When Elisha’s servant awoke early one morning, he was alarmed when he saw the city surrounded by enemy horses and chariots(2 Kings 6). This situation had come about because God had given Elisha revelation insight into the King of Syria’s military strategy. The prophet would warn the King of Israel of his enemy’s plans, and Israel’s king would then relocate his troops. The Syrian king became so incensed and frustrated by this chain of events, that occurred several times, that he thought there was a traitor amongst his servants. Somehow, though, one of his servants knew that Elisha was really the source of the information “leak”, and hence the plot to capture him.
With that background, consider what Elisha, the man in the Spirit, says to and prays for his servant who was “walking by sight” – that is, evaluating and reacting to the situation based only on the physical evidence. Elisha asked the LORD to open his servant’s eyes to see with the eyes of faith, as opposed to the eyes of flesh and fear.
Are you surrounded by some situation? Are you viewing it with the eyes of the Spirit, or the eyes of natural man? You see, it’s God’s vision, His revelation to us, that enables you and me to see clearly. Natural eyesight can be misleading and even deceiving at times, especially if the lighting is poor. There is a spiritual principle here as well in that the light of God’s Word is essential to clear spiritual sight.
“The hearing ear and the seeing eye,” (meaning not only the naturally created ones, but also the supernaturally re-created ones through Jesus Christ- 2 Cor 5:17) “the LORD has made them both.” (Prov 20:12) The Bible heroes of Hebrews chapter 11 saw through the eyes of faith8 what everybody else missed. (Read Hebrews 11.) Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus that the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened to know “the hope of His calling, … the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and … the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe” (Eph 1:18-19). The psalmist asked the Lord to open his eyes to behold the wondrous things in the Word of God (Psalm 119:18). Jesus did this very thing after His resurrection. How vital it is for us to have God’s perspective, for only His viewpoint really matters!
May we learn to walk by faith and look at life through the eyes of Jesus instead of our own. That’s 20/20 vision!
