The first time I heard him speak was actually in this room.
I was a first-year student in BSSM, and he got up to speak, and I was sitting in the
way back, and all of a sudden, everything started lighting up in the room.
And I was like, oh my gosh, and I thought we were all seeing it.
And I was like, what's going on?
I'm like, why are things lighting up when this dude speaks?
And he started sharing about how he pursues God's voice and experiments with God.
And as I was listening to him share, I heard the Holy Spirit go, do what he does.
I was like, interesting.
I don't know him at all.
So then I would just randomly meet other people in his, he's a, he was a revival group pastor.
They'd be like, oh yeah, Francesco's my RGP, and I'd be like, oh cool, like, what does
he do?
Like low-key spying.
And I learned about some cool things that he did with Holy Spirit with street ministry,
and so I started going out and just kind of like mimicking, right?
Because I was just following the Holy Spirit.
And honestly, when I tried to do those experiments, they failed.
But then I went and talked to him, and I got some, he has such, I like to call him a Yoda
prophet mentor.
He has such good juicy one-liners that invite you into relationship with Holy Spirit.
And I became a student of his, and in that process, I experienced God in new ways that
I'd never had before.
I don't know how to explain this.
There is such a gift of impartation on his life.
So I encourage you to lean forward and keep your ears peaked.
Please welcome Francesco Sedelli.
Thank you so much.
Hey everyone.
I'm excited.
Listen, there's a license plate number.
I'm going to read it out, and there's something going on with your vehicle.
It's 9C, 9CNJ872.
The trunk is open, so you might want to close that.
They found a body in the back, but it's okay.
It was someone that was taking a nap.
They just needed a spot to lay down.
It was me earlier.
I got to be honest.
I just needed to take a nap.
I don't know.
Let's do this.
Someone get a color.
Just shout it out.
White.
Okay.
White.
Okay.
Someone get a brand.
Camry.
Toyota Camry.
All right.
So we're looking for a white Toyota Camry.
That's usually how I do things.
My kids all the time come up to me like, Papa, I lost my truck, like my little car, you know?
And I'm like, ask Jesus, where is it, you know?
And then sometimes they'll come back and they're like, Papa, Papa, I found it.
Jesus told me it was in this location.
And other times they're like, they're walking around the house for an hour, you know?
I'm like, what are you doing?
They're like, oh, I'm walking around trying to find the car, and I'm like, you're still
doing that?
It's an hour later, you know?
It's just, you know.
It's okay.
All right.
This is like a showroom for Apple products right now.
This is one of those things.
All right.
Well, we are going to talk about seeing in the spirit.
All right.
So we just have a short time together.
If you guys could start the timer, that would be outrageous.
And so I want to just keep us on track with where we're going and what we're doing.
But I love the idea and the concept of seeing in the spirit.
It's absolutely beautiful.
And each of us do see in the spirit.
I think sometimes we just need to learn that we already do and learn the framework for
those things.
And so I'm going to just lay down a framework.
And obviously people come into a session like this and they're like, just teach me how.
Just do it.
Just teach me how.
And it doesn't always work like that, you know?
And so my kids, when they were right now, they don't ask me how to teach them how to
eat something.
They already know how to eat, right?
Because they were born eating, and they have digestive systems, and they have a mouth,
tongue, teeth, the whole thing, so they already have all the technology for eating, right?
So if we say it that way.
Now sometimes I walk in and I'm like, okay, listen, don't eat the cannoli like that, you
know?
Eat the cannoli like this.
Don't eat the tiramisu like this.
You have to eat the tiramisu like that.
Don't use your hands to eat the tiramisu.
You're not Winnie the Pooh, you know?
It's like, you know, something like this, things like that.
It's like, all right, so we need to be taught how to eat sometimes with certain things,
you know?
It's like, oh, that's not how you eat this.
This is a sea urchin.
This is how you eat that.
You know, whatever it is.
And so sometimes it just works that way, right?
And so, we learn how to do things, but we already have the technology to hear God.
We already have the technology to see in the Spirit.
We already have all that technological stuff.
We've been born with it, and it's within us, right?
And so, some people are born seeing in the Spirit.
They just, you know, like my kids are like that.
My kids are just, you know, frequently seeing things happening, and sometimes they're beautiful.
Sometimes they're unique and interesting.
And so, you know, we're just learning how to work with that with four-year-olds and
six-year-olds and two-year-olds and that whole thing.
So, I want you guys to hold me accountable, though, as I'm talking.
We're going to talk about the framework for seeing in the Spirit, and then just give some
examples of what's happening there on, you know, what is the Spirit?
Why is this even important?
But then, I didn't include this on the slide, so I'm going to throw copious amounts of scriptures
at you.
And so, you could feel free to write notes, or you could take pictures of the screen,
and on the last slide, we have a QR code, which you could download this slide presentation,
you know.
And that's just included.
That's included.
The humor and this, Ben's good looks, everything is included on the whole thing.
Let me tell you a story about Ben.
I met Ben 15 years ago.
I came from the School of Ministry.
I was so sincere and so hungry.
I didn't know anything about anything.
And I just showed up on the Bethel doorstep, and I had actually neck pain from a missions
trip that I went to on the South Pacific.
I got into a fight with a dead witch doctor.
You know how that goes.
And so, I had arrived in Reading, and I had this severe neck pain.
Long story.
That will be part eight of this whole series, you know.
We'll get there.
But anyway, so I see Ben on the prayer line.
I said, who is this cat?
I said, I got to get him to pray for me.
And so, he prays, and my neck gets healed, and it was beautiful.
And so, that was my first introduction to Ben, and I was like, I love this man.
This man, he's a beautiful man.
And so, it was great.
So, I want to talk through the framework of seeing in the Spirit.
And so, for me, a great framework is looking to God.
I want to look to God with everything, especially with seeing in the Spirit.
Sometimes seeing in the Spirit gets interesting, and you all know these people, and some of
you might be sitting next to them, and some of you might be them.
And so, you know, you're in the church, and I'm friends with a lot of these people.
I am this people sometimes, and where you see things, and you're like, I don't know.
And someone comes up to you, or you go up to someone in the church, and they're explaining
what they see, and you're like, yeah, I don't know.
I don't know what to do with that, you know?
And so, I think the more that we could look to God, the more that we could, number one,
understand and learn more about God, right?
It sounds very simple, but we're going to break this down.
And so, I'm looking to God, and I want to understand more about God.
When I automatically, when I understand more about God, I automatically understand more
about myself, right?
It's a pretty, pretty beautiful exchange.
And so, that's kind of where we're at with the framework for seeing in the Spirit is
always looking to Jesus in every situation.
And that's ultimately the revelation of Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 is I trust the Lord with all of
my heart.
And I'm seeing something, but I don't know how to interact what's happening, but I trust
the Lord with all of my heart.
I lean not on my own understanding, right, because I just don't understand what's happening
there.
But in all of my ways, I'm continually acknowledging my relationship with the Lord and continually
acknowledging Jesus, and He will direct my paths.
As I'm learning more about Him, He's making things more clear, right?
So, in the spot of accountability, what I would love for you guys to do, after the last
slide, we have the QR code, but there will be a bonus that I want to add in that I didn't
add in on the slides.
And so, when I get to the last topic, if someone could just be faithful and shout out, bonus,
you know, just to help me out, because I have it written down over here, but it's actually
really important because it's a concept that we have that I feel like so many people get
caught up with, and it's quite liberating to not get caught up with this.
All right.
So, what is the Spirit?
So, let's talk through that for a second.
What is the Spirit?
The Spirit is the unseen realm, right?
And so, it's odd to call it the seen realm when we're talking about seeing into the unseen,
you know?
I mean, some people call it the intangible, but we have Hebrews 11, verse 3, and there's
this wonderful spot where we basically understand that God is creating the world that we see,
this sort of tangible space that we're in, but He's creating it from an intangible reality,
from the unseen, from the Spirit realm, from His imagination, from His heart, you know,
in that space.
And so, that's what we're working with, you know?
We could even more pinpoint into the Spirit realm where there's different concepts and
different people have different definitions.
And so, I don't like making things overcomplicated.
really complicated, although I am very good at that,
but I'm also very good at making things very practical and simple, so I could go
on the spectrum.
But we could refer to the spirit realm as
the whole of the spirit realm
and the kingdom
of specifically what's happening in heaven,
in heavenly places, right?
And so some people will say, hey, I saw this happening in the kingdom,
and when they say that, I understand that they're referring to
the heavens and the highest of the heavens.
When people say the spirit realm, they're talking about
all of the spirit realm.
So I oftentimes get people come up to me and they ask like,
hey, what's happening in the spirit realm?
You know, they ask like that.
And it's a very valid question, it's great.
It's just that it's like this, it's like,
that's a very vast question, you know?
Because you take like the earth,
and that's one concept, but
how much greater and bigger is the spirit realm than even just the earth?
But if I said to you, hey guys, what's happening on the earth right now?
I'd get millions or thousands of different answers depending upon
where you're from and what's happening.
You could say something that's happening over a country,
all the way localized down to this is what's happening in my neighborhood.
And, you know, and so the spirit realm is just so vast.
Why do we need to see in the spirit?
For me, this is the why.
This makes sense to me.
So this is my thought progression and how you could kind of
pattern along with that.
The more I get to see God and his world, the more I understand his ways.
It's very simple.
And so there's been many times where I see into the spirit, or
I see different things, or the Lord allows my eyes to open to see something.
And when I say allows my eyes to open up to see something, I mean my eyes.
I also mean other, and we'll talk about this in a little bit,
receptors that we are built with, different senses and
sensibilities that we have.
And so the more I could understand about God and his world, and
when I refer to God, let's just, so we get on the same page.
When I refer to God, I am referring to God, as in Yahweh,
as in the God of gods, the highest God of Jesus Christ, the Trinity,
the Holy Spirit, I'm referring to that, right?
When I also refer to God, I am also referring to God in his
multifaceted aspect, where we have both Abba and then we have Father.
We have mighty counselor, we have the shepherd, we have the lion,
we have the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the earth, right?
So there's so many different facets and aspects and dimensions of the Lord, and
sometimes people talk about God like he's just one dimensional, right?
And so some people say, yeah, God spoke to me.
I'm like, what aspect of God spoke to you?
Because that would then help me understand the context in which you are
encountering him, or you're experiencing him, or in that way.
Because if someone says, Abba spoke to me, then I know that there's an element
that God revealed to them about his Father's heart.
But if they said, the Father spoke to me, then I know that there's some element
of discipline or correction or something in there with wisdom and
counsel that spoke, right?
Because we have, it's interesting in Galatians chapter, is it four?
And then Romans chapter eight, we have Paul that's writing,
we have the spirit of adoption by which we call out, right?
I mean, does he have Tourette's?
That he's just like, Abba, Father, because Abba in Hebrew means Father.
So is he just repeating himself like, Father, Father, Father, Father, Father?
No, it's because Abba is the one that comforts us, and
Father's the one that disciplines us, and both show our sonship through that aspect,
right?
And so I think that's a beautiful aspect of how we get to encounter him, right?
Because the word in Romans 8 for Father and the word in Hebrew chapter 12 for
Father both talk about the disciplinary aspect of the Father's role.
And when I say discipline, we think, oh, the Lord's going to shoot me
with lightning bolts, you know?
I'm like, oh, wait, where are we getting this?
I remember I was in New York.
I'm from New York originally, but we were doing some evangelism on the streets.
We were talking to this one guy, and he goes, man, I don't want to go to church.
The Lord's going to strike me down with lightning bolts.
And I was like, brother, listen, the Lord's big enough.
He'll strike you with lightning bolts right here.
Like, you don't need to go to church to get struck with lightning bolts.
He'll strike you with a lightning bolt right now.
You know, it's like, don't you know it?
So, anyway, so he was encouraged, you know, and so, and so.
But then I started calling out his sin.
No, no, I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding.
I was an angry prophet, you know.
I'm just kidding.
We gave him candy.
So, this is a reason why we need to see in the Spirit or why there's a beautiful aspect
about seeing in the Spirit is I want to understand God's ways.
I love this verse about Moses is that the children of Israel knew all about God's acts,
all the stuff that he did.
They're like, wow, hey, we love the quail.
We love the manna.
Thanks, Lord.
That's great.
You know, love the pillar of fire.
But Moses knew why it was happening.
And I think I don't want to just see the manifestation.
I refer to myself as a spiritual scientist sometimes in certain circles.
And I'm like, oh, I love what's happening.
I love the healing, but I want to know the dimensions behind the healing,
all the steps, what's happening.
I want to know about the spirit realm, but I want to know what's happening
in all the dimensions, if that makes sense.
All right, this is a big key.
This is a big key for me with the different aspects of God's nature
is Jesus in John chapter 5, right?
He's talking to this crowd, and he says, listen, guys, check this out.
I'm going to tell you the truth.
The son could do nothing on his own accord,
but only what he sees the father doing.
For whatever the father does, the son does likewise.
For the father loves the son and shows him all that he does
and shows that himself is doing,
and greater works that these that he will show him,
so that you may marvel.
You will be in a perpetual state of wonderment and amazement, right?
So for me, that looks like this.
This is beautiful because the son looks to the father,
but the father also shows the son.
So it's not a one-way street.
This is a two-way street, and this is a dialogue that is always happening.
So the more that we're looking to God and looking to the father,
and when I say father, I mean Abba and father, right?
So just we're understanding.
There's multiple aspects.
Because I think sometimes, too, people have only one mode of operation.
I see this with communication styles.
I have some friends, and they're like,
hey, I'm going to have a confrontation with somebody.
And I'm like, oh, how's that going to go?
And they're like, well, I'm going to go in like Rambo.
I'm going to kick down the door, and I'm going to tell them the way it is.
And I'm like, that's incredible.
I'd love to get tickets.
I'd love to buy the ticket to that show.
And then other times, it's like, oh, hey, I'm going to come in like a lamb.
But can you, in your communication style, be a lion and a lamb?
Could you be gentle?
Could you be aggressive?
Could you be, you know?
And I think just our concept of everything is just so different.
Even Proverbs says that a gentle answer breaks a bone.
I'm like, oh, that's an interesting.
God, the way he thinks is so different in his multifaceted nature.
And so a question that I'm always asking myself and a question that I'm always asking the Lord
on behalf of other people is what aspect of your nature am I becoming more familiar with?
Are you becoming more familiar with?
Because it helps to put those things in those categories so that I could know, hey,
are you knowing God right now as a provider?
And then everything is going to filter through that.
But if you're learning God as a father, it's going to filter through that as well.
If you're learning God as a healer, you guys get the point.
So different aspects of God's nature, I think it's really healthy when we start getting into,
I'm seeing in the Spirit is I'm building relationship with different aspects of his nature.
And we're going to talk through angels as well.
And so there's a lot of things with angels and seeing in the Spirit that overlap, you know, which is great.
So this is engaging the reflection of Hagar.
And so Hagar reflected and was revealed this revelation of God, this aspect of God's nature.
I think she was one of the first ones in the Bible that popped out with this revelation of who God was and his nature.
But she says she gave this name to the Lord El Roy, which is so beautiful.
And it basically means, Lord God, you are the one that sees me.
And I think this is continually beautiful because now we have David in Psalm 139 who basically crafts a whole psalm.
And he says, Lord, you see me and you know me.
You know when I sleep.
You know when I rise.
You know my comings and my goings.
You know when I go out.
You know all about me.
Where can I go from your presence?
Where can I flee from you?
For if I would ascend to the heavens, you would be there.
If I make my bed in Sheol, you would be there.
And you know the rest of the verses.
But it's such a beautiful aspect of understanding who God is in that midst because God is the one that sees us.
And if we have that as one of the primary things for, hey, I'm going to start engaging into seeing in the Spirit realm,
then I'm going to start to understand, hey, God is the one that sees me.
And I'm going to be excited about that and understand about that.
And the more that I could understand that God sees me, therefore I am able to see him and then I am able to see his world,
that's sort of the framework that we're working with.
So this is the circle that I keep on looking through is that I am continually.
And right now in this season, Psalm 139 is really meaning a lot to me because it's a way that I've been lowering anxiety.
It's a way that I've been understanding more about who I am.
I know we all love personality tests, but I could understand more about me when I'm looking to the Father.
And when I'm continually saying, Jesus, you know me.
Jesus, you see me.
Jesus, you love me.
And I was just talking to some friends yesterday that, you know, I've been doing a lot of research
on neuroscience, but even neuroscience has proved that if you put your head—a way to
lower anxiety is if you put your head up and you put your eyes all the way up, that somehow
it sends messages to your brain.
And if there's any neurosciences in the room, I'd love for you to confirm that.
But they—oh, sweet Jesus, what happened?
Oh, Lord, bring it back.
Come back, Lord.
But even that sends messages to your brain that begins to come—it brings peace into
your spirit, soul, body.
And I was like, wow, that's so interesting, because David also writes, Lord, where does
my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heavens and earth, because what do I do?
I lift my eyes to the hills, right?
And so I think there's interesting things with that, with how we see God.
I lift my eyes to the hills, and as I'm lifting my eyes, you know, I know some people are
like, wow, that's such a beautiful metaphor.
I think David was actually doing that and in some way understood that, hey, this is—the
peace of God which transcends all understanding is guarding my heart and mind, you know.
So God, you see me, and then we see you.
That's the way that this works.
And so this is probably going to be one of my—this is one of my anchor texts that I
keep on going after, is blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, right?
So listen, I am—there's a few ways that we could look at this, and we'll break this
down a little bit.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God, right?
This is now the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, Matthew chapter 5, beautiful part of Scripture.
I don't necessarily think that the majority of what Jesus was talking about was this revelatory
nature to the Hebrews about seeing into the Spirit and seeing into the multifaceted dimensions
of the Lord and, you know, light transparencies and photonics and light energy.
I don't think He was talking about that exclusively.
I think that that could—that was a part of what He was talking about.
I think He was also trying to show, hey, Hebrews, Israelites, you guys have had 400 years of
silence and now I am here, Emmanuel, and if you see me, you see the Father, and if you
see the Father, you see me, and I'm a physical representation of God here.
And so the thing that really strikes me with this is that people will always say, hey,
can you pray for me to see in the Spirit?
And they're like, just lay hands on my eyes.
I'm like, okay, I guess.
And so I poked a sister a couple of weeks ago.
No, I'm just kidding.
I poked her in the eye.
No, no.
But I'm like, okay, so I—so pray for the eyes because they're like, I want my eyes
to be open.
I know that Elisha prayed for the servant and his eyes were open.
I don't know if he laid hands physically on his eyes, whatever.
The thing that really hits me with this is that is seeing more of a heart posture or
is seeing more about the function of the eyes, right?
And so I'd like to suggest that if we want to see more and understand more, first I think
it deals with the heart posture.
I think secondly then it deals with the function of the eyes.
Seeing the eyes is important, but how many of you know, if they took my eyes out, I would
still be able to see, you know?
They could do whatever.
I'm still seeing, you know?
So I don't know who they is, but let's just say—let's just say this they.
So but seeing is linked to the heart posture and what's happening in the internal world.
And so I know that there are dimensions that I see into and I see into it according to
my heart posture.
I see into it according to the purity of my heart.
Now the Lord's never come to me and said, you can't see that because your heart's impure.
But I think that there's moments where in my relationship with the Lord, the Lord would
permit me to see more because my heart posture is prepared for being able to see that.
And I think a lot of this works with impartation too.
People come up and they're like, hey, I would—can you give me a double portion of everything
that you have?
I'm like, oh, that's—I don't know if you want that.
You know, I've been getting a lot of rejection lately from people, so I could give you double
that too, you know?
And so I was like, you know, I mean, it's a wide range, right?
And so I'm not saying I have rejection issues.
I'm just saying that, you know, in certain seasons we, you know, there's things that
happen.
But it really deals with what's happening inside the heart.
And I think there was one day that I just—you know, all of us love the love languages and,
you know, and my love languages are conditional.
I think people—I've had staff people, when I came on staff, they were like, Francesco,
what are your love languages?
And I was like, well, they're—I could tell you, but they're conditional.
And they're like, man, that's so dysfunctional.
And they began to try to diagnose all my dysfunctions, which I don't know how many there are, but,
you know, I was very appreciative of them all.
But I said, listen, check this out.
I says, I love physical touch, it just depends who's—
you know, touching me.
Like, I said, because sometimes I'd be in a spot
and someone, you know, would be leaning on me
and I'm just, I'm cringing inside, you know?
And I'm like, thank you, I love that you're leaning on me,
I don't know if you have a hurt leg, I will help you,
I will walk with you, I will pray with you,
but can you not hang on me?
You know, and other times I'm like, you know,
my kids come up and they're like,
Papa, can I have a hug?
And I'm like, ah, absolutely.
And then they go to leave and they're like, I'm done.
I'm like, I'm not, no, come back over here now.
You know, I want to give you more hug, you know?
And so, it's just like that,
but we love all the love languages
and what happens in that space.
But I said to the Lord, I says,
Lord, what are some of your love languages?
And what do you love?
And he said to me something like this,
and he goes, when you love your wife beautifully
and your heart posture is so sweet,
that is like a sweet meal for me.
And I love eating that meal.
And I realized that sometimes
there's bitterness in my own heart
and I'm trying to serve the Lord this bitter meal.
And I'm like, Lord, I'm gonna come to you in worship,
but I'm serving you a bitter drink.
I hope you drink it, but it's, you know,
and there's no condemnation for that, you know?
I think we just, we go according to the revelation
of what God shows us,
but it is a beautiful thing
to understand the purity of our hearts.
So, I want to see in the Spirit.
I want to have a pure heart.
I want to see into the Spirit.
I want to see into God's world
and I want to see into his multidimensional world.
And so, it's a beautiful thing.
So, Jesus right here, he's promising the disciples,
I think Ben referenced that earlier about Nathanael,
but he's promising that they will see into the Spirit.
And he's saying, hey, listen, they were impressed
because he's like, I saw you eating figs
underneath the fig tree
or I saw you sitting under the fig tree.
And he says, hey, listen, I'm gonna tell you the truth,
that you will see heaven opened
and the angels of God ascending and descending
on the Son of Man.
I mean, I'd love to see that.
I'd love to see that every morning when I wake up.
Like, that is beautiful.
But that's a promise that he gave
for seeing in the Spirit.
So, there is a level of importance for,
hey, there's dimensions that the Lord wants
to open up to us about seeing in the Spirit
and this is one of them that I go back to.
We have during Jesus' birth, right?
We have some random shepherds that are in a random field
outside of a random city, right?
And all of a sudden, an angel appears
and announces about Jesus' birth.
And then all of a sudden, the angels look up
and then they see thousands upon thousands of angels
just worshiping.
And that's a scene right there.
And so, we have now more people that are being seen
in the Spirit, which is incredible.
Elisha's servant, right?
They have the battle.
You guys all know the story, you know.
Elisha's servant, oh no, they're coming to get us.
What do we do?
Crisis.
Elisha prays.
Lord opened up his eyes that he could see.
I think Elisha saw and Elisha knew
and Elisha had the confidence that he wasn't shaken, right?
So he was like, oh, I'm not gonna be shook by that.
Check this out.
You know, and he just understood the greater reality, right?
And so he prayed and his servant's eyes were opened
and so, some incredible promises.
So I think sometimes we get different people that are like,
oh man, I just would love to see in the Spirit.
And these are just three stories alone,
but these are three very important stories
of these are great promises that the Lord has shown to us
that hey, you have this ability, you can do this also
and I've created you with that technology.
So I touched on this earlier, but you know,
again, what are we learning about the character
and the nature of God?
We have God as Abba, God as protector, right?
These are just examples, but I think it's really important
to have those where we get into these spots
where like, oh Lord, I have a greater understanding
of how you're speaking to me
and what vantage point you're speaking to me from.
Sometimes I think we miss what the Lord says
and we miss what he says,
but we miss who he's coming to us as, right?
And I think I do this with even some of my team
and I'm like, oh, you were looking for me
to speak to you like a prophet
and I was speaking to you as a friend
or you were looking to me to speak to you as a father
and I just, I went into the, I put on mentorship.
I mean, there's some of you that are married, right?
You might realize this, you're like, you know,
your spouse might be coming to you,
wanting you to listen and then you're like,
hey, I'm gonna be your counselor right now, you know?
That always goes amazing.
If you know, that's great marriage advice.
If you have something on your heart and you, uh-oh.
Okay.
All right, so here's just a few ways to see in the spirit.
All right, this is not an exhaustive list at all,
but this is just a little something something
to get started, just a little.
appetizer.
But if we start with this, that the blessed are the pure in heart, for they'll see God,
that means that the heart is a big function of seeing in the Spirit.
And so, we have Ephesians chapter 1, where Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus,
and he says, I pray that the eyes of your heart be enlightened, that you would know
the hope to which He has called you, and what riches of the glorious inheritance in the
saints, and he goes on to list a few more things.
But he talks about the eyes of your heart being enlightened.
What are the eyes of your heart really gets into your imagination, right?
So, my heart is able to see and see what's happening, and there's that.
We have 1 Kings chapter 22, we have eyes, so physical eyes, right?
So, we have a bunch of stories here with the shepherd's eyes were open to see the angels.
We have the prophet Micaiah, and he's basically chatting with the kings about battle strategies,
and he looks into heaven and sees the heavenly news report in heaven, and then he reports
the heavenly news report of what's happening in heaven, and then what's about to happen
on the earth, basically.
But he says, I saw heaven standing open, and I saw the Lord on His throne.
And then while the Lord was on His throne, he describes this whole scene, this whole
council room that was happening in heaven.
We have Jeremiah chapter 1 about hearing.
And so, we have the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.
We all know this verse.
It was beautiful, but then Jeremiah says, you know, he's able to hear what the Lord
is saying because the Lord is speaking to him in that way.
We have metaphors.
This is a beautiful one because in that same chapter, Jeremiah, God says to Jeremiah,
the word of the Lord came to me a second time saying, what do you see?
And I see a boiling pot facing from the north.
And so, did Jeremiah look into the sky and see a hundred foot by hundred foot boiling
pot in the sky, or did he see an image in his heart?
And that was a metaphor for, because then the Lord translated and goes, that boiling
pot, that's going to be an invasion.
That's going to be an army.
And so, boiling pot, an army.
I think if I were to describe an army, I would use weapons, maybe not a boiling pot.
But that was the metaphor that God chose to speak to him as, but he also told him the
metaphor.
Does that make sense?
We have dreams.
Dreams, dreams, such a beautiful one.
In a dream, in the vision of the night, in Job 33, when deep sleep falls on people, when
they slumber in their beds, he opens up the ears of us and with warnings and conceals
things within dreams.
And that's beautiful.
We have Jeremiah chapter 18.
I love this one because it deals with natural events that happen.
So, Jeremiah, it says, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah and the Lord said, arise
and go down to the potter's house and I will let you hear my words.
So, I went down to the potter's house and there he was working at his wheel and the
vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hands and he reworked it into
another vessel as it seemed good for the potter to do.
Now, what's happening there?
Very simply, God tells Jeremiah, go down to the potter's house and just watch.
And then he gets this whole prophetic word over just a natural event that was happening.
And it was a very simple, simple thing.
I'm waiting for the Lord to say, Francesco, arise, go to a Michelin star restaurant, order
the most expensive thing off the menu, taste and see that I'm good.
And so, I'm waiting for that.
I'm getting closer, but the Lord's faithful.
But sometimes that happens also, you know, and so sometimes I think we're looking for
this big mystical encounter that I want to see the heavens open.
And he's like, hey, actually go to the potter, go to the car mechanic.
Go to the DMV.
Like that's like purgatory.
Okay, I guess I'll go there, you know.
But like the Lord wants to show us some things.
So, sometimes through natural events, the Lord wants to speak to us and He's just faithful
to show us things in that way.
Here's some fun accountability, the ways that we know that we're seeing accurately, three
ways.
There's probably many, but we have God's affirmation.
God's affirmation is so fun and so beautiful.
In Jeremiah chapter 1, He has this phenomenal conversation with the Lord, which I revisit
quite often because I just pretend like the Lord's talking to me, although it's written
the words of Jeremiah.
But I insert myself into the story because it just brings so much settling in my heart
for who I am and where I'm called to and those things.
But the Lord asks Jeremiah a very interesting question.
He goes, Jeremiah, what do you see?
Jeremiah says, the branch of an apple.
And God responds and says something like this,
that's phenomenal, great job, you see accurately.
So the Lord, as he calls him, he's also affirming him according to what he's seeing,
which is beautiful.
So, very interesting, if I came in here today and said,
hey guys, I had a vision this morning, early in the morning,
the heavens opened up and I saw the branch of an almond tree,
I think most of you would go, okay, can I, is there a refund for this?
That doesn't really sound that profound, you know.
But the Lord goes, hey Jeremiah, what do you see?
And he goes, a branch, this is not even the whole tree, it's just a branch.
Yeah, that's great, yeah, hey, you see accurately.
And so I think we're looking for the affirmation of the Lord
in every situation that we get into.
And so, fun story, I'm sitting in the church,
probably within the past six years, let's just say that.
And so at one point I'm sitting, and we're in a worship set,
and I look on the stage, and I'm just looking.
I'm just enjoying, I'm worshiping the Lord,
and all of a sudden I just happen to notice, right?
And so I use that phrase because sometimes this happens for you,
it happens for me, but so I'm just looking around,
I'm like, oh, it's this beautiful day, Lord, you're faithful, I love you.
What is that?
And all of a sudden I just become aware of something that's been there,
but I just seem to catch it, right?
And I see all these waterfalls on the stage in my imagination.
I'm like, okay, it seems like there's a bunch of waterfalls,
that's very interesting.
And I just continue to worship, and I'm like, okay, I'm still there,
and Lord, you're faithful, and oh, it's still the waterfalls.
And I'm trying to just play it off, whatever.
And then I started to ask the Lord, okay, what's happening with the waterfalls?
And we dialogued very shortly about it.
Anyway, I was like, okay, Lord, I believe that was from you,
but some affirmation is always lovely.
It's one of my love languages.
That's not conditional.
Gifts and affirmation are non-conditional.
So people are like, I don't care what gift, I'll take it.
But so I was like, okay.
So then fast forward just a little bit later, Bill gets up to speak,
and he starts reading a verse, and he goes, this verse is like a waterfall.
And he's like, let me tell you about waterfalls.
And he starts breaking down this whole thing about waterfalls,
and I was like, that's it.
That's the affirmation.
Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you for your faithfulness.
And sometimes we are continually, let me say it like this,
we are continually getting affirmation all the time
and have no clue that the affirmation is coming.
And so the prayer that I have is continually,
Lord, will you open up my eyes and my ears and my heart
to know and recognize when the affirmation is coming.
Another one is by myself.
And so in Luke 24, we have the disciples.
They're talking to Jesus.
They think he's a traveler, right?
And Jesus unfolds the Scriptures to them,
and they're talking to him for potentially a long time.
And afterwards, right, you guys know the story,
then they break the bread, Jesus then disappears,
and they go, that's so crazy.
But wasn't our hearts burning within us
when Jesus was opening up the Scripture?
How do you know if you're seeing accurately?
Is your heart burning within you?
Is something resonating within you?
Equally, how do you know if something is not really connecting?
It doesn't resonate within you.
That doesn't mean that automatically
what the other person is saying is completely off and wrong.
It just means, hey, there's not a frequency here
that I'm resonating on.
I'm not picking up the same radio station as you.
And other times, it's like, you know,
I'm not picking up the same radio station as you,
mostly because you're crazy.
And so there is that, right?
So it's multiple.
And so, and then others.
This is a nice one.
This is a big one, is how do I know if I'm seeing accurately?
It happens, and it's affirmed by others, right?
And so we have 1 Samuel 9 and 10,
where all of a sudden Samuel tells Saul
that he gives him this huge prophetic word,
and he goes, and then when all these signs are fulfilled,
you will change into another man.
And then it happens exactly like that.
And then he was changed into another man.
He got around the prophets.
And this whole thing happened throughout the whole time with Saul.
And how beautiful was that?
Because it happened, right?
And so how do we know that Samuel was seeing accurately
is because it happened, right?
And so it's confirmed by others, and there's that.
I had this reputation with my family
where I said to one of my cousins,
and they love Jesus in their way, right?
And so my cousin, she says, so I tell her one day,
I was like, hey, listen, you're going to be going, traveling,
and you're going to see a lot of people.
You you're gonna get on the plane and I says, you know, I know you have a trip coming up
But when you're on the plane, you're gonna be sitting in this type of chair. You're gonna look over
There's gonna be an older woman blonde hair and she's gonna start talking with you and she's gonna tell you about her her daughter
That's in college and you guys gonna have a whole conversation about education. And so my cousin goes oh
Okay
No grid for any of this, right? And so
Anyway, it was like six years later. She comes up to me. She goes. Hey, do you remember like six years ago?
You told me I was gonna go on a trip and I was like, yeah, and she goes well
It happened just like that and I was like, oh, oh, I mean it's better than seven years, right?
You know, so I was like cool that hey, thanks. That's great, you know
And so I was like, I at least I got I at least I understood. Hey, I'm seeing accurately
Anyway, what ended up happening was she starts she starts dating a gentleman who now she's married to great guy great family
And and so so I said to I said to my cousin. Hey, do you remember a few years back?
I told you about the airplane and the lady in the airplane
Yeah, and I was like I have one of those for Joe and she goes, oh, okay she and so she goes
Hey Joe Francesco makes predictions and they come true. So he does he has a prediction for you. It's gonna come true and I was like
Oh, that's it. So I have this reputation now with my family that like if I say it's gonna happen, whatever
And so it's not everything I say, but you know, it's this sort of thing
So I think we get into this into this space in that way, right?
And so if I just really simply just by demonstration
If I said this and I stepped out of the way and I said hey this whole space up here
What do you see the Lord doing?
Shout someone shout out. What do you see the Lord doing up over here?
Dancing. Okay. How many of you let's just take that one for how many of you saw dancing?
Okay, a bunch of you. That's great. All right. What else anything else?
Raining, okay
Angels making music. Okay, so we have music and dance though. That's that's a bit of a theme, right?
Children dancing. All right, there's children dancing. Okay, that's even more specific
Rays of light shining down. So we have rays of light and then we have rain that's shining down. Okay
Open doors, okay
Okay, so we have pot of smoke where prayers going up how many pots of smoke anyone seeing smoke
What
Fire, okay fire smoke. I mean they're related, you know
Preparing a feast. Okay, beautiful. All right, so we're all seeing different aspects. Yes
A play acting. Yes. Okay, beautiful. Yeah. Yeah
Yeah, beautiful, yeah, so so I think I think it's all that so everyone's seeing different things
But when someone calls out and says, yeah, I just see the Lord dancing then all of a sudden you're like, oh, yeah
Dancing dancing dancing like there's there's a theme that's happening and it's it's settling because you're like, oh am I making this up?
You know and a lot of times I'm like gosh, am I making this up? You know is continually my this is the QR code
Hey, all right. All right, cool. Cool. I was testing. I was testing you guys
So, all right, I'm gonna I just want to end with this
The bonus round, but I think I think equally it's beautiful and it's settling when you're like, oh
20 people in the room are seeing dancing or 30 people, you know, whatever and it's like, oh that's settling to me
Because am I making this up or is it is it real, you know, and and I would I would automatically say it is real
You're just learning to fine-tune
Right, and we had oh I see the Lord dancing and then I see children dancing
I see I see acting like so those are all facets and forms of something creative
In that space, right? So here's the bonus round, right? So, um, I was I was
Living in New York City at the time when 9-eleven happened
And so no, I know it's not the story i'm about to tell is not tragic
But I was living around that time and right after that right after the whole thing happened with 9-eleven
They started putting up signs everywhere that said if you see something say something
Right and and that that became like the slogan for everything. So you see something you say it
There's so many suspicious people in New York
I gotta be honest everyone's suspicious like my own cut my family's suspicious, you know
I'm, like i'm gonna report them, you know, and so so I think we have this whole thing happening, right? So
So the way that that happened that this revelation came in that was like hey
We're all going to be responsible to what we see right that that came in
Now i'd like to propose that the spirit realm just doesn't work that way
And I think I see a lot of people unnecessarily get caught up with well, I saw this thing happen and they feel so
heavily responsible to it
That it actually plagues them and it's a weight rather than a blessing
And I use this example if I uh, if I were to go home
And I would have baked a cake
I would have baked a cake and I would have done it
If I were to go home and I would have baked a cake
And I would I would have baked the cake and let's say it's a chocolate cake. I baked this chocolate cake and
And now I have a six-year-old twins that are four two-year-old
Newborn, that's the progression in our house. We have five boys six years old and under
So if I make the chocolate cake when it's baking in the oven
My son who's six is gonna be down the hallway in his room
He's gonna come running out because number one he smells the sugar
He smells the chocolate and go where's the chocolate at and he's gonna he's gonna be super pumped
And if I take that out, I'm gonna put it up to cool, right?
So now it's all done. I take it out to cool now the twins
They don't have the consciousness to understand about smell yet at four
Sort of but not quite to what my what my son will so now the four-year-olds will come in
they'll they'll they won't necessarily connect the smell of smell and and and and
Sweets, but when they look up on the counter, they'll see the cake and they'll go. Oh, I recognize that cake
That's that's a cake and and all of them will automatically assume that I baked it for them, right because they see it
They're like well pops baked it. It must be for us now the two-year-old. He doesn't doesn't recognize the smell
He is running around
He could look at it on the counter, but he doesn't even recognize it when it's on the counter
it's only until I put it onto the table and then I take a piece and I start serving it to everybody that he
Recognizing cake cake cake. It's his new favorite word cake cake cake
The newborn has no clue about really anything other than he's waking up and sleeping and eating and that's it
So we have these stages and I like to propose that sometimes you are seeing things
not necessarily because God is showing you but because your maturity level is growing and
Are you seeing things because your maturity level is growing or are you seeing them because God is showing you are
Two very important questions to understanding the spirit realm
The next stage then is Lord if am I seeing this because of my gifting am I in my maturity?
Am I seeing this because I am I am growing?
Am I seeing this because you're showing me two different if I if Lord if you are showing me this what do you want me?
to do with this
Oftentimes we never ask the Lord what they what you want me to do with this
We just assume that I need to do something. I see a tornado in the spirit over over over a certain area and I go
Oh
Tornado, that means I need to pray. I
Need to pray against the tornado, but maybe the Lord's saying something completely different
Hey, I want you this is a tornado and this is not a destructive tornado in the natural
This is I am I'm causing things to stir in the spirit realm and I want you to give thanksgiving and not
Command it to leave because that's actually from me, you know
And so I think I think sometimes we just we do the ministry of assumption rather than the ministry of Jesus, right?
And so if you see something say something except when it's in the spirit realm
So I should I should more accurately say this if you see something in the spirit ask the Lord. Is this me and
My maturity or is this you showing me and if it's you showing me
Tell me what to do and and when you tell me what to do. Have you given me the authorization to do that?
Because listen you we all love
Spiritual topics, but if you start going and messing with the spirit realm the spirit realms gonna start messing back
Like they're not the spirit realms not playing games and this whole idea behind. Hey, we're seeing in the spirit
This is not we're not playing games
Princes don't become princes by losing battles
It's important to realize that and that's for darkness and for light and we don't get promoted because we lose battles
You get that
So this is not a game that we're playing
So so don't necessarily go into a battle that you're like, oh, I'm gonna stumble into this
No, there needs to be wisdom. And so I
So I know I'm being funny throughout the talk and I know I'm giving different slides and and I'm wanting to end on a sober
note for a very specific reason is that I've seen a lot of people go into these situations and like well
I'm just gonna kind of go in and then it's all gonna work out. I just wish that was the case
Lord am I seeing this because you're showing it to me and if so, I don't want to assume
Please show me how and give me a blueprint and we'll talk more about that with with angels coming up
Thank you guys
Okay, you guys it's activation time