Spiritual Perception

I (Daniel) leave for Northern Ireland tomorrow for a couple days of prep and meetings before the rest of the team leaves Thursday. I appreciate your prayers!

The Northern Ireland team is meditating on 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 this week; we're hoping to memorize these verses together, as well as another passage in Philippians next week. The passage seems to fit our mission in Northern Ireland: we are ministers of reconciliation. Just as we've been reconciled to God, so we seek to persuade others to be reconciled.

In this mission, we need to have right perception of the world around us, the people we're caring for, the circumstances we encounter. Concerning spiritual perception from 2 Corinthians 5:16, Jason Meyer said this in a sermon:

Paul says that there are two kinds of perception: physical (flesh) and spiritual. Everyone can do the first kind. It is natural ability that comes from physical birth: You are born into the first creation. The second kind of perception comes from spiritual birth: You are born into the new creation. Christ and the ambassador of Christ can only be seen rightly with spiritual perception, not physical or fleshly perception. Can you see what he is doing? He is worried that they are regarding or seeing according to the flesh—according to the outward appearance (as he said last week). He says, “Though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.” When did Paul regard Christ according to the flesh? When he was an unbeliever. When did he “regard him thus no longer”? New birth. He saw Christ with new spiritual eyes. Paul is asking the Corinthians if they are unbelievers. Do they only see according to the flesh? Can they not see the things of the Spirit?

Pray for the Northern Ireland team, that as we go we would be sensitive to the realities around us... spiritual realities. We are a new creation in Christ, with new eyes to see spiritual realities, not just according to the outward appearance of people and circumstances. Pray that we would keep this reality near the forefront of our minds over the next few weeks.