January 13, 2007

• Hearing from God, the spiritual zone Part 2 by Pastor Don

  There are different levels of living in the Spirit. We can pray, have a conversation with God, read the Word, talk to God, relax with God, meditate, pray in our Heavenly language or rest in God. We often want a revival in our lives and our churches. So often people come to church to be fed, but they come totally depleted by life. They come to church empty and starved because they haven’t spent time during the week to be with God. If more people spent a few minutes before church praying, praising God, talking with God on the way to church, it would help new believers and those who are depleted come into the spirit filled presence of God quicker.

  Then Pastor Don went into the topic of being in the spiritual zone.

  Acts 10:9-16 The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. (10) Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. In it were all kinds of four footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things; and birds of the air. And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleaned you must not call common.” This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again.

  Pastor Don asked us, why did God show Peter food? Because Peter was very hungry. God wants to speak to us so badly that he will speak to what we are dealing with in our flesh to get our attention. He showed Peter food to get his attention. If Peter had been thinking about politics, God would have used political leaders of Peter’s day, or God would have used any topic Peter was focusing on.

  Notice in verse 10 Peter FELL into a trance. We think of that term in our common English colloquialisms, like I fell into a good deal, she fell for him, etc. But the real translation of the world is fell like in fell flat on his face. He bodily keeled over, slammed down. He went from present consciousness to Spiritual consciousness. It was not a conscious mind relationship, but Peter’s Spirit was conversing with the Holy Spirit, outside of time, in a different atmosphere or dimension.

  Peter was in prayer before this happened, he had made himself available to the Spirit. When the Spirit shows up there is a suspension of time. We don’t know how long Peter was in trance, it could have been just a few seconds or several hours. We do know that the same vision was presented to Peter three times.  Notice what happened after the vision.

  Acts 10:17 Now while Peter wondered within himself what this vision which he had seen meant, behold, the men who had been sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon’s house, and stood before the gate.

  There is no mention of physical hunger, Peter was filled by his time with the Spirit and was no longer talking about lunch.

  Then Pastor Don brought us to the story of the woman at the well. Remember Jesus waited at the well while the disciples went into town to find lunch. The woman came and Jesus had a discussion with her, ultimately in the Spirit for He had words of wisdom for her, telling her about her life, and leading her to understand true worship and the fact that He was the Messiah. Words of Wisdom are one of the gifts of the Spirit. If the disciples were going to get food it meant that they were hungry, so listen to the dialogue, John 4:27-32 And at this point his disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or “Why are You talking with her?” The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” Then they went out of the city and came to Him. In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”

  Jesus was in the Spirit, and he had food from the Spirit that the disciples did not realize. Remember, when questioned about why the disciples did not fast, Jesus told the questioners that his disciples would fast when they did not have Him with them. Fasting can help us to hear from the Spirit, it is not the only way to hear from the Spirit, but when we hunger, we hunger for the Spirit. So often we use our fleshly instincts, food, sex, and pride to numb ourselves, and it distracts us from hearing from the Spirit. So when we deny ourselves these things, we are more receptive to hearing what God and the Spirit have to say to us. The Spirit and God are looking for opportunities to get to us.

  The touch can come in a moment, when our senses are heightened, and our priority is realized, Jesus enters our consciences. We don’t know how deep God travels to reach us.

  Revelation 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants–things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant, John.

  Jesus sent an angel to John..

  Revelation 1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those how hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it, for the time is near.

  Revelation 1:7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.

  Pastor Don pointed out that the ones who pierced Jesus were long dead, so they would be resurrected to see Him. That those who had died before would be resurrected. And that Pastor Don doesn’t want to think as some suggest that the pictures will be seen on CNN and thus seen around the world, that somehow this will be seen by everyone in the World in a supernatural way.

  Revelation 1:8-10 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the end,” says the Lord, “Who is and was and who is to come, the Almighty. I John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me, a loud voice, as of a trumpet.

  John was worshipping on the Lord’s day, something he did habitually, then he was caught up in the Spirit. This was something different for Him, and he heard a voice like a trumpet.

  Revelation 1:12 Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands.

  When He was in the Spirit John’s sense of location was suspended. The Spirit man removed John to a place where the Spirit dominated over the flesh. The Spiritual supersedes the flesh. When John is in the Spirit he is able to see spiritual things.

  Pastor Don pointed out that when we are in the Spirit, not everything that we see is from God, that we have to discern what we are seeing to find the source – to make sure that the Spirit and the Word agree. He calls it the ripple in the pond effect. When we cross into the Spirit it is broadcast into the spirit realm, like tossing a pebble into a pond produces ripples that spread out.

  Good people get messed up by thinking that because they are good, pray, read their Bibles, and are saved that when they get into the spiritual realm that everything that they see is from God. Satan also operates in the spiritual realm and he can masquerade as an angel of light.

  Can we prove this in the Word? Pastor Don talked about the demoniac of the Gaderines, and how people looked at Jesus talking to the demon possessed man. They thought He was talking to the man, but Jesus was talking to the demons inside of the man that were trying to kill the man.

  We need to check our thoughts and ideas that we think are coming from God, test them to make sure they really are of God. Like Pastor Don said some time ago in a previous Bible study, not all our thoughts are our own. Sometimes we think things that we would not ordinarily think, and those thoughts may not be from us. Before we act, find out the source.

  Mark 9:1 And He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God present with power.”

  This is a spiritual experience, in the presence of faith. Then Jesus was transformed, and the three disciples saw Jesus, Elijah and Moses talking. Peter sees this spiritual experience and then says,

  Mark 9:5 Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

  This was not a spiritual idea at all, but Peter taking what he saw in the Spirit and in his own idea coming up with a way to manifest it in the physical. It would have been wrong for it would have elevated Moses and Elijah to the level of Jesus, and that would not have been Biblical. There would have been three idols. Here God showed them something, and they wanted to make it into an idol. We need to be careful of our spiritual experiences, that we do not carry them to a place God never intended them to go.

  Remember that Peter made many mistakes, he correctly realized that Jesus was the Christ, and a few verses later told Jesus not to go to the cross – Jesus rebuked Peter by telling him, “Get thee behind me, satan.” We have to give Peter credit, Pastor Don says that he thinks the other disciples would prompt Peter to ask those questions they were afraid to ask, because Peter wasn’t afraid to put his foot in his mouth.

  It is spiritual suicide to take something God shows us in the spiritual realm and try to apply it in the physical without scriptural backing.

  Matthew 12:22-28 Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

  Satan is always looking for ways to cause division in God’s kingdom. If he can get people to believe that their personal visions are truth even when they are not scriptural, he knows that that will cause division in the body. Whatever comes down the pipeline has to be discerned in the light of the Word of God. So many of the so called prophets on TBN are speaking nice words, and nice words are fine, but they are not prophetic truth for the whole Body of Christ.

  Luke 10:20 Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.

  The devil is a liar, but he is not a bad liar. He tells us things that are so close to the truth that we can be tripped up. When we have a vision in the spiritual realm, he can give us an interpretation that is close to the truth but wrong enough to cause us to miss the truth.

  1 Corinthians 12:10 …to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits…

  The discerning of spirits is a spiritual gift, but we need to discern what spirit is in operation. So often people are not detecting the difference between the mailman and the message. Sometimes an unlikely person delivers a message which is from God. Other times a very godly person can deliver a message that is a message from their ego or pride. Sometimes the message is from demonic spirits. We need to discern if the message is or is not anointed. We need to check the message and the motives of the message giver.

  If you do not have the gift of discerning of spirits, go to someone who does.

  1 Corinthians 14:32-33 And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion ut of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

  This is a problem that is in the church. So much confusion.

  1 Corinthians 14:34-35 Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.

  If a married woman wants to deliver a word of wisdom, her husband should be present. For the husband is the covering of the woman (loving her as Christ loves the church). If someone wants to deliver a word of wisdom to you, you have the right to ask for a witness to be present, if not the husband, then the elders or pastor. What can be a danger is if the husband is being run by the wife, like Jezebel and Ahab.

  Some people feel that they have the right to correct others, but is their correction done correctly or in love?

  If a person has a sickness, that does not always mean that they did something bad to deserve the sickness, or that their faith is in error. We do not always know why a person has the struggle they do, but we do know that God will turn it to good.

  Some people are bloodsuckers, wanting to feel righteous, and they do so by putting other people’s faith walks down. They promote their spiritual walks in such a way as to lord it over the others who are so “beneath” them.

  1 Corinthians 14:30-31  But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged.

  The words of prophesy are meant to encourage others on their walks. Yes, we all have junctures in our lives where we have failed, and without a word of encouragement, you might end up shipwrecked. When people prophesy over you, you may end up with three negative words (that were not from God) and one real word from God. That is why we must discern.

  1 John 4:1 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.

  Pastor Don gave an example of kids in a playground and how often they form cliques. He told us that if there is anything divisive, to isolate yourself from it, for divisiveness quenches the Spirit.

  Jude 20-25 But you beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion, making a distinction: but others save with fear pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.

  Pastor Don went on to say that there is a place he calls the zone, and that it is good to spend time there for the Spirit can touch us there. But we have to discern who is in the zone. It can be God or not of God, and we cannot get the wires crossed. We must not sacrifice sanctity. Like a machine we pick up messages, look for spiritual food, and wisdom. The spiritual wants to reach us in the natural, to meet us in the spirit. He wants to walk with us in the Spirit. So we need to make sure that we give time for Him to reach us, and discernment needs to also be used.

  Hoping this blessed you,

  Heather

  • 9:58 pm
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