The wilderness, crucifixion, phase of our walk with God is never easy. If you find yourself in that dark and lonely place today, I hope to offer you some words of encouragement on your journey. I know that our family found the lonely days and nights to be the toughest on our journey. It is necessary to be away from other humans so we can learn to put our full trust in Jesus but it is not easy and some days just plain overwhelming. If I can I would like to give you some hope for today and help you understand what the wilderness is like.
As I was out with Fanny and Ida today I had some time to reflect on where we find ourselves now. God gently came alongside me and spoke into my spirit. He said to me that we have two very different pair of eyes and we need to learn to use both. The first is our natural eyes and for most people they learn to use them from birth. We see our surroundings and take in all that is around us to help us understand our world. The other set of eyes we have are in our spirit. These eyes first need to be opened but then we need to be taught how to use them. This is not easy since it is in satan’s best interest to keep us blind spiritually. Since you are reading this I assume you have at least had your spirit brought to life by Jesus and your spiritual eyes opened.
The sight we have in the spirit allows us to see into God’s domain and see what God is doing. If you have a prophetic gift this can be awesome but if you are like the 99% of us without that gift, we need to train our spiritual eyes to see into the spirit realm. It is in the wilderness that we found Jesus, time and again, teaching us and training our spiritual eyes to see how He was leading us. Those were long, hard fought for lessons but in the end we found we could see clearly with our spiritual eyes to see what He was doing.
Now I do not know how God will train you but I do know that there is one battle that we all face with these two sets of eyes most of us have been given. The battle is one of balance. Unfortunately, it is far too easy to make mistakes with our eyes. These mistakes are caused when we don’t balance the two sets of eyes we have together. When we put too much emphasis on what our natural eye sees then we will become bogged down in the world. Depression, fear, doubt and faithlessness will surely follow. In essence, we become blind to the miracles God does around us each and every day. When we put too much emphasis on our spiritual eyes we miss the opportunity and practicality of living out our faith. We may feel really good but we are not connected to this world. In essence, we become blind to the ‘self’ and hurt around us so we cannot be a vessel of His love to others.
I have seen this imbalance in my own life too many times to count. I have had to repent and make constant changes until I began to learn how to be more and more balanced. Over time we have found that we see with our natural eye the hurting and suffering that happens around us as well as the ‘self’ nature run amok. At the same time, we see God’s hand in our life with a passion to reach out and help those that do not know Him with our spiritual eyes. When we see with balanced sight we see His hand move to help them through us. When our sight is not in balance we miss the poor and the downtrodden or we get so consumed with their plight that we get burned out helping them at a deadly cost to ourselves.
Not only have we seen this imbalance in ourselves but we have seen it in others as well during our journey. Many would not see or acknowledge us because we were homeless and poor. Others went too far towards helping us and then ended up resenting and hating us. The best help came from those that saw what God wanted to do and stopped when He wanted them to. I cannot tell you how grateful we were for their kindness and love and their ability to stop when God told them to stop. It is a dire mistake to think that you can ‘rescue’ a person from a wilderness experience. We can help others on their journey but they, ultimately, walk that path on their own. Those that understand this are most equipped to help others during their crucifixion.
You will experience these kinds of people in the wilderness if you give up all to follow Him. We pray that when you are ignored and hated by man you will learn to accept that they are blind and cannot see the suffering that God is leading you in. When you meet people that want to ‘love bomb’ you it is ok to say ‘no’ and put boundaries around their help. Remember they too are blind and although they want to help they may go too far and end up hurting themselves. A gracious heart and kind words go a long way to encourage those that do not understand the journey of the crucifixion. When we can bless those that curse or abuse us we not only enrich our own soul but it goes a long way to help open their spiritual eyes.
When you are through the wilderness and come to the other side, you will know and understand that you are not the same person that started the trek with Him long ago. When you see others in need, pain or suffering His heart of compassion will flow through you to them. You will see with the eyes of your head and your heart and He will lead you to give of yourself as He freely gave to you. When this happens, watch with your spiritual eyes to see what the Father is doing and only do that. You will not need to ‘add’ anything to the Lord’s perfect will for it will always be enough. Your gifts and kindness will not tax you and will bless the person you are helping. In the end you, the giver, and the receiver will both be blessed and our dear Father will be most pleased.
I am grateful to the Lord for this understanding that He has given us on the importance of a proper balance of natural and spiritual sight. We pray that as you travel you will do so with open eyes and an open heart. If you lack wisdom in this area pray for, and expect, Him to be gracious in His answer. If you find that you just need another human ear to talk to please feel free to email us at any time. We would welcome the opportunity to pray for and bless you in any way we can. You can email us through the Contact page or directly at homerlesandwandaring at protonmail.com.
Blessings,
Homer
