overcomer (2019), and The Forge (2024). These theatrical releases are tools designed to inspire audiences to walk with Jesus.

when you keep your eyes focused on the character of God when you refuse to allow yourself to question who God is you can ask questions of God without questioning God do you see the difference in the little Nuance there ask your questions I’ve got mine I’m sure you’ve got yours but you and I can ask questions about our situation and about all of these multitudes that we are facing without questioning the character of God keep your eyes on [Music] Jesus Lord I thank you I thank you that your word is living active sharper than

any two-edged sword Lord I pray that in these next few moments you would do what you do take these simple thoughts drill them deeply down into our souls make us different after we hear your voice today in Jesus name I pray amen amen my niece is name is Caris we’ve called her Care Bear since the day that she was born I you know she’s a grown woman with children now and I still call her Care Bear uh but Caris when she was little I remember on this one occasion she was at my parents house so her grandparents

house we were all there hanging out and she was running around in the backyard and this stray dog came out of nowhere the dog was barking and in her mind this dog was incredibly vicious and was getting ready to attack her we were a little bit older so we could see that the dog really wasn’t that big and the dog really wasn’t going to do any damage he was probably just hyper and active and excited to see some humans in the backyard that day but to Caris at 3 years old really small that dog looked vicious and so she was running away from

this dog in Terror now you know the more you run the more the dog thinks you want to play so the dog is chasing her and chasing her more frantically and more feverishly and barking more loudly and the more all of that escalated the more fear was rre in kris’s heart so she ran she ran and my dad her grandfather saw the chaos outside walked outside onto the back patio opened up his arms so that Caris would be able to run directly into his arms so she ran as fast as she could ran directly into his arms and he

scooped her up and once he scooped her up she was now high above the ground level where the dog was she looked down at the dog looked back into the face of her grandfather look back back down at the dog looked back up into the face of her grandfather over and over again tears streaming down her face finally she was able to compose herself and wipe them away as the dog continued to bark and she looked down at the dog finally and said because now everything changed cuz she was in her father’s arms and she was

looking into her grandfather’s face Everything Changes based on what you are looking at that’s the challenge I have for you today what are you looking at cuz listen there’s so much to see when you scroll past your uh Twitter feed when you scroll through your Instagram feed when you watch the news whatever Channel you tend to watch no matter where you are your vision is centered you’re going to see and look at things that are vying for our attention and some of those things when we give them our attention

they cause discouragement to settle in on us I mean you can literally feel it the anxiety like a cloak weighing you down burdening you keeping you up at night making the tears fall from your eyes if you look at your problems too long in your personal life or the struggles that we’re facing collectively in our culture and in our world if you look at them too long they’re going to make the tears flow from your eyes they’re going to make your heart palpitate they’re going to keep you from being able to have a sense of stability

emotionally and mentally in your life so I ask you again what are you looking at what are you giving your attention to doesn’t mean avoidance doesn’t mean denial it doesn’t mean awareness of the realities that you are facing in your relationships or in dynamics that we are facing culturally it doesn’t mean you’re not aware it just means that you give not just the same amount of attention but you give an escalated prioritized amount of attention that you are looking at who your God is the promises that he

has has declared and his truth as he has written it down in his word I’m asking you where have you been looking what have you been giving your attention to maybe so much of the struggles that we’ve had to have a sense of peace and stability and ease is because we’ve been fixing our eyes on the wrong thing the writer of Hebrews would put it this way fix your eyes on Jesus he’s the author he’s the finisher of our faith meaning he is still Sovereign he is still in control he’s still Seated on the throne

he still is who he said he is and he can still do everything that he says that he can do nothing that is happening in your personal life or mine in our culture or yours nothing that is happening is outside of the control of our great God but you might forget that if you keep looking at the chaos swirling around you you’ve got to be intentional so do I about meditating on the truths of God about looking into them and finding out what are his promises that he declares to be true about my family about my health about my son about my daughter

about my church about my country about my culture that I live in what has he declared to be true I’m going to meditate on this more than I meditate on everything else where have you been fixing your eyes there is a story in Scripture that I’m continually drawn back to I have been for years in fact in 2 Chronicles chap 20 if you still use a Bible you know a Bible with actual paper pages and you want to turn back there with me you can otherwise your iPhone your iPad any manner of iness that you have available to you you

can get to Second Chronicles it’s in the Old Testament there’s a first Chronicles but also a 2 Chronicles and in 2 Chronicles chapter 20 there is a verse that leaps out at me every time I see it part of the reason it leaps out at me is because I’ve underlined it and I underlined it back in 2010 okay so I have several things that I’ve underlined throughout um this Bible that my parents gave me when I was about 17 years old uh different color highlights different color underlines and I I just value this Bible so much

because it’s actually like a little bit of a track record of my relationship with God back in 2010 for reasons I don’t know I underlined this verse I can’t remember what was happening but I put the the date right beside it it was December of 2010 about 10 years from where we are right now 10 years ago and I underlined this verse it’s a verse that still speaks to me as poignantly today as it did back then and listen if you underline stuff or highlight stuff on your electronic Bible or your paper