While I was trying to figure out a message for my church — God preached to me first.
He used The Chosen to speak directly to me before I ever stood up to speak to anyone else. The sermon was mine before it was theirs. And when I finally preached it, something about it stayed with people in a way I didn’t expect.
So I came back to it. I sat with it longer. And I realized there was so much more underneath it — more to unpack, more to explore, more to sit with.
That sermon became this series.
I Saw You is a mini-series rooted in John 1:48 — the moment Jesus tells Nathanael: “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree — I saw you.”
Nathanael wasn’t performing. He wasn’t in the temple doing something notable. He was just there. In a private place. In an ordinary moment. And Jesus had already been watching.
Episode 1 — The Fig Tree Moment — is about what it means to be seen by God before you do anything worthy of attention. Before the miracle. Before the testimony. In the ordinary, hidden, unperformed place.
This episode is for anyone who has wondered if God sees them when there’s nothing to show for it yet. Anyone who has been under their own fig tree — in the doubt, the grief, the waiting, the quiet — and needed to know they were not invisible.
God does not require performance before He pays attention.
Subscribe to DeNightOwl Speaks on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you don’t miss what’s coming next.
I’ll see you there. 🌿
— Nathifa
