A window is an opening designed in the wall or roof of a house during construction to let light and fresh air into the room. Such an opening is the quickest way for a room to lose heat, so glazed frames were placed in the walls to retain the warmth inside the house. These are what we call windows.
Our little house of happiness also has windows designed by God. All the building materials from which my house is constructed are within me and are securely protected from physical impact. But because I live in a physical world, the windows of the soul connect my inner world with the world outside through my senses. I have five of them: sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. Yet there are also such things as intuition, discernment, and love, which connect my heart with the spiritual world.
We human beings are very complex creatures, possessing higher and lower powers of self-government. The higher powers include the will, reason, and intellect; the lower powers include feelings, emotions, appetite, and instincts. Calling them lower does not mean that they are bad or sinful. It means that they must remain subordinate to the higher powers and obey every decision from above. But sin has overturned the spiritual order, and now it has become normal for the lower powers to control a person’s reason and will and destroy the intellect within people, reducing them to the level of animals.
The windows of the soul in my little house of happiness are the part of the structure most often attacked. Every wind of doctrine tries to enter the house, while darkness seeks to engulf everything within me and fill me with all kinds of rubbish.
The enemy of the soul looks for every opportunity to enter the house specifically through its windows. The walls are very strong, there are no gaps in the joints between the bricks, and love gives the entire structure exceptional strength. If the enemy cannot find a breach in the wall or replace the true bricks with false ones, he climbs through the windows of the soul, inviting me to look at, listen to, or taste something that will revive within me the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and will open the doors of my heart to every kind of temptation. A constant battle is being waged for my reason, which sits by the window to warm itself in the sunshine of truth, while something gloomy and dark is offered to it instead. But even here I can choose.
My reason consults my intellect, reads the law written in my heart, alerts my will to the danger, and restrains my senses so that they do not come into contact with the powers of darkness.
Jesus often warned me that whoever has an ear should hear—not merely sounds, but the meaning of what God has said.
My ears are inclined to listen to everything indiscriminately. But because of my friendship with Christ, my heart receives a Heavenly filter that is firmly oriented toward biblical truth and immediately signals my reason about approaching danger or special blessings. When pure Divine light streams through these windows, my will opens the doors of my heart to admit both the light and its Author. When He enters the house, He sets it in order and writes His laws and statutes upon my heart. They teach me to distinguish truth from falsehood and warn my conscience of danger.
For example, if you hear a story claiming that Moses brought pairs of clean and unclean animals into the ark, God’s filter immediately engages and reminds me of what the Bible actually says. If I have heard this account from Holy Scripture, I will recognize the truth at once, though I may overlook some details.
Some people may interpret Bible verses incorrectly while neither distorting their meaning nor misrepresenting the spirit of truth, and my filter allows this to pass. Yet the enemy of the soul may quote God’s words precisely but present them in a false light. Then my heart senses the danger and closes itself.
For example, if I understand the parable of the rich man and Lazarus literally and build upon it an entire doctrine of eternal torment and a fiery hell, my heart may admit this teaching and convince my will that it must be true because it agrees with what is written. In this way, however, God’s character is distorted, and I begin to let the enemy of the soul into the house. He then attaches his own doctrines to this account: the immortality of the soul; an eternal hell where sinful souls suffer forever; and the cruelty of a God Who gives sinners Eternal life so that they will never die. As a result, my happiness collapses from within and my heart loses its peace. It begins to serve such a Creator as a Tyrant Who is capable of punishing me at any moment if I betray the faith of my ancestors. And how can such people be helped? The windows of their souls are closed to the truth because their hearts will admit nothing else.
My eyes are directly connected to my heart. They love to look and can never be satisfied with seeing. They see everything. But my heart guides my eyes and warns them about indecent and dangerous things that I should not set before myself.
For example, if I see a woman dressed indecently, my eyes immediately notice every exposed feature of her body and her manner of behavior. My carnal nature comes alive and seeks to lead me into lust, but my reason, purified by love, alerts me to the danger by reminding me of Christ’s words about purity of thought. My will activates its defenses, and I now see before me a deceived soul who may not even realize that she has become an instrument of Satan, sowing temptation by her very appearance. My reason begins to look for an opportunity to help this deceived soul understand that she has become an unclean source of degrading temptation. But because outward appearance is not a doctrinal criterion, I can only protect my own conscience from temptation.
Yet my eyes want to see everything. If my heart installs filters in one area, the enemy tries to tempt my soul in another, offering every possible form of sin. Large cities are filled with many temptations to which the heart becomes accustomed until it no longer reacts to them. But a journey into the countryside shows the soul the striking contrast between God’s beauty and the achievements of civilization, and the heart finds peace in nature as my eyes connect it with God’s creation.
Different scents attract my attention and send signals that awaken either a healthy or a perverted appetite. Once again, reason analyzes the situation and gives directions to my will. I once tried smelling an onion while eating an apple with my eyes closed. It seemed as though I were eating the onion.
If my sense of taste is not under the God-guided control of reason, it can fill my body with anything at all. Then my will grows weak and allows appetite to control my desires.
My body responds to temperature, touch, and physical pain, and the enemy of the soul can also use these windows of the soul for his temptations. Many people surrender their bodies to the power of sensual pleasures, depriving their souls of Divine protection while imagining themselves to be happy.
My intellect desires to develop, but the direction my will gives it depends on the kind of light I allow through the windows of my soul.
Agape love is the very best filter for my heart. It is God’s voice and responds instantly to every danger that threatens the soul. It commands my will to take precautions. Then the windows close, still admitting light but protecting my little house from storms and sinful temptations.
Bible verses for this chapter:
Luke 11:34; Psalm 101:2–8; Matthew 5:27–30; 6:22–23; 11:6; 16:22–23; 18:6–9; Mark 4:9–20; Romans 14:20; 16:17; 1 John 2:10; Song of Solomon 2:9; Isaiah 54:11–15; Jeremiah 9:21; John 10:1–2, 10