CHAPTER 6
OUR BLINDNESS
The most important spiritual senses that we received at our redemption are seeing and hearing. They both are supposed to grow and develop as we are supposed to grow up in our spirit and into Christ. If we are not growing up into Christ in all things (Eph. 4:15) and thus are not exercising these spiritual senses (Heb. 5:12-14), they do not grow either. The result is TRAGIC – we continue in our Christian life as spiritually blind and deaf and we may so continue many years even until our physical death.
Whenever the Lord spoke, He ended His words many times by saying: “He that has an EAR, let him hear” thus indicating that their two physical ears were not sufficient to “hear the spiritual truth” and understand it. They all needed a SPIRITUAL EAR to hear and understand. This corresponds well with His Word to His prophet Isaiah, whom He sent to tell the people of Israel: “Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.” (Is. 6:8,9)
The same fact is stated in two Gospels, Matthew and Mark, where the Lord was asked by His disciples why He spoke in parables and He answered them with the same Word that was given to Isaiah (Mt. 13:13,14// Mk. 4:11,12). Also, Apostle Paul was asked to explain himself to some Jews while he was a prisoner in Rome. And some believed and some did not and when they agreed not among themselves, they departed. After that, Paul had spoken the same Word as was given to prophet Isaiah (Acts 28:23-26).
From the above we may see and judge that lack of a spiritual ear and eye is always associated with unbelief and that heart is always associated with evil (Heb. 3:12). If we believe only what we can physically see and mentally understand, we put Christianity upside down! Blessed are they that have not seen, yet have believed (Jn. 20:29).
Have you ever tried to show something to a physically blind man? I doubt it since it would be foolish. Have you ever tried to say something or sing some song to a physically deaf man? I doubt it also since it would be equally foolish. Yet, when it comes to spiritual things, we all do it, even though unconsciously. Carnal believers do it all the time. They always try to persuade pagans about “religious” things (I am not saying “spiritual” things) or those of different denominations argue among themselves about their persuasions, convictions and beliefs. Yet, both sides are blind to the real spiritual truth and thus the result of such arguing is zero. And it would not be so bad, if it were zero, but it is worse since it breeds “bad blood”, bad spirit, bad relationships and bad testimonies among believers.
We know that the Lord went around the blind people giving them sight. What many believers may not know or not realize is what the Lord said: “For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and THEY WHICH SEE MIGHT BE MADE BLIND.” (Jn. 9:39). This may be a very unexpected Word from Our Lord, but it goes well with His Word given to Isaiah where the Lord says: “Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and SHUT THEIR EYES; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.” (Is. 6:10).
Do we understand the Word in John 9:39? The first part is not difficult since the Lord was healing the physically blind giving them physical sight. The second part may not be readily understood since it deals with the spiritual sight. The understanding should be clearer when we consider the next two verses where the Lord told the Pharisees: “If ye were blind, ye should have no sin; but now ye say: We see; therefore, your sin remaineth.” (Jn. 9:40,41) We all know that Pharisees were blind and proud and children of hell. Read Matthew, chapter 23 to get a true picture of them. And today there are leaders in the Church, which are the same in their character and spiritual state, which are already condemned to hell and they do not know it and their congregations do not know it either since they are blind also. Spiritually blind or deaf believers keep sinning all their life even though they physically see and hear. Saul of Tarsus was living and acting by his physical eyesight and hearing and mental understanding. He judged everything by outer appearance and thus all his judgments were unrighteous (Jn. 7:24// Is. 11:1-4a). He represents carnal leaders in their extreme. After the Lord appeared to him, he was made physically blind so that he might receive the spiritual sight (Acts 9:8,9,17,18) and later on also his physical sight.
Since we know that Our Lord has created our physical being, He has also created our hearing ear and seeing eye, as it is written: “The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them”. (Pr. 20:12) But the Lord has also made our spiritual ear for hearing and our spiritual eye for seeing the spiritual realities, spiritual beings, spiritual world. We may hear and see with our physical ear and eye and be completely blind spiritually. Why?
SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS IS THE “FRUIT” OF PRIDE. THAT’S WHY ALL PROUD LEADERS OF ISRAEL (Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Kings, Priests, Judges, false Prophets, etc.), AND ALL PROUD LEADERS OF THE CHURCH (Preachers, Teachers, Pastors, Evangelists, Bishops, Priests, Prophets, etc.) HAVE BEEN SPIRITUALLY BLIND. Every spiritually blind person is an easy target for Satan for his myriads of deceptions and traps and pits into which such believers fall and cannot get out of them by their own power and ability. Their pride must first be broken; they must repent and only then receive from the Lord the spiritual eyesight, and also hearing.
Then they become able to see themselves and their spiritual misery and to cry to the Lord for their deliverance. And when the righteous cry, the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles (Ps. 34:17). The same promise applies also to their manifold afflictions (Ps. 34:19). These two Words of the Lord apply to the righteous and NOT to the proud, wicked or evil believers working iniquity, who are all unrighteous! Therefore, if you find yourself in continuous afflictions or troubles, and you have cried and the Lord has not delivered you, it is because you may not be righteous! You should then verify before the Lord your spiritual status and when you start seeing yourself in His Light, repent and cry to Him again, you will surely be delivered.
Spiritually blind believers are blind first to the spiritual state of their own selves and also to their earthly lives. They usually judge themselves by their earthly life – the state of their physical health, earthly possessions, social or leadership status, successes in their religious life, their education, popularity, contacts with important persons, human goodness, willingness to help others, exposure to mass media, titles, prosperity in “every way” and similar conditions. They LIVE in order to DIE. The spiritual believers are DYING in order to LIVE! Do we understand the above paragraph, and especially the last statement? (Mt. 16:25) Do we really?
Since spiritually blind believers are blind to their own selves, they are also blind to their deeds and are thus unaware of their deeds. If they are truly unaware of their deeds, then they must be terribly naïve.
Let me bring you 6,000 years back into the Garden of Eden and show you what the Lord showed me. All believers know the story of the Creation of man and also of his fall into sin. But very few may see more than what is written in the Book of Genesis.
Adam and Eve were sinless and holy and lived their lives by the Spirit of God. They did not know what sin was or what death was. So when God told them that they shall “surely die”, they may not have comprehended the concept of death and their separation from God. They probably had taken that matter rather “lightly”. They were not aware of any other type of existence except their own in Paradise, and that made them unaware of what was duty, obedience, responsibility, danger, lies, hate, deception, lack of things or what the purpose of their existence was. Despite their holiness and sinlessness and Adam’s great intellectual abilities (he single-handedly dressed the huge Garden and named all animals – Gen. 2:15,20) they were spiritually blind and thus terribly NAÏVE! We should know that the spiritually blind and naïve believers are also very foolish, they have no spiritual wisdom. If in this light we read Genesis, chapter 3 and their fall into sin, we should not be surprised how “easy” that fall actually was for them. We should equally not be surprised, why God could not have possibly been satisfied with such a “naïve and foolish son and daughter” having been created into the presence of foxy Satan and evil.
THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY FOR GOD TO MAKE THEM AWARE OF WHAT IS OBEDIENCE, RESPONSIBILITY, DUTY, EVIL, DANGER, SIN, DEATH AND SEPARATION FROM GOD (WHO WAS THEIR VERY LIFE), LACKING THINGS, LEARNING TRUE WISDOM AND TRUE LOVE, LEARNING THE VERY PURPOSE OF THEIR LIFE – EXCEPT – BY ALLOWING THEM TO EAT THE FRUIT FROM THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL!
THEY HAD TO TASTE EVIL AND DARKNESS AND ACQUIRE THE BASIC WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE REALITIES OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. AND THEN THEY WERE TO HATE AND REJECT EVIL AND RETURN BACK TO GOD BY THEIR OWN DESIRE AND LOVE FOR GOD.
AND THEN GOD DIED FOR THEM TO SAVE THEM AND TO SEE WHETHER THEY WILL DIE FOR HIM ALSO. ONLY THOSE THAT DIED FOR HIM WILL HE RECEIVE AS HIS TRUE AND PERFECT SONS AND DAUGHTERS!
Now, let us come back to our blindness and read Genesis 3:6, “And when the woman SAW that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, SHE TOOK of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”
The woman saw something good, pleasant and desirable, so she took it! She asked NO QUESTIONS of anybody! Is this any different today? She had chances to say to Satan: “Now, Mr. Satan, you say that I will surely not die… but God says that I will surely die. So, one of you must be lying. Hence, before I try the fruit, I have to talk to God and verify with Him what is really true.” Since God was probably “not present”, otherwise they would not have dared to eat that fruit in His presence, she could have turned to her husband and ask: “Honey, what do you say about this contradiction? What is your advice?” Since Adam was NOT deceived (1Tim. 2:14), he could have said to her: “Darling, we should not eat of it, Satan is deceiving us!” But what did he do? He also ate asking NO QUESTIONS of anybody! Was this not outright idiotic? Of course it was! But you see, they did not even know at that time what idiocy really was! We know it today. But what is really so important about this light? Well, I believe that it is this…
AFTER SIX THOUSAND YEARS, NOTHING TRULY CHANGED! THE NAIVETY AND STUPIDITY OF SPIRITUALLY BLIND MEN AND WOMEN CONTINUE! AND THE RESULTS ARE EQUALLY DEVASTATING.
Even today, a spiritually blind and naïve woman will not ask God any questions, if she sees something good or pleasant to the eyes or desirable to make her wise, she will take it. And she would never ask her husband any questions either. This was the start of the SPIRIT OF JEZEBEL, which every woman inherited; it is still in her blood… unless she was delivered from it. She is thus ready to rule her husband asking no questions, expecting him to “eat whatsoever she hands to him” thus disregarding the Word of God establishing the man to be the head of the woman (1Cor. 11:3). Furthermore, Jezebel slew the prophets of God thus showing herself as an evil woman (1Ki. 18:13// 2Ki. 9:7). And today spiritually blind women still teach, preach and seduce God’s servants to “…commit fornication and to eat (spiritual) things sacrificed to idols.”(Rev. 2:20-23)
The spiritually blind and naïve man is also the same as he was in the Garden. He “eats” anything that his wife gives to him without any questions, believes her words, plans, suggestions and never verifies with God whether she is “kidding him”, ruling him, leading him into fornication and foolish schemes, idolatry, dangerous undertakings or even a spiritual suicide. He is too lazy, stupid and careless to even register such unimportant things – in spirit! This is also a proof and an explanation why more and more women are taking over even the ministry from men. Today we have not only many lady-pastors and lady-evangelists, but also lady-apostles equally disregarding the Word of God! (1Cor. 14:34, 35) Satan has no problems reproducing his victory from the Garden! And the Lord is allowing him to continue “this job” which he started in the Garden! Now, there is an interesting exception to this when the Lord established a woman to judge Israel. Her name is Deborah (Judges 4:4) and her position as a prophetess and judge were “legal” and acceptable before the Lord. Prophetess is an acceptable calling for a woman also in the New Testament (1Cor. 11:5). Now, why the Lord at that time chose a woman to judge His people? He could not find a suitable man for that job at that time (very commendable testimony for men).
Speaking in general, the spiritual blindness applies to the whole of mankind since, firstly, we all came from Adam and Eve and, secondly, Satan has been deceiving the whole world (Rev. 12:9// 2Cor. 4:4) and taking believers captive at his will (2Tim. 2:26). While for pagans it’s the “norm”, multitudes of born-again believers prefer to remain naïve and foolish and thus comfortable then to walk on the narrow road, take up their own cross and SEE, HEAR and FIGHT!
So, why do we witness this tragedy of mankind and of the large part of the Israel-Church? Why billions of peoples march to their eternal damnation in the lake of fire? (Rev. 20:15). Many of them may be better humans than believers. And why many believers march to their outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth? And why some of them will also end up in the lake of fire? The answer is very simple:
NOBODY ASKS QUESTIONS! EVERYONE KNOWS EVERYTHING! THAT’S ALL! REASONS? PRIDE, BLINDNESS, NAIVETY, STUPIDITY, DECEPTION, COMFORT, UNBELIEF, TRAGEDY – IN THAT ORDER.
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To be continued next week in chapter 7 – part 1
brother Hanola
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