SPIRITUAL PERCEPTION

SPIRITUAL PERCEPTION

Mark 8: 22 - 26; Deuteronomy 34: 1 - 6; Ezekiel 8: 1 - 6

E. E. Hoyte What is in mind in reading these scriptures is the idea of spiritual perception. To be able to see things from the divine viewpoint is a quality that is very much needed by us, for it is not as we naturally see things. How much this is needed today amongst us, as one matter after another arises in our various localities, calling for spiritual perception. Whether we can see aright in matters is of great importance, and as to whether we can see with God in a matter. As far as spiritual things are concerned we are born blind, and I think sight begins with new birth; that is the first divine operation in our souls and it has that in view, as the Lord Jesus says, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom”. The first operations on the part of God in relation to us is to open our eyes. That is in the commission to the apostle Paul; he was to open men’s eyes. Then the idea came in as to turning from darkness to light and from Satan’s power to God, and that they should have the forgiveness of sins, and that they should come into the great inheritance that God has purposed for them. It was to begin with the opening of the eyes, our spiritual eyesight at first has to be opened. So that this is a great matter, and it would seem to me that the divine Persons all have this in mind in relation to us, to enlighten us, so that we eventually come into the knowledge of divine Persons.

Now the first scripture I read, a blind man is before us, so that this is something that is initial. The Lord comes into Bethsaida, and they bring Him this blind man, beseeching Him that He should touch him. The Lord has to do with him, and how sympathetic our Lord Jesus was! - that blessed Man here, for God’s pleasure, relieving men of all the pressure that rested on them. Now here this blind man is brought before Him to be touched, and the Lord does not hesitate. He would act immediately, which is a very great feature of Mark’s gospel; things are done immediately and without hesitation. ‘Forthwith’, ‘immediately’, are words used repeatedly in Mark’s gospel, as I am sure we are acquainted with. So it says, “And taking hold of the hand of the blind man he led him forth out of the village”. He led him out; the Lord must have had something in mind in relation to that, to lead him out of the circumstances in which he was at that time before He could touch his eyes. So that sometimes we must be led divinely out of circumstances in which we are found, in conditions that are not clear to us perhaps, or in which we are closing our eyes. The Lord has to lead us out, and we need the Lord’s help for that. He then spits upon his eyes, and lays His hands upon him, and asks him if he beheld anything. Why did the Lord have to do that? He could have healed him by one stroke and given him his sight. Think of how these details must be gone through in our souls! It would cause exercise on the part of the blind man; he would, so to speak, be beginning to use his senses. How necessary that is, dear brethren, that we should have our senses exercised to discern between good and evil, so that when matters arise in our localities, we have this idea of full grown men. Full growth is of that nature, that we are able to discern between good and evil. If not, we are of very little value in our localities. If I cannot distinguish between good and evil, how can I defend the things of God in my locality? I am incompetent to do it. And so the Lord asked him if he beheld anything. The man uses his senses, he says, “I see men”. You say ‘Very good to see men’, but is that all? So sometimes we see things, but have we the true and the correct vision of things? He saw men as trees walking, and that perception is far from being a perfect one, I should not see men as trees walking. So the Lord Jesus has to lay His hands again upon his eyes. He needed a second touch. So that, is it not a lesson for us, dear brethren, that sometimes if we do not see things very clearly, it is a question of having to do with the Lord again about the matter? Let us go to the Lord, when things are not clear. We should not continue for any length of time. Then it says He laid His hands again upon his eyes, and he saw distinctly. No more distortion, he saw distinctly, and was restored, and saw all things clearly. How much this is needed, dear brethren, that the whole position might be clarified in our locality! When there are matters that need adjustment, the Lord is fully equal to it, there is no weakness with Him. So that if we continue to be distorted in our view, there is something lacking and we need to get to the Lord about it, and He will restore us so that we may see things distinctly. Then he is dismissed to go down to his house. Think of what a different person this man would be as he would go down to his house, no longer blind, but now seeing all things. What an atmosphere he would bring in to his house! I might apply the house to our localities, for that is where it would come in, I now have a right perception of things, I am seeing clearly, and I can be trusted.

Now I would pass on to Deuteronomy. We have here, not a matter of what is initial, but a full-grown man in Moses, the great servant and prophet. What is said about him in Exodus 3 is that he saw. The angel appeared to him in the burning bush, and he turned aside to see; that is what is said first of him.

He turned aside to see. And God was so delighted with the man, that He called him twice. Now that is what is said of him in that chapter; he was one who could be arrested by something extraordinary, and not pass it by, not ignore it, but he turned aside to see why the bush was not burned. So that that would apply to us too, would it not, dear brethren, in our localities, that we are ready to look into matters? They are not allowed to take their course; we are not disinterested about divine interests, but we are alert, and ready to turn aside to see things. That is what is said of him. And then further to that, in Hebrews it is said that he saw Him who is invisible. You think of that, dear brethren, between his exodus and this chapter, how much can be said of him. One, you might say, was initial, but in this chapter he is a fully-fledged man, who has gone through the wilderness. He is certainly not a blind man! Think of the service of this great man, and what a personality there is before us in this man Moses - “the man Moses”. As you look into chapter 32 and chapter 33, what a man there is there! What a knowledge of God! He says, “Give ear, O heaven, and I will speak” - think of a man on earth like that, who can call heaven and earth to listen to his speech! That is the man we are speaking about, this great servant and prophet, who had in his heart the divine purpose for his people, and who could bless them. In this chapter he is viewed as going up to die, according to the word of Jehovah, his course finished. A certain end is reached in the history of God’s people in this book; they had been brought out of Egypt, and brought through the wilderness under his leadership, and now they are ready to enter into the territory that God had provided for them. And chapter 33 shows him blessing them. You say, ‘Moses, your history is closed, your work is finished and accomplished, you are to die’, Moses would say to you, ‘I have the people of God upon my heart. I want them to come into the inheritance that God devised for them’. How much can we devote to the people of God, how can we look at them? Well now, what he says about these tribes in these chapters is evidence that he saw them established in the divine territory, in the land. And so he is blessing them and He says, “Happy art thou, Israel!” All this is in his soul in blessing them; for instance, when coming to Joseph’s blessing, there was nothing but what was precious. You will remember, everything there is precious - the precious things. How necessary it is for our young people to be able to take account of these precious things! Can I convey this to the people of God? Something of the preciousness that God has devised for them. But now it is not his portion to go into the land, but he had it in the faith of his soul. How he treasured it in his soul. He is not allowed to go over, in the ways of God, into the land itself actually, but what a provision God made for him in that he was to go up to the top of Pisgah, and there he sees something, for he looks into the land as alongside of Jehovah. What a look that must have been, a man on the mountain with God, you might say, speaking reverently, by the side of God, looking into the land, the great divine territory. That is how Moses viewed the whole land, for Jehovah showed it to him. Well, we are in for this, dear brethren, it is open to us to see things from the divine viewpoint. This man had this tremendous privilege of standing here as he had stood before on the rock, and seen the glory of Jehovah pass by. What a man he was! It entered into his personality, and dear brethren, I suppose, that is what we need. It is a question of what we are as a result of divine formation. How wonderful, dear brethren, to look upon each other in this manner today, every one of us exhibiting the divine work in our souls. It struck me recently as to the number of dear brethren who are away from us, what a great number this is at these meetings, and yet we are but a small number of God’s people, and naturally as we sit down together our minds revert to those who are not with us; we cannot be unmindful of them, we must think about them. So that this great servant heard from the divine lips, “When ye come into the land”. As you look back into these scriptures you will find such expressions as that, “When ye be come into the land”, and so on, I think that at this point in the history of the assembly, we can say that in some sense at least we have come into the land, I do not think anyone would deny that. The blessed Spirit of God having been given His place amongst us, what blessed times we are having, and how we are entering into the divine realm as led by Himself. So that the need therefore arises for continual purification amongst us. We need purification constantly in order that our lines of communications might be kept open, so that the Spirit of God might have His free course amongst us. The Lord’s present service to the assembly is on that line, is it not? He is washing us, purifying us by the washing of water, in order that He might have the assembly for Himself, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. So that as we are maintained in this position in purity, we afford the precious Spirit an opportunity to continue His operations in our souls, and to lead us into the land. So we naturally look back upon our dear brethren who are away from us. We think of them and what they are missing, but what we are missing as not having our brethren with us to enjoy these great things, when we come into the land. It comes to me now that in the year of Jubilee they were all to be set in liberty. How we would welcome that idea, for all our brethren who have gone out from us, that they should be released. How we would invite that!

What can we do? I think we can ask ourselves. What can we do to relieve our brethren, to release them, so that they are brought into liberty to enjoy these great things that we enjoy? Moses was not permitted to go in, but we have gone into the land in some sense and are enjoying God’s purpose for us; and in order to do it we need the brethren, so that perhaps it might interest us to think about it a bit, as to what we can do to help to liberate our brethren, so that they might be free for the service of God.

Now I pass on to the next scripture in Ezekiel, because I want to convey here how the Spirit of God enters into the matter. This is not Revelation, this is Ezekiel, but we are acquainted with the wonderful expressions in Revelation, where John the great prophet, is shown things. We were speaking of that today, how he turned back to see the voice, and Revelation makes so much of what John saw. There is another man who was available to the Spirit, for he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and that is how the vision in Revelation is introduced. And the whole realm of things described in that book are portrayed by him, as the result of that vision, that spiritual eyesight. Lastly, John sees this vessel of divine glory coming down from God out of heaven. We all wait for that, and it says in that chapter the Spirit carried him away into a high mountain, and he saw “the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God”. What a sight that was, from an elevated position! But we are not in Revelation now, we are in Ezekiel, and it is of much interest to me to think that the Spirit is spoken of in this way in Ezekiel. As we all know, He has a great place in the book. But here is an extraordinary thing, in this chapter, for Ezekiel is taken up by a lock of his head, and the Spirit lifted him up between the earth and heaven. You think of that, what an extraordinary thing this is - a man available to the Spirit. It is a vision, of course, but it is not written here simply for the sake of reading, it is something to help us in relation to the blessed Spirit of God. This man is available, and so the Spirit lifts him up, and transports him to Jerusalem. But it is not now to see something positive and great and blessed and wonderful, but to see this image of jealousy, showing that we need the Spirit’s help, whether to see what is positive in the way of blessing and the divine inheritance, or in order to be able to see what is evil. I have often thought of this passage - a man being transported through the heaven, from where he was, for he was in captivity, to Jerusalem. The divine mind was to show him things, that was the point, to show him this image of jealousy, this abominable thing to God. So it says “the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heavens, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entry of the inner gate that looked toward the north, where was the seat of the image”. Then in verse 5, “he said unto me, Son of man, lift up now thine eyes toward the north”. Think of the Spirit of God taking these pains to bring him to this point! He therefore wants him to see, he is not to miss, he said “lift up now thine eyes toward the north”. He says, “And I lifted up mine eyes toward the north, and behold, northward of the gate of the altar, this image of jealousy in the entry. And he said unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? the great abominations that the house of Israel commit here, to cause me to go far away from my sanctuary? And yet again thou shalt see great abominations”. He leads him in the chapter from point to point, to see the great abominations. The Spirit of God would have this man to see what they were going on with in Jerusalem at that time. So that, dear brethren, we need to be available to the Spirit of God in order that we might be able to see things. We need to see what God would bring before us at the present time, in our localities, so that we might have a clean place, clean conditions in which He can operate, and bring about conditions that are suitable to God. Not this unholy condition, and idolatry that is here. Think of how the blessed God must have felt it to see it! We cannot close our eyes to what is around us in Christendom, and to all that is coming in, but what is the object in mind in our seeing it? It is that we ourselves are to be on our guard against it, and to be separate from it, so that we might be free for the service of God.

May the Lord help us to this end for His name’s sake.