It Is Already Happening (Part 1)

It Is Already Happening (Part 1)

By Steve Backlund

What if God is already doing far more than we realize?

In John 4:35, Jesus confronted a mindset that still affects many believers today: “Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest.”

The disciples were saying, “It’s not happening yet.” Jesus was saying, “It already is happening. You just are not seeing it yet.”

• The disciples saw delay — Jesus saw harvest.

• The disciples saw process — Jesus saw beginnings.

• The disciples saw “not yet” — Jesus saw “already.”
  

Heaven had already initiated the harvest, but the disciples’ perspective caused them to underestimate the moment they were living in.

Hope Lifts Our Eyes

People without hope primarily live looking downward and backward. They become consumed with:

• what is wrong

• what is missing

• what has not happened yet

• why breakthrough seems delayed

  
  

Hope-filled people look up and see differently. Jesus said, “Lift up your eyes.” Why? Because hope changes what we notice.

Hope looks for evidence of God’s activity. Hope expects goodness. Hope believes Heaven is moving before full manifestation appears. Hope recognizes movement while others only recognize delay.

The Greek meaning of hope is “the confident, joyful expectation that good is coming.” Notice it does not say good “will come someday,” but that good is already moving toward us.

Psalm 23:6 says: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”

Goodness is already in motion. Mercy is already pursuing us. Heaven is already working on our behalf. People of hope believe “God is already doing more than we currently see.”

Because when we believe that, we become much more likely to recognize His activity.

Strongholds Search for Agreement

Second Corinthians 10:4 speaks about negative strongholds in our thinking. These strongholds are mindsets—belief systems that create lenses through which we interpret life. They are formed when we repeatedly renew our minds with lies instead of truth.

One reason many people struggle to see what God is doing is because strongholds train us to look for proof that confirms what we already believe. Psychology calls this confirmation bias—the tendency to search for, interpret, and notice information that reinforces existing beliefs.

For example, if we have a stronghold of pessimism (believing things will only get worse, we will tend to fixate on:

• bad news

• resistance

• disappointment

• negative statistics

• evidence of decline
  

Our thinking filters reality through what it already assumes is true. If we believe God is not working in our family, we will only notice what confirms that belief. If we believe things are deteriorating, we will continually gather evidence to support that conclusion. If we believe people are not changing, we will minimize every sign of growth.

This is why intentional mind renewal is so important. Romans 12:2 teaches us to renew our minds, and Romans 15:13 says: “Now may the God of hope fill you . . . in believing.”

Increasing hope is evidence we are renewing our minds with truth. Decreasing hope is evidence we are renewing our minds with lies.

A hopeful person and a pessimistic person can walk through the exact same environment and come away with entirely different conclusions.

One sees:

• darkness

• impossibility

• resistance

• failure

  
  

The other sees:

• opportunity

• beginnings

• movement

• hunger

• openness

• harvest

  
  

Jesus was speaking directly into this dynamic in John 4:35. He was essentially saying: “Your current beliefs are causing you to underestimate what God is doing.”

We Miss What We Are Not Expecting

Expectation shapes both how and what we see.

Often the breakthrough is not a new move of God, but new eyes to see what He is already doing. When we see it, we can partner with it and help accelerate it.

This dynamic constantly affects our lives. If we expect darkness, we will continually hunt for darkness. If we expect decline, we will consistently find evidence that things are deteriorating.

But people of hope train themselves to recognize:

• Beginnings

• true identities

• movement

• openness

• hunger

• signs that Heaven is already at work.

  
  

People of hope see what others overlook because they believe God is already moving long before full manifestation appears.

Final Thought

I believe this is a word for many in this season. “Lift up your eyes and see.” Psalm 3:3 says God is “the glory and the lifter of our heads.” He is lifting our perspective. He is helping us recognize that something is already happening.

• God is already moving in our lives

• God is already moving in our families

• God is already moving in our neighborhoods

• God is already moving in our workplaces

• God is already moving in our churches

• God is already moving in our cities

• God is already moving in this generation

  
  

There is something happening right now for us to partner with. Jesus said in John 5:19: “I do nothing except what I see the Father doing.” We have the Holy Spirit in us to do the same. 

The disciples said, “Not yet.” Jesus said, “It is already happening.”

God is opening eyes in this season. He is breaking agreement with pessimism, delay, and “not yet” thinking. Many people are about to recognize harvest where they previously only saw process or deadness. 

It is already happening!

Declarations: 

1. I have an unusual ability to see what God is doing in every aspect of my life. 

2. The fields are white for harvest in my family, neighborhood, city, region, and nation.

3. There is something big God is doing that I can partner with in my workplace, church, acquaintances, and the places I go. 

4. Revival is already here. 

5. I am greatly building positive strongholds in my life that causes me to primarily see what God is doing.