Rebecca Brown Posts

Hearing God's Voice 2

1-27-16  Good morning everyone.  Let us thank the Lord for a new day in which to experience His goodness.  The sun came up this morning just like it always does.  NOTHING can stop it except the hand of the creator God who made it!  The sunrise is evidence of the absolute faithfulness of God.

LEARNING HOW TO HEAR GOD'S VOICE - PART 2

We are required by God to live this Christian walk in faith.  In fact, it is impossible to please God without faith.  (Hebrews 11:6)  Our whole relationship with God is based on faith.  What is faith?  Faith is:

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."  Hebrews 11:1

There is no sight in faith.  In fact, none of our physical senses -- sight, touch, taste, hearing, smell -- function in faith.  Simply put, faith is a decision.  Faith means that you decide to accept as fact, that God IS, and that His word is TRUTH.  I can best illustrate this by your faith in gravity.  If I held a book out in front me on my hand, and then withdrew my hand, what would happen?  The book would fall to the ground.  Are you sure?  You have no doubts?  Of course not!  You know the book would fall because nothing was holding it up.  Why?  Because of gravity.  Can you see gravity?  No.  Can you hear or taste gravity?  No.  Can you touch gravity?  No.  But, YOU HAVE ACCEPTED AS FACT THAT GRAVITY EXISTS.  IN OTHER WORDS, YOU HAVE FAITH IN GRAVITY.  You believe that gravity will always function.  This is why you would not walk off the top of a high building.  You know that if you did, you would fall to the ground.  Paul goes on to say:

"By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible."  Hebrews 11:2

God is invisible, but the whole of the physical creation is a testimony to His existence and characteristics.  (Romans 1:18-20)  The physical visible creation was created out of, and by, the invisible God.  However, this invisible God has spoken to us, first through the prophets of the Old Testament, and then through Jesus Christ, God Himself, who came down to earth to dwell in a human body.  Now we have the Bible which is also the word of God.  So, since we are required by God to live by faith rather than sight or any other of our physical senses, God does not speak to us audibly.  We cannot hear His voice with our physical ears.  Oh, He may choose to speak to someone in an audible voice, but this is a rare experience.

When God was present here on earth in a physical human body as Jesus Christ, He communicated with people through the audible spoken word and with all the physical senses.  However, Jesus knew that this would no longer be the case when He left the earth and was no longer present on earth in a physical body.  But that didn't mean that God was willing to stop communicating with His people.  He wanted to continue right on, and in an even greater way.  Once He was no longer limited in a physical body, He could communicate with an unlimited number of people all at the same time.  This would allow His church to grow and spread.  He began to prepare His disciples for this day by telling them:  "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."  (John 4:24)

Just as there is a physical realm -- our world and the whole of the physical creation -- there is also a spiritual realm.  The spiritual realm is just as real as the physical.  The spiritual realm exists right here where the physical realm is, but it does not take up physical space.  The problem is that we cannot sense it with any of our physical senses.  We cannot see it, or hear it, etc.  Being a spirit, God dwells in this spiritual realm.  So how then are we supposed to communicate with God when we cannot use any of our physical senses to do so?  We do so with our spirit.  Scripture tells us that every human being is made up of three parts -- the physical body, the soul, and the spirit.  (1 Thessalonians 5:23)  Our physical body is just that, our body, the scripture refers to our body as our "flesh," or "carnal nature." These two terms also make reference to our "sin nature," that part of us that wants to do only evil all the time.  In this case, our "flesh" or "carnal nature" makes reference to our soul as well as our physical body.  Our soul is our mind, our will, and our emotions.  It is our thoughts and consciousness and personality.  We choose to sin with our conscious thoughts.  Our soul dwells in our physical brain.  Our spirit is spirit.  Do we feel our spirits?  Not usually, in fact, almost never.  Why is this?  Because God has chosen to sever between our soul and spirit:

"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."  Hebrews 4:12

You see, our spirit is aware of the spirit realm all the time, just as our soul is aware of our physical body and physical surroundings all the time.   Our soul and physical body are still joined together.  They communicate.  We are aware of everything that our physical body is feeling and experiencing.  But we are not aware of what our spirit is experiencing.  That is because there is no longer communication between our soul and spirit since this severing has taken place.  Why did God do this?  Because He is determined that we must live by faith, not by sight.  If we could see everything our spirit sees, then there would be no need for faith.  I am convinced that Adam and Eve still had their spirits joined to their souls.  They could see into and communicate with the spirit realm just as easily as they could the physical.  I believe this because scripture tells us that God used to walk and talk with them in the garden in the cool of the day.  God was not in a physical body at that time.  He was spirit.  However, at some time after the fall, God chose to sever between the souls and spirits of humans, thus cutting off their communication with the spirit realm.  I have no doubt this was to prevent them from free and easy communication  with Satan and his demons that are spirits and dwell in the spiritual realm.  It is actually a great protection.

So then, if God is spirit, and we can no longer hear or see the spiritual realm, just how are we supposed to "hear" God's voice?
I will tell you in Part 3 of these lessons.

I pray that this series will be a blessing to you.  Rebecca.