Jesus said we are blind.
Jesus said we are deaf.
Yet we perceive an image and we register sounds.
What does this mean?
It means we’re hallucinating. The natural man is deluded.
We are under the influence of something.
Satan deceived us and we sinned. We declared ourselves enemies of God. We grasped for His power and sought to obtain knowledge apart from Him and we fell into delusion, under the spell and rule of the evil one.
We sought to know God on our own terms according to our own understanding but God will not allow it.
He has hidden Himself that our knowledge of Him is not obtained by our own wisdom, power or will, but that is obtained through Him.
“Just as it is written: ‘God has given them a spirit of stupor, Eyes that they should not see And ears that they should not hear, To this very day.'”
—Romans 11:8
We don’t get to say who He is, He tells us who He is, because nothing is more important than getting that right!
“There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”
—Isaiah 11:1-2
“And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!'”
—Luke 9:35
The only way to know God is if He reveals Himself and gives us sensitivity to perceive it.
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
—John 1:12-13
God has revealed Himself and has ordained His Word as the means that we receive perception.
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
—Romans 10:17
Jesus is the Word in flesh.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
—John 1:14
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;”
—Hebrews 1:1-2
The Gospel, the good news, is we were hopelessly separated from God -man’s most desperate need, but God has provided a Way to overcome the sin that’s separating us, a Door to bridge the impossible chasm between us, the Truth that we may know Him, and Life that we may be with Him forever. Jesus is the Way, The Door, The Truth and The Life.
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'”
—John 14:6
However, the evil one is still actively working to separate us from God.
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
—1 Peter 5:8
He is the god of this world that we gave over to him when we obeyed him and disobeyed God.
And, this world is the hallucination, the wool pulled over our eyes to distract us, to deceive us and blind us.
“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
—2 Corinthians 4:3-4
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
—1 John 2:15-17
So, we cannot trust our natural senses, what we see.
But thanks be to God,
“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
—2 Corinthians 4:6
Light is how we see. There is false light and the True Light.
“But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”
—Matthew 6:23
We do not walk according to what we see naturally (sight) and according to the wisdom of this world.
“This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.”
—James 3:15
We walk according to what Jesus reveals (faith).
“But, the just live by faith, not by sight.”
—2 Corinthians 5:7
We distrust our senses and trust Jesus, following Him, who, upon the revelation of Himself, commands us to come to Him and step out on what we cannot see.
“Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.
And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out for fear.
But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.’
And Peter answered Him and said, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.’
So He said, ‘Come.’
And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.”
—Matthew 14:25-29
I endeavor to follow Jesus and “walk on water”.
If He is not real, I will perish.
But since I’ve been following Him, I have not yet utterly fallen.
Because, He is real.
This world is the delusion and the myth that it, under the rule and sway of the evil one, purports Jesus to be.
“We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”
—1 John 5:19
“We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
—1 John 4:6
We are in the Matrix for the sole purpose of saving people out.
Jesus is real. The world is not.
Which are you going to trust?
#gospel #lookagain