Our Month of ‘Divine Illumination’

In Elisha’s day, the king of Syria was warring against Israel. The prophet Elisha gave the Israelites a marked advantage—he was able to hear the words Syria’s king spoke in his bedroom and relayed them to the king of Israel (2nd Kings 6: 12). The Syrian king wanted Elisha stopped and sent out horses and chariots and a great army to fetch him. When he saw the Syrian army surrounded the city, Elisha’s servant got scared.

 “And his servant said to him, ‘Alas, my master! What shall we do?’ So, he answered, ‘Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ And Elisha prayed, and said, ‘Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (2nd Kings. 6: 15-17).

 What confidence Elisha’s servant must have gained. And that brings me to Paul’s prayer for the church at Ephesus, in Ephesians 1: 15-19, which is something I would suggest praying over yourself daily. In this prayer, Paul asks the Lord to open the believers’ eyes.

 We all have blind spots, whether it’s personally or with spiritual warfare. So, cry out to God, ask Him to flood your heart with light—to open your eyes—and show you what He wants you to see.

 Psalm 119: 18 – “Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from your law.”

 There are wonderful things in God’s word. They are so wonderful that when you really see them, they change you profoundly and empower holiness and love and missions. Which is why reading and knowing and meditating on and memorizing the word of God is so crucial.

 No one can see these wonderful things for what they really are without God’s supernatural help. If God does not open our eyes, we will not see the wonder of the word. When we read the Bible without the help of God, the glory of God in the teachings and events of the Bible is like the sun shining in the face of a blind man. Not that you can’t construe its surface meaning, but you can’t see the wonder, the glory of it such that it wins your heart.

 We must pray to God for supernatural illumination when we read the Bible. Since we are helpless in ourselves to see spiritual beauty and the wonder of God in the teachings and events of the Bible without God’s gracious illumination, we should ask him for it. “Open my eyes O Lord.”

 As we continue in our Lenten services is ‘The Miracles of Jesus Over Nature’. Let us pray for the miracle of ‘Once I was blind, but now I can see.’ I beseech you all by the mercies of God, that we attend as much as we can all the Wednesday services and if he can the Friday Prayer Revivals at 6.30pm, and let us see Mighty Manifestations in our Mountain of Transformation.

 God will see us through in Jesus name.

 

Your vicar and friend.

The Revd. Canon Kiri Wakama  

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