sharpening your spiritual senses

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Hebrews 5:12-14 (TPT) – You should already be professors instructing others by now; but instead, you need to be taught from the beginning the basics of God’s prophetic oracles! You’re like children (nepios) still needing milk and not yet ready to digest solid food. For every spiritual infant who lives on milk is not yet pierced (apeiros) by the revelation of righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, whose spiritual senses perceive heavenly matters. And they have been adequately trained by what they’ve experienced to emerge with understanding of the difference between what is truly excellent and what is evil and harmful.

The Greek word nepios means still unfit to bear arms, i.e., unprepared for battle. The Greek word apeiros means inexperienced, unskillful, ignorant. In classical Greek apeiros refers to people lacking adequate skill (knowledge) and hence fail due to their lack of familiarity (practice) – Strong’s 552.

God is saying, “I have given you tools that you need to become familiar with. You need tactical training - you need to practice with them - so that when the enemy confronts you, you will know (by experience) who you are and what you are to do. This is the only way you defeat the enemy and set the captives free.” God is always talking to us. He speaks to us in our minds, by His Spirit in our inmost being, through His Word, through the words of others (even the words of unbelievers!), through circumstances, and through every part of the created order. We need to cultivate our spiritual senses so we can hear and understand and know what we are to do.

Isaiah 6:9 – Go and tell this people: “Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.”

To be hearing but never understanding means to listen but never grasp and appropriate (take possession of) the words or thoughts with our mind. For example, I can listen to someone speaking in Spanish, but I have no understanding of what they said if I have never studied and practiced the Spanish language. To be seeing but never perceiving means to look at something but have no knowledge by experience. I can watch an instructional video about riding horses, but if I don’t actually ride a horse, I do not have the understanding that comes through the experience.

Sharpening our spiritual senses is a call to an experiential relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ – not just knowing about Him but actually knowing Him through shared experiences, being actively engaged in a personal partnership with Him. Inner healing ministry requires this vital connection with the Holy Spirit and that connection comes through practicing and using our spiritual senses in every situation. The five physical senses are: hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling, tasting. Our spiritual senses are the inner correlates to the physical senses. We may see visions; we may hear God’s voice; we may feel His presence; we may taste the goodness of God; and we may smell the sweet aroma of His Fragrance. We need to pay attention to our spiritual senses and train ourselves to use them, under complete submission to the Lord Jesus Christ. To use spiritual senses without submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ is to practice witchcraft. Witchcraft is satan’s counterfeit to the work of the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual senses, when fully developed, become the tactical weapons we use in our battle against the unseen realm. The word “tactical” means relating to or constituting strategic actions carefully planned and skillfully employed to gain a specific military end. Spiritual senses fully employed are the keys of power through the relationship we have with Jesus that work alongside the keys of ruling and reigning (binding and loosing) and the keys of righteousness (forgiveness and repentance).

How do we sharpen our spiritual senses?

1. Our spiritual senses are sharpened as we apply the word to our daily lives – doing what it says, and asking God in every situation, “What does this mean and what do you want me to do with it?” Our spiritual ears need to hear, we need to understand with our minds, and we need to submit our will, our rights and all control to the Lord Jesus Christ every day. In that way we are able to grow beyond the elementary teachings into the spiritual maturity God desires us to achieve (James 1:4). We will be made ready to step into our destiny and partner with Him in performing the duties He has assigned to each one of us.

2. Our spiritual senses are sharpened as we practice our spiritual gifts. We must become proficient in the use of the empowering gifts given to us through the Holy Spirit as identified in 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

• The Word of Wisdom – the ability to make decisions through the direction of the Holy Spirit
• The Word of Knowledge – a supernatural revelation of information given to you by the Holy Spirit about someone or something
• Faith – the ability to believe with confidence and to inspire others through testimonies
• Healing – the Holy Spirit enables us to restore health to those who are sick through prayer and the laying on of hands
• Power to Perform Miracles –the Holy Spirit enables supernatural acts to occur through us
• Prophecy – the ability to hear God and to speak out what he tells us
• Distinguishing between spirits  – the ability to test what is good (angels) versus evil (demons) by the witness of the Holy Spirit with our spirit
• Speaking in different kinds of tongues – (1) a prayer language between you and God and (2) the manifestation of the Holy Spirit to speak in an unknown language which may be known to another person or persons, followed by..
• Interpretation of tongues – the ability to interpret what is being said so that all may hear and understand and be edified

All of these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as He determines.
I’ve heard people say they don’t believe any of these gifts are for them. I’ve heard people say they believe God withholds these gifts from them because they haven’t achieved a certain level of “spirituality”. I’ve heard people say that the gifts were only for the church in Paul’s day. These are all lies from the pit of hell! We need to stop agreeing with the lies of our enemy and start eagerly pursuing the Holy Spirit for everything He has for us!

The most controversial of these gifts is speaking in different kinds of tongues, and that is because the gift of tongues opens the door to all the other gifts. Tongues was the first gift given in Acts 2; and because of the gift of tongues being manifested, a crowd of people from all over the world (who spoke different languages) gathered and heard (each in their own language because the Holy Spirit interpreted) the gospel message Peter delivered. After receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, Peter, the wishy-washy disciple, stood up and taught as one who had authority and 3,000 people were added to the church that day! Such is the power of the gift of tongues.

If we refuse even one of these gifts, we have, in effect, refused them all. We have declared we would rather live in our unregenerated and unrepentant mind than to operate out of the mind of Christ. We have declared that we are not willing to go into the battle, fight for the Truth to be heard, and set the captives free. The scripture says it is the Holy Spirit who gives the gifts, and He gives them as He chooses, because He knows exactly what we need when we need it. If He so chooses, He can impart all of the gifts to a single individual! We need to make the decision to quit “muzzling the ox”. The Holy Spirit is the power we need to do the work God has called us to do, and He has given us gifts that enable us to complete our assignments. When we earnestly desire to receive these gifts, God delights to give them to us.

Luke 11:13 – “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

His heart’s desire is that we participate in an experiential relationship with Him (remember, He is Spirit and we are spirit beings!) so that we may partner with Him to fulfill His intentions on the earth. He has chosen to work through us – imperfect vessels that we may be; and that is why He gave us the Holy Spirit. He is the great Equalizer!

3. Our spiritual senses are sharpened through understanding dreams and visions.
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Joel 2:28-29 - And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

Sharpening our spiritual senses through constant practice also enables us to understand what visions and dreams may be telling us. Often God has to get past our conscious thoughts to download His plans into our subconscious thoughts. We wake up the next morning realizing we have had a dream but it doesn’t make sense to our natural minds. Because dreams are a transmission of God’s thoughts to us, it is important that we pursue understanding the message.

“Jesus’ pattern of teaching in His earthly ministry was to speak in parables and mysteries – not to keep people in the dark, but to whet the appetite of those who were truly hungry for the truth….When we talk about the strategic value of dream language, it is important that we be thoroughly grounded in the Word of God while being led by the Holy Spirit at the same time….Perhaps in their purest ultimate form, visions reveal who God is. Dreams, in turn, tend to be more personal in nature….and often give us direction or reveal some part of God’s plan….God Himself is the primary source of dreams….God often uses dreams to reveal by concealing. He wants to stir within us our natural inclination to search out answers. In other words, God has given us an open invitation into kingship.” (Goll, James W. and Michal Ann, Dream Language, © 2006, Destiny Image® Publishers, Inc., P. O. Box 310, Shippensburg, PA 17257-0310, p. 21, 22, 23, 28, 29)
 
Jesus used metaphors to explain the Kingdom of God to His followers.  God still uses these same tools to share His Kingdom plans with each one of us. A metaphor is defined as a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them.

During an inner healing session, the client may tell us about a recurring dream they have had. The dream may be a clue as to what is going on inside the core of the individual and may provide us with information as to the location and the root of the fractures in their soul. It is important that we understand the metaphors or dream symbols that are used to convey what was happening in the dream as well as their interpretation.

What kind of metaphors may we encounter in dreams or visions? The one who is dreaming may be witnessing events unfolding or they may be participating in the events. If they are seeing, but not participating, the dream could be a prophetic picture of something that is in the future. If they are participating in the events, the dream is clearly related to them personally. Colors, numbers, vehicles, houses, plants, light or darkness, crowds or isolation, peace or fear, smells or words may all indicate something other than what they appear to be.

I want you to begin to take hold of this powerful tool God has given us in His word to help us understand what He is communicating to us individually because it is information we will need for our daily walk. Begin the practice of journaling your dreams and the visions you may witness.  Be as detailed as possible. With each one, ask the Holy Spirit to shed His light on what you have seen, heard, felt, tasted, and smelled.  You will be amazed at how strategically and intentionally God communicates with you. If you are unable to remember the dreams the next morning, I encourage you to keep a pad and pen on your nightstand so that you can get up and write down every detail before you return to your peaceful slumber.

The importance of sharpening our spiritual senses cannot be overstated. We must practice every day the art of listening and hearing what God is saying and seeing and perceiving what He is doing all around us. That is what Jesus did.

John 5:19, 20 (TPT) “I only do the works that I see the Father doing…he always reveals to me everything that he is about to do.”

God wants to reveal to His church all that He is about to do. We must make ourselves available to Him. We must ask the Holy Spirit for Divine interpretation of everything we experience through our spiritual senses. We must engage the enemy with every one of the keys we have been given. Then we will be prepared to walk boldly in the authority we have been given in the Kingdom, we will defeat our enemy’s strategies and set the captives free by forgiving and repenting, and with our skillful use of the spiritual gifts, we will be able to see what the Father is doing and do what we see Him doing.

May you grow in wisdom and knowledge and in favor with God and man, so that you become spiritually mature and complete, not lacking in anything, having your spiritual senses sharpened through constant practice, and seeing what the Father is doing. Then do what you see the Father is doing!

Be blessed!
Linda
© 2019 Linda Sue Harper