Phil. 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
Jesus often spoke of people who had eyes to see but can’t see and ears to hear and can’t hear. Paul talked about being dead in our trespasses and our sins. Until we are awakened we are not aware of our deadness to spiritual things. Awakening effects us on multiple levels. First, our view and perspective of God Himself is radically changed. We see Him as the most amazing of all beings, no one or nothing else is even close. Secondly, our view of life itself and the world we live in changes dramatically. We see His handiwork in creation and in His plans that are visible all around us. Jonathan Edwards spoke powerfully about this spiritual perception that he experienced after his awakening. Enjoy his comments.
“I have many times had a sense of the glory of the third person in the Trinity, in his office of Sanctifier; in his holy operations communicating divine light and life to the soul. God in the communications of his Holy Spirit, has appeared as an infinite fountain of divine glory and sweetness; being full and sufficient to fill and satisfy the soul: pouring forth itself in sweet communications, like the sun in its glory, sweetly and pleasantly diffusing light and life. I have sometimes had an affecting sense of the excellency of the word of God, as a word of life; as the light of life; a sweet, excellent, life-giving word: accompanied with a thirsting after that word, that it might dwell richly in my heart.”
Edwards spoke powerfully in these comments about the two ways the Lord communicates with us. First, he describes the beauty of the person of the Holy Spirit. He describes the Holy Spirit as light and life. By light, he is talking about revelation and understanding that floods our lives by the Spirit. By life he is describing the satisfaction and fulness of life itself that fills our being in the person of the Holy Spirit. Edwards goes on to describe the new awareness of the power and glory seen in the written word. It has obviously become alive to him and strangely attractive as it becomes the very source of our lives. If you seem a little dull in your spiritual life the answer is always the same; the Word and the Spirit. Soak in His word, spend time in reflection and worship; awakening will be the result.