It was around 2nd or 3rd
grade that I went to the school office at St. Francis de Sales to
have the eye exam that was administered to everyone my age. Part of
it was to look into a viewer and identify where the black dot was.
One lens showed a table and the other showed a dot and we were to
say if the dot was on, above, below or beside the table. At first I
told the clinician the truth. My left eye saw the table, my right
eye saw the dot and when I'm looking into the lens I do not see a dot
and table together.
This did not seem to satisfy the person
but it seemed easy enough to calculate where the dots were in
relation to the position of the table and so that is what I did, then
and a few other times in the future. Later on an eye doctor told me
that I had what he liked to call “milk man eyes” - I could drive
the milk truck while at the same time checking out my delivery
addresses. So just be aware. If it doesn't seem that I'm paying
attention to you I am, or at least one eye is.
I was reminded of that today at church.
Not one to see the world through rose colored glasses our pastor
passed out those 3D glasses which have one lens red and the other
green. Near the end of his sermon he showed on the overhead screen
the sermon series picture which depicts a bridge in a forested
wilderness setting. The series is on Hebrews 11, the great faith
chapter and the idea of the photo is that of heading out into the
great unknown by faith. Well, in 3D I did not see the bridge coming
toward me and the depth of the trees and branches and path. One eye
saw a blurry picture in red and the other saw a blurry picture in
green (much better by the way) but my brain would not put the two
together. It was a little more complicated that tables and dots.
About a month ago I started desiring
and praying to be able to see the spiritual aspects of this world
with much greater clarity. Although I didn't realize until today the
connection with the way my eyes work and the way I have been viewing
the spiritual interaction with the physical I have been aware that
there has been a disconnect. One of my eyes is much stronger than
the other and it dominates, at least in real time, how I discern
things. And because it dominates I am missing so much of what is
actually going on. I need to both strengthen the other eye and to
get both to work together so that I don't have to guess what the true
picture is.
In my life, in my experience, God
rarely comes out and gives me a clear answer right away on something
that I've been praying or contemplating about. He seems to enjoy
having me go through the process. I get a bit here and a bit there
and then when it's time a bunch of random things come together, a key
piece is added and I finally get a clear picture of what the answer
is.
My conversion to actually know that God
is, to faith in Jesus as my Savior and Lord, was a wild ride that
happened over a few months. God was just too big to be able to
understand. But a point of stress led to an earnest examination
which ultimately led to the truth of the gospel. And yet drawing
close I did not see clearly until I finally surrendered and He
entered in. Oh what a glorious day that was!
The next few years he gave me
understanding and insight that I certainly did not earn. I was
available and He was pleased to bless me and take me along with Him.
These came in pieces which were added to other pieces until finally I
could understand, Oh, that's how that works.
So now I'm in this process of trying to
have greater spiritual clarity in viewing the world and people and
situations. And I'm noticing all sorts of things. I'm wondering
about the activity of evil spirits in the lives of ordinary people
and I get a few interesting people come through on my road testing.
One day I have a delightful client from
Australia. After a great chat and at the end of the test she tells
me that she directs all the planned parenthood clinics in West
Michigan. The disconnect between our nice time and the murder of
thousands of innocents shakes me. Then the Holy Spirit whispers,
“mark this”
The same day I test a very interesting
young man who I have a great conversation with and it turns out that
he is Mormon, recently back from his 2 year mission. I've studied
and written about Mormonism and understand the great spiritual
deception of it's history and present and I think a little about it
as we talk. I am not prompted to engage in any discussion related to
that but the Holy Spirit once again whispers, “mark this.”
I have a client who fails on the first
part of their test and there is a computer glitch which slightly
alters my schedule and I was a little perturbed about losing a test
slot. I take the free time to head to the office and close my eyes
to get 40 winks. When I get back there has been an accident on the
street where we leave the parking lot and there are police cruisers,
ambulances, a fire truck and as I walk closer I see a man with a
bloody face and paramedics doing chest compressions on him. It turns
out it was a 51 year old man who was doing a wheelie with his
motorcycle at 60 mph from the nearby traffic signal who hits a car
coming out of our parking lot, killing the man and sending his bike
another 50 yards. I realize the next day that if I had a client at
the correct time it could well have been our car that was hit by that
motorcycle. I mark this as well.
I've had people that I know are
struggling with spiritual deception come to mind during my prayer
time and I've named some of the darkness’s that have popped into my
mind then and prayed against those. I could go on with a lot more
examples but the point is at this time that I'm still putting the
pieces together and am very interested to see where it all will lead.
Here is a scripture from the first
chapter of Ephesians that grabbed my attention. In it Paul prays:
(May) the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, give to you a spirit of wisdom and of
revelation in the knowledge of Him.
(May) the eyes of your heart be
enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling,
what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
and what is the surpassing
greatness of His power toward us who believe. There are in
accordance with the working of the strength of His might
which He brought about in Christ,
when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in
the heavenly places,
far above all rule and authority
and power and dominion and every named that is named, not
only is this age but also in the age to come.
And
He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head
over the church,
which
is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
No comments:
Post a Comment