Let the eyes of your heart be opened

Life became so much clearer yesterday, and that's not because I put on my glasses (although I have kinda stopped wearing them lately...)....

Anyway, I mean things of God. I can see the things of Him so much clearer with the eyes of my heart.

In Ephesians 1: 15 - 23, Paul prayed for the church of Ephesus. In verse 18, he prayed for the eyes of their heart to be enlightened in order that they may know the hope to which [the Lord] has called them (some Bible translations say the eyes of understanding but it's all good, it's the same thing). I found this interesting and so inspiring (oh and side note, I encourage you to pray Ephesians 3: 1-15 for yourself!! Things will start to happen!! In faith & in Jesus' name, ask and you shall receive). 

Ok, so...the eyes of my heart were enlightened...but let's rewind first. 

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The eyes of my heart were not englighted just because I prayed a prayer. I first had to believe and have faith that God could do that. THEN I had to be in a place of 'surrender'...the place I was in when I first wrote to you (yes...nice to meet you all during my brokeness! haha :) but I know it will get better! It always does!)

The place of surrender led to submission to the Father. It opened up the spiritual realm where I KNOW the enemy KNEW he had lost the battle. It led to something so much deeper.  

Now, we all wonder just how a person gets to that place of "cloudiness" and not "seeing properly" what the Lord is trying to do in their life. There are many many reasons one can get there, but what I can say is that when one receives the Holy Spirit, they are now undergoing sanctification until physical death (yup yup!). That means bit by bit and according to GOD'S timing, we get to be cleansed and purified to be more and more like His Son, Jesus, and some things that we thought we were so confident about or didn't recognize as sin start becoming clearer.  It can be painful, but we can choose to see it as something so beautiful.

Let me tell you why I choose to see this as a beautiful:

1. It allows us to see that God truly cares for us, and cares for our collaboration. Clearly He could "zap" or force us into perfection-mode in less than a breath, but He chooses not to. He desires to love us, and reconcile us to Him, to hear our prayers, to lead us, to help us and comfort us during our life here on earth. It's not even about Him doing an instant miracle as it is about showing just WHO and WHAT LOVE truly is (1 John 4:8). So when we go through a process of change, our eyes are opened to see that our flesh & the world aren't as reliable as we had thought. It shows us that prayer is real (i.e. communication and a relationship with God) as it draws us nearer to our Maker. It shows us that we are so precious to Him. Like anything valuable, it has to go through a refinement process for it to get to where it needs to be; think of coal that can only go through high heat & high pressure so it can become a diamond: that's you and I, we're getting there. It shows us how merciful He is. I could've been shown all the things that were wrong with me at one time, and that's what the world chooses to do sometimes, but God shows me bit by bit and gives me strength to see it and cry out to Him to change me in that area, and then celebrates this milestone with me. I start to see that I was viewing myself and what's around me with hollywood-effected smoking mirrors; what a mess. 

2. It shows us that His grace is sufficient enough. 2 Corinthians 12:9 talks about how God's grace is sufficient enough and how His POWER is made PERFECT in WEAKNESS. How beautiful is that? We technically don't have to do ANYTHING.....except surrender. Which is hard, I know, but really look at the cost here, the scale is tipping at one side; which side is heavier, abundant, and more glorifying to be a part of? God taking over, or your flesh?....not really a tough one eh? :) 

Yesterday two things happened:

1. Temptation: 
-The enemy works overtime when we are about to get a revelation from God. Don't let that take you down. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says "We demolish ARGUMENTS and every PRETENSION (a false or unsupportable claim) that sets itself up against the KNOWLEDGE (awareness, fact, consciousness) of God, and we take CAPTIVE (to force, take prisoner of, to keep under restraint) every THOUGHT to make it OBEDIENT to Christ." 

How powerful is that? We need to actively do this. We can't sit and let just anything take over our minds and thoughts as if we haven't been risen with Christ (I call it spiritual bullying haha!...why not?). That means we either get super alert as we recognize that these things are not of God, pray for strength, say scripture & truths out loud with all your heart, let the Holy Spirit take over, praise God...etc. I just know that we need not entertain anything that the devil brings to us to take us down and turn us away from God's plan for our lives. In 3rd grade terms (just in case...) it's saying "la la la...I can't hear you!"  (James 4:7). 

2. I was told to REALLY look at how FAR He has brought me:
I had a milli-second of a pity party before grace took me by storm. I was prevented from going to that place...you know, that place...

"And be grateful..."

Woah...where did THAT come from? I am grateful...
....sorta...
kinda...
well...
....okay, I'm....not?

I needed to be grateful at how far God had brought me. I mean, wow, even thinking about it now is so mind-boggling and it's so unfathomable. I chose to put a microscope on these tiny tiny details and zoom in on the fact that I was going through a season that I wasn't a fan of. But yo.....GRACE kept me. It kept me ALL this time. I think back to when I didn't want to move back to the town I was, but grace said "trust me", I think of when I wondered why I was here, but grace kept me and showed me why, and grace restored my family, grace restored me, grace showed me my purpose and gave me joy, peace and love. Grace was abounding more and more and I can't even begin to tell you where I am now is NOT the place I was last year. It isn't.

We can be so ungrateful even though we think we are. Be grateful and drop the complaining and pick up the praise. We have a LOT to be thankful for! Hallelujah! And guess what, this is not even the beginning, this is the intro...the appetizer, the entrée, just WAIT and see what God has in store for you! This is just to show you the things He can do when you have a bit of faith, wait until your faith grows, your strength, your knowledge, your spiritual eyes are opened, etc. It can only get better. 

So...back to my story about the eyes of my heart being opened. I was still, still before Him, ready to hear, and I heard from Him.

It was beautiful.

Finally, it was like: "welcome back".

The ball has finally started rolling again. I was taken into the wilderness for a while, but I bounced back, by the Grace of God. I'm not saying I'm "there" and the process is complete, I'm saying something happened which continued the process of spiritual awakening, and I know for sure that the enemy was not celebrating, but the heavens were. 

All I can say is: if God allows you to go somewhere or get to some place and you're wondering why, just trust Him and know that there is a purpose and you will bounce back by HIS grace and not by your own capabilities. Have faith. Believe. Be open to hear what He says. Ask in faith for the eyes of your heart to be enlightened.  

I encourage you to mediate on scripture, to get in a good Bible based church, and to spend time with God. I encourage you to ask someone if you want to know more about Christ, or to even write to me. There is so much in store in Christ Jesus, and there is no time to waste! :) 

Once again, keep the faith, and love like you've never loved before.


With love always,

FAITH by Promises.