Utilizing God's Intellect and his Spiritual Senses To Assess Circumstances and Events in order to Procure an Appropriate Outcome and for Daily and Life-long Planning and Determinations!
Scriptural Reference 1 Kings 6:16 & 17:
And he answered, fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
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Part I
Introduction: Seeing, viewing and observing circumstances and events through the prism of 'the eyes of God' is something that each and every human needs to perfect on a moment-by-moment basis, particularly those individuals who claim to be the children of God. If we were to engage God-sight or Divine-vision in and for every scenario or circumstance that we encounter, even the ones that others bring to our attention, what a difference it would make in terms of our assessments, solutions and initial and final judgments of each said event - even of life itself!
I. Putting On Our Spiritual Lenses - God Sight:
Just as some of us clean or detoxify and place our glasses or contact lenses contacts on a daily basis in order to enhance or correct impaired vision; and just as many human beings have had corrective laser surgery and other treatments to their eyes in order to enhance or correct impaired vision - each of us should pursue with more of a sense of urgency and alacrity, the acquirement, use and maintenance of divine vision.
Too many of us are still viewing all of the above through the prisms of our own carnal-visual opthalmic-refractive lenses. The latter is tied too often to our sentient but basic intellect - as opposed to the vision and understanding of the one that created, knows, surmises and accurately judgest all things!
The Benefits:
a). To do so would save us a lot of time in finding the proper solution or answers to our queries and observances, as opposed to wasting time in pursuing the wrong path, and imposing an improper solution!
b). To do so would produce realistic, beneficial and lasting results both for ourselves and others, and ultimately we would please God!
c). To do so would eliminate the false-positives, that we often rely upon in order to decide upon what course or action one should take, or what is wrong, and on the other hand what is right.
d). To do so would go a long way in helping us not to be less human -judgmental or presumptuous, and more God-centered in our dealings and interaction with others!
e). To do so would help us to focus with keener insight on the need, as opposed to the perceived faults of our fellow men, employers, nations and companions.
We can learn to please God and help to extend God's creation and better the world as a result of viewing things through the 'eyes of God' as opposed to judging circumstances, people or events through the prisms of limited and imperfect sight. Human sight, in addition to our perceptions are influenced by our limited intellectual, culturally influenced and often character-inhibited internal repositories and receptors!
Therefore, many times to borrow from a passage of scripture: after we believe that we are healed and our sight has been fully restored from spiritual blindness and darkness, oftentimes we are in need of a second touch, for we still see men as trees walking!
If each of us were to ostensibly submit our perceptions, will and determinations, as well as our limited far and near-sightedness over to universal God-sightedness, we would have peace with our family-members and neighbors; our co-workers and employers, and most of all with God and 'the God's universe'!
Furthermore, by permitting the necessary internal changes to be made by permitting God to perform corrective surgery on us (the second time),we would view and experience toxic circumstances and interactions with people, bosses, neighbors, children and friends - which make us uncomfortable - from a completely different perspective. We would even see life itself from a different, 'it's all about me' perspective!
For as God has 'the requisite ability to see need over fault' (it is called grace), most of us would learn to be patient with others, and help others to grow, recognizing that if we were to focus God-sight on ourselves, that we also leave a lot to be desired in spite of our glowing assessments of ourselves! In other words, just as we want understanding from God, we would permit grace to help us to see the need as to the perceived or real faults and failings of others!
II. Did I See What I Thought I Saw?
Even eye-witnesses to a purported crime, have been stunned to find out later that what they thought they saw, turned out not be happened at all. How often have we had to retreat altogether, when something that we knew that we judged logically or factually - and without any doubt, turned out not to be an accurate assessment of the events or circumstances at all? We oftentimes miss the big picture don't we, and we later have to recapitulate - those of us who will? Can we minimize those all too frequent occurrences of misjudgment and mischaracterization of events, and cause them to occur on a less frequent basis? A lot of damage could be avoided if we would learn to do so!
How often do we view a circumstance one way on a given day, then later when we view the same circumstances through the eyes of God do we surmise: 1).That things were not as bad as they may have appeared initially, 2). We learn that things were in fact worse than what they initially appeared to be,3). Given our own well thought out and erudite assessment, we missed it all together. And sadly some of us, even believers, are so carnally pre-occupied and stubborn that we refuse to adapt or concede - when we are confronted with God's intact truth.
Many of us insist on believing that which has been parsed through our own internal filters - as if our internal filters in any way could be confused with being absolute!How arrogant, egotistical and obnoxious can we be? In other words as one wrote: Man, in your case - self, "...is the measure of all things"! How often have you felt, if I just had a manual, similar to the ones that are provided usually when I purchase a product or service? Folks, we have a manual that was constructed by the manufacturer itself. It is the 'word of God', that is fully Jesus Christ, and it is contained for us today in a talking 'Paracletos'!
The Lord began to deal with me on this topic just over a week ago. I was involved in my daily devotion and bible reading one morning (on a typical day which consists of one chapter from Psalms, and one chapter from the book of Proverbs. In Psalms chapter 32, vs 8, King David explained how he would teach others in his kingdom, after he had himself made such an excruciating error in judgment with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of her husband, through the restored eyesight of a faltered King - having been forgiven, corrected and taught by the King of Kings!
How could a man chosen by God before the foundation of the world have made such egregious errors? We do it all the time! Bathsheba was observed bathing by King David while her husband, a Hittite, was off fighting for the Hebrew, King David. David, David being the man that he was, of lessor character, permitted his male virility and a spirit of lust to get the best of him. Instead of relying upon his spiritual impulses, senses and understanding, he gave into the lustful desires of the flesh. For most men the senses, typically the eyes, similar to flipping on a light or electrical switch, are our triggers that turn on the machinery of natural human lust! David was not any different, and he failed to turn off the switch!
David sent for Bathsheba and made her an offer that she could not refuse (not all agree with me on this), remember, he was the King. To cover up the evil that he had done, committing the sin of adultery and impregnating her, he conspired within his own intellect and came up with an erroneous solution which represented the second, or even the third error that he made. David decided that he could cover up his sin by inveigling Urijah to go in to sleep with his wife when he had returned home on furlough.
Bathsheba was pregnant, and the King knowing that the first thing that the average man who has been away from his wife or sex, for some time would want to do is to is to experience intimacy with his wife or a woman.
III. Human Failure & Inability To Anticipate, Assess or Accurately Judge a Circumstance:
The problem that David failed to anticipate, given that he judged circumstances through the prism of his own limited senses and his fallen character, was that Urijah was a noble man. What happened to the David who before, when his brothers went off to fight Goliath and the Philistines, who was more noble and volunteered to join into the fight himself and to take on the giant Goliath. This David stayed at home, apparently lapsed into a spiritual malaise and conjured up evil of the kind that you would have suspected of his brothers, not him!
Urijah could not see going in to have pleasure with his wife, while his comrades were engaged in battle. So David failing now for the fourth time, consulted with his intellect again, having ignored the word of God and hatched yet another venal plan to cover his sins. David somehow concluded that the solution to the whole matter that could have disgraced his monarchy, was to have Urijah killed - which he proceeded to have done; this is how he 'saw things'.
However, instead of killing Urijah himself, remember David was a 'man of war' himself and could have done just that, he hatched a plan whereby Urijah the nobleman would be placed in the hottest part of the battle, at the frontline, where he would be sure to put to death.
It was reported later by David's co-conspirator via a messenger that Urijah had indeed been slain. Bathsheba wept, however, the unrepentant David continued on with his life, took Bathsheba as his wife and continued on his merry way. Well, he continued until God dispatched the prophet Nathan to visit the wayward king. After listened to Nathan's disclosure of a man in his kingdom who had acted in a vulgar, deadly and despicable manner, King David ordered a harsh judgment to the man, sight unseen except his head, to the man who engaged in such an egregious manner as was reported by the prophet Nathan.
Then just as suddenly following the King's pronouncement, Nathan announced, you are the man who is guilty of the egregious act! What a blunder by King David? But how many times have these kind of blunders been made by purportedly good people. Remember, this was the same psalmist and giant killer of Israel who was once a hero, and the man that the women sang songs of exultation to upon his return from battle? But this time he remained home and engaged in abominable and egregious salacious behaviors himself!
As a lad we preferred David over the alacritous and depraved King Saul who attempted to murder David; and he did so on more than one occasion. Didn't David consider his own experiences when a King sought to murder him on numerous occasions, inside and outside of the place?It turned out that David later turned out to a harbinger of ill-will towards others himself, in fact he was in fact a murderer himself. David was different than Saul in many respects, but in many respects he turned out to be just like him in other respects. Today, we still sing and read his psalms during our worship services!
Given God-sight, a man that was chosen before the foundation of the world, even given God's prescient fore-knowledge was elected to be king over God's throne on earth, knowing that David would commit such vial acts. If anyone behaved in the same manner today in one of our churches, synagogues or mosques, I am sure that he would be silenced forever, and his song book would be trashed!
I don't want to get too far off on this accompanying topic, but when you think about it, why did God choose individuals, given his prescient foreknowledge, men and women who turned out to be murderers, sex fiends, killers, and accessories to murders? And then why did God turn around and make their lives, including their failures so transparent? There were men and women who were alive who had better records, higher moral fiber and character!
Names like Moses, David, Elijah and the Apostle Paul come to mind - and there are many others. Two of these men stood on either side of Jesus on the mountain of transfiguration - both of whom had engaged in killing before - not to overlook the two malefactors who were on either side of Jesus at his demise on the cross. Could it be that God chose the most egregious of men and women (all of whom are not mentioned here), using his sight and foresight - in order to show us today how he could choose a often failing you and me?
And when you think about it, we haven't done anything as bad as some of them did! Isn't it truly about God-sight: sight that we often simply do not understand? Who is it that you consider to beneath you educationally, culturally, spiritually, economically in one way or another, that God sends along to instruct and teach you God's lessons? Remember, it was the unlearned and ignorant who 'turned the world upside down'. The educated and erudite Apostle Paul was so stunned by this, that he counted all of his knowledge, that led him down the wrong road, given his own impaired site, that he counted all of what he learned before as 'dung'!
There are some in religious groups who believe that they have 'sight', but from God's perspective - they are the one's who are still blind, or who have only limited sight. God knocked the 'sighted Apostle' down on the road to Damascus, blinded him, and restored him with divine sight! It was during that period that he actually 'saw Jesus', heretofore, he had not - and he actually went about persecuting him!
IV. How Could David Or One of Us Come To Make Such Egregious Errors?
We can attribute our failings, as well as King David's to an over-reliance on a limited and impaired intellect, and fallen character, as well as both our and his his reliance upon depraved human sensory perceptors and perceptions that come from the same source! Are we saved? Yes, but oftentimes we are not always 'walking in the Spirit'. David was not walking in the Spirit, when it came to viewing 'a nude woman', and as a result he failed to turn off the trigger.
Most men today face similar challenges today when being exposed daily to partially nude, and sexually attired females. It is as if the machinery kicks in all by itself just by seeing a woman - yet it is our responsibility to manage the machinery, that is usually turned on by our eyes and a simple glance! Men are so turned on by the female anatomy, that the porn industry in this country has more than quadrupled from the time that I was a little boy. Dr. Henry Cloud and others of the New Life Life syndicated radio program, are doing much to help men in this regard.
They offer instructive retreats for " Every Man's Battle! It is the sexual battle, that most of us fight throughout our lifetimes, each day knowing that we can slip!
Back to King David: As a consequence of how David viewed the circumstances - relying upon all that was located within him, he acted in kind - and he turned out to be wrong on every count. In terms of the way that God viewed things, David grieved the heart of God given his desultory decisions, even the manner in which he sought to ultimately retain his honor having committed several unrepentant and evil acts, and his willingness to permit in even more.
Who or what determines our righteousness?
If you consider my query in light of the books of the Bible, we read where it was God who determined what is, was, and was not good! Even given the non-biological aspects of the creation, God determined what was and what was not good, e.g. the morning and the day, the evening and the night...!
And after humans were placed on the scene, Adams's disobedience was determined as 'not good'; Abel his sons' blood offering was found to be 'good'. With Abraham, his faith was counted to him for righteousness, and for the children of Israel it was something else altogether. In Deuteronomy 7 vs 9, it reads as follows: And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us. These children of Israel recognized initially that their adherence to the word of God would be counted as righteousness.
Many of us have made similar mistakes to the ones that David made. And just think about how we viewed our own misbehaviors when we acted in-kind. We have even tried to cover up a circumstance or failing, or misconstrued a solution or someone else's apparent failing? If we would have relied upon God's eyes, rather than upon our own cloudly senses, we would not have made such egregious errors in behavior ourselves, or in judging others! So who becomes our righteous at the time: Sadly, we ourselves became our own righteousness, and we will offend defend that which we know not of based upon our own self-righteous perceptions and judgment.
Weak and limited intellect, intolerant and self-righteousness teachings which turns us into 'Pharisees', cultural shaping and impaired consciousness often sits atop the throne and becomes the judge of too many of our circumstances and behaviors, and it has to do with how we perceive and judge others!
In Isaiah 55: Isaiah wrote for God: Your ways are not my ways, your thoughts are not my thoughts, and that as high as the heavens are above the earth are God's way above our ways, and God's thoughts are above our thoughts.
When we rely upon God's loving intellect, if you will permit me to put it that way, we are essentially relying upon the one who we believe created everything that is material, out of what was non-material or that which did not exist before. Who better, would have the knowledge of a thing or a phenomenon? And who better knows how things, phenomena or people or causes work? It begs the question, what have you misinterpreted in the past or of late, because you relied upon human sight alone, that had serious consequences given your misinterpretation?
Peace & Grace,
Rev. C. Solomon
www.sealofabraham.blogspot.com
Did God say...that's Good? Is Human 20/20 vision, accurate vision, or at best is it still onto partial vision? to be continued...What Occurs When Our Eyes Are Opened?
Many of us still walk around, as if our very eyelids were closed! Some
prefer it that way - those individuals hope to screen out all that is
even and undesirable unto them. However, God eyes are every where
beholding both the good and the evil!
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