Excerpt
NAME OF THE BOOK: TREASURES For Spiritual Growth
AUTHOR: OLUMIDE AYODELE
NUMBER OF PAGES: 215


"But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear."

...for they see"¦

The eye is not blessed just because it is free from diseases. "Blessedness' is not determined because the eye is sharp, bright and can physically see afar off. An eye that wonders about, feeding on every scene, and filling the mind with corruption is not a blessed eye, even though it may be able to take notice of the minutest details of life's events. The eye is only pronounced blessed because IT SEES.

My eyes are not blessed yet, when they are still blind, and cannot see afar off (talking in spiritual terms). The blessed eyes pierce into the heart of God for living revelations.

What is the difference between myself and the world if all that I see is also what the world sees, if all I see is physical and there's nothing spiritual about my sight, if their delights are my delights, their sight is my sight, their understanding is my understanding, their leisure is my leisure, their perspective is my perspective and their views are my views? Has my physical sight clouded my spiritual sight that I don't see what God is saying anymore? When I look at souls, do I still see them as trees walking, or as never-dying souls?, do I see with the eye of Jesus, or have I become blind, that having eyes, but no sight?

Am I in the company of those who believe that worldly promotion is an achievement to reckon with? Is my definition of achievement synonymous to the amassment of worldly goods? Am I in the company of those who daily shout that "my God is not poor, so I must be rich" - but my definition of that "rich" is "the meat that perisheth'


Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. (John 6:27)


Are my daily prayer points majorly a request for goods and materials which will one day perish with the use?, am I beginning to regard "good life" or "good living" as the possession of house, car, money and the things that the world run over themselves to get? Do I regard opportunities to travel out to the Western world as "breakthrough'?, is breakthrough in Ministry an inflow of more money, better status, bigger buildings or executions of more expensive projects, or is it simply the release of God's divine touch on the land? Am I moved to jealousy because I saw my school mates in Managerial positions, expensive status or as Directors of large companies, and do I then begin to organize prayers and fasting for divine increase just to get to their status? (what is my definition of divine increase?), Do I challenge God about my poor and beggarly state, because worldly class has become my definition for greatness in life"¦?


Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. (John 1:50-51)


Here Jesus opened our eyes to divine things. He opened our eyes to the meaning of greater things. In speaking to Nathaniel in the aforementioned verses, Jesus said that he will see greater things, and what were these greater things that Jesus promised?, they were the revelations of heaven, they were the glorification of Jesus, they were the exaltation of Christ and the revelations of the true personality of Christ, they were the depth of understanding that God gives unto the man whose eyes He has opened. They were spiritual things, they were heavenly mysteries, they were things that had to do with the spiritual sight unavailable in the regions of the ordinary. They were not ephemeral things, neither were they the goods and worldly materials or human status/class many spend days in fasting and prayer to acquire. Today, we desire "greater things", but they are opposed to Christ's definitions of the true "greater things".

We are in the age of blindness where divine taste has been mutilated for material gains, and gain has become synonymous to godliness.


Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. (1Tomothy 6:5-6)


"...blessed are your eyes, for they see"¦"

Are my eyes just in front of my head for decoration, or have they been opened by the Lord to actually see? Do I see as the Lord sees, or as the world sees? Today, our vision has become blurred and godliness is no more gain enough. In this age of blindness, Simon Peter would be regarded as a non Christian, Simon Peter would be a poor soul, a pitiable wreck, a man who knows not how to lay hold on his God to be "great" in life, because "silver and gold, he has none", and such as he has to give (the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth) has no correlation with our current definition of wealth and riches.

The Bible talks about the greatness and the prosperity of Joseph in his master Potiphar's house, but he was still a slave, having nothing and living a dependent life.


And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man, and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. (Genesis 39:2)


In what then was Joseph prosperous? I'm sure it wasn't money, cars, materials, goods, or any of the things that spell prosperity or riches to men today, the divine prosperity the Bible talked about here was the divine presence of God, and that alone, is what is recognized in heaven as prosperity or wealth.

Am I able to see that divine prosperity and riches is simply the presence of God, and not the amount of goods I possess or the cash I have stored up in the bank accounts, or do I need to be exegetically convinced before I can manage to accept?, then, it is an indication of my dim eyesight, and a nearness to stack blindness and nakedness.

When the Lord blessed Jacob in that night over the ford Jabbok, the blessings were not in material or monetary accumulation, his life became a blessing, and it had nothing to do with more money or more animals.
Material or financial possessions may not be evil for those who are blessed to have them, but it is stack blindness, when our expressions for greatness, wealth, riches or status are defined and determined by a display of, or a regard for such flimsy things that cannot last.

"O Lord anoint my eyes with eye salve that I may see thine revelations, that I may see into the future, show me thy beauty and glory, reveal to me thine Person, let the world be reduced to nothingness before my eyes, open my eyes Lord, that I may see".


...your ears, for they hear

When will the silent still small voice of the Holy Spirit be loudest in my ears, louder than the sounds of all other gods, louder than the insinuations of my flesh, louder than the advices of men or what men are saying, when will thy voice be the sweetest thing in the world to my ears, sweeter than the musics of men, more inviting than the rocking jokes of men, louder than the noise of politics, when will the Word of The Lord come unto me as it came unto the Prophets of old, and it enveloped and saturated their beings, it became their life?.
O Lord, sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely, let me hear thy voice, and let me see thy face. (SOS 2:14)


O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. (Song of Solomon 2:14)

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