“I see dead people” was the key line from a spectacularly well written and produced 2008 movie titled The Sixth Sense by M. Night Shyamalan. (Spoiler alert) In case you missed it, the 8-year-old boy protagonist, Cole Sear played by Haley Joel Osment, would occasionally see and interact with the dead. And a startling fact about Cole’s sixth sense was carefully hidden from viewers until the breathtaking reveal at the conclusion of the story.
But, as movie-goers, we were quite skillfully kept blissfully unaware of the detail through director Shyamalan’s skills, bound up as we are every day by our five senses… until the astonishing reveal! As Cole admitted, “I see dead people – and they don’t know that they’re dead.”
And, for many years, I have had the same kind of Cole Sear revelations myself. I see dead people all the time. And none of them know they are dead.
Admittedly, to legitimately confess that I see dead people requires a supernatural sense – which I have.
And, oh by the way, if you are a Christ Follower, so do you! Although, I will acknowledge, while every Christ Follower possesses this ability, it requires the gift of faith and discipline in ceaseless prayer to actually use it effectively.
And just who are all these “dead people” I see?
It may surprise you, but Jesus saw them too. In fact, His testimony is how I know that we share the same supernatural vision. Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14:
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
The Lord also warned everyone in all generations again in Luke 13:24-27:
“Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you evildoers.’”
When Jesus spoke these words, He looked around and recognized that a vast majority of everyone whom He saw and interacted with each day were breathing and walking – but they were in fact spiritual zombies, as good as eternally damned. The Lord knew exactly who each spiritually dead person was.
But I do not know who they are. I just recognize through Jesus’ invariant and perfect truth spoken in the Word, that in every group and in every crowd, the majority of those whom I walk among and speak to each day are in fact dead people. They are legions of the walking dead, all of them stumbling blindly in lockstep toward the broad and wide way leading to eternal destruction.
And if I don’t do something to help them, to lead them to the only One Who can change their paths from evil to righteousness – from death to life – that they may never hear the Lord Master’s voice, except through me.
That heavy responsibility and command to action by Christ Himself is directed to each redeemed soul in Matthew 28:19-20:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
As fellow Templars, this command and call to action has an unusually profound proposition with eternal consequences. We have been specifically called to the spiritual battlefield every day as Kingdom Special Forces. We have a unique holy calling most dear to all who have spoken the Oath, just as we have an anointing and blessing on our lives that is signified by the white mantle adorned with the red cross of martyrdom. For each individual who has authentically worn it from antiquity to today have committed their lives – from the accolade to their very last breath – to do something quite extraordinary and unexpected.
We are called to the battlefield not to cut down and destroy the flesh and blood enemies of the Kingdom of God, as did our forefathers. But we are called on that bloody, sacred field of honor to give the minutes, hours, and days of our lives here on Earth so that the spiritually dead may have their eyes opened to spiritual life. We sacrifice our hours, days and years here so that they may have access to eternity.
We battle against the rulers, the powers, the world forces of this darkness, and the spiritual forces of wickedness (Ephesians 6:12) to defeat the great deceiver as Christ’s nail-pierced hands invite whomever He wills to the Cross to there take the first breaths of their eternal lives.
So, you see, fellow soldier of the Cross, I really do see dead people everywhere I go.
But I see them all through the eyes of a redeemed Templar Knight. For I have been given the authority and direction to speak the omnipotently powerful words of life to them. And, after they have heard the Truth, to lead them directly to the One Who gives life to those who are the walking dead – those who otherwise have absolutely no hope at all.
Yes, I know they will hate me (John 15:18). I know they will try and destroy my life even before I can lead them to theirs. (John 8:44) I know it is a difficult job every day. Still, I go there each day to faithfully perform the duty for which I was created.
Yet I likewise know this – one day, I will meet some of them in another Place. And we will embrace as eternal brothers and sisters. Each of us will stand there, side by side, bathed in the pure Light of glory, remade as perfect and eternal beings in a place that was bought at so great a price by the One I Am.
But for now, brother and sister Templar, the sun has just risen in my window. So, I must stand up, gird up my loins in the Spiritual Kingdom in which I now live, and go out on that difficult but sacred field that I have come to love with all the passion of my life.
Today, out there in the chaos and noise of a supernatural battle that has endlessly raged for millennia, I will seek one more, Lord, for Your glory. Just one more…