Genesis 28:10-22
At a camp sight on the road to Haran, God reveals Himself by way of a dream and makes some major promises to Jacob. In his dream there was a corridor of angelic movement between heaven and earth. Above that was God Himself promising to give him and his descendants the land where he slept. God further promised that these descendants will be many and that the earth would be blessed through them. In conclusion of this dream God promises to be with Jacob wherever he goes and fulfill all the promises.
Jacob’s foundations were shaken. He had awakened from his dream with more than just promises. He was now alert and responsible to a world radically different than the one he had previously known. What he had counted on to be true was in fact grossly incomplete. In his fresh discovery Jacob proclaims, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” Are there any parallels between this experience and our own? I think so. Let’s go to the NT and explore.
“We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!” (1 Corinthians 13:12 MSG)
“….the god of this world (satan) has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they may not see….” (2 Corinthians 4:4 NAS)
According to Paul we, who are destined to see as we have been seen, are suspended in a moment of time with impaired vision. The impairer is God’s enemy and ours, the devil. He has been given some authority by God in this moment (we call “time”) in his final unwitting service to the one true God. So, in light of this, how are sight-challenged saints to navigate? Can our vision be improved?
Since satan is a liar and the father of all lies; since lies are essentially deceptive ideas, it follows that sight and vision are metaphors for spiritual understanding. And, when it comes to ideas, we have choices. As saints, we have the freedom to choose to think the thoughts we want. It is especially important to know we can and must choose to reject certain thoughts. Paul believed we have some vision-improvement opportunities. He would probably go so far as to say “responsibilities”.
“We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ…” (2 Cor 10:5)
“And do not be conformed to this world (and it’s ideas) but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good acceptable and perfect.“ (Rom 12:2)
So, one thing we have in common with Jacob, is “dreams”. While Jacob’s dream occurred while he was sleeping, our dream (which in many cases is a nightmare) is occurring as we are walking around in a kind of half-sleep in a world satan has intentionally saturated with ideas designed to prevent us from understanding who God is and what He is really like and to prevent us from understanding who we are and what God has called us to be (which, when grasped) will radically alter what we do). Being precedes doing.
The other thing we have in common with Jacob is “promises”. We tend to think of Jacob as the great patriarch whose promises are unique and superior to our own. This may be one of the enemy’s greatest whoppers. We need to check out the NT, and review our promises. Jacob might be jealous. We have been promised eternal and abundant life; we have been made co-heirs of Christ and sons of God; we have been given access to the holy of holies; He calls us friends; He has given us His Spirit. It is tragic but the greatest lies designed to stifle kingdom growth may be the ones satan has sold us within christendom that limit our understanding of our true identity as saints and our high callings.
Here is a question that I hope might serve as an eye-opener. Do you see your essential identity as that of a “sinner”? or a “saint”? Try and stop what you are doing long enough to review the thoughts you have about yourself and determine if they are most representative of 1) a bond-slave who is serving as best you can, hindered as it were by your fallen nature or; 2) a child who is a coheir and partner in an eternal kingdom who is living out of your new nature? A question for your consideration: If the enemy has sown seed that would stunt the spirit’s formation as a bond-slave who is ultimately approved on the merits of their service what damage has the kingdom suffered as a result?
“By the time He is finished in our lives, we will be lovers who work rather than workers who love.” Bob Sorge, Secrets of the Secret Place
Father, shake us if necessary; awaken us from our dream-like delusions that what we see with our eyes and appraise with our natural minds represent ultimate reality. Grant that we may see, by way of faith, into the unseen world, where Your promises originate. May heaven’s truths penetrate our present darkness and fill the earth and Your Bride with the knowledge of God. Burn off the fog and awaken us to see with Jacob that “surely You are in this awesome place and that we ourselves are the dwelling places of God (those in whom Your Spirit resides) and that we are the portals of heaven and the corridors of Life. Amen.