Trust, The Eye of the Heart

[HKHaugan]

Pentecost 12a Trust, The Eye of the Heart

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me (John 14:1).”

The heart is made to trust. Trust is an unseen attitude where the heart operates on a non-verbal level. It is an inner willingness to accept Jesus as the logical extension of eternal truth to live in an anti-truth world. The secular world is built on sin's toxic pride and fear, the generators of 'trouble' for which trust in Jesus is the antidote. Anything less than Jesus will eventually bring insecurity in every area of life. Uncertainty in and about every next moment incites the heart's 'trouble' to which Jesus points and offers His resurrected self as the source of personal peace, the release from fear and the beginning of stepping out in faith. Paul prays “the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened” in order that the hope, riches and power of Christ come to those who believe in Him (Eph.1:18-19).

It's this deeper heart dimension we need to address. Isn't this why Jesus quoted Isaiah? 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving' (Matt.13:14, Jesus quoting Is.6:9).” Trust, understanding and perception are the heart's abilities the Holy Spirit develops. But perception is the key, the doorway to the heart.

What we hear, do we understand? What we see, do we comprehend? Perception is the heart reaching to see and hear the unseen meaning behind what is physically sensed. Then how is all that defined? Perception will call for a response. That's where our call is to rely on the Word and the Holy Spirit's gift of discernment. So before we step out in faith are we trusting the Holy Spirit in Jesus' name?

Let's apply this relationally. 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’ 'If you could just see yourself' 'See for yourself.'

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 combine mind and heart. 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.’ If we are not confident in who and what we trust, fear will determine how we act.

We know our perception needs accuracy so, just maybe, perception is not reality. No one has perfect perception. So the real issue is what we use to define and make conclusions about what we perceive when we see, hear and feel. We don’t always get it right...right? What we conclude about what we perceive is influenced by self-centered attitudes, opinions, emotions and past conditioning. Thus sin will be the shaper of our perception. Spin is akin to the sin within.

How we perceive is basic to life. Perception and what shapes it are central. Jesus knew this, which is why He taught in parables. He was deliberately challenging our flawed perception and getting us to think spiritually in order to reshape our perception and secure it from sin. Why? Because perception is a spiritually based ability that dictates our reaction. He knew that perception is made right when we start with how we perceive Him. Without Him 100% of everything we perceive will be concluded inaccurately. We may come close but inevitably our conclusions will be flawed. That is the 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 to face the inevitability of imperfect perception without Him. His being sinless means He has perfect perception and conclusions, a claim it would take His death and Resurrection to prove.

The goal in Jesus’ parables is to redirect the way our heart perceives what is going on around us spiritually, personally and relationally. He makes Himself central to how we perceive God, life and one another. As far as I can see, all His parables do exactly that. They get us to back off our first impressions and evaluate everything the way He does. To list a few examples look at the Parables of the Sower, the Prodigal Son, the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, the Rich Young Ruler, the Lost sheep and the Lost Coin.

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 with His perception. He wants us to perceive what is really happening in our hearts and the hearts of others the way He does. His presence is not only His body but also who He is inside His body. His motivation is the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of God who is the Perceiver, the perfect Perceiver. When we receive Him we receive His Spirit.

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. Jesus perceived everything perfectly.

How we perceive God in Jesus determines how we perceive everything else. This does not mean we get perfect perception when we believe in Him but the Holy Spirit will open us up and begin the process in us to make what we perceive more accurately concluded. Jesus is the perfection of perception, evaluation and response working in balance. His gift of the Holy Spirit remolds our spirit to discern our moment by moment experience spiritually. The Holy Spirit is our personal Counselor (John 16:5-15).

Think about the two men on the road to Emmaus (Lk.24:13-32). There they were walking along with Jesus for several hours and He taught them while they were walking yet they didn't recognize Him. Their perception was operating but they were unable to conclude it was Him until He broke bread with them. They were consumed with despair, disappointment and depression. They made up the filter forming their perception What they perceived was conditioned by their emotion-based conclusions until they broke bread with Him.

Consider also the condition of the disciples gathered together after the Crucifixion. They were “behind locked doors for fear of the Jews (Jn.20:19).” Fear shaped their perception of reality. It was not until the resurrected Jesus appeared to them that they were able to acknowledge the truth about Him. This is when their perception was challenged. It would be transformed at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given.

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.” There is no one who does not perceive the vastness of Creation. It is belief and trust that give us the ability to conclude God is the source of everything. Creation itself is the evidence. Thus our goal is to share our faith to help others without Jesus to know Him for the renewal of their perception and salvation. Paul was extending 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?

How is it done? Starting with accepting Jesus as the perfect Perceiver we repent for our flawed sin nature, receive forgiveness, open our hearts to the work of the Spirit letting Him restore our perception of who we believe, trust and follow in every next moment. Summed up, “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord (1Peter 3:15).”

Five reasons that all have to do with transforming our perception and its conclusions:
First, spiritual reality precedes physical reality giving it meaning and application.
Second, when you see Jesus you see God. The unseen is seen through Jesus.
Third, we were created in His image to have a heart, mind and spirit like Him so that our perception is restored to function spiritually as opposed to sinfully. Thinking spiritually is thinking morally and thinking morally is creatively engaging the world to be reconciled to God.
Fourth, it takes trust to perceive what you see in Jesus. Values, character, the way of life, perfection, rightness, love, compassion, truth, grace, peace all can be 'seen' with the mind, the heart and the spirit.
Fifth, it is the Cross of Christ that enables us to take up our cross, putting our complete trust in Him, which in turn brings truth to what we perceive. Our cross is thinking and acting by faith in Jesus every next moment.
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was blind but now I see…….”