The Lord is offering us His Face to gaze into like a Father looks into the eyes of His children that we would see Him and He would see us.
Kelly Koshatka of Denton, Texas wrote that, “God’s heart is crying out through the scriptures that we would see Him. This is not about “imagining or visualizing the face of Jesus”; rather it relates to a heart searching to know God, “face to face” by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Only God Himself, by His Spirit, can open the eyes of our understanding to see the Lord in this way. What is something if it does not have a face? Anything that is faceless is without identity. What is our relationship with the Lord like if it is with a faceless God? What kind of walk do we have if we relate to God below eye level?” Who or what is your focal point and where is your horizon? Do you see the Lord through a veil which hides your face from the very One who desires with all His heart to live everyday life face-to-face with us?
Many years ago i was involved with a street level ministry. It was a real hands on thing, as with any street level ministry….there were many who seemed unwilling to be anywhere else doing anything different …. some had physical problems, many had mental issues….a lot of folks just seemed wedged in a crack and couldn’t seem to climb out….it was a great opportunity to practice compassion, grace, and often a real exercise in keeping good boundaries. Over time i had gained an attitude that “i” was “in ministry”, that “i” was the “helper” and “they”, yes….. the infamous “they”, were the ones being helped….“I” (with a captial “I”) was stooping down to help the “little ones”. Mind you, i didn’t consciously see it that way, but being where i am now and looking back at myself, my attitude, and past actions i can see my secret posture. Not only do i see what was in my underlayment, i also remember the significant moment when the Lord challenged me and my attitude, and how, in that one moment, the Lord struck and cracked my outer shell. One day i met an old black fellow, skinny, nearly toothless, cataract in one eye, he was homeless and liked it that way….. yet there was something real about him. He went by the name Tabb Roberts…who knows if it was his real name…. either way, once a week i’d buy a couple cups of coffee and go by Tabb’s place (which consisted of a tarp with some blankets) and we’d talk about Jesus, laugh and carry on for a while till he would usually announce he had some stuff to do. One day he was telling me about another guy who was so lazy that if the man had a job tasting pies at a pie factory he wouldn’t show up. It was a pretty good laugh, but then he got all serious, turned to me and said, “You know Capt’n (his nick name for me was Capt’n), we need to be careful what we say and how we act because we never know out from under who’s eyelids God is lookin’ at us from.”
It was a defining moment….i thought i was getting “Eye Level” with those who were “street level”, but really i was more hovering over them, forcing them to be in something less than a “face-to-face” relationship.
“Eye level” means getting next to people where your eyes and their eyes are on the same level, physically, metaphorically, and spiritually…. just like the Lord did with mankind through Jesus Christ…He got eye level with us. Up until the advent of Jesus Christ, the Lord was not “eye level” with us, but when Jesus came to town, God got right where He could look straight in the eyes of mankind. God gave us His face.
Some would simplify the whole concept down to saying it is “meetingpeople where they are”, which truly is a good idea, but i believe the Lord has something more in-depth in mind. The idea of “eye level” has everything to do with where your horizon is and what exactly is your focal point…..being able to see our horizons helps us put objects, both near and far, in proper scale and perspective in relation to where we are.
As in all good art, having no clear view of the horizon or focal point tends to skew and distort everything….little things are too big, distant objects are too near, irrelevant positions and postures seem too detailed, and the important things are set at a distance and made too small and insignificant. It seems that everything is just…..”too” something. Too big, too little, too far, too near……just “too” something.
Can you see the twisted world view that can happen when something as simple as having an obscured horizon and confused focal point occurs? The world around us is no longer “eye level”. The value of things change as our “eye level” changes.
When Jesus came to town, our potential relationship with God was miraculously changed. John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” God came to us as Jesus Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, crucified under Pontius Pilate, died and was buried yet rose from the dead and sits at the right hand of the Father Almighty. He is Emanuel, God with us.
God got “eye level” with those who were “street level”. He looked them eye-to-eye, walked and talked with people face-to-face; He heard their voices and they heard His, ear-to-ear; He touched people, skin-to-skin; and He felt with them, heart-to-heart. When Jesus came to town, His very presence changed their horizon and focal point, drew the universe into right perspective and sharpened the focus on all things relative to the Kingdom of God.
In the world we live in today, there is such a fight going on for what is on the landscape of our lives…..the more walls and obstructions we allow to block ourframe of reference, the easier it is to have a confused horizon and difficult to keep a righteous perspective. Leonardo di Vinci said, ‘Perspective is to painting what the bridle is to the horse, the rudder to a ship‘. Jesus, Messiah, the Christ of God became our horizon and focal point, He is our frame of reference, the righteous bridle for our perspective. The closer He gets to all things, the more all things become like Him.
John 1:16-17, “And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
Jesus had some guys He hung out with….early on in Matthew 5 they are referred to as disciples and by Matthew 10 they are called apostles. God didn’t stand over them and hold Himself aloof and untouchable….He was there, “eye level” with the world and anyone who was willing to hold His gaze.
Jesus and the guys went places together, sat and ate together, and had conversations late into the night. They were more than just at “hand level”, meaning they didn’t hang out with Him for what they could get from Him. They were more than just “mouth level”, meaning they didn’t hang out with Him for the cool stuff He said; instead it was a day-to-day “eye level” life, meaning they hung out with God because of who He is. They went on camping trips, like in Luke 9 when they went out to a desert place, or in John 6 when it says they went up on a mountain, and “there He sat with His disciples”.
They even went on some short term mission trips, like in John 4 when they went to Samaria and an entire town heard the gospel. God, Jesus Christ, was “eye level” with the stumbling, the floor sweepings of society, the distraught, wounded, sick and dying. He even….are you ready?…. He even touched the diseased. It was against the rules for anyone to put their hand on a leper, but God touched a leper in Mark 1:40. Jesus broke the rules and actually touched the ones who were, according to society, below “eye level”, or even below “street level”…maybe just “gutter level”.
i find that the Lord addresses the motivations of our hearts, our attitudes and posture far more than our actions, and getting “eye level” with the Lord is about the motivations of our hearts. i figure if we really want to know someone we look into their eyes, hoping for a glimpse of character and intent. When Jesus got “eye level” with this world He was pressing past all our external junk, all our agenda’s, all our props and poses to meet with us, eye-to-eye, that we would encounter His face, that we would look into the eyes of God and see His true heart, and get lost in the star systems and galaxies of who He is. i really believe something amazing happens when we have an encounter with God’s Presence….the Hebrew for “presence” literally means “to encounter The Face”….it is a life changing encounter, a world and destiny changing event. Our faces identify us and reflect our attitudes, passions and opinions, and i believe the Lord wants to be known by us, for we are the object of His affection.
The Lord chose to come and be “with us” that we would know Him. So much of the world chooses to live below “eye level” with God, a place where there is always a short supply of passion, truth, and honesty.
Less than “eye-to-eye” with the Lord, relationships seem to eventually lack persistence and solid content, but when He is the focal point of our horizon and we take Him up on His offer of living at “eye level” with Him, it is amazing how life simply seems to roll smoothly together.
In Mark 8 Jesus healed a blind man. Verse 25 says, “Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly.” In the man’s “looking up” he looked into the face of Jesus, he got “eye-level” with God, and in the moment things changed forever; when He looked into the face of the Lord, in the instant …..he was restored and, i like this phrase, he “saw everyone clearly”. Now wouldn’t you really really like to have a big dose of seeing things clearly?
Ephesians 1:17-18, “…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding would be opened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,”
When the Lord is our horizon and focal point it draws all things into right perspective. Job 42:5, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You.” How many of us are only on “ear level” with God, hearing but never seeing?
Don’t get me wrong, being able to hear Him is both wonderful and imperative, but according to Job’s statement, there is more of God to be had by going beyond “ear level” to beholding His face at “eye level”. It seems that Job’s circumstances were very perplexing to him. What’s worse, he had some friends who tried to clarify it all for him, but truth be told, they made even less sense in the end. In fact, and this is just what i think, Job and his buddies suffered from their faces being veiled. But at the end Job has a radical change of heart from “ear level” to “eye level”.
2 Corinthians 3:12-18, “Since this new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold. 13 We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away. 14 But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. 15 Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand. 16 But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” Some of the key words there are “see” and “reflect”. With our eyes on the Lord and being “eye level” with Him, we are changed.
2 Corinthians 4:3, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,”
People who’s eyes are veiled seem to easily slip into bitterness, and confusion…..their forward momentum only runs just so far. They know God, they hear Him, and there is a relationship, but there is often something missing for lack of a face-to-face relationship….. they aren’t “eye level”. When we rest our eyes on the face of the Lord, old things pass away.
With an unveiled face we are consistently pursuing the things above where Christ is seated on the right hand of God Almighty, we are steadily setting our minds on the things above, which is “God level”, not the things on the earth, which is “earth level”; for we died, and our life has been hidden with Christ in God.
If we’ve got an “eye level” relationship with Jesus, He is being made visible and we are being made like Him.1 John 3:2, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
The words of my mouth have long been, “Jesus is the answer, He is always the answer, and there is never a time when He is NOT the answer. ”If Jesus is our answer, then we will seek His face, becoming “eye level” with God, that we might reflect His image in all our bearings and postures. Psalm 32:8, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. ”Who or what IS your horizon, your focal point that influences your perspective on everything? Think about it.
Secrets build fences, confession builds bridges. Early in lifei didn’t know the Lord, i lived with a veiled face below “street level”…..as a resulti had to learn to live within my own fences. When i was younger, there were things…. secret things in my life that i was so ashamed of i simply couldn’t look some people in the eye.It may have appeared i was looking at them at times, but honestly their gaze was just too penetrating for me. Not until i got “eye level” with Jesus, and learned to behold His gaze were any bridges built across my fences. My veiled face changed because i did more than hear, i beheld his face. Ahh….to behold His gaze has more in it than just glancing at Him when we think He isn’t exactly looking at us. To behold Him, meaning to consider, to contemplate and discern…. it is not only a looking upon, but clear discerning. Living “eye level” with God is more than just a momentary seeing but is a way of having and keeping our communication and affiliation steady; it is more than just a passive thing, it is alive and active…… the more we look at Him, the more we want to look at Him, and the more we see Him, the more we want to see Him. Paul had a burning desire above all things and that was “To know Christ”. He was “eye level” with God…..and you?
When Jesus walked among the crowds of people in Matthew9, He was at “eye level” where they could look straight into His face. He wasn’t sitting somewhere way over yonder beyond the blue, unseeableand untouchable….God was amongst men, they could see Him and He could see them….He lived this life as we live this life in all it’s goods and bads. There is no affliction in the realm of men which our High Priest cannot sympathize with, for in all points He was tempted as we are, but yet He is without sin….. When the disciples were in a boat in a storm and Jesus was resting in the bow, He was “eye level” with them, they lived and breathed in the gaze of God. In Matthew26:6, when Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, he was “eye level” with who was considered in that day as the “scum of the earth”…. the leper didn’t get on Jesus, Jesus got on the leper, darkness didn’t get on Him, He got on darkness. He was “eye level” with the floor sweepings of the world. As Andy Squyres writes in his song “Not In My Strength”, “Has He not called the disqualified, the poor and the prodigal sons; scum of the earth, the bankrupt and blind, the lost and unfortunate ones.You know me well, i’m all of these things, yet He still calls me His own. He’s washed me in blood, under the cross, so i boldly come to His throne.”
What or who stands at your horizon? What or who is your focal point which causes all things to come into rightperspective? Are you “eye level” with God? Eyes that are shut and hearts that are turned in the wrong direction will not be aware that God is in the house. Let us get “eye level” with Jesus and let Him take us up to get “eye level” above the world, up to the mountain tops and down into the ditches, compelling all we meet to come home.