Enlightened
Written by Brigitta Tedja
#SeeingEye
Watch the sermon here
Many of the songs and worship confirmed what Pastor Paul prepared for this Sunday’s sermon. The first half of the service is what we give to the Lord as we worship and entertain God, and the second half is for us as we are filled with the Word of God. Many of the words he will speak about have already been mentioned in the songs that were sung today.
Pastor Paul began by sharing how Pastor Efert Weenas scheduled them to visit a school for the blind. Pastor Paul literally just hit a wall and knew a little bit of how it felt when one’s eyesight is disturbed. Pastor was in the midst of other blind individuals while trying to take a group picture. The cameraman stated to the group, “Can you face towards the sound of my voice?” and the group focused upon where the voice was coming from and they took the group picture. Pastor Paul continued with the #Seeingeye series with a sermon entitled, “Englightened.”
Ephesians 1:18, NKJV “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”
The word “enlightened” in the Greek: phōtizō = to shed rays, that is, to shine, to brighten up, to bring to light, make to see
The word “know” in the Greek is eido = be aware, perceive, be sure, understand
The natural eyes give you sight, but your spiritual eye gives you insight.
This is not an outer sight but an inner sight—a vision. Helen Keller who was blind and deaf stated, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” God is expert to fix our eyes and ears so that we can turn and set our face to the sound of God’s voice.
The prophet Elijah heard sounds of an abundance of rain during a 3-year and 6-month drought. He did not hear it on the outside, it was not happening in the natural, but it was happening in the spiritual. Your heart and the eye of your understanding can give you insight, the inner man and inner part of your being can grasp what God is saying. In the midst of a national drought, Elijah heard in his spirit man what God was about to do. You may not be strong in the natural but you are strong in the spirit, “Let the weak say I am strong, let the poor say I am rich.”
YOU HAVE NOT EXPERIENCED IT YET – BUT GO AHEAD & ENVISION IT
Ephesians 1:19-21, NKJV “and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.”
The Enemy Does Not Want You to See Yourself:
Progressing / Going forward / Overcoming / Walking in Victory / Being Consecrated / Living Holy / Walking in Deliverance / Being the Head & not the Tail
Satan, the enemy, would rather give you a vision of you:
Falling / Failing / Getting Sick / Going Down / Getting Depressed
You can visualize sin easier than you can visualize righteousness
BECAUSE THE ENEMY KNOWS THE POWER OF VISION
In the years that Pastor Paul has served the Lord, he found that there are not many people who come up for prayer because they have fantasies of righteousness and wanted to live a holy life. Usually, people come up to be prayed over for negative or bad things. Most often, you will become what you think about. Our thinking process affects our seeing process. The reason why some of you are falling is because you have a vision of carnality and what you visualize in your spirit will happen in your life.
Many people are not in jail, but they are imprisoned. They have eyes, but cannot see; have ears but cannot hear.
Proverbs 23:7 “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. . . “
What you think in your heart affects your vision, it affects how you see yourself, how you see God, how you see others, and it affects how you see your future.
Genesis 3:9-10, NKJV “Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" So, he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself."
And God said, “Where are you?” You have to understand that God asked them that question not because He did not know where they were. He asked them that question to help them ADMIT where they are. It also means, how do you see yourself? It says that when Adam heard God’s voice in the garden, he was afraid and hid because he was naked. The word “naked” used here is different than the one in Genesis 2 when they were naked and they were not ashamed.
God asked, “Who told you that you were naked?” — THIS IS A STATEMENT OF BEING. This is the God who created Adam and Eve in His image and now they were saying they were something else. The word “naked” after the fall is different. It became a word of shame and accusation. It was as if they exchanged the TRUTH for a LIE. God asked, “Who told you at the core of your being that you are naked?” It had nothing to do with clothes. This had to do with the way they saw themselves based on a judgment made that brought a consciousness of absolute crippling shame.
Genesis 3:7 “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.”
Fig Leaves to Hide Their Shame
They did not create the fig leaves to primarily hide their genitalia. They made their fig leaves to hide their shame, but it did not work because even though they hid their genitalia, they had to hide themselves because what THEY DID WAS NOT SUFFICIENT. There are still individuals who are hiding from God. No one can hide from God—He knows everything.
The Question Is: What Were They Clothed With?
The light, the glory >< Romans 3:23 “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
God replaced the fig leaves with an animal skin, possibly lamb skin as a metaphor of Jesus as the Lamb of God. When you try to make up your covering, it is not good, it is not sufficient.
If you want to recover or get help, you need to re-cover from shame. “Re” is a prefix, to cover again, to RE-COVER from shame. You do not need to carry guilt, shame, condemnation. If you want to RECOVER — the whole issue of RECOVERY requires a RECOVERING. If you want to recover from shame that means the covering of shame has to be removed and another covering has to be given.
Genesis 3:11 “Who told you you were naked?”
Who told you that you are stupid, that you would never amount to anything? That you are an idiot? A failure? Or that you would never measure up? God does not say that. These are all statements of accusation. These words described the nature of Satan himself.
When Adam and Eve chose to disobey and chose to eat and assimilate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—they took on the image of Satan, the beast, which is a crafty image. God stated that He did not create them that way. God created them with glory. Through disobedience, they exchanged their clothes and took the image of the beast. THAT LEVEL OF NAKEDNESS IS SHAME-BASED, IT IS CRIPLING, IT IS NOT CONSTRUCTIVE, IT KILLS THE VERY THING GOD WANTS TO LIVE.
When God asked the question: “Who told you you were naked?”
It was not an accusation; it was an innocent question. He was trying to draw out of Adam the level of truth, that he would admit the truth. The only problem is that when you are clothed with shame — you blame; because shame leads to blame. Ex: “The woman You gave me. And when HE goes to the woman, she said, ‘the serpent.’”
We are trying to make ourselves right and that is called self-righteousness.
Self-righteousness is the fruit of shame-based identity. When you think you have to do certain things like praying 7X a day or give to the poor or serve or help and thinking that by doing this or that, you can be righteous. Righteousness can only be attained through Jesus. The Pharisees prayed, “I’m glad I’m not like the tax collector.” They believed that all their actions made them righteous.
Ephesians 1:18, NKJV “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”
Allow the Holy Spirit to remove the coverings that are not godly, the coverings that are used to cover up shame and sin. Just come to Jesus as you are and repent, to not lose the vision, to be able to see Him again, to set your face towards the sound of His voice, to be enlightened, nothing to block your vision, to have the eyes of your understanding to give you insight.
Ephesians 1:19-21, NKJV “and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.”
When you believe, you obey, take action, be the doer of the Word. You are not created to bring shame; you are created to bring glory. Adam was creative when he named the animals. Name gives meaning and character. Adam was told by God to give meaning to the animals. You are created to give meaning to others. You are that powerful!
John 16:13 “The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth.”
Truth means to not conceal, to come out of hiding. Jesus made it safe to exist, that is why He is called the Savior. You are safe to be yourself. You are good. God has made you good enough. You are special. There is an accuser within ourselves and we often beat ourselves up for it, but Jesus died in nakedness to cover for our shame. The book of Isaiah states that instead of shame, God will be you double-honor.
Prayer Points:
Pray to heal your way of seeing
Pray to have eyes of understanding to be enlightened
Pray to have spiritual insight and vision
Pray that you can turn your face to the sound of God’s voice
Pray for a heart that is right since it affects your vision, how you see yourself, how you see God, others, and how you see your future
Pray to exchange your shame with glory
Pray to re-cover, re-cover your identity, re-cover from shame
Pray for deliverance