April 19

What then? What Israel was seeking, it failed to obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, — Rom 11:7 BSB

Those who are blinded by the god of this world have no understanding of the power, the feeling, the savor, or the dew of God's presence. They cannot see these things, they are blind to their reality and dead to their importance. But God's people, who are led by His Spirit into a deeper understanding of eternal realities, have eyes that can perceive what spiritual power is, and hearts that long to experience its manifestation.

It is this very understanding of what is real and powerful that makes them desire to feel the sweetness of eternal things in their hearts. And when they do not feel them as they wish, they often fear they are completely blind (Isaiah 59:10). But the fact that they are asking, crying out, groaning in desire, and fervently supplicating to the Lord, begging Him not to let them live and die without a testimony from Him, shows that they are alive spiritually.

If you were truly blind, you would not recognize these spiritual realities; if you were spiritually deaf, you would not hear them; and if you were spiritually dead, you would not feel them. So, what you may take as evidence against you is actually proof of life within you. The feelings of anxiety, inquiry, godly fear, and the desperate crying out to God to search and try you—these are all signs of spiritual life. They are the evidences of grace working in your heart, the spiritual breathings of a soul quickened by the Lord Himself.