A Different Set of EyesSample

"A Different Set of Eyes" by Rocky Fleming

DAY ONE: Spiritual Eyes

Bear with me as I give you some scriptures to build my case on.  As I look at current circumstances in our country and the despair that many feel concerning where it is headed, I think we need to ask the question, “What is God up to?”  I think most of us would like to get a sense of where our lives and the future of this country is headed.  Let’s seek God’s insight:

When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” the servant asked.  “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”  And Elisha prayed, “O LORD, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.  (2 Kings 6: 15-17 NIV)

I (Paul) pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe…  (Ephesians 1: 18-19 NIV)

There is a consistent theme in the two passages above.  It is the truth of what is invisibly working behind the scenes and for the child of God to have his eyes open to see it.  In the case of Elisha’s servant, it was to have a new set of spiritual eyes so his physical eyes could see his protection and the victory ahead.  In the passage in Ephesians, it is the need to have the “eyes of our heart” opened.  Let’s concentrate on the eyes of the heart, for Paul said that it will give to all believers great hope, if we are able to use this set of eyes.  So, what is the eye of the heart?  In order to go down that path and answer this question, we must look at another passage that deals with “seeing the unseen.”  Follow with me:

“NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].” (Hebrews 11:1 Amplified Bible)

How does this passage speak to you?  This is what it says to me:  “What I hope for is hidden from my sight, but it is there ready to be embraced.  It is something God wants to give me.”  So, this is my question…what do you hope for?  Do you want what God wants to give you or do you want only what you think you need?  Politically and culturally speaking, what does the Church in this country hope for?  How this is answered may open some blind eyes, for I can tell you if it is our hope to live in a country where there are no challenges to our faith and values, then we are not working in union with the Holy Spirit.  He is not interested in our comfort, but rather His purpose and our part in it.  If our hope is about our comfort, we are not seeing the battlefield that God has dropped us in.  We are not looking at a discouraged and rapidly deteriorating culture that is in desperate need of the liberation we can bring.   If we are fearful of losing our own comfortable routines because of challenges to our religious freedom, we are not seeing the great opportunities to dispense the hope Christ gives.  We must start to see with the eyes of our heart where this world has gone, but how this sets us up for a great campaign.  The threats are bad, but not as bad as you might think.  We just need to get the right perspective.

I’m reminded of E Company of the 101st Airborne in WW2 when they were given a message from General McAuliffe that the Germans had surrounded them and the Germans asked them to surrender.  E Company’s response (translated in readable language for a devotional), “So what!  We’re paratroopers.  We are always surrounded by the enemy.  Yeah, they got us surrounded?  But, they surrounded the wrong outfit!!!”

Many of us are discouraged and do not know how to be involved in a world that is becoming hostile to our beliefs and practices.  It would be so easy to run into a place of isolation from the world and resist by a lack of your presence and wait for Jesus’ return.  But don’t join with that belief.  This is the time that we have been raised up for.  Sure we are now surrounded by more people who do not think as we do, do not pray as we do, do not have the Christian values that we do, and who do not seek to follow the voice of Christ as we do.  But just remember, they serve a false god and we serve the One and Only God.  Our God will prevail.  He has promised this.

Like the servant of Elisha who needed to have his eyes opened by God to see the mighty army of God that surrounded his enemy, so it is with you and me.  We need to remember Jesus’ words that in this world we will have tribulation, but He has overcome the world.  Let’s pray that the eyes of our heart will be opened and we will look at the enemy that surrounds us as victims about to come face to face with Almighty God and some of His courageous men called Influencers.  It’s hard to fear an enemy when we know he is about to become a victim because his end is not far away.