The Bible tells us to get wisdom, and with wisdom get understanding.
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting, get understanding – Proverbs 4:7.
You can get the greatest wisdom, from people who see openly in the spirit realm. From those who are where you would like to be. You can get step-by-step instructions that should make it simple to understand, but, if you don’t have understanding it will do you little or no good.
This may sound like a no-brainer to you. Of course, you say, you have to understand your instructions. That is what I also thought for too long. I would reach the part of a book that talked about understanding, and I would skim through it so that I could get to the meat.
All of the pages that talked about how we learn, in our understanding is formed by our own life experiences, I didn’t receive. The section that talked about our environment giving us a basis for understanding words, phrases and concepts, for a long time, were lost on me. I really hope that you are a lot smarter than I was. I found eventually that we have to understand what the instruction means to the one presenting it, if we are to benefit fully from it. Let’s see some examples.
What is your book about reality?
As I began searching for books and instructions to help me as the Lord began to open my eyes, it soon began to dawn on me that not everyone has the same concept of what see in the spirit means. Suddenly I had a revelation of what all those previous books had been talking about.
For every book I found it talked about spiritual sight from the perspective I wanted to learn,(where your spiritual eyes really open up and you really see) I would find 50 books that were talking about something entirely different.
I would go to the Christian book section and see titles such as, see the unseen or and rise were open, titles like spiritual site or eyes to see, only to find out within a page or so, that the book was really talking about things like, how to be understanding, or how to interpret Scripture or how to have an intellectual understanding of some kind.
It was really kind of disappointing. Not that those books were not good books, but that their titles were misleading to me. That is what happens when you try to explain supernatural things by giving them natural explanations. It is a disappointment.
I also encountered the same thing when I tried to find books on our friends and fellow servants, the Angels. Titles such as the Angels in your life, would be a book about children and entertaining Angels, a book on how to plan parties or entertain people. They were nothing whatsoever to do with the angelic realm.
Ask, and you shall receive
In this journey to see the unseen, you have to be bold enough to ask questions if you don’t understand something. If you are not raised in an atmosphere that embrace the supernatural things of God, you may have to spend a little time playing catch-up just understanding the terminology
This idea of wisdom and understanding also applies equally to concepts and instructions even more so than book titles.
Wait, I say, upon the Lord
One of the things I heard early on from everyone who had any degree of spiritual sight, was, you have to wait on the Lord. As you wait on the Lord, you position yourself to receive from God.
That seems to make sense to me. I was raised in an evangelical church, I knew about waiting on the Lord. Because in almost every church service I had ever been in, we had waited on the Lord.
At the end of almost every service, the pastor would give an altar call. During the altar call, people would come forward for salvation or prayer, to receive from God.
After a short lull in the action, the pastor would say, let’s just wait on the Lord. So… We would wait on the Lord. Sometimes the piano would also play softly in the background, waiting on the Lord usually took from 2 to 5 minutes. And then the service was over. That was about all of my understanding.
That almost sounds ridiculous I know. But I assure you that less than one month ago, I heard of something that was very familiar. Someone was receiving prayer for healing, and since the ill person wasn’t healed within a minute or 2, a bystander impatiently said that it was taking too long. If God was going to do something he would’ve already done it by now.
But I can’t throw rocks at that person, because they were just like me, from a few years ago. If you haven’t been taught, how can you know?
What exactly, is worship?
Understanding about worship also lends itself nicely to this type of example.
I heard a joke from a prophet who said that most people think praise is 3 fast songs and worship is 3 slow songs. You may get that idea yourself sometimes. We get so locked into our agenda, that if the Holy Spirit wanted to do some thing different, it would ruin our whole worship service.
I tell you that across the world, there are churches gathering together in true worship to the Lord, and that the presence of God is so thick that people get healed just by being there.
There are places where gemstones fall out of the atmosphere onto the people as the name of Jesus is lifted up. I have been to meetings where this has happened personally.
You must have understanding. If someone who has the gift you desire, tells you that you need to wait more, or you need to pray more or worship more, ask them what they mean by that. Ask them what that looks like to them.
Ask them to give you a moment by moment description of what they do and how they do it. If you don’t, you may find yourself just doing more of what doesn’t work.
If you are really passionate about having your eyes open, and you should be, make certain of these things. Ask Holy Spirit to be your mentor. If he is your mentor, you will not be spinning your wheels on this journey and wasting your time.
The Holy Spirit will break it all down for you. Sometimes he gives you an experience and then later the explanation. Sometimes he gives you a teaching and later gives you the experience in spiritual understanding. I will give you several examples to show you how that works in real life, and what that looks like for me, as we get into the nuts and bolts so to speak.
Wisdom is getting around the people who are where you want to be, and asking them questions until you really get it.
The Holy Spirit helps us as we seek wisdom and understanding.
What is not wisdom, is listening to people who do not have a passion to go where you want to go, nor are walking in the gifts you desire, but want to tell you that if God wanted you to have it that he would just give it to you. These kinds of instructions are not wisdom. Do not hang around people who denounce and denigrate the supernatural things of God. They will affect the atmosphere around you. It can strip you of whatever strides you have made in your passion and walk. Doubt and unbelief is your sworn enemy. Pastor Bill Johnson calls the people who do not believe in the supernatural power of God, unbelieving believers.
You can love them, you can pray for them, you can even pray with them, but you cannot drink from their spirit. I’m not saying that these people don’t love the Lord. I’m saying that they are not ready or willing to accept the revelation.
Many people never accept or believe in divine healing until someone they love needs a touch from God. God is merciful and he will meet us where we are if we are willing.
The keys of the kingdom
There is nothing without Christ. All of your anointing, gifts, miracles, healings, spiritual sight, angelic visitations and heavenly encounters, flow out of your relationship with Jesus. He is the source. He is the master key.
Intimacy with Christ
Knowing that Jesus is the master key is a step in the right direction. But we have to keep in the forefront of our minds and our spirits that our motives have to be the Lord himself.
Yes, the miracles are amazing, the healing’s phenomenal, seeing in the spirit is beyond anything we have experienced of an earthly nature, angelic visitations are more than a blessing, they are beyond description. But….
We cannot and must not pursue the gifts as an end to themselves. No matter how good our reasons might be. Yes, I want to lay hands on the sick and see them healed. Yes I love to see and experience to miraculous things of God. And I love being in the spirit. And I love seeing angels. But all those things have to flow out of our relationship with him.
The Lord had to teach me this particular lesson as I began to pursue spiritual things. I began to get so excited about the gifts that I spent less of my focus on the giver of the gifts, and we can’t do that.
Everybody wants to be friends with the rich kid
The Lord brought to my mind one day, the idea of all the kids in the neighborhood wanting to be friends with the rich kid in the neighborhood. We have all seen movies with plot lines like this.
All the other kids really don’t like the rich kid at all, they just want to swim in his pool or play with his toys or eat from his fully stocked kitchen, all the delicacies that they themselves could never otherwise have. The rich kid usually finds out at some point in the movie that nobody really likes him, and he is heartbroken. He is just being used.
Like the kind of acquaintance who we might be friendly with because we like to borrow their JetSki during the summer.
The Lord spoke to me about me just wanting to use his JetSki. I was guilty. I wanted all the goodies like spiritual site, angelic visitations, miracles, signs and wonders but I was not cultivating my relationship with him 1st and foremost.
The Lord told me that he is happy to let me drive his JetSki, but he wants me to desire for us to do these things together! He said that I should come to his house because of my desire for him, to spend time with him. And not for the things he can give me.
But seeking 1st the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you – Matthew 6:33
Make sure of your motives, or you can easily open doors to the devil. The devil would be happy to give you experiences in the supernatural realm apart from Jesus or a relationship with Jesus. Wrong motives can do just that. An angel of the Lord told me so…
Jesus to Mike, your flight has been canceled
I’m going to have to reveal some of my feelings along the way if I am to give you the benefit of the things I’ve learned. This next story is exactly that. Early on in my hunger for spiritual things, I learned that through focus and desire, you can enter into the realm of the spirit. I also learned that in the realm of the spirit, almost anything is possible. In that realm we are not limited to only the things our natural bodies can do.
I discovered that it is possible to fly in the spirit. But boy did I ever love to fly. And so I did
As a matter of fact, that became my mission, so to speak. Every time I found myself in the spirit, either by accident or by choice, the 1st thing I would do is fly. No, the only thing I would do was to fly. I did not go into the spirit to pray. I did not go into worship. I did not go in for fellowship with the Lord. I just wanted to fly.
Angelic encounter
On this particular day, I lay down on my bed and purposed in my heart to go beyond the veil. I shifted my focus off of earthly things, and began to focus on moving into the spirit.
After a short time, perhaps 30 minutes or so, it happened, I shifted into that realm. So I was now sitting on the edge of my bed, in the spirit, and thrilled to death because I just know I’m about to take flight!
But all of the sudden, and Angel blasts into the room. He was armored up like a warrior, and I could literally feel an intense power coming off of him. Instantly I was in shock. His gaze was quite fierce, and to be honest, he looked like he was angry with me. When he looked me in the eye, my eyes were locked on to his. Then he told me in a very authoritative voice…
Quit seeking the supernatural to amuse yourself! You’ll open a door to the spirit of witchcraft!
Then, as powerfully as he came, he left. It was as if a tornado had struck. The entire encounter with this Angel was mere seconds, but because of the raw power of God on him, in the speed of the encounter, I felt like I had just been hit by a speeding train.
The Lord had corrected me. I repented.
I am not saying that the life in the realm of the kingdom can’t be exciting. It is! There is a full range of experiences with the Lord and they are exciting! But, it must always flow out of our relationship with him.