Spiritual Perception - C. R. Oliver (read my book .txt) 📗

Spiritual Perception

Introduction:

Having the same mind, having brought every thought to the obedience of Christ, having eyes opened to see in the Spirit, having learned not to lean on one’s own understanding changes one’s spiritual perception. To those who share these qualities, there is a deepening of insight, a change in values, a re-arrangement of priorities and a refreshed look at reality. Cultural constructs often look contrived when seen through “opened” eyes. Religious order and format may join a myriad of other conformities viewed as being arranged (in order to follow a pathway away from God and towards man’s manipulative control).

Those of us who have been affected by the changes wrought from glory to glory, simply “see through” vast landscapes of subterfuge. We are aware of spiritual alliances and contracts among nations, religious entities and individuals which are both holy and unholy. We “know in the Spirit” what the world cannot fathom or discern. Our discernment causes our reactions to be different throughout a whole plethora of occasions. Viewing the same events as others, our “take” is often markedly in contrast to public opinion. Our value set is different. Our life goals are different. Our hearing and seeing is different. We have matured enough to recognize our spiritual perception can be honed and improved throughout a saint’s life. (Spiritual Perception is not static.) Seeing, as God sees, revels in a world made clear and paths made sure.

Spiritual Perception is a gift from God. It simply cannot be obtained through any other source. It cannot be an extension of experienced based learning. For example: The children of Israel went through continuous episodes of fantastic wonders, yet had no spiritual perception by which to view these acts. Similarly, while the church cries out for signs and wonders, the heavens deplore the lack of Spiritual Perception in its midst. The following three passages, spoken by God through Moses, are “eye opening.”

Deuteronomy 29:2

Now Moses called all Israel and said to them: "You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders. Yet the LORD has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day. And I have led you forty years in the wilderness.

Notice: Spiritual Perception is a gift given only by God. Seeking to remedy the lack of Spiritual Perception in this people required some commitment on their part. It required a covenant.

that you may enter into covenant with the LORD your God, and into His oath, which the LORD your God makes with you today, that He may establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He may be God to you, just as He has spoken to you, and just as He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

A better covenant between God and man exists today through Jesus Christ. We affirm it in each Lord’s Supper. However, some fail to recognize there is no source of revelation or Spiritual Perception apart from one’s bond with Him.

"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Before going further, it is necessary to look into the New Testament Greek word for “perceive.”

NT:1492 Perceive

eido (i'-do); a primary verb; used only in certain past tenses, the others being borrowed from the equivalent NT:3700 and NT:3708; properly, to see (literally or figuratively); by implication (in the perf. only) to know: KJV - be aware, behold, can (+not tell), consider, (have) know (-ledge), look (on), perceive, see, be sure, tell, understand. Compare NT:3700.

NT:3700 optanomai (op-tan'-om-ahee); a (middle voice) prolonged form of the primary (middle

voice) optomai (op'-tom-ahee); which is used for it in certain tenses; and both as alternate of NT:3708; to gaze (i.e. with wide-open eyes, as at something remarkable; and thus differing from NT:991, which denotes simply voluntary observation; and from NT:1492, which expresses merely mechanical, passive or casual vision; while NT:2300, and still more emphatically its intensive NT:2334, signifies an earnest but more continued inspection; and NT:4648 a watching from a distance): KJV - appear, look, see.

When Solomon wrote in Proverbs of the necessity to have Spiritual Perception in order to receive from the Lord, the majority of the prophets’ oracles heralded the lack of it. Solomon went so far as to say we must not associate with those who lack Spiritual Perception.

Proverbs 14:7-8

Go from the presence of a foolish man, When you do not perceive in him the lips of knowledge.

The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, But the folly of fools is deceit.

Sadly, our congregations are subjected to diatribe from those who lack Spiritual Perception and have no evidence of the Spirit of Discernment. Pews are filled with those who blindly follow and are encouraged to continue in their spiritual blindness. Hear the prophet Isaiah speak to the people of God and know that for the next 52 weeks you will probably not hear this passage used for a sermonic text.

Isaiah 6:8-10

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.’ And He said, ‘Go, and tell this people:“Keep on hearing, but do not understand;Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.” "Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears,

And understand with their heart.”

As Jesus ministered and taught, He quoted the Isaiah 6 passage as being the condition of the religious leadership and their followers in His day. Sadly, this is again the condition of the church and the vast majority of Christian enterprises. Lacking Spiritual Perception, they pursue wondrous works and increased exposure to accumulated knowledge (bible schools, seminars and conferences) while never seeing as God sees.

Matthew 13:13

Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled…

In Acts, Paul used the Isaiah 6 passage to convict Jewish dissenters by saying the Heathen (Gentiles) displayed Spiritual Perception while they did not.

Acts 28:28

"Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!" And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves

Spiritual Perception the product of the gift of discernment:

Eight ninths (8/9ths) is not the formula used by the Spirit in giving of gifts. I am convinced that those claiming to have received these gifts, while displaying no evidence of Spiritual Discernment, perpetuate error! The most needed attribute in the modern Christian is Spiritual Perception and it comes only through the gift of discernment.

Jesus blessed His Disciples because of their “opened eyes.” (Elisha’s servant never was the same after his experience of receiving Spiritual Perception [2Kings 6] and neither were the followers of Jesus during His earthly ministry.)

Matthew 13:16-17

But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it

Many times in the gospels, a similar passage to the one below revealed the Spiritual Perception of Jesus. His Spiritual Perception was not that of God-man but of a God sent man. What He possessed, we must and can possess.

(Matthew 18:1-5; Mark 9:33-37)

Then a dispute arose among them as to which of them would be greatest. And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a little child and set him by Him, and said to them, "Whoever receives this little child in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me. For he who is least among you all will be great."

Spiritual Perception also reveals the hearts of others and is not the art of counseling, teaching or doctrinal interpretation. Seeing motive, character and biographic events about ourselves and others is not a display of soothsaying.

Mark 2:6-12

And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, "Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, "Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise, take up your bed and walk'?

Spiritual Perception allows the believer to understand circumstances in difficult surroundings. Surface judgments are put aside, in order to reveal that which is hidden from the natural eye. Those with Spiritual Perception are not caught “off guard” by world events. (Saints know what is going on! News media could learn something from the saints.)

John 6:15

Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.

Spiritual Perception played a large part in the early life of Jesus as well as throughout His ministry.

(Joseph and Mary, his early childhood caregivers, were warned to flee to Egypt when He was a baby. Their spiritual acumen was not from natural instincts, but by the Angel of the Lord. Spiritual Perception determines what is from the Lord and what is not. Course of action is often changed by a “word from the Lord.” This attribute will be needed more and more as the dark covers the earth.)

David understood the foundation of Spiritual Perception was to have close adherence to the Word of God and intimate association with the Father. The following passage was not an ego trip.

Psalms 119:99

I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.

Is it any wonder David’s son penned in Proverbs a formula leading to one’s possession of Spiritual Perception?

Proverbs 2:2

turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.

Then you will understand what is right and just.

The cry of the church should be —“Forgive our blindness and cover us with Your mercy, help us to “see” and to “hear.”

Daniel possessed Spiritual Perception and the world knew it. The king declared it and those around him knew his renown for it. Oh! That national leadership would acknowledge it…O’ that church leadership possessed it in abundance--then malfunctioning government and sloppy religion would cease and a new day would be birthed.

Daniel 5:11

There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods.

Paul possessed a Daniel like Spiritual Perception, and he declared his desire that all his hearers and followers would open their hearts to such spiritual discernment.

Ephesians 3:2-6

Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that