Are you seeing life from God's perspective, or your own?

Have you ever seen someone for who they really are, and not the person they portrayed themselves to be?  Maybe this person portrayed themselves to be of one character and then as you spent time with them, their real truth was shown.   Were you ever able to look past the person you saw and allow them to identify with the person they claimed to be?

This is hard for me.  When I see someone clearly for who they are, it is hard for me to see them through other eyes.   I can hear a person’s life story and not be able to identify that person with the person I see before me.   I wonder if the person is not able to see who they truly are, because their hearts have become hardened to the goodness of themselves, or they have been “brainwashed” to an extent, to believe the lies they have been hearing about themselves. 

Tonight as I was reading John I started to think about this, and I wondered if the Jews really were not “brainwashed” to believe the lies of the enemy, and instead of being stubborn and bull headed, they actually believed the lies about Jesus.   That maybe they weren’t able to hear Jesus or see Jesus for who he really is, because their understanding has become so skewed by deception.  

Jesus has spent some time trying to convince the Jews that he is the Son of God, and with every ounce of themselves, they are not able to believe this concept.  Jesus then goes on to tell them, you cannot understand this because your father is not my Father.  Basically, you are not able to understand and respond properly to what I am telling you, because your hearts, eyes and ears have been taken over by another. 

Satan can deceive you into thinking that you are doing God’s work by giving you pieces of the Word without the complete Word.  He can tell you, like he did Eve in the Garden, that yes, maybe God did tell you not to eat of the tree, which we all know he did, but then Satan will take that thought, and twist it to actually seem as if God is holding something back from you.  We all know logically, that God would never hold blessings from us.  He wants to prosper us and see us live in abundance, but when you have been trained, and convinced, of one thing for so long, your vision becomes cloudy.  You are no longer able to trust your own thoughts.   

Jesus was trying to reason with them, I think.  He was trying to get them to see if you really believe God, my Father, then your hearts should respond to me.  You should be able to see me for the truth of who I am.  They were not able to see Jesus clearly, because they had been so deceived by rules, regulations, and laws, that Satan took and spun for them.   

We know that God was trying to protect Adam and Eve, in the Garden, but Satan spun the tail and made it that God was actually withholding something from them, for his own enjoyment.  Almost as a punishment, against, Adam and Eve. 

The Jewish people, like Eve, are not able to see that they are actually being deceived, not by Jesus, but by Satan.  They are resisting the Truth, because they only see the truth, as it has been spun to them.  I am sure this was not a pleasant conversation, as both sides believe whole heartily that they are correct, but we know that there can only be one Truth, and we can see it clearly with perfect vision.  Our hearts recognize Jesus in this story, but do they recognize Jesus in our own lives?  

Deception can be a very smart advisory.  You can believe that you are correct about something because you have been trained to believe one way, so that becomes your truth.  Change happens when you allow your eyes to be open to another person’s truth, and see if that ministers to your heart.  We can’t be led by our minds or emotions when it comes to being deceived, you must see what resonates in your spirit.   

Light will always breakthrough to darkness.  You can enter a dark room and believe that you see, feel, smell or hear one thing, and as soon as a flicker of light enters into the room, you are able to see the truth of what you believed you already knew.  Jesus is the light entering into a dark society.  Into a society of people who have become so accustomed to believing what they read over what they saw with their eyes, and felt in their spirits, but as we know, Jesus will overcome that darkness. 

In John 8:34-36, from the Amplified Bible, Jesus says just this, well I believe this is what he was saying.  Jesus tells the Jews.  I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, Whoever commits and practices sin is the slave of sin.  Now a slave does not remain in a household permanently (forever); the son (of the house) does remain forever.  So if the Son liberates you (makes you free men), then you are really and unquestionably free. 

This gives us the answer to being slaves to sin.  When you are in sin, what I believe to be habitual sin, you become a slave to sin.  Just like if you are addicted to something you become a slave to that addiction.  It overrides your sense of knowing that you have become out of balance in that area, and dictates what you need and when you need it.    The addiction is now the master of you.   

Jesus is saying that when you sin you are the slave to sin, but that a slave cannot take up permanent residence of a home.   A slave is not in ownership, a slave is owned.   You can’t be permanent in something, when you do not own, what you are in.   You cannot own your addiction because you are a slave to it.   But if you are the Son of the homeowner, you can set up permanent residence because your name is part of ownership.   This will remain with you forever because you have a blood tie by the name.

When Jesus is telling us in verse 36, so if the Son liberates you (makes you free men) then you are really and unquestionably free.  The son has the power to free you, because he is a permanent fixture from the blood ties in the name.   

Jesus is giving us the answer to battling sin in these verses.  Jesus is saying, though you may not be a Son, at this time, and your vision may be skewed, so that you can’t recognize the Light standing in front of you, I have come to set you free.  I am going to be the Son that gives you the ability to be free.  You don’t see it right now because you are listening to another’s voice, but when you see me on the Cross, you will see the truth, and the truth will set you free.

I think that Jesus is pleading with the Jews even though he knows the outcome is not a favorable one.  Jesus knows that he is going to the Cross, and they are going to be the ones that send him there, but yet he still doesn’t give up trying to show them the error of their ways.

This is a lesson, one of many, in this story, that we should truly adapt in our own lives.  We may not see eye to eye with a person, or we may see a person for who they really are, while they are seeing from a skewed perception, but this doesn’t mean that we should ever give up on that person.  We should try over and over and over again, to show them that Light defeats darkness.   

We should have patience with the people in our lives and show them God, so that when they see us, they will see a reflection of God, and the Light of God’s love will shine into the darkness of their skewed vision.