Posts Tagged ‘blind spot’

Weak Enough to See

Posted in Bible Study, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Ananias-of-Damascus

And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Acts 9:9

This verse comes from a story that many of us may know well.  It is the conversion story of Saul, who would become Paul the Apostle.  Paul was a man who acutely understood the dangers of blind spots, Saul was not.  Saul along with many of the Jewish leaders of his day lived in a big blind spot.  They desperately believed in God and in the coming Messiah but they saw their heritage and tradition as an overwhelming strength and in that feeling of strength they were blind to the truth of the Gospel.  Saul in his strength attended and approved of the stoning of Stephen.  He even watched over the cloaks of them men involved (Acts 7:58-8:1).  Saul in his strength “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” sought the destruction of the early Church.  He is an ominous example of how when we attempt to serve God in the strength of tradition, skill, knowledge or any other personal trait that the greater our “service”, the greater our potential blind spots.

So then this is the question, “How do we avoid operating in Spiritual Blind Spots?”.  Prior to committing our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ we lived in darkness.  It is a way of life for those who are not in a personal relationship with Him.  Jesus came to take us from the darkness that is life without God and bring us in to the light.

John 12:46 
“I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.

Old habits die hard and Peter speaking to believers sheds light on Spiritual Blind Spots

2 Peter 1:4-9

4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.

We can compare this passage to Paul’s exposition on the “Fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5.  These passages and many like them provide a Spiritual litmus test for smoking out blind spots in our walk with God.  However I want to go back to Paul’s story to see how God dealt with this problem in his life.

1.  God knocked Saul off of his high horse.

Acts 9:3

As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; 4 and he fell to the ground

2.  God brought Saul to a place of weakness

       a.  Paul was blinded.  The Spiritual state that he was operating in was manifested physically.

       b.  The man who was accustomed to leading needed to be led into the city

       c.  Paul was unable to eat or drink for three days.

3.  God spoke truth into Saul’s life

       a.  Initially God spoke directly to Saul revealing the blind spot that he was operating under.

       b.  God revealed Saul’s personal inadequacy in a vision of the man who would come to help him.

       c.  God brought a Christian brother to speak healing into Saul’s life, both of the physical and Spiritual blindness.

Fortunately God has provided us with Scripture and in it Paul’s example (as well as the examples of many other men and women of God throughout biblical history).  With the help of the Holy Spirit we can smoke out our blind spots without being knocked off a horse and blinded.

1.  Examine ourselves for areas of personal (denominational, doctrinal or any other genre of) pride that can make us susceptible to blind spots.  Then we need to follow the Micah’s advice in Chapter 6:  8 He has told you, O man, what is good ; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God ?

2.  Do not be afraid to operate from areas of weakness or of being in positions of weakness.

3.  Always be ready for, looking for and expecting the Truth of God to be revealed in your life.  The primary source is of course Scripture.  The more time that you spend in Scripture with your heart and mind open to God’s message the less likely you are to function in a blind spot.  Secondly always walk with solid brother’s and sisters in Christ who will be honest and open with you.  God may or may not reveal them in a vision to you but be ready to listen to the Holy Spirit as He speaks through them.  Filter it all through the truth of Scripture.

Blind Spots are endemic to our human nature but God through the work of Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit as recoreded in Scripture has provided us all with the tools to walk in the Light as the Children of God.

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Strong Enough to be Blind

Posted in Bible Study, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 26, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Leadership strengths are often found in close proximity to blindspots. An overpowering strength, in particular, usually has an associated blindspot.”   Robert Bruce Shaw  Leadership Blindspots

 

I got this quote in one of the secular leadership blogs that come in my email.  Honestly most of them I don’t even look at closely anymore.  However this one caught my eye.  I am always intrigued when a secular article espouses a biblical truth.  I am certain that if you read Mr. Shaw in depth he differs considerably from Paul’s view on this subject.

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.  2 Corinthians 12:9

In Philippians 3 he talks about what was becoming a huge blind spot for many of the Jewish believers.  They had a strong belief in the overpowering strength of their religious heritage. Paul’s reply to this blind spot was that if anyone had reason to rest in the strength of religious heritage, it was Paul.   He goes on to say:

7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death ;

These apparent strengths can even be gifts from God.  Unfortunately as the author notes, the more overpowering the strength, the closer the blind spot.  Consider Samson, called to save his people even before he was conceived and dedicated to God as a Nazirite from conception.

“Behold now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son. 4 “Now therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. 5 “For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb ; and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” Judges 13:3-5

He had two great strengths.  The most obvious one was his physical strength.  The second was his godly discipline as a Nazirite.  As the story unfolds we see the blind spots that develop as he grows to be comfortable in his strengths.  He achieves victory after victory and as happens all too often, the blind spot involves a growing sense of powerful self eclipsing the very God that is the source and sustenance of that power.  He ignores the godly counsel of his parents and after that does not even seek wise counsel, after all he is the Nazirite, he is the chosen one of God, who would counsel him. Even when 3000 men of Israel come to hand him over to the Philistines he does not see the selfishness of his actions.  He uses the strengths given him by God out of anger, out of hurt yet he continues his disciplines and as promised God sets him as Judge over Israel.  We so often attribute success with righteousness.  We see the Spirit of the Lord come upon Samson time after time so he must be in a right relationship with God, right?  This is a misconception that leads to great disappointment and injury.  When men and women of God exercise their gifts in blind spots, God’s will still moves through those strengths but when we measure their fruit by Galatians 5 we see the disconnect.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control ; against such things there is no law.

Samson’s disregard for his parents; his failure to seek godly and wise counsel ( as his mother did cf. Judges 13:8, 8 Then Manoah entreated the LORD and said, “O Lord, please let the man of God whom You have sent come to us again that he may teach us what to do for the boy who is to be born.”); his lack of concern for the consequences of his actions on the very people he was sent to save all point to the blind spots that Samson fostered and ignored.  While Scripture does not record it as a parent I can only imagine their continuing and more desperate attempts to reach their son.  Wise counsel whether it is from parents, mentors or just from people that God places in our lives is key in illuminating the blind spots that the Enemy will manipulate to our harm and harm to those around us. Samson is an apropos example of blind spots because in the end it brought physical blindness.  The will of God for his life was ultimately achieved as he brought the house down on Philistine power in the region but how much more of a story if his blind spots  had not interspersed such tragedy into God’s call on his life.

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