SPIRITUAL RECEPTORS
[8-minute read]
Most people find optical illusions mind-bending. But while they take practice and time to solve, once you see the embedded images, you cannot ever ‘unsee’ them again. How many fish do you see below? Almost instantly, the brain tells us four fish because we see the head, tail, eyes and shape of four fish. If that is our conclusion, we move on without a second thought.
Our brains register facts to help us draw quick conclusions for what our senses perceive. In life, if we apply such simple deductive reasoning for summarizing and understanding the world and people around us, there will be a tendency to draw the same conclusions and experience the same outcomes in all situations. Let’s say a man has died after suffering a long illness and the widow is smiling and talking to visitors. We surmise that she must have expected the death and had time to be prepared for living with the loss. We conclude that life must improve for her now that her caregiving has ended and her grief must be less intense than a widow who faced a sudden and tragic loss. If things are starkly different from our surface-level assumptions, we would be none the wiser about the true realities.
Every day, we see and hear about events in the news, on social media, and from people we know with a certain detachment from those involved. We say or text a prayer and believe with all our hearts that God will certainly help them out. We tend to make swift conclusions like ‘They need God. If only they know God, they would not suffer so badly.’ Or ‘Well, I have never experienced it so I don’t know how to respond appropriately.’ It suffices to say that relying only our human thinking and natural senses to understand new situations and realities make us clueless and ineffective as believers. We also risk appearing out of touch, apathetic and cold towards human suffering.
Contrastingly, when Jesus saw crowds following Him, the Bible recorded that, ‘When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.’ (Matthew 9:36). How did the Lord visualize humans as lost sheep?
Psalm 34:8-14 describes a time when David was being pursued by the vindictive King Saul. Driven to take refuge in a cave, he was followed by many men who were distressed, in debt and discontented (1 Samuel 22:1-2). Imagine being stuck in an echo chamber with 400 men who were downtrodden; everyday, you would hear people gripe about this and that, talking about situations they felt too defeated to change, commiserating with each other in their shared misery.
But instead, what did David say to them? “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him…those who seek the Lord lack no good thing… Come, My children, listen to Me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord…. keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies.” (Psalm 34:8-14) What - was he hallucinating? Instead of the cave around him, David saw that he was in fact taking refuge in the Lord. Surely, the material comforts and security of a palace would be more reflective of the goodness of God instead of the harsh conditions and hidden perils in a cave. What was David talking about that eluded all the people around him?
Clearly, David’s spiritual receptors were highly activated although he found himself driven to dire straits in a very unpleasant place. At a time when it seemed as though God had betrayed him and he himself needed encouragement, he was surrounded instead by unhappy and helpless men. Everyone around saw him as a leader and they followed him. They wanted to believe that he could deal with anything that life threw at him and he would bounce back because he was a man of faith. They could easily convince themselves that his faith in God alone would sustain him and stand him in good stead without any human intervention and comfort. They were in a sorry state but David was strong. How common it is that we prefer to think that others are spiritually stronger than us and do not need our support. We let such erroneous and self-serving arguments deflect our responsibility to demonstrate godly love where it is needed.
Many of us know that the Lord is good. However, we need to ask ourselves how then should we respond to His goodness? Is it enough to flaunt God’s blessings on social media? Is He the God who keeps us well in good times and not the God whom we boast about when hard times fall on us? Christians cannot go through life being spiritually dull and emotionally insensitive. When our spiritual receptors are activated by the Holy Spirit, we will respond very differently to people in different situations.
Therefore, Christians have compelling reasons to turn our natural receptors into spiritual receptors by observing three things:
1.TONGUE
If only our tongues are embedded with auto-correction and Bible validation as we speak! Our yes and no will not be so straightforward, and we will find Word-based truths dominating our conversations instead of nosey gossips.
Proverbs 18:21 reminds us, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” To play it safe, we may remain silent instead of speak life, deepen connections, and restore hope whenever we have an opportunity to do so. When we refrain from saying anything, either edifying or hurtful, inspiring or insulting, restorative or destructive, we play up a powerlessness that subdues the power of the Holy Spirit in us.
Indeed, the voice of the Holy Spirit runs counter to the human intuition. Banished to hide in caves, David chose to anchor his heart in praise, “I will extol the Lord at all times, His praise will always be on my lips”. (Psalm 34:1). He sounded like one away on vacation, but he was in fact an exile taking refuge in an unnamed hideout somewhere. Just a word of caution, however, that we are not talking about dishing out hyper-spiritual cliches that are out-of-touch with another person’s lived realities but allowing the Holy Spirit to set our hearts in the right place so we can reconnect others to the love of God.
It also needs to be said that we must also pay attention to what we tell ourselves all the time. What does your self-talk sound like? Is it prideful and detached? Are you messing up your self-esteem with lies about yourself and others? Or are you rigorously running checks on your self-talk against God’s promises for His children? When you hear of another random act of mindless violence, another massive layoff, another divorce, another setback in someone’s life, do you tell yourself, ‘I’m immune to it’, ‘I’m too far removed from the person or people involved’, or do you ask the Holy Spirit, ‘how do I respond’ or ‘what can I do’?
2. EARS
What does listening do to a Christian’s growth? The Bible teaches us that ‘blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey it’ (Luke 11:28) and that ‘…faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ’ (Romans 10:17). In other words, the human voice has the power to activate faith in others. Our spiritual growth is commensurate with the quality of conversations we have with others. Do we let other believers keep us honest about our spiritual walk or do we only hang out with people and groups who cautiously avoid sensitive topics to preserve our relationship with them?
In all honesty, we cannot expect to have meaningful life experiences and relationships with others without actively tuning in to the voice of the Holy Spirit. What our ears receive will feed our spirit man and determines how we respond to God’s love, goodness and faithfulness. Do we only want to listen to friends who elevate us with flattery, and whose comments and opinions don’t offend our sensibilities? Who then will we allow to correct us and veer us back onto the right track for growth and maturity?
How our ears respond to gossip or a friendly rebuke is very telling about who we are. Do we pay attention to conversations that have integrity and honesty? How much time do we spend listening to and reflecting on the Word of God.
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches!” (Revelations 2 & 3).
3. EYES
Jesus was a master at reading the room and interpreting context. Sure, He was the Son of God but His perceptions were always spot on and always true. Yet they often went over the heads of His disciples.
When we see and draw conclusions only with our physical eyes and what our natural vision informs us, we will rely on visual cues to draw simple conclusions about what people are going through. By refusing to acknowledge that there is more than meets the eye, we are copping out of acting responsibly in our relationships.
Do your eyes see that God is faithful and true to all His promises all the time? Know that there is always a Word that meets our human need. With intensity, David prayed, “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your law.” (Psalm 119:18). Time and time again, he found himself on the run. Yet, he never ran out of confidence in God: “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” (Psalm 27:13-14).
It is time for us to engage our spiritual receptors, so that the hidden can be heard, the invisible can be seen and the despondent reached.
This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR Session held on 1 July 2023.
