Spiritual Eyesight

From day one of our reading together this week, we see examples of how we can miss spiritual truths if we fail to see beyond the natural to the spiritual.

In Luke 24:36-45, Jesus appeared to his disciples and they thought they were seeing a ghost. Even after he showed them the marks in his hands and feet, scripture says they still did not believe.  He ate with them and then in verse 45, He, “…opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”   We know from John’s gospel recording of this experience that he also said that those who believe without seeing naturally are blessed (John 20:29).

We see a similar encounter in John 3 when Nicodemus, a religious leader among the Jews, secretly visits Jesus and learns he must be “born-again”.  Like the disciples in Luke’s account after the resurrection, Nicodemus before the resurrection is locked into natural, carnal thinking.  Jesus instructs him, “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?”

There is a reason that the Apostle Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus that … “the eyes of your heart may be enlightened…”  Having spiritual eyesight changes how you view everything in life.

This week let’s press into Paul’s prayers found in Ephesians 1:15-23 & 3:14-21, and Colossians 1:9-14.