Let Sense Be Dumb
[“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
~ 1 Corinthians 5:7, KJV]
Last year, I GRIEVED very deeply for the poor girl who was lured to a hotel in Lagos, molested and cruelly murdered by the “friends” she made on Facebook. May Cynthia’s blood find justice! Those “friends” looked like you and me... they posted beautiful smiling photo shots of themselves like we all do. Their voices on the phone had been charming, otherwise Cynthia wouldn’t have come visiting a gruff, area-boy-like voice.
.... Fast Forward to March 2013. The police paraded the boys who kidnapped Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s precious Queen Mother. Those boys looked just like any Nigerian youth on the street. One of them worked in the palace - an insider. The Igbo people say, “Ama ndi ana eze?” Meaning: Who knows who to hide from?
... Zoom to the Middle East. The sarin nerve gas suspected to have been used in the Syrian civil war is ODORLESS and COLORLESS. You cannot “see” it so that you can quickly run away or cover your nose before it approaches. Even your cooking gas is odorless and colorless. They only add that cooking gas smell to assist your flawed sense of smell to detect when your gas might be leaking. Ordinarily, your nose is helpless.
... WHAT'S my point? OUR SENSES WERE NEVER GIVEN US FOR SPIRITUAL NAVIGATION! Which is why a peasant in the village can discover God while the erudite professor of philosophy cannot. Which is why you can never “prove” God in a science lab.
... Our senses can only perceive 3 DIMENSIONS; yet there are LIMITLESS DIMENSIONS in the spiritual world to which we belong. When the Bible says, “All things are possible,” it is not talking about our beggarly three dimensional thinking.
===“The More You Look ...”===
Have you ever stood by the Bar Beach, or any beach at all, and tried to periscope the Atlantic? Over the distance, the ocean bends into an ominous curve and the approaching ship masts stick UP their noses in a tangent as if they are crawling up a hill.
... Have you ever stood akimbo on the railroad and stared at the distance? Far ahead of you, the two rows of the track eventually taper off and merge into one.
This phenomenon is called OPTICAL ILLUSION. Optical illusion is responsible for the SPIRITUAL BARRENNESS of millions of people. They CONSTRUCT their lives on the flawed testimony of their PHYSICAL SENSES!
=== Why You Should Never Depend on Your Physical Sight===
(1) Satan costumes himself as an ANGEL OF LIGHT, not darkness! There are so many false prophets and pastors on TV. They dazzle and hypnotize their spiritual ignoramuses with “signs and wonders.” Yet ... Miracle and Magic are not siblings. Neither are anointing of the Holy Spirit and voodoo. Remember Simon the Sorcerer in Acts?
... Satan is an almost irresistible, dazzling Mr. Handsome in a three-piece suit and tie, clean shaven, well groomed and “kindhearted.” Which is why many people are fooled. Which is why many young women fall prey to sexual predators and ritual killers: Satan's men look suave, polished and rich!
(2) “Familiar spirits.” You are more prone to die in a familiar environment and by things you have become too familiar with than by new experiences. You will never catch a mouse in a trap baited with a pencil. But insert dried fish as bait and the mouse is yours for whatever you want to do with it. What are those BAD HABITS that will eventually do you in? Where are those FAMILIAR PLACES and who are those FAMILIAR PEOPLE that you haven’t reviewed in a long time?
... God graciously gives us His Spirit, through whom we can see what is unseeable and perceive the hidden tricks of the devil and the familiar. It is for this that God gave us His Word to meditate on and be wise.
(3) The witness of your eyes and ears will LIMIT your achievement and make your earthly journey miserable.
.... In the electromagnetic spectrum, from Gamma rays to the Extreme Low Frequency (ELF), the human eyes can only see within a very tiny range of 0.4-0.7 micrometers! Meanwhile your TV and radio waves are up to 10 km (or more) in wavelength! It’s like within the distance between Lagos and Sokoto, your eyes can only perceive 1 meter out of 1000 kilometers! How can you limit your potential to 1 meter when you can view 1,000,000 meters through faith!
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9). What God has prepared for you cannot be appropriated through your physical senses! Won’t you quit watching Nollywood videos and begin some serious goal setting and achieving for your life?
=== The Wisdom of the Adam Experiment ===
Why do doctor’s put you to sleep when they want to remove a lousy tumor from your stomach? Answer: Because God did exactly the same thing. God knew that Adam’s senses will interfere with His creativity; so he put him to sleep and deadened his senses. Are your senses interfering with God’s plan for your life?
(By the way, talking about Adam and his Rib, never choose a woman for wife based on her looks alone. Don’t let your sight interfere because “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.” (Proverbs 31:30.) Don’t let sight interfere with such weighty matters of your destiny.)
The hymn writer said, “Let sense be dumb; let flesh retire...”
... Let me offer you one of my 7 deepest secrets: The solution to your deepest problem does not always reside or spring from your conscious mind. You’ll often have to dig beyond three dimensions. That’s why I spend prime time meditating on Scripture everyday. (Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1)
Are you a PRISONER of your senses? Are you actively shaping your circumstances through faith or are your circumstances SHAPING YOUR DESTINY?
... I choose to believe what God says in the Scripture! I believe there is a lifting up even though CNN and the newspaper headlines say there is a casting down.
.... Without FAITH it is IMPOSSIBLE to please GOD. Throughout this week, find out what the Word says about you and stick to it even when everything and everyone around you is speaking to the contrary.
I love you. Be healthy, wealthy and wise!
http://www.facebook.com/oaogbo/posts/10201111322124162 MONDAY MORNING MEDITATION: By Ogbo Awoke Ogbo
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