Song Quotation From the Song: Amazing Grace
"He looked beyond my fault and saw my need".
Scriptural quotations: Isaiah 64:4 and 8. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear,
neither have the eye seen, O God, beside these, what
he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou
our potter; and we all are the work of thine hand!-------------------------------------------
A philosopher once posed one question on an exam to his students:
The question: Philosophically speaking, why? No one came up
with the correct answer which was, why not?
Now I ask you a similar question, 'divine sight' - why and why not? And
what have you, and what will you 'forever' be looking at?
Rev. C. Solomon
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Part II
Introduction:
Bathsheba, apparently failed to ask King David the question that every male, including me, has been asked on one occasion or another in his lifetime, 'what are you looking it'? Of all the senses, the visual sense is most likely the one that is the most cherished, especially if you are male. Yet when you think about it, what have we used it for?
Some men will admit, unabashedly, that they use their eyes to ogle women - something that is very pleasant to do I might add. But if you were to put the recorder of your life in reverse, and consider for a moment - just how did I use the wonderful gift of sight throughout my lifetime - wouldn't it be sad to discover that for the majority of your life, you focused on using your eyes in mostly in a salacious manner?
I. Open Up Your Eyes
In II King Chapter 6, beginning at verse 8, we read a remarkable story of an incident that occurred with the Kings of Syria and Israel, Elijah the Prophet and his young protege. Jumping right into the crux of the story, The King of Syria was enraged, for every time that his war council got together to strategically plan how to attack Judah, their plans kept being foiled.
Somehow the King of Judah's army always seemed to know where the Syrians would wage the battle, and each time the army of Judah would beat them to the punch. The King in his ruminations surmised that there must be a spy among us - someone who was revealing to the other side what his strategic plans were. However, one of the King of Syria servants explained, and probably saved a life or two within the Syrian camp - that it is not a traitor within our camp that is divulging the information. Instead he reported, it is Elijah the Tishbite, the prophet in Israel, who was divulging their planned in secrecy, information.
And how was he doing it? Had Elijah disguised himself and surreptitiously entered into the Syrian war councils, or had he paid someone within the Syrian, a traitor, in order to discover their strategy so that he could divulge it to the King of Israel? No the prophet Elijah had apparently mastered the use of his 'spiritual sight', and as a result of seeing 'through the Eyes of God', Elijah was able to see what the Syrians were planning next, and he did so having never left the comfort of his living room.
II. Sight Can Be Used For Worthy Purpose:
Elijah is therefore the perfect example of someone who employed his keen natural and spiritual senses for a worthy purpose, in this context to uncover wickedness. The King of Syria having tired of being defeated by what should have been a weaker army, decided to go right to the source of his anger. The King gathered a portion of his army and instead of going to battle, he road directly to the place where Elijah was dwelling, along with his youthful protege.
The young man shocked to discover, upon going out to do his chores it is very likely, that their dwelling place was surrounded by the Syrian army, and its men of war. The young man hurried to warn Elijah who apparently had gone about his daily business as if nothing was going on. Elijah remaining calm, attempted to comfort the discomfited lad. Elijah knew that the army that was on his side was greater than the army of the King of Syria. But note, the young saw what he saw, however, he was unable to see a superior force that was there to protect both he and his mentor Elijah. Angels of the Lord keepeth watch.
Elijah prayed and asked God, not attack the troops and to say them, that would have been our first inclination. Instead, he asked God to open the eyes of the young man, eyes that had apparently been opened one would think, given that he saw the army that was standing at the door. However, having your eyelids open and peering out through them is not the same as seeing through the eyes of God. The young lad was about have an experience that he had apparently never had before in his lifetime. Given Elijah's request God opened the young lad's eyes and he witnessed first hand what Elijah already knew.
To his dismay, the young lad discovered that a spiritual army was also outside of his door, and the spiritual army had the King of Syria as well as his Syrian attachment completely surrounded. In this story we 'see' three example of men who experienced God-sight, instead of Night Vision - the kind that the America military utilizes today, these men employed God-Vision. Elijah used it all the time, the man who divulged to the King of Syria just how his plans kept being uncovered, and finally the lad who for the first time observed that eyes could be used for other than looking at girls.
I believe that it is safe to say that the God who warned Elijah before about the tactical battle strategies of the King of Syria's army, had already warned him that he would be paying him a visit next. And one can easily surmise that when God warns you ahead of time that Satan is coming, God saw it first, and he is warning you so that you can either take evasion action - and to let you know that you are going to be protected.
III. What Is This Thing Called Sight?
According to one concise dictionary definition, sight, the noun form) is:
vision; ability to see; look; glimpse...! When we think of sight, we typically think of it in just these terms. However, many have learned that sight transcends this and other colloquial definitions. Is it more than just this?
In many cultures certain children are born with what the indigenous people refer to as a 'gift of sight'. At any early age, parents determine that their children are gifted, particularly a child who at birth was partially or fully encased with portions of the embryonic which they refer to us 'a Vail'. This Vail is seen as a special injunction from God, explaining that the encased child is a special child.
And later in life, it is not uncommon for these gifted children to show remarkable talents. Their abilities appear to be greater than those of average human beings.
Many of these children carry their gifts into adulthood. Many of them have sight, clairvoyant gifts like Extra Sensory Perception. It is not uncommon for these individuals to predict future events, to foretell what is transpiring in the present having never been there to see what is taking place. These individuals experience highly spiritual and sensory inputs during the waking state, as well as the nocturnal state. Have you ever had someone foretell an event in your life that took place, or call you ahead of time to say, 'I am praying for you because God showed me, or something told me that you were about to have an experience...", and it turns out to be true?
And where does this ability come from, it comes from what we refer to as Spirit, or what was also referred to at one time as 'daimon'. Spirit is a word that frightens most people, and to an extent it should. Why? Because there are both good and bad spirits, just as there were good and bad 'daimons', a word that was transliterated later to become 'demon'. I was speaking with a woman some years ago who happened to be from a family of warlocks. Although she had since given her life to the Lord, she had much to divulge from her repository of experiences in her earlier life when she became curious about and began to study witchcraft.
She explained that within the realm of witchcraft, a spirit or spirits actually do the bidding in behalves of the witch, or it divulges information to the witch or warlock that the rest of us may not be privy to. She went on to say that whenever a witch attempts to cast a spell on someone, that they factually rely on a spirit to do the enchantment. Scary? Many Americans, to those in the Shaman religions of the past have sought ought and found 'spirit guides' that they call upon in order to help them through life. A famous book some years ago entitled: The Sorcerers New Apprentice, made the best sellers list. The book divulged how many Americans, even professors as some of America's most elite Universities Well, from scriptures we know that there are both good and bad spirits, and we know that these incantations apparently work.
On the plus side, the Father of Spirits, gives gifts to men, primarily to help us to combat unseen forces. Most human cannot believe that they are being engaged in a battle against forces that they cannot experience with their physical senses, particularly their eyes. I warn these individuals that there are many things that you cannot see with your limited visual perception. For example, without the aid of a microscope or telescope - you cannot see certain microorganisms, or cosmic stellar entities, that actually exist. And, even though you cannot see certain phenomenon with the naked eye, it does not impact in any way whether they actually exist or not.
The eyes, and all of the senses, bring input into the brain so that it can be processed. Jesus often referred to individuals on earth in two categories those who were physically blind and those who were spiritually blind. Prior to Adam's debacle, he apparently still retained sight-vision, given that he apparently recognized spiritually beings like God, or the angels that was dispatched to prevent him from returning to 'the tree of life', which could result in an unwanted life-death sentence!
Jesus, spent much of his time trying to open the eyes not just of the physically blind - which he did do, he also spent much of his time trying to open the eyes of the spiritually blind. And I might add here, the majority of the spiritually blind that he encountered and attempted to restore sight to were religious and spiritual people. However, it begs the question with respect to the latter, WHAT SPIRIT WERE THEY REALLY OF? In other words, believing that they could see or understand in this context, what prevented them from seeing the truth? Many of these individuals who similar to a physically blind individual, where groping around in the dark and still bumping into walls.
These folks, along with the rest of the world lacked sight, the kind that God intended for us all to have.
IV: A Dead Man With Fixed Eyes
It is not uncommon that when an individual dies that his or her eyes remain partially or completely opened. It is as if they are experiencing an 'ocular gyric crises', for their ocular stare is unsettling to those who experience them that way. The first inclination of the observer is to 'shut their eyelids'.
No doubt, if you have the technology to do so - you might be able to determine the image that those eyes are staring at, that has been captured within their visual receptacles. The problem remains however, that the mechanizations minus the processing causes sight to be useless. What am I getting at?
The eyes, like the other senses - gustatory, olfactory, tactile and auditory, has to have a place for the information to be processed. Otherwise, what good is the information. In the biological world, we rely upon our brains to process the information that proceeds into it through physical means. First of all the eye(s) have to be reasonably intact or there won't be any input or data to process in the first place. So the cornea, the iris, the retina and other parts of the yes must be intact.
However, does one require a physical eye, with the proverbial eye ball, in order to see. I used to wonder about this with respect to the next stage in our spiritual evolution. I wondered, how can a Spirit see things, and therefore if we are going to be like the angels in the next phase of our spiritual evolvment, how will we be able to see. Physical sight I determined is still something that ought to be valued, however, I recognized that even during the nocturnal state, we still experience 'sight'.
Clearly, the mechanizations of the brain tied to memory, and precognitive abilities or outward forces can cause images to be produced within us, when our eyes are completely shut. So, how are images constructed? Are they actually constructed by the eyes, or is something else working here? In order to understand this better one would need to consider the branch of physics that is known as quantum physics. Quantum Physics teaches that our brains, through our visual pathways takes the 'radiation from the images' that we encounter with our eyes, and shapes them within our brains.
And through memorization in the brain, the radiological image that we experience visually is therefore stored in the brain. So the next time I experience the construction of a form that I refer to as 'an apple', in the future when I recognize this formation of molecules, I will remember it as an apple. And my parents or guardians or teachers will have taught me that an apple is comestible food. On the other hand, I might be fearful of something in its construction, that I have been taught is something that can be harmful!
When our eyes are closed while we are sleeping the brain continues to process ideas and images, some past, some present and apparently some future. Dreams are presented to us in visual patterns, patterns that arise from the limbic system. Our brains are always putting together pictures, and it will present pictures in our unconscious that we must later decipher within our conscience state. The Bible and other books are full of dreams. In fact, much of what Christians base their futures on have been summed up and presented to early Christian fathers in dream. The most famous astral-laden eschatological book of the canon fits into this category.
Ancient people, post and pre-antideluvian people, took the unseen far more serious than we do today. Most of us are like adolescents who want to take on the world with the knowledge that they have gained. However, their parents recognize that some of their pre-pubescent youngster still do not have enough of an understanding to take on the world, as much as they would like to try. Why do the parents fail so much? Because many of them are unwittingly still locked into their adolescent fazes. Although eager to take on the world, neither do they possess the abilities yet to understand half of what is going on out there.
It is not just the portions that we can envision with natural sight that impact us, for what is more important and can be more detrimental is that which we cannot see that will have its greatest impact upon our lives, as well as those who lean on us for their guidance survival. How can you teach someone about something that you have not seen or understood yourself?
IV: God Is The Processor of the Soul:
What makes divine sight work, is because it is not reliant upon limited understanding. I realized one day that God would never go to a library in order to garner information. I recognized that from an anthropomorphic point of view, that God's brain is the library, a library that is even more vast than that of the 'Library of Congress' (and by the way if you are ever in Washington, be sure to visit the indomitable Library of Congress).
Unlike us, a microcosm of god that was created in God's image - our processing power, as well as our knowledge is limited. So that when we believe that we are employing perfect 20/20vision, at best we are using primitive mechanisms and processing power in order to process and decide upon very real events. If my physical eye, brain and other senses are working properly, I can do a fairly great job of deciding what is good fruit and what is not. However, beyond that there are so many areas and considerations to be made, that my simple functioning cannot inure to helping me to see or to understand that which I need to see and understand.
God foresaw that, stepped in and offered to help each of us from the beginning. God did not suddenly cast us upon a barren earth, then abandoned us in order to pursue his own triumphs. Instead, the earth was prepared with all of the systems in place that would produce food, protection from the dangerous rays of the sun, and with all of the life-sustaining ... that we require. To wit, God gave us intellect, a sufficient enough amount of it to ... our survival, and so that we could have dominion over the earth and to get along with each other.
Sadly, we have tossed away the manual for the most past, or we refer to it only on a limited basis in order to understand how to navigate through this life. In the book of Romans, Paul writes about what happened, when humans refused to 'retain God in their knowledge'. God is the knowledge book that we should rely upon and refer to. Every bit of data that comes into our brain, should be processed in accordance with the divine book. Unlike David who was shaped in iniquity, each of us should seek to reshape ourselves by garnering higher knowledge, lest we waste our sight and understanding in procuring wealth, pleasure and the fulfilment of our lusts.
In other words, you can be tied into the Divine Library, where there is a complete and accurate repository of information for you to filter all of your ideas through, and come back with the correct answer! Are you aware that some older people, whose physical sight may have dimmed with time, actually have keener vision than their younger counterparts, whose senses appear to be intact!
Now we have come full circle. When we learn to see through God's eyes, we will judge all things differently, one of the most important to self-centered, egomaniacal and ego-centric humans, is the ability to see our brothers and sisters properly. Having said that, if we can ever move beyond our base/primitive instincts, we will find that this repository and sight that has always been able to us will accelerate us into transcendence as we occupy these physical bodies. Isn't it sad that human sight is wasted on peering at each other lustfully, or hatefully.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste, so is sight - and many come to realize that as it begins to fade away. God has impressed upon me and given me to share it with you, that the world and everything and everyone in it will seem different, once you learn to view each and every thing, phenomenon or person through the eyes of God, including yourself; and when you learn to judge all things through the eyes of God. Then you will be less judgmental and self-righteouss, and more understanding and open to growth yourself. Then you will recognize the beauty of the world and God's intent for both it and you in it, during your temporary stay on Earth!
Peace & Grace
Rev. C. Solomon
www.sealofabraham.blogspot.com
My summary and conclusion will follow...to be continued.
Addenda: Some individuals are seeking higher knowledge and the ability to have sight. Why would they choose to use methods that are
written about in the book that I mentioned: The Sorcerers
New Apprentice, as opposed to seeking God for full
and complete sight. Is it because carnally,
they desire something that will benefit
the human desire, while sacrificing
the responsibilities that come
along with higher knowledge?
In other words, some still desire the convenience of a gift without responsibility -
the kind of responsibility that comes from God. It teaches
us that power in the hands of untrained and unworthy
individual can be dangerous power - there's
represents a dangerous and possibly
catastrophic intrusion
into the divine
and spiritual
realm!
One of the founders of this nation, although a syncretist as well, Benjamin Franklin preferred alternative mysticism himself over mainstream
religion. And that is disturbing when you
consider that he helped to found
this nation after attending
a seance or two, or
consultation with
a spirit guide!
Need we mention Nancy Reagan's delving into the occult from which she garnered messages that she used to council her husband. And she was and
is a woman, the wife of an American President that are championed
o less than by the religious right and the so-called
moral majority of this nation? Shall we touch
on the names of other prominent figures
who guided this country who often
paritipated in occultish
practices?
Hmm!!!
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