Chapter 4 - How God Teaches His People to See the Invisible

Question 1

PRINCIPLE #1

Answer 1

Imagination is a natural endowment, and by it God desires man to picture divine things. I Chron. 29:18; 28:9; 2 Cor. 10:5, etc. “Perfect peace” is assured him “whose imagination is stayed upon” God.

Question 2

PRINCIPLE #2

Answer 2

Jesus declared: “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” John 14:9. Our vision of God and of heaven comes as we study the Scriptures, for in them we have word pictures of heavenly things.

Question 3

PRINCIPLE #3

Answer 3

Spiritual vision develops as we continue to study the Word of God and pray for heavenly enlightenment. Living in the atmosphere of the inspired writers, one learns to see things as they saw them.

Question 4

PRINCIPLE #4

Answer 4

The infinite Teacher “used similitudes” (Hos. 12:10) by which to instruct His people. By comparing Jas. 3:9 with Gen. 1:26, 27, we see that a “similitude” is an “image” or “likeness.” In His Word, God employed “similitudes”, likenesses, or imagery because He created the mind capable of conjuring up pictures.

Question 5

PRINCIPLE #5

Answer 5

Whether learning through the eyes or the ears, we arouse the mind to take pictures of that which we seek to memorize. The mind is a photographic plate, and is constantly taking pictures. Clear thinking is an alert mind taking clear pictures, which are stored up in the memory. Logic is the manipulator which adjusts the focus of the camera. When seeking to recall something to memory, we concentrate on making the brain throw on to the screen the pictures we have stored in our minds. We forget easily when we fail to expose the mind-plate long enough to enable the picture to be indelibly stamped upon the mind. Meditation is a Christian duty. 1 Tim. 4:15.

Question 6

PRINCIPLE #6

Answer 6

By word pictures, God has made the truths of His Word clear, and by them He has been able to present “much in little.” By the law of association, the mind can visualize all which is connected with a symbol.

Question 7

PRINCIPLE #7

Answer 7

The historical incidents recorded in the Old Testament provide us with word pictures by which God teaches us spiritual truths. In them we are to see things’ world-wide in scope: corresponding likenesses in the spiritual realm, which are “spiritually discerned.” 1Cor. 2:14.

The New Testament reveals the principle of “spiritually” discerning “spiritual things” in the historical narratives of the Old Testament. In this way “God hath revealed them unto us” the things which He “hath prepared for them that love Him.” The natural eye does not see these “spiritual things,” and often interprets literally that which should be “spiritually discerned.” See 1Cor. 2:6-16.

Question 8

PRINCIPLE #8

Answer 8

Natural or literal objects illustrated divine truths: “Natural things were the medium for the spiritual.” Christ’s word-pictures lead us “from the natural to the spiritual kingdom.” As shown in later chapters, all the natural, or literal history of literal Israel was recorded to present pictures leading “from the natural to the spiritual kingdom.” In this way God teaches His children to see the invisible, and, by seeing the things of the spiritual realm, to grow strong in character and purpose.

Question 9

PRINCIPLE #9

Answer 9

God calls the Laodicean church to develop spiritual sight: “I counsel thee to … anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” Rev. 3:18. Only by much prayerful study of the Word of God is it possible for this heavenly injunction to be obeyed. The development of spiritual vision depends upon the co-operation of human effort with Divine power. See Matt. 13:13-17