{"id":495,"date":"2020-08-11T21:31:03","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T09:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/?p=495"},"modified":"2020-08-11T21:31:03","modified_gmt":"2020-08-11T09:31:03","slug":"seeing-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/11\/seeing-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Psalm 46:10\u00a0Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Have you ever stumbled upon a spiritual truth and just couldn&#8217;t shake it? You might forget yesterday&#8217;s Bible reading or last Sunday&#8217;s sermon but this spiritual gem stays forefront in your mind. That is exactly what happened to me this last week!\u00a0I just have to share it!<\/p>\n<p>We are often blessed to have a missionary speak in our church but this missionary was quite unique!\u00a0You see, he is totally blind!\u00a0He brought a message that really had the hand of God in it and I have no doubt that he touched every heart present.<\/p>\n<p>After the services, (and most of us had returned home), several families hung around to fellowship late into the evening. One member had a question that is often assumed by many people. She asked him, &#8220;Is it true that when you lose your sight, your other senses such as hearing gets sharper?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His reply to her was priceless and had a deep spiritual truth!\u00a0\u00a0Upon hearing about his response, I have been chewing on it ever since!\u00a0He prefaced his answer by asking if she wanted the physical or spiritual answer.\u00a0This took her aback but then he continued.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">&#8220;Your hearing doesn&#8217;t get sharper with blindness but, you find yourself listening more intently and purposefully.\u00a0You listen to the echo off a wall to know how close you are.\u00a0You listen to a person&#8217;s voice to determine their physical height.\u00a0Sounds give clues to what is happening all around you.\u00a0<u>Spiritually<\/u>, once we become blind to this world, we are in a position to hear the voice of God.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Psalm 146:8. The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0BAM!!!\u00a0I could not shake that thought!\u00a0How often have I had my\u00a0<u>eyes <\/u>focused on other things that kept me from\u00a0<u>listening<\/u>\u00a0to the voice of God. There were occasions that I was too tired from family responsibilities.\u00a0Sometimes I was too caught up in other duties at work or even church. Other times I was just busy with the cares of this world (hello hobbies!). I could usually justify my lack of attention to the Lord but that was just it \u2013 justifications!<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">II Peter 1:4-9\u00a0<em><br \/>\n<\/em><em>4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.<br \/>\n<\/em><em>5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;<br \/>\n<\/em><em>6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;<br \/>\n<\/em><em>7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.<\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>8For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our LORD Jesus Christ.<\/em><\/span><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-497 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/6688-painting-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"173\" height=\"259\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/6688-painting-scaled.jpg 1707w, https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/6688-painting-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/6688-painting-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/6688-painting-1365x2048.jpg 1365w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 173px) 100vw, 173px\" \/><\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten t<\/em><\/span><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>hat he was purged from his old sins.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In order to see, I need to be blinded to this world and listen to that still, small voice of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0I need to come apart and become blind to my desires, my hobbies, and, yes, my justifications and excuses. It is a decisive choice.\u00a0Once I yield my desires and choices to God, I can see clearly.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Ephesians 5:8. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the <\/em><\/span><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Lord: walk as children of light.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Psalm 46:10\u00a0Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. Have you &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[145,148,147,144,142,146,143],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":500,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495\/revisions\/500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}