How many of you are thinking I am asking about your appearance? If you are, don’t feel bad but that shows how self-centered we are, as a people.
And, for the record, I would have been thinking about my appearance, too.
What I am asking is how do we look, meaning do we look at others with eyes of flesh or with spiritual eyes?
For Shabbat services on June 19th I am giving the message, and will be talking about the Torah Parashah called Korach; he’s the guy who rebelled against Moses and Aaron and took about 250 or so others down with him when God punished them. My sermon/message/drash is going to be about sight. Not the physical sight we have to see objects, but the spiritual sight we need to develop.
Physical sight is easy enough- we are born with it. It lets us see the things around us. Spiritual sight is much harder to achieve, and we don’t get it until we have the Spirit (Ruach) that God gives us when we are “Born Again.” This sight came to the Talmudim (Disciples) of Yeshua at the Pentecost. But they weren’t the first to have it.
Moses had spiritual sight, Elisha did, too. And Elisha showed us how anyone can have spiritual sight, if they are open to receiving it. In 2 Kings, 6:15 we read about the servant of Elisha being frightened because he saw the hundreds of troops surrounding the city to capture Elisha. But when Elisha, who had spiritual sight and was unafraid, asked God to open the eyes of the servant, then spiritual sight was given and the servant saw the thousands of angels in chariots of fire surrounding the troops. And with this vision, he was comforted and unafraid.
Kefa (Peter) had spiritual sight for a moment (Peter always was a slow learner, wasn’t he?) when Yeshua (Mattitayu 16) asked His Talmudim who they thought He was. Kefa came right out and declared Him the Son of God, the Messiah. Yeshua said Kefa was blessed that he said this because the knowledge was from God; in other words, Kefa saw the spiritual truth that was hidden from those with only eyes of flesh.
Remember the blind men along the road? They did not have physical sight but I think they did have spiritual sight because they called Yeshua the Son of David- only the Messiah would be called that. They showed that spiritual sight is independent of physical sight. To take that a little further along, I believe that the real sight Yeshua gave wasn’t just restoration of physical (fleshly) sight alone: I think that the real blessing was that of spiritual sight. That came from helping people to “see” the truth of the Torah, not just in His teachings but in His very life, how He lived, talked and treated others.
We need to work on our spiritual sight. I don’t know about you, but I want to see those thousands of angels. I want to see what God sees in people instead of what the worldly, fleshly sight allows me to see- just objects. I want to see more.
Just like anything else that we want to get better at, we need to practice and exercise our spiritual sight. This is done by first and foremost accepting the Ruach HaKodesh from God- the Holy Spirit, which guides us and helps us. The things of the world can only show you what is in the world, but to see the things of the Spirit you need to have the Spirit.
Next you need to know the Word of God, if for no other reason than to give you a historical basis for understanding what is happening right now. The main reason that history repeats itself is simply because we don’t learn from the past, and much of that is caused by the fact we don’t know it! If we read and re-read God’s Word, daily, we will know what happened before, and that will help us spiritually ‘see’ it when it is happening, again. We also will get to know God better, understand how He intercedes, and how He doesn’t.
By the way, just because God is in control of everything doesn’t mean He is the reason everything happens. Sometimes He just sits back and lets things take their own course. Praying for spiritual sight, and developing it, will help you discern which event is from God and which is just from living in a cursed world.
We also need to exercise our spiritual sight by looking at everything we do, every day, and trying to see God’s purpose in our being there. Do you see God’s purpose in having you work where you work? God’s purpose in placing you with the people there? How about at home? How about in your place of worship?
We also need to pray, constantly (just like that nice Jewish boy from Tarsus told us we should do) for God to show us His purpose in our life.
Developing your spiritual sight is not easy to do, so don’t expect it to happen overnight. We are born into flesh; we see, hear, smell and taste flesh everyday. The truth is that whatever feels right, natural and easy is going to be of the flesh because that is our natural state of existence. We may have the Spirit of the Holy God inside us, but we are still flesh, so to develop spiritual sight that will overcome our fleshly sight is working against our very nature.
But that doesn’t mean it can’t be done; that which is in us is greater than that which is in the world, and for Man it is impossible but with God all things are possible.
So get to it! Start those spiritual sight exercises today, and do them every day, constantly during the day. Just like exercising your muscles, it takes a while to get bigger and stronger, but the more you work at it the stronger you become.
Take this challenge: pray for the Ruach to give you spiritual sight, then read your Bible. Go to a passage you haven’t understood, or just open it up and start reading. I believe that if you pray earnestly for God to show you something you haven’t seen before, to give you spiritual sight to see something in His Word just for you, that you will, eventually, get to see it. Maybe not right away, maybe not for a while, but if you faithfully ask and keep asking, and keep exercising your spiritual sight, you will see the Drash instead of the P’shat. Maybe, even, the Sod!
No one can see something if their eyes are closed, so learn to open your spiritual eyes and you will see God, everywhere.
