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The Single Eye
Episode #338
Jume 2, 2013
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Special guests: Carole Nelson and Jim Pierce
John: Before we start today’s podcast I wanted to read a post that we’re putting up on Getalongwithgod.com on Thursday, May 30th. 2013. It’s called “Spidey-sense”, and I wrote it, and I just wanted to read this because I want to give a little background of what we’re talking about and what we’re describing. I don’t want there to be any miscommunication or misunderstanding by the fact that we break up the podcast into little bite-sized portions. I don’t want the context to get askew. So let me read you this real quick. The post says:
Spidey-sense
Posted on May 29, 2013 by John
I wanted to write about a recent podcast series we did concerning a trip we took to Italy. The trip was initially intended to be a vacation for Don and Carole who were going to take with them their daughter and son-in-law. But after Don’s passing the trip was obviously changed. Carole prayed if it was to be cancelled completely or if it was to evolve into another. Well, it worked out that Carole, Martha and I embarked on the journey together. It was a trip full of smiles and tears as we experienced Italy and reminisced on Don and his life. The voyage was a lifetime memory.
During this post I want to address our journey through the Vatican. I believe it was an object lesson fashioned by the Lord to give me a visual picture of walking with a single eye. On Episode #337 of the Shulamite Podcast, we discussed my experience as we walked through the 4 miles of the Vatican museum.
Thousands upon thousands of people visit this site daily. The collection of art is eclectic and vast. Statues, tapestries, paintings, architecture all adorn this contained city. It is amazing to say the least.
Well as I stated in the podcast we were ushered through to tour it in a most unusual way. It was as if we were in a bubble. We moved through the sea of people as if we floated. We interacted amongst ourselves unaffected by the throngs of people.
Now from childhood I have always been keenly aware of everything around me. It probably originated from fears but it developed into a spidey-sense. Martha has joked that I should have been recruited for the CIA. Anyway it has been a blessing and a curse. Heightened awareness can often be very distracting.
But during our walk through the Vatican, I experienced singular focus. It was amazing. Someone unwittingly commented on the podcast, “You didn’t care about all the people in the Vatican that Jesus lived and died for.” My answer to that is, NO, at that moment I was focused on what the Spirit had me on. And this is precisely the point. Amazingly this critical commenter clarified for me what was transpiring.
I believe God’s object lesson for me was to walk and be aware of only Him and what He was on. How often do the countless distractions that bombard us daily take our focus off of the Lord? Heck the buzz of a fly can capture my attention. But if you know me you are clear that I am not promoting removing ourselves from contact. Yet I do encourage following the leading of the Spirit in all our interaction.
So what is the lesson being orchestrated here? I believe it is the “single eye” spoken of in Matthew 6:22.
“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye be single, your whole body shall be full of light.”
To have singleness of eye is to have honed in focus. It is a single directed vision upon the Lord. This is what Christ had as He walked through throngs of people. Though God, He was a man. He looked clearly and keenly towards that which the Father Himself was gazing. And this was His genius.
For years, after being saved, I wondered how an earth could Jesus handle the sheer weight of NEED. I now can tell you how! He was aware of the Father and the Father guided His eyes and heart. How else could He praise the Father that He hid it from the wise and learned and revealed it unto babes? see Matthew 11:25 How? Because Jesus had a Single Eye and this is what He wants us to have as well.
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed–or indeed only ONE. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:41-42
(End of blog post)
(J) So I wanted to give you that as a background of what I’m speaking of, and what we were discussing and what we experienced in the Vatican. It was quite an amazing thing; it was quite a miracle actually. And with undergirding it with that background I hope you understand that what we experienced wasn’t a removal of us from the world, but it was a focus of us onto the King of Kings. And now onto the podcast.
Episode #338
(J) So I’m looking forward to living in that place, in that insulated, immune, bubble of the Kingdom. And that to me is an amazing thing. Ah…
(Carole) Ok then that is, that is the secret place. And you and Martha spent I don’t know how long doing the Amplified memorization of that, but does that not come out of that? I mean… that is, that describes what I think of as the secret place.
(Jim) I was trying to tie all this together in my head, all the, the wonderful things you’ve been able to talk about and tell us about in the few minutes we were listening. John, you said the word futile a while ago when you were trying to describe all that has taken place that seems totally wasted effort. And then you said but because of God’s sovereignty it’s necessary almost. You didn’t say I don’t know if you said necessary; but it is. It was necessary. It’s all a part of it. And I don’t know personally where you might be going, but you’re trying to tie this back in to blogs of the past few days, and particularly I think Jennifer’s giving up of nicotine actually, not so much cigarettes too, but nicotine. I felt like I was shown when you said the word futile and then, and then expounded on it a little bit that… And one of the things Jennifer touched on in the blog that she had to give it back. That futility is the best the world had to offer. So at the very least, when we recognize that we should be able to offer it back to Him and continue to let Him do with it what He’s doing, uhmm, and praise Him and thank Him for it, really. That’s where I’m going with that. The same with, there used to be struggle. The thing that came, that’s what in effect you did. I think you said you did that. I need to go back and read it again. I have a little experience with uhmm, chemical dependency, and that’s exactly what the Lord did with me. And I don’t even know what… I did know what I was doing, but in my desperate plea, in those moments, about four years ago after nearly forty years of all types of addiction centered around chemicals and all kind of crazy stuff. But I told Him I didn’t have anything to offer Him, but that. That was the best that I had. And I was willing to give Him that and trade; I didn’t even know what I was trading for. I don’t even know. But I know, I think that’s really key in order to thank Him, to be thankful for uhmm, for where we are and where I am, and what’s going on, which is His Kingdom coming through each and every one of us, because that’s what’s going on. That’s how His Kingdom is coming to earth. We’re His temple now. We’re not in a building, and we’re not in a tent. We’re the tent. So I guess part of your ministry is that you’re spreading the Gospel in that way. You’re allowing people to recognize who He’s calling us to be and Who we’re recognizing Him to be in us. And that His Kingdom coming. To me that’s what that is. That’s what I hope I can continue to grow in and I can be a component of.
(J) He showed me that it was the penny for the plate. It was the widow’s mite. It was all she had. That was it. She had one mite, and she put that in the plate, and that was what she had. And that’s what we all come to the table with. We may not recognize it. We may think we’re rich and have need of nothing, but we all come as that widow, with that mite, and we have to lay it down and…
(JIM) I don’t know the scripture well enough, but there’s another widow I think with an empty cupboard. I don’t know where that scripture is. More than they needed, more than they needed for…..(others speak in the background)….Elisha, thank you, yes.
(J) And she had, you know, he said hey, give me your, give me your wheat and give me your oil, and it was like, ah, that’s our last meal, buddy. And ah, he said no, come on, give me, give me the wheat and the oil. And she says, well fine, here it is, and then she had abundance. It didn’t….
(Jim) The best that she had.
(J) Absolutely. It was the last that she had, that was her….
(Jim) She had to give it.
(J) Yes. It was…
(Jim) And it was abundance.
(J) That’s right. It was, it was the, the last meal; the last supper for her and her son, and then they were gonna die. I mean you know.
(Carole) That story reminds me of “He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet receives a prophets reward.” So you know, he was doing that too out of sheer faith, had to be desperate faith.
(M) I want to tell about my moment in the trip, in the Baptistery. We saw the tomb of Mark, and we saw the tomb of Peter. Peter’s basilica, St. Peter’s basilica, he is buried there. But there’s this little chapel aside from St. Mark’s in Venice wasn’t it? Was it? (John speaks in the background.) Ok. All of the cities have run together. I’ve got to sort it out my memory and pictures. But and John’s art teacher had told him to… Did you know that he learned, his art teacher studied at that academia? Isn’t that amazing? Anyway, he said be sure to go to the Baptistery, which is just a little chapel for baptizing. The dome is filled, and the whole Bible is painted around the circumference of it; (Someone speaks in the background) a mosaic, and you can’t tell it. It is absolutely exquisite. And lots of gold pieces in it. So in the middle of it, all these churches we went to, that I first objected to and finally quit, was the baby Jesus, a little fat baby, naked, or hanging on a cross. There was no ascended Jesus. But in this place it was all Jesus. In the center was this, I’ll grant you strange face, but it was Christ in the center of the ceiling. And though it was a strange face it was exquisite to me. And then John started pointing out it was Jesus talking to Adam and Eve in the Garden. It was Jesus in the burning bush. It was Jesus in the entire Bible going around there. And he took, he stood there and twirled around and took a panoramic of the whole thing, which you couldn’t take in in one setting. I could have sat there for days in those exquisite paintings. But it was just, I’ve never seen, and John said this, I’ve never seen Christ as the entire scripture. It was just incredible, just leveled me. So the pieces of the mosaic are so tiny that it looks like paintings. It’s just… And studded with gold so that it’d glitter.
Wow how did I missed this. John this is sule . Prior to this I only red the commentary about the single eye and almost mussed the tobacco and chemical addiction issue. I have been trying to quit smoking and lord has taken it away spontaneously 3 weeks ago and I fell back to it. As I was listening and staring my ” His eye on the sparrow I came across Jennifer’s tobacco struggle and widows mite …I have been sensetive to unforeseen since the childhood as well. Holy Spirit spoke within and the eye said ” it is enough” I took what ever is left and broke and threw it garbage. This time is different since I know this is His desire and He is requesting this from me in free will. Thanks again! Say hi to Martha ! Sule
Ps I loved and whole heartedly agree with the mat 6:22 fab connection!