I am extremely near-sighted. Eye charts are a blur. I am thankful for my contacts, but I would love to be able to just wake up with clear vision instead of fumbling around jabbing plastic into my eyes to help me see. However, if I was given the choice of natural sight or the ability to view the supernatural, I would quickly choose the latter. The thought of looking past the world around me into the heavenly realm is absolutely amazing! I believe in this possibility for there is a man in Scripture who had the opportunity to see God’s glory in the heavens even while experiencing violent opposition on earth.
Acts 6:8-15
Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen. But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke. Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.” So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.” All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
It was a bad day: false charges, arrest, court appearance, corrupt witnesses. However, Stephen did not let the events stop the truth. He preached the longest sermon recorded in the book of Acts. The message was compelling but at that time rejected.
Acts 7:54-56
When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
The Spirit in Stephen gave insight to him that others could not see. In the midst of his difficult circumstances, Stephen looked up and saw God’s glory. He looked beyond his situation into eternity. The Holy Spirit guided him in viewing what was taking place behind the natural into the supernatural.
When I heard this verse in a message recently, I was struck with the connection made between the fullness of the Spirit and seeing the glory of God. Stephen only saw God’s glory because he was Spirit-filled. This was in the midst of a difficult situation that ultimately turned deadly. Yet, Stephen looked and saw the Lord. Stephen was being led by the Spirit, not by his own desires, even though it would ultimately cost him his life.
If we are not seeing the Lord above our circumstances, could it be an indicator that we are not full of the Spirit? Maybe we are full of our own plans, our own opinions, our own desires, our own forms of control, our own pain, our own questions, our own bitterness, our own pride, our own justification, our own victimization. Instead of seeing God, we see a problem without Providence. When full of ourselves, we cannot look beyond what is going on to the One who is above it all. When we are full of the Spirit, the supernatural overtakes the natural and we can trust that God’s glory will be the ultimate good in the situation for ourselves and others.
Stephen experienced this, although he never saw the outcome. He was martyred that very day. However, one of the chief orchestrators of his death, a man named Saul, became the greatest champion of the gospel of Jesus. Saul, whose name was later changed to Paul, transformed the world with his evangelism and letters to the churches which now make up a bulk of the New Testament. I believe the beginning of Paul’s journey toward Jesus started when a Spirit-filled man named Stephen looked beyond his situation to behold the glory of God.
My prayer for us is for the Spirit of God to fill us today enabling us to see the world through the lens of the supernatural. How different would our view of life be if our focus was on the Lord and not on our circumstances? When our vision is full of God, we then can testify to others about the glory of God revealed to us. Hopefully, by God’s grace, others will then be transformed by the Lord as well. It starts with us choosing to be full of the Spirit, not full of ourselves. Then, we will truly see life clearly.