A reader wrote to me, asking what the purpose of the Seer gift was. I did a quick search on this site, and was sort of surprised that basically nothing came up that was very helpful. Therefore, I adapted the email I sent back into this post.
Before we get to the purpose of seers, let’s sum up exactly why you and all other humans are here.
The Purpose of Humans
Ultimately, God designed people to function to bring the rule and reign of God –the Kingdom – from heaven to earth and into the furthest reaches of the cosmos. It’s humankind’s best destiny to function this way.
The story of the Bible outlines this destiny from the very first page to the very last page. Because humans have a flawed perspective of who they are, who God is, what the New Covenant is, and what the Kingdom is, people have really screwed things up.
Jesus Christ came to remake us into our true identity and set us on the path to our true destiny. Then Jesus sent his disciples out into the world continue this work. This is what being made in the image of God really means: to function as God’s imagers on earth.
God designed us to partner with the Holy Spirit in making the entire cosmos a fit place for God’s presence. This means bringing order to chaos, defeating the effects of sin, and overturning the works of enemy spiritual forces, starting with our lives, our families, our homes, communities, and so on.
To that aim, God has granted some people the ability to perceive things in the spirit realm.
Types of Seers
In how I use the term on this site, there are basically two kinds of seers:
Type 1. Those who are born with the ability to perceive things in the spirit realm, and
Type 2. Those who develop the gift after having a spiritual encounter.
The Seer Continuum
Seers’ abilities function along a continuum. Seers on one side see spiritual things very clearly all the time.
On the other side of the spectrum, they only see things when their physical senses are most calm, as when they are asleep, and they see things in their dreams.
Type 1 Seers
These seers are born with the ability to perceive things clearly in the spirit realm. They can’t help it. It’s just how their brains are wired.
The purpose of the ability to perceive things in the spirit realm is whatever the person wants it to be… but the best purpose would be to further the rule and reign of God on earth (i.e., advance the Kingdom of God), which is why God created humans in the first place.
Similarly, no matter how people are gifted, no matter what their cognitive or physical abilities, they were designed to best use the gifts God has blessed them with to further the Kingdom.
How does this work for Type 1 Seers?
Simply put, they serve as an early warning system that something isn’t furthering God’s rule and reign (the Kingdom).
For instance, young children are often quite honest when they tell us that something dark is going on and they are scared. It behooves adults to pay attention, and then take corrective actions.
Hint: the corrective actions aren’t to punish the children or to tell them there aren’t really monsters under the bed, but to find what is inviting dark spiritual influences and get rid of it/stop it. I go into considerable detail about this in Peace in Your House.
Seer Report: Responding to Bad Dreams
Children tend to be more spiritually sensitive than adults. A child who has frequent terrifying dreams might be picking up on faint but ominous spiritual signals that something amiss is invading or at work.
Adults need to pay attention to these dreams and take corrective action to reverse whatever it is attracting the evil (essentially bring more of the Kingdom of God into their homes). Readers of Peace in Your House will know what I’m talking about.
Seer Report: Combating Demons in Public
Sometimes seers – children, teens, or adults – can discern what kind of spirit is operating and then take necessary action to combat it. This can be in the form of prayer, but it might be something else, like getting rid of certain sins or items in our lives.
For instance, one teen seer shared with me how she saw a demonic spirit of depression on someone at the mall. She approached the man and asked if she could pray against “the spirit of depression.” Notice, she saw an intelligent entity with a spiritual assignment on him, but he just assumed she was being metaphorical. He agreed to the prayer, and she broke the spiritual assignment right in the mall and sent the demon away. The man felt instantly better and was amazed.
Seer Report: A Shadow Descended on Christmas
A few nights ago, our daughter described to me a terrifying vision in her bedroom. I responded with some fervent prayer, which seemed to bring comfort. She slept okay, but the next night, she told me and her mother that she felt on a dark spiritual force had settled on the house on Christmas.
Coincidentally, I had become sick, and my wife and I were grumpy with each other for no good reason.
Anyway, we began exploring what had caused it. Could it be a particular Christmas gift? A curse released? Prayers against us? A demonic assignment?
My point is simply we began to take action in response to our seer daughter informing us what she was picking up from the spirit realm. We are actively seeking to bring more of the Kingdom in our family, which entails finding out just what has brought this dark spiritual force against us.
Seers are our early warning system or God’s intelligence network, and when we pay attention to their reports, we are better equipped to overturn the works of the enemy, combat the effects of sin, and bring more of the Kingdom into our lives.
Type 2 Seers
The second type of seer is the person who develops the gift after a spiritual encounter. For instance, sometimes when someone becomes a Christian or are filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit gifts them with this ability.
It’s startling, but when this happens, the gift is certainly meant to be used for further the Kingdom and serve the Body of Christ. It’s a calling on the seer’s life. It’s up to the seer whether or not he or she will use the gift accordingly and humbly.
Gifts do not equal Maturity
Many people receive a spiritual gift and then make many poor assumptions about themselves or the gift. They might assume they are special or have achieved a spiritual maturity others haven’t attained.
Receiving a spiritual gift isn’t related to maturity or “specialness” or even granting authority to someone. It’s related to serving to bring the Kingdom (the dynamic rule and reign of God) to earth at whatever walk of life someone is in.
In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit once blasted King Saul, causing his body to be overheated and to fall over, unable to move (“slain in the spirit”) all day and night, while prophesying. Those nearby wondered if he was suddenly a prophet.[ref]See 1 Sam 19:23-24.[/ref]
He wasn’t. At this stage in his life, Saul was in open rebellion against God. He wasn’t mature or theologically sound. And yet he experienced a powerful spiritual gift, at least temporarily. This encounter with God’s gifting did not cause Saul to repent, unfortunately. He continued to abuse his authority.
It behooves those who receive powerful spiritual gifts to wield them with humble service, in submission, love, and grace. This is how the Kingdom of God functions on earth.[ref]Mark 10:42-45[/ref]
Serving God Means Serving Others First
God’s desire for us is not to do unto others as we would have done unto us. That thinking sums up the Ten Commandments, the Old Testament Law and the Old Testament Prophets. It is Old Covenant thinking!
Instead, Jesus gave us a new commandment: Love and do unto others as God has loved and done unto us.[ref] John 13:34[/ref] This is New Covenant thinking and is a far higher calling than the “Golden Rule.”
Practically speaking, this means to “put others first from a position of love and service.”
Thus, using our gifts to serve God means serving others, putting them first while loving them as God has loved us. Serving God is exactly contrary to how the world perceives success, but it’s your true destiny, your true purpose.
God grants us the freedom to use his gifts to serve God or to serve ourselves. Said another way, we can live according to God’s desires or according to someone else’s desires.
Too many spiritually gifted people believe that because they are gifted, their desires are God’s desires, and so they follow their desires first, when in fact, God’s desires something else. This error explains why there is so much spiritual abuse in the Church. Many people will use their spiritual gifts to further themselves or their church or their ministry, which may obliquely further the Kingdom of God, but often does damage to it.
The Purpose of all Spiritual Gifts
The point of spiritual gifts isn’t to build up ourselves or our ministries, but to advance the Kingdom on earth.
The bottom line is this: the seer gift is meant to be used to further the rule and reign of God – the Kingdom of God – on earth as it is in heaven. This is best done through serving from a position of a humble nature rooted in love and grace.