In the last post I mentioned that because we are spirit, soul, and body, we can communicate with the physical world, the souls of other people, and with the spirit realm. Today I want to focus on the spirit realm.
We can be spiritually influenced in one of three ways.
- The spirit of the Satan or the Devil and his demons.
- The spirit of other people (I don’t mean the spirit of the dead).
- And of course, the spirit of God.
I had hoped to cover those areas last time but ran out of time. So here we go…
1 John 4:4 “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world”. The “He who is in you that is greater” is, of course, the Holy Spirit of God, and He will enable you to overcome all the evil in the world that may come against you.
The Holy Spirit of God.
The spirit of God or the Holy Spirit is always motivated by love. When I say love I don’t mean the emotional sentimental type of love but Agape love which is unconditional love. God is committed to seeing to your well-being because that is what unconditional love means. In a practical way, I like to define Love as living your life for someone else’s good. God is interested in your good!
The fruit of the Holy Spirit which is listed in Galatians 5:22-23, is what God is trying to build into us, but at the same time, it describes the character and nature of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and, self-control. When you are motivated by these attributes you can be sure that God is at work in you.
Remember that we are being transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). We are being changed to become more and more like Jesus. Romans 8:29 says, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren”.
We are able to hear God.
We know that our human spirit has the ability to see, hear, and understand God’s spirit. 1 Corinthians 2 beginning in verse 9 states: “But as it is written: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit”. Then verse 12, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God”.
Jesus Himself, tells us that He knows us and that we are able to hear His voice and follow him. John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me”.
What does Jesus mean when He says they will hear my voice?
Let me use an analogy to describe the spiritual in concrete terms. In a sense, your spirit is like a radio. You are able to tune in to a variety of spiritual channels, so to speak- the spirit of God, the spirit of the Devil, and even the spirit of other people. Your spirit then conveys these voices to your mind as thoughts.
How will I know God’s voice?
Remember, now that you are born-again you are able to discern or understand the Holy Spirit of God, something you could not do before. The scriptures are clear that you now have spiritual ears to hear God (2 Cor 2:9-16).
As an assurance that you are in fact hearing from God remember that what you hear can never contradict the Word of God, the Bible. Because God inspired the words in the Bible contradicting His own word would be a lie, and therefore can’t be from God, because God can’t lie (Titus 1:2, Numbers 23:19). So, when God speaks through His Holy Spirit to you it will be based on love- Agape love which is unconditional love. It will “ring” of the Fruit of the Holy Spirit found in Gal 5:22-23, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
God does not speak confusion, doubt, or harshness. James 3:17 says, “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
Familiarity…
Over time you will be able to recognize God’s voice among all the other voices you may hear. Let me give you an example:
My wife’s name is Dee and over the years I have come to recognize her voice. When she calls me on the phone, I never ask, who is this? I instantly know her voice because of our relationship and years of communication. It is exactly the same discerning or recognizing God’s voice. As you build your relationship with Jesus and communicate with Him, you will be hearing His voice.
Follow me…
Recall John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me”.
It goes without saying, that in the beginning if you don’t take a chance and actually obey what the Holy Spirit is saying, you will never come to the place of having confidence or trust that you are in fact hearing God. That is what it means to follow Him.
Learning to become familiar with His voice is the key to making good decisions in your life and accelerating the transformation of your soul to live in love, peace and, joy.
Expect to hear the Holy Spirit speak to you, if it sounds like something God would expect of you- then do it. Only doers are blessed by God.
In our next post, we will look at the influence of the human spirit on our decision-making process.
