In the Eyes part 4
William Shakepeare said, "The Eyes are the window to your soul." Something exterior that lets you know what's inside. That right there is the importance of where Noah found grace. He found it in the eyes of the Lord. He found it IN God. IN love. When we judge things (and people, ourselves included) by appearance, by what they look like, then we miss what's hidden. What's deep inside. We miss what's true because we judge according to the facts. But truth is higher than facts. Screwing up doesn't make you a screw up. It makes you a human being. I use this example a lot but it holds true: Parents don't punish their children for falling when they are learning to walk. GOOD parents help their children up, dust them off, and encourage them to try again. Because they SEE something. They see the potential. They understand that life is a journey. And not everybody is at the same place at the same time. That's why the five-fold ministy was given, "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministy, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12-13). Remember what happens when we look in the mirror with an unveiled face and see the glory of the Lord? We are changed into that same image from glory to glory. But here's the key: We START with glory. Our perfection doesn't come from working really hard to be perfect. It comes from the Perfect One living inside us. And the more we KNOW the more we GROW. As the five-fold ministry EDIFIES us (instead of condemning us) we come into the unity of faith, and the knowledge of Jesus. The knowledge of who we really are... on the inside. When you know how big that love inside of you really is, it begins to come out naturally. Because it's too big to keep in. We are filled to overflowing with that love. Light doesn't shine because you try really hard to make it shine. Light shines because that's it's nature. The way we "let" our light shine is simply knowing and believing that it is already shining in us! And when we know it and believe it, then what's in us comes out of us. All by itself--or Himself. That's when we stop trying to live Jesus' life (which is impossible for anybody but Jesus) and we just let Him live His own life in us and through us and as us. That's when we start to see things how they really are. That's when we stop looking at people's actions (and judging by appearance) and start looking people in the eye. Have you ever gotten lost looking into someone's eyes? Because that's where TRUE beauty is. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and the eyes are the window to the soul. So when we look with doves' eyes--see with the Holy Spirit--and we look INTO each others' eyes, that's when we see what's really there. On the inside. The inner man. The hidden man of the heart. The Jesus in me connecting to the Jesus in you. Spirit to Spirit. Holy to holy. When we know what's inside, that's when it comes out. Naturally.