(John
16:13, Romans 8:14,16, Psalms 85:8, Amos
3:7, Acts 18:5, Num 12:6)
“But when he, the spirit of
truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his
own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to
come.” John 16:13 NIV.
When one talks about hearing
God or being inspired or led by the spirit of God to do or say certain things,
some people seem to react weird or feel uncomfortable because they’ve never had
such experience or encounter before.
We are in perilous times, where
this subject has brought lots of controversies and disbelief. I was speaking
with a friend and I shared with her some things God told me, she was taken
aback and her response amused me. She told me, she couldn’t relate, and that it
seems God doesn’t speak to her or maybe she doesn’t hear or know when He does
speak. That’s the state many of us are in, we find it hard to believe that God
speaks or God still speaks to His children. As a matter of fact, being led by
God is what authenticates your sonship as a child of God. Being a Christian
entails walking God’s path for your life, being directed by God.
The place of real fellowship
with God is changing into a pool of activities, some churches end up running
activities and teaching her congregation same, thus, some people no longer
encounter God as He is but lives on the words of other believers.
It is becoming common to hear
some preachers say ‘God is here’ meanwhile the congregation has not been led to
seeing this God neither have they been shown how to access Him. It is because
of these vexatious happenings that some ‘Christians’ find it hard to enjoy
personal fellowship with God, thus, leading to the difficulty or disbelief in
the fact that God actually speaks.
As a young man, my first
supernatural experience that left a mark in my pursuit of God was when He spoke
to me through a trance. That was some years ago, I just left a corporate
prayer, where I interceded for direction from God, seeking to know His will for
the people He had chosen me to lead.
I laid on my bed, alone in my
room and was slowly dozing off to sleep, and then I realized I was caught up in
two different dimensions. I felt I was asleep and at the same time awake, right
before me was someone with a very bright banner and on it was shown souls with
hands lifted high to God with an inscription on the banner saying PRAISE.
Immediately, I snapped out of it and then realized God was telling His people
to praise Him. Still, in that week, God confirmed His word when another of His
servant shared to the church that God was seeking praise from His church.
Aside from this experience,
I’ve been privileged to hear from God through other various means which have
truly expounded my understanding and knowledge that God is limitless.
Have you ever thought about
prayer as a time you get to relate with God, to talk to Him and hear Him talk
and not just going to His presence to make noise and then return back to your
routines? You should not see prayers as an activity but as an interaction, we
should be deliberate and sincere in our prayers. Communication is a two-way
thing, we commune with a living God when we pray, a God that listens and
speaks. When you go to God, you’re meant to find peace. What some people do is
synonymous to appearing before a King, echoing the normal praises and
greetings, then they begin to shout and scream one request to another, after
which they don’t wait to hear or listen to what he has to say but walk out
immediately they’re done screaming.
When Jesus tells us in Matt
11:28, to come to Him, those who labour and are heavy laden and He will give us
rest, He wasn’t telling us to come scream and leave, He was telling us to come
and dwell. It’s in the dwelling that we’re refreshed, it’s in His presence
we’re reassured. We get the solutions to our problems when we go to Him. The
rest is a product of His presence, and His presence can only be made manifest
when the heart truly seeks Him (Isaiah 29:13).
God wants a genuine
relationship with man, His desire is to have real fellowship with you, not one
predicated on or restricted to an activity that isn’t deliberate. He wants not
just your words but also your heart. Understanding and faith are gotten and
built when our ears are opened to listen and our hearts willing to receive from
God.
The voice of God never went
mute, it is you who stopped listening (Psalms 85:8, Romans 8:14,16, Amos 3:7,
Acts 18:5, Num 12:6). God does speaks, and there are diverse means in which He
communes with His Children.
Prior to the coming of Jesus,
the prophets were the conduit pipe God used in communicating with man. Fortunately,
Christ restored the relationship between man and God and therefore making it
possible and easy to hear the voice of God and receive direction (Heb 1:1-2,
Heb 10:19-20, John 14:6).
Before Jesus left, he made a
promise of the comforter, the Holy Spirit
(John 14:15-18). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God that is in every
child of God, also referred to as the Spirit of truth that gives you guidance
in life. The leading of God in your life is what confirms you as His Child, and
the Holy Spirit (still the spirit of adoption) is the means in which He leads
His Children (Romans 8:14-16).
Without the Spirit of God, we
are like horses or donkeys which lack understanding and must be forced to do
the will of their owner. Well, God isn’t interested in slaves, He can’t force
you to have a relationship with you, He can’t direct you if your heart is not
open to Him. You must be deliberate in seeking Him and walking His path.
Psalms 32:8-9 tells us “I will
instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee
with mine eye. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule which have no
understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come
near unto thee.”
God is ever willing to walk
with you and direct your path. The question is, are you are ready and willing to
listen to Him, to be directed by Him?
There are numerous ways God
speaks to His children and some of them are:
Inner Perception: This is the primary and the
most basic way in which the Holy Spirit may lead most people most of the time.
It is an internal witness, a supernatural knowing and understanding. In 1
Samuel 3:8, Eli did not hear the voice of God when God was calling Samuel,
however, he perceived that it was the Lord who called Samuel. To perceive is to
become aware of something by a supernatural understanding. Jesus at the course
of His ministry on earth, perceived at so many times the state of the people’s
heart and their comprehension of His teachings (Matt 16:6-8). Some Christians
get led through this means but fail to realize it is a divine direction. For
example, you hear people tell you after an examination that it was the specific
place they read that came out. Ordinarily, they shouldn’t have known where the
examiner would decide to examine them from, but the Spirit of God was able to
guide them accordingly.
Inner Voice: This is divine communication
by the voice of the spirit. (We most times refer to it as ‘still small
voice’). Peter was directed by the inner
voice in Acts 10:19, when the Spirit ministered unto him, informing him of
three men who sought him. Sometimes while engaged in deep thoughts, a voice so
soft and calm might be heard. This voice guides us and teaches us the will of
God, provides answers to questions and direct our paths. Due to the subtleness
of the voice, people do miss it at-times or misconceive it for their thoughts.
(Isaiah 30:21, Kings 19:11-12, Rev 2:7,17 and 29). I was studying the
scriptures one evening, specifically Ephesians 3, when I heard the voice of the
spirit telling me Jesus Christ is the reflection of the greatness of God. For
you to hear the inner voice, your spiritual ear must be alert. The gauge to
test the genuineness of the voice heard is the word of God. It must never
contravene God’s word.
Audible Voice of God: In this situation, you hear a
voice that appears so loud that it even seems to you that it was heard by the
physical ear. However, it can be spiritual to the spiritual ears. It can also
be physical to the physical ears but people won’t hear the content and it can also
come in such a way everyone hears it just as it happened with Paul on his way
to Damascus before his conversion (Acts 9:3-7). What Samuel heard in 1 Samuel
3:3-10 was the audible voice of God but Eli couldn’t hear it. The audible voice
of God could come in different forms, all to the glory of God.
Revelations: Revelations could come in different forms, it
could be through night dreams, trance or vision.
Night Dream – That which we see
when we are asleep, just like the angel of God revealed to Joseph, Herod’s
future plan to seek to kill Jesus (Matt 2:13). Any dream that is contrary to
the word or the will of God must be averted and resisted in the place of
prayers. Sometimes the purpose of our dreams is for us to avert or resist them
with prayers. I ever had a dream and in it, I saw my friend crying out to me
for help, telling me I wasn’t caring. When I woke up, through the help of the
spirit I was able to understand what it meant and so, I picked up my phone and
called, I didn’t even bother greeting or asking any question, I just started
off praying against sickness and declaring her whole, then I ended the call and
later that day, she called to tell me, she woke up that morning feeling ill but
after the prayers, she was well. Dreams could also come as a means of warning
us, a friend of mine once shared a quite complicated dream of hers with me and
some possible interpretations of it, but by the spirit of God, we were able to
discern that God was warning her not to go off track or to be swayed away by
the allurements of the world. As children of God, we shouldn’t disregard dreams
except it is not in alignment with the word of God. Also, there are satanic
orchestrated dreams just as there are divine dreams, so you are to be careful
not to interpret any dream as divine direction because there are also times
where our subconscious brings back at night that which our eyes or hearts were
fixated on during the day. (Eccl 5:3)
Trance – Just as I shared in my
experience earlier, trance is a state of insensibility to external
surroundings, at that point you’re unconscious but your passion and ability to
function remains and you’re still able to retain memories.
Most times it occurs after an
intensive prayer session. When you retire to a serene environment, you
unconsciously enter into a trance, where you seem to be half asleep and half
awake at the same time (Acts 10:9-10).
Vision – The spiritual and
mental pictures are seen with the person’s physical sense or senses intact. It
could occur with your eyes closed and also with the eyes open, just as it
happened with Daniel and Ezekiel (Daniel 7-8,10 and the book of Ezekiel). You
may see mental pictures that are so vivid and easy to comprehend, other times,
it may be unclear pictures that can be confused with imaginations. At different
times, I have been able to confirm spiritual revelations by servants of God
through such mental pictures that were revealed to me, displaying in a
pictorial form their revelations or prophecies.
Tongues Interpretation: This is the ability to be able
to interpret tongues (to be able to comprehend spiritual language), the source
of praying in the spirit becomes the channel of understanding with the mind.
Interpretation of tongues is a spiritual gift, not all have, the spirit of God
gives us different gifts, all from God and to His glory. To some the spirit
gave the word of wisdom; to others the word of knowledge; faith; the gift of
healing; the working of miracles; prophecy; discerning of spirits and other
different gifts. These gifts are given to man as God wills, they’re for
edification, growth and benefit of the body of Christ. I was privileged to be
in a prayer meeting one night and then playfully, we started rapping in tongues
and the Holy Spirit took over the meeting and so many could not stop speaking
in tongues, the understanding of a few were opened in that gathering and they
began interpreting the tongues that were uttered and God’s words to us were
communicated accordingly with confirmations. The gift of interpretation of
tongues is a very important gift because it enlightens or interprets the words
of the Spirit and also educates the believer on that which is being prayed for
by the Spirit. (1 Cor 12:10, 14:2-17).
Through the Word: It is very possible to be led
by the word of God (Scriptures). You could be directed to read a passage by the
spirit of God, you could stumble on a random scripture that answers a pressing
question, you could even be spoken directly to from the pulpit when the word of
God is being expounded or discussed.
Sometimes you find yourself nodding or maybe orally reacting to
scripture when you come in contact with it. It could even be a known scripture
but at that very moment it answers your heart’s question, brings peace to you,
brings light to your life or enlightens the eyes of your understanding (Psalms
119:130, Eph 1:18, Psalms 119:105, James 3:17).
Prophetic Direction: This is God’s direction or
word through a man for you. This is when God speaks to His Prophet concerning
you (1 Kings 13:11-25, 2 Kings 5:1-15). It could be a confirmation of God’s
words for your life, it could be an instruction, a prophecy or anything.
However, do not become so dependent on Prophetic directions that you fail to
hear God for yourself, it endangers and can hinder your spiritual growth.
Receiving prophetic direction is good but it shouldn’t be your primary means of
hearing God, build your relationship with God, that a Prophet’s direction
serves mostly if not always as a confirmation to you. Also, you need to be careful
not to take in any message, every word that is contrary to the word or the will
of God should be totally rejected.
The ways in which God speaks to
His children can never be exhausted, He could decide to speak to you through stones or even
through water. Countless times, He has spoken through diverse means, He has
spoken to His servants through situations
or activities (Jer 19:3-6), I suffered a great storm a few years back but
God still uses the experience to speak to me till date, the glory of the Lord
was greatly manifested at the end of the trial and the pains were nothing
compared to the glory it brought (2 Cor 4:17), God spoke through a burning bush to Moses (Exodus 3:2-10),
through an animal (Num 22:27),
through the stars (Matt 2:2),
through angels (Luke 2:8-12) and
lots of other inexhaustible means.
Sometimes we limit/restrict the
way God speaks to us by expecting to hear from Him just through the method
we’re familiar with and fail to take cognizance of the other times He tries
communicating with us. God can never be exhausted, likewise His ways.
Deliberately seek God and He
would reveal Himself to you, never limit Him, His ways are not the ways of man
and His thoughts are not our thoughts. God is good to those who come to Him.
God bless you!
Let us pray!
Lord, I appreciate you for your
word, I thank you for this fresh light and understanding you’ve given me today,
I ask that you search my heart as I deliberately run after you today, reveal
yourself to me and help me continue life’s journey with you. Thank you Jesus;
In Jesus name,
Amen.
Tsalla Emmanuel
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