Home » Freshword Articles » The Inner Eyes by : 5:21 am On October 4, 2020 With 4 Comments

    To ever become all that God wants you to be, you have to see yourself as such. However, the reference to sight here is not in the physical sense of the word, but in its spiritual application. There is more to sight than what the ability to see with the physical eyes covers. The pair of natural human eyes, irrespective of their sharpness, do not see beyond what the realm of matter, time and space identify as reality. Hence, if you are to see yourself, others and the circumstances around you as God does, you will need to become aware of a different set of eyes you have which the Bible refers to as:”the eyes of your understanding…”(Eph 1:18), or:”…the eyes of your heart…”(NIV). They are the inner eyes.     
    God sees you differently from the way most people do. Most people see you through the lens of your circumstances, and as such, have a distorted vision of who you are. Reality is something most people identify only with what is perceptible to the senses, hence, they easily arrive at a wrong conclusion about people whose experiences and circumstances do not fit the cultural stereotype.
    David in the Bible is a case in point. He did not fit the cultural stereotype of a potential king. For this reason, his father and siblings conveniently forgot to invite him for the ‘interview’. Not until the seven older sons of Jesse had been made to pass before Samuel, without God’s having chosen any as king, did Jesse remember that he still had another son, who was tending the sheep. Even the recollection was at Prophet Samuel’s enquiry of whether those seven were all the sons he had. It was as an afterthought that David’s father remembered him. Yet he  was the chosen one. The reason for all that was simply because David did not look the part, as far as his father and brothers were concerned.
    How often we have seen similar scenarios play out in a variety of sociocultural contexts! You may even currently be a victim of such discrimination. It might puzzle you why the situation is so. The reason is: the  limited perception of natural human eyesight. According to the Bible, man looks at the outward appearance (1Sam 16:7). His judgement is usually based on his assessment of the outward appearance of people and  circumstances. The good news, though, is that God’s criteria for selection is different. He draws His conclusions of a person’s suitability from the nature and condition of his or her heart. That was why He prevented Samuel from anointing Eliab as Saul’s replacement.
    What God considers important is the state of your own heart, i.e how you see yourself and circumstances, relative to His word, and not necessarily how other people see you. For though David’s father and siblings did not see a potential king in him, God’s assessment of him was, “I have found My servant David; With My holy oil I have anointed him, With whom My hand shall be established; Also My arm shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not outwit him, Nor the son of wickedness afflict him. I will beat down his foes before his face, And plague those who hate him. “But My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with him, And in My name his horn shall be exalted.” (Ps 89: 20-24).
    The recorded account of David’s confrontation of Goliath gives us an insight into what informed God’s choice of him as a king over Israel (1Sam 17:1-52). While king Saul,  his military personnel and the generality of Israel saw an indomitable giant in Goliath, whose intentions were to embarrass, defeat and subjugate Israel, David saw an uncircumcised Philistine, whose identity as such, had rendered vulnerable to destruction, for defying the armies of the living God (1Sam 17:26). Though they all saw the same man with their physical eyes, their inner vision of him was diametrically different. Remember that the covenant of circumcision, which, among other things, guaranteed Israel’s military superiority over the gentile nations, was just as valid for king Saul, and his soldiers, under the circumstance, as it was for David.  
Yet, David was the only one among the lot who took advantage of it. The reason being that David was a man who let God’s word define and determine reality to him. In the eyes of his heart, he saw himself killing Goliath, cutting off his head and offering his body as food for the birds of the air (1Sam 17:46). As far as David was concerned, Goliath was a dead man walking. He saw himself as a giant killer, not a grasshopper, unlike ten out of the twelve spies, who had explored the land of Canaan (Num 13:33). Like David, you position yourself as a potentially suitable candidate for God’s purposes, if you choose to see reality through the eyes of your understanding(heart), enlightened by His word. God wants us to see things as He does. That is one of the reasons why David was the  preferred option. For God’s word to become your outward reality, it has to first become your inner reality. Shalom. 

 

   
   .

.
Updated: October 12, 2020 — 5:55 am

The Author

Pastor Obinna Ihekaike

Any Question / Prayer request? comment below or send to [email protected]

4 Comments

Add a Comment
  1. Wow, so enlightening. Thank you sir for being a blessing.

  2. Thanks and God bless.

  3. I’m not sure where you’re getting your information, but good topic.

Leave a Reply