On my bike home the other day, I was listening to a message that John Paul Jackson gave at a conference on August 1, 2010. I wasn’t able to verify but I believe it was given at the Mission Viejo Vineyard. Here is the excerpt that got me:
A pastor comes and says to me, “I have a 4-year-old son who says he’s seeing angels, and he’s talking to them, like, regularly.” And he said, “Could that be true?” “Or is he talking to, like a spirit guide?” I said, “Well, depends on your definition of a spirit guide, but it’s probably an angel guiding him,” thus the definition of a spiritual guide. And he said, “Well, I don’t see him. Why can’t I see him?” I said, “Well, next time you find your son talking to the angel, ask him!” He said, “I can do that?” I said, “Well of course; you’re his dad!”So a couple of weeks later the dad went up to get the son for supper—he sees his son talking to the angel. He says, “Son, are you talking to the angel?” The son says, “Yeah.” And he says, “Will you ask the angel something for me?” “Will you ask him why I can’t see him?” So the 4-year-old asks the angel, and the angel says this—the little boys says what the angel said—”Dad, the angel says for me to tell you,” and he says it in his 4-year-old voice, “that the reason why you can’t see him is that your eyes have beheld too much evil.” And so, after the dad recovered, he then looked at his son and said, “Son, will you ask him this: ‘Will I ever be able to see?’” So the little boy asks, and the angel responded. The little boy said, “Dad, the angel says ‘Yes, the day will come, but the calluses run deep and it will take some time to dissolve them.’”See we allow ourselves to do things thinking it has no bearing—we’ll still get into heaven, everything is fine—but we have no idea it stops us from living at a higher spiritual plane than we would have lived otherwise. We live in a much lowlier estate. And I don’t mean humble. I mean less spiritual state than we would have walked had we allowed the Holy Spirit to discipline us and keep us in a better place. Calluses form, lack of sensitivity, lack of ability to discern, slowly slowly. We may have salvation, but slowly, slowly our spiritual life erodes, and we wonder why. We make poor choices, and we think those choices are inconsequential, but five years later they take a toll. Ten years later they take a toll. Twenty years later, they’ve taken a toll. And we think it doesn’t make any difference, making those kind of choices. We need to feel His presence, and when it lifts, we need to do something different than we’re doing.
God’s grace covers us when we fall. I know that from my own repeated experience. But I want more. I want to see the angels. I want to know God at a greater level of intimacy and experience than I do now. I believe it’s possible.
Lord, dissolve the calluses from my eyes, for I too, have beheld too much evil. Lord, draw me close to you. Transform my appetites to hunger for your word and your presence. Show me how to keep pure eyes and ears and mind in this depraved culture we must live in. In Jesus’ name.
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Love Heals 