BLIND SPOTS

By Mary Ann Wray

Have you ever pulled out of your driveway after looking both ways twice but backed into the trashcan left out from the day before anyway because of a ‘blind spot’ in your vehicle?  How about running over a curb while making a right turn or pulling into a parking space? Despite our best efforts we sometimes fail to ‘see’ certain things that can potentially damage or slow us down. 

Have you ever said any of these things about yourself to anyone? Have you ever heard anyone else use some of these phrases as reasons or excuses for acting, believing or communicating the way they do? “This is just the way I am. It’s my personality so just get used it. I don’t need to change for anyone. Why can’t you just accept me the way I am? God made me this way so don’t judge me.” 

If we are honest with ourselves, I think we can all say we have either said or thought these things at one time or another. In fact subconsciously, we tend to use such statements as a crutch to remain unchanged or immovable about certain attitudes, beliefs or behaviors we hold dear. But the question remains: is everything we say, believe, communicate and do 100% Christ like and inerrant ALL of the time? Well, I think we can all agree that the answer to this question is unequivocally NO! There is none righteous…no not one according to Romans 3: 10. That’s why we needed a Savior to redeem us from our sins and most importantly in this life on earth, from ourselves!

You see, God has made us tri-part beings, the same as Himself. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three in one. Likewise, He made us in His image and likeness so we have a soul, comprised of our mind, will and emotions (Father), a spirit man: the eternal part of our being that ‘drives’ us and gives us life eternally, either in Heaven or Hell (Holy Spirit), and body that will die and be resurrected on the day of the Lord’s return (Son). We know from Adam’s fall our bodies took on mortality and will one day decay and become corrupted. At that time, man’s eternal spirit died. The Father told Adam, “When you eat of this fruit you will die.” Adam was blinded through following Eve who listened to Satan and partaking of what they shouldn’t have. Did you notice that the Father said, “When”? He knew man would eat of the forbidden tree but He had a plan prepared all along! That’s why Jesus told Nicodemus you MUST be Born Again! Jesus explained that which is born of the flesh is natural or fleshly. But that which is born from above is Spirit. Being Born Again is the most supernatural thing that could happen to anyone and is absolutely necessary to inherit eternal life!

“But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die." Genesis 2: 17

“Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ John 3: 6-7

The Father was speaking of a spiritual and physical death in Genesis 2. When you get born again, your spirit man gets totally reborn and recreated with God’s original design and nature (Spiritual DNA) in your spirit man. However, your soul and body have not yet totally been redeemed. Within your spirit the Holy Spirit takes residence and sanctifies or sets you apart unto the Lord as His Child and peculiar people (1 Peter 2:9). However, your soul is the same as it was before same as your body. Your memory and intellect weren’t magically erased and you didn’t get a brand new body either. You see when you are Born Again, you  receive a ‘down payment’ of the entire redemption package, so to speak,  Jesus died to give us.

“Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.” Romans 8: 23

The word “first fruits” the writer of Romans 8 uses in verse 23 is important to understand. First fruits represents just that. It is not the full harvest of the crop but a ‘portion’ of the Harvest: the ‘first pick’. Another way to look at it is like a manufacturer’s rebate program. You go into Lowe’s Hardware to purchase a lawn mower and John Deere is offering a manufacturer’s rebate of $100. You decide to buy a John Deere to take advantage of the manufacture’s generosity. You check out at the cashier, pay for the mower in full, leave the store with it, but you have to mail in the rebate certificate along with the sales receipt in order to get your $100 check in the mail. This usually takes 6-8 weeks. If you’ve ever done this you know you have to wait for your rebate. If you don’t get it in due time, you’ll be on the phone or writing letters to get what’s coming to you.

You see, when you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior you receive the “first fruits” of your salvation but not the full harvest! There’s more coming but there is a period of waiting and testing!

Look what Paul alludes to in 2 Corinthians 9 verse 10 about righteousness as a harvest:

“Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.”

Paul was not only speaking of the principle of sowing and reaping in giving but he was alluding to the fact that we are in the process of harvesting our righteousness. If we had received the entire salvation package of our souls and bodies along with our spirit at the time we become born again, why would we need to be concerned with a harvest of righteousness?

Jesus mentions a spiritual harvest in Mark 4: 26…” He said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

Again, there is a dual application here. Jesus is speaking not only of the final harvest of souls when he returns a second time but notice he talked about the process a grain goes through…first the stalk, then the head then the full kernel. There is a spiritual maturation each one of us must go through to reach the full measure of the stature of Christ (Ephesians 4: 13). We are all a ‘work’ in progress. Having said that, the Apostle Paul iterated the need for us to ‘work out our own salvation’ with fear and trembling (Philippians 2: 12).  If we had already been perfected at the moment of being Born Again, why would we need to ‘work’ anything out? 

Paul was not talking about working our way to Heaven. No one is saved by works of righteousness. It is a free gift of God’s unmerited grace through our faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). The Apostle was speaking of taking responsibility and ownership of our own spiritual growth and development and making every effort to progress spiritually with the use of the ministry gifts Jesus gave to the church (Ephesians 4: 11), assembling together (Hebrews 10: 24-25) and personal devotion and study of the Scripture.

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.” 1 Peter 1: 8-11

We need to understand that we are in the process of receiving the full redemption our souls and bodies. If the enemy can seduce us in any area it is through our mind, will and emotions: the same way he seduced Eve. No one is exempt. Jesus himself was tempted in the wilderness but never once sinned. He had no blind spots! If He went through temptations we will too, but He modeled for us how we can overcome the weaknesses of our flesh. It is through fasting, prayer and knowing/ speaking the Word of God! That’s why it is vitally important to renew our mind (Romans 12:1) and examine ourselves daily against the backdrop of scripture as to whether or not we are continuing in love and faith! 

The commandment is a lamp and the law is light. It shines on every dark crevice and cranny our flesh wants to cover! (Proverbs 6: 23) The Bible speaks of a ‘falling away’ in the end times (John 16: 1; 2 Thess 2: 3; Hebrews 3: 12). These are those who believed but through their own spiritual blind spots, became apostate in their faith. God wants us to steward our spiritual growth and development and never take for granted that we have ‘arrived’ or that we get to go to Heaven without any personal responsibility on this earth. We must continue to walk in obedience to the Father to receive the full payment of the ‘earnest’ of the Spirit we’ve been given. You see, ‘earnest money’ is a down payment or deposit put on a home that shows your intent to purchase it when you write a contract and submit it to the current owner. God gave us the down payment of the Holy Spirit but to receive the fullness of our redemption we’re going to have to learn to walk out our faith and remain teachable and pliable in His hands!  

“Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” 2 Cor 5: 5

Yes, God guarantees His end of the Covenant. He gave us Jesus as the security. We receive it by faith but we must continue therein to see it fully realized. Here is a scripture and prayer, to help you in your journey of working out spiritual blind spots in times of self-examination. This can help accelerate your personal spiritual growth and maturity in Christ as you make this a practice in your walk with the Lord!

"Examine, test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves not Christ. Do you not yourselves realize and know [thoroughly by an ever-increasing  experience that Jesus Christ is in you—unless you are [counterfeits] disapproved on trial and rejected? But I hope you will recognize and know that we are not disapproved on trial and rejected. But I pray to God that you may do nothing wrong, not in order that we our teaching] may appear to be approved, but that you may continue doing right, [though] we may seem to have failed and be unapproved. For we can do nothing against the Truth not serve any party or personal interest], but only for the Truth which is the Gospel. (2 Corinthians 13: 5-8)

"PRAYER: Holy Spirit, please reveal to me any blind spots in my soul that give license to the enemy where he can gain access into my life and hinder your Spirit from flowing in and through me. Show me shadowed areas of my heart that I can't see in myself which trip me up and cause you and others to become offended at my personal witness for Christ. Let me walk and be in the Light as you are the Light so that I may reflect your likeness and glory to others! In Jesus' name I pray, Amen."