BEHOLD!

Hearing from God III - Spiritual Perception

Opening

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We are in the final week of our 21 days of fasting and prayer, training our hearts to “hear” from God by tuning out distractions. We are following the format in Larry Kreider’s book, “Speak Lord I’m Listening,” which will take this sermon series, “Hearing from God” past the last day of the fast, but this three week fast is like training for a marathon.

We’ve “cut the carbs,” by tuning out the static, we’re spending extra time exercising in His word to get ready for the long haul. We’re trying to reduce all interference here at the start to we can really “lock in” and learn to recognize when He is speaking so that when we go back to “life as usual” we should be able to perceive His voice above the noise. Ok, so you ready for your locker room pep talk?

One thing we’re going to focus on today is that His voice is not always heard, but more so perceived. Jesus didn’t just listen to hear what God wanted in John 5:19 He said that “the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” And in John 8:38 “I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”

So, who wants to be more like Jesus? We want to make that connection today, not only to hear and respond to what the Father says, but to see and believe what He is doing. To see and even to do the supernatural unseen greater things that Jesus said that we would do. John 5:20 “For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.” and then in John 14:12 “whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” Jesus sees what the Father is doing, shows us His works, and then leaves us a mandate to do even greater things!

We’ve heard it said, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and H.G. Wells liked to say, “Beauty is in the heart of the beholder.” These phrases convey the idea that whatever we see, our perspective is objective, it varies from person to person, making our eyes or our heart an unreliable and bias source when judging reality. One could take this even further to say that, Truth itself is in the eye of the beholder. However, when the Scriptures say, “Behold!’ (Behold a virgin shall conceive a son… Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world… Behold He comes on the clouds and every eye shall see him...) When the Bible says, “Behold!” it’s not directing you to something unreliable or bias, it’s directing you to the truth. The truth yet unseen with the natural eyes truth. The truth according to God, and His wonderous ways truth.

If we want to hear from God, we must realize that it doesn’t just involve Sh’ma (listening and responding), but also Hi’neh (hEE/neH) which is Hebrew for beholding and believing. According to the Bible, to behold does not just mean to look at but to see. To perceive and also to believe as truth. I want to dispel any fear or doubt in our minds about God speaking to us, so today we are going to go over How God speaks to our hearts and minds through spiritual perception, indirect perception (visions and dreams), and also the gifts of perception made available to us by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Pray

Spiritual perception is the ability to see beyond the outward form or appearance of what’s going on into the underlying, often hidden reality. Visual perception takes place with the physical eye, Spiritual Perception takes place with the “mind’s eye,” and in our heart. When your soul belongs to the Lord, your mind, will and emotions become spiritual receptors no longer under the influence of selfish motives or bias because of sin. Spiritual perception is necessary in ministry when dealing with people, understanding spiritual teaching, and interpreting events, but sadly, it’s often lacking among God’s people.

Even among His disciples, Jesus tried to teach us about spiritual perception. Remember Thomas? in John 20:25 when the others told him that they had seen the Lord, he said, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” And once Jesus allowed him to do just that, the Lord said to him, John 20:29 “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

As God’s children rather than needing to see to believe, we need to believe to behold. We must believe that we can have supernatural encounters with Jesus, God and angels in our mind’s eye through spiritual perception. The Bible is full of examples of spiritual encounters which happen entirely in the mind of the beholder. That is where God truly speaks, not in our ears, but in our heart and in our mind. And that is why, if we want to perceive His voice clearly, its extremely important that we don’t clutter our mind with things that are not from God.

Perceiving His Voice

So, we’re going about our day, and a thought enters our mind which gives us the feeling to pause. Was that you Lord? How do we know it’s Him and not just ourself talking to ourself? John 10:27 says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” We know His voice. What do we know about His voice? Three things that Larry highlights in His book are good markers to remember; His voice brings peace into our hearts, it’s a “still, small voice” that’s not booming or demanding, and His voice brings conviction but never condemnation.

His Peace

We know that God loves us, He wants to carry us and He wants us to rest in His care, so His voice will never bring anxiety, fear or pressure to your mind. Colossians 3:15 says, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” The word for “rule” here is literally translated as “umpire” or “referee.” If it doesn’t bring peace to your situation, it’s not from God. period. Peace is confirmation that you’re hearing from God.

The Still Small Voice

Secondly, His voice is described as “still” like calm water on a peaceful lake, and “small” like a gentle whisper. This description comes from: 1 Kings 19:11-13 when Elijah goes out to stand in the presence of the Lord, expecting Him to pass by, but He wasn’t in the wind, He wasn’t in the earthquake, and He wasn’t in the fire. God spoke to Him in a gentle whisper in the quiet of his heart.

God speaks to us by His Spirit, deep within our own spirit through Holy Spirit-inspired impressions, thoughts and feelings. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” God speaks Spirit to spirit as an inner witness to what He wants for us. It can happen at any place, at any time, but pay attention to those heavenly nudges. They may seem incidental at first, but God will confirm the urge with conviction.

Conviction not Condemnation

That leads me to the third way God speaks, making us aware of His presence in our daily life through conviction. I spoke about this a little last week, but conviction is not condemnation. We simply know, in our gut, that something is not right. God’s conviction does not make us feel trapped or hopeless, but it does make us second guess a decision or turn and go in another direction (that’s called repentance).

We must know the difference between conviction and condemnation if we are to perceive that God is speaking with us. The enemy’s voice will make us feel like there’s no way out and no hope, but God’s voice lifts us up and out of sin, moving us beyond failure and causing us to want to know God more deeply. As Larry Kreider says in his book, “God loves to transform us and conviction is one way He shapes our hearts to be more like Him.” Condemnation imprisons us in shame and false guilt, but God’s conviction sets healthy boundaries to limit and protects us from the trap of sin.

Partial Revelation

It’s important to say at this point, that as much as we would like God to speak clearly to us, and as much as we want to behold His whole plan like He’s unrolling a scroll before our eyes, spiritual perception doesn’t happen like that (at least not usually). Revelation usually comes only partially. This is God’s way of keeping us reliant upon Him and keeping us in relationship with Him. Most of the time, God only shows us the very next step, but not the whole path. 1 Corinthians 13:9–10 “For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.”

Sometimes our own stuff gets in the way, and we’re a little confused about what was God and what was us. Sometimes we make mistakes, but God uses that to help us learn from Him. He turns it for our good. God wants us to trust Him and learn to rely on Him for direction every step of the way. He wants us to have faith, and He expects us to make mistakes. I love Hebrews 11:1 especially when talking about this particular subject “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” if He just told us what to expect from the beginning, there would be no need for faith, and we really wouldn’t learn much! If we take that first step of faith, we often find the next step reveals itself, and God often gives us the way through at the last moment. It’s a journey, relax, don’t strive - just trust and obey.

Indirect Perception

Another way we indirectly perceive messages from God is through dreams and visions. In Acts 2:17 when Peter addresses the crowd in Jerusalem after the Holy Spirit had fallen upon the disciples he quotes Joel 2:28 when he says, “ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”

Visions

Visions are prevalent throughout the bible as a means by which we behold the things of God. People can have open visions where entire scenes are played on the screen of your mind, or spontaneous visions during prayer, or you can see things from outside yourself like watching your life in the third person. This may seem like a strange concept, but we do it all the time when we read a story or listen to music and let our imaginations paint a picture for us. Of course, Satan has twisted this gift from God into New Age phenomenon which causes people to think that visions are not from God. But what does the Word say? The truth is that God still speaks to His people in visions.

A more common and less jarring type of vision you may experience is when you see things “in the spirit.” These are a type of impression that the Lord places on your heart and mind. It could be a mental picture of someone you know in a particular situation you know nothing about, or it could be just an impression of an image during a conversation with someone or during prayer. You may feel to share the impression or you may keep it to yourself and pray about it some more. Always ask the Lord for discernment about if and when it should be shared, and always seek Holy Spirit for interpretation, never assume you know what it means.

Dreams

Dreams are very similar to visions but of course, we are asleep. Most people dream every night, and you must know that not all dreams are spiritual dreams. We have to use discernment and wisdom in perceiving whether a dream or vision is from God. Does it bring peace or fear? Does it line up with the Word of God? Did I sense that God was speaking through my dream? 1 John 4:1-3 says “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.”

We can be confident that if our vision or dream brings guidance or protection, and if it lines up with the Word of God, glorifying Jesus, then it is probably from God. If you are blessed with a vision or dream and you want help with spiritual discernment, it’s a good idea to share it with other Holy Spirit-filled believers from the church. Never presume you know the meaning, always allow God to reveal it. If you are someone who dreams often, (as I do), I suggest keeping a notebook at your bedside so that you can log your dreams, this way you can pray about it and allow the Holy Spirit to bring revelation if it is from God.

Gifts of Perception

Finally, Larry goes into detail about four of the nine gifts of the Spirit that are given to us specifically for hearing from God. I want to go over them briefly this morning as a reminder, but I’m not going to go too deeply into each one today. Let’s read,

1 Corinthians 12:7–11 “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.”

Four of these gifts are directly related to hearing from God; message of Wisdom, message of knowledge, spiritual languages and prophecy. We believe in these gifts as part of the “greater things” Jesus promised to us. We believe they are for us, and they are for now. These gifts are given to us by the Holy Spirit “for the common good.” They are to be trusted and activated among the body of Christ to build each other up in our faith and to encourage one another on this spiritual journey with Christ. If you have received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then the Holy Spirit has made His home with you in your heart and is ready and willing to participate in your life in a supernatural way. lawn mower analogy

The gifts are present in every believer, but they need a willing vessel to activate them on earth. They are activated by your faith in the Holy Spirit’s power to exercise these gifts through you. The more we exercise the gifts, the stronger they become. The more we trust God for the gifts, the clearer the communication gets between Him and us. These gifts allow us to see, know or do things that we are not naturally able to our own, but they’re not for our glory. They are tools to build up and encourage one another, to strengthen the body of Christ, and to build His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

A Message of Wisdom

The message of wisdom is wisdom from God about a specific situation that’s dropped into our spirit when we ask for it. Solomon asked and received wisdom from God to solve the problem of the two mothers with one living baby in 1 Kings 3. It equips us with the ability to solve problems with the wisdom that can only come from God. It may help someone else by providing a practical solution for them, or it may give us the next steps to take in a difficult situation. According to Ephesians 1:17 the Spirit of wisdom and revelation is given by God through prayer so that we may know him better.

A Message of Knowledge

A message of knowledge reveals information that we did not have prior access to or were made aware of by natural means. It’s a supernatural deposit into our mind’s eye of something that only God would know. A message that provides particular information that is needed by a believer or by the church body at a particular time. Larry shares this story to demonstrate how a message of knowledge might come to us from God:

“One time, God used the gift of a message of knowledge to speak to a wayward young man for whom I was praying. This young man had grown up in a Christian home but was now backslidden and had a secret sin in his life: he was addicted to alcohol. Even though he had recently made a commitment to return to the Lord, he was still struggling with a lack of peace in his life. He did not tell me about his alcohol problem.

We talked for some time, and then I suggested that we spend time praying together. As soon as I closed my eyes and began to pray, I saw a clear mental picture of a liberty bell. It did not make sense to me, but I asked him if a liberty bell meant anything to him.

He said that it made no sense to him at all. Then he suddenly remembered something. “Come to think of it,” he said, “I have continued to drink alcohol in secret and have given the impression that I am free from alcohol. There is a liberty bell on the bottle that I am now drinking.”

The Lord showed me a liberty bell, a supernatural gift of knowledge that I had no prior information about, to jolt his thinking about an area of secret sin in his life. God got his attention, and today, he is free from his addiction to alcohol.

A word of knowledge brings revelation to a person at the right moment to capture someone’s immediate attention. It’s a sure sign to them that God sees them and cares about them because it reveals something hidden that had to come from Him.

Spiritual Languages

Our personal prayer language is a way to speak with God or pray into a situation when we don’t know how or what to pray. The Bible says that we pray in two ways - with out mind and with our spirit. Both are needed and both are under the influence of the Holy Spirit according to 1 Corinthians 14:14–15.

The gift of spiritual languages gives us the ability to hear and speak God’s language when we don’t know what to say in English. It’s sometimes controversial in today’s church (as Larry addresses in the book), but we believe and have seen many people receive this gift and exercise it in their personal conversations with God. This is how we pray for things when we don’t know how to pray, or when we enter into worship and praise this is how we “fix our minds on things above.” Praying in our own personal prayer language is the best way to directly connect our spirit with Holy Spirit. It filters out all thoughts that are not of God, completely tunes out the enemy, and allows Holy Spirit to pray though us in complete agreement with God in heaven.

There are also many accounts of people hearing their own language being prayed as a believer prays out loud in their personal prayer language (or tongues). (As in Acts 2:4-12). This serves as both a gift of spiritual languages but also as a message of knowledge to the hearer whose faith is increased by hearing from God in their native tongue from someone who doesn’t even speak their language. As with all the gifts, it is activated by your faith and your willingness to allow Holy Spirit to speak through you.

Prophecy

The last gift we are going to touch on for hearing from God is prophecy. Prophecy can be defined as the Lord speaking through you for the benefit of another person or people. 1 Corinthians 14:3 says, “the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort.” Although sometimes prophecy tells of a future event, it is more often simply a message of encouragement. Many times, prophecies are confirmations of those things the Lord has already spoken to us in our heart.

This gift, like the others, should be tested against scripture and the peace of your heart. If it doesn’t agree you will know it! 1 Thessalonians 5:19–22 says, “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.”

Sometimes we feel we are hearing from the Lord for someone else, and it’s tempting to say, “Thus says the Lord...” but unless you are well practiced and recognized as a prophet in your fellowship, it’s always better to present your message in the form of a question. “Could the Lord be saying...?” or “This is on my heart for you, tell me if it resonates with you...” but don’t be afraid to share what you’re sensing! We’re all learning, and even if we make mistakes, have faith that God will turn it for our good and for His glory!

Closing

As I close, and the intercessors and communion stewards make their way forward, I want to remind you that God has made us naturally supernatural. He created us to be spiritual beings having a human experience, not human beings having a spiritual one. The best way to confirm and to build our faith in what the Lord is showing us is to practice these things! If you feel you’re hearing from the Lord and it passes the tests of peace, gentleness, conviction and lining up with the Word - just step out and try it!

God places the desire for the supernatural in us, yet our enemy is quick to take advantage and produce a counterfeit that draws people away from God, rather than closer to Him. The biggest blockage we have when hearing from God is not necessarily the distractions of the world but the distractions in our own hearts and minds. The distractions of fear, doubt, and intimidation from the enemy telling us that the supernatural doesn’t come from God when we’ve been given a complete account of how our supernatural God wants to use natural people to influence this natural world supernaturally!

We receive the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ by faith, and He has said there is more… much more once we are set free. Salvation is just the beginning! Dreams, visions, and perceiving what the Father is doing are all important continuations of our ongoing relationship with the Lord. This is where the rubber meets the road; allowing the Holy Spirit to work through us in every situation! Can you imagine if we all embraced that concept and how it would change the world around us?

Today as we stand to pray, we stand with complete and total faith in the Word of God. His Word is true, and we believe every letter. We believe that God speaks to us today, and we have been given the ability to perceive what He’s saying. We know that if we will humble ourselves, turn our hearts to Him and pray He will give every gift we ask for; whether it’s wisdom, knowledge, spiritual languages, or prophecy He will give it, He wants to give it... we just have to believe to behold it.

Altar Call?? I would like to ask if anyone has not received Jesus as their Lord and Savior and would like to do so today, please come forward. Also, if you’ve never received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the gift of tongues, please also come forward.

Small group Questions

In your small groups this week:

Discuss the difference between conviction and condemnation

Talk about why you think God only gives us partial revelation, one piece of the puzzle at a time

Share a time when you felt God was speaking in any of the ways we talked about today

Pray (Stand)

Minister to any who come forward, then ask them to return to their seats

Tithes & Offerings

Communion

We also bless the elements of our communion; Matthew 26:26–28 says that “While they were eating (the Passover meal), Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

We give thanks to you, Lord for this bread, and thanks to your Son for His love poured out on the cross. We eat and drink in remembrance of you.

Benediction

Come, pray, give, eat and drink and may you continually seek what the Lord is doing until He returns.