To Encourage You

Acts 7:55-56 “But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’”

In the above account of the martyrdom of Stephen we understand that Stephen saw things that his murderers did not.  Why was this?  We are told that he was “full of the Holy Spirit.”  It is the Holy Spirit alone that gives sight to those who are spiritually blind. 

An example of this is the vision of Isaiah in Isaiah 6 where the seraphim proclaim “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”  God reveals this fact to those who know Him and have His Holy Spirit within them.  In contrast, the atheist can look at the “whole earth” and not see one iota of the glory of God.  The atheist looks at the same things as the Christian but sees only physical things and has only physical explanations about those things.  Otherwise, how could anyone look at the incredible complexity and design of everything in this world and see nothing but randomness and assume that all of this came from nothing and evolved on its own. Further, such a person will be proud about his or her opinion and look at anyone who sees God in any of it as a fool.  It is of such people who God told Isaiah “Keep on hearing,but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.” Their only hope is to “turn and be healed,” i.e., turn to Him and Him alone (Isaiah 6:9-10). 

Only God can open the spiritual eyes of the spiritually blind, but he will only do this when they acknowledge their blindness.  As Jesus said “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). In other words, there is no hope for healing if the blind think they can see, for such a person will never seek healing. 

So what about you?  What do you see when you look at yourself, the world, or Christ?  Are you satisfied with your own views about these things, or do you want the sight that only the Holy Spirit can give?