Lifting The Veil

 

..."But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, then the veil is taken away."  2 Corinthians 3:16

When we turn to the Lord, the veil covering our hearts and minds that blocks God's truth in this world is removed. We no longer walk in darkness. We walk in light and freedom. We walk with confidence in the truths God has spoken to us.

"Since this new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold.  We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away.  But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand." 2 Corinthians 3:12-15

The veil is removed when we believe in Christ. Believing is not merely knowing in our minds and hearts that Christ died on the cross for us. Many believe but still walk with a spiritual veil over their hearts and minds. The lies and half truths that we have absorbed still haven't been weeded out.

The Hebrew word for believe is "aman."  Believe means "to lean upon." We wouldn't lean against a rail that is on the edge of a cliff admiring the ocean if we believed the rail would give way and we'd fall off the cliff.  We trust that because the rail is there it will keep us safe. It's already done in our minds. 

When we believe in Christ, we are to be allowing our hearts and minds to lean on Him. We trust He will keep us safe from falling off the "cliff" in our lives. We are to believe that He will hold us up. It's to be already done in our hearts and minds! There is no doubt. IT IS SO. We are to lean on Christ knowing that all He says and promises in the Bible for us is already done! Why do we sometimes lean on Christ as if He will give way? We lean on Christ thinking if we walk a different path than the world it won't lead anywhere. We lean on Him as if He is weak and we are strong. We aren't really leaning on Him, are we? We are leaning on ourselves.

 Let's not live a whole lifetime never really leaning on God. We are to lean with confidence on the Lord. Place the weight of our faith on Jesus, not on ourselves. We then place the weight of our daily lives on God. Then He shows us what His ways are. He breaks through the veil of ourselves. We are to "be very bold" and lean the whole weight of our lives on Him. We are not to lean the whole weight of our lives on the flawed ideas of the world. Many of the ideas of the world are a veil- a veil of blindness. When we believe in them and the weight of our lives is in them, we cannot see Christ clearly.

"So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him." 2 Corinthians 5:16-18

 A human point of view tells us that to change the way we live our lives and to live anew and transformed is too hard. But God is clear. Our old life is gone, and along with that our old, flawed views. A new life has begun. A life of seeing God's truth. We are no longer stuck behind a veil of half truths and false beliefs. We are to KNOW Christ and His ways.  We can only truly know someone that we have a personal, close relationship with. We are to get to know God and His thinking on matters in our lives.  How does He want us to live? What old ideas does He want to clear out? What does He want to fill those things we clear out with? What is He asking us to change in our lives? We have to allow God to "weed" out the old from our minds and hearts, and plant the fruitful things of Christ in us. This is also known as "take every thought captive" to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5) If we don't have our thoughts on important subjects and decisions weeded through by Christ and captive to His spirit, we are still living behind the veil.

But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. 2 Corinthians 3:16-18

The promise to us is that when we lean the weight of our hearts and our minds on the Lord that the veil IS removed, and there IS freedom. And He WILL make us more like him. We have to seek it and we have to take action. We are to lean the weight of our belief, the weight of our confidence, on Christ alone. We can also interpret the word "turns" to truly turning our belief, our "weight", to God. Instead of where we had it turned, on ourselves.
  
Our life must be held up by God's strength. Our whole life and all our decisions must belong to God. Our hearts, minds and souls belong to God. Therefore we allow Him to shape our hearts, our beliefs and our thoughts. The way we function in the world and the things we will take part in are shaped by this belief.  He won't fail. He won't let us fall. He won't abandon us. Our belief is weighted on Him and in Him. Because He already said what He will do. It is already done. If we believe and are committed to seeing God with clear eyes, we are promised that we will be "changed into His glorious image."

The step of leaning the full weight of our confidence on Christ is up to us. Once we do, the rest is already done for us by believing in the power of God and His love for us- and He lifts the veil. Behind the veil is God's peace, wisdom and freedom.

 "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage."  Galatians 5:1




Prayer: "Lord, lift the veil over my eyes (my heart and mind) that I may not even know is covering them. Help me to lean the full weight of my life on you. Lift the veil each day as I walk with you. Show me your truths, which will help me weed out the enemies deceptions and show me my own errors.Allow me to walk all of my days with you with the veil fully off of my heart and mind. Amen."



"...throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy." Ephesians 4:22-25


 "But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds.  Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him." Colossians 3:8-10

"For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives." Romans 6:4 


May God's peace and wisdom be with you as you build your own wall of God's truth.