A
PURE HEART, A SINGLE EYE
One thing have I desired of the Lord,
that will I seek after;
that I may dwell
in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to behold the
beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.
Psalm
27
When Jacob wrestled with
the Lord at the ford of the Jabbok his eyes were probably shut half the time
with pain. Yet he describes that night as the place and time where he saw God
face to face.
Seeing God is not a
matter of curiosity, like seeing a flying saucer or seeing somebody from outer
space.
When
we see God, we change.
Every
time, during this age of grace, when see God in any way, we absorb his nature,
we are formed into his likeness.
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the
Lord,
are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory
to another…
In this matter of seeing God,
we have all settled for far, far less than we should. And for this reason our
lives are much duller and much weaker than they ought to be.
Every Spirit born
follower of Jesus ought to be ….a seer, a prophet, a
person who sees God, and in seeing God sees everything else in terms of God.
O God, you are my God, I
seek you,
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
This is not some idle prayer;
this is the doorway to life.
For it is only when we in
some way really begin to see God … that our bodies, as Jesus says, fill up with
God’s life and become lamps that radiate that light to the needy world around
us. There is nothing that we have to offer the world, nothing that we can give
in word or deed to the world, redemptively, unless we are walking in the light
of a vision of God.
Your eye is the
lamp of your body; when your eye is sound (single), your whole body is full of
light; but when it is not sound (single), your body is full of darkness.
Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If
then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly
bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”
Luke
11:34-36
So when is the eye single
so that it can do this?
It’s when the eye of the heart,
and of the will, and of the mind is so fixed on God, that we begin to
absorb God’s light … and drink in and soak up God’s mercy and God's nature.
It’s the people who see
God in that way…
who have a word in season
for him who is weary…
who have a prayer that
brings healing into a broken heart…
who have a touch that
that brings life to a sick body…
who have wisdom that
comes from heaven…
who have the power to
endure when everybody else misunderstands what they're doing,
and keep right on going without getting bitter.
One of the reasons why
we're afraid of this, and most of us, if not all of us, are afraid, is that
we've seen so many sick minds that claim to have seen God, so many false prophets
who claim to have seen God, and so many swollen egos who claim that they see
God… that we say to ourselves if I get into this thing too deep, I'll get like
that too.
But the truth is when we
really see God, we will never make a production out of it, we'll never stand up
before the assembly and make some big thing out of our vision and we will only
share our vision, if we ever do, when God gives us leave to do so.
It's not important to
advertise that we have seen God. Once we begin to live before the face of God, we
no longer are so worried about the eye of man.
Our
fulfillment, our satisfaction, our joy, our life is God.
We don't measure our work
in terms of whether people admire us or approve of us.
There is only one reason
why Jesus died on that cross and rose from the grave to wash away our sins, and
there's only one reason why he comes into every assembly of believers on earth…
that
we might open our eyes to God.
As he opened Peter’s eyes,
Martha's eyes, Mary's eyes and John’s eyes.
I am the light of
the world
he who follows me
will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life
And
the light of life is a vision of God.
Jesus also makes very
clear that to have this vision of God we have to pursue it, we have to seek it.
The vision doesn't just
come and hit us on the head. Someone might say the Apostle Paul wasn’t looking
for it and it came. But it's obvious that the apostle Paul was following the
light he had.
He was a seeker, don't ever
fool yourself, this man was a seeker long before he met Jesus on the Damascus road.
Blessed
are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
In order for us to see
God there has to be evidence that we're pure in heart, that we’re seeking.
Ask
and it shall given to you,
seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.
O
God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee:
“Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!” Your face, Lord, do I seek.
We have to seek the face
of God in at least three ways.
We have to seek
the face of God by purifying our own hearts.
Beloved,
we are God's children now, and what we will be has
not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears,
we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
And
everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
Blessed
are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
What does it mean to
purify our hearts? It means to unclutter them, get rid of the distractions. Another
word is repentance, to turn away from those things which we already know are
death to us. God will make clear to us what's cluttering our hearts, he already
has.
Praise his name, he
doesn't show it all to us at once, but already at this moment there are
specific things in each of our lives, that he is putting his finger on as
clutter.
Now the clutter in my
heart may be different from the clutter in yours. One thing may be permissible
for you that isn't for me or vice versa. But he will make it clear exactly what
that is. And if we take that one thing that we become aware of, and decide that
we're going to do something about today, we begin to move today.
Create
in me a clean heart on God.
How can we pray this
prayer, unless we're willing that our hearts should no longer go in five
directions at once, but our hearts remain fixed on God …. resting in him, at
peace in him, inwardly settled on him.
We need to seek
the face of God by drawing near to Jesus as we have never drawn near to him
before.
Philip said to
him, Lord, show us the father and we shall be satisfied.
Jesus said to him,
have I been with you so long and yet you do not know me Philip?
He who has seen
me, has seen the father.
Jesus
is the brightness of God’s glory, the expressed image of his person and we can
know him far, far better than we know him now.
One of the most deadly
things that happens to us is that we begin to think
I really know Jesus.
I'm not like those other dummies, I know him.
And we stop at that.
When we read the Gospels
there ought to be this prayer in our hearts every time …
Lord, I want to know you
better, help me.
And he does help us.
When we pray, there needs
to be confirmation of the presence of Jesus in that room where we are praying…
Lord, help me to discern
your presence with me right now.
So that it's not just
repeating words, but that at that moment, in that place, we are having
fellowship with Jesus and that fellowship increases all the time.
And when we gather,
especially as we come to the place where we break bread.. we need with our
minds and wills to discern the presence of the Lord among us.
We need to commune with
him, worship him, praise him, adore him, love him.
This
is where our life is… it's in the person of Jesus.
Jesus
is the face of God, when we see him, we see God.
We need to seek
the face of God by drawing near to the needy
And this is the place
where the body of Christ on Earth has made the biggest failure of it, in all of
us.
Then the King will say to those
on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty
and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and
you welcomed me, I was naked
and you clothed me, I was sick and
you visited me, I was in prison and you came
to me.’
Then the righteous will answer him,
saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you
drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe
you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit
you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I
say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you
did it to me.’
Now these people were
perhaps not conscious as they were feeding the hungry, and clothing the naked,
and visiting the sick that they were seeing God. But they were for sure answering
a thirst in their hearts for God that was driving them out among the people in
need.
It was as if they knew
that they would have no peace unless they were out there.
And it's true that it's
so much easier to see God when we're among the people in need than anywhere
else, because the people in need are God's special friends.
For instance, if the rich
man had spent some time with Lazarus at his gate begging, if he had taken time
with this man and just talked to him, given him some food, surely, the rich man
would have thus brought some light into his own dark soul.
So it adds up to this, if
we're having trouble seeing the face of God and as far as we can tell we've
done everything in our power to unclutter our hearts and we still can't see the
face of God… and as far as we know we've used all the strength we have to draw
near to Jesus and we still can't see the face of God… then we need to go out to the streets and lanes of a poor
city and draw near to the poor, the maim, the halt, and the blind… and get near
to them.
We need to go out into
the highways and hedges of the suburbs and go out among the people who are
being forgotten out there too … and get near to them.
And in Jesus name that
very, very soon our vision of Jesus will become clear, our hearts will become
uncluttered, and we will see God.
Everybody has some vision
that lights up her or his life. Maybe it’s a vision of money, or a vision of what
we’re going to make out of our children, or perhaps it's a vision of some great
success that we hope to bring about, or maybe it’s some ultimate pleasure that
just holds us like a magnet, like an obsession.
But there is only one
vision that can really move us and forever will renew our youth ….and that's
the vision of God.When we begin to see the goodness
of God shining from the face of his son Jesus, when we see that…we will live as
his sons and daughters and we will do his will.
God
help us to pursue that vision.
Blessed
are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Prayer- Lord,
we confess that so much running around that we do in the name of religion is
completely void of light because we don't even know which way we’re going. And
we confess to you, Father, that so many of the things that aggravate us and get
us mad our because we don't see you. And we pray that this day You just help us
to respond to your invitation to see… and give us encouragement, Heavenly
Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to turn away from the idle
distractions that have divided our hearts and see. That seeing you Lord God, we
may begin to absorb your mercy and relax in your love, and then become firm and
strong in the doing of your goodness. Father, we ask this in Jesus
name. Amen
Richard E Bieber 1978
Transcribed and edited
2022 by Maranatha Mirror