Kingdom Eyesight

The box of the universe gets bigger every day, outrunning our ability to discover the end of it. The design of creation causes us to upgrade our telescope if we want to see more. If you want to see farther, you have to change to a bigger lens. In other words, moving forward means meeting the demands of the next level.

To get to the next level, you have to change how you think about and do things. Often, the change is so radical, that it takes a special grace from God to deal with the problem. Is it deeply rooted in your own identity and what you think you owe your allegiance to?

Take the example of Peter. Like Jesus and the other disciples, He was Jewish and Jews have very specific rules about food. God used that area of Peter’s life, unclean food, to teach him a lesson on whom God would love and allow into His Kingdom.

When Peter had a hard time inviting Gentiles, non-Jews, to be part of the body of Christ without them adhering to Jewish customs (food, circumcision), the Lord spoke to him about progression through a dream.

In Acts chapter 10, a tablecloth came down from heaven for a feast of “all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things and birds of the air.” The voice of God told Peter to “kill and eat.”

Wanting to stay in “Egypt,” where he’d been a slave to dead customs and fierce nationalism, Peter said, “By no means, Lord!” It had never entered Peter’s mind that God could call an “unclean” animal “clean,” much less an uncircumcised Roman or a common bacon-loving Texan, saved. As far as Peter knew, Israel was the only nation God was dealing with.

God, who loved Peter very much, was saying something very different from what he’d heard his entire life.

Peter had to rethink his allegiance – Jewish customs or the Lord’s love for Gentiles? Peter got it. He was able to step into the next level of thinking.

In order for Gentiles to be saved and accepted, Peter had to step up to God’s challenge. You should too.