| Seeing the Unseen II Kings 6:11-17 9-14-08 Regardless of whom you might be; regardless of what position you might hold, hard times come to everyone. No one is exempt. Elisha was a man who walked closely with the Lord. A right relationship with God does not cancel out problems, troubles or difficulties. What it does, is to cause us to face the problems and difficulties that come our way in a different light. Elisha prayed and said, “Lord, open his eyes that he may see.” Every Bible student knows the story. The King of Syria had been fighting against Israel. He had been unsuccessful up to this time because every attack had been known to the King of Israel. The King of Syria came to the conclusion that he has a traitor within his own camp. He is told however, that there is no traitor, that the plans are being revealed by a prophet Elisha. This being the case, the King is determined to capture Elisha and thus takes with him an entire army. He discovers that Elisha is in the city of Dothan which is situated on a hill in a wide plain. The army came in the night and surrounded the city, so that by human standards, it would be impossible for anyone to escape. Notice, I said by human standards --- not God’s standards, for He does the impossible. The next morning when the servant of the prophet had risen and went outside the city gates he saw soldiers surrounding them. He felt that there was absolutely no way they could escape. He thought for sure that he and his master were the same as dead men. But notice what Elisha did. He prayed. Now this was not surprising to his servant, for Elisha was a man of prayer, but the young servant must have been taken back when he heard the prayer. Elisha did not say “Lord, help us,” which mostly likely is what you and I would have said. He did not say, “Lord, come near and save us.” He did not say, “Lord, do this or that.” You see, Elisha already knew that God was there, and so he prayed, “Lord open his eyes that he may see.” The servant most likely had good physical vision, but he was blind spiritually. He had a vision problem and did not know it. He could see the danger but not the deliverance. How many there must be today who can see with their eyes but are still blind spiritually. The young man like many today could only see the visible and friends, those who can only see the visible are missing out on the best. We must see beyond the temporal and see the eternal. Christ was able to see beneath the bodies that were often deformed, and saw instead the possibilities within. The saddest thing of all is that the person who sees only the visible will miss seeing God. God is Spirit and is seen with the “eye of faith.” The power to see the invisible; the power to realize God, requires the miracle of His working, for except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. And how do we go about getting our eyes open to God and to the things of God? It is given in answer to prayer. Prayer brings results. Prayer gets things done. Some people don’t believe that. If they did, they would be spending a great deal more time in prayer. One of the great things about prayer is that it helps us to discover God, not any God, but the ONE true God. And it can help others to discover God as well. It was the prayer of Elisha that opened the servant’s eyes. Oh we need to pray that God will open the eyes of those who do not know him. One of the reasons that Elisha was able to see things that the servant did not see was because of his obedience to the Lord. What we are very often determines what we see. If we are people of the World we can expect to see nothing but the things of the World. We must be spiritual minded in order to see the spiritual. In the New Testament we read of a man who once beheld a city and he said, “How I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her children under her wings. How I have longed to mother you and to shelter you and to protect you.” Of course those were words of our Blessed Lord. He said those words because of what HE saw. Not only what we are determines what we see, but what we see determines what we become. Regardless of where you might be today with our Lord, don’t be content. You need to see with the eye of faith that you can become something far greater for our Lord. And the secret of having a clear spiritual vision is by having a clean heart. Friends, there is nothing that is able to blind us to the spiritual like sin. On the other hand, there is nothing that is able to open our eyes and gives us spiritual vision like obedience, faithfulness, and holiness. Not much is said about holiness today, but it is something that each one of us ought to be seeking. God said, “Be ye holy as I am holy.” We need to stop allowing the World to set the standards by which we live and get back to the standards of God. Notice what took place when the young man’s eyes were opened. He saw the invisible. When his eyes were opened he became conscious of things that he had not been able to see before. He saw that they were being protected by God. Friends, if our eyes are truly opened, we will see that we too are protected by God. We must realize the presence of God; so simple and still so hard for many to comprehend. Second, we must recognize that God is always with us. We sometimes lose sight of that. And when we do, we find ourselves thinking not with the eye of faith but, just like the unbeliever. When this young servant had his eyes opened, he saw the invisible as REAL. He saw what Elisha had seen all the while. Eyes of the flesh cannot see or understand spiritual things. As we sang this morning, “Open my eyes that I might see.” Rather than being blinded by doubt, Elisha’s prayer blinded the enemy so that they could not see him. When the servant’s eyes were opened, he saw not the enemy’s forces, but the chariots of fire surrounding them as a hedge of protection. God desire for us to not only have a vision, but to be able see the vision clearly. Friends, victory does not come because of our strength, but because of HIS strength. It is when we rely upon His power and His working that the victory is secure. Listen, fear, discouragement and worry are not God’s way. Someone said, “When we are able to give praise to the Lord in the midst of trials and troubles, we are slapping Satan in the face.” We need to that more often. I like to think that on most Sundays I give you something to take home and to think about. What can we learn from the Scripture today? The greater power is on our side. We read that the enemy that surrounded him was surrounded by something far greater. The ONE fighting for YOU is far greater than the one fighting against you. The battle, regardless of what it might be, is only temporary. Victory on the other hand is eternal. We might suffer for a period of time, but compared to eternality that is brief and glory will be ever-lasting. As we read in Romans 8:18 “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us at His appearing.” Another thing we need to see this morning is once the servant saw what God was doing, he never mentioned the enemy again. Oh, once we see that God is working in our lives, let’s make sure that we don’t look back again at the enemy. The enemy can be anything that is trying to defeat you. Friends, it has been my pleasure and my joy to serve the Lord here at Blake’s Chapel for over 30 years. I want you to see that it is not man that one looks to, but rather Jehovah God. The servant listened to his master, but he saw God at work. It is my desire and my prayer that in the coming days we will see God at work. God is waiting to do great things here at Blake’s Chapel. You must only believe. |
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