From 12/22/2017:
A Christian testified in a meeting about God’s work in healing her vision. Interestingly, a Christian teacher who was present added that there had been several instances of healing eyes in her ministry recently. This past weekend in Sunday School a teacher had been talking about God and LIGHT. In noting that light brings clarity and reveals what could not be seen in the darkness, it was observed that when Saul (Paul) saw the LIGHT of CHRIST on the Damascus Rd., he was immediately blinded. As I thought about that experience of Paul whose physical eyes were blinded by the LIGHT as he was being given spiritual “eyes” with which to see the truth, it made me realize that God sometimes has to restrain our physical senses, at least temporarily as was done with Paul, because they get in the way of our being able to fully rely on him and our spiritual senses. (Reminded: We walk by faith, not by sight!!!) We have to resist the temptation to rely on what we see, hear, feel, touch, etc. in the physical because we tend to rely too much on those senses. When we learn to distrust our natural physical senses and feelings which can be deceived, we learn to depend more fully upon our spiritual senses and trust God’s guidance even when we can’t see beyond the moment.
On Dec 12, 2020, I briefly lost all vision while driving on an interstate highway….. I was alone and had been in a prayerful conversation with God about some serious reflections on how his ways are different from ours and our thoughts from his when this brief loss of eyesight occurred. It only lasted a few seconds, but there were a number of take-always that I learned from that experience. It’s amazing what we can learn about faith when that is the only thing we have to guide us.
I’m also reminded that it was in the moment when the two disciples who had walked (unbeknownst to them) with the resurrected Christ on the road to Emmaus suddenly received the spiritual “vision” to know who He was as He broke the bread that Jesus’ physical presence disappeared from them. Loss of physical “vision” or being confronted with suddenly questioning the truth of what we thought we could trust, having seen it with physical eyes, can suddenly bring transformation in the way we think about what we thought we knew. Seeing is not always believing. Sometimes not seeing brings a new kind of vision and true faith. John 20:29 “Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
It seems to me that in thinking about the “greater things”, that we, who have not been privileged to walk physically with the Incarnate God in Jesus Christ actually are doing those “greater things” to which Christ referred by walking by faith (instead of by sight )without having seen with physical eyes as his first disciples did.
This is perhaps why there is rejoicing among the angels when a person comes to faith, because they recognize what a challenge it is for physical beings like us to rise above our dependency on our physical senses and embrace faith in what is not seen…… yet!
Jesus said, “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). I like to think of that moment of repentance/ belief/ salvation that causes rejoicing in heaven as the beginning of our journeying in eternity. We become co-heirs with Christ from that moment, we bring God’s will into being on earth as it is in heaven, and we are from then on “seated in the heavenlies with Christ.” Ephesians 2:6
“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,” ( already DONE at the moment of our justification! The angels know it even though we cannot yet see the fullness of it!)
in another conversation about spiritual vision a group of women gathered and were talking about aspects of their spiritual lives. One observed that when she accepted Christ as a young teen and was baptized, it seemed to her that those around her applauded and were pleased with her decision, but left her with little clear instruction on how to move forward from that. ” Okay. I’m going to heaven, but what else do I need to know?”. What was next? Well, go to church, be in the youth group…..and then? College years and more or less abandonment of those youthful habits in all likelihood.. Years later some of us come back. But when we do, we are generally looking for more than just being a part of a group. We want answers to what are sometimes hard questions. It’s not always easy to tease those answers out of sermons or talk to people about them unless we feel really safe and accepted. And even searching for answers in the Bible alone can be confusing.
There are people who can help….. like Phillip helping the Ethiopian eunuch understand what he was reading. Find a small group. Join a Bible study group. Look for and ask someone whose witness you admire and trust to mentor or disciple you. Don’t merely wander through your life feeling like something is missing. If you don’t have the joy of salvation and eagerness to share it with others, maybe you need to know more about what you believe and why.
CBByrd