We have just read about a man named Jacob who checked into what some have called “The Hard Rock Hotel.” He had a vision which turned his ordinary world into the extraordinary. He saw something that he had not seen before, but which was there all the time. He would never have believed it in his waking moments, so God had to show it to him in a dream. In the very place where he had stopped to lay down for the night, there was a stairway to heaven. The angels of God were going back and forth between heaven and earth, and God himself was standing at the top of the stairway. When he arrived, the only thing Jacob saw was a flat place on the ground where he could lay down and a rock on which he could rest his head, when all the time he was surrounded by the glory of God and the host of heaven.
When I read that story I often wonder how many times I only see the natural world, when the reality is that I am surrounded by the supernatural. I am so preoccupied by the ordinary that I fail to see the extraordinary. I live so much in this world that I fail to see the real world. I am so good at observing the material world, and so poor at seeing the spiritual world. I want everything to be explainable, so I never see the unexplainable. But what I pray for are eyes to see the stairway of God. I want to see the supernatural as easily as I see the natural. I want to see the miraculous as easily as I see the laws of nature operating. I want to see the spiritual as easily as I see the physical.
The kind of thing that happened with Jacob is the kind of thing happened often throughout Scripture. One day as Moses was walking through an ordinary day, he encountered an extraordinary bush that was aflame with God. He had been tramping over what he thought was ordinary ground when God told him to take off his shoes because he was on holy ground. I sometimes ask myself how many times I have been tramping through some familiar place and failed to see that it is aflame with God. I have been walking on what I thought was ordinary ground when all the while it was holy ground. What will it take for us to see what is really going on around us?
The first thing I need, if I am to understand that there is more going on than I realize, is: I need new eyes to see. I do not need better eyes, I need new eyes. I need spiritual eyes that come as a gift from God. He enables me to see, hear and feel things I had not experienced before. We talked a couple of weeks ago about the fact that we are involved in a spiritual battle. We need to see that. The person you are having a conflict with is not the problem, and they are not the enemy. The problem is your spiritual enemy who is trying to maximize the differences between you and someone else so that he can divide you and quench the love you once had. The little frustrations and disappointments of the day may be caused by your spiritual enemy to distract you from the goodness of God. The major discouragements and depressions you are experiencing may be the result of the enemy who is trying to make the future look hopeless, and get you to believe that God has forsaken you and does not love you. Seeing this is a part of having spiritual eyes, for things are not always what they seem. The Bible says, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings” (1 Peter 5:7-9). You are not alone. Many others have experienced what you are experiencing. There is an explanation for all that is going on which goes beyond the obvious presenting problem.
But don’t focus on the dark side. Understand it and deal with it, but don’t dwell on it. Focus on the other things that you don’t see — the great and good things. I have always been amazed at Jesus’ appearances after his resurrection and the spiritual dullness of the disciples who failed to recognize him. After the resurrection several people reported having seen and talked with Jesus, but Thomas would not believe until he had placed his hand in his wounds. The disciples who went fishing after his death heard him call to them, and even though he spoke to them as before, they did not recognize him. The most amazing story is when two of the disciples where walking along the road to Emmaus. Jesus came up and began to walk with them, but they did not know who he was. It was obvious they were depressed, even though they had heard stories that he had risen from the dead. He began to teach them from the Scriptures about what the Christ was destined to suffer, but still they did not recognize him. He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken ” (Luke 24:25). Slow indeed. Their hearts were burning within them, and they still didn’t get it. They sat down to a meal with him, and even though their hearts were drawn to him, they were clueless as to who he was. But then he broke the bread and gave it to them in his usual way and opened their eyes.
They were focusing on the dark side — the arrest, crucifixion and all the terrible things that had happened. They were so depressed they could not believe good news, even when it was standing right there before him. I am like those two disciples many times. Our spiritual enemy begins to speak to me about all the dark and discouraging things, and I have more faith in what he says than the positive and hopeful truth of the Scriptures. Do you ever get the feeling that how you see things may not be the way they really are — that your interpretation of events might be way off? Do you ever think that you may need another way of seeing and knowing?
I love the Old Testament stories of Elisha the prophet. In one story he is in the city of Dothan, and he and his servant awake to find the city surrounded by an enemy army. Elisha’s servant was in a panic and said to him, “Oh, my Lord, what shall we do?” The prophet answered him, “Don’t be afraid, those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.” The Bible says, “Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (2 Kings 6:16-17). They were surrounded and protected by the armies of God and had no idea that they were there. And just as it was with Elisha, just when things look their worst, God is surrounding us with a greater power than we can ever imagine. But we will only see it if our spiritual eyes are opened.
The second thing I need, if I am to understand that there is more going on than I realize, is: I need new ears to hear. Many people wonder why God doesn’t speak to us the way he did in biblical times. But I rather think that God does speak to us, and far more often than we realize. In fact, God is constantly speaking to us, but we do not have the ears to hear. Take a look around you during the week. Car stereos are blaring. People are running on the path with all the wonderful sounds of nature, but they are wearing headphones. The TV is constantly running. Most people have no consistent time of quiet in their lives. How would they hear God if he was trying to speak to them?
There is a wonderful story in the Old Testament of a priest named Eli and a young boy whom he is grooming for the priesthood named Samuel. Samuel was only a child, but he had a heart for God, and his spiritual ears were open. During the night he heard someone calling him: “Samuel, Samuel.” But he thought it was old Eli. He went to Eli’s bedroom and said, “Here I am. You called me?” Eli said, “I did not call you. Go back and lie down.” A second time this happened, and then a third time. The third time Eli said to Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening’” (1 Samuel 3:1-10). Then the Word of the Lord came to Samuel.
You need to have some quiet time in your life — a regular, consistent time when you can say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” Listening to God is an acquired skill that takes practice, and it can never be done when you are rushing endlessly through your days. Every day has meaning and depth for me because I take time to read God’s Word and become quiet before him.
E. Stanley Jones tells of the time he was about to board a plane when he heard God, in his spirit, telling him not to get on the plane. He learned later that the plane crashed and there were no survivors. When he shared his experience with someone, they said, “You mean to say that you were the only one God told not to get on that plane?” Jones said, “By no means, but it is possible that I was the only one listening.” It is important to develop your ability to hear God.
The third thing I need, if I am to understand that there is more going on than I realize, is: I need a new heart to believe. Madonna sings that we are living in a material world, and says:
And I am a material girl
You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl
Is it any wonder that people are bored with life? All they see is the material world. Actually, the truth is that we are not just living in a material world, but in a spiritual world as well, and God has made Madonna to be a spiritual girl. This is what makes life interesting and exciting. But you have to have a new heart to understand and believe that. The good news is that God stands ready to give us a new heart — an awakened heart that experiences the world in a whole new way. We enjoy the world as a creation of God. The colors are more vivid, the air fresher, and the breezes wilder than we knew before. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, we realize that we are not in Kansas anymore. In the film version of the story, it begins in black and white. Nothing too exciting about Kansas. But as she travels to the Land of Oz the screen bursts with color, and she is introduced to a land she never knew existed before, but one that had been around her all the time. John Eldredge says, “And we need some waking up, you and I. We are for the most part alert and oriented times zero.” Like Jacob, we wake up to the real world and say, “Surely the Lord was in this place and I did not know it.”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s well-known lines remind us:
Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.
So the only thing that keeps us from seeing and hearing is a heart that is dead or dulled by the struggles of life. That’s why we need a new heart, so we can see the bush afire with God; so we can see the stairway to heaven; so we can hear God’s voice. God will give us a heart that is fully alive if we ask him. It was St. Irenaeus who said, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” Paul wrote: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).
I cannot imagine what it would be like to go through life and never understand that there is more than meets the eye. To be so absorbed in the material world that you never meet God. To have God all around you and be totally clueless — sleepwalking through life.
Someone has written: “There are two birds that fly over our nation’s deserts: One is the hummingbird and the other is the vulture. The vultures find the rotting meat of the desert, because that is what they look for. They thrive on that diet. But hummingbirds ignore the smelly flesh of dead animals. Instead, they look for the colorful blossoms of desert plants. Each bird finds what it is looking for. We all do.” What are you looking for?
Jesus said that there is a difference between those who have been transformed by the Spirit of God and those who live only in the natural world. He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. . . . ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’ In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes” (Matthew 13:11-15). But God has promised that he can transform our hearts if we come to him. He said, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).
The Bible puts it this way: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12, KJV). The day is coming when the dark glass will be removed, and all that can be seen will be seen. We will see with new eyes, hear with new ears and feel with new hearts. But it can begin now, as we open our hearts to the world of God.
Spain once controlled both sides of the Mediterranean Sea at the Straits of Gibraltar, an important and powerful position for any nation with a navy. The Straits of Gibraltar became the symbol and pride of Spain. The Spanish aristocracy had their coins minted depicting the two Pillars of Hercules — the name given to the projections of rock on either side of the strait. On the coin, they placed a scroll over the pillars that read, “ne plus ultra,” which means “no more beyond.” Eventually, however, courageous Spanish sailors made their way through the Straits of Gibraltar and headed for the high seas. They sailed south to Africa, then around its horn to Asia, and eventually across the Atlantic to the New World. It opened up a whole new world. They understood what they never thought possible before. A radical shift in their worldview took place. As a result, they forged a new set of coins. They were like the old coins, except for one thing: one word had been left off — the word “ne.” It no longer read, “ne plus ultra” (No more beyond), but simply and more realistically, “Plus ultra” — More beyond.
There is more beyond our world as we know it, but only those with new eyes will see its wonder; only those with new ears will hear its music, and only those with new hearts will experience its ecstacy.
Rodney J. Buchanan
May 16, 2004
Mulberry St. UMC
Mt. Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
