We must develop an intense spiritual hunger to hear from God, an intense desire. To hear God is a quest, we must spend time waiting on God (a focused listening). It’s a very major quest, you must begin a course of action, start out 15 minutes a day, it takes time, but make sure you are first filled with the Spirit. It’s something you must learn and become proficient at it.
We must learn a new language, the language of the spirit realm, the language of heaven. Hearing the voice of the Lord requires that we learn the language of heaven.
The language of heaven is a spiritual language, it is much more sophisticated than our native language, say English or Spanish, German, Chinese, Japanese or whatever is our native language. It’s very more complex than that. And we need to appreciate that fact. It does involve the spoken word, like in English, God will speak to us in English, he’ll speak to you in Chinese, he’ll speak to you in the language you speak. It does involve that, but it’s much more than just that because it involves spontaneous thoughts, feelings, pictures on the screen of your mind and eventually being able to see in the Spirit. He can speak to us and convey something to us with a feeling. He can convey to us by pictures. He can convey to us by intuitive knowing. He can convey to us by color, smell, taste. You see, his language is far greater than just the spoken word, the language of heaven is far greater.
Now, you know, those who are prophetic, Prophets have giftings that enable them to hear and see very easily. But they are gifts. And the reason why God gives prophets giftings like this is so that they can teach the ordinary believer how this works and how to work with it.
However, we need to understand that We’re not talking about giftings in hearing from God. We’re talking about another level.
HEARING GOD’S WORDS
Numbers 12: 6 Then He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream. 7 Not so with My servant Moses; He is faithful in all My house. 8 I speak with him face to face, Even plainly, and not in dark sayings; And he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant Moses?”
Moses had a different relationship to God than the prophet did. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all my house. With him I will speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches. and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold? Wherefore, then, were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?
You see, prophets speak out of giftings. They have giftings which they are either born with, or they’re imparted to when they came into the kingdom of God, and it’s easier for them to work with that.
But the average person does not have that gifting, the whole idea of having Prophets in the church, is so that they can teach the average believer how to walk with God, who are not prophets. And this is important.
And so, what we’re teaching is not so much working out of giftings, gifts of the Spirit, it’s working out of relationship with the Lord.
And the language of heaven is very diverse. And we must learn it. It’s something we learn to recognize when God is speaking to us and how God speaks to us.
Now, The book of Revelation is full of symbolism. And I am just now learning the mystical interpretation of it. It’s full of all kinds of monsters, all kinds of apparitions. It’s full of symbolism. The question is why does the Lord speak like that? Why doesn’t he speak plainly? Have you ever thought that? I’ve often said to the Lord in the past, Lord, why don’t you speak plainly? Why speak in symbols? Why give us dreams which need interpretation? Well, there are a number of reasons for that.
One, the human language is flawed because of the fall and because of sin. The Lord needs to go beyond the human language.
And secondly, the human language tends to go through the mind first and then the spirit. But God has to get hold of our spirit first. And quite often he does that, he uses pictures and symbols, getting a hold of our spirit to convey it to the mind.
And the language of the heart is much greater, like feelings and moods and pictures. However, God often uses symbolism and dreams in such a way to hide something. He hides from you what he is saying until the time comes to make it plain.
Acts1: 7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
You see, there was a time that this would be revealed, but it was not their time.
And in John chapter 16 and verse 25, it says, these things have I spoken unto you in Proverbs, but the time is coming when I shall no more speak to you this way in Proverbs, but I will show you plainly the Father.
You see, walking with God involves body, soul, and spirit. He doesn’t just always speak to our spirit. He’ll convey feelings to our physical body or even convey moods into our emotions, to convey something to us. And we need to be aware of that. He speaks in all three areas.
And the Bible very clearly encourages us to have this kind of walk with God.
In John 15: 15, it says, henceforth I call you not servant, for the servant didn’t know what the Lord is doing.
Many Christians are like that. They don’t really know what the Lord is doing or what he’s saying to them.
But I have called you friends for all things I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
That’s a relationship and that’s the kind of walk that He wants you to have. That’s the Lord’s desire for you. However, there’s a problem. You see, God is a spirit. And to make it worse, He’s an invisible spirit. So how on earth do you become friends with an invisible spirit? Now come on, I ask you, how are you going to become a friend with a Spirit? You can’t see, you can’t hear, He’s invisible. And yet we’re encouraged to have a relationship with God who is invisible, with the Holy Spirit, who is invisible. You know, how can we do that? How can you become friends with an invisible Spirit? You have to learn to enter into His realm. Very rarely does the Lord enter our realm. Occasionally, sovereignly, He’ll do that. But it’s very rare. We have to enter into the realm of what is called the Spirit, the Spirit realm. John says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day and I heard and I saw. He couldn’t see that, hear and see, until He was in the Spirit.
ENTER HIS REALM
The Bible makes it very clear that we must enter His realm, which is inside and outside of us. When we are aware of the presence of the Lord, we are aware of that realm. In 2 Peter 4:22 says this, The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. That’s where communication happens first, within your spirit.
Revelation 1: 10 I was in the spirit realm on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice sounding like a trumpet.
John heard a voice. You’re a spirit being, and your spirit is clothed with a body and the soul. But we must enter his realm to fellowship with him.
1 Corinthians 2:14 tells us, But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
You must develop a conscious awareness of the presence of the Lord. Scientists talk about a parallel universe. That’s another world existing in the same space and same time as ours.
So, you’re in living room, and scientists say there’s another world which you don’t see with your physical eyes. It’s not on the same wavelength. It’s in a different dimension. So, they talk about this theory of parallel universes.
Now, this is true in the realm of the spirit. The spirit realm exists alongside us; it is as close as the air we breathe. Now, as I’m talking to you there are angels around me. They live in their world. They live in a different dimension. But to be able to see them and to be able to hear them, you must enter their realm. They’re not going to come into your realm, only at certain times, usually when you are in danger. You must enter their realm.
John said, “I was in the Spirit”. Then I heard and saw. Paul wrote, the Lord be with your spirit. Not with your mind, not with your soul. He said, with your spirit.
There is that realm, that is more real than the natural realm, because everything in the physical world came from out of there. Now, Jesus had real difficulty getting this across to his disciples. He said to them in John chapter 3: 12, If I have told you of earthly things and you don’t believe, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? Then he said in the next verse, now listen carefully, no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the son of man, which is in heaven. You see, when Jesus walked this earth, he also was in another dimension. He walked in two realms.
The Son of Man, which is on earth, who is also in heaven.
He walked in the heavenly realm. He walked in the realm of spirit, as well as walking in this natural realm. And Jesus is saying here in these scriptures that He was in heaven and on earth at the same time. He walked in two parallel dimensions. How can this be?
You see, Jesus had access to both worlds. He could be in the presence of his Father at the same time as being with people on the earth. You’ll have constant access to the realm of the Spirit if you know how to move into that, if you know how to perceive that, if you know the feel of that.
In Ephesians chapter 2: 6, it says, and he hath, past tense, raised us up together with Christ, and made you to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
That is a present fact of reality. He’s made you to sit with Jesus in the spirit realm, in the heavenly places, in Christ. This is a present fact.
You see, once you know this and once you believe this, it is the passport of entering that new country, that new realm. It’s the beginning. You must believe it’s possible. You must know that your spirit is seated there. Our spirit is dimensional, in heaven and on earth in our body. You have to know this from the Word of God, once you know it and believe it you can begin to access that realm, entering the presence of the Lord.
John17:24, Father, he said, this is a prayer of Jesus, I will that they also whom you have given me, that’s born-again believers, be with me where I am.
Where did he live? Be with me where I am, that they might behold my glory which thou hast given me. For you loved me before the foundation of the world.
PRACTICE HIS PRESENCE
How do you behold the glory of the Lord? You can’t do that with your natural eyes. It’s a spiritual phenomena. It’s a spiritual thing. He said, I pray, Lord, that they will be with me in this realm, that they can enter my realm and walk with me and be my friend. This is possible.
You know, learning to be in Spirit is a matter of knowing that you can be And then by faith, believing you can, you can bridge the gap, pass over into that realm, bridging the gap between the two worlds. And this is very important.
The first lesson to be perfected is to be able to enter the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. And that comes by practicing the presence of God, learning to be consciously aware of his presence during the day, if you’re working, this is something you must work at. Practicing the Presence of God. There’s a book by Brother Lawrence called Practicing the Presence of God. You really need to get it, and you really need to read it. You can get it off the net if you just type in Practicing the Presence of God or type in Brother Lawrence and information will come up on that book. And he was a simple man. He was a monk in the Middle Ages, but he had a tremendous walk with God. He learned how to walk with him. And he puts it forth in a very simple way. Focus is the key. What you focus on, you will connect with. As you focus upon the Lord in love and worship Him in your heart, you’ll enter His realm. You’ll connect. You’ll become conscious of His presence, both with your spirit, your soul, and physically. You’ll become conscious. And You lose that connection off and on during the day. But as you practice this, as you learn to enter into it, it’ll become easier and easier.
To walk with the Lord requires that you walk with a conscious presence of the Lord, a conscious awareness of his presence. You must learn how to do that. You know, I’m not saying that you have to see him, but you must develop an awareness of him. You have to be aware that he is there. It takes practice, it takes focus, it takes refocus. You know, like you lose your focus and you have to refocus again a dozen times during the day. That’s okay.
You’re just learning how to walk into that and how to stay in it.
LOSING AN AWARENESS OF THE LORD
The first thing that Adam lost when he sinned was the presence of the Lord. That’s what was gone, the presence of the Lord.
In Genesis chapter 3: 8, it says, and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden on the cool of the day. They heard the voice of God walking in the garden of the cool of the day. And he and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. They stepped out of the presence of the Lord. Consciousness of the presence of the Lord is very important. Sin caused them to lose the presence of the Lord.
Leviticus 22: 3 Say to them: ‘Whoever of all your descendants throughout your generations, who goes near the holy things which the children of Israel dedicate to the Lord, while he has uncleanness upon him, that person shall be cut off from My presence: I am the Lord.
So, I say, sin cuts us off from the presence of the Lord. That’s why we must keep short accounts with God. If we fail and we sin, we confess our sin immediately and get rid of it. Otherwise, we’ll go through the rest of the day without being able to focus and consciously be aware of the Lord.
If you’re going to hear the voice of God, you’ve got to get into the conscious presence of the Lord. You’ve got to enter His realm, and you’ve got to have a conscious awareness of that.
When King David sinned, and he sinned against the Lord, this is what he said.
Psalm 51:11 Cast me not away from your presence, take not your Holy Spirit from me.
You see, it’s important to keep clean hands and a pure heart. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, the presence of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. And so, living in the conscious presence of the Lord, you must become aware of his presence.
The voice of God and the voice of the language of heaven is very diverse, and it’s something you have to learn. Recognizing it is the big thing when he is speaking. Most people don’t recognize when God is speaking to them, because he speaks in so many different ways.
But you must learn to enter his realm. It’s like a parallel universe between the spirit realm and the physical world. He’s not going to come into your world. You have to enter into His presence.
It says we enter into His gates. We enter into His presence with thanksgiving. We come before Him.
He doesn’t come before us. We have to enter into His world. And that is a conscious awareness of the presence of God which can lead to a visual awareness of the presence of God. But initially it’s just a conscious awareness of the presence of the Lord. And it’s that way you begin to hear the voice of the Lord. And so, I want you to think about these things. There are some things you have to do. You must turn to the Lord many, many times during the day. Focus and become conscious of His presence. So that you learn to walk in that. And in doing so, you’re beginning to enter into a quest to walk with God. Think about these things, put them into practice, and you’ll find yourself slowly but surely, if you’re diligent, entering into the ways and the presence of God. God bless you.