The following scriptures make clear the importance of seeing and hearing. For us to enter the Kingdom of God, we must first be made aware of it. We must hear the Good News of the Kingdom, we must see the Kingdom displayed in front of us:
So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.
But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
Sometimes the most important aspect of the discipleship process, sometimes the missing piece of our formation, is seeing Jesus. Without a vision of Jesus and His Kingdom, we cannot move forward in spiritual growth. Without seeing and hearing, we cannot repent and believe, and we cannot enter and receive. Read John 3:1-21 where the interaction between Nicodemus and Jesus is recorded. Nicodemus was a godly man who desired the Kingdom, and was willing to put into practice the way of God, but he couldn’t see it clearly enough to choose it, or to do it. Nicodemus didn’t understand what was happening, and he needed Jesus to show him a vision of life with God.
What must I do to see Jesus more clearly?