Close your eyes. Now think of a cabin in the woods. Visualize your family inside sitting on the couches. You walk in the door, wave at them, and say, “Hi.”

Did you see it? How? You saw a real cabin with your family inside, right? How? What did you use inside your mind to picture that scenario? Your imagination? It was your imagination that could easily form anything that anyone said to you instantly as they were talking. But what if someone was describing something to you as your eyes were closed and then someone else jumped in and took over mid-sentence and continued to talk to you? Your mind would continue to paint the picture of whatever voice was talking, right? The imagination doesn’t turn off because the voice changes. It follows the instructions of whatever voice is speaking. As the voice speaks, an image begins to develop in your mind and that image continues to change and develop depending on the information it is receiving. Your eyes are fully closed but you are still “seeing” with no problem. You are using a different kind of “vision.” You are using a different kind of “eyes.”

This, my friends, is exactly how prophetic visions work. When someone has a vision, the spirit of that person is simply “hearing” the voice of God and the image appears. But prophetic vision is far more than just a gift of prophecy or seeing visions or dreaming dreams. Every one of us is called to live our lives with a prophetic vision. This is the epitome of the Spirit side of the coin in full operation. We are not to walk by our physical sight, but by our spiritual. In this article, I hope to flush this out so that you will know just how to do that. Having a proper vision is critical in both the physical and spiritual realms. Imagine if you were walking down a busy sidewalk and all of the sudden you just decided to shut your eyes and keep walking.

How long do you think it would be before you ran into something, got hurt, or hurt someone else? What if you decided to close your eyes while driving? None of us would ever think to do such things in the physical realm. Yet this is exactly what we do in the spiritual realm. We close our spiritual eyes as we do our best to navigate our spiritual lives with our physical eyes, and then we wonder why we end up in so many trials and frustrating circumstances. Could it be that half the problems in our lives are caused by us living with our spiritual eyes closed? I believe that the Lord is saying a resounding “Yes”!

How are you able to see any image, anyway? How do you see anything that is around you? Light. You are actually not seeing the object that you are looking at. You are seeing the light reflecting from that object which projects the image in your mind. The light is everything. The angle of the light can change the color, shading, and your perspective in relation to it. Change the color of the light and the color of the object changes. Everything depends on the lighting. Virtually every bad picture that is taken is because of the lighting. Studios spend countless thousands of dollars on lighting because it is simply that important. The image they are trying to project is completely dependent on the quality of the light that is on the subject.

Now, let’s take that concept back to the book of Genesis when man was created. The scriptures tell us that God made man in His “image.” We have talked extensively about this before, but this time I want to go in a different direction. We have already established that all images are just the product of the reflection of light. By default, this means that the image of man is simply a reflection of a light that precedes him. Psalms 27:1 says, “The LORD is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?” Over and over the Bible describes God as an infinite Light. When Moses came down from the mountain, he had to cover his face with a veil because it was glowing from having been in the presence of God. He was so close to Yahweh that his actual body was absorbing and reflecting His infinite Light. Adam and Eve were created by the light and their bodies glowed like Moses’ face. The light covered their nakedness. When they sinned, the Light source was removed and their nakedness appeared. Their physical eyes were opened and they could see the difference between things through the perspective and eyes of the Spirit. This new perspective was from the eyes of the flesh. Before the fall, they walked entirely by faith through the eyes of the Spirit. They knew no fear because their perspective was always the same as His. Their fleshly “eyes” were never opened. They were seeing through the physical eyes that God had given them, but everything was being filtered through the Light of the Spirit. The Spirit man was completely dominating the mind, will, and emotions (soul).

THIS is what it means to live by the Spirit and in the Spirit. Everything is filtered through that Light. There is simply no room for fear, no room for anxiety, no room for feelings of rejection or abandonment, worthlessness, depression, or anything else negative when we are walking in the Light. The question always comes down to, “What kind of light are you reflecting? How can you be sure that you are truly walking in the ‘light of His countenance (face)?’” The image you are portraying is completely dependent on the light you have inside of you, the voice that you are listening to, and the face that you are looking into. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish. But happy is he that keep the Law.”

Everything is about vision (chazown, if you remember). But the “glasses” you are looking through will determine the image that is seen. In this passage, God is clearly telling His people that clear vision comes from the Instruction manual He provided. Psalms 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” God’s Word/Instructions are the light for our journey. It is HIS voice that we are supposed to listen to and follow. It creates the perfect image that we need for life. So what happens if you change the instructions? What happens if we don’t believe in all of them? If you change the instructions then you are changing the color of the light, thus affecting the image. If you don’t believe in all of the counsel of God, then it is as if you are dimming the lights, again affecting the final image. Only when all of the lights are on full blast and we are basking in that light do we truly reflect the perfect image of God.

But as we have been learning, there are two kinds of Light, and both are the Word of God. There is the physical text of the Scriptures and there is the Word of God BEFORE the Word was written down, the Word that created the universe, the pure Light of the Almighty that hovered over the face of the waters. The pattern starts on the very first day of creation. There is the spiritual light that is created on day one and the physical light that is created on day four. The physical light is like the Law, the Instructions of God, which are meant to be a physical guide through this world, teaching us right from wrong and how to love God and love our neighbor. This is the Torah of God. The spiritual light of day one is connected to the Word of God before it was written down, the Word that was the Light of Creation straight from the essence of Yahweh Himself. This Light is for the spirit man inside of us so that we can be connected and have the correct image to follow in the Spirit.

Let me give you an example of how these two Lights work. In a television studio, there are two main sources of lighting. There is lighting that comes from behind to separate the subject from the backdrop it is being filmed against, and there is the lighting that comes from the front to illuminate the subject. The lighting from the back is like the Law of God. It lights the path in front of you. The lighting in the front is blinding to the physical eyes, just like the Spiritual Light of God is supposed to blind the eyes of the flesh so that you are dependent on the eyes of the Spirit. In the same way, we are to live by the physical Word (His written Instructions), which comes from the Spiritual Word. But at the same time, we are to be extremely sensitive to what HE desires and what the Rhema Word says, that higher word that comes and guides our physical man through each situation we face. A person can live their lives by the Scriptures and still get themselves into serious trouble without the spirit man being developed and operating in tandem with the physical Scriptures. Let me explain what I mean.

In the garden, Adam and Eve were following the voice of God. Their “image” came from His voice. Then all of the sudden, the serpent decided to start talking, and because they listened to another voice, the image changed. God had created one image of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the serpent spoke another image. The serpent knew that Eve wanted to be more like God. What Believer doesn’t want to be more like God? So, he deceived Eve into believing that eating from the tree would make them wiser so that they could be more like Him. Their hearts were right. They did want to be more like the Most High. But they were listening to the wrong voice so their perspective was skewed. Unfortunately, the final image radically changed and all of mankind fell into a bottomless pit.

You see, the Garden experience actually gives us the two-sided coin formula for how to relate to the Creator. It details for us exactly what to do and what not to do in our relationship with Him. There were two main components that were present in the account of the fall. First of all, there was the voice of God that spoke to them and gave them instructions (Torah in Hebrew). These instructions were for their benefit and for their way to life. Through His voice, an image was created, and it was clear. Secondly, there was another voice that was not ugly, was not scary, and seemed to be a trusting enough voice that they entertained it. That voice subtly altered the original instructions and created a new image. The serpent was crafty enough to find out what Eve truly desired (to be like her Creator) and then used his voice to create the “apple” as the solution to her desire. This story plays itself out countless times throughout the Bible, with the Golden Calf incident being the most obvious.

Adam and Eve knew the instructions of their Creator. They knew exactly what He had said. The path before them was lit by those very Instructions that came straight from His lips. Their hearts were pure and they desired to be more like their Heavenly Father. The problem was that they were not “walking in the light of His countenance.” The second they turned their heads away from His face and countenance, which was blinding their fleshly eyes and causing them to walk in total dependence on the Spirit, and started looking into the serpent’s countenance and face that had no light at all, their flesh could see clearly and the temptation ended up killing them and all of mankind. It’s like when you are looking into the sun, you cannot see. You are blinded by the light. But if you look away, you can then begin to see. The moment Adam and Eve took their eyes off the “Son,” they began the process of seeing with their fleshly eyes instead of their spiritual ones. They made the mistake of looking into another face and listening to another voice, and thus another image was created. It is only when we follow His Instructions while pressing into His Spirit in prayer that we are able to truly be in His perfect will.

In the end, there is much to learn from the Creation account dealing with the fall of man in Genesis. We have learned that there are two distinct types of the Word of God that are intimately connected. We have the Spiritual Word of God that existed before Creation that speaks directly to the spirit man inside of the Believer, much like the blinding lights in front of a person in a television studio. Then there is the manifestation of that Light that was written down – what we call the Scriptures – which is what we read with our physical eyes and apply to our lives. This is like the light behind the person in the studio that lights up the path that is before Him in the natural realm.

We have learned that if you only use the light that is behind you (the scriptures), you still cannot please the Father because the scriptures do not have answers for every single situation that comes up. The written Word is like a shotgun hitting as many topics as possible and creating principles that we are to live by. However, the Spirit is like a rifle that knows exactly what the bull’s eye is in every situation. When we live by the scriptures but walk by sight, we are only loving God with one side of the coin. What He desires is for us to live out the scriptures THROUGH the blinding Light of the Spirit that is before us. When you are blind, you rely on someone else’s sight. This is what it means when it says that we are to “walk by faith and not by sight.” Walking by “faith” is going slow enough and pressing in enough in prayer to let Him lead, allowing Him to direct your path.

“Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.” – Proverbs 3:5-6

When you face trials of many kinds, follow His Word and press into His Spirit through intense prayer. Move forward slowly as you praise and acknowledge His great name. Then watch Him work as He supernaturally directs your path!

Shalom,
Jim Staley