Decree of Balaam son of Beor,
yes, decree of a man with 20/20 vision;
Decree of a man who hears God speak,
who sees what The Strong God shows him,
Who falls on his face in worship,
who sees what’s really going on. Numbers 24:3-9 (MSG)

Garrison Keillor once said of his hometown newspaper that it wasn’t really the news, it was simply a table of contents to what was really going on. Having lived in a couple of small towns, I get exactly what he’s saying. The events that everyone is talking about in the coffee shop rarely make it into print. If you read the newspaper you’ll never know the whole story.

Life happens on so many levels. There area human events, but things are constantly happening on a relational level, and emotional level, and even on a spiritual level. Jesus said that a person was blessed who could discern the truth of what was happening in the spiritual realm even when they did not see it with their eyes. He spoke of many of his followers as have ears to hear his words but never discerning the depth of what He was saying on a spiritual level.

Even though he was not one of “God’s people,” God had given Balaam the ability to see with 20/20 vision what God was really doing with Moses and his followers in the big picture. He stands as a model of what Jesus told his followers they should be: “shrewd as serpents; gentle as doves.”

Today, I’m asking God to increasingly give me discernment to perceive what my eyes do not see and my ears do not hear. When it comes to what God is doing in the spiritual realm, I want to have 20/20 vision. I want to see what’s really going on.