Five weeks ago, my wife and I were packing again. We had been house-sitting for some friends who had taken a trip to Washington DC and New York. We had hoped to find a place to rent during our time in town. Indeed, the Father had spoken to us on numerous occasions that He would provide when the time was right. I guess this wasn’t the time. Packing again to spend weeks camping was wearing thin. We felt no grace. That story is told in the article entitled, ‘Door of Hope’ if you want to read it. We have finally come to the place in our journey where we are able to trust what we hear regardless of how it plays out, or the cost of that word to us. However, there are more than a few people who look at us doubtfully and wonder why we have no house in which to live.
A few days ago, I sat with my dad and talked about a similar subject. He had just finished reading Zion’s Dawn and felt that Gideon’s journey was not realistic. He opined that nobody hears God clearly enough to walk such a path except some of the men in scriptures. He had known many men of God in his ninety-two years that he highly respected. He had seen in them an ability to hear God’s voice. Over the years, he had asked many of them if they had confidence in knowing it was God. Every one of them admitted that they always proceeded with fear and trembling, never quite sure. What he left unsaid was that if such men could not be sure, then how can we ever attain to such a high standard.
What I am about to propose will not feel ‘safe’ to many. I want to make it clear that I am not speaking of hearing God’s voice for someone other than yourself. We are each responsible for our own walk with the Lord. (Romans 14:4) One of the most valuable teachings I have heard is by Arthur Burk about redemptive gifts. (a free video series is found on his website, here) As I began to understand the amazing poly-variegated diversity God designed into His children, my whole thought process on how to disciple others began to change. I realized that the answer that works for me, in my design, is not what someone else needs for their walk. It is my duty to teach them how to fish (hear His voice), and not to feed them myself (just give them the rules to follow that have worked for me or that God required of me, so of course he would require it of you).
There are scriptural principles that we all need to heed and follow in our lives. However, those principles are merely God’s signposts to lead us into a dance with Him according to the design He placed within us. Jesus said, “it is written, man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matt 4:4) He didn’t say every word that God has given which we might interpret from scripture but what proceeds from His mouth. What is He speaking and how can we know that what we hear is, in fact, God’s voice and not another. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice, they know me, and they follow me. (John 10:27)
So, my question to my dad was, “If Jesus said that we are to hear His voice and know Him, then is that not the goal we are to strive for?” Wouldn’t any journey in the spirit that is below such a standard be a travesty since we have been called to so much higher. Let me say that I do not fault my dad in this. It is the path that has been and still is accepted in the church. However, I believe we are entering into the last days of this age. It is paramount for the bride to remove every spot and wrinkle. How can she do that if she is still blinded to most of her spots and wrinkles? This is my passion and my song to see His bride made ready. The scriptures clearly state that He is returning for a bride who has made herself ready, not hiding in a corner waiting for Him to come back and rescue her. For such a bride to arise each will have to be able to clearly hear and trust what they hear so that they can remove all that He will show them.
I understand that such a concept may raise some hackles. The argument against encouraging people to learn to hear God’s voice is that many will be deceived and become shipwrecked. However, isn’t that siding with fear rather than trust? What if God is big enough to keep His own from falling prey to deception? Isn’t our whole journey about coming out of deception in the first place? We are blind and deaf because we do not ‘know’ our Father’s heart or His ways. That is what living in this world (the natural) does to us. However, when we receive His gift of forgiveness and set our hearts to know Him, He begins to lead us out of deception into truth. The first step in this journey is to be identified with His death, burial, and resurrection in the obedience of baptism in water and fire (the baptism in the Holy Spirit). These are not trite events. They are not merit badges in our journey. Water baptism sets a boundary in our life that says, I have chosen to die to serving myself and risen again in Christ Jesus to serve His interests and kingdom. The baptism with fire, the infilling of the Holy Spirit as in Acts 2, is the power and seal of God to walk in that new life.
Accepting the finished work of the cross, and receiving His Spirit, is merely the starting point of our journey. We have become adults in this world, but we do not recognize that we are still babes in the spirit. Our spirit has now been enlivened in Christ but comes with his or her own baggage. I have ministered to many wounded and broken spirits, who have believed lies and been bound in many ways. Our spirit is not the ‘perfect’ part of us. However, it is the part of us that is made to know and connect with God. Our spirits are designed to fit a certain facet of God so that we might know Him intimately in that facet. That is knowing in part. When the body of Christ is fully mature, we will learn to honor each other for the facet they reflect of God, and through all of us walking in unity, we will know the fullness of His nature as we see and honor Him in each other.
It is not becoming deceived that is our problem but being able to embrace the truthfully so that we can walk out of the deception in which we began our journey. Remember that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. There is no shadow or falseness in Him. To know Him and love Him is to know and embrace truth, but that is one of our greatest challenges in this life. We love our deceptions! That is a pretty bold statement, and yet, it is true. It is why Jesus said in Luke 11:9-13 that if we ask for a fish He will not give us a serpent. Why does He say this? Is it not because in our deception we see the good gifts of our Heavenly Father as evil until we are able to see from His perspective that it is indeed the very thing for which we asked?
To walk in truth we must live from our position in Christ Jesus. We have lived in the natural for so long that we think of God as ‘out there’ somewhere. This is not workable for those who desire to walk in the Spirit. God put His Spirit in us so that we might walk with Him. Imagine a man or woman who undertakes a journey towards a light, but because the light is shining in their eyes, they would be unable to see the road ahead. They can move toward the light but will always be tripping and stumbling, never sure of the road and what might be an impediment. However, if the light inside of them is shining out to light their path, they will be much more able to see what would trip them up. Do You see the brilliance of God in this? If He is in us, then we are not on our own trying to find Him and His path for us. He is the voice behind you saying this is the way walk in it (Isaiah 30:21). He is the light inside you. His word from His mouth, as well as, through scripture as His Spirit enlightens you, becomes a lamp to your feet.
So the question is not, how do we keep from being deceived, but rather, how do I get free from the deception I am already in. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. If your whole being is given to loving Him who is truth then, is He not big enough to lead you in truth? James 1:14 says that we are tempted when we are lured and enticed by our own desires. This is true for all of us. It is what keeps us deceived. I have found, however, that my Father is big enough to open my eyes to the lies that keep me bound as I am able to embrace the truth. All of us can ‘be deceived’ because we see in part, but God is able to keep His own and to finish the work He started. Have I ever listened to a voice that was a deceiving word? Yes, but God has exposed it because my desire is for Him and His ways. I have held onto words from Him that felt like a serpent, but when my eyes were opened, I saw that it was a fish all along. Even about when His timing was right for us to have a house.
Before the conversation had ended with my dad, he was telling me about the times that he knew that it was God’s voice. Sometimes it is that way and there is no denying it, and yet the next morning, we still question it. It is due to our woundedness and our shame. After all, who are we to think that God would want to share things with us. The truth is, He does. It is His joy to share His heart with His children. I bless you today to lean into His heart for you. I bless you to honor your spirit by beginning to listen to what he or she is hearing from the Holy Spirit who dwells with them.
I call your spirit to attention and I bless you today to know the blessing of embracing Him fully. I bless you to allow Him the joy of showing you how much He loves you and desires to heal the wounds and restore your design in truth and love. You are precious to Him and there is nothing about who you are that he does not love and cherish with joy.
In 2014 the Holy Spirit had me meet with a small group of Prophetic people and form a school to learn some of these precepts. He also gave me a list of principles as a guideline to how the school was to operate. If you would like to see those notes, they can be found here.