11. God speaks to us in dreams and visions.

Sometimes God elects to speak to us in our dreams even though (and probably because) most of us think pretty lightly of them. God can use them as a means to give us directions for all kinds of tasks. The best example of this is when He spoke repeatedly as an angel, to Jesus' stepfather Joseph in his dreams, giving him understanding and directing his actions regarding his very unique stepson and the child's mother!

Matthew 1:18 - 25 - Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. 

But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." 

Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which translated means, "GOD WITH US." 

And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus. 

Can we imagine the immense responsibility that was placed upon Joseph by God to respond correctly to mere dreams? Had he not done so he would not have taken Mary to be under his custody and protection as his wife until and after Christ's birth. And what would have happened had he not done as he was directed in another mere dream to take the baby Jesus to Egypt for safety from Herod's jealous wrath?

Matthew 2:13b - 15 - ...behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him." 

So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON." 

Later, when Herod was no longer a danger to Jesus, Joseph again had to respond to a series of dreams directing him as to where he was to move to raise the Lord.

Matthew 2:19 - 23 - But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said, "Get up, take the Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the Child's life are dead." 

So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, and came and lived in a city called Nazareth This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: "He shall be called a Nazarene." 

Truly, Joseph was dreamer of the first magnitude and that seems to be a major reason that God entrusted him to do this all important work!

God also spoke to Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel in many important dreams as written about in the Old Testament.

God may also decide to speak in visions, during which the recipient may be asleep or awake. He spoke to Paul in an awake vision that no one else near him could fully perceive.

Acts 9:3b - 7 - ...suddenly a light from heaven flashed around Paul; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" And He said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do."

The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.

So, as is described in these Scriptures, dreams and visions are 2 means that God may use to direct His Christians in their activities for him. Sometimes the Lord will combine them as when Peter was freed from Herod's imprisonment.

Acts 12:6b -11 - ...Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter's side and woke him up, saying, "Get up quickly " And his chains fell off his hands.  

And the angel said to him, "Gird yourself and put on your sandals." And he did so. And he said to him, "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me." 

And he went out and continued to follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but HE THOUGHT THAT HE WAS HAVING A DREAM. When they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.

When Peter came to himself (out of his sleep walk) , he said, "Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me..."

Visions and dreams are mental perceptions from God that, just as is true of any other spiritual gift, have to be accepted by faith as having been given by Him because...

Hebrews 11:1 -2 - ...faith is the assurance of things hoped for...

Sometimes an apostle or a prophet is given such a heavy anointing of the spiritual gift from God of dreams that just being around them can cause other people to increase their own amount of dreams. This is God using that so gifted apostle or prophet to impart this gift and at the same time substantiate the apostle's or prophet's heavy anointing in this gift and to spiritually strengthen those to whom it is being imparted...

Romans 1:11 (Amplified Bible) - For I am yearning to see you, that I may impart and share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen and establish you

Thank you.

10. God speaks to us in tongues with interpretations.

God may elect to speak to Christians thru a prophet or an apostle in a prophecy brought forth as an interpretation of an unknown tongue.

I Corinthians 1:1 - If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels...

God's Holy Spirit gives the tongue to one of the brethren and the interpretation to another, either or both of which may be an apostle or a prophet or just one of the brethren that is present.

This gift of prophesying thru a tongue's interpretation is the same as any prophesying except that for reasons of His own, God elects to send it forth in this manner. The tongue speaker's mind is not edified when it is spoken but it becomes edified, as does the minds of others, by the interpretation that is given in his own language.

I Corinthians 1:2 -4 - For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands; but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.
 

But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. 

One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the whole church.
 
Please refer to entry 9 for a complete discussion on prophecy. What is taught there also applies to a prophetic interpretation of a tongue.

Please refer to entry 7 for a complete discussion on tongues. Here I give testimony of how this happened totally unexpectedly to one of my own tongue speakings.

Thank you.

9. God speaks to us in prophecies.

Matthew 23:34 - ...behold, I am sending you prophets...

Jesus promised that he would send all religious people prophets in order to guide them into taking the right course with God for their lives. But at the same time He prophesied that many of these religious people would reject them and their God-sent messages because they just wouldn't believe them.

Hebrews 3:19 - So we see that they were not able to enter (into truth) because of (their) unbelief.

So for those who can accept and believe in prophets and prophecies as being viable gifts from God for today, we will here discuss how God speaks to us thru prophecies.

God may elect to speak to any one of His Christians or to groups of them by sending a prophet or an apostle to prophesy His message to them. This is a very important means of personal communication from God which he makes available to all of His believers.

I Corinthians 14:22b - ...prophecy is for...those who believe.

Prophecy is so important that Moses desired that all of God's children would be given the gift of becoming a prophet!

Numbers 11:29 - Would that ALL of the LORD'S people were prophets...!

The apostle Paul joined Moses with a similar desire for all Christians to become prophets because he was also shown by God the importance of the bringing forth of inspired messages to help the brethren.

I Corinthians 14:1 -5 - ...desire earnestly (to be given) spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation (and)...one who prophesies edifies the church.

How I wish that you ALL...would prophesy.

Paul points out how the gift of a prophetic message from God can spiritually improve each Christian who receives and believes it.

I Corinthians 14:6b - what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy...?

Paul also points out that prophetic messages are a given through His prophets as a sign from God to demonstrate that He is personally attentive to each of His Christians.

I Corinthians 14:22b - ...prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe.

Paul exhorts Christians everywhere to allow the prophets in their churches to bring forth messages for everyone, one at a time in an orderly manner, at any given church meeting.

I Corinthians 14:29 - 31 - Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted.

He points out that in a church meeting, when the gift of prophecy is allowed to be fully practiced in such an orderly fashion by all those who are present, the effect will be so spiritually powerful that if unbelievers are visiting, they will perceive and believe that God is truly present within that meeting!

I Corinthians 14:24 - But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called into account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.

One time a few brothers and I went in my van to the home of a Catholic family. After ministering for a while to the wife and her grown kids we said our goodbyes and climbed into the van to leave. Just as we were about to drive off the husband, who had been drinking in the back yard while we were there, staggered out front and called for us to stop, which we did. We slid the side door open for him and he stumbled up into the van with us to talk with us. As he got in, his feet were muddied and he tracked that mud onto the van's floor carpet.

When he noticed it he apologized profusely but we reassured him that it wasn't important and that we'd easily clean it right up at the gas station to which we were going. So he thanked us for coming and talking with his family (they had 3 boys with cases of muscular dystrophy who had already died). He said that he admired our faith and that he too believed in Jesus for his salvation but he couldn't be the way that we were himself (he was known as a womanizer). He was very nice though and he wished us all well on our trip back.

Just then one of the prophetic brothers was moved to say to him, "You have a lot of nightmares don't you?" Startled, he replied, "How did you know about that?" to which the brother answered,"The thought just came into my mind and I felt moved to ask it of you." So we all looked at him with compassion and testified to him that he might want to repent of his sins and begin to seek the Lord in His life.

He was drunk so he peered a bit dazedly and slowly at each of us before proclaiming, "God is really with all of you guys! That's the only way you'd know about my nightmares. You're probably right, maybe I should start going back to church. This way of life of mine stinks!" Then he began crying and he thanked each of us for coming and stumbled back out of the van and waved goodbye through his tears as we left.

A bit later we were all discussing the subject of whether people in his condition were really saved, especially considering the stereotype of so many Catholics carousing around all week and then going to church on Sunday. One of the brother's was thumbing around in his Bible as the discussion ensued when all of a sudden he said, "Hey guys, maybe the Lord is giving us our answer in this verse...

John 13:10 - ...He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean...

"Maybe God is saying to us here that this fellow's muddy feet were His sign to us to declare that this man is saved in his heart but he just needs to clean up his walk with the Lord. Maybe the mud on his feet and this verse are our sign from God that even though no drunkard or immoral person can enter the kingdom of heaven, this man just needs to change his attitude and his behavior about these sins and he'll make it. What do you all think?" Well, after further discussion we all ended up agreeing that God had enlightened us to the truth on this man's heart salvation with his muddy feet and this verse.

The first point to be made about this testimony is that when we all prophesied to him together one of the secrets of his heart was revealed and he did just what I Corinthians 14:24 above said he'd do by declaring that God was certainly among us.

Hebrews 4:12 - the Word of God is living and active...

The second point I'd like to to make about this testimony is that God then sent us a Word of wisdom in a verse from the Scriptures to enlighten all of us about the truth of this man's salvation and that offered all of us hope for our friends and loved ones who we see as being backslidden and astray.

Paul sums up his exhortation on the subject of prophesying by encouraging all Christians to greatly desire that they may become gifted by God with the power to prophesy!

I Corinthians 14:39 - Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy.

Thru prophecy God will give each of His saved people and / or the leaders of His local churches; guidance and direction in regards to their life's affairs and needs and doctrines.

Manifestation Prophecy

I Corinthians 9:1b - ...have I not seen Jesus our Lord?

I had been praying for years for some detailed guidance from God about finding the truth of His will in so many issues that were pertinent to my life. Yet I believed that Jesus wouldn't come and visit me to instruct me because His reappearance upon the earth is reserved for His 2nd coming. But, because of the many doctrinal errors that I felt that I was perceiving in every Bible teacher's teachings which I had been encountering, I just wished that somehow He would come and instruct me Himself. I wanted to really know the truth of His Word about the many doctrines around today that seemed to me to contradict it. Well, did He have a surprise for me!

One beautiful spring morning He did an entirely unexpected and totally thrilling thing for me. He led me (unbeknownst to me) to drive out to a local park in my van with one of the young sisters in our fellowship to pray for a while. I was in the driver's seat and she was sitting on the couch in the back of the van when we each started to pray silently to the Lord.

All of a sudden I heard her call my name! But her voice was different? It was somehow very commanding! So I opened my eyes and turned to look at her. Well, there she was sitting in the center of the couch and she had an extremely noble upright quality to her posture! So, unsure of what was happening, I asked her, "Did you call me?" to which she responded, "Jim, I the Lord Jesus Christ who came in the flesh, have called the two of you to come out here this morning so that I could talk with you and answer your questions!"

I John 4:2 - This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God...

Instantly I knew that this was not her speaking but that it was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself somehow possessing her and speaking thru her mouth! Her voice was somehow the most regal voice imaginable and her demeanor was utterly majestic.

John 7:46 - ...No man speaks as this man speaks!

This was definitely not her voice or manner! So instantly, tears of joy began flying from my eyes like machine gun bullets! I knew that somehow thru her I was being addressed by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself right there in my van in that park! For Him to converse with me is what I had hoped to happen for so long but it was being done in a fashion of which I had never heard or read anywhere.

So thru my tears I timidly asked, "Is that you Lord?" to which He responded, "Yes it is I. I've been sent here today in response to your many prayers to My Father asking for Me to help you find the truths for which you are longing." Well at this statement I was struck speechless! So, in awe, I just kept looking at Him (in her) but He kept her eyes shut while He calmly and patiently sat there, waiting for me to recover from my initial shock over all of this.

It took a while but eventually I stopped crying enough to lamely ask Him where she was? He then explained that He had her spirit in a pleasant place while both she and I were experiencing this gift from God which He called Manifestation Prophecy. He explained that this is a supernatural gift wherein His Holy Spirit possesses a vessel (hers in this case) and uses it to converse in human form with the brethren.

He then said that He came in this manner to me alone because He had given me enough faith to believe that it was Him so doing. He said that when we were done conversing, I was to go back to my brethren in the fellowship and help them to also believe in this gift. He said that I was to tell them that if they could have the faith for this gift, He would come thru her again that evening to converse with them also!

Needless to say I was thrilled beyond belief at His appearance but there was of course a tiny doubt within me about the genuineness of such a manifestation. Could she be faking it for some strange reason or could Satan be possessing her and tricking me? After all, the Scriptures say that the devil can come as an angel of light! So I proceeded to ask Him in her a few questions that I felt that she, in her newly embraced but still uneducated faith, could not possibly know.

One question that I asked was about the greatness of His original disciples / apostles compared to other Christians. He surprised me by telling me how those men saw Him and walked with Him and experienced all that He had to say and all of His miracles for years and they still had trouble really believing in Him. Yet thereafter, all Christians have just read a book of words or heard preaching and testimonies of Him and thru that alone they have been able to firmly believe in Him. So why would God consider the original apostles any greater than those who never saw Him and yet still believed?

J0hn 20:29 - ... Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

This answer and this verse has been food for thought for me ever since He spoke it to me, especially because I believe that I also am now one of those He refers to as having seen Him. But technically, the truth is that I didn't really see Him in His own flesh. My encounter with Him as His Holy Spirit manifested in her in this special way is still a matter of my own personal faith that it was truly from God.

Hebrews 11:6 - Without faith it is impossible to please God for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him!

That is the brilliance of God in rewarding me with this Manifestation Prophecy gift because it is an encounter with God that must still be accepted by faith, even after testing it (but not testing God) with pointed questions (which I made of the Spirit manifesting within the person)!

Another question that I asked of Him manifesting in her was where the original autographs of the Scriptures are now? She could not have possibly known the answer to this question since she probably never even heard of the term Biblical autographs. So I felt that it was a good test of the validity of the Manifestation. He in her blew me away and proved that she was not the one giving me the answer by saying very matter of factly, "In Heaven."

Well, of course they're in heaven! But when I asked that question I never even considered that fact because my evil heart was masking my true intentions that even I was not aware of. I was only conscious of the fact that this question was a test of the girl and of the Manifestation. That's why I was referring to the original earthly parchments.

I felt that this was a question that was merely testing the Manifestation Spirit, not the Lord Himself and He knew it.

I John 4:1 - ...do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

However, in giving me this particular answer, He revealed to me the evil motive stuck deep in my deceitful heart for asking this question. That motive was that I would have become exceedingly proud had He answered me by telling me of an earthly place in which to find them! After all, would not finding the original autographs of the Scriptures be the greatest discovery ever for mankind! And where would little old phony me have been when I in turn exposed the secret earthly location of these original autographs to the world? Wicked me would have been right in the center of that discovery, grabbing for glory while feigning humility!

Jeremiah 17:10 - I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

His 2 word matter of fact answer, "In Heaven." cut me to the quick causing my heart to burn. So I knew that this could be no other Spirit in her than that of Jesus Christ Himself! Satan encourages this kind of deceitful evil, but Jesus does not!

Luke 24:32a (the brethren) said to one another, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He (Jesus) was speaking...?"

Knowing the pain that immediately hit me from this conviction of my deceitful heart's deep seated proud motive, He then reassured me to be at peace. He repeatedly exhorted me to peace during His manifestation because every question I posed to Him would bring an answer that I did not expect and that would force me to face my own deceitful heart's reasons for asking it! So pretty soon, in reverent fear, I ran out of questions to ask Him.

Ecclesiastes 5:2 - Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God...therefore let your words be few!

But I was so thrilled and excited at this wonderful, supernatural gift of His actually appearing to me to converse with me, that I didn't absorb all of the really deep stuff that was occurring at the time. Most of it came to me much later. That morning I was just out of my mind with joy at this amazing gift from God of the Lord's personal appearance to me! I was more excited than I've ever been before in my life!

Yet after a little less than an hour, the Lord in her suggested that we stop and He would leave her, but only until that evening when He promised to manifest back within her, if the brethren wanted Him to so appear to them. He also suggested that we write out our questions so that when He appeared, we wouldn't be nervous and forget them.

He then instructed me that the girl would need to be told all that had happened thru her because she was not aware of it. So I thanked Him profusely for visiting me, we said our goodbyes and He left her. Immediately, she blinked her eyes a couple of times and asked me what had happened. So I told her everything about the Lord's use of her to speak with me and she rejoiced exceedingly along with me about His visitation. Even though she was not there for it, she was greatly thankful that He chose her as His vessel thru whom to appear.

Then we drove back to the fellowship house and burst in excitedly to share our testimony of this wondrous event with all of the brethren. Of course they were skeptical at first, but so were Jesus original disciples when Mary Magdalene announced that Jesus had risen and conversed with her. After we all calmed down and could more quietly discuss the event, they all came around and agreed that they too wanted to talk directly with Jesus in this manner, just as I had.

So we all gathered together that evening and when we prayed for Him to come, He reappeared within her and we were all given answers to our many questions by Him for the next couple of hours. Then, when He left, we dissected everything that was discussed and came to the conclusion that this Manifestation was truly the Lord Jesus Christ! So, many times thereafter we prayed for Him to come again and He always did.

According to the Lord (speaking thru this girl), the Manifestation Prophecy gift was given to us only after we had done all that we could do in all of our own Bible studies to find the correct answers to our questions. After many times getting such manifestation appearances from Him, we have not asked for Him to come back in that manner any more because thru them He eventually resolved all of our questions.

He gave most of His answers to our questions by first starting with a question of His own, "What does your current faith tell you?" We'd then respond by telling Him where our thinking on that particular issue was and then He would discuss our position with us. But He never redirected us thru the Manifestation to some new position. He'd only encourage us to go on in our present faith and Bible studies while watching and waiting for God to send us new teachings or events or other prophecies by which to redirect us.

Romans 14:22 - The faith which you have (currently), have as your own conviction before God.

Well, after a while we all began to understand that we should just sit, stand and walk in our current faith positions, whatever they were. As long as those positions were the best that we could come up with, whether they were right or wrong, God would be pleased with us. Then, if they were right, God would be faithful to strengthen us in that particular faith position or if they were wrong, He would somehow direct us into a new, better understanding and wisdom for them.

Also, He would also always manifest in her with the greeting , "Peace be with you. Yes, Jesus Christ has come in the flesh." and He would always depart with similar words.

Collosians 3:15 - And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] - The Amplified Bible

But when He led one of us to find this version of Col 3:15, we knew that we no longer needed for Him to manifest Himself in this manner amongst us anymore to answer our questions, because His peace in us is what proves to us that we already have the answer to that question that God wants us to have faith for at that time.

Matthew 5:8 - Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

The gift of manifestation prophecy was given to us initially to answer our questions because God had no earthly teacher to take us further along in our faith. But now that we knew how to interpret God's peace within us as being the umpire and the final decider of all of our doctrinal issues, this gift is only an occasionally manifested, just for those times when we feel the need to rest and comfort ourselves in His sweet, loving presence coming through a prophet!

Thank you.

8. Hearing God in conscience, intuition & discernment of spirits

Intuition


As has already been discussed, we can hear God's voice speaking to us just in the fact that His unwavering peace occupies our minds about any particular faith position that we take. This peace from Him is His voice telling us that we are standing at that moment on correct Scriptural grounds over any particular matter. Inability on our part to reach peace about a matter can also be discerned as God's voice telling us that our faith stand is not correctly Scripturally grounded.

Isaiah 30:20 - 21 - ...He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left.

Whenever we are positioned wrong in any of our faith positions, God can be relied upon to bring a thought or a Scriptural Word intuitively into our minds in order to attempt to straighten us out. This is one way that we can see and hear Him! His voice is the thought or feeling itself, not an audible sound.

However, Scriptural intuitions within our minds can also have been placed there by Satan in his evil efforts to mislead us. So, in order for any Scriptural intuition to begin to be relied upon as truly being the voice of God, peace of mind must also be present within our minds. If peace won't stay, the intuition is automatically suspect no matter what the verse is from the Biblical Scriptures. After all, did not the devil himself try to deceive Jesus using passages from the Scriptures, at the end of His 40 day fast?

Matthew 4:5 - 6 - Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: 'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.' "

And did not Jesus overcome Satan's deceptive use of the Word by invoking another Scripture which was of a higher priority for the situation because it had to do with the underlying intent of the action?

Matthew 4: 7 - Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'

Therefore, just as Jesus did when He dealt with Satan, whenever a Scriptural intuition occurs we also need to be sure that it's the highest priority Biblical Scripture for that particular situation. If we can reach peace that it is, then it might actually be God speaking to us about that situation. But just to be sure, once all of the applicable Scriptures have been prioritized and peace of mind is firmly present, that intuition needs to then be confirmed by some other outside witnesses over which we have no control.

II Corinthians 13:1b - Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

These establishing witnesses which are outside of ourselves, if they are truly from God about a matter, will be things like the agreement of an authority or of some other Christian or of some event which seems to substantiate the matter. If the Scriptural intuition within us comes with these kinds of backings it can be considered as being most likely a Word which the Lord has spoken to us.

So remember that there is always a chance that an intuition is not actually a message from the Lord, so we should always stay humbly open to further guidance from Him. Yes, we should move into a firm faith in this kind of a substantiated Scriptural intuition as being the voice of God. But even though our faith is firm, we should not be stubborn and unyielding to further correction, just in case it is not really a Word spoken to us from the Lord.

Consequently, a good confession in this regard might be that we firmly believe that the Scriptural intuition for the situation is actually a Word spoken to us from God but we are open to the possibility of being misguided about it and therefore we are open to being corrected by God in some way about it. But until a correction is sent, we will stay firmly within our faith position on that particular matter.

The Biblical story of Gideon's fleece is a good example of a godly man who strongly believes that he's had a Word spoken to him by the Lord but when doubt about it creeps into his mind, he seeks for additional witnessing events from God as to the validity of the message. He wanted to be as sure as he could be that the message that he had gotten was actually from God, not from the devil in disguise, before he went off to take a risk that he might regret.

Judges 6:36 - 40 - Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised - look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said." And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.

Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew." That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

Conscience

If we are open to it, we can hear God's voice within the conscience of our minds. Here we will be given or denied peace from Jesus about anything that we may have rightly or wrongly believed, said or done.

Romans 2:15b - ...their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.

Our conscience is a substantiating witness within us from God which unequivocally speaks of the truth or falseness of any intuitive Scriptural message as actually being the voice of God. It will allow us no peace about a matter in which we wrongly believe or which we wrongly do.

I Samuel 24:5 - ...David's conscience bothered him because he had...(done a wrong thing even though at the time, he thought he was doing the right thing)...

Our conscience starts out speaking loudly from God to us about an error within us about which He wants us to deal. But if its insistent voice is long resisted, eventually it will be silenced. God calls the silencing of the conscience's voice, the act of searing it.

I Timothy 4:1 -2 - The (Holy) Spirit explicitly says...that some will fall away from the faith...seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.


Discernment of Spirit

Additionally, we can hear His voice within our minds when we receive a discernment from God about some good or bad spirit's presence and / or activities.

Ephesions 6:12 - For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.

Good and evil spirits are invisible beings whom God allows to have influence over and / or impact upon the events of our lives. So, in order to reveal their activities, God's Holy Spirit will gift some Christians with the ability to somehow sense them or even see and / or hear them.

I Corinthians 12:8 -10 - To one is given in and through the [Holy] Spirit...the ability to discern and distinguish between [the utterances of true] spirits [and false ones]...

This gift quite often infuses the discerner with the loss of peace whenever evil spirits are speaking to them in their minds or through other people or when they sense their presence near them. Discerners will not reach peace within their minds until that spirit or its evil activities are overcome and defeated and / or it is cast out or sent away from them. This is God's voice to them warning them of their evils.

Conclusion

So these are 4 ways by which to hear within our minds the Lord's voice as He speaks to us.

1. Intuition
2. Conscience
3. Discernment of spirits

4. Events that are just too coincidental to be mere coincidence.

Each and every one of them must be substantiated by another witness which is outside of our own personal control in order for them to be considered the Voice of God speaking to us.

Thank you.

7. Communicating with God in prayer & tongues.

Prayer, both vocally or silently expressed, is the obvious means that we use talk to our invisible God. Prayer is a very huge subject about which many gifted Christians have written in other websites. Much about prayer is beyond the scope that I believe God is giving me to write about in this blog.

So, I believe that the Lord would have me refer the reader to other websites such as allaboutprayer.org, wikipedia-prayer, wikipedia-prayer-in-Christianity, the-God-kind-prayer and spirit-home-intercessory prayer wherein this entire subject is very thoroughly covered.
Please take some time on these websites and study them carefully because their Biblical teachings are fundamental to carrying on communications with the Lord.

Isaiah 8:20 - To the teaching and to the testimony! If the teachings are not in accord with (God's) Word, it is surely because there is no dawn and no morning in them.

I believe that God would have me to only write teachings and testimonies here that give light to my readers about the unique, powerful things that He has done thru my prayers and thru the prayers of those of whom I know.

Romans 15 - 19 - For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me... in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit...

Hopefully, my testimonies and teachings here will create a brand new spiritual morning for those of you who hunger and thirst for miraculous things from God to also occur in your lives.

Romans 15:20 - 21 - And thus I aspired to preach (about my apostleship today, reliably communicating with God, miracle faith, the correct Biblical church structuring and practices, etc., all of which I have experienced)

so that I would not build on another man's foundation...

There are many other Christians whom I believe that God has employed to give correct teachings on many, many Biblical subjects on the Internet. So I believe that their writings instead of mine are best perused by my readers to learn about those particular subjects and I will provide links to some of them, just as I did above.

I believe that God wants me to limit my writing to teachings on those subjects that I have not yet (April 2008), found to have been put forth anywhere else or taught correctly anywhere else.

If any readers have other good websites on any of the entries on this blog, please make a comment about them on each entry or please e-mail me about them.

So, let me proceed here with my discussion about my own prayers by first testifying that the Lord many times answers my prayer requests by intuitively popping pertinent verses right into my mind, just as I amwas petitioning Him! Sometimes He even puts them there before I mentally formulate my prayer.

Psalm 139:4 - Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.

This to me is mentally conversing with God I believe and the conversation between us takes place right within the thoughts of my mind.

Isaiah 1:18 - "Come now (today), and let us reason together (with our minds)," says the Lord...

It is by faith that a back and forth of reasoning occurs between us. I make mental inquiries of Him and I believe that He responds to me or beats me to the punch by placing the remembrance of a Scripture passage about my petition, immediately within my mind.

John 14:26b - ...the Holy Spirit...will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance my Words..(which are all of the Scriptures)...

When I'm praying while traveling He sometimes answers my inquiry with a message on a billboard or a truck body or a license plate or by some event that coincidentally happens within my proximity.

Habakkuk 2:2 - ...Write my answer plainly on a billboard...

Here I would route the reader back to April 2008 entry #3 wherein I thoroughly discuss this subject. But again, these kinds of messages within our minds must be believed as having come to us from God.

Proverbs 3:32b - He is intimate with the upright.

I have found that it merely takes a humble and repentant heart on my part (as much as I can consciously achieve considering my heart's desperate deceitfulness) to purify me before God so that He will begin revealing to me His wonderful answers.

Matthew 5: 8 - Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

I believe that God will give revelations to speak directly to us in answer to our prayers when we are spiritually clean in our walk before Him.

Ephesians 3:3a - by revelation there was made known to me (by God) the mystery...of...(my requests...

I believe that personal revelations from God to us of the divinity of Jesus save us from damnation but I also believe that they are one of the means used by God to try to guide us in many of our affairs.

Matthew 16:17 - 18 - Jesus replied, “You are blessed...because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you! You did not learn this from any human being... and upon this rock (of Divine revelation) I will build My church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.


Tongues

Speaking in tongues is a very controversial issue because it is often subjective to each believer. There is an excellent article on the subject in Wikipedia. I personally believe in this gift in all of its Biblically correct manifestations and I practice it, but in a rather unique way.

In my case the the Lord led me to have to "learn" how to speak in tongues! I never had the experience of a tongue of visible fire over my head when I first spoke in an unknown tongue nor did I get a falling down of the Holy Spirit of God upon me in order to receive it.

Instead, one day when I was off-handedly discussing the fact that I did not have this gift with a charismatic brother, he felt led to prophesy to me, "Oh yes you do! Only in your case you will have to receive it by faith. You need to start doing that by just speaking forth some mindless anything, even if it sounds like baby talk because the gift of tongues bypasses the mind! You need to learn that some gifts of the Holy Spirit are often received and then exercised by blind faith! That's how I believe that God is telling me to tell you that you are to move into speaking in tongues."

Hebrews 13:6 - And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him (and His ways, such as speaking in tongues).

So I thought about this for a while and soon began to see the logic to it. It seems that it's when I am alone, by myself, that I'm led by God to move into having faith for things. This has been the case ever since my rebirth in Christ alone in my bed one evening.

So once again, when I was alone, I began to move into this gift by making some childish, one syllable utterances like da-da-goo-la-bo-rah-sta-fa, etc. Well, my mind utterly rebelled against this activity because it was so foolish and utterly mindless to me. Yet I had to admit that I did have peace with it.

I Corinthians 14:14 - For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.

So I prayed to God asking Him to confirm this silly tongue's validity to me. He responded by giving me a desire to, by faith, just keep practicing it mindlessly. So I did. Then, the way in which He confirmed to me that it was truly a gift from Him was to one night send me to a Bible study at a church whose members did not believe in the gift at all!

Well, once I was there, He led the study leader to inquire if any of us felt that we had the gift of tongues! At this question there was a protracted silence amongst the 20 or so people that were there, during which no one answered and during which I kept feeling that I should not avoid this question but speak out and admit my own gift of tongues (of which I was still not totally certain).

I Corinthians 3:18 - Be God's fool—that's the path to true wisdom. (the Message Bible)

So finally, I realized that I would have no peace if I left there without confessing to it so I threw caution to the wind and declared to him that I felt that I had this gift! The leader looked at me thoughtfully for a moment and replied, "You do? Then would you mind speaking in your tongue for us? We'd all like to hear it, wouldn't we?" All of the brothers there voiced their agreement with him and now I was really on the spot!

To my mind, my tongue talking sounded like baby talk, which I didn't mind speaking in private to God and to the walls. But to bring it forth in front of a group of 20 or so intelligent people was a totally different story! What if it really wasn't a true tongue from the Holy Spirit? What if when they heard it, they all discerned that it was just baby talk type gibberish, the way I felt that it might be? Then I'd be considered a complete fool by all of them!

So, there I was, garroted within the hangman's noose of my admission of the gift and the trap door beneath me of actually speaking in it! What if that trap door of speaking in it, when sprung, might show it up as being a phony gift! And even if it really was from God, how could it possibly be proven to be a true gift of the Holy Spirit to this pack of spiritual curiosity seekers? I felt utterly trapped and possibly doomed! So, unable to find any other course open to me, I took the leap of faith, commending my potentially doomed soul to God as I let loose with my infantile tongue chatter!

Well, I only spoke for a few seconds and then I stopped because my courage ran out rather quickly. Then I sat there in emotional agony, awaiting my ignominious end with this group, which was probably about to now come. There was a long, pregnant pause! Then, entirely unexpectedly, the leader announced that he felt that God had given him an interpretation of my tongue! Next, the group shifted their focus to him and asked him to give it. So, he proceeded to speak it forth and it was a totally encouraging blessing from the Lord to everyone who was there.

I Corinthians 14:3 - But one who prophesies (by interpreting a tongue) strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them.

Hallelujah! This totally unexpected interpretation totally exonerated me! My gift was proven to be true to me and to all of them in a way that I would never in a million years have guessed it would be done!

Isaiah 55:8 - 9 - "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."

And, though nerve wracking, it was such a wonderful way in which God confirmed it for me! He proved the validity of both the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation of tongues to me and to all of this group, all in one fell swoop, by interpreting my tongue thru their study leader!


More to come on this subject...

6. How do we perceive and communicate with God?

When the Lord reminded me of how I, as a new Christian, suffered from a lack of knowledge about just how to hear or see God, I felt moved to write this teaching about communicating with the Lord. So, all of the April 2008 blog entries will be exclusively on this very large subject about how exactly we may communicate with the Lord.

Isaiah 1:18 - "Come now (today)...let us reason together." says the Lord...

Back then, I couldn't find any teacher or teachings that explained exactly how we are to converse back and forth with God. In fact, my evangelical mentors did not even believe in such a thing and they would counsel me to just make sure that everything I did was "Scriptural" and I would be in God's will. But it was obvious to me that such a thing was impossible because there are Scriptures for a matter that appear to be contradictory.

This ignorance of theirs and mine resulted in many uncertainties and doubts within my mind for a long, long time about whether or not I was actually perceiving and doing God's will in many of my affairs. I kept fearing that I might be doing wrong in so many things because I couldn't seem to find out from Him just what His will for those things really was. But the good thing about all of these concerns of mine was that they worked to humble me and prodded me to keep digging into His Word in search of my answers.

Deuteronomy 8:3 - ...He humbled me and allowed me to hunger (for knowledge of communicating with Him and learning His ways) and (then, in His time, not mine) He fed me with the hidden manna, (the portions of His Word on this subject) which I did not know nor did (any of) my (spiritual) fathers know,

that He might make me recognize (personally understand) that I do not live by bread alone, but I live by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord (found in the Biblical Scriptures and from His Holy Spirit's voice within my own mind). (from the Amplified Bible and personalized by me)

My intense hunger for the answers to my questions about God's true will for me that I could not find, turned out to actually be His will for me at that time! It was a necessary humbling experience for me before He would give me an answer.

Matthew 5:6 - "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

That hunger was used by the Lord to prod me to diligently and humbly keep on praying to Him for guidance and to continuously search all over the Scriptures to find my answers.

Jeremiah 29:13 - When you come looking for me, you'll find me. "Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed.

Now, after whole-heartedly seeking to find out how to communicate with God, He has personally instructed me from His Word and from events within my own life about the many ways in which we can perceive His voice and the conversational movements of His Holy Spirit within our minds. So now, after learning these methods, I have been given tremendous peace of mind about how I'm to determine His will for each of my life affairs.

John 14:27 - Peace I (the living and active Word) leave with you; My peace I (the living and active Word) give to you; not as the world gives do I (the living and active Word) give it to you.

So, do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

Hopefully, this Biblical instruction on what I have learned over the years about how to perceive the Lord and His Holy Spirit's various means of communicating with me, will shed some needed light for those of you who are also struggling with this problem. Additionally, the instruction here may be useful for those of you who do communicate with God but are not yet familiar with some of the particular means that He says in His Word that His Holy Spirit will use to communicate with us.

Hopefully, the resultant effect of this instruction will be to build up your own personal faith about how to see and hear God so that you can so do.

Matthew 5:8 - Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God!

It is compiled from much of what God's Word says about the subject of supernaturally communicating with God.

Romans 10:17 - So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word....

I now ask the reader to read the article in Wikipedia about Pentecostal and Evangelical Rhema

(this is the Greek word for utterance). This article very nicely expresses the difference between these 2 differing approaches to communicating with the Lord. My teaching here (though not Pentecostal) is about what that particular article refers to as the Pentecostal Rhema voice of God.

Before I go on, please be sure that God gives you peace of mind over what I have just taught you and over each segment of this teaching. If He doesn't, that's a sign to you to stop to ponder the teaching further until you can reach peace over it or until you can find a flaw in it. If you do find that there is a flaw in it, please be sure to comment on that flaw here so that I can improve the teaching.

Knowledge of God and His ways

In order to enjoy reliable back and forth communication with God, it stands to reason that we must first gain some knowledge of Him and the ways in which He says He will hear us and speak to us.

To begin to do that, let's first acknowledge the obvious fundamental fact that God has elected to be imperceptible to all of our outward physical senses. We can't physically see Him, hear Him, taste Him, touch Him or feel Him. Therefore it stands to reason that the only means that is left to us by which we may perceive and communicate with Him is for it to happen within our minds.

Romans 1:19 - ...that which is known about God (at any given time) is evident within....(individual people's minds)...for God...(makes)...it evident to them.

And the mind is also the place within us where, after perceiving something thru our senses, we do our pondering and believing. So this is one the place that our imperceptible God has ordained that He will communicate with us. It is in effect the Holy of Holies of our body, which is our personal temple.

Hebrews 11:6b - ... he who comes to God must (use his mind to ponder the possibility of and then reach the conclusion to) believe that He is (even though He is physically imperceptible to our senses) and that He rewards those who (mentally reach out to) seek Him. (my own amplification of this verse)

Consequently, while God remains physically imperceptible to us, He has elected to provide us with the means of learning about Him and His ways within our minds thru His written Word which is found only in the Biblical Scriptures and which we can see or hear or if blind, feel by braille.

II Timothy 3:16 - All Scripture is inspired by God...

This Word about Him and His ways is something from Him that can be physically perceived by our senses and then transfered into our minds where we can think about it. He has provided His Word to us by mentally inspiring believing men over the centuries to transcribe for us what He revealed to them about Him and His ways.

Romans 15:4 - For whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written (by God thru His inspiration to His prophets) for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope (in His existence and His plans for us). (my own amplification of this verse)

He has inspired various faithful, holy men of the past to record the Words which He (in Spirit) somehow spoke to them or showed them about Him and His ways in their own life circumstances. Today, these same Words apply by faith to all people who find themselves in similar life circumstances.

II Timothy 3:16 - 17 - Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration to holy, believing men in the past) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and for conviction of sin, for correction of error and for discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God's will in thought, purpose, and action),

so that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work. (the Amplified Bible)

So first and foremost, we need to fully believe that God has actually sent His Word to the prophets for us as a means by which to give us knowledge of Himself and His ways and that all of His revealed Word is true and now resides within the Biblical Scriptures.

John 17:17b - (Jesus said,) "Thy (God's) Word is truth."

Then we can move forward within our minds, from merely perceiving this Word thru our eyes or ears or fingers, into believing what it says and then establishing a firm faith in what it says about Him and His ways for our lives.

Romans 10:17 - So faith (about Him and His ways) comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word....

After that, from this baseline of Word faith (believing the Biblical record about God and His ways), we can move forward into a deeper faith which believes that today His Holy Spirit will use His Word to actually speak to each of us within our minds about our circumstances.

John 14: 26 - "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I (the living and active Word) have said to you.

In my own experience I believe that God has so spoken to me thousands of times. I feel that His Holy Spirit has done this by quickening (emphasizing - igniting - bringing to life) within my mind, passages of His many Words of Scripture. Each time He speaks anew to me within my mind, His Holy Spirit reminds me of verses that I've seen or heard before and that He wants me to then realize as being truly pertinent to a particular matter in my life.

Hebrews 4:12 - For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective (for all time) ]. (the Amplified Bible)

Accurate knowledge of God and the way that He has for each of us regarding each particular circumstance of our lives can only be achieved by listening to the voice of His Holy Spirit as He speaks to tell us the correct applications of the Biblical Scriptures for those circumstances. Deducing correct interpretations of His Word with His Holy Spirit which apply to our circumstances is absolutely necessary if we are to be able to recognize His will for the matter. Bu faith then, this can be a true communication from God placed by His Holy spirit within our minds about the matter.

II Timothy 2:15 - Be diligent to present yourself approved to God (today and later, at the judgment) as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the Word of truth.

But, what about us instead using the many religious traditions that men nearly universally employ in their efforts to commune with God? Why must we use the Scriptures in the Bible to find out about and then communicate with God? Why not just rely upon our church traditions, especially the ceremonial rites and rituals which have been handed down to us over time?

Well, according to Jesus, religious traditions passed down amongst men as a means by which to get close to God and please Him must conform to the Bible.

Mark 7:13 - ... you are nullifying and making void and of no effect [the authority of] the Word of God through your tradition, which you [in turn] hand on...

So Jesus declared that even these, if used, must always be substantiated within the Word of God which is found in the Biblical Scriptures.

Therefore, to formulate doctrines about God we must use our minds (which are able to perceive the Words of God contained in the Biblical Scriptures thru our senses) along with His Spirit to make and then believe in them. Within our minds each of us can subjectively detect those passages that the Holy Spirit brings to our remembrance (or that we first read or hear), as being quickened by God. This belief that God has energized some of His Biblical Words within our minds in order to talk to us, then becomes a means by which God can then talk to us on different issues.

John 16:12a - I (God) have still many more things to say to you... (the Amplified Bible)

Consequently, as we journey thru life, God will give believers occasional revelations of Himself and His ways, just as He did with Jesus original 12 disciples, but not too often so as to not overburden the limits of our human minds.

John 16:12b - ...but you cannot bear them now.

A very important consideration for us to also ponder about the Biblical Scriptures is that they are a collection of inspired books that have been designed by God to sometimes appear hard to understand and in some places, to even appear to be somewhat contradictory.

II Peter 3:15b - 16 - Paul, according to the wisdom given him (by God), wrote to you (and all of us today), as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of...some things (which are) hard to understand...

So it's important to emphasize that we are to work along with God's Holy Spirit's voice within our minds, to develop well thought out, correct interpretations of the Scriptures that are pertinent to each affair of our life.

John16:13 - "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all of the truth...

Correct interpretations of the Scriptures are necessary in order to get to the truths of God and His ways and to truly hear His Holy Spirit's voice for any particular matter. Then we need to take a firm mental hold (in steady faith) of that interpretation of the Scriptures that we feel He has shown us as being pertinent to that subject in our life.

Romans 14:22 - The faith (from your Spirit led interpretations of God's Word) which you have, have as your own conviction before God.

God tells us in Scripture that this kind of subjective, personal faith by each individual is very pleasing to the Lord.

Hebrews 11:6 - Without faith it is impossible to please God for he (each person) who comes to Him must (personally) believe that...He rewards them who (so) seek Him. (my own personalization of this verse)

The first reward from The Lord for our firm faith is His peace which He plants within us that then serves as evidence to us that we are in His truth, which further reinforces our faith.

Isaiah 26:3 - The steadfast of mind God will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in God.

One other point to make here is that even though we may be eternally saved from God's wrath upon us for our sins thru our faith in the correct interpretation of God's Word about Jesus Christ's work on the cross to provide us with salvation, each of us will still stand before Jesus at the judgment to give an account of all of the rest of our beliefs. This is the place where God will reward us for those Biblical interpretations that He gave us time and opportunity to work out with His Holy Spirit's voicings. It is also the place where we will suffer eternal loss for those doctrines that we wouldn't work with Him to correctly formulate!

I Corinthians 3:15 - For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is [already] laid, which is Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). But if anyone builds upon the Foundation, whether it be with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,the work of each [one] will become [plainly, openly] known (shown for what it is); for the day [of Christ] will disclose and declare it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test and critically appraise the character and worth of the work each person has done.

If the work which any person has built on this Foundation [any product of his efforts whatever] survives [this test], he will get his reward. But if any person's work is burned up [under the test], he will suffer the loss [of it all, losing his reward], though he himself will be saved, but only as [one who has passed] through fire. (the Amplified Bible)

This passage says it all regarding how eternally important our efforts should be to us to work carefully with God's Holy Spirit to personally formulate our own knowledge of Him and His ways for each affair of our lives!

By our correctly formulated doctrine for each matter, we can truly hear His voice when His Holy Spirit energizes His Word within our minds about it.

Reaching out by faith to sense His presence.

To perceive the presence of God near us, actually talking to us! Wouldn't that be marvelous! What a wonderful communion that would be! Well, for that to occur we need to find a way to somehow get into His presence so that we can see and hear Him.

From my own experience, the emotional sense of truly being in His presence has rarely been granted to me. And I have never heard His voice audibly as some Christians say that they've heard it. But what has always been given to me and what will always be given to any believer who has the faith for it, is the certainty that when we mentally draw near to God, He will spiritually draw near to us even though we may not in any way sense Him doing it!

James 4:8 - Draw near to God and - HE WILL DRAW NEAR TO YOU!

The Lord promises above to respond to our faithful mental outreach to Him by drawing near to us and this is how we may at any time enter right into His presence! But we must have firm, unswerving faith that this will happen, in order for it to actually occur for us. Therefore, even though He doesn't give us any physical sensation or perception of His nearness, if we draw near to Him in firm mental faith, He promises us that he will not fail to draw very near to us and stay with us!

Hebrews 13:5b - ...(God says) I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake you nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!] (the Amplified Bible)

The question is, is our faith strong and unswerving enough to believe that when we draw near to Him within our minds, He will actually be there near to us, no matter what? What about in those tough times when we feel utterly forsaken by Him? Will we still believe that when we mentally draw near to Him, that He is instantly within our proximity, even though He remains physically imperceptible? This is a personal matter for each individual Christian to deal with, but it must be dealt with correctly in order to be near to God.

None of us will ever be able to reliably communicate with God until we firmly mentally but blindly physically - sit, stand and / or walk, trusting that He always draws near to us whenever we draw near to Him, no matter what! Then, once we are truly so positioned in our mind, He will be reliable to reward us with a second communication from Him (after His Word which He energizes within our minds) which is also mentally perceptible!

Isaiah 26:3 - The steadfast of mind God will keep in PERFECT PEACE because he trusts in God.

That 2nd Communication with Him is the Peace of Christ.

Strong, unswerving mental peace is the second mentally perceptible communication from God which His Holy spirit will put into our minds, once we take up a firm mental faith in any truth that He gives us. It is a mental sense that God will instill within us about our correct faith positions on the various affairs of our lives!

Colossians 3:15 - And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality - All QUESTIONS THAT ARISE IN YOUR MINDS...(Amplified Bible)

Behind the Holy spirit's ignition of the Word within our minds, this is another mentally perceptible means that He uses by which to communicate His true will to us for any particular matter!

When we are able to reach and keep mental peace about a matter, then that ongoing peace is our proof, our evidence that He has personally spoken to us, telling us that we are centered in His grace and will for that particular matter.

As long as this peace of His is present within our minds over our faith position on any given matter, that peace decides and settles with finality the fact that we are positioned within His will for that matter! In this manner we can believe that He has truly spoken to us about any given matter. But this communication of peace too must be accepted by believing that it has truly come from God and then by taking a firm mental faith position in that belief!So again.....

Isaiah 26:3 - The steadfast of mind God will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in God.

To better grasp this concept of being spoken to by God when we find that we have peace over a matter, we need to look upon the turmoils of our lives as being similar to the storms surrounding the eye of a hurricane. The small area covered by a hurricane's centrally located but moving eye becomes totally peaceful, while the much larger area covered by the storms surrounding it, is extremely and violently tumultuous. Ship's captains caught at sea within a hurricane's gales will try to pull away from them, but if they can't, then they will try to navigate into the storm's eye in order to find peaceful respite from its destructive power.

The same is true for Christians who are attempting to communicate with God. When we seek to find a peaceful mental respite from Him from the turmoil of any uncertainty within our life, we need to navigate our minds to discover the correct Biblical faith haven that His Spirit is trying to take us into for that particular problem. This Biblically correct mental faith position will bring forth an immediate movement of God which will give our minds the peace of Christ about it and that will calm us.

Then later, whenever we are stirred by Satan to again mentally reconsider that problem and then we remember our Biblically correct faith position for it, Christ's peace will again enter and settle our minds. No matter how events swirl around that particular difficulty in our life, as long as we hold onto that correct faith position on the issue, His peace will descend within our minds to give us respite and calm.

John 13:17 - If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them!

But His peace within our minds will not occur if our faith position is wrong, no matter how strongly we hold it, because God's Holy Spirit will not give us Christ's peace about that falsehood.

So, let's sum up our discussion so far. Even though God is physically imperceptible to us, we are able to perceive His Scriptural writings in the Bible about Him and His ways thru our eyes and ears (or thru our fingers with braille). Sensory nerves then transfer God's Words through these physically means into our brains wherein we can ponder them with God in order to reach a correct interpretation of them for a particular matter. Then, also within our minds, we can go on to reach a full and firm belief in a particular correct interpretation and establish a strong mental faith position in it. In so doing, Christ rewards us with His peace within our minds about that matter. This peace is a mentally perceptible proof to us that the Lord has truly spoken to us about that matter.

Romans 8:6b - to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Consequently, as we discuss all of the other ways that our invisible God has said in His Word that He has used to communicate with men, peace is the underlying condition that we will always seek to find present in our own minds to prove to us that we have truly received a communication from His Holy Spirit and not from some deceptive devil.

Thank you.


Please go on to entry #7 for April 2008 to continue with the next segment of this extended teaching about communicating with God.