Open the eyes of my heart Lord....

2 Kings 2....

So lately the spirit has just had something on my mind. It's one of those things you have a thought, then another thought, then another, then something happens to confirm what you have been thinking. So i thought to myself, "Randi, you should write about this."

     It's about the eyes of our heart. Seeing with the eyes of our heart and what that means. I mean you all know by heart I'm sure the song we often sing, "Open the eyes of my heart Lord, Open the eyes of my heart, I want to see you, I want to see you." Yeah, you know it. But what does it mean? What does that mean to open the eyes of my heart Lord? Well in my recent studying of Elijah and several other things this question has been on my heart,and I want to tell you what I've learned! 

   So in my study of Elijah we are finally reaching the time and place where Elijah's ministry here on earth is coming to a close. He has been told by the spirit that today is the day he will be taken to heaven. With him is his mentee(as I like to call them) Elisha. Elisha had left everything he had to follow and be mentored by Elijah. In fact he didn't just leave everything, he burned his plow and cut up his livestock so that he would never be tempted to go back! So Elisha has been with Elijah for a while now, learning and soaking up everything he could. So back to the story, Elijah knows that today is it, so he decides to spend his last day traveling around to all the cities that he had put time in the last three years building disciples. (word to Elijah for giving us another great example of what discipleship should look like! 2 Tim. 2:2) So he travels to Gilgal, Bethal, Jericho, and Jordan. At each stop he tells Elisha to stay here, and Elisha responds every time by saying,"No, I'm going with you." It was Elijah's way of saying to Elisha, "I'm about to leave you can you handle it? And Elisha is saying to his mentor,"Wherever you go I will go. I will be with you to the very end." It's kind of a touching picture of loyalty. So the time is drawing near and Elijah asks Elisha, "What can I do for you? Before I go, do you have any last requests? And Elisha said, "Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit." (2 Kings 2:9) First of all I would like to pose the question, if you could inherit a double portion of anyones spirit who would you chose? And try to answer the question to yourself if you had that double portion of that person's spirit, how would it affect how you thought and behaved? 

     From Elisha's request I think we can clearly see what his priorities in his life are. He wanted and needed the same courage and the same resolve and the same boldness that his master had had. He wanted the same spirit Elijah had on top of Mount Carmel. So Elijah says back to him, "You have asked a difficult thing." (v. 10) And then he gives him the response that has been taking over my thoughts the past few weeks. He says to him," If you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours-otherwise not."(vs. 10) If you see me. So he simply tells him if you see me yes, if you don't no, simple enough I guess. I wonder what was going through Elisha's mind when he heard his response? I wonder if in the back of his mind he wondered if he should be doing something to prepare himself so that he could see? But one things for sure, he wasn't about to let Elijah out of his physical sight. So sure enough later on in the day they are walking and talking and suddenly a chariot of fire and horses appear. These actually show pretty cool symbolism of the life Elijah lived here on earth. It was a sign and a symbol that there was a battle raging for the hearts of people of Israel. It meant that a warrior was about to come home to God. "Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind."(vs. 11) "Elijah's life had been a whirlwind of activity. He had been so impetuous, so driven, so determined, thrusting himself into the palace of the ungodly kings, blowing through Israel like a tornado from God. He left the earth has he lived on the the earth, in a whirlwind! 

      So we get distracted by this amazing act of God going on but let's not forget what's going on right beside him, Elisha sees the whole thing! There were fifty prophets traveling along behind them. They saw the two together and then Elijah was gone, they saw him disappear into nothing, but did not see the chariots. Only Elisha's eyes were opened to see the reality of what happened. " If you see me", Elijah said. " There is the kind of seeing with the eyes, and there is the seeing with the eyes of the heart. It is possible to have 20/20 vision on the outside and be totally blind on the inside. You can live 80 years with perfect vision and be totally blind to spiritual reality. That's why Paul prays in Ephesians 1:18 that the "eyes of your heart my be enlightened. You could go to a Christian college or seminary and the eyes of your heart could still be tightly shut. Just going through the motions doesn't guarantee the eyes of your heart will be open. MATTHEW 13:13-15!!!

      So let's break this down. When Elijah told Elisha that he could have his spirit if you see me depart, what he was really saying was if God gives you the spiritual sight to understand, if He opens the eyes of your heart! So it gets even better than that. We know that God and Elijah kept their end of the deal because in 2 Kings 6:8-17 we can see the spirit that Elisha has inside of him. He and his servant were surrounded by a huge army which most would think was hopeless, including his servant. But Elisha saw with his heart, he saw reality. He turned to his quivering servant and tells him not to worry because, "those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Get ready......So then Elisha prays, "O Lord, open his eyes so he may see" When the servants eyes were opened, he saw the armies of God arrayed in the clouds above the Aramean army! It is a great advance spiritually to have your eyes opened to see spiritual reality, to understand that this world is not the only world. When they eyes of the heart are opened, you understand that the unseen world is the real world, the only one that matters. MATTHEW 13:16-17.

    So how does this become a reality in our lives? Well, what did Elisha do? He PRAYED! HE ASKED GOD FOR IT! It is nothing you can do it's only the revelation of God. I've seen this come true in my brothers life. He just got back from Honduras where he has story after story about spiritual warfare he experienced. See in America we don't see spiritual warfare as they do in third world countries. Satan can't use movies, music, and tv to work his way into their lives because they don't have it. So he takes a much stronger approach. For instance he saw Alex, a little drug baby who is in the orphanage he was staying, become possessed by a demon. Alex cannot even talk, he cannot say any words just simple sounds. One night he woke up screaming profanities in perfect spanish and went to grab his tia's throat and choke her. They immediately started praying and Alex crashed fell into her arms and went to sleep. The next night the same thing happened again. This time they called the pastor of the church to come and Alex was doing the same things, screaming profanities and going for his throat. They all got together and prayed and Alex collapsed again. Thank God that we know we have power in the name of Jesus and demons have to flee when we say his name! See Satan finds much less noticeable ways to get his demons to work on Americans. He doesn't have to be as flamboyant. He can put them in the things we watch and listen to so that they distract us from God without our recognition. It has been amazing to see the eyes of my brothers heart become opened. The day he got back, the spirit that he has become so sensitive too, grabbed his throat and told him to proclaim Jesus names over the demons that my aunt has been struggling with since I can remember. He says he doesn't even remember what or how he said what he said. He said he just felt something take over and my aunt just fell into his arms. He was able to give her truth! What an amazing story! wow. It is just so amazing to see God work in his life and open the eyes of his heart. So what about you? What about me? What about our eyes. Not our physical i can see you eyes, but our spiritual eyes? ARe they open? Do you see God for who he is? Do you see actual reality? Or the reality satan would like for you to believe is reality but actually isn't. If you're looking for a book that will help give you an eternal perspective and open the eyes of your heart read, "Safely Home," by Randy Alcorn. It will blow your perspective out of the water. It's good stuff. Get it read it. Get on your knees and ask God to open the eyes of your heart! And next time you hear that song. Think about Elijah and Elisha, and see God for who he really is!

Ran