“If your eye be single”
Matthew 6:22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
What does it mean for your eye to be single?
Is this what Jesus meant in the below passage when he said it is better to enter into life with one eye (unified perception) rather than entering hell because our vision was divided?
Matthew 18:9 “And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and castitfrom thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.” (KJV “offend” means “cause to stumble”).
The eye is the gateway of light. Scientifically, the eye only receives light and does not emit it. Interestingly the ancients had a more spiritual view of the eye, wherein the eye is a source of light.
One: The Strength Of Unity
1 Chronicles 12:38 All these men of war, that could keep rank, came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel: and all the rest also of Israel were of one heart to make David king.
Israel’s unity under Joshua and later David led to continuous victories. Likewise, Israel’s greatest conquest was when they were united under Joshua’s leadership. Following its golden age under Solomon, Israel’s downfall began when Judah separated and the nation was divided into two. When the Bible speaks of Israel’s defeat, it mentions them as being “scattered.”
The downfall of nations and empires often begins with division into smaller pieces. After being the world’s most powerful empire, Rome split into two halves, Eastern and Western, and kept declining in strength ever since.
When the Arab tribes united under Muhammad, these little-known desert-dwellers suddenly became the greatest threat the western world had seen.
Germany is an example of the strength that comes from unity. The Germans become the dominant force in Europe when Otto Von Bismark united the scattered minor states which had been impotent previously.
Deuteronomy 28:7 The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.
As the above verse shows, unity and strength are one and the same. God defeats the enemy by dividing them. They came united as one, but flee in seven groups defeated as they are divided.
Mustard Seed: Focused Faith
Matthew 13:31-32 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
Matthew 17:19-20 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
The passage about Mustard seed type faith is often used to indicate that even small weak faith is enough, because faith as the smallest seed, the mustard seed, can move mountains. When requiring faith “as the Mustard seed,” some modern translations say “the size of,” but this is no where present in the original Greek. Jesus says “faith AS the mustard seed” not “the size of.” Size is only one of the many attributes the mustard seed has.
Luke 17:5-6And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” So the Lord said,“If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
In this passage, the disciples were looking to “increase” their faith. Jesus instead pointed them in the other direction. They do not need “big” faith, but their faith should be as the mustard seed. But if the mustard seed just referred to a “small” quantity faith being powerful, Christ would not have often said “O ye of little faith” in rebuking the disciples. Christ taught that small faith is insufficient.
The size of the Mustard seed is, as Christ taught, among the smallest of all plant seeds. It is like a tiny pinpoint, only one millimeter in diameter. So what is strong but takes up a small space? The answer to this riddle is concentration. What this tiny seed really represents is the point of light formed when all the rays are focused and unified in one direction. This process is called polarization and is how a laser works. Light in a laser is filtered and concentrated so that all its beams are parallel and instead of its power being scattered, the power is intense and concentrated. Lasers have the power to transform material objects, to etch, cut, and make real physical changes, which is why they are used in manufacturing. Laser-focused faith is the secret of the mustard seed. Gathering the rays of your intention and focusing them with no inner conflicts. A laser appears not as a beam (as in movies) but as a burning focused point of light at appearing at the target. Likewise, the ray of faith is “unseen” (faith is the “substance of things unseen”) and we only see the final manifestation, the burning pinpoint of light. Think of a magnifying glass, it aligns the suns rays to focus on one point, thus producing real burning power to “fry some insects” (demonic strongholds) as opposed to just mere warmth.
We can also read a prophetic interpretation as “mustered” seed (mustered with an “E”) the faith that is marshalled up or mustered up from inside of you. This is mustard seed. Sometimes it takes effort to gain focus and concentrate our faith. By itself the path of least resistance is scattered thoughts and emotions. Christ taught the kingdom of God is WITHIN YOU. We need to stop being weak Christians hoping God will do something and forgetting about using the power inside that he gave to us!
Luke 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! Or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Inner Conflicts And Double-Mindedness
James 1:6-8 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
One major hindrance to true mustard seed faith is double-mindedness. Instead of attaining the single eye of focused faith, our light is scattered and becomes impotent.
What does double-mindedness look like?
It can be as simple as believing you are unworthy to have what you believe for. Once you have repented it is important to believe you have been fully forgiven and God does not hold old sins against you anymore. Otherwise, the mindset of unworthiness will cancel out your faith.
Self-pity is another one that sabotages focused faith. Take someone praying for healing. Their heart may not always fully in it. A few people subconsciously want to be sick, because they received a lot of sympathy, pity, and attention from others and may also get good disability benefits and time off from a job they hate.
Being a lover of complaining is another conflict. Some people want to be poor or fail in endeavours so they can complain about life’s unfairness and how everyone else is to blame. They complain about whoever the politician of the day is, when in reality their problem would usually have happened either way.
Some want to be powerless because they are frightened of having to do ministry and the burden of ministry sacrifices. I once heard a Bible College student say she hoped to never obtain the gift of healing because it would lead to so many prayer requests coming in and an inconvenience to deal with it all.
These conscious and unconscious conflicts destroy the focused faith, making the victory impossible until resolved. Make sure when praying and believing for something, to do a thorough and honest self-reflection for hidden inner conflicts which are doing a different direction than your faith.
Mustard Seed is not small faith, it is CONCENTRATED faith. THE SEED IS THE PINPOINT OF LIGHT when all rays are focused in one accord and for one purpose with no sidetracking thoughts of doubt, worry, wavering, second-guessing, or internal conflicts. This is where we achieve the eye that is single, allowing the whole body to be filled with light.