1 Thessalonians 5:21Prove (command continuous, to test, examine, prove, to see whether a thing is genuine or not) all things; hold fast (occurring now, keep firm possession of) that which is good. 22Abstain (command continuous, keep oneself from, separate from-distance oneself) from all appearance of evil. 23And the very God of peace sanctify (set apart for God’s use) you wholly (complete in all respects); and I pray God your whole (complete in all its parts, in no part wanting or unsound) spirit and soul and body be preserved Blameless unto of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a principle in the word about being alive—totally and wholly alive, that our whole spirit, soul, and body be sanctified wholly. This indicates that there are certain areas in our life right now which may be dead to God.
We are to be wholly sanctified. To be sanctified is to be set apart exclusively for God’s use. It is the presence of God that sanctifies us, it is the infilling of the Spirit of God that makes us holy.
There are areas of our soul that still need to be transformed, and there is a process by which these areas can come alive to God. There is an unawareness that exists within our makeup, and that unawareness is kindred to death.
Ephesians 5: 13But all things that are reproved (to convict) are made manifest (eyes to see) by the light (to shine, the life of God-his glory): for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. 14Wherefore he saith, Awake (command to begin now, to arise from sleep-for the spirit to be awake) thou that sleepest (continuous action, to fall asleep spiritually), and arise (command to begin now, to stand again, to come into existence, to be spiritually alive) from (out of) the dead, and Christ shall give thee light (1-to shine upon 2-thine own).
Paul was speaking here to believers. He was telling believers: Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
Revelation comes because some faculty within us awakens. The reason some believers are not more spiritual is because some of the faculties within them are dead. They may have dead ears, and so they struggle to hear. We are never going to be what God wants us to be until we come alive—totally and completely alive.
There are specific areas in believers’ lives that are dead to God. They are often defeated because there is no awareness of the Lord in these areas. When a person does not have spiritual ears to hear or spiritual eyes to see, so that their heart can respond to God’s provisions, where is the focus of their life? It is through their soul. They react emotionally to their circumstances, to what they see and hear in the natural. They always find themselves crippled where God is concerned because the faculties of their spirit are not at that moment alive to God.
We must come to the place where we can move and see and experience things in the spirit world as well as we can in the natural world. II Kings 6 tells the story of the young man who was the servant of Elisha. When the siege was laid around the city to take Elisha captive because his revelations were disturbing the military plans of Syria, this young man went out in the morning and looked over the wall of the city. He saw all the armies of the enemy surrounding the city, and he went to Elisha and cried, “O Master! What shall we do?” Elisha was a seer; he could actually see the protection that was around him. He prayed to the Lord to open the young man’s eyes that he might see. The Lord opened his eyes to see all the angelic hosts and forces that were there. Immediately, the young man’s faith was great, because God had opened his eyes; a faculty within him that was dead had come alive.
We need more prophets; but a prophet cannot be dead in any aspect of their life. We can call it “death” because something within them is dead. They must be aware of the spirit world. They must be able to hear the voice of God. They must be able to see what God is doing. Jesus was always beholding the face of the Father. He did only those things that He saw the Father doing (John 5:19). Until we have sight like that, there is still unawareness in us; we are not yet totally alive.
The world cannot comprehend this type of sight. A psychiatrist would call it hallucinations, seeing things that are not there. Hallucinations that belong to insanity are one thing, but what a seer prophet sees is another thing completely.
Many of our limitations remain because we do not actually isolate an area of need and focus on it until God meets us in that area. If we would, we could break through one limitation after another. We would not be stumbling along, but we would be walking clearly before God. We must have spiritual faculties if we are going to have a spiritual walk. We cannot win in warfare unless we know what we are fighting.
Paul wrote in I Thessalonians 5:5–6a … we are not of the night, nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep, as do the rest. Paul was speaking here about people in the world who do not know that the Lord is coming. They are just stumbling around in the darkness. But the light is shining.
We cannot grasp a living Word from God and reason it out in our mind; it is not real to us until our spirit gets a hold of it.
But let us watch and be sober. Verse 6b. The Word teaches much about being alert and about watching. We have to train ourselves to become very observant. Our spiritual eye will tend to go blind unless we use it and constantly exercise it by being watchful. If we do not pay attention to what God is saying and give diligence to it, we will miss it.
When we hear the lord speak something to us we need to obey it, or we will become dull of hearing. If we have our ears trained in the spirit to hear what God is saying we will grow by it. We must bring our imagination and our thoughts into captivity, subjecting them to Christ (II Corinthians 10:5). If any man has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches (Revelation 2:7). We have to train our spiritual ears to hear and our spiritual eyes to see.
What makes the difference between daylight and the dark? Can a blind man tell the difference between day and night? The difference comes in having an eye to see. What makes color? It is the eye that can see it. What makes beauty? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What makes bitter and what makes sweet? These distinctive qualities depend upon our ability to see, to taste, to smell, to feel. What makes the difference between the end time with all of its darkness and the new age? The eye that can see it.
The enemy comes to steal the word. He does not care if we understand almost all of it, just so we miss the one thing that would help us to take hold of it and then begin to walk with God in a way that is far beyond what we could ever dream of.
We need to pray every day- God give me eyes to see. Help me to be fully awake. When a person is asleep, they are not aware of what is happening. Certain areas of their consciousness are dead, yet the subconscious is still quite active. When we are asleep, parts of us are alive and parts of us are practically dead.
We need to be like Samuel-. 1 samuel 3: 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him. 8 And the LORD called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the LORD had called the child. 9 Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth.