Hello, how are you? Another Thursday, another letter is here. I hope you have already read the first letter from last week. I give thanks to God and believe that he is using this letter series to encourage you to wage a more significant battle.
A couple of years back, one of my roommates, a non-believer, took interest in my prayer life and we got a chance to hang out one evening. He asked a question, “What do you do in prayer?”. I said, “I talk to God”. Silent for 20 seconds, and he said, “yeah! it must be true cos’ it’s very hard to stay on your knees for a long time if no one is speaking from the other side”. I smiled and let it go, later I praised God for making my fellow realize our two-way communication. That’s another story, but, let me ask you a question.
Have you ever heard a person claim, “God said to me ABC, God said to me XYZ!”? Yes, of course. There will always be a bunch of people in every church who will say so. Let’s leave the authenticity up to God but yeah, I personally had encounters wherein people read my heart out loudly and accurately while they were praying for me.
As a matter of fact, I was initially attracted to God by seeing a supernatural act. A pastor recited out my past and current thoughts in a one-to-one prayer call. Long story but if it’s God’s will, I’ll share more about that as a testimony, probably, in the next letter.
Let me set a stage before we dive into the scriptures. Spiritual senses exist. These spiritual senses are essential for you to communicate with God on a spirit level. Like the way you perceive physical touch, smell, sight, hearing, and taste, you have the capacity to respond to spiritual stimuli as well. But, the question is, how?
Someone could only say methods to communicate with God, like reading scriptures, praying for visions and dreams, listening to sermons, etc. But no human can really explain the exact mechanism behind the communication. There is no formula. It is supernatural. If you really want to speak to God so closely, the ideal way to start is by analyzing and adopting the ways that God chose to speak to his servants in the bible.
Apostle John, in the book of revelation, got the most out of the spiritual senses, had seen, spoken, and got a touch, thereby, a benchmark of activated senses was seen. In this letter, Let’s ponder on three main spiritual senses, touch, hearing, and sight.
Sense of Hearing:
Hundreds of active and healthy physical ears are listening to Jesus. Never mind, he says “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear” – Matthew 13:9. If it was me sitting in front of him, I’d have said, “come on, Lord! I can hear you!!’. Ahh, hold on, Jesus is referring to something that is beyond the physical ability to hear, through an inner set of ears that only operate in spirit.
Jesus wants us to hear him, like the way he heard his father when he was in the physical body. “I can of mine own, self do nothing: as I hear, I judge”, John 5:30. You see, Jesus is constantly hearing from the above. The voice of the father in trinity.
In the old testament, God spoke to Abraham, Samuel, Moses, Joshua, David, etc. At times, we are so much involved in the old testament plots wherein we stop realizing the amazing fact that God was speaking to a man just like how we do. While the communication then was literal, after the crucification and resurrection of Jesus, we all received Holy Spirit who dwells in us and guides us into all truth.
Did you see this video? I always wonder how sheep respond to their own shepherd’s voice. The unique sense of identity is not something sheep got on their own. God put that. Jesus said, we are his sheep, and he is our good shepherd. After salvation, God equips you to hear him, and it totally becomes a natural practice when you walk in the spirit. You were called, You heard, and so you believed.
Pastor John Piper saves the context here as, The voice of Jesus is the word of the gospel or the word of God more generally in Scripture accompanied by the work of the Spirit of God that enables us to recognize the gospel, the very call of Jesus on our lives.
Personal Experiences
I’m currently in my hometown, and for the past four days, I have been reading through my dairy notes from 2018 and 2019. Few of the records left me in exclamation and astonishment. Because many of those plain conversational English texts which were written in my personal prayers were fulfilled in my life today.
In these four and half years of my spiritual life, I can testify that God spoke to me many times. Again, I cannot quote the decibels or the modulation of God’s voice, and cannot articulate or comprehend the supernatural event.
Even today, after listening to him for years, at times, it all feels unreal. Especially, when you’re the only one in the room who had such experiences.
When people say it’s your own voice, it hurts your faith. It creates a fear that acts as gravity to your faith. Not sure if Jesus would name that as unbelief. Never let the unbelief of other people stop your attempt to speak and listen to God. I’m sustaining this reality in my own life, but I knew that he who initiated all this Good work knows how to finish. As long as your motive is to glorify the Lord, he’s in charge. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints – proverbs 2:8
It is God who will have more desire to talk to us than we desire to talk to him. This thought alone drives me to climb the mountain of faith, hearing him, day after day,
Sense of Sight:
Visions and Dreams are the pictorial communications of spirit. Jesus saw his father’s works with inner spiritual eyes, “what he seeth the Father do; for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” John 5:19.
Stephen in apostles 7:55, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, where no one around has not seen. In Apostles 10:11, Peter saw, “heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him”.
We could see, these senses open up, exclusively for those who believe in God. Non-believers, too have these senses, but not in their control. Whatever comes into mind, they do for it is written, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not”.
Find more about visions in letter one.
Sense of Touch:
The woman who was diseased with an issue of blood in Matthew 9:21, said within herself, If I may but touch Jesus’s garment, I shall be healed. She came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.
Immediately Jesus reacted and said, Who touched me? Everyone is like “not me!”. In fact, many people are falling by and touching him. But Jesus said, Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.
What is so special about that touch? The faith. While there are many hands touching and pressing on him, he kept moving, but only the touch of faith made him turn back. He felt in spirit, not in body.
Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. This clearly demonstrates the difference between physical touch and something with faith packed.
Keys To Enable These Senses
We can hear only if God speaks. We can see, only if he shows. So it all starts with God. Isiah 59:2 says “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear.”
The First Key: Repentance
Many people think Repentance is a one-time action in life. No, It is an everyday action that leads us to sanctification. Paul in Corinthians 15:31 says I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
No one has arrived at the point where they no longer need to “die daily”. We are still in sinful flesh. If a buried corn of wheat dies, it brings forth much fruit. That’s what Jesus said. We bear fruits in Christ by denying the self every single day. You grow in repentance when you explore the holiness of God. And, How do know God and his Holiness? By reading the word of God.
The Second Key: Bible Reading and Prayer
A very important point. In the process of enabling spiritual senses, people easily slip away to false doctrines. We should know the word of God to evaluate the signals hitting our spiritual senses. Isn’t it? What happens when a Kite flies with none controlling the rope on the ground? similarly, every supernatural stimulation, be it a vision, dream, or voice, should be tied to the word of God.
If we have no word in our hearts, we’ll be easily deceived by Satan. Scriptures lead you to truth, and they also convict you. When you read the scriptures, it will throw light into the heart. Then, the spirit of God convicts you of the hidden sins and shortcomings in the light of the word.
All you need to do is to accept and confess them in front of God. Hate and turn back from those. When you confess, God is faithful and will forgive and cleanse you as written in I John 1:9. You’ll abide in him, flourish, and in no time, you will realize that Jesus is in his Father, and you are in Jesus, and Jesus is in you, John 14:23
The Third Key: Faith
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of Faith in hearing God. As I shared earlier, this is the primary area of attack for Satan. He mimics God’s communication and disappoints you badly or leads you off track. again, stand on the word. You are ought to use faith as a shield. Faith reveals to you the unheard, and unseen. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” – Hebrews 11:1
As we talked about before, the sheep didn’t have a sense of their own. God enabled them. Submit your senses and ask Jesus to take control. Repent and ask him to speak to you. He will. Because you’re not asking to showcase the spiritual gifts but to live and be a blessing to the church in his hand.
May Lord enables us to hear his voice, to see his glory, and presence. Amen!
A little lengthy letter, but I believe you’ve discovered some practical insights on this topic. Keep engaging, I’ll be back next Thursday, make sure you drop your email!