Being saved and seeing Jesus are not the same thing. Many people who have never seen Jesus have received and share in God’s grace. But once you have seen Him, you can never be the same. Other things will not have the appeal they did before.

It has been our experience that we cry out to God most often becasue trials asking Jeus to come and change or remove them. However very often these trials out us right where God wants us; crying out to Jesus. JDV/DJR

You should always recognize the difference between what you see Jesus to be and what He has done for you. If you see only what He has done for you, your God is not big enough. But if you have had a vision, seeing Jesus as He really is, experiences can come and go, yet you will endure “as seeing Him who is invisible” ( Hebrews 11:27 ). The man who was blind from birth did not know who Jesus was until Christ appeared and revealed Himself to him (see John 9 ). Jesus appears to those for whom He has done something, but we cannot order or predict when He will come. He may appear suddenly, at any turn. Then you can exclaim, “Now I see Him!” (see John 9:25 ).

We tried to “find Jesus” on a mountain retreat last year. We were both hungry for the vision and intimate relationship, and felt lost in circumstances. But He did not show up like we thought He would. We thought we could just call out and He would show up at our “beck and call’.  We thought He would show up just to address our individual needs and smooth out our trials.

What we came to understand later was that He was always there, all the time, but we had not reached out for the relationship…for the intimate day to day connection of seeing, feeling and knowing that He can be directly and intimately connected to us. Our CO2 sessions every morning are but one discipline we try to put into place every day so we can remind ourselves and each other that our relationship and conection with Jesus is the most important part of our faith. When we are connected and intimate with Jesus, everything else seems to “fall into place” even though our trials and circumstances may not have changed very much at all. JDV/DJR

Jesus must appear to you and to your friend individually; no one can see Jesus with your eyes. And division takes place when one has seen Him and the other has not. You cannot bring your friend to the point of seeing; God must do it. Have you seen Jesus? If so, you will want others to see Him too. “And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either” ( Mark 16:13 ). When you see Him, you must tell, even if they don’t believe.

O could I tell, you surely would believe it!
O could I only say what I have seen!
How should I tell or how can you receive it,
How, till He bringeth you where I have been?