One day, I saw a house fly on a windowsill. Nothing unusual in that, except the date: 7th November. That is not the time of year to usually see this annoying creature, but due to the mild autumn the UK had been having, it wasn’t surprising. Yet this fly was not acting as a fly normally does. It’s feet were firmly fixed on the windowsill and it had little to no intention of flying around. I could have killed it easily and I experimented with how closely I could put my hand towards it before it flew off.
We’ve all experienced the near impossible task of trying to swat a fly as it uses its super sensitive sight to detect our movements, but in this instance, all it could do was shuffle its legs a short distance. I had no intention of killing it and I left it alone and instead curiously watched it in its fragile predicament. Then I was struck with the words ‘out of season’.
The ability of this fly was greatly diminished due to it living out of season. Through no fault of its own, it was at great risk of living an even shorter life than normal. I don’t know much about flies – who does?! So I did a little research.
Apparently, the speed at which flies see is due to ‘flicker-fusion frequency’, which is not a scientific tongue-twister but is in fact the rate at which the brain takes images from the eyes and pieces them together. The humble flies sees 4 times more quickly than humans do! See https://bigthink.com/life/the-reason-why-each-species-experiences-time-differently/
How? It’s all to do with light detection and something called mitochondria. These act like batteries in the light-detection cells which then powers the fly’s vision. The more mitochondria, the quicker the fly sees.
Could it be that the amount of ‘Light/Jesus’ we are letting into our bodies, is sharpening or dulling our sensitivity to what is going on around us spiritually?
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”
Matthew 6:22-23 NRSV
A stark warning indeed. If we are living in darkness we are not going to realise the timings or seasons of God. Therefore we are in danger of being squashed and rendered useless like the flyless fly, because our effectiveness and alertness is greatly diminished. We need to be aware of the seasons of God and what He is saying in any given moment, especially as we witness the tumultuous world-wide events going on around us.
But how do we know if we know we are out of season?
Look around at other believers or churches. Are they flying whilst we are still walking around? Are our words and prayers still effective? Have we been growing in our understanding of the Word of God? Are we growing and bearing fruit in the areas of our gifts and talents? Are we enabling/ discipling others to grow in their faith? etc. Are we like “trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.”? Psalm 1:3
The more time we spend focusing on Jesus, the Light of the world, the more Truth and revelation we will receive. It is then up to us to apply and practice that into our daily lives. The more light we have, the quicker our effectiveness will be, to move at the slightest hint of danger. And in the current climate where the world is seemingly getting crazier as each week passes, the ability to ‘fly’ is very necessary indeed.
TURN AND TRUST 