Look Now Toward Heaven: Finding Hope When Life Doesn't Make Sense

There's a voice speaking in these last days—a divine whisper cutting through the chaos of our modern world. Seven times in the book of Revelation, we're told that those who have ears should hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. The question isn't whether God is speaking; it's whether we're positioned to hear Him.

Jesus himself declared that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. It is His divine will, His deepest desire, to speak to His people. Nothing pleases Him more than communion with those He loves.

When Your Narrative Has Question Marks

Consider Abram's story in Genesis 14 and 15. Here was a man who lived righteously long before there was written law or synagogue tradition. He simply did what was right because it pleased the Lord. After rescuing his nephew Lot and refusing to take spoils from the king of Sodom—declaring that no earthly power would take credit for God's blessings in his life—Abram received a visitation.

"After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward."

But Abram had questions. Big ones. The kind that weigh on your spirit in the quiet hours. "Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless?" His narrative had question marks. The dots weren't connecting. The promises seemed delayed.

Every single person reading this has something in their narrative with a question mark. Something that hasn't lined up. Something that weighs heavy on the spirit. Perhaps it's a promise that seems unfulfilled, a prayer that appears unanswered, a dream that feels impossibly distant.

The Supernatural Perspective

God's response to Abram is profound and instructive for us today: "Look now toward heaven."

If you want to understand what God is doing in your life, you cannot look at earthly circumstances to comprehend supernatural plans. God's ways are not our ways. His thoughts will never be our thoughts. The plans we make in our finite understanding cannot contain the infinite purposes of an all-powerful God.

Abram asked for one heir. God pointed him to the stars and said, "Count them if you can." What appeared impossible in the natural realm was already accomplished in the heavenly realm. God is the God who is exceedingly and abundantly above all we could ask or think.

The Assault on Our Vision

There's a concerted assault in these last days against the people of God. The enemy's strategy is simple: if he can't defeat you, he'll discourage you. The accuser of the brethren works overtime to wear out the saints through the passage of time, through unfulfilled expectations, through the weight of daily life.

He whispers lies about your past, your family, your worthiness. He works to get your head down, to stop you from looking toward heaven. When worship songs play, you lack the strength to raise your hands. When promises seem delayed, you stop lifting your eyes.
But here's the truth that hell doesn't want you to know: all of its efforts will not prevail against the church of the living God.

Jesus warned us about this in Luke 21. He spoke of distress, perplexity, the roaring of waves—noise everywhere making it impossible to concentrate, to read Scripture, to pray. All this distress would cause men's hearts to fail because they're "looking after those things that are coming on the earth."

But then He gave us the antidote: "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draws near."

Seeing What Others Cannot

Remember the story of Elisha and his servant in Dothan? When the Syrian army surrounded them with horses, chariots, and weapons, the servant panicked. "We're in big trouble here!"
Elisha's response wasn't to explain military strategy or outline an escape plan. He simply prayed: "Lord, open the eyes of my servant that he may see."

Suddenly, the servant saw what had been there all along—the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire, God's great army. It might look really bad in the natural, but when we begin to see in the supernatural, we realize God is doing things we can't even comprehend.

The Psalmist understood this: "I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth."

Those credentials matter. If the Lord never does another thing for us, He's still the maker of heaven and earth. There's not a single battle we'll face on this planet that God doesn't have control over.

When Brokenness Meets Holiness

The woman caught in adultery was brought before Jesus by religious leaders eager to condemn. They sat her down in front of holiness, hoping to use her brokenness to advance their agenda.

But notice what Jesus did. He was already sitting down teaching, but when brokenness came before Him, He stooped down even lower. He took on the form of a servant, getting down on her level.

Then something beautiful happened. Jesus stood up—He lifted Himself up. And when He began to speak with her, she would have had to do something significant: she would have had to look up toward heaven.

"Woman, where are your accusers?" Jesus asked. "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more."

The Lifter of Our Heads

Sometimes life becomes so overwhelming that we lose the strength to lift our own heads toward heaven. The flames get hotter instead of cooler. The weight becomes unbearable.

We try everything we know to do, but we simply cannot find the muscles to look up anymore.

That's when Psalm 3:3 becomes our lifeline: "But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head."

When we don't have the strength to lift our own heads, God becomes the lifter. He has another tool in His toolbox. If we'll cry unto the Lord, He will hear us out of His holy hill.

The Invitation

Perhaps you're in a place where your narrative has question marks. Where promises seem delayed and circumstances look impossible. Where the noise of this world has drowned out the still, small voice of God. Where brokenness and failure have caused you to stop looking up.

Today can be the day you make the decision to look now toward heaven. To stop listening to the accuser of the brethren. To declare that if hell says you won't be healed, Jesus is your healer. If the enemy says you can't make it, you know a Jehovah Jireh who provides on the mountain.

The steps of righteous men and women are ordered by the Lord—sometimes into pits, sometimes into palaces, sometimes into wilderness, sometimes even to places of crucifixion. But this promise remains: the righteous are never forsaken.

Look up. Heaven is reaching down.