Lord, let me see

The other day, a beautiful young Christian mother of two shared with me one of her desires. It wasn't a worldly desire; it had to do with the Lord. It had to do with spiritual discernment; something which most of us don't know much about and if the truth was known, really don't want to know.

It's not that we think there is something "spooky" about the Spiritual Realm; but you have to admit most of us feel uneasy when we are confronted in dealing with, dare I say, perceived darkness. I believe it was John Wesley who said something like, "The Spirit World is dark unto us, but we lie open to it."

Well, it's this unknown and unseen spiritual world that this young mother has been asking God to allow her to see into; not just to perceive with normal spiritual discernment, but to "literally see" … just like what happened to Elisha's servant in 2nd Kings 6:15-17.

"And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, a host compassed the city both with horses and chariots.
And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? 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."

She put it this way … "When I asked God for spiritual sight, I wasn't referring to spiritual insight, as in discernment. I was meaning … I literally wanted to see into the spiritual realm. I want to literally be able to see things in the spirit."

I understand why being able to "see" or "discern," (which means … perception of that which is obscure), would be one gift of the Holy Spirit that could benefit a mother, especially when going to "battle in prayer" over her children. You need to know just what it is that you're dealing with. Is it just life, maybe just kids being kids or could it be something spiritual from the dark side; the presence of the evil one, even Satan himself?

She wants to see the situation just as clearly as something material. Being able to see into that realm would allow her to "zero" right in on the problem, and take authority over each situation that comes … and they do come.

There are small differences between seeing a vision, receiving insight, having discernment or some other type of "understanding or knowing" that the Holy Spirit uses in allowing us to "see" into the spirit realm, but I'm not going to speak of them here.

I'm going to let the theologians argue about the name of each operation and which one does what, because I don't know or really care. In my opinion, you can put all these descriptions and operations in a sack, shake them up, mix them together and what falls out is still … "discernment" … one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I like to simplify things.

Now back to Elisha's servant … the Bible does say, "the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw" … but what it doesn't say is by what means he was able to see. Was it a vision he pictured in his mind and spirit? Could it have been that his physical eyes were "opened" to the spiritual realm for the first time? Yes, "he saw" the … "horses and chariots of fire" … or are the words "he saw" just another way to say the servant only discerned in his spirit the true reality of what was around him; what Elisha had already perceived?

I really can't say. But what I do know is that the spirit realm is just as real; no … it is more real than the physical, material realm we call the natural realm. It's called the spiritual realm only because we can't see into this realm with our physical eyes. Because we can't feel it with our senses; touch, taste, sight, etc., we therefore have great difficulty understanding it; some even go so far as to deny its existence all together.

If I may, I'd like to point out perhaps one important difference between the O.T. saints and the Church today, the Body of Christ. The O.T. saints like Elisha and all those who were living under the Law, didn't have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of them as we do today. They were saved by their physical works, the offering of the blood sacrifices … physically.

God even operated differently towards them compared to today. When was the last time you saw God send fire down from Heaven to burn up an idol, or cause the sun to stand still. Has He ever opened up a river so you could cross on dry ground or given you water to drink from a rock? The physical works of the Law by man was equally matched by the physical appearing of God to these people. They needed to see with their physical eyes the miracle working power of God.

The main reason today that God doesn't need to appear in our presence as He once did is because we now have the Holy Spirit inside of us. He is already here. Yes, He was with them also, but He was … for lack of a better term … He was there to anoint them, not to fill them. I know this isn't theologically correct … but it's close.

Today, as Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 5:7 … "we walk by faith, not by sight" … meaning, by our faith in God, in His Word and by the leading of the Holy Spirit instead of our direct physical vision. We still use our eyes physically but they are no good in the spiritual world of faith.

"We walk by faith" … The sense here is, that we conduct ourselves during our lifetime with reference to the things which are unseen, and not with reference to the things which are seen, but in the belief of those things which we do not see.
We believe in the existence of spiritual things which are invisible, and we are influenced by them. To "walk by faith," is to live in the confident expectation of things that are to come; in the belief of the existence of "unseen realities" and allowing them to influence us as if … they were seen.

We walk … "not by sight" … This means that we are not influenced by the things we actually see with our eyes. The main idea is that we are not influenced and governed by our physical sight. We are not governed and controlled by the things which we see; and we also "do not see" those things which actually influence and control us in the spiritual realm. In both it is faith that controls us, and not sight.

Paul said in 1st Corinthians 12:31 … "covet earnestly the best gifts" … but I'm not sure peering into the spirit realm is one of the best gifts of the Holy Spirit. But I want to be quick to add … "whenever" God does show a believer something in this dimension or realm; it is still "one of the ministries" of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we do not have anything to fear except, in my opinion, one thing. And that is … trying in our own power … to put on or wear the office of, or operate in … one of the ministry "gifts" of the Holy Spirit … without Him.

It's not for us to choose our ministry gifting. The Holy Spirit is the one who gives spiritual gifts "as He wills" … it's not of our choosing.

"Covet earnestly the best gifts" … Covet means to "long for, wish or crave" for something that you don't have.

Will God really give you what you want from Him? Maybe. He already has at least once in the life of this young mother I first started talking about. She saw the manifestation of Jesus as He ministered the touch of "His hands" unto a group of believers seeking Him.

Did she "see" Him with her physical eyes? Maybe. I don't know. How real is real? Did she "see" Him in her spirit only? Maybe. Could it have been just a vision, a type of "discernment?" Again, maybe.

But she did … "see" Him. To me, that's all that matters.

I'm going to let God, be God. He's pretty good at it.


Comments welcome.