A Prayer for Spiritual Vision

Chapter 5

Theme: A Prayer for Spiritual Vision
Focus on: Elisha and his servant
Reading Portion(s): 2 Kings 6:8 to 23.
– Important Background Information
– Helps you find strength in God
What this article teaches you
We are called to live by faith and not by sight. Even though this is what is demanded of us we tend to give more importance to what we see. We judge our circumstances by what we see. And often what we see is negative and threatening. Then we falter in our faith. That really means that we have a wrong vision of the circumstances that surround us.

But if you pray God can give you a spiritual vision of the circumstances that surround you. Then, instead of seeing the enemies’ power and might, you will be enabled to see the armies of God that surround you to help you. This vision shall encourage you. In today’s world filled with all kind of devilish attacks, it is absolutely important for you to pray for this spiritual vision and have it.


Elisha was a mighty prophet of the Lord. He was the prophet who succeeded Prophet Elijah. The Bible records one instance where this man’s prayer gave his servant spiritual sight.

The king of Aram and the king of Israel were in enmity. So there was constant war between the two. But during Elisha’s time the king of Aram found fighting against Israel very difficult. This was because God revealed the plans of the king of Aram to Elisha. Elisha in turn reported this to the king of Israel. So the king of Israel was always on his guard against the advances of the enemy. Thus the plans of the king of Aram were frustrated.

The king of Aram became very angry. He asked his officials to tell him whether anyone from their side was secretly supporting the king of Israel. The king of Aram got an unexpected answer from them. They told the king that the prophet in Israel told the king of Israel the very words that he spoke in his bedroom.

Then the king ordered that the whereabouts of the prophet be found out. He wanted to capture the prophet. The report came that the prophet was in Dothan. So the king ordered that a strong and mighty force be sent there to capture the prophet. In obedience to his orders an army with horses and chariots surrounded the city by night.

The next morning the servant of prophet Elisha saw that they were surrounded by a great army. He was frightened. He asked the prophet as to what they would do. The prophet asked him not to be afraid and told him that those who are with them are more than those who are with the Arameans.

Definitely the servant might have thought it to be a strange reply. He might have wondered how there could be more people with them than with the Arameans. As far as he could see there were only two of them in their camp–Elisha and himself.

Here we learn a great spiritual lesson. Our eyes are not enough to see certain truths of the kingdom of God. For that we need spiritual vision. In this sense even those of us who have eyes are blind. In order to be able to see spiritual truths we need to have our inward eyes of vision opened.

And this is what Prophet Elisha did. He prayed that God would open the eyes of his servant that he might be able to see. In reply to this prayer God opened the eyes of the servant. He looked and saw that the hills were full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

The servant was frightened by the sight of a great army of horses and chariots. Now he is encouraged by the sight of the heavenly army with chariots of fire surrounding them. The enemy had surrounded them to attack and capture them. Now the heavenly army had surrounded them to protect them.

At first he was so much frightened by the circumstances that his spiritual vision was blinded; and he could only see the enemies. But when Elisha prayed he was enabled to see the heavenly army sent by God to help them.

God’s help is always there. But often we do not realize it. We see only the enemy and their power. We are often overwhelmed by their might and strength. We are blind. So we need to pray to have our eyes opened. Then we will see God’s armies encamping around us. They always surround us. They are more than our enemies. Yet we do not see them because we do not pray to have our eyes opened. Let us pray that we may also see God’s armies around us.

It is of common occurrence that we get a reply in the negative when we ask someone whether he had seen some particular thing during a journey or a walk. The person had his eyes open. But he or she never observed the things that met his or her eye. The objects, people, nature and buildings were all within the range of the person’s vision; yet were not observed. Therefore these were not remembered.

In our Christian lives too this happens, maybe more often than it happens in our other daily experiences. We miss to see what should have been observed because we did not pray to have a spiritual vision. Most often we fail to learn vital lessons that would have encouraged and inspired us because we did not pray to see beyond the natural vision of our eyes.

As we observe the servant he had seen an army with chariots and horses. When Elisha prayed he was enabled to see horses and chariots of fire. If it were something else that he had seen would he have been encouraged this much? Definitely not!

What does this tell us? It tells us that God has apt resources to meet our every need. For chariots and horses of the enemy, God has his chariots and horses full of fire. But to see these greater realities we need spiritual vision. It can come to the seeking heart only through prayer.

As we look at people around us we find that many of them wear glasses or contanct lenses. This is not because they don’t have vision; but because they don’t have the correct vision. So glasses help to correct problems with vision. In our spiritual life we find that one thing or another distorts our vision.

For example, in this incident, the sight of the enemies and the fear of them and the alarm it caused had created a distorted vision in the mind of the servant. The only way to have a right vision is to pray to God to enable us to see incidents through the eyes of God Himself. It is only then we will have a right and balanced vision.

There is a very beautiful thought that runs through this incident: Though Elisha was a giant of faith, he was willing to pray for his servant who was weak in faith. This helped the servant to see a vision of the greatness of God’s kingdom. Let us therefore pray that others may see!

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