Spiritual Eyes

This is Pastor Carter Connell, and I just want to welcome you again to my kitchen, and I thank God for you, and thank God that through this difficult season that you and I and all of us have to live through, that God is going to be faithful to us, and not just faithful to us, he's going to give us the ability to actually make a difference in somebody else's life. Let me read to you today from the book of Ephesians 1, from the writings of the Apostle Paul, verses 18 and 19. Here's what Paul says, The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power. You know, he did say in Luke chapter 4, verse 18, that he came to give the blind sight. Sometimes when times get difficult like today, it's just hard to see how our lives can actually make a difference. Let me just give you a story of one illustration in my life that actually changed not only my life, but I think changed the life of a little girl. Two years ago, I was visiting Kenya, and we took a bunch of little girls from a girl's home to a park, a theme park that had giraffes and other animals and such like at it. And while we were there, there was this little girl about six years old, and I bent down on my haunches, and I just said, hey, what's your name? Where do you come from? And are you happy? And what are you doing? And suddenly she looked me right in the eye, and she said, pastor, you have spiritual eyes. And I looked at her, and I was kind of perplexed. And I said, well, what do you mean by that, that I have spiritual eyes? She said, if you didn't have spiritual eyes, you wouldn't see me. I can't overestimate the impact of that particular moment in my life. You know, we get so busy, those of us, especially in ministry, or we've got our things to do throughout the day. And sometimes the very things that are important in the sight of God somehow become hidden from our eyes. That night, or shortly after, I had an opportunity to visit the girl's home, and we had a prayer meeting there. And in that prayer meeting, I told them how much God loves them. I said, because I love you, and I feel for you the love of God, because the love of God is in my heart towards you. To my amazement, all of these orphan girls suddenly fell down on the floor and started profusely crying. I didn't know what I had done, but I found out later through one of their persons that guides them that nobody had ever told them this. They never felt special to anybody. You know, there's a lot of people that don't feel special to God, but they can find out that they are if you will see them and just take a moment to stop and speak into their lives. Watch what it will do for them, but also watch what it will do for you. I'm not afraid to ask God to give me spiritual vision every day. God bless you. See you again tomorrow.