Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Today we’ll allow the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to the Son blinding people to give them sight.

Today’s scripture, Acts 9:2‭-‬9‭, ‬17‭-‬18 (NLT) shares…
“He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains. As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice but saw no one! Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink. So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized.

Consider…
Today’s scripture is the familiar road to Damascus conversion of the Apostle Paul. This is the Eclipse adjacent event that the Holy Spirit gave me to explore how Jesus works in our lives.

One of the phenomenal things of an eclipse is how bright the sun is. It’s so bright that on either side of the total eclipse, a person must wear special sunglasses to view it, lest they do damage to their eyes, up to and including blindness.

This got me to thinking, how do we look at God? That immediately ran my mind to Exodus 33:18‭-‬23 (NLT), which shows us that we can’t look at Him in His glorified form. It shares…
Moses responded, “Then show me your glorious presence.” The Lord replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose. But you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live.” The Lord continued, “Look, stand near me on this rock. As my glorious presence passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and let you see me from behind. But my face will not be seen.”

Although, God told Moses that no one can look directly in His face and live, we know that according to John 1:14 NLT, we were blessed to do just that. It says…
So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

When people physically saw Jesus, they saw the face of God. That’s what Jesus explained in John 14:9 (NLT)…
Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?

Talk about grace, God the Father, through Jesus the Son, allowed everyone to see Him face to face! 🤯

However, did people realize they were looking at God, or did they think it was just Mary and Joseph’s boy? (Luke 4:22)

How is it that people during Jesus’ time on earth didn’t recognize He was God? How is that people still don’t today? (Matthew 16:13-14)

Jesus gives us the answer in Matthew 16:15‭-‬17 (NLT), which shares…
Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being.

God the Father reveals Jesus to us!

We also see that Jesus’ works reveal He is God to us. We discover that in John 10:24‭-‬25 (NASB1995)…
The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me.

It’s easy to say we’ll know Jesus when we see him and his works, but the reality is he died over two thousand years ago. In fact, when Jesus died, his closest followers doubted our risen Savior was still alive. (John 20:25-28)

In response to the His doubters who only believed what they could physically see, Jesus said, and says…
“You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” – John 20:29 NLT

The Holy Spirit is telling me that contrary to the adage that seeing is believing, truly with God believing is trusting who we can’t or what we don’t see. That’s because Hebrews 11:1 (ERV) explains…
Faith is what makes real the things we hope for. It is proof of what we cannot see.

And Hebrews 11:6 (ERV) declares…
Without faith no one can please God. Whoever comes to God must believe that he is real and that he rewards those who sincerely try to find him.

These two verses bring us to Paul’s testimony today. It’s important to know that in Paul’s persecution of the followers of the Way, he was trying to please God by punishing these blasphemers.
*** This is a good reminder that God doesn’t need us to condemn or punish anyone for Him. He alone is judge.

As we look at this road to Damascus conversion, we see three things that can help us understand how God can open our eyes 👀…

• A very bright light from heaven, blinded Paul physically. My sanctified imagination believes that Light was Jesus (Isaiah 9:2)
• After blinding Paul, Jesus spoke to him. This tells me that we can’t hear God until we stop seeing (paying attention to distractions).
• When God restored Paul’s sight, He filled him with the Holy Spirit. In the same way, when Jesus transforms our vision, He fills us with the Holy Spirit, to help us to see life spiritually rather than physically.

The next time you look at the sun shining, reflect on when the Son shined His light on your heart. When He showed you everything you were doing was wrong. And when He corrected your vision of who, what, and how you see.

Lastly, Jesus, the Optometrist, has given us the Holy Spirit to see everything about Him clearly. And He’s given us His eye chart, the Bible, to regularly check our spiritual vision. If we discover our sight is blurry, it’s an indicator that we need more of the Holy Spirit.

Today, and everyday put on the Holy Spirit lenses to see the world as Jesus does. 🤓

Today’s Song…
Open The Eyes Of My Heart Lord

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)