Kingdom's Keys Fellowship
Where God's Kingdom Meets Man's Heart.
Pentecost 97 The Eye of the Heart
Pentecost 97 The Eye of the Heart
'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'
(Matt.13:14, Jesus quoting Is.6:9)
What we hear and see, do we understand with our mind and perceive in our heart?
When you meet someone for the first time, hear what he or she has to say and see how he or she says it; just what is your first impression? That question opens up the issue of perception. What do you perceive? I keep hearing this saying ‘perception is reality.’ How we read what we see is reality for us. It comes in expressions like, ‘I can see it in his eyes’ ‘You can tell by his ‘body-English’’ ‘He doesn’t look the type.’ Then there are those that test perception, “I’m from Missouri, show me’ ‘Put your money where your mouth is.’ All of these indicate the unseen area of life we know is there but have a hard time navigating. It has to do with how we think and perceive within. We might make a snap judgment. It’s when others want to know what our judgment is that we hesitate. We don’t want to appear to have made the wrong judgment. We want to hear and see again before we ‘jump to conclusions.’ We know our perception needs accuracy so, just maybe, perception is not reality. We may be perceptive. Everyone is. But we don’t always get it right.
How we perceive is basic to life. Jesus knew this, which is why He taught in parables. It was to secure our perception. Perception is a spiritual based ability. He knew that perception is made right when we start with how we perceive Him. That is reason for His quote from Isaiah 6:9-10, “He said, "Go and tell this people: "Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." Here He jars the hearers with the inevitability of imperfect perception without Him.
The goal in Jesus’ parables is to redirect their perception. He makes Himself central to how we perceive God, life and one another. He wants us not only to see Him but also perceive the reality, the substance and the nature of who He is, what He says and what He does. His presence is not only His body but also who He is inside His body. What Jesus was inside is what makes Him who He is. His mind, His heart and His Spirit are the embodied reality of God. Everything Jesus said and did---His teachings, observations, parables, miracles, the way He walked, the paths He chose, the people He met, the places He went, the overall movement of His life in the flesh---were the combined facts of the reality of God. How we perceive God in Jesus determines how we perceive everything else.
Paul in His letter to the Romans confronts the world with this same truth. He tells them in Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”
Paul extends the truth that Jesus enabled him to perceive. Paul’s perception was so radically transformed that He vowed His mission would be centered only in proclaiming Jesus and Him crucified. Why? Five reasons that all have to do with transforming our perception. First, spiritual reality precedes physical reality. Second, when you see Jesus you see God. Third, we were created in His image to have a heart, mind and spirit like Him so that our perception is restored. Fourth, it takes faith to perceive what you see in Jesus. Fifth, it is the Cross of Christ that enables us to take up our cross, which is putting our complete trust in Him, which in turn brings us true perception.
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was blind but now I see…….” Stay tuned.
'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'
(Matt.13:14, Jesus quoting Is.6:9)
What we hear and see, do we understand with our mind and perceive in our heart?
When you meet someone for the first time, hear what he or she has to say and see how he or she says it; just what is your first impression? That question opens up the issue of perception. What do you perceive? I keep hearing this saying ‘perception is reality.’ How we read what we see is reality for us. It comes in expressions like, ‘I can see it in his eyes’ ‘You can tell by his ‘body-English’’ ‘He doesn’t look the type.’ Then there are those that test perception, “I’m from Missouri, show me’ ‘Put your money where your mouth is.’ All of these indicate the unseen area of life we know is there but have a hard time navigating. It has to do with how we think and perceive within. We might make a snap judgment. It’s when others want to know what our judgment is that we hesitate. We don’t want to appear to have made the wrong judgment. We want to hear and see again before we ‘jump to conclusions.’ We know our perception needs accuracy so, just maybe, perception is not reality. We may be perceptive. Everyone is. But we don’t always get it right.
How we perceive is basic to life. Jesus knew this, which is why He taught in parables. It was to secure our perception. Perception is a spiritual based ability. He knew that perception is made right when we start with how we perceive Him. That is reason for His quote from Isaiah 6:9-10, “He said, "Go and tell this people: "Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." Here He jars the hearers with the inevitability of imperfect perception without Him.
The goal in Jesus’ parables is to redirect their perception. He makes Himself central to how we perceive God, life and one another. He wants us not only to see Him but also perceive the reality, the substance and the nature of who He is, what He says and what He does. His presence is not only His body but also who He is inside His body. What Jesus was inside is what makes Him who He is. His mind, His heart and His Spirit are the embodied reality of God. Everything Jesus said and did---His teachings, observations, parables, miracles, the way He walked, the paths He chose, the people He met, the places He went, the overall movement of His life in the flesh---were the combined facts of the reality of God. How we perceive God in Jesus determines how we perceive everything else.
Paul in His letter to the Romans confronts the world with this same truth. He tells them in Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”
Paul extends the truth that Jesus enabled him to perceive. Paul’s perception was so radically transformed that He vowed His mission would be centered only in proclaiming Jesus and Him crucified. Why? Five reasons that all have to do with transforming our perception. First, spiritual reality precedes physical reality. Second, when you see Jesus you see God. Third, we were created in His image to have a heart, mind and spirit like Him so that our perception is restored. Fourth, it takes faith to perceive what you see in Jesus. Fifth, it is the Cross of Christ that enables us to take up our cross, which is putting our complete trust in Him, which in turn brings us true perception.
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was blind but now I see…….” Stay tuned.
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