Jeanne Stewart, Oklahoma
Eye and Ear of the Spirit
As it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have
entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who
love Him, but God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit
searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.” (1
Corinthians 2:9, 10)
Our
natural eyes and ears open every morning to the challenge of a new day, viewing
and hearing the world before us, then close every night as our need for rest
draws us to our pillows. We as believers, in the redemptive power of Christ
Jesus, have also been given eyes and ears that see and hear into the spiritual
dominion, an invisible realm containing sights and sound even more powerful
than the natural. The church today is in great need of “seeing” and “hearing” in the spirit. The natural eye does not
see – the natural ear does not hear – the things of God that are intended for us
His children. Our heavenly Father has provided the church with the immeasurable
resources of His riches, but often we cannot discern them because our spiritual eyesight and hearing are weak.
How tragic it is that many in the body of Christ today are as Jesus spoke of, ‘…
the blind leading the blind.” (Matthew
15:14) The Father wants the Bride to, ‘…
see (and hear) clearly.’ (Matthew 7:5) Only by the eye and
ear of the spirit will we be able to look into the true things of the
Spirit, as our flesh simply cannot comprehend spiritual matters.
More
than ten years ago I had an experience of seeing
a spiritual truth by the Holy Spirit. My husband and I were on staff as
associate pastors to a congregation on the west coast. In my spiritual
understanding I had grown thirsty for more of His power and ways, and was less
impressed with men’s. Concerned and
disheartened with, ‘is this all there is
to church?’ I was weary of programs
and playing the religious games of
pleasing people. On a particular
Sunday morning I had just slipped into a place on the right side off center
aisle about three rows back after singing with the worship team, before the
pastor’s sermon. A baby dedication was
first taking place down front. The pastor was holding the baby up for all the
people to admire as the parents and grandparents were gathering around.
Suddenly
in my spirit I heard the gentle voice of Father God speak to me, ‘
In
my spirit’s eye I watched all this happen but when I opened my natural eye, all
I saw was nothing but normal Sunday morning people attending worship, seemingly
unaware of what I was experiencing. By this time the presence of the Holy
Spirit was so tangible that I actually felt Him near. As I looked ahead, not
wanting to move or even breathe, the Holy Spirit stood quietly beside me
through the continuation of morning worship. My natural eyes could not see Him,
but with my spiritual eye, I beheld His presence most
assuredly real in both realms, for I sensed Him touching my right shoulder.
As
I have reflected back on that extraordinary experience over the past ten years
the Lord has revealed to me a greater understanding how to see with the eye of my
spirit.
First: The brilliant figure standing in the
threshold –
We
the Bride today must know in our hearts and not just our minds, that God the
Father,
In the tabernacle of the Law, the presence
(Spirit) of God dwelt between the cherubim in a cloud which covered the
Mercy-Seat (Ark of the Covenant). But now it dwells in the person of the Bridegroom,
who has partaken of our nature, and is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh,
and has more clearly declared the Father to us by sending the Holy Spirit to us
when He returned to His Father. The Holy Spirit speaks clearly the commands of the One He always
represents, Christ Jesus, our intercessor on the right hand of God. “So
to the Holy Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do
not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the
Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with
unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for
utterance and He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of
the Holy Spirit what His intent is because the Spirit intercedes and pleads
before God in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God’s
will.” (Romans
Secondly: The Holy Spirit walking in and through us –
All dominion belongs to God’s sovereign power
of rule. The Bride belongs to God. She is of God, and from God, and to God, and
for God. Christ Jesus our Bridegroom leads us to the Father, and we are in both, in the love and favor of both, in
covenant with both, in spiritual
union with both by the inhabitation and operation of the Holy Spirit. “For IN
HIM we live and move and have our being… for we are also His offspring.” (Acts
“Now to Him Who is able to keep you
without stumbling or slipping or falling, and to present you unblemished,
blameless and faultless before the presence of His glory in triumphant joy and
exultation with unspeakable, ecstatic delight to the one only God, our Savior
through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory splendor, majesty, might and dominion,
and power and authority, before all time and now and forever unto all the ages
of eternity.” (Jude 24, 25 Amplified) Every time we step into the natural sanctuary of God (church
building), every time we come into our place set apart for prayer, every time
we come into the consecrated place to worship Him, it is as if we are walking in and through in spirit as He moves and walks in and through us the
Bride. We can only function in spirit and truth, through His Spirit in our
spirit. Everything we are or do for the
Finally: The Holy Spirit standing beside us waiting –
Knowing a constant sense of our Lord’s
presence, regardless of where we are or what we may be doing, brings His divine
comfort near to us. Our voices lifted in praise and song is sweet to Him and we
must not withhold it, for we come into communion with Him to walk in His
strength, and His peace. Oh how the Holy Spirit waits for us to ask Him to show
us great and mighty things in the spiritual
“Do not quench, suppress or subdue the Holy Spirit; do not spurn
the gifts and utterances of the prophets, do not depreciate prophetic
revelations nor despise inspired instruction or exhortation or warning but test
and prove all things until you can recognize what is good; to that hold fast …
and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound and complete, and
found blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah.” (1
Thessalonians 5:19-23 Amplified)
It
is such an amazing wonder to me that Father God designed and desires to speak
to all His children and show us great and mighty things through
the Spirit as He moves in our lives. So I ask why many within His Church are
today missing such an intimate relationship with the Bridegroom. Could it be
because many will not surrender those possessions of the heart that have become
so important in their earthly ways of living? Could it be that the church has
allowed the views of bondage in comparison to Old Testament
May we become
the Bride that depends on the presence of the Spirit to keep us watching and
waiting for our Bridegroom, challenging us to purity as we look and listen with
the eye and ear of the spirit to overcome the natural, and live in the
spiritual today.
