THIS IS A SUBJECT THAT AFFECTS EVERY ONE OF US. It’s the culprit behind much of our inability to hear from God and walk in His promises. And what makes matters worse is that it’s something we do to ourselves and to others. We ignore, and gloss over need. Not all need, mind you, just certain needs that are tied to repentance and submission.
We’re all happy to have our needs met, but what God requires of us before those needs can be met is not always pleasant, and can often be down right scary. So we offer salvation without requiring conviction or repentance, we sing songs about how much God loves us and rescues us from trouble, and we pray for blessings we’ve heard are promised to us. And in so doing we rob ourselves and others from something so necessary that it’s absence will leave us blind and ignorant. The issue is this:
- The ability to recognize truth comes from an awareness of need.
God is truth, and His word is Truth, and His work is Truth. Failure to recognize truth hinders our walk and relationship with God. So if I had to pinpoint one single thing that recognizing need grants you, I’d say this:
- Possessing an awareness of need will grant you the ability to see and hear God.
This goes far beyond repentance unto salvation, but delves into the mundane issues in which God requires a perspective change, a.k.a., repentance and submission. While evangelism certainly suffers from our failure to bring converts into a recognition of need, it is not limited to the lost. This is something that has hindered and cursed the heroes of faith, those patriarchs and great men of the Lord with whom God does great and mighty things.
This what kept Moses from entering the promised land. It’s what cursed the descendants of Abraham to continual war against their own Arab brothers. It’s what kept the Pharisees from recognizing God when He stood right in front of them. It’s a blindness to what is needed at the moment that results from the inability to recognize truth and respond to it. When you have a need, but can’t see it, you are robbed of what could have been yours.
There are too many examples that could be covered here, so I’ll pick a few, and try to nail down the subtle issues that are hidden so well right beneath our noses. Let’s start with the worst, and most glaring example, and then move on to those saints whose vision is far more clear but clouded just the same.
THE PHARISEES – SATISFYING THE LAW SINCE…
The poster children for what not to do when serving God, the Pharisees are scripture’s most potent example of how religion can easily plunge people into spiritual blindness. The Pharisees literally couldn’t recognize God even when He stood right in front of them. But as much as we’d like to say that their blindness was a problem unique to them, the Pharisees and Sadducees are what the church becomes when it loses sight of God.
The Sadducees were aristocrats. They were wealthy men who held the majority of the 70 seats of the ruling council in Jerusalem called the Sanhedrin. Many priests and high priests were of the Sadducees. Yet they didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead because they assumed that our souls cease to exist upon death. They did not believe in spirits of any kind, thus they denied the existence of angels and demons (Acts 23:8).
The Pharisees, on the other hand, were a minority. They were comprised mostly of middle-class businessmen. This placed them closer to the people’s hearts than the Sadducees who’s wealth and status were made possible by appeasing Rome. The Pharisees believed in resurrection, the afterlife, and in the existence of angels and demons (Acts 23:6-8). However, they were also men of the letter of the law, and held the oral traditions of their forefathers as equal to the word of God (despite scripture’s condemnation of this practice – Deuteronomy 4:2). The express purpose of this adherence to the law was to maintain and secure their standing with God.
However, despite the fact that the laws of the Old Testament focused almost exclusively upon dealing with men’s failure to be justified by the law, they failed to recognize their need for one simple reason – they were satisfied. They were satisfied with their position, their training, their disciplines, their knowledge, and rested in the idea that all of it made them acceptable before God. And yet the very things upon which they rested for God’s approval were the things that were insulating them from “The Truth.” And ironically, this fact was brought to light by the very sinners they prided themselves on being separate from.
When Jesus arrived as the Messiah, who recognized Him for who He was, and who didn’t? Tax collectors recognized Him (Matthew 9:9-10; Luke 3:12, 7:29, 15:1, 18:10-14, 19:2-10). The sexually immoral recognized Him (John 4:1-26, 8:4). In fact some of the worst offenders of God recognized Him with relative ease. But most of those who were trained in the scriptures didn’t recognize Him, even after He fulfilled the scriptures right before their eyes. Why?
First, they rejected the nature of God that was provided for them.
Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. {32} For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him. (Matthew 21:31-32, NIV)
Second, by ignoring the nature of God, they failed to recognize it’s contrast to their own lives. This resulted in their being unaware of their personal need.
The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?” {31} And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. {32} “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:30-32, NASB)
Serving the Lord in ignorance will blind you to the truth. But who serves the Lord in ignorance? If you ask around, no one does. Everyone see’s clearly, or at least clear enough. Coming to terms with our own need results in turning to God. When we turn to God He heals us, and supplies us with further revelation. But those who believe they are well, and who shun the idea that they are serving the Lord in ignorance, continue on, seeing, but never comprehending, hearing, but never grasping the truth that would set them free.
They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your forefathers when he said through Isaiah the prophet:
{26} ” ‘Go to this people and say,
“You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
{27} For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’
Religion, as a set of doctrines and traditions, often keeps our focus on the busyness of serving God, but insulates us from the realization or discovery of personal need. Religion turns us into Martha’s but the revelation of need turns us into Mary’s.
MARY AND MARTHA – ONLY ONE THING IS NEEDED
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. {39} She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. {40} But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” {41} “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, {42} but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42, NIV)
I’ll say it again. Busyness, even in serving the Lord, can insulate us from personal revelation. Like the Pharisees, Martha was serving the Lord in her own mind. She was doing what needed to be done. Who could possibly find fault with this? Yet Jesus said that Mary, who was doing nothing, had chosen something better than Martha. How could that be?
The problem was this: Martha’s natural abilities, interests, and role in society compelled her to be a worker before she was a lover. Mary saw her need to sit at the feet of Jesus as a spiritual lover of God, but Martha chose to skip intimacy and get right down to business.
Getting work done in Christ’s presence is inferior to doing nothing in His presence for one simple reason – work is a fruit. It’s birthed from the intimacy of relationship. What we do flows out of who we are. This is why personal revelation is so important, and why Jesus seemed so oddly unconcerned that Mary wasn’t doing anything “productive.” The fact was, Mary was doing what was required in order to bear the fruit of God. Martha was just trying to get work done for God as best she could.
Listen to the words of this passage, and note how it pictures the bride of Christ becoming pregnant with the work of God.
“If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. {8} When you bear (produce) much fruit, My Father is honored and glorified, and you show and prove yourselves to be true followers of Mine. {9} I have loved you, [just] as the Father has loved Me; abide in My love [continue in His love with Me].” {10} If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commandments and live on in His love. {11} I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing.” (John 15:7-11, italicized content added by AMP Bible)
The church is pictured as a woman. When the church see’s her need, she embraces Christ, and they become one. As a result of this abiding intimacy, she becomes pregnant with the work of God. When she gives birth, or bears fruit, it honors God.
Bearing fruit (giving birth to the work of God) “shows and proves” that you are “true followers of mine” (vs. 9). This is because a child bears the image of his or her parents. Thus “wisdom is justified of all her children” (Luke 7:35, KJV) and the bride of Christ is recognized by the works of Christ that she gives birth to.
But working apart from the intimacy of revelation gives birth to Ishmael’s. And while Ishmael’s aren’t illegitimate works, they are not eligible for the same blessing as works of God.
ISAAC AND ISHMAEL – A WORK OF GOD / A WORK OF MAN
Perhaps you’ve heard the story. After Abram (whom God later renamed Abraham) parted ways with Lot, the Lord gave him a vision.
After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” {2} But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” {3} And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” {4} Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.” {5} He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” {6} Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:1-6, NIV)
Abram’s need had turned his eyes upon God from whom he was assured to receive a promised child and a promised land. So Abram believed God, and earnestly looked forward to the fruit of that covenant promise.
Ten years passed with no child born. Ten long years of anticipation. Had Abram missed something?
Abram and Sarai were now faced with a Mary or Martha moment. What would they do? Would they sit at the Lord’s feet in prayer and listen to His heart speak? Or would they do what needed to be done instead? They chose the path of Martha, and got to work meeting needs, skipping intimacy with the Lord.
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; {2} so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said. {3} So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. {4} He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. (Genesis 16:1-4, NIV)
The problem was simple, Abram needed to bear fruit. His wife, after giving up hope that she would be part of the solution, found another legal alternative. The law allowed slave wives to bear children who would then become the legal children of the free-wife. So Sarai gave Hagar to Abram as a slave wife. And it worked, Hagar bore a son. In this there was no sin.
But, as was God’s intent for the laws that allowed polygamy, jealousy and contempt were also a fruit conceived that day.
And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. {5} And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!” {6} But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her. (Genesis 16:4-6, ESV)
Both Sarai and Hagar acted poorly towards one another. Their arraignment was not a sin, but nor was it a blessing. They would have learned this had they taken the time to sit at the Lord’s feet as Mary would do when the Angel of the Lord was born into flesh as Jesus, God the Son.
The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. {8} And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” {9} The angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” {10} The angel of the LORD also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” {11} And the angel of the LORD said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has listened to your affliction. {12} He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.” (Genesis 16:7-12, ESV)
When you skip intimacy with the Lord, you bear fruit after the image of the natural, and not the supernatural. Ishmael was born naturally, but the child of promise would be born supernaturally as a picture of the coming Messiah.
For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. {23} His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. (Galatians 4:22-23, NIV)
Like Martha, Abram had an encounter with the Lord, and like Martha, Abram followed it with work instead of with the intimacy of sitting at His feet and hearing the Heart of the Lord. This produced ten years of ignorant anticipation and thirteen years more of ignorant belief that the Lord’s will had been done. That’s twenty-three wasted years that could have been filled with revelation and better works.
Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael. (Genesis 16:16, AMP)
As far as Abram and Sarai were aware, the fruit of their work had satisfied the Lord and accomplished His will. When we don’t seek the heart of God, our ignorance can alter our perception of reality and cause us to believe we have satisfied the Lord’s will and are living in His promises when we are not.
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. … {5} Nor shall your name any longer be Abram [high, exalted father]; but your name shall be Abraham [father of a multitude], for I have made you the father of many nations. … (15) And God said to Abraham, As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai; but Sarah [Princess] her name shall be. {16} And I will bless her and give you a son also by her. Yes, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her. {17} Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a son? {18} And [he] said to God, Oh, that Ishmael might live before You! {19} But God said, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son indeed, and you shall call his name Isaac [laughter]; and I will establish My covenant or solemn pledge with him for an everlasting covenant and with his posterity after him. {20} And as for Ishmael, I have heard and heeded you: behold, I will bless him and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly; He will be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. [Fulfilled in Gen. 25:12-18.] (Genesis 17:1,5,15-20, AMP)
Ishmael received a blessing for he was a legitimate son of Abraham. But the promised blessing of covenant can only come through a work of God, not a work of the flesh (even if that work is not sin).
Abram had passed the test the Pharisee’s failed. He recognized Jesus (The Angel of the Lord) in light of his need. Abram’s faith in God was credited to him (Genesis 16:6). But he failed the same test Martha would fail, in that after they met the Lord, they proceeded to work instead of abiding in the intimacy of the Lord until the Lord’s work was birthed.
I THINK I WOULD KNOW
We like to think of ourselves as circumspect. For the most part, we’d say we have a pretty good feel for things, and are aware of our spiritual condition. We’d concede that we’re aware of problems here and there, and are by no means perfect or without needs, but as far as any major problems are concerned, we’re not outside of the norm. In short, no one’s spiritual eyesight is perfect, but we’re not blind.
That sentiment is itself a confession of blindness.
Imagine asking children if they know all that they need to know. Usually, they will tell you they have lots to learn and are learning more and more every day. Children are like sponges. They are constantly seeking after answers and understanding. This is a recognition of need.
However, those same children walk into traffic – they put their hand on the glowing hot stove element – and they get in the stranger’s car and are whisked away. When a child cannot comprehend the reality in which they live, they live a life of imminent peril and destruction. God lamented through the prophet Hosea, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6, KJV).
Recognizing that one has needs in general is not the same recognition that I am speaking of here. Here’s what I am talking about.
Two children recognize that they don’t understand everything. They recognize the fact that they have a need to know. They come to a busy street and need to get to the other side; they see a glowing hot stove element and desire to touch it; a stranger offers them a ride to a place they want or need to go; and they have two different responses. At the street, one begins to cross, seeing only where they need to go, the other looks to their Father for instruction. The Father’s hand comes down and grabs both, only one having to be yanked backward to save them from destruction. At the stove, one reaches to touch the pretty color and learns a hard lesson, the other points at it and asks important questions learning the easy way. At the stranger’s car, one is thankful for the kind offer, the other runs to the Father and the stranger flees from a Father’s wrath and the sirens of the law.
I’m speaking of a need that not only recognizes that one doesn’t know everything, but who’s actions actually discover specific needs by looking at the Father who reveals them in Christ. Many sinners who knew they had needs beheld Christ, but they turned back to sin, or they turned to watch miracles hoping to benefit from them, or they turned to serve as disciples of a great man instead of recognizing the God before them (John 6:66).
The Pharisees were charged with blindness, in that, they saw the Lord’s character of righteousness (Matthew 21:31-32), but failed to believe that it demanded a change in their walk before God. After that, they were hoplessly blind, and I say hopelessly because they had ignored the one thing that could grant them sight. Martha recognized God’s righteousness, beheld Christ, but failed to sit at Christ’s feet to see the one thing that was needed. Abraham recognized God’s righteousness, beheld Christ (as the Angel of the Lord), and was even told what need God was going to meet, but failed to become pregnant with the Lord’s work on account of becoming pregnant in the natural. Only Mary choose what was better, and sat gazing into the mirror of Christ.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18, MKJV)
If you truly belong to Christ, then you should be able to say that you have seen God and have heard His voice in some way. But only those who sit at His feet can give birth to His work. Others will merely accomplish what can be accomplished in the natural, and while that work isn’t illegitimate and does receive a blessing, it isn’t the promise that comes from intimacy.
SUMMARY OF NEED
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3, KJV)
Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. (Luke 6:21, KJV)
What possible value is there in being poor in spirit? Why would anyone want to suffer spiritual hunger? Why are we blessed when we find ourselves in this condition?
The value is this. God gives riches to the poor and food to the hungry.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. (Matthew 5:6, KJV)
But God gives nothing to those who already see themselves as whole and who feel satisfied.
And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? (17) When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (Mark 2:16-17, KJV)
The Pharisees were desperately in need of Jesus as a physician. But they had filled themselves with religion and activity, and dulled their sense of need with temporal bandages. So at the time when they should have been receiving from God, they got nothing. This is why Jesus said:
Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. (Luke 6:25, KJV)
It is our job to maintain our sense of need. We accomplish this work by gazing upon Jesus, like Mary, and seeing the discrepancy between our own righteousness and His. Upon receiving this revelation, we hunger and yearn for His righteousness to be worked out through us, and press in asking how He wills for this to happen. It is then that He feeds us. It is then that He makes us rich. It is then that our eternal hunger for Him is met by an eternal satisfaction.
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. (John 6:35, KJV)
Do you feel that burning within you that cries out to be filled? Stop dulling it with entertainment and religion! Ask God to increase it. Ask God to make it more intense! Why? Because hunger comes from being empty. If you are full of temporal satisfactions that must continually be replenished you will have little room for anything God will fill you with.
In my own life, I didn’t understand the purpose for hunger. When I finally realized that it’s not a curse, but a blessing, I moved to cultivate it within me. God explained to me that hunger is a sign of God’s work within you, and is an assurance that He will answer. Hunger drives us to say yes to Him and His work when it presents itself to us. Saying yes to God is saying yes to His filling.
God gives food to the poor. Those who are filled to the brim with food of their own choosing do not have room for God. God will not share the space. So he burns it away and creates a burning hunger that is desperate to be filled. The more space we make within us, the more of Him we receive. He desperately desires to fill us, and there is nothing hindering Him when you hunger, because He is already present within you and is working to create more space for the full measure of supernatural filling that He is bringing to you.
WHAT IT TAKES TO BE HUNGRY AND POOR IN SPIRIT
You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. {18} I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. {19} Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. (Revelation 3:17-19, NIV)
No matter what you say about your level of blindness, there is but one solution. You must buy gold, white clothing, and eye salve from God. But what does that mean?
REFINED GOLD
The gold speaks of the treasure of our hearts.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21, ESV)
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45, ESV)
It’s from this treasure of our hearts that we work out our salvation and produce works of God. Those works are either birthed from the gold of our intimacy, or from the wood, hay, and stubble of our natural abilities.
If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, {13} his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. {14} If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. {15} If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Corinthians 3:12-15, NIV)
But this is not regular gold. Natural gold is unrefined and contains much dross. It takes fire, intense heat, and affliction to reveal the dross. Thus, when unrefined gold is tested, much ugliness comes to the surface that was hidden within. This kind of gold will not be accepted on the day of judgment. God is looking for that which is pure. God is looking for gold, for treasure, that has already been refined and purified.
If you make God the treasure of your heart, your heart’s desire will be tested. You will be afflicted in one way or another. This will offend many. The day is coming when many will fall away when the refining begins in their lives and all the ugliness of the dross is exposed, causing them to despise what they once treasured.
That which you love, and treasure must be God. And it must be refined. Without this you will be satisfied with something less that purity.
BRIGHT, SHINING WHITE CLOTHS
White cloths speak of the righteous fruit that comes from Divine discipline, and from the fire of suffering and tribulation that refines and purifies our hearts.
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. (Revelation 19:8, KJV)
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11, NIV)
When God begins to reveal what He desires from you, get to work. Christ’s righteousness is your righteousness when God works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13).
EYE SALVE
Eye salve speaks of that which allows us to see spiritually. When you can see spiritually, you no longer need to rely upon others for knowledge of what God is, or isn’t doing, because you can see it yourself.
Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. (John 5:19, NIV)
I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will. (John 5:30, NLT)
And He did not need anyone to bear witness concerning man [needed no evidence from anyone about men], for He Himself knew what was in human nature. [He could read men's hearts.] [I Sam. 16:7.] (John 2:25, AMP, bracketed content added by AMP Bible)
Jesus could see what the Father was doing and participate in it. When you cannot see what the Father is doing, you do what you see as profitable in the natural. This is where mistakes are made, and where blindness to what is truly needed sets in. As a man, Jesus spent much of His time in prayer and fasting, abiding in the intimacy of the Father. This anointed His eyes to see what natural sight could not comprehend.
As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit–just as it has taught you, remain in him. (1 John 2:27, NIV)
Abiding in Christ, as Christ abode in the Father, is what applies eye salve to our spiritual eyes and reveals all things.
WHAT DO I DO? HOW DOES THIS WORK?
Like newborn babes, we begin in purity, but become corrupted as we progress in our walk. Even though we begin with refined gold, it does not stay that way. Everything that comes into contact with mankind suffers from corruption and impurity.
How dark the gold has become, how the pure gold has changed! (Lamentations 4:1a, NASB)
Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. (James 5:3a, NASB)
What is our gold supposed to look like? God intends to refine it until its as clear as glass, like the streets of the heavenly New Jerusalem. God is meant to be seen through it, and His glory becomes it’s glow.
… The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass. (Revelation 21:21, NIV)
Therefore the gold you receive will need to be continuously purified. That means that your heart will need to experience suffering and tribulation – not in general, but on account of your struggle against sin. This protects you against blindness. It enables you to see and hear the heart of God. It makes His treasure your treasure. What he looks at, you’ll look at.
When our hearts treasure becomes dull, the glory of God is hindered from shining in our lives and we cease to see God clearly. We become distracted, and focus on things that are not the express heart of God. Our loss proceeds from there.
Ok, so the treasure of our hearts is something we can only get by asking for it through the intimacy of prayer and fasting. It will cost us. We’ll suffer. But we’ll be clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and anointed with the eye salve of the Holy Spirit so we can see what the Father is doing. We get it. Well, at least intellectually, but imagining what that will look like in our own lives is bit fuzzy.
So here’s exactly what that should look like in your life.
PAUL’S EXAMPLE
Paul was a Pharisee (Acts 23:6-8). And while he was “still breathing murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples” (Acts 9:1, NIV), the Lord appeared to Him (Acts 9:5). If you’re a believer, then you have already had your encounter with God. But here’s where your conversion may have fallen short. Paul was shown how to enter into the intimacy of the Lord’s presence.
Paul was physically blind for three days for the purpose of keeping his attention focused upon the Lord. That focused attention is also known as prayer and fasting, and is what Paul did during his time of physical blindness (Acts 9:9). Here’s where you can get back on track. If you signed the marriage papers (the Divine marriage covenant of salvation) but have yet to experience intimacy, it starts here, in prayer and fasting. There is no other way. Period.
During this time of intimacy, where God alone was Paul’s focus, he had a vision. His spiritual eyes had been anointed with eye salve, and Paul saw a man named Ananias laying hands on him and healing his physical blindness (Acts 9:11-12). But when God told Ananias of this, he protested.
“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. {14} And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.” {15} But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. {16} I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” (Acts 9:13-15, NIV)
If Paul wanted to fulfill God’s call upon his life, he would have to buy a new treasure of gold from the Lord, refined in the fires of suffering on behalf of Christ. The Lord would “show him how much he must suffer,” which is to say, God would show Paul the cost of resisting sin and walking in the white garments of righteousness (Revelation 19:8).
So he counted the cost, and bought gold refined in the fires of suffering for Christ’s sake. He did this so that his righteousness would no longer stem from serving God in the natural according to his perception of the law, but from the supernatural revelation of God. His desire was to become pregnant with God’s work, birthed from the intimacy of His time before the Lord.
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ {9} and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— {10} that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, {11} that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
{12} Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. {13} Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, {14} I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. {15} Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. (Philippians 3:8-15, MKJV)
Paul understood that he had not gained Christ to the extent that he was able. That is a huge revelation. It gave him sight. What he saw, he began pursuing. His pursuit did not allow him to idle in the past works of God, hoping to recreate and relive them over and over again. He always pressed forward, following the Lord as he saw Him.
It’s God’s will for the mature to think and live like this (vs. 15). Anything less is immaturity.
The more Paul pressed in towards the heart of God, the more he realized his need for cleansing. He understood that as long as he was in the flesh, he had not made the righteousness of Christ his own. In other words, Paul saw Christ’s righteousness as something that must be pursued and purchased through the suffering that comes from resisting sin and evil.
As Paul grew closer and closer to God, his revelation of Christ’s righteousness revealed ever more sin in his life. His awareness of sin in his life grew exponentially. This progression can be seen in Paul’s writings.
At first, Paul spoke of himself as “the least of the apostles” (1 Corinthians 15:9).
Later, he was “less than the least of all saints” (Ephesians 3:8).
And toward the end of his life he looked upon other sinners in light of their need of Christ, and counted himself as their chief.
Faithful is the Word and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15, MKJV)
Notice that he says “I am” and not “I was” the chief of sinners. Paul’s recognition of His need for Christ grew in proportion to the level of intimacy he enjoyed with the Lord. With every revelation of God he received, the more needs were revealed in his flesh. Paul was constantly aware of the extent to which his flesh opposed the life of Christ. This resulted in a passion to press into Christ in a way that overcame sin in the process.
IN CONCLUSION:
Often the people who are most prepared for absolute transformation are actually the people who look the least likely to respond to the truth. The worst sinners often become the easiest converts. Why? Because they are positioned to recognize truth when they see it. They are painfully aware of their depravity. But they have seen nothing better to leave it for, nor encountered the power to do so. So when they are confronted by Christ’s uncompromising righteousness, and the power of His resurrection, and see it’s joy, they make the trade – their sin for Christ’s righteousness.
Sadly, more often than not, churches and ministries tend to shy away from modeling the confrontational reality of Christ’s righteousness, but take instead His promises (made to the righteous) and package them in something modeled after the corruption that the wicked are currently consuming.
I attended one evangelistic outreach where they invited a Christian “Heavy Metal” rock band so as to attract the youth who were into that kind of music. The music the band produced sounded exactly like the Heavy Metal bands the lost were used to listening to, but their words came from scripture and spoke of their service before Christ.
To me, it had the appearance of bait. It looked like the food the wicked feed upon, but it’s intent was to hook you with redemption. It’s message was clear, “we look and sound like the corruption you love, therefore come and receive salvation without having to count the cost of change. You can have your cake and eat it too!”
This is the evangelism of Martha, but not Mary. It produces fruit, but naturally. It finds blessing, but not that of promise. It gets people in the door, but at the cost of providing them with an encounter with the Lord. It promises a better way, but then blinds them to it’s path. And so they proceed as foolish children, without a clear view of Christ by which to compare their own lives. They are those who perish for lack of knowledge, and suffer the consequences of trouble they couldn’t recognize.
A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. (Proverbs 22:3, NLT)
The consequences of not recognizing a need is itself the punishment for it.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, {6} and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, {7} and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. {8} For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. {9} For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. (2 Peter 1:5-9, ESV)
Did God require you to repent and turn from your sin in the past? Then He requires the same thing to be done in the present. Or did you forget what sin requires?
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9, MKJV)
Sin causes blindness. Repentance, which is to say, the prayer and fasting that brings us to the alter where we can lay our sins down and turn from them, is what grants us sight.
If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: {7} But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (John 1:6-7, KJV)
Walking in darkness is what the blind do. They can’t help it. We can’t help it. Light however, comes from a revelation of need that causes us to turn to God for more information. That keeps us from crossing the street in traffic, from touching the glowing hot stove element, and from getting in the stranger’s car, so to speak. It protects us by granting us sight to see what we were oblivious to before.
You have needs. We all do. So do something about it. Turn to God as Paul did, and begin reclaiming your life. If anyone asks you if you’ve “gotten there yet” in your walk with God, reply with Christ’s answer:
Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. (John 5:19, NIV)
If you can’t see what the Father is doing, you are blind. In your evangelism you will give birth to the blind, and they will not comprehend the light of revelation that is available to guide their feet along the path of life.
The ability to recognize truth comes from an awareness of need.
Possessing an awareness of need will grant you the ability to see and hear God.