Pentecost 100 'Seeing is Believing? No, Believing is Seeing!

Pentecost 100 ‘Seeing is Believing?’ No, Believing is Seeing!

In a speech to Cambridge University students on Dec.4, 1857 Dr.David Livingstone, the famous missionary physician said, “People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay?…Say rather, it is a privilege…”

God had given him a vision, to see, perceive and step into the spiritual condition of a continent. He ‘saw’ his part,--- bring those in it to the Lord.

This prompts us to revisit the three eyes with which God has endowed us, the eye of the mind, the eye of the heart and the eye of the spirit. These are the highly sensitive receptors in every person. When they are clear, alert and focused there is no end to fulfilling their potential.

However, none of us is born with 20/20 spiritual vision. Our three receptors have cataracts (sin, pride, fear, strongholds) that cause blurred vision. We need an eye exam (“I” exam, ego exam) and then the necessary surgery (accepting Jesus, repentance, forgiveness, Spirit-refilling) to correct the condition.

Three receptors need three spiritual transplants. First, the eye of the mind needs a lens transplant of truth (the Bible) to replace the cataract of false belief in cultural standards and false spiritual assumptions. Second, the eye of the heart needs a lens transplant of trust (in the person of Jesus) to replace sin-clouded cataract of inadequate perception (‘now we see through a glass darkly’) based on worldly strategies, false leaders and instant fixes. Third, the eye of the spirit needs a lens transplant of faith to step out and let the Holy Spirit discern, guide and repel the spirits of pride and fear as we share Jesus with whom ever will listen.

We need to see the need of the persons we meet. The mind believes and processes the need. In our heart we trust Jesus can meet the need. Then we step out in faith letting the Spirit empower the action needed to meet the need..

The echo of Paul’s trials (2Cor.11:25-26) resound in David Livingstone’s closing remarks in the context of the above quote, “Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger now and then with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause and cause the spirit to waver and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.” The “seeing” context? “Say rather, it is a privilege.”

Stay tuned……..

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