58. Sermon on the Mount Secrets - Seeing is Desiring

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:22, 23)

Considering the context, we can conclude that in this verse, Jesus was talking about money. It follows the verse about our treasure. The verse about the masters, God and Mammon (money) follows it, and after that, we read about material goods for another eight verses. Therefore, the passage must be about money.

The eye introduces us to our surroundings, and the heart follows the eye. When a child notices a toy he likes in a toy store, he desires it, although he has never thought of buying that particular toy before. This applies to all people. The best way to keep a thief from stealing something is to hide it, and the best way to entice a customer to buy your product is to display it. What the eye does not see, the heart does not desire.

The passage above refers to the attitude of the eye. How are our eyes programmed?  What will our hearts follow? We can’t help but see what is before us, but how we see it is what counts. We have a choice. A man can see a beautiful woman and either ignore her or let his heart follow his eyes and desire her.

In the case of money, we expose our eyes and hearts to cars, houses, desirable lifestyles, and vacations. When we program our eyes to focus on material goods, status, and position, our hearts will desire and obtain them.

We also see ourselves in our mind’s eye, and that determines what we desire. Do we see ourselves as rich, powerful, and influential, living in a mansion? Do we envision ourselves in a political, managerial position, or in a position of influence in the church? If so, that is what the heart desires.

However, if we program our eyes to see the Lord, His works, and the needs of others, those eyes will ignore the material things they see and focus on what the Lord is doing. The heart will then follow, desiring to get involved with His activities. We see these with both the physical and the spiritual eye.

“God is light; in Him, there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth,” (1 John 1:5b, 6). The Lord and Mammon, the god of money, are enemies. If God is light, then anything outside God must be darkness. If God and money are enemies, then money must be darkness. I hear you say that the Bible says it's the love of money that is the root of all evil, but we're not referring to evil here. We're referring to things keeping us from walking in the light, from using our time to proclaim the light instead of managing things that are not of God, thus darkness.

A good eye, whether physical, spiritual, or the mind’s eye, focuses on the things of the Lord and will therefore bring light to the body. A bad eye focuses on things not of God, but of Mammon and other gods. They will darken the heart, since the God of light is absent. “If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness?” (Matthew 6:23b). If you use money or another dark entity as your guide, your life is destined for darkness.

What do your eyes cause your heart to desire? Do you set your eyes on temporary pleasures or on eternal rewards? We require no more than our daily needs. Anything more, in God’s mind, is darkness that will lead us to neglect His cause.

God is light. A body full of light is one that has absorbed God’s presence. In a body full of darkness, more attention has been given to ungodly activity; that is why we find less light.

What evidence can we find of God’s presence or His light in our lives? As when we switch on the light in a dark room, revealing its contents, the light of God reveals the contents of the heart. The evidence of the Lord’s light or presence in our lives is a revelation of His character, of His Word, and about our lives.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you,” (Matthew 7:7). The more you ask the Lord about Himself, His Word, and His Kingdom, the more He will reveal to you. He will reveal solutions to your problems as you seek them with all your heart.

Knocking at these doors might take time, though. The Lord might take His time to reveal, since He first wants to see a sincere and trustworthy heart. He wants to find out who will constantly seek Him and who reveals a genuine interest in that which is important to Him. Can He really trust a heart that is divided between His enemy, Mammon, and Himself?

If we are so concerned about meeting our material needs that we have little or no time to think about the Lord and His Kingdom, then money has replaced God’s presence. Then we might no longer get revelation. Even if someone gives a revelation, we might not grasp it, because the light of God is not there to reveal it.
The lockdown situation that most of us find ourselves in now is a good opportunity to learn to shift your focus. Personally, I had to deal with the desires of my heart. Am I going to occupy my mind with worries where the money would come from, or am I going to be busy with God's Kingdom (allowing Him to use me to affect other peoples' lives) and His righteousness (working at being holy and pure before Him), trusting Him to meet my needs (Matthew 6:33)? 

The body in this context can be either an individual or a body of believers. Remember the city on a hill with its lights? Imagine to what extent the Lord can use a body of believers with a corporate heart after God, living in revelation, constantly seeking more of it.

To get to this point, though, a body of believers has a major stumbling block to overcome: tradition. Although tradition provides security, it prevents people from receiving and acting on fresh revelation. Religion is dead and the body is in darkness when people follow set rules and procedures instead of the living God.

For children and adults who are prepared to learn in a childlike way. For more information see http://t-a-c.co.za.