What do we do with our Faculties?

(Mark 5:31) “'Who touched me?'"

Having a look at my own heart and the heart of others when it comes to “gathering” information, there are many ways we can achieve this. But it is always through our senses and at first glance we may be tempted to categorise the importance of our senses, but all have their role to play. Our physical faculties by which a person obtains information about the physical world and now also used to obtain spiritual information for those who believe.

Let us imagine the importance each faculty has in our lives; but before we explore this, let us consider honestly why and what we use our senses for. It is self-examination and needn’t go any further than to be honest with ourselves, as we know God sees all!

We have five God given senses; sight, taste, touch, hearing and smell. Which of these do we use the most and what do we use them for; is it to understand God deeper and abide in His will or are we quick to run to evil with them?

By now we should clearly understand that we are in one of two camps, we either are in God’s army and have His spirit, we have been born of the flesh, a natural child birth and then born of the Spirit, born again through repentance. Or we are still blind to our sin and regardless of religion or tradition we have had only one birth, our natural birth and therefore still dead in our trespasses and sins and can only ever use our sense for evil even if what we do the world judges it to be good, in God’s eyes it is evil and therefore will only produce death. I do not wish to be side-tracked explaining this as we have often discussed this exact topic in recent posts. Although there is a lot in scripture that proves this point, I will give just a verse to back it up; “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” (Romans 7:18) – Therefore without my soul being quicken (made alive through spiritual birth) I am bound by sin and even my conscience although it at times looks to be good will hopelessly fail.

Until I am in God’s army I will not be able to even reason out what we will now discuss: But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. (Deuteronomy 29:4) 

The natural man despises the law of God as it proves that we are sinners but the inner man delights in the law of God. Yet there is a constant war between my mind and my Spirit, it is this warfare I want us to look at in relation to our senses.

How then do they play a part in our lives? All five of them can now be used to produce life or death. Let us use some examples...

We have eyes to see because we have His spirit, through our born again encounter but that does not necessarily mean we use them correctly; "Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see, but see not, who have ears to hear, but hear not, for they are a rebellious house.” (Ezekiel 12:2) – So it is possible to have spiritual insight but through rebellion to spend our God given gift on sin rather than on what is righteous. This is a serious indictment, but nevertheless possible. It is not a pleasant thought but a needful one.

Let us now get personal; what do we use our eyes for? Do we spend our time exposed to the filth that the Lord Jesus laid His life down for by dying on a cruel Roman cross? I confess too much of my attention is given to that which does not edify, may you forgive me Father, may you forgive all who are swift in running to evil, whether it be conscience or through a nonchalant type of apathy. We now have eyes that are able to read the Bible and find wisdom for our lives, let us focus on disciplining them to read the life giving Word. We have ears that at times are exposed to blasphemy through TV and Hollywood's influence that we accept as the norm, it should not to be expectable! Forgive us Father God! Our hands touch unclean things, I do not speak about pork and the like but I make reference too far more serious effects, alcohol to the point of drunkenness, of the fondling of the opposite sex outside of marriage. I agree that may not be the norm, but even the subtle sins in our lives, (although that is a perception of our own feeble minds); to God sin is sin and they all have serious consequences. We are inclined to always push the boundaries to their limits. Why? It is always to our own detriment! We have been warned about this throughout scripture and let us not think that we will receive preferential treatment if we turn a blind eye to God’s instruction. I could go on but the point is made and there is no need for that. Let us rather learn from the woman with the “issue of blood” to push through “the crowd” (the giants in our lives) and touch our Master’s garment. The accountability is on us to abide in the Word in order to get our great Saviour to sit up and take note of our commitment. God always rewards the faithful, every single time! Look at this woman; “And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, "If I touch even his garments, I will be made well." And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my garments?" And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, 'Who touched me?'" And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease." (Mark 5:25-34)  

I suppose that is why God has left us with choices, to test His people, whether they are serious about His call or not. May God help us find grace to glorify His name! How we need it! Let us remember that our senses are now to be used to equip us to glorify Him and usher others into the kingdom of God. We have ears that can now help us with faith; “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17) – We therefore must expose them to sound doctrine; we must take in God’s Word through all of our faculties. I pray we would be honest with ourselves and rectify what needs doing.

Signing off

Tyrone