But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost (perishing): In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2Corth 4:3-6).
The word ‘lost’ in the above passage can also mean ‘perishing’ and not necessarily someone who is not born again. Sometimes people say ‘because I am born again, there is no blindfold; Satan cannot blind my mind’, well that is not true. Also the passage talks about when God causes His face to shine upon an individual. It means He is giving you the light that comes as a result of the knowledge of His glory that can only be found in the face of Jesus. And glory here means who God is and what He intends to do; so you come to the knowledge of what God’s capacity is and what He intends to do in that situation and He says you can only find that in the face of Jesus- in the inward thoughts of Jesus. In other words if you are in a situation, Jesus has His thoughts about that situation. But in order to be able to do this, He must get His thoughts concerning that situation into that person’s life. What Satan wants to do is to blind the minds of people so they perish in that situation. God says ‘I want to get my thoughts across to this person- once they find out what my thoughts are and then they respond to those thoughts with a voice of thanksgiving and they begin to rejoice in the fulfilment of those thoughts then everything on the outside changes to what the thought are’
Just like in the story of the woman with the issue of blood. What happened to her was that the face of Jesus shone in her heart and eventually she understood the thoughts of Jesus about her situation. She had spent all she had on doctors but the issue grew worse meaning she was perishing. This shows that her mind was blinded so things were getting worse for her. So what Paul was saying is that if our gospel be hid, then it is hid in those situations or challenges happening in our life or around us. This is because the Bible says, ‘the path of the just is like the shining light that shines brighter and brighter’ (Proverbs 4:18). So if somebody in business says ‘things are getting worse’ it is because the god of this world has blinded the mind of that person from what God intends to do. Now if that person cries out for mercy, then will God respond by giving that person light for that situation. The scripture tells us in James 1:17: ‘Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning’. Therefore, when the Father wants to give a good and perfect gift to His child, He gives it in the form of light. In other words, just as the Bible says ‘in the beginning the earth was without form and void’ someone’s life could be like that and so God says ‘let there be light’. So the first thing He does is He gives light and then He tells you, ‘you will never see my shadow of turning that comes as a result of turning away from this light. Once I have shown you something and you have seen it that is all you need for the change you seek to start manifesting.
Pastor ‘Poju Oyemade