Can I see beyond the bugs?

We walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7 

The analogy is that to travel with my feet, I use my vision to see where I am going. Vision allows me to perceive the destination and mark out the path to get there. Along the way, it warns me of obstacles and dangers to avoid, allowing me to create safe alternative paths to my destination.

Without vision I would not be able to judge distance, direction, or danger. It is a vital sense that I trust to guide me.

But the Spirit says I should not trust it. It may serve me well in the physical realm. But it cannot see the unseen realm, the reality behindthe physical world, where demons and angels and the Spirit of God are busy at work. And my situation is now such that I have a foot both in the physical world and the spiritual world. I live on the earth and yet I am seated with Christ in heaven.

I cannot walk with God in his realm by using a sensory organ that only perceives my realm—the material world. I need faith. It’s like a new sensory organ. By it I perceive heaven and its operations on the earth. By it I perceive what God is doing and what he’s saying. By it I perceive my direction and the dangers along the way.

If only it were like a pair of sun glasses I could put on and immediately see his world. It’s not like that. It’s more akin to looking through the windshield of a car. If I focus on the bugs splattered upon the glass, I perceive the glass, its imperfections, and the bugs, with only a vague awareness of what is beyond the glass. I imagine driving a car by focusing only upon the windshield bugs. And yet this is how I often navigate my way in this world. 

But if I shift my focus and look through the glass, I can see what lies beyond. This is faith—looking past the physical and training my focus on what lies just beyond it. By this I can safely drive and move the car forward.

Holy Spirit, I want to walk by faith, to perceive your world. I want to hear what you’re saying, and see what you’re up to, and ask if I can join and help. Change me so that I walk by faith, so that my perception of your world supersedes my perception of this world.