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God Seeks Eye Contact

The Falcon

In a dream, I saw a female figure approaching me who was wearing a very simple, light coat. Without a word she stopped in front of me and looked deeply into my eyes. When I looked into her beautiful eyes, my heart burned inside me and I knew in my spirit it was the Lord, the Holy Spirit!

In that moment, I saw the figure turn into a huge bird that started to soar and circle above me. A cry of joy burst forth from deep within me and I started shouting, “The falcon has come!” I knew that we had received help from heaven. The Lord had answered our prayers.

In another sequence of the dream, I saw this huge falcon plunge down, grab a snake that had found its way into our camp undetected and kill it. Then it soared upward again and kept killing small and large snakes that had also lodged themselves in other groups without anybody noticing. In the dream, I was painfully aware of how much strength, joy, energy, and life had been stolen from us by the presence of the snakes. I started praying that everything stolen from us would be returned sevenfold.

When I woke up, on the one hand I sensed great gratitude for God's help and His intervention. On the other hand, I was shocked by the fact that no one had even noticed the snakes. How could this have happened?!

In the following chapters, I would like to go into more detail about some of the points that became clear to me when I prayed about the meaning of this dream.

God’s Fundamental “Yes”

If you look into the eyes of a small child, you will discover a piece of heaven in them. In the same way, God seeks eye contact with us in order to discover a piece of Himself in our eyes, and at the same time to touch our innermost being with His love and revelation. In His eyes, we see the glow of a fundamental “Yes” for His creation and all His creatures. He is unreservedly for us and seeks fellowship with us.

My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; He who walks in a blameless way is the one who will minister to me! (Psalm 101:6; NASB)

I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you (Psalm 32:8; NASB).

In God's eyes, we find the reflection of His entire being, His presence, and His glory. They are like a gate through which we can enter the realm of heaven. As soon as the presence of God touches our eyes, our spirit opens and we can see things that are invisible to our natural eyes and outside of our time, because we are enabled to see and perceive a piece of eternity. The Spirit of God opens the eyes of our hearts and gives us knowledge and revelation so that we become "seeing" in the spiritual sense (see Ephesians 1:17-18; John 14:16).

This is what the servant of the Prophet Elisha experienced when he was full of fear and panic because the city was completely surrounded by hostile armies. Elisha said to him, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." He prayed that God would open his eyes. After that the servant was able to see the fiery chariots and horses, which far outnumbered the great army of the enemy, and despite the difficult situation he was greatly encouraged (see 2 Kings 6:15-17; NSAB).

This is what I experienced in my dream. By looking into the eyes of God, I started to see things that I had not been able to see before. The Holy Spirit gave me His vision, and I was suddenly able to see Him coming to our aid, even though the reality still looked quite different.

We can find another example in the book of Revelation, where John sees an open door in heaven and hears a voice saying to him, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place…" (Revelation 4:1; NASB). The door becomes the gate to the invisible world, which is as real as the world he saw with his natural eyes. The door also symbolizes Jesus as the way to the Father and to all the glory that surrounds Him in the throne room.

Eyes Like Fire

The eyes of the exalted Lord are like flames of fire (see Revelation 1:14). They express His divine will and His fiery passion to establish justice and righteousness, peace and joy – attributes of His Kingdom – here on earth (see Romans 14:17). The worldwide body of Christ will go through increasing upheavals and shakings, so that the unshakeable, that which endures for eternity, may remain.

At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens” (Haggai 2:6). The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken – that is, created things – so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:26–29; NIV)

The fire in His eyes also represents the burning love through which we are purified, disciplined, and set free to discern the profane from the divine and to ask the Father with boldness: "Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

Interestingly, the Lamb of God, as described in Revelation 5, has seven eyes, representing the seven Spirits of God, who are sent into all the lands to open the eyes of the world to sin and righteousness and judgment (see John 16:8).

Speaking about Jesus, Isaiah 11:2 (NIV) says: “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord.” At Jesus' baptism all these facets of the Holy Spirit came upon Him in the form of a dove and remained on Him. In His first sermon in Nazareth, Jesus refers to Isaiah's prophecy and testifies that He is the One on whom the Spirit of the Lord rests and that He has anointed Him (see Luke 4:18; Isaiah 61).

Now it is up to us to cultivate friendship with this mighty, wonderful Spirit of God. We need to internalize more and more deeply that the same Spirit who rested on Jesus and who raised Him from the dead now lives in us—seeking, empowering, strengthening, and baptizing us into the way "following the Lamb."

The Measure of God’s Eyes

I know many people who are afraid to seek the eyes of God, or as the Bible calls it, to seek His face (see Psalm 27:8). They are ashamed, feel unworthy, or fear punishment. However, God has shown us "the measure of His eyes" in Jesus Christ. He has given us a revelation of all His glory in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah. The Son of God became man so that we might measure the heart of God in Him. He became our measure! Whoever comes to Jesus becomes a new creature and enters into a new dimension of life. That means he becomes a son or a daughter of the Father in heaven.

The Song of Songs describes in a wonderful way how Sulamith, who represents you and me, learns how to see and appreciate her beloved through eye contact with him. She says at the beginning of their love story: “Do not stare at me because I am dark, because I am darkened by the sun. My mother’s sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards; my own vineyard I had to neglect” (Song of Songs 1:6; NIV).

She sees all her inadequacy and is ashamed. And she is also ashamed about the fact that she worked for her brothers and allowed them to take advantage of her. As a result, she has neglected her vineyard, an image for the place of communion with the Lord.

But her bridegroom friend sees her with very different eyes. He does not look at the old person, but already recognizes the new. He waters the budding seeds of confidence in the heart of his beloved and bride, saying to her: "Behold, you are fair, my love! Behold, you are fair! You have dove’s eyes" (Song of Songs 1:15; NKJV). The beauty of the bride lies in her will to run together with the bridegroom. The dove eyes speak of purity; they are without deceit and indicate that we should see and recognize our friend and bridegroom with the eyes of the Spirit.

The bridegroom's wooing of the bride's wholehearted devotion is a recurring theme in the chapters of the Song of Songs. In all the bride's struggles and challenges to follow her beloved, not to throw away her trust and not to forsake Him even in suffering, she hears over and over again that she is loved for her own sake, that she is unique, beautiful and without blemish.

The Turning Point

About halfway along their journey we see a turning point. The bridegroom's beloved has grown in her faith, and the bridegroom, in a declaration of love, shares his feelings with her and says: “You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace” (Song of Songs 4:9; NIV).

How amazing it is that we can deeply touch the heart of our beloved Lord with our worshipping eyes. In chapter eight the bride can speak about what love has done to her, what has become of her, how she can now see herself through the eyes of the Spirit, and love herself. She expresses the goal of every spiritual transformation and says:

But now I have grown and become a bride, and my love for him has made me a tower of passion and contentment for my beloved. I am now a firm wall of protection for others, guarding them from harm. This is how he sees me – I am the one who brings him bliss, finding favor in his eyes (Song of Songs 8:10; TPT).

I believe the falcon in the dream is an image for the Holy Spirit, from whom nothing is hidden. A falcon has amazing abilities: Its field of vision is 220 degrees and in a nosedive it reaches a speed of 242 mph. It is therefore the fastest bird, even faster than a golden eagle, which can reach up to 200 mph in a nosedive. The falcon is also a shrewd hunter. A trained falcon brings its prey back to the falconer. So in earlier times, it was used mainly to provide food for humans.

We will see in the near future how the Lord will equip an army of prophetic intercessors (falcons) with sharp vision and growing authority so they can uncover, expose, and render harmless the enemy's plans.

Eye Salve

In the last letter to the church in Laodicea in Revelation, God instructs us to buy eye salve from Him so that we can see. There are two kinds of seeing for us as Christians: The first is seeing when we look facts and figures in the eye and do not suppress them. And the other is seeing with the heart of God. This kind of seeing places the Word of God, His view for the respective situation, and His promises above the visible circumstances and facts. The eye salve that we need to buy has the effect of removing veils from our spiritual eyes so that we can receive God's sight.

But the divine eye salve is also there to help us experience healing where we have been seduced, wounded, and traumatized by things we have seen and experienced. The name of Jesus is literally a soothing ointment for our wounded hearts. He Himself is the "balm of Gilead" that was a well-known remedy in Old Testament times (see Jeremiah 8:22; NIV).

Because of the fragrance of your good ointments, your name is ointment poured forth… (Song of Songs 1:3; NKJV).

What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” – the things God has prepared for those who love him (1 Corinthians 2:9; NIV).