Hearing God's Voice Made

Simple
Praying Medic

©2015 Praying Medic

Hearing God's Voice Made Simple

© Copyright 2015 – Praying Medic

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ISBN-13: 978-0692586389 (Inkity Press)

ISBN-10: 0692586385

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DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my niece and my editor, Lydia Blain,

whom I’m also pleased to call my friend. It is a joy to be able to
work with a woman of such talent and wit, and to watch her
grow in her relationship with God.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It is my pleasure to thank the many people who have helped in

the development of this book by contributing to my public
discussions and by leaving comments on the articles I’ve
posted. You know who you are. I greatly value your
experiences, your insights and your encouragement.

In addition, I want to specifically thank my friends Jeremy

Mangerchine, Jesse Birkey, Michael VanVlymen and Matthew
Robert Payne for their support of the concept of this book.
Thanks also go out to Matt Evans, Steve Harmon and Michael
King for their friendship and for their willingness to provide
feedback on my revelation and experiences. I’d also like to
thank David McLain and Todd Adams; I’m so grateful for their
daily love and encouragement in my life and work.

I’d like to thank Lydia Blain, my editor, who worked so patiently

with me on this book. When I sent her the manuscript, this was
not the book I had intended to write. There is only so much
improvement a writer can make with a manuscript on their own.
After that, any improvement must come with the help of
someone else. I knew once the manuscript was in Lydia’s
hands, it would start to become the book I really wanted to
write. A good editor knows how to bring the best out of a
writer and thanks to her work, this book was transformed into
the one I originally intended to write.

I’d like to thank my wife who has as much time and energy
invested in this book as I have. She wears many hats in the
process of helping me birth my book ideas. Her work on the
first round of raw content editing of this manuscript has been
invaluable, and her skill in creating interior page layouts and
cover designs never ceases to amaze me. Thanks baby, you’re
the best!

Table of Contents

Introduction

PART ONE

My Testimony

My Sheep Hear My Voice

Misconceptions and Myths

God Speaks to Everyone

Be Still

Faith and Hearing God’s Voice

The Not So Audible Voice of God

Is It God or Is It Me?

PART TWO

Spiritual Abilities versus Spiritual Gifts

Visions

Dreams

Nature

Circumstances

Art

Film

Music

Emotions

Angels

Face-to-Face
PART THREE

The Gift of Tongues

The Gift of Prophecy

Three Gifts From God

The Greatest of These

 Introduction

Many of us are in need of a new and better understanding of

God. I suspect even more that most of us desperately need a
new understanding of ourselves. I won’t pretend this book
isn’t what it is—an attempt to change your mind about who
God is and who you are. Whether you are an agnostic, a
leader in the church, or a believer who is simply interested in
learning to hear God a little more clearly, this book was
written for you.
If you consider yourself to be an atheist or agnostic, take
heart in knowing that not long ago, I shared your views about
God. I am not antagonistic toward them. I respect them and
I’ll do everything I can to validate them, but I will attempt to
show you why I no longer share your views.
If you’re a Christian, whether a seasoned saint or a new
believer, this book is intended to train and equip you. If
you’re not certain that you’re hearing from God, or if you’d
simply like to improve your ability to hear what He says, this
book provides instruction and exercises you can do to
increase your sensitivity to His voice.
If you’re a leader in the church, this book can help you better
handle your leadership responsibilities. One difficulty with
being a leader is the sense of overwhelm that comes from
feeling that we have a responsibility to hear God for others.
The burden can be oppressive at times. But this burden can
be lessened by teaching people to hear God for themselves.
One of the objectives of this book is to show you how to help
others hear the voice of God.
I lived as an atheist for most of my life. I was comfortable with
the belief that God did not exist and could not exist because
of the horror I saw all around me. I could not imagine a God
who called Himself good, putting His stamp of approval on
the senseless violence, pain, and tragedy that existed under
His rule. If God were all powerful and able to prevent these
things from happening, why didn’t He? If He could not
prevent them, He could not be an all powerful God. I reasoned
that if He could prevent them and didn’t, He must surely be
an insane deity who is unworthy of my tears, much less my
adoration or worship.
God managed to convince me that He did in fact exist and that
the terms of His existence made violence and pain
unavoidable, at least for now. He showed me how He is
actively opposing violence in ways I never imagined. And He
revealed a few things I didn’t expect. One was that He is a
heavenly Father with a sense of humor to match my own. I
found Him to be a person full of wisdom and power, but also
the gentlest of souls. Even more to my surprise was the fact
that He seemed to like me. I have relatives who can barely
stand to be around me for a weekend, but the Father I met
seemed genuinely obsessed with being in my company.
Despite the many things I had done wrong, He had the
audacity to tell me that I was the apple of His eye. These are
but a few of the things I’ve learned from God after I began
listening to Him. Although the main subject of this book is
the person of God, He can at times be best understood
through the experiences we have in His kingdom. In order to
help reveal that kingdom, I’ve created a series of books where
I illustrate God’s kingdom in different ways. All the books in
the series The Kingdom of God Made Simple are intended to
reveal aspects of His kingdom that lie hidden, but which are
being revealed to us as we seek them. I say “we” because I
don’t write exclusively from my own experiences. I’m very
active on social media and I’ve made a habit of asking
discussion questions where I elicit the experiences and
observations of friends who allow me to publish them. I also
interview people about the experiences they’ve had in the
kingdom, and some of what they share finds its way into my
books. My desire is to give readers the broadest possible
view of God’s kingdom as it is being revealed to His people.
Because the views and experiences of my friends are quite
diverse, I’ve frequently found my beliefs being challenged. I
once preferred having a neat and tidy view of God. It made
life easier, even if it was less exciting and adventurous. I once
read books more with an eye to find error than to discover
truth. I had my theology all worked out and I looked for
anything that didn’t square with my beliefs. The fruit of that
way of viewing God was a lack of spiritual growth. There is
nothing that hinders spiritual growth more than doubt and
skepticism. My resistance to anything that seemed novel or
strange prevented me from wandering anywhere off the well-
worn path that had been traveled by those who had gone
before me. Little did I know that God wanted to meet me far
from that path.
There is a passage in the book Alice in Wonderland that
illustrates a point I’d like to consider. Upon coming to a fork
in the road she was traveling, Alice asked the Cheshire Cat
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from
here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,”
said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where,” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
It’s my hope that you’re reading this book because you’re
interested in learning about the kingdom of God. Some of you
have found the kingdom while others are still looking for it.
Some years ago, almost by accident, I found the path that
leads to the kingdom. There are other paths you might
choose to follow, but they all lead to other places. If you
don’t care where you end up, any path will take you there.
But there is only one path that leads to the kingdom of God.
There is also a gate through which you must go if you want
to enter that kingdom. There are other gates you may choose
to enter, but they too, lead to other places. Jesus is the only
gate to the kingdom of God.
Contrary to what many people teach, God’s kingdom is not
really about “religion.” It’s about a relationship. We enter
God’s kingdom by entering into a relationship with Him,
through Jesus. I didn’t like this proposition when I first heard
it. We don’t like being told there is only one way to do
something. But I found that when I accepted Jesus’ offer of
friendship, I received much more than I expected.
Once I was inside the gate, I realized that the narrow path I
took to get there disappeared and before me I saw a spiritual
kingdom of limitless possibilities. Those possibilities are
revealed to us as we learn to communicate with God. This
book is designed to help you hear Him more accurately so
you can fully understand who He is and what it means to be
one of His children.
I would ask one favor of you. As you read, come with an
open mind and an open heart. If you come inclined to find
error, or with a heart full of skepticism, you will likely gain
nothing from this book, and I want you to profit from your
reading. The kingdom of God can only be received by those
who seek it with the simplicity and wonder of a child.
Skepticism and unbelief prevent the kingdom from being
revealed and from having it bear fruit in our lives. I will do my
best to present the realities of the kingdom in the simplest
terms that I can.
Some of what you’ll read may challenge your current beliefs.
When such challenges occur, rather than reject them out of
hand, you might consider them prayerfully. Aristotle said, “It
is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a
thought without accepting it.” I won’t ask you to accept
anything in this book simply because I wrote it. All I ask is
that when an objectionable idea confronts you, that you
consider it prayerfully.
I’ve often heard people say they don’t believe they are
hearing from God. I once said the same thing myself. There
are those who seem to hear from God with no trouble at all.
When we see these people receiving revelation that is
obviously from God, it’s easy to think they have something
we don’t. I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Most of us
are hearing from God all the time and we don’t know it.
Looking back, I now see that even as an atheist, God was
speaking to me, though at the time, I reasoned it away as
something else.
The most common reaction I heard from readers of my
previous book Seeing in the Spirit Made Simple was the
sudden realization that they had been seeing visions from
God for quite some time, but were not aware of it. In the same
way that we often see visions from God without knowing it,
we are all hearing His voice right now. Many of us simply
have difficulty picking out His voice from the noise we’re
being bombarded with. The goal of this book is to help you
realize that God is already speaking to you in a variety of
ways. Our focus will be to help you develop your ability to
recognize the many ways in which He is speaking so that you
can discern what He is saying.
Thank you for joining me on this journey.
~ Praying Medic
 PART ONE

Is God Speaking?
 My Testimony

I was n’t always aware that God was s peaking to me. As

a child I was rais ed in the Catholic Church, but at the
age of 12, I became dis s atis fied with what I perceived to
be religious hypocris y in thos e who attended church. I
told my parents I wanted nothing more to do with their
religion and s topped attending mas s on Sunday. In high
s chool and particularly in college, I learned about
evolution and s oon became a hardened atheis t. For mos t
of my adult life I lived in complete indifference to God. I
never wondered if He exis ted, much les s whether I had
ever heard Him s peak. I was fairly certain He had not
s poken to me and I was convinced that the people who
thought they had heard Him were hearing s omething
they only thought was God. Like s o many atheis ts , I
hated born again Chris tians whom I s aw as weak-minded
people. I es pecially mis trus ted anyone who claimed to
hear God’s voice. All of that changed on May 25th,
2000, when God finally got my attention.
During this time, I was working as a paramedic-
firefighter, or in my cas e, what we refer to in the
bus ines s as a para-god. I’d reached a place in my career
where I was s o full of pride that I wouldn’t take
correction from my paramedic partner. I had s ome wrong
attitudes toward our patients and the care we gave
them. My partner tried to correct me, but I wouldn’t hear
it. He was younger and les s experienced than me. But
deep ins ide, I knew he was right. I was making s ome bad
decis ions . I jus t didn’t want to admit it. We had many
heated arguments over the cours e of s everal months . It
became obvious that there was no hope of ever
reconciling with him unles s I waved the white flag of
s urrender and s topped playing games . My will to keep
up the charade was gone. I jus t wanted peace. So I told
him I was s orry for all the things I’d put him through. I
told him he was right and I was wrong. And through a
river of tears , I told him I was s orry for des troying our
friends hip.
After my partner and I buried the hatchet, the s tres s ful
work environment cooled off and things went back to
normal. A couple of weeks later, he told me about a book
he was reading. It was a fictional book that dis cus s ed
events that were happening in the world and he thought
I might like it. I told him I was n’t a fan of fiction, but
that I might check it out. I as ked what the name of the
book was . He s aid it was called Left Behind.
A few weeks after this , becaus e I wanted to earn a little
extra money, I s igned up to work a 48-hour s hift on the
Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.
Memorial Day is one of the bus ies t weekends of the
year, and I felt like I might regret the decis ion when it
was over. W ho really wants to s pend 48 hours getting
brutalized by going on one call after another with no
chance of res t? On the Thurs day before Memorial Day,
my lieutenant and I got into a convers ation about a
book he was reading. He s aid it was a great book and he
thought I would find it fas cinating. The name of the
book was Left Behind.
I thought it s trange that two people would recommend
the s ame book to me a few weeks apart. My lieutenant
s aid I could borrow the book if I wanted. I declined his
offer and didn’t think about it again until the next day. I
thought maybe I s hould bring s omething to read in cas e
it was a s low weekend, even though Memorial Day
weekend is never s low. I called my lieutenant and told
him I wanted to pick up the book. I drove to his hous e
and he handed it over with a s mile. I tos s ed it on the
pas s enger s eat of my car and drove home.
I went to work the next day, expecting a bus y s hift. By
mid-afternoon we had not run a s ingle call. I was bored,
s o I went to my car and got the book. I went ups tairs to
the medic bedroom. No one els e was around, s o I got
cozy in my bunk and began reading. As I read, I was
drawn to one character in particular—a middle-aged
pilot named Rayford Steele.
Steele was a good hus band to his Chris tian wife, but
was not a believer hims elf. Ray was a s elf-made man,
who didn’t need to depend on God. He ran his own
affairs and didn’t feel like religion had anything to offer
him. Ray was confident that if there were a God and if
heaven were real, he would probably make it into
heaven. He was n’t a s erial killer or a pedophile. He was
a good man, for the mos t part. The way he s aw it, the
minor things he s truggled with, like the occas ional
crus h on a flight attendant, could hardly bar him from
entering heaven. As I read about his life, I realized that
Ray was a lot like me.
As Ray’s s tory unfolded in the book, I began to realize
that I was in the s ame place he was , s piritually. The
book s ugges ted that what granted us acces s to heaven
was not our good deeds , but a relations hip with Jes us . I
knew with certainty that if my connection to Jes us was
what qualified me to get into heaven, I was never going
to get in. I hated Jes us and des pis ed His followers . I
had a hard time even s aying His name without feeling
dis gus t and loathing. I had no need for religion or
religious bigots and I certainly didn’t want to become
one. Yet I knew that if Jes us was my ticket to heaven, I
was bound to s pend eternity in hell.
As I read, I encountered the mes s age of God’s love
dis played in the death of Jes us . This was n’t a new
concept to me. I’d known about His death and his
res urrection s ince I was a boy. But I never thought He
died for me. I unders tood that His death was a factual
event, but it never meant anything to me pers onally,
until this moment. Tears welled up in my eyes as I
thought about him s uffering and dying for me.
For me? W hy did God care about me? W hat did I ever
do to des erve anything from Him? I was jus t another
guy trying to live my own life and s tay out of trouble.
W hy did God care about me?
As I lay in bed thinking about eternity, I s ens ed that I
was n’t alone. There was s omeone in the room with me. I
began having a convers ation in my mind with s omeone
who s eemed to know everything about me. I’m a good
pers on, I thought. W hy do I need Jes us ?
Suddenly, my mind began to recall every s elfis h thing
I’d ever done and every mean thing I’d ever s aid. The
pres ence that was with me began to challenge me. “Are
you really a good pers on? W hat about all thes e terrible
things you’ve done?”
Although I didn’t believe in God, I s us pected that the
mys terious pres ence in the room with me was Him.
There was no way to hide my pas t from this being. The
only one who could know s uch things would be God.
Thinking about the s elfis h things I’d done, how could I
call mys elf a good pers on? I was n’t a murderer, but I
certainly was n’t a s aint.
I clos ed my eyes and tried to block out the thoughts He
was bringing to my remembrance. I wept for hours ,
wres tling on the one hand with fear of s pending eternity
in hell, and on the other with giving in to a God I’ve
never known. My mind was bombarded with thoughts ;
what would people think if I became one of thos e
religious hypocrites ?
I didn’t want to be a believer. I tried des perately to fight
the feelings of s urrender, but I was los ing the battle. It
was as if I were dangling in the atmos phere between
heaven and earth. I clung des perately to the life that I
had, but I was los ing my grip. I had to make a decis ion. I
knew that if I let go of my life, I would drop into an
unknown abys s that lay beyond my comprehens ion. But
if I clung to my pres ent life, I would s pend eternity in
darknes s .
It was late in the evening when I finally s urrendered.
Feeling broken and des perate, I s aid, “God… I don’t
believe in you. But I give up. I’m tired of living for
mys elf. My life is a mes s and I can’t fix it. I don’t know
how to change it. I can’t do it mys elf. If you want me to
change, you need to give me a voice or s omething to
follow.” After s aying thes e words , I fell as leep on a
pillow s oaked with tears .
I awoke in the morning to the awarenes s that s omething
was different. As I lie in bed, I heard a mys terious voice,
s oftly s peaking in a way that brought peace to my mind.
It was not an external voice, but an internal one.
Internal, and yet... not mine.
It’s difficult to des cribe what it’s like to s omeone who
has n’t experienced it. There was a s oft, whis pering
voice blowing gently through my s oul. It was n’t my own
mind. They weren’t my own thoughts . They belonged to
s omeone els e. The thoughts were dis tinct and different
from the type of thoughts I would think. There was a
quality to the voice that was unlike anything I’d ever
heard. It was s oothing to my s oul. Then s uddenly, I
remembered what happened the night before. I as ked
God to give me a voice to follow and this voice s eemed
to be exactly that.
I went downs tairs to the day room and met a firefighter.
I was about to s ay s omething to him, but the voice
gently reminded me to be kind. W hen I met another
firefighter, the voice reminded me to s ay s omething nice
ins tead of s omething s arcas tic. With each pers on I met,
the voice gave me direction. “Be nice.” “Be kind.”
“Don’t be grumpy.”
W hat was going on? I wondered. W ho was this voice
and how long would it be with me?
Eventually I came to realize that the Spirit of God had
come to live ins ide of me. There was no other plaus ible
explanation. The voice I heard was the voice of God.
The Jes us I had always hated was living ins ide me and
had come to be my friend. The Chris tians I had always
des pis ed were now my family. I went to bed an atheis t
and awoke in the morning a born again Chris tian.
Although this can be a gradual, barely perceptible
experience for s ome, mine was a dramatic, overnight
trans formation.
 My Sheep Hear My Voice

There is much debate over whether God is s peaking to

us today. After I became a believer, I attended a church
that taught from the fundamentalis t pers pective.
Fundamentalis m places the highes t authority on the
s criptures . It teaches that the Bible is the ins pired,
inerrant, and authoritative word of God. There’s nothing
wrong with this idea, but fundamentalis m als o teaches
that the Bible is the final word from God to man. It s ays
there is no more revelation that we can receive from
God, except what has already been given to us in the
Bible. In es s ence, Fundamentalis m s tates that God
s poke through the prophets and the apos tles who
recorded the revelation they received in the s criptures ,
and s ince then, He has had nothing more to s ay to us .
After years of attending a Fundamentalis t church I
began attending a Charis matic one. One difference
between Charis matics and Fundamentalis ts is that
Charis matics believe God is s till s peaking today. One
day a woman came to our church and prophes ied to the
congregation. She went from one pers on to another
giving them words of encouragement that s eemed to
repres ent God’s des ire for their lives . Somehow, s he was
able to hear God’s thoughts about others and s he s poke
what s he heard. She was not a member of the
congregation and didn’t know any of the people s he
prophes ied to. She lived in another s tate. She was in
town for a brief period to hos t a works hop. The words
s he s poke were accurate. I knew many of thes e people
and I knew what s he s aid was true.
It became apparent to me that day that God is s till
s peaking to us . This woman was clearly hearing from
Him for other people. And I had to as s ume that if s he
was hearing from God, the res t of us could, too. Since
then I’ve learned that He is s peaking to us in a many
ways , s ome of which I had never imagined.
Jes us s aid to His dis ciples :
“But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of
the sheep. To him the doork eeper opens, and the
sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by
name and leads them out. And when he brings out
his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep
follow him, for they k now his voice. Yet they will by
no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him,
for they do not k now the voice of strangers.”
Jn. 10:2-5
This obs ervation is literally true of s heep. They learn to
recognize the voice of their s hepherd. Once they know
his voice, if another s hepherd calls to them, they will
not follow him. Jes us us ed this illus tration from nature
to explain the relations hip He would have with His
dis ciples . He revealed two things which could not be
clearer: The firs t is that He has a voice which we can
hear. He did not s ay His s heep may hear His voice, but
that they will hear His voice, whether they realize it or
not.
Imagine you have a neighbor who has a dog that barks
loudly whenever a car drives down the s treet. Imagine
that your hearing is perfect and when the dog barks ,
you hear it. After a few years of hearing the dog bark,
you learn to tune out the barking, even to the point that
when a friend vis its and mentions it, you might realize
you had completely forgotten about the barking dog.
You s till hear the barking, but you’ve chos en to live as
if you didn’t hear it. And that is what Jes us is s aying in
this pas s age. That try as we might to ignore His voice,
or believe that He is not s peaking to us , He is s peaking
in a way that we can hear.
The s econd point He makes is that there is a s tranger
who has a voice we can als o hear. I would interpret His
reference to the “s tranger” as the voice of Satan or
demonic beings . The s tranger has a voice we can hear.
He did not s ay His s heep would not hear the voice of a
s tranger, but that when they did hear it, they would
dis cern that it was not the voice they s hould follow.
W hen they heard it, they would flee becaus e they’re
able to dis cern which voice is s peaking and which they
s hould follow.
This is at the crux of the debate over whether God is
s till s peaking to us today. Fundamentalis ts fear that if
God and demons were both s peaking, we would not be
able to tell which one was s peaking and we’d be led
as tray. They prefer to s ettle the ques tion by believing
God is not s peaking. They believe this view takes all
ris k out of the equation and provides a s afer alternative.
The Bible is clear about the exis tence of angels and
demons . If they exis t, it’s becaus e there is a purpos e for
their exis tence. Angels , demons , God, and Satan are all
real and they s peak to us every day in their own
s piritual language. Demons as s is t in the work of the
kingdom of darknes s and angels as s is t in the work of
the kingdom of heaven.

It does no good for us to put our heads in the s and and

pretend they don’t exis t and are not s peaking to us .
W hat we mus t do is learn how to dis cern one from the
other s o that we can receive revelation from God and
reject revelation that is not from Him. Becoming a fully
mature believer requires us to dis cern life from death,
truth from error, and the kingdom of God from the
kingdom of darknes s . If we never learn to dis tinguis h
one voice from another, we cannot grow into fully
mature children of God.
 Misconceptions and Myths

This chapter is provided for the benefit of thos e who

are not certain that God is s peaking to us today, or who
are concerned that we may be led as tray if we try to hear
His voice. If you have s uch concerns , it’s my hope that
this chapter will ans wer your concerns and clear up any
mis conceptions you may have. I’ve provided a number
of common objections people have to hearing God’s
voice in bold, and my res pons es , which follow them.

“God does not s peak directly to man.”

There are many people both ins ide and outs ide the
church who do not believe God is s peaking directly to
us . Thos e outs ide the church have dis mis s ed claims
from thos e who s aid they have heard God s peak
becaus e many of thes e people have committed crimes
and atrocities that God allegedly told them to commit.
We s eem to ins tinctively know that if God were to exis t
and if He were to s peak to us , He would not endors e
s uch violent behavior. This is , by the way, one of the
main reas ons why many atheis ts dis mis s the God that
Chris tians preach. W hen an atheis t hears of a God who
s eems to endors e mas s genocide and other acts of
cruelty and violence, their internal unders tanding (that
if God exis ted, He would be more loving than this )
caus es them to reject the violent and immoral God who
is preached from many pulpits . W hen atheis ts and
agnos tics are pres ented with the idea that God is a truly
loving and compas s ionate deity, many will confes s that
they hope s uch a God does exis t.

W hile thos e ins ide the church agree that s alvation

comes by having a pers onal relations hip with God
through Jes us , many do not believe that this
relations hip includes having a direct dialogue with God.
Their view is that we can s peak to God through prayer,
but He s peaks back to us through the s criptures , and
perhaps through the circums tances of our lives , but not
through direct, pers onal revelation. The main reas on for
this view is the fear that if God were to s peak to us
directly, we might be inclined to value the Bible les s and
value our convers ations with God more, perhaps even to
the point of dis regarding the Bible completely and living
only by what we hear from God.

If we teach that s alvation is having a relations hip with

God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but that
the Holy Spirit does not communicate directly with us ,
then we might as k a few ques tions :

Are we to believe that this “relations hip” does not

involve communication between two parties ? And if God
does not s peak to us directly, then how does He correct,
encourage, and cons ole us ?
W hile it’s true that s ome people find encouragement
and cons olation by reading the s criptures , how do we
imagine that God did thes e things before the s criptures
were written, and how does He do them today for people
who do not have Bibles , or are unable to read them?

Are we to believe that the Bible is the only way in which

God s peaks to man? Some teach that God only s peaks to
us through the Bible, which brings us to our next
objection.

“God s peak s to us through the Bible. We don’t need

anything more.”
God does without ques tion s peak to us through the
Bible. The s criptures have been given to us for
correction, for doctrine, for ins truction in
righteous nes s , and for encouragement. The Bible is
indis pens able as a guide that points us to God. But a
pers on who reads the Bible can fall into error if their
s tudy is not guided by the voice of God.

I once lis tened to a group of pas tors who were part of a

popular non-denominational as s embly of churches .
They were s olid Bible teachers , but they had allowed
what I would cons ider a few fals e doctrines into their
theology, one of them was the idea that healing and
miracles had ceas ed thous ands of years ago. I once
believed what they taught. Being good Bible teachers ,
they had their handful of Bible vers es to back up their
teaching. Although they meant no harm, they had
nonetheles s embraced s ome fals e teachings along the
way and they were teaching them to their
congregations .

The truth of the matter came to me one day, not as I

s tudied the Bible, but in a dream where God Hims elf told
me He wanted me to pray for my patients to be healed. I
didn’t believe in healing at the time, but flatly rejected
it. I didn’t accept healing mos tly becaus e thes e Bible
teachers had pers uaded me not to. They believed
healing was not happening today, and I believed what
they taught. I had to change my thinking and begin
reading the Bible with a new s et of eyes . W hen I did, I
s aw the many accounts of healing and the clear
ins tructions Jes us gave to His dis ciples to heal the s ick.
I realized that s upernatural healing is one of the mos t
irrefutable doctrines of the New Tes tament, des pite the
fact that many good Bible teachers refus e to s ee it as
s uch. Here’s a cas e where pers onal revelation from God
was needed to s traighten out a lie I had learned from
s ome of the bes t Bible teachers in the world.

There is no guarantee that a s trict diet of s cripture

reading will lead us along the complete path of truth. If
you read without having the Holy Spirit teach your
s pirit and interpret the s criptures for you, the exercis e
may very well lead you to a warped unders tanding of
God. All the major ps eudo-Chris tian cults teach from the
Bible. Their error is in not having the Spirit of God
interpret and apply what they read.

“God s peak s to us through leaders and not pers onally.”

After I became a believer, I began attending church,
reading the Bible, and lis tening to audio s ermons . As I
s tudied the Bible, the things I encountered challenged
everything I believed. The Spirit of God made
impres s ions in my mind tes tifying that what I had read
was true. It was a time of having my mind es tablis hed in
the foundational truths of Chris tianity. As time went on,
I found mys elf relying more on s ermons from Bible
teachers than on direct revelation from the Holy Spirit.
During this time, I s eldom heard the voice of God clearly
for mys elf. Mos t of what I referred to as “hearing from
God” came through mes s ages from church leaders . But
the day finally came when God wanted to teach me
things that men couldn’t, and s how me things thes e
teachers didn’t have a grid for. I needed to learn from a
different teacher. I needed to s tart hearing from God
again, pers onally. So I broke away from the teaching I
had grown accus tomed to and got mys elf under the
direct ins truction of the Holy Spirit again and it’s been
an amazing journey ever s ince.

Today, I don’t have anyone in my life that I would call

my pas tor, although I have many people whom I would
call mentors . Thes e men and women are my s piritual
peer group. We s ee each other as friends and equals .
There is no s tructure of hierarchy among us . We all
receive encouragement, ins truction, and occas ionally
correction from others in the group (if and when we as k
for it). We tend to receive mos t of our ins truction
directly from God. I s till lis ten to audio mes s ages once
in a while and I occas ionally attend conferences . I als o
receive ins truction from reading a good book now and
then. But thes e s ources of information are not where I
get mos t of the direction for my pers onal life. They
s erve more as confirmation of the things God tells me
pers onally. And none of the people I learn from have
earned the right to tell me what’s bes t for me. That
res pons ibility belongs s olely to God.

I’m not s ugges ting that having a pas tor is a bad thing. I
think we all need s omeone trus tworthy to help us ,
es pecially when we’re s piritually immature. I’m only
relating how God needed me to s top relying mos tly on
teaching from men s o that I could come under His direct
ins truction. After we’ve matured as believers , there
comes a time when we need to lean more on God for
ins truction than we do His kids . Jes us is my overs eer,
my covering, my big brother, and the Shepherd of my
s oul. And the Holy Spirit is my s choolmas ter. The
apos tle Paul s hared his own s tory of how he did not go
to Jerus alem to be taught by the other apos tles after his
convers ion, but ins tead he went to Arabia and was
ins tructed by the Lord, pers onally (s ee Galatians
chapter 1).
It’s eas y to become dependent on men and women we
res pect to teach us about God. It’s probably eas ier for
mos t of us to lis ten to a podcas t or video than it is to
s pend an hour in s ilence allowing God to s peak to our
s pirit. I don’t mind s haring with you what the Holy
Spirit teaches me, but I would advis e you not to become
too dependent on me or anyone els e as your main
s ource of ins truction. At God’s reques t, I made mys elf
dependent on Him, and that ended my dependence on
man. He honored my willingnes s to come to Him directly
and He’s made it fairly eas y for me to hear Him. Had I
chos en to continue relying on men, I probably would
not be hearing from Him as eas ily as I do today. (By
“eas y” I don’t mean that I hear an audible voice
s peaking to me. I hear Him mos tly through barely
perceptible thought impres s ions , like mos t people. It’s
jus t that after a while, dis cerning His voice is n’t as
difficult as it can be at the beginning.)

If you’re content to hear from men, God will allow you

to be ins tructed by them. But if your heart’s des ire is to
be ins tructed by God, He will draw you near and teach
you Hims elf, like any good father would. Part of the
dynamic of hearing God’s voice clearly is deciding in
your heart that you want to hear from Him more than
you want to hear from others . It’s not always eas y to
make this kind of change, but if God is calling you to do
it, I would advis e you to purs ue it wholeheartedly. You
won’t regret it.
“When God s peak s He will never contradict what is
written in the s criptures .”
A common teaching today is that God will never
contradict anything in the s criptures . The Bible
recounts the s tory of the day when the apos tle Peter
was praying on a rooftop and he fell into a trance. W hile
in the trance, the Holy Spirit s howed him a number of
unclean animals and s aid, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat
them.” (Acts 10:12 NLT)

The 11th chapter of Leviticus outlines God’s

ins tructions to the nation of Is rael about which animals
they could keep as lives tock and eat as food and which
they could not. The animals they could keep were called
“clean.” Thos e they could not were called “unclean.”
The Spirit of God had ins tructed Peter to kill and eat
animals that had been des ignated “unclean.”

Peter’s res pons e to the Spirit of God was “No, Lord. I

have never eaten anything that our Jewis h laws have
declared impure and unclean.” (Acts 10:14 NLT) Peter’s
pos ition was this : If the Spirit of God were going to
s peak to him and tell him to do s omething, it could
never contradict what was written in the s criptures . And
this was a clear contradiction of what He had ins tructed
them to do. So Peter rejected the Lord’s direction. But
the Holy Spirit continued s aying, “Do not call
s omething unclean if God has made it clean.” (Acts
10:15 NLT)
God wanted to give Peter new revelation that he needed
to unders tand, s o He s howed him the s ame s cene three
times . Peter was perplexed by all of this and as he
pondered what it meant, three men came looking for him.
The Holy Spirit then told Peter “Get up, go downs tairs ,
and go with them without hes itation. Don’t worry, for I
have s ent them.” (Acts 10:20 NLT) He had the men s tay
the night and the next day he went with them to
Caes area, where he vis ited the hous e of a Gentile named
Cornelius .

W hen he arrived at the hous e of Cornelius , Peter

confes s ed that he was s till confus ed, but explained that
he was doing his bes t to follow God’s lead: “You know it
is agains t our laws for a Jewis h man to enter a Gentile
home like this , or to as s ociate with you. But God has
s hown me that I s hould no longer think of anyone as
impure or unclean.” (Acts 10:28 NLT) Peter made the
connection between the unclean animals he s aw in the
trance and the “unclean” Gentiles he was s ent to s peak
with. He bore witnes s to the miracles , the death, and the
res urrection of Jes us before the friends and relatives of
Cornelius . They were all s aved and baptized and the
firs t Gentiles were added to the church.

The s criptures indicated that certain animals were

cons idered unclean, but at a later date the Lord declared
the s ame animals clean. If Peter would not have been
willing to lis ten to the Holy Spirit, he would never have
come to the unders tanding he needed—that God had
now declared that all animals , and more importantly, all
people, were now “clean.” The fact that the gos pel was
not only for the Jews , but als o for the Gentiles , was a
radical deviation from what the dis ciples had previous ly
unders tood from the s criptures .

Peter and the leaders of the early church had to wres tle
with many new revelations from God that contradicted
the plain teaching of s cripture. Perhaps no one had more
difficulty with this than the Apos tle Paul. The early
church leaders were familiar with the s criptures , but
Paul had been trained as a Pharis ee. No one knew the
s criptures better than the members of this s ect. W hen
the new covenant came, the Holy Spirit gave the
apos tles a different revelation from what they had
known. Much of the new revelation they received from
God s eemed to plainly dis regard what had been written
by Mos es and the prophets . Paul had many heated
debates over the value of circumcis ion and the various
dietary and ceremonial laws he’d been taught to
obs erve. He had previous ly taught that righteous nes s
came by k eeping the law, but he would now champion
the mes s age that righteous nes s was found apart from
the law.

From thes e events , it s eems evident that God does give

revelation, albeit rarely, which s eems to flatly contradict
the s criptures . So where does this leave us ?
The s criptures will always be the plumb line by which
the doctrines of our faith are meas ured. We mus t hold
fas t to truths that they reveal. But they aren’t the only
way in which revelation can be evaluated. If we receive
revelation that s eems to contradict s cripture or if we can
find no reference to it in the Bible, we may need to us e a
different s trategy. Another way to verify the origin of
revelation is s haring it with mature believers to s ee if it
rings true with them. This was one of the ways in which
early church leaders developed new doctrines . They met
and dis cus s ed the new revelation they had received and
if a new teaching s eemed good to them, it was accepted
as part of the new covenant teaching. If it did not, it
was rejected.

I’m fortunate to travel among a group of very mature

believers . We all receive revelation we believe to be
from God and s ome of it can be a little weird. But we
trus t the others in the group enough to know we can
s hare our lates t dream, mes s age, or experience, and
receive prayerful and mature dis cernment about it.
Much of what we s hare is rejected for one reas on or
another, but s ome of it has been embraced by the entire
group.

“It’s too eas y to be deceived by voices that are not

God’s .”
It is true that there are many deceiving s pirits that
would like us to believe they are giving us revelation
from God. It’s wis e to be cautious about which
revelation we receive. Some would argue that the s afes t
plan is to s tick with what the Bible s ays and avoid any
other revelation. The problem with this idea is that mos t
of us do not read the Bible in a vacuum. We lis ten to
teachers who explain the s criptures to us . Bible teachers
do not rely exclus ively on the s criptures either. Mos t of
them have attended a Bible college or s eminary where
they were taught to interpret the Bible by various
teachers . Thes e teachers were influenced by other
teachers . Anyone who teaches the Bible has been
influenced by the collective views of hundreds of
people. It’s difficult to imagine that none of thes e
people were ever influenced by a deceiving s pirit. Mixed
in with the truth, there will always be a little error.

Each of us has a unique view of God that is bas ed on

books that we’ve read, teachers we’ve lis tened to, views
that were held by people who influenced us , and our
own pers onal experiences . Even among thos e who
attend the s ame church, there are s ignificant differences
in the way each pers on s ees God. My clos es t friends
have beliefs about God that I do not agree with. This
divers ity in our views creates an inconvenient problem
I’d like to illus trate:

If I held three coins in my hand and as ked you and a

friend to gues s how many I had, and you gues s ed two,
while your friend gues s ed five, you would both be
wrong. If you gues s ed three and he gues s ed four, only
you would be right. And if you both gues s ed three, you
would both be right. The point being—there is only one
ans wer that can be correct. Two oppos ing ans wers
cannot both be correct. At leas t one of them mus t be
wrong. It’s human nature to think that our view of God
is true. To think otherwis e is to admit that we are
deceived. But becaus e we hold oppos ing views —all of
which cannot be correct—we mus t admit that we all
believe s ome things about God that are not true. No one
has a perfectly accurate view of God. Since we all have
s ome degree of error in our theology, our aim mus t be to
replace our inaccurate beliefs with ones that are clos er
to the truth.

There is a freedom in admitting that our view of God

is n’t perfect. It removes the pres s ure of needing to be
right at all cos t. W hen we admit that our view is n’t
perfect, we have reas on to s eek a better unders tanding
of who God is . This s ets us on a journey of dis covery
where we’re free to explore the beliefs others have and
weigh everything by the Spirit. Such freedoms are not
everyone’s cup of tea. W hen we allow ours elves this
kind of liberty, we do expos e ours elves to certain ris ks .

Receiving revelation directly from God is a ris ky

propos ition. There are times when we will think we
heard God s peak and we’ll either mis unders tand what
was s aid, or the mes s age will not have come from Him at
all. Hearing from God requires us to exercis e a meas ure
of faith. Faith is believing and expecting that we will
receive what we’ve as ked for—but there is no guarantee
of it. Part of the proces s of maturing as s ons and
daughters of God is the growth that comes through the
proces s of trial and error.

Some leaders would have us believe that being in error

is the unpardonable s in. There is no doubt that as we
endeavor to hear from God, we will occas ionally hear
from a s pirit that was not the Spirit of God, and we will
be deceived. I believe God’s ability to correct us and
reveal the truth is greater than the enemy’s ability to
deceive us . If you do not wis h to ris k the pos s ibility of
being in error, you’re free to clos e this book and find
another one to read. But if you’re willing to ris k being
wrong on occas ion s o that you can truly hear God with
accuracy mos t of the time, you are invited to read on.
 God Speaks to Everyone

Many people s ay they have never heard God s peak. If

you’re convinced that you’ve never heard Him s peak to
you, I would s ugges t that you probably have heard Him
s peak, but not in a way that allowed you to s ay it was
Him without ques tion.
Not long after I became a Chris tian, I took my family to a
water park. We claimed a s mall piece of real es tate
bes ide the pool and s pent the day going to and from the
water. At the end of the day, I noticed s omeone had left
a camera lying on the ground near where we were
s itting. It had been there for s everal hours and no one
s eemed to notice it. Mos t of the people around us were
packing up their things to go home and the camera
owner was nowhere to be s een. I told my family I was
going to turn the camera in to s ecurity s o they could
put it in the los t and found. Someone who heard me s aid
I s hould keep it. They reas oned that the owner would
probably never come back for it. As they were s aying
this , the voice of God s uddenly s poke loudly and more
emphatically than I had ever heard before. “NO!” was all
He s aid. But He s aid this one word s o loudly I wondered
if thos e nearby could hear it too. I picked up the camera
and took it to the s ecurity s tation.
God has created us in s uch a way that we can determine
the cours e of our own life without Him interfering with
or overriding our decis ions . He has given us what is
known as free will. We are autonomous beings who are
free to live however we want according to our plans and
des ires . Contrary to what is taught by many
theologians , God is not in control of the actions of man.
Once we decide to do s omething—whether noble or
des tructive—God does not interfere. If the leader of a
nation decides to kill half the citizens of the nation he
rules over, though God may dis approve of his action, He
will never directly prevent the leader from committing
the evil he has determined to do. Thus , many terrible
things take place every day that God does not approve
of.
God does have His own plans and des ires for each of
us . Rather than control us directly like robots , He
conveys His will to us through our cons cience. He
s peaks to our s oul the things He would like us to know,
but in a way that allows us to ignore Him, if we choos e.
The Bible s ays that we all have an awarenes s of His
voice through our cons cience:
“Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law,
show that they k now his law when they
instinctively obey it, even without having heard it.
They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their
hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts
either accuse them or tell them they are doing
 right.”
Rom. 2:14-15 NLT
Everyone is able to hear the voice of God through their
cons cience. W hen we do right, His voice tells us we’ve
done right. W hen we do wrong, He tells us we’ve done
wrong. This is one of the ways in which we hear His
voice every day. And although s ome choos e to dis obey
His voice, it’s not becaus e they’re unable to hear Him.
It’s becaus e they have heard and they’ve chos en to
ignore Him.
Many people believe they have never heard God’s voice
becaus e He s o s eldom tells them what they want to hear.
W hen He s peaks contrary to their des ires , they ignore
Him and pretend He has never s poken. This is how I
lived when I was an atheis t. I lived the way I wanted to
live, s ometimes in complete dis regard of my cons cience.
I believed I had never heard God s peak, but in fact, He
had been s peaking to me all along. I s imply chos e not to
lis ten to Him.
W hen we habitually ignore our cons cience, we become
ins ens itive to what it tells us . His voice grows fainter
and we los e our s ens itivity and receptivity to it. The
apos tle Paul illus trated this idea when he s aid s ome
people have had their cons cience s eared (s ee 1 Tim.
4:2). Searing burns the fles h and in doing s o kills the
nerves , leaving one unable to feel any s ens ation. By
having our cons cience s eared, we can by the us e of our
own will become ins ens itive to hearing God’s voice.
If you believe you’re not hearing God’s voice, one
problem might be that you’ve grown ins ens itive to it by
repeatedly dis obeying your cons cience. W hen the Bible
s ays , “If today you hear His voice, harden not your
hearts ,” it is reminding us that we have a choice to make
when we hear His voice. We can choos e to harden our
hearts agains t Him, or choos e to lis ten and follow Him.
If we can become des ens itized to His voice, we can als o
b e c o me more s ens itive to it by exerting our will in
agreement with Him. As I illus trated with my own
tes timony, it’s eas y to have our cons cience made
s ens itive again. Repentance is a good s tarting point.
The firs t mes s age Jes us preached was , “Repent! For the
kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” (s ee Mt. 3:2).
The true meaning of “repentance” has become dis torted
over the years . The word repent, which is us ed in mos t
Englis h Bible trans lations , comes from the Latin
trans lation of the s criptures . The Latin word from which
“repent” is trans lated implies a change of action in an
attempt to gain favor with s omeone. The earlies t texts of
the New Tes tament were not written in Latin, but Greek.
The Greek word in this pas s age has a very different
meaning. The Greek word that is trans lated “repent” is
metanoia, which comes from two words : meta, which
refers to a change or trans formation; and noia, which
refers to the mind. The ins truction of Jes us was not for
people to change their behavior to gain favor with God.
It was to change their way of think ing, becaus e the
kingdom of God had come. The good news is that God is
in love with you. The love of God when it is
apprehended by the heart of man changes our behavior.
W hen our mind comes into agreement with Him, it
becomes eas ier to hear His voice.
 Be Still

In a typical day there are a thous and things that s cream

for our attention. The things that get our attention are
the things from which the is s ues of life flow. As a man
thinks in his heart, s o he is . The s oul of man comes into
exis tence unblemis hed and uninfluenced, but it leaves
this planet with millions of impres s ions upon it. Every
interaction we have with another s oul leaves a
permanent impres s ion on ours . Every e-mail we receive,
every TV s how we watch, every hug we give, and every
phone call we take changes us in s ome way. This is why
Jes us s aid that we s hould, with all diligence, guard our
hearts .

In the movie Truman, Jim Carrey’s character was cas t as

the s tar of a televis ion s how that took place in a city
that was actually a mas s ive televis ion s tudio where his
friends and relatives were all actors . The main character,
Truman, didn’t know his life was being carefully
s cripted each week. Occas ionally, an outs ider would
make their way onto the s et to warn him that things were
not as they s eemed. But due to the many dis tractions
provided by the s how’s cunning producer, the truth
about his life eluded him. He was always dis tracted by
s omeone who got his attention jus t long enough to keep
him from s erious ly cons idering the warnings that were
being s ent.

In a s imilar way, God is always s ending mes s ages to us .

If we allow ours elves to become dis tracted by the
people and things that make demands on our time, we
may never cons ider what He is s aying, or even hear the
mes s ages . For thos e who are not hearing God as well as
they would like to, the problem is that other things have
taken the highes t priority. Hearing God is mos tly a
matter of correctly prioritizing the things that have our
attention. This is not to s ay that we can completely
ignore our res pons ibilities and relations hips and focus
exclus ively on God. We need to s trike a s ens ible balance
between giving adequate time to thinking about our
family, work, and friends hips , while s etting time as ide to
focus on what God is s aying. As you grow in your
ability to hear God’s voice, you’ll find it eas ier to do
both at the s ame time.

Jack Nicklaus s aid golf is a game that you can excel at if

you learn how to do a s mall number of things extremely
well, and do them well cons is tently. I’m not the greates t
golfer in the world, but I do know one thing about golf,
and it’s the fact that if I were to s pend ten hours a week
on the driving range with a pro who taught me how to
properly hit a ball off the tee, I’d be a lot better golfer
than I am now. The key to hitting a golf ball cons is tently
is s pending hours practicing the little things . It’s
learning how to keep your head in the right pos ition and
not moving it during your s wing. It’s learning how to
hold a club the right way. It’s learning how to tune out
the dis tracting things going on around you. It’s learning
to do the many s mall things right and doing them
cons is tently s o that you always hit the ball the s ame
way.

The proces s of learning how to hear the voice of God is

no different. Learning how to pick out the voice of the
Holy Spirit from among the other voices that demand
our attention is a proces s we can learn by doing a few
things repeatedly. There are s teps we can take to filter
out the nois e and ways by which we can verify we’re
hearing God accurately. If we can learn to do thes e
things cons is tently, we’ll have no trouble hearing His
voice.

Imagine you and I were to walk into a high s chool band

room filled with s tudents warming up for a performance.
We would hear trumpets , trombones , tubas , s axophones ,
and clarinets practicing s cales and playing parts of the
performance. W hen all thes e s ounds are combined, it’s
difficult to dis tinguis h anything that s ounds like a s ong.
Now imagine I as k if you can hear a piccolo playing a
s ong. A piccolo is a high pitched ins trument that does
not project very well. You would need to lis ten very
clos ely to pick out a piccolo playing a s ong from among
the other ins truments .
You might s ay you weren’t able to hear the piccolo
playing a s ong becaus e there was too much nois e.
W hile it may be true that the other ins truments will
create enough nois e to make it difficult to hear the
piccolo, the fact remains that the piccolo is s till playing
a s ong, even if we don’t recognize it. God’s voice
operates in the s ame way. Many of us have concluded
that becaus e we haven’t recognized God’s voice, He
is n’t s peaking. But He is s peaking to us whether we
recognize it or not. If we want to hear Him, we mus t find
a way to reduce the nois e that drowns out His voice.

It’s eas ier to focus on hearing God in an environment

that is free of dis tractions . Many people find it helpful
to s pend time in a s ecluded, s ilent location as they
focus on hearing His voice. This is not becaus e God
s peaks more or becaus e He s peaks louder in s uch
places , but becaus e it’s eas ier to hear Him when
background nois es are eliminated. Although He can and
does s peak to us in virtually any s etting, mos t novices
find it helpful to be in a s etting that is free of
dis tractions . Once you’ve practiced, you’ll be able to
hear His voice in a nois y environment, but it’s bes t to
begin in a quiet place.

Meditation
There is much that can be learned about communing and
communicating with God by s tudying the life of the
ps almis ts of the Bible. Des pite the fact that they
s uffered incredible hards hip and advers ity, it’s clear that
they found great s olace, wis dom, and power in times of
quiet meditation. David wrote in Ps alm 145 vers e 5, “I
will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendor and
your wonderful miracles.”

W hen we s peak of Chris tian meditation, we’re not

referring to the type of meditation us ed by eas tern
religions and New Age practitioners . Some practitioners
of meditation try to empty their mind of all thought.
Others try to come into harmony with an impers onal
force or s eek unders tanding from the univers e.

Chris tians on the other hand, meditate on the pers on of

God, who is a loving Father to us all. Meditation as it
was practiced by the ps almis ts and which has been us ed
by believers throughout the entire church age focus es
on our onenes s with God. It’s tuning out external nois e
and becoming quiet in our s oul s o that we might focus
on the pers on of God. W hen our mind has been cleared
of other thoughts , we’re able to focus on His goodnes s ,
His mercy, or His other characteris tics , s o that we might
receive whatever He wants to impart to us —whether
peace, wis dom, healing, or s omething els e. This is what
the ps almis t meant when he wrote, “Be s till and know
that I am God.”

For thos e who are not well-acquainted with hearing

God’s voice, it may be helpful at firs t, to s pend time in a
s omewhat is olated environment. Something as s imple as
taking a 20-minute walk, s everal times a week on a quiet
road in the country can be a good way to find time to
meditate in s ilence.

Another s trategy might be to s pend 20 or 30 minutes at

the end of the day before bed time, in a comfortable
chair, quietly meditating on God. Meditating on the
goodnes s of God is an excellent way to grow in your
ability to hear Him. As we meditate on His goodnes s , it
tends to produce thankfulnes s and gratitude in us .
Thes e attitudes can lead us to prais e Him. Ps alm 100
s ays :

Come before His presence with singing.Enter into

His gates with thank sgiving,And into His courts
with praise.

Ps . 100:2, 4

Singing, thanks giving, and prais e can s erve as gates

through which we enter into the pres ence of God.
Meditation is not a goal in its elf. It is s omething like a
launching pad that pos itions us to have an encounter
with God.

Exercis e
Meditation can s eem difficult or s trange if you’re not
familiar with it, but let me as s ure you, there’s les s
mys tery to it than you might think. Forget whatever
preconceptions you might have about what it means to
meditate. The proces s of meditation its elf can be
virtually anything you want it to be. Some people begin
meditation by allowing a familiar wors hip s ong to invade
their mind. As a wors hip s ong plays in their mind, other
competing thoughts tend to dis s ipate. That’s the main
goal of meditation—to dis place the mental clutter that
occupies our mind, which allows our mind to be filled
with the thoughts of God. Meditation can be as s imple
as turning your thoughts intentionally toward God and
turning them away from whatever els e you habitually
think about. A s ucces s ful meditation s es s ion for a
beginner might s imply be a five-minute exercis e of
thinking about the good things God has done for them
during the pas t week. If you’re able to do this for five
minutes at firs t, try going ten minutes the next time. You
s hould begin to dis cern thought impres s ions in your
mind that s eem foreign to you. Thes e impres s ions may
be from God. You may feel unus ual emotions , s uch as a
deep s ens e of peace or love. You may begin to s ee
images in your mind that are of heavenly things . Thes e
images , emotions , and thoughts may be things God
wants you to cons ider. In later chapters we’ll take a look
at how we can know if they are from God, how to
interpret them, and what we might do with them.
 Faith and Hearing God’s Voice

If we want to hear God’s voice we mus t come to expect

that when we turn our attention toward Him, He will turn
His attention toward us . One of the mos t difficult
les s ons of learning to hear His voice is getting pas t the
bias we have that makes us think He does n’t care about
us . If your parents didn’t pay attention to you when
were a child, you may have learned to expect rejection
from thos e who are important to you. If you’ve ever
lived with a s pous e or a roommate who s eldom s poke to
you, you may have learned to expect s ilence from
others . You might think that if the people you cared
about had nothing to s ay to you, why on earth would
the Creator of the univers e be interes ted in s peaking to
you?
God is n’t like your grouchy s pous e, your s ilent
roommate, or your s toic parent who never had much to
s ay. He is n’t hiding from you becaus e He hates you. It
is n’t true that He has favorites , or that He does n’t want
to s pend time with you. He wants to connect with you
every day. If there is anything preventing you from
knowing God more intimately, it is on your s ide of the
relations hip, not His .
How do we learn to meet with God? Let’s take a les s on
from s omeone who walked with Him daily:
By an act of faith, Enoch sk ipped death completely.
“They look ed all over and couldn’t find him
because God had tak en him.” We k now on the basis
of reliable testimony that before he was tak en “he
pleased God.” It’s impossible to please God apart
from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to
approach God must believe both that he exists and
that he cares enough to respond to those who seek
him.
Heb. 11:5-6 MSG
To get your parents attention you may have had to do
your chores or clean your room. Others may have
expected you to do favors for them. People us ually
require us to jump through hoops in order to earn their
favor. But that is n’t true of God. Enoch’s walk with God
was s imply a matter of faith. If you want to be intimately
involved in God’s plans and want to know Him as a
friend, the firs t s tep is to believe that He exis ts and that
He cares enough to s peak to you. For many of us , that
means changing the way in which we think of Him.
The thing that prevented me from meeting with and
hearing from God for the firs t 38 years of my life was
unbelief and s kepticis m. I chos e not to believe He
exis ted, that He cared about me, or that I could know
Him. That was a choice I made. But the moment I made a
different choice—the choice to believe that He exis ted,
that I could know Him, and that He could be heard—His
voice was as eas y to hear as that of anyone els e. My
choice to believe is what allowed me to draw near to
Him.
We mus t choos e to believe He wants to s peak with us .
W hile it would be ideal to know with abs olute certainty
that what we’re s eeing, feeling, or hearing is from God,
the kingdom does n’t work that way. Everything we do
that pertains to God is done by faith. We walk by faith
in and through all of our experiences with Him. Faith is
trus ting that we’re hearing His voice. Not knowing for
sure that it’s Him, but trusting that it’s Him, in s pite of
any uncertainty we might have. “Faith” can be a
nebulous term. You might wonder what this faith is
that’s required to walk with God. There are a couple of
other words I us e to des cribe faith. One word I us e
interchangeably with faith is confidence.
W hen we worry that God does n’t care about us , we’re
making a choice to entertain thes e thoughts , rather than
entertaining other thoughts . If we want to communicate
with God, we need to change our patterns of thinking—
this is the true meaning of repentance. Rather than
believing that He does n’t care or is n’t going to s peak to
us , we need to change our mind and choos e to believe
that He does care and will s peak to us . We need to
b e c o me confident that His promis e to s peak to us is
true. Faith is believing that we will receive what we’ve
as ked for.
The other word I s ometimes us e interchangeably for
faith is expectation. If we want to connect with God, we
mus t expect that He is going to s peak to us . It is not
pres umptuous for us to expect this . He’s already
promis ed that He will. W hen we come to Him with the
expectation of hearing His voice, we’re s imply choos ing
to believe that He will do what He promis ed. W hen we
expect to hear God s peak we’ll recognize what He is
s aying with greater accuracy and we’ll be les s prone to
doubt what He s ays .
One important factor that affects how well we hear
God’s voice is our des ire. That is to s ay, the degree to
which we want to be ins tructed by Him. The degree to
which we s incerely want to hear His voice creates the
terrain in our s oul that receives communication from
Him. The receptivity of our s oul to His revelation is
determined by how much we want to hear and follow
what He tells us . This principle was explained by Jes us
when the dis ciples as ked why He s poke in parables . He
s aid that He s poke in parables s o that He might reveal
the truth to thos e who had ears to hear it and at the
s ame time conceal it from thos e who did not have ears
to hear:
“To you it has been given to k now the mysteries of
the k ingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in
parables, that ‘Seeing they may not see, And
hearing they may not understand.’”
Lk. 8:10
God des ires to reveal the mys teries of the kingdom, but
only to thos e who desire to receive them willingly and
act upon what they receive. To thos e who have no
des ire to receive the things of the kingdom or act upon
them, the truth is revealed, but it’s revealed in a way
that does not bear fruit. As Jes us s aid in the parable of
the different types of s oil, a pers on with this type of
heart is like the hard ground, where the s eed, after it is
s own, is picked up by the birds of the air and carried
away. God s ows the s eed upon all types of s oil; He
s peaks to every type of heart. But hard ground cannot
receive the s eed. In the s ame way, a heart that is
reluctant to hear the truth from God and act upon it
cannot receive revelation and what is received does n’t
bear fruit.
Jes us des cribed a different type of s oil which allowed
the s eed to germinate, but s hortly afterward, weeds
grew and crowded out the s eed and it could not produce
a harves t. He explained that the weeds were the cares of
the world. They’re the things that become dis tractions
which divert our attention away from the revelation we
receive from God. It’s not even that thes e dis tractions
are neces s arily evil. Some of them are good things . But
they’re things we’ve placed out of priority. They are the
people, events , hobbies , and concerns that we give our
attention to, which divert our attention away from the
things He s hows us . If we don’t give proper attention to
the revelation He gives us and put it to us e, it cannot
bear fruit.
If for example, you have a s eries of dreams from God
where you’re praying for s ick people in hos pitals and
nurs ing homes , it could be that God is calling you to go
out into your community and pray for the s ick. But if
you allow your time to be us ed in other ways , s uch as
hos ting neighborhood meetings and coaching little
league bas eball, thes e things can become the weeds
that choke out the s eed, which prevents revelation from
bearing fruit.
Jes us s aid in the parable of the talents , to thos e who
make good us e of what they’ve been given, they will be
given more. But to thos e who have little, if they do not
make good us e of it, what little they have will be taken
from them. The key to receiving more revelation from
God is to make us e of what He has given you. One
reas on why s ome people s eem to receive s o little
revelation from God is that they’ve done nothing with
what they’ve received.
For s everal years I hos ted an open forum on a s ocial
network where people could receive prophetic words
from God. There were a few people who came to receive
a new prophetic word every day. I wonder at the wis dom
of this approach to receiving revelation, which is
common in Charis matic and Pentecos tal circles . We
s eem to be fas cinated with the idea of receiving
revelation from God, but many times we do nothing with
what we’ve received. We aren’t s uppos ed to receive
revelation jus t to have more information. Revelation
from God is like a s eed. Its purpos e is to bear fruit. And
everything that is revealed to us from God is s omething
we become res pons ible for. I’ve found that when God
gives me s everal dreams about a particular s ubject, if I
don’t act upon them, I tend to receive little or no
revelation on thos e s ubjects in the future. But when I
receive dreams on a s ubject and act upon them, I
us ually receive more dreams on that s ubject and when I
act upon those dreams , I receive even more.
W hen God firs t began giving me dreams about praying
for people to be healed, I acted upon them. Even though
I prayed for s everal hundred people and no one was
healed, I continued having dreams about healing. I tried
my bes t to be obedient to what He wanted me to do. It
was a bit frus trating at the time to keep praying for the
s ick and not s eeing res ults , but God kept giving me
dreams where the ones I prayed with were being healed.
I felt that if I jus t kept at it, one day s omeone would be
healed. As I pers is ted, I began s eeing people healed and
eventually, I s aw mos t of the people I prayed with
healed. As I’ve continued praying for healing, the
revelation has continued and it’s become broader in
s cope. W hile mos t of the dreams I had years ago were
about phys ical healing, mos t of the dreams I have today
are about healing emotional trauma and mental illnes s .
Living by faith is n’t always eas y. Sometimes it’s rather
difficult, es pecially when it s eems as if our efforts are
not bearing fruit. But the more we do what God as ks us
to do, the more we will s ee fruit produced, and the more
fruit we s ee, the more confident we’ll become that we
are truly hearing His voice.
Pers i s tence In Luke chapter 11 we find an important
les s on taught by Jes us . After teaching His dis ciples
how to pray, He taught them how to pers is t until they
received what they as ked for. I have many friends who
hear God extremely well. Although they hear Him in very
different ways , they all s hare one thing in common:
Every one of them has remarkable pers is tence. Their
determination and pers is tence is the thing that s ets
them apart from everyone els e. They are leaders becaus e
they’re s ucces s ful and a large part of their s ucces s
comes from their pers is tence. If you want to have the
s ame kind of s ucces s they have you mus t develop the
s ame kind of pers is tence they have.
In the s ociety in which we live, we’ve grown
accus tomed to having what we want immediately. W hen
I firs t s et my mind to s eeing vis ions , the changes in my
s piritual vis ion came very s lowly. And I’ll admit, it was
very frus trating. I s at in my ambulance with my eyes
clos ed, hour after hour, day after day. I could have
given up in frus tration, but I wanted to s ee vis ions
badly enough that quitting was n’t an option. Over the
cours e of weeks and months , my ability to s ee vis ions
gradually improved and today I s ee vis ions with eas e.
I’d love to be able to guarantee that you’ll have
dramatic res ults in a few days or even in a few weeks .
Unfortunately, for s ome people, it might take longer
than a few weeks before they notice a s ignificant
change in their ability to dis cern God’s voice or s ee
vis ions . For s ome of us , the change will be
ins tantaneous , but for others the proces s will be much
longer. The recalibration of our s piritual s ens es might
take a little longer than we’d like. I can’t promis e you a
definite time period in which you’ll notice changes , but
I can as s ure you that if you’re willing to s tick with a
regular routine of getting alone in a quiet place and
being intentional about hearing God s peak, you’ll notice
that He is s peaking, however faintly His voice might
s eem.
Exerci s e Set as ide between 15 and 30 minutes for this
exercis e. Find a place that is free from nois e and
dis tractions and allows a comfortable way for you to s it
or lie down. Have s omething ready to write with s o that
you can record the impres s ions you receive from God.
Get comfortable and fix your mind on God. Expect that
He is going to communicate s omething to you. If there
are ques tions you’d like to as k, you might as k them to
Him. After as king a ques tion, wait for an ans wer which
could come as an image in your mind, a thought
impres s ion, a s udden emotion, or s ome other change
you s ens e that was not pres ent before you as ked the
ques tion. Make a mental note of any impres s ions you
receive and as k follow up ques tions if you’d like. Write
down the impres s ions you receive to make a permanent
record of them. Writing down the revelation you receive
s erves a couple of purpos es :
If you go through a time when it s eems as if God is n’t
s peaking very clearly, you can look back at what He told
you in thes e exercis es and s ee that He is really s peaking
to you.
Some of what you receive in thes e exercis es will provide
ins ights into His future plans for you. If you write them
down it can s erve as a kind of road map for your future.
W hen the things that you wrote down come to pas s ,
you can look back at how He s howed you them in
advance and it’ll demons trate His faithfulnes s to do
what He s aid He would.
The Not So Audible Voice of God

There are many people who have heard God’s voice

very clearly. Some s o clearly they’ve des cribed it as
s ounding like an audible voice. If you’ve never heard
God s peak in s uch a voice, you might feel as if you’ve
never actually heard Him s peak at all. Don’t worry. It’s
likely you have heard Him s peak, but not in the way you
expected. W hen we us e the word audible, we’re
referring to a s ound that is made which can be heard by
anyone with normal hearing. If I were to s trike a gong in
the middle of a crowded auditorium, it’s likely that
everyone pres ent would hear the audible s ound made by
the gong. An audible s ound is not s elective for certain
people. Anyone who is pres ent can hear a s ound that is
audible. W hen God s peaks to s omeone in a way that is
unus ually loud, they may perceive the mes s age to be
one that was s poken in an audible voice. But unles s
others who are nearby are als o able to hear the s ame
voice and the s ame mes s age, the voice was not an
audible one, but s omething els e.
W hen I s peak to my wife, the s ound s he hears is the
res ult of different forms of energy being trans mitted
through phys ical s tructures of the human body. In order
for me to s peak in a voice that can be heard (which is
the definition of an audible voice) my lungs mus t exhale
air through a s et of vocal cords that s tretch and
contract to form s ound waves , which are s haped by my
mouth. The s ound waves travel through the air and are
picked up by her ear drum. The s tructures in her ear
trans mit the s ound waves and change them into an
electrical s ignal which is carried to her brain through the
auditory nerve. Her brain proces s es the s ignal and
converts it into the audible voice of her hus band.
God is a Spirit. Spirit beings do not have phys ical
s tructures like ear drums and vocal cords . His voice is
not a wave of s ound that comes from His lungs . It does
not travel through our ear drum to our auditory nerve
and then to our brain. Even though it may seem to s ome
as if they’re hearing an audible voice like any other
human voice, s pirits do not have the phys ical s tructures
of communication required to create audible s peech.
Spiritual communication us es a completely different s et
of s ens es . It is done primarily through the trans mis s ion
of thought impres s ions (and impres s ions via other
s piritual s ens es ) directly from s pirit to s pirit. Thes e
impres s ions bypas s the phys ical s tructures of the
human body.
W hen God s peaks to the pers on s itting next to you in a
res taurant, you can’t hear what He is s aying, but they
can. This is becaus e s pirits have the ability to direct
their mes s ages to s pecific targets , while concealing
them from thos e who are nearby. If s pirit beings
communicated in ways that relied on the s tructures of
the phys ical body, everyone nearby would hear them
s peaking jus t as clearly as the one they were s peaking
to. They als o have the ability to manifes t their
appearance to only certain individuals , while remaining
invis ible to others .
God s peaks to us through s piritual language becaus e it
is the only way in which s pirits are able to communicate.
Spiritual communication is eas y for our s pirits to s ens e,
but it is impos s ible for our phys ical bodies to s ens e.
Becaus e there are two different types of communication
we mus t s ens e and interpret, God gave us a third
component with the ability to receive both forms of
communication. This third part of our being, the s oul, is
the bridge that ties the s piritual and the phys ical
together.
God gave us a s oul for many purpos es . It is commonly
believed to be the s eat of the mind, the will, and the
emotions . It is als o the part of our being where input
from the phys ical and s piritual worlds are received and
interpreted. The s oul is able to proces s all the input
from the various phys ical s ens es of s ight, hearing,
touch, tas te, and s mell, as well as the entire range of
human emotions . And in the s ame way that it proces s es
thes e s ens es from the phys ical body, it is able to
receive and interpret thes e s ame s ens es from the
s piritual body. God, angels , and demons can all be
s ens ed through a s et of s piritual s ens es nearly identical
to the ones the phys ical body has . For thos e who have
difficulty recognizing s piritual beings and the things
they communicate, the problem is that their s oul has not
been conditioned to recognize this kind of
communication. The exercis es provided at the end of the
chapters are intended to train the s oul to become more
s ens itive to s piritual communication.
It’s common when we firs t recognize that God is
s peaking to us to s ens e Him as a voice of gentle
correction. He s peaks to our cons cience to help us
develop patterns of thinking and acting that are in
accordance with His character. As children, the
development of godly character is a primary focus , but
as we grow more mature, there are other things we need
to learn. It is God’s des ire for us to unders tand and
manifes t our true identity.
The world tends to s hape us into its own mold through
interactions that we have with friends , parents , and
teachers . The world has an identity it would like us to
conform to, but God has a very different one that He has
created for us . The identity He has prepared for us is
s ometimes in direct oppos ition to the one the world
wants us to accept. One of the mos t important parts of
our s piritual growth is rejecting a wrong identity the
world may have given us , and receiving the one God has
given us .
The world may tell you that you’re a failure, but God
will tell you that in time, you’ll be a s ucces s . The world
may tell you that you have no creative talent, but God
will s how you the s pecific talents He has placed ins ide
you. The world may tell you that no one cares about
you. The Spirit of God will tell you that heaven rejoices
at even your mos t feeble accomplis hment. The world
may tell you that you are not lovable. God will tell you
that He has always loved you from the very beginning
and He will never s top loving you. The world may tell
you that you are acceptable only as long as your
behavior is acceptable. God wants you to know that no
amount of mis takes or failures can ever diminis h the
acceptance He has for you. The world may tell you that
you are on your own. God will tell you that He has
hundreds of angels waiting to as s is t you in your
divinely ordained des tiny. God reveals thes e things to
us in a variety of ways . Some of it may be revealed
through prophetic words from others . Some will be
revealed through dreams or vis ions . But much of it will
be revealed through the pers onal convers ations you
have with Him.
 Is It God or Is It Me?

One concern you might have about hearing God’s voice

is whether s omething you heard originated in your own
mind or the mind of God. For s ome, there is too much
uncertainty over knowing the origin of an idea that they
prefer not to attempt to dis cern what God might be
s aying, for fear of being wrong. Determining the origin
of revelation may s eem like a daunting tas k, but there
are a few s imple s teps we can take that will help us
verify the s ource of any revelation.
A few of the ways in which God s peaks to us are
vis ions , dreams , aromas , emotions , s kin s ens ations , and
thought impres s ions that carry mes s ages to our mind.
(In the next s ection we’ll look at thes e modes of
communication s eparately.) It’s common for us to
attribute thes e things to an over-active imagination. But
here’s the thing I’ve noticed about God’s mes s ages that
helps me dis tinguis h them from the workings of my own
mind:
The believer has two s pirits living ins ide them—their
own s pirit and the Spirit of God. Thes e two s pirits are
the s ources of two different kinds of thought or s treams
of revelation. Before we can know which thoughts are
God’s we mus t firs t know which belong to us . One
problem many of us have is that we do not know our
own thoughts the way we s hould. W hen we know
ours elves well and unders tand clearly the ways in which
our mind works , we can view our own thoughts like an
objective obs erver. The better we know our own
thoughts , the eas ier it is to dis cern the thoughts that
are not ours , but God’s , or thos e of a demon. The firs t
s tep in learning to dis tinguis h our thoughts from God’s
is becoming more aware of the nature of our own
thought life.
In the more than half a century I’ve walked the earth
I’ve come to know mys elf pretty well. I’ve learned to
recognize the ways in which my own mind thinks . If
s omeone copied and pas ted one of my articles into an e-
mail and s ent it to me I would recognize it as mine. If
s omeone hung one of my paintings on the wall of a
res taurant, I would recognize the artis t as mys elf. I
recognize my own thoughts and the vis ual material of
my own mind when I s ee them. And when I hear a
thought that is unfamiliar to my way of thinking, I als o
recognize it as being “not from me.” W hen I s ee a vis ual
image that is foreign to my own creativity I recognize it
as being “not mine.”
W hile the thoughts of mortals are different, they are
more or les s of equal quality. The thoughts of God
however, are infinitely higher and dis tinctly different
from our own. God’s thoughts are s o much more s ublime
than my thoughts . They are full of love, life, wis dom,
compas s ion, and mercy. Although I would like to think
that my thoughts are like this , if I am hones t with
mys elf, I mus t admit that God’s thoughts carry a certain
quality that my thoughts do not have. If we’re going to
dis cern God’s thoughts from ours we mus t learn to be
hones t with ours elves about our thoughts . Otherwis e
we deceive ours elves and we can’t hope to dis tinguis h
God’s thoughts from our own.
We know that every good and perfect thing comes down
from the Father of Lights (Jas . 1:17). Everything that is
good in the world has its origin in God. I would like to
think that the good thoughts I have originated in my
own mind. But when I have a thought that is full of love
or compas s ion or mercy—even though the thought
seems to have s prung forth from within my own mind, I
mus t conclude that it could not have come from me. I
know its s ource mus t be the mind of God—for that is
the origin of everything that is good and perfect.
We mus t remember that although God’s voice is external
to us , His Spirit res ides in us . Becaus e of this , when He
s peaks , we perceive His external voice to be an internal
experience. We perceive His thoughts as our own
thoughts . The way in which His thoughts come to us is
s o s ubtle it’s often hard to recognize that they had their
origin outs ide of us . But thes e brilliant, loving,
compas s ionate thoughts are the thoughts of God being
s poken by the Holy Spirit. The s ame is true for vis ual
images that we receive from Him. Many times we think
an image came from our imagination, when it actually
came from God. Half the battle of knowing that what
you’re s eeing, feeling, or hearing is from God is s imply a
matter of knowing that it is n’t from you.
Confirmation of the things we believe we’ve heard from
God is important. But how do we begin to know if
s omething is from God or from another s ource?
Our s oul creates its own mes s ages , including thoughts ,
impres s ions , emotions , and vis ual images . One
difference between the ones that come from an external
s ource and ones that come from our s oul is that thos e
which come from an external s ource are difficult or
impos s ible to manipulate or change willfully. A mes s age
that is external to us cannot be changed by us . W hereas
a mes s age that originates in our s oul can be changed by
exerting our will over it.
There is another way in which we can dis tinguis h the
origin of revelation, but it is different (and contrary) to
the way that is taught by many church leaders . Many
people teach that anything we believe we’ve heard from
God mus t line up with s cripture in order for us to know
with certainty that it’s from God. If it does not line up
with s cripture, they s ay, we mus t tos s it out. There’s
nothing wrong with s earching the s criptures to s ee if
s omething has a biblical bas is , but many of the things
God will reveal to us cannot be verified by the
s criptures . I’ve had God s peak to me about accepting a
new job, turning down opportunities to s peak at various
churches , and many other pers onal is s ues , none of
which could be conclus ively verified by s cripture alone.
A wis e pers on takes their decis ions before God and as ks
for His input. But whether s omething came from the
heart of God or s ome other place is not determined by
its inclus ion in the Bible. The origin of wis dom and the
s ource of any revelation can bes t be determined by
evaluating the fruit it produces . Jes us taught that a
polluted s tream does not give pure water and that you
do not gather grapes from thorn bus hes or figs from
this tles . The s ource of anything is always bes t
determined by examining the fruit that it bears . Fals e
teachers and evil s pirits can quote the s criptures , but
the fruit that a thing produces will always reveal its
s ource.
The Holy Spirit is called the Comforter, the Spirit of
Grace, the Spirit of Peace, the Spirit of Wis dom, and the
Spirit of Truth, becaus e thes e are the things that His
words produce. If anyone hears the words of the Spirit
and acts on them, the s ame fruit will be produced in
their life. The voice of the Spirit produces the fruit of
the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, longs uffering,
kindnes s , goodnes s , faithfulnes s , gentlenes s , and s elf-
control (Gal. 5:22). So if a pers on s ays they are hearing
from God, and they act upon what they have heard, but
the fruit produced is condemnation, fear, dis cord or any
other negative quality, we can tell that this pers on was
not hearing from God. I trans port mentally ill patients
frequently who hear voices that s peak condemning and
cruel words to them. Thes e people often think they are
hearing God’s voice. I know that in mos t cas es they are
not hearing from God, becaus e the fruit that comes from
what they hear is not the fruit of the Spirit. Thes e
people tend to be filled with s elf-hatred, fear, anxiety,
envy, and other attitudes that are incons is tent with the
fruit of the Spirit.
You might receive an impres s ion from God that you
s hould s peak to a neighbor about their marital problems .
If you s peak to them and learn that their marriage is in
trouble and God gives you couns el that you s hare with
them which s aves their marriage—the revelation you
received is confirmed. You were hearing from God. If on
the other hand, you find that your neighbors are not
having marriage problems , you may have not been
hearing from God. The fruit of any revelation tes tifies of
its s ource.
My friend Shae Bynes once organized a retreat for
entrepreneurs . She as ked God what the theme for the
retreat would be and s he received no ans wer. She
received many prompts from Him about logis tics , but
s he regis tered attendees without telling them what they
would be learning. As the time for the retreat drew near,
s he became concerned as s he s till didn’t know what the
retreat would be about. She recalled the day that God
finally told her what the agenda would be:
 “I went to the hair s alon to get my hair done and after
my appointment my hus band as ked me to meet him at
Office Max. I drove over to Office Max, turned the car
off, and was jus t about to open the car door when I
felt a heartache unlike I had ever felt before. I s tarted
to cry uncontrollably… I didn’t even know why I was
crying. My hair was looking fabulous and I was in a
great mood jus t moments earlier. All I knew was at that
moment my heart hurt… a lot.”
Shae does n’t s uffer from depres s ion, yet s he s obbed for
what felt like no reas on. She had never felt thes e kinds of
emotions before. She contacted her bus ines s partner who
s ugges ted it might be a prophetic mes s age about the
s ubject of the retreat. During their chat, God revealed that
the attendees would be delivered from bitternes s and
unforgivenes s . At the retreat, s he explained to the
attendees that God wanted them to go through a proces s
of forgiving people (former bus ines s as s ociates as well as
family members ) for the pains they had caus ed them. The
retreat turned into a mas s exercis e in deliverance and
emotional healing.

Shae would never have known if the emotions s he felt

were really from God and if her interpretation of them was
correct if s he had not taken the ris k of delivering a very
unus ual mes s age to the group. The fact that the attendees
res ponded to the mes s age en mas s e, was the fruit that
tes tified to the origin of the revelation. The kingdom of
God is advanced when we take ris ks . Taking ris ks is one of
the bes t ways we can learn to know if and how we are
hearing from God. As we obey the revelation we receive
and act upon it, producing fruit, we’ll grow in confidence
that we’re hearing accurately from God.
 PART TWO

How God Speaks

 Spiritual Abilities versus
Spiritual Gifts

In this s ection, Part Two, we will explore the many ways

in which God s peaks to everyone, univers ally. All the
ways of communication we’ll cover in this s ection
involve our innate s piritual senses—and not s piritual
gifts. Our innate s piritual s ens es are ones we have
which we can us e independently. They do not require
God’s empowerment in order for them to function. There
are s ome common mis conceptions about how thes e
s ens es function, s o I’ll illus trate the difference between
innate s piritual abilities and s piritual gifts .
An ability is a s kill or s ens e that can be us ed without
s pecial empowerment from God. An example is the
ability to s ee. Except in cas es of blindnes s , we are all
born with the innate ability to s ee with our phys ical
eyes . As a newborn, things that are near to us appear in
focus , though a newborn has difficulty focus ing on
dis tant objects . We’re not us ually born with our abilities
fully-developed. We mus t practice us ing them before
they operate at their fulles t potential. The s ame is true
for the res t of our s ens es —both phys ical and s piritual
—we’re born with them intact, they mus t be developed,
and their us e is not dependent upon God.
By contras t, a gift s peaks of s omething we cannot do
ours elves . W hen God grants us the ability to do
s omething we could not ordinarily do, it is cons idered
to be a gift. An example is the gift of s peaking in
tongues . This gift is not an innate s kill we are born with
that can be developed. We refer to it as a “gift” becaus e
it cannot be done except by the power of God.
Before we dis cus s the details of how we develop our
s piritual s ens es , we s hould dis cus s the reas ons why
they are important. If you’re a Chris tian, the terms we’re
about to dis cus s will be familiar to you, but if you are
not, pleas e don’t be offended or feel as if this
dis cus s ion is not relevant to you. It is relevant. As you
begin to recognize that God is s peaking to you,
eventually you’re going to want to know what to do
with what He tells you. Much of what we do with the
revelation we receive pertains to the s piritual gifts we’re
going to s tudy in the las t s ection of this book, Part
Three. At this point we s hould briefly touch on s ome of
thos e s piritual gifts .
The gifts of the Holy Spirit are ways in which the Spirit
of God operates through us in order to s peak to or in
s ome way interact with thos e around us . There are nine
different gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Bible.
Several of them involve hearing, s eeing, or s ens ing
revelation from God in s ome way. Some in the church
have taught that the gifts of the Spirit will operate in us
effectively before we’ve had time to develop our
s piritual s ens es . But in fact the oppos ite is true. We
mus t firs t develop our ability to hear, s ee, and s ens e
what God is s aying and then we can operate in the gifts
of the Spirit. I aim to teach you firs t how to hone your
s piritual s ens es . In Part Three we’ll look at how thos e
s ens es can be us ed through the gifts of the Spirit.
The s piritual gifts generally require us to develop our
s piritual s ens es before they function effectively. The
gift of dis cerning of s pirits mentioned in 1 Cor. 12:10 is a
good example. The dis cerning of s pirits can be done in a
number of ways . Some people s mell the pres ence of
s pirits s uch as angels or demons , while others can s ee
them. The revelation of the pres ence of s uch s pirits is
dependent on our s piritual s ens es , not our natural ones .
If you’re not s ens ing s piritual activity through one of
your s piritual s ens es , it is probably becaus e that s ens e
is pres ently in an undeveloped s tate. Exercis e is the
bes t way to make the s piritual s ens es more s ens itive.
Some people know s pirits are pres ent becaus e the Holy
Spirit reveals them through thought impres s ions or
vis ions . Some people “feel” or “s ens e” the pres ence of
s pirits . This is s ometimes des cribed as a s udden,
overwhelming s ens e of fear or dread when an evil s pirit
draws near, or a s ens e of peace or joy when an angel is
nearby.
If God intends for you to operate in the gift of
dis cerning of s pirits by s eeing the s pirits that are
around you, it will require you to develop your ability to
s ee in the s pirit firs t. If He wants to reveal them through
words that you hear as thoughts in your mind, you need
to develop your ability to dis cern thos e thoughts . W hile
the control of a s piritual gift is s ubject to the operation
of the Holy Spirit, the development of an ability is under
our control. Abilities are honed and perfected through
practice and they lie undeveloped when we ignore them.
If we never develop our ability to s ee in the s pirit or
hear God’s voice, the operation of the gift of dis cerning
of s pirits can be hindered.
The writer of the book of Hebrews s poke about the need
for them to grow in s piritual maturity:
“For though by this time you ought to be teachers,
you need someone to teach you again the first
principles of the oracles of God; and you have
come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone
who partak es only of milk is unsk illed in the word
of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food
belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those
who by reason of use have their senses exercised to
discern both good and evil.”
Heb. 5:12-24
The author pointed out that although thes e believers
s hould have been teaching others by this time, they
were s till s piritually immature. He contras ted their
immaturity with thos e who had grown into maturity,
noting that maturity comes by exercis ing our s ens es .
Anyone can develop s piritual maturity and their
s piritual s ens es through exercis e and practice.
I’d like to s hare a word of caution:
It’s become popular to categorize people according to
the mos t common way in which they receive revelation
from God. Some people have taken on identifiers s uch
as “feeler,” “hearer,” “s eer,” and other labels that
des cribe the way in which they receive revelation from
God. W hile it can be helpful to identify particular modes
of receiving revelation, identifying ours elves by thes e
terms may have unintended cons equences . If for
example, you accept the term “s eer” as your identity,
you may s ubcons cious ly block your ability to receive
revelation through the other s ens es , believing they are
not part of your identity and not one of the ways in
which God s peaks to you. Even if you do not block
thos e impres s ions from God, you may not expect them.
And when you do s ens e them you might attribute them
to s omething other than God. Be aware of this tendency
and don’t limit your ability to hear from God by a label
you’ve accepted.
 Visions

Jus t as with all the other ways in which God

communicates with us , vis ions are acces s ible to
everyone, even if we believe we have never s een one
before. There are s ome who would s ugges t that vis ions
are a gift that is given only to a few s pecial individuals ,
but this idea is neither biblical, nor is it fully s upported
by the tes timony of thos e who s ee vis ions .
Not every pers on is born with a healthy pair of phys ical
eyes . Some are born without them due to birth defects .
But every human s pirit ever created has a pair of
s piritual eyes . And in the s ame way that we need to
exercis e our phys ical eyes in order to develop better
clarity of our natural vis ion, we mus t exercis e our
s piritual eyes in order to s ee things in the s piritual
world. God is always s peaking to His creation, and much
of what He s ays is communicated through vis ual
imagery. Since many of us have never s een a vis ion—or
at leas t not one that we were aware of—it’s common to
think He is not s peaking to us in this way. The problem
is not that He is n’t s peaking. The problem is that He is a
Spirit who s peaks in a s piritual language that is received
by our s pirit, and many of us have not developed our
ability to recognize the vis ual s piritual language He
us es . We’ve had our s piritual s ens es dulled by s ens ory
input from the phys ical world, which makes it difficult to
recognize input from the s piritual one. The key to
perceiving and unders tanding s piritual communication
is to have our s piritual s ens es trained and refocus ed.
Anyone can s ee vis ions from God, and in fact, we
receive revelation from Him in the form of vis ions every
day. But many times we attribute the images our mind
receives to our imagination, or we fail to perceive them
at all. Mos t of us need to have our s piritual s ens es
trained and our s oul conditioned to recognize vis ual
images . A few people are born with a very s harp ability
to recognize things they s ee in the s piritual world. It’s
my belief that s ome are born this way s o that they might
help others who need to have their s piritual s ens es
trained.
In Augus t of 2008, God appeared to me in a dream and
s aid He was going to s how me what was wrong with my
patients , and that if I prayed for them, He would heal
them. Prior to that night, I had never s een a vis ion, or at
leas t not one I was aware of. I was n’t born with a fully-
developed ability to s ee vis ions , and I didn’t know how
God was going to s how me what was wrong with my
patients . But I wanted to s ee the things He wanted to
s how me. I needed to take a little initiative and allow my
s piritual s ens es to be trained.
God is a relational being. It’s impos s ible to have a
meaningful relations hip with Him if you won’t devote
the time needed to develop the relations hip. I’ve
noticed that when I des ire to s pend more time with Him,
He always finds a way to free up time in my s chedule.
God gave me s ome free time at work s o that I might us e
it to get to know Him better, and in the proces s develop
my ability to s ee vis ions . If you want to develop this
ability and grow clos er to God, you’ll need to find s ome
time in which to do it. Some people have large blocks of
time every day or s everal times a week to s pend with
God, but not everyone does . It is n’t neces s ary to
devote an hour or two every day to be alone with God.
If you can only s pend 15 minutes a day focus ing on
Jes us and what He wants to reveal to you—it can make
a huge difference.
I s pent my time in the ambulance between calls with my
eyes clos ed. During thes e times I quieted my s oul and
did my bes t to block out dis tractions from the world
around me. (Although it’s pos s ible to s ee vis ions with
your eyes open, I found it eas ier to block out
dis tracting background images by keeping my eyes
clos ed.) I focus ed my heart on God and gave Him all of
my attention. For the firs t few days that I did this , I s aw
very little in the way of vis ions , but as time went on, I
gradually began s eeing faintly detectable images appear
in my mind’s eye. There was nothing dramatic about the
proces s . Everything happened very gradually.
One of the mos t common mis unders tandings about
vis ions is the idea that they appear to be external to us .
Sometimes a vis ion may appear to be an external reality,
but mos t times it will appear in the s ame way any other
vis ual image appears in our mind—through our
imagination. God us es the s ame apparatus to s how us a
vis ion that we us e to imagine in our mind what our
hus band or wife may be doing at work. This is the
reas on many people write off revelation from God as
being “jus t their imagination.”
At firs t, the images I s aw in my mind were blurry and
two-dimens ional in appearance. They were mos tly
images of famous people that I recognized. I was excited
to finally be s eeing vis ions , but s oon my excitement
turned to frus tration, becaus e I didn’t unders tand what
any of the images meant. God does n’t give us vis ions
for our entertainment. They’re us ually an invitation to a
dis cus s ion. Revelation is a two-way s treet. We need to
res pond to what He reveals to us s o a dialogue can take
place. W hen you s ee an image in your mind or when a
thought impres s ion aris es out of nowhere and you think
it might be from Him, you might begin a dis cus s ion by
as king Him what it means .
I began a dis cus s ion (in my mind) with God about the
images He s howed me. The dialogue cons is ted of me
thinking thoughts in my mind in res pons e to the images
I s aw. This might s eem a little s trange if you’re not
acquainted with s peaking to God through thoughts , but
this is the mos t common way in which people have
convers ations with Him. He s eldom s peaks to us in a
loud, booming voice. It’s normally done through barely
perceptible thought impres s ions . And s ince that’s how
He s peaks to us , we can s peak to Him in the s ame way.
It might s eem s illy at firs t, but with practice, you’ll
quickly become more comfortable with this proces s .
As I clos ed my eyes , I would s ee an image appear. At
firs t, the images were s low to take s hape in my mind, but
the more I did thes e exercis es , the fas ter they appeared.
I would s ilently tell God (in my mind) what I thought an
image repres ented. If I gues s ed correctly about the
meaning, the image would dis appear and another one
would take its place. If I gues s ed incorrectly, the image
would remain there and I would take another gues s at its
meaning. Some images required many gues s es before I
was able to correctly identify what they meant. Some
were eas y to gues s on the firs t try. Through this
proces s of gues s ing what each image meant, God was
training my s piritual eyes to receive revelation, He was
training my mind to dis play the images accurately, and
He was training my s pirit to unders tand the vis ual
language He wanted me to learn.
As time went on, the images I s aw became more s harply
focus ed, and the intens ity of the colors was more vivid
than what I was able to s ee even with my phys ical eyes .
The colors of the s piritual realm are nearly infinite. The
more you develop your ability to s ee in the s pirit, the
more you’ll notice increas ing intens ity and variety of
color. Some of the images I s aw were trans lucent in
appearance. In the s piritual world, many things —
heavenly ones in particular—radiate a kind of light that
is not pres ent in the phys ical world. As I practiced
s eeing in the s pirit, s ome of the images I s aw became
three-dimens ional and I s aw multiple s cenes that
overlapped and eventually the images began to move.
Some of the s cenes I s aw were animated cartoons .
Thes e vis ions are s omething like watching a video in
your mind. Moving images and s cenes that appear as
videos are able to convey a greater depth of meaning
than a s ingle image.
The bes t way to develop your s piritual vis ion is
practice. You may notice improvement immediately, but
not everyone does . Be patient with the proces s . It may
take months or even years in s ome cas es . W hat you
s hould notice is that as you continue to exercis e your
s piritual eyes , there will be s ubtle improvements each
time. If you pers is t, before long, you’ll have s piritual
eyes that can s ee better than your phys ical ones . The
key to s eeing with greater accuracy is practice.
Exercis e Sit or lie down in a comfortable pos ition. Clos e
your eyes and fix your attention on God. As you do
this , try to detect any images , however faint they are,
that appear in your mind and make note of them. Look to
s ee if the images move or change s hape and make note
of what they do. As k God ques tions about what you
s ee. (You can do this aloud or by thinking the ques tions
in your mind.) As k Him to interpret or explain the images
you s ee and journal whatever you hear Him s ay. This
exercis e can be repeated daily.
 Dreams

For thous ands of years , men and women have

unders tood how God us es dreams to s peak to us . In
s ome Arab cultures , the villagers gather together each
morning to dis cus s their dreams . A key part of the
community’s planning is done in accordance with the
dreams people have had.
Members of the Is lamic faith, for example, don’t expect
their dis tant God to s peak back to them pers onally. But
they do as k for guidance through their dreams . It has
been well-documented in recent years that thous ands of
Mus lims have been vis ited by Jes us in dreams and
vis ions where He told them He was the truth they had
been s eeking. Thous ands of converts to Chris tianity
have come becaus e God is s peaking to people through
dreams in places where pos s es s ing a Bible is illegal.
Through dreams , even militant Mus lims have been
ins pired to believe in Jes us as more than jus t a prophet,
as He is acknowledged in Is lam.
In the book of Job, Elihu reminded Job that becaus e we
often fail to perceive God’s voice while we’re awake, He
reveals s ecrets in our s leep:
“For God may speak in one way, or in another, yet
man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of
 the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while
slumbering on their beds, then He opens the ears of
men, and seals their instruction. In order to turn
man from his deed, and conceal pride from man, He
k eeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from
perishing by the sword.”
Job 33:14-18
The Bible s ays :
“It’s the glory of God to conceal a matter, and the
glory of k ings to search a matter out.”
Prov. 25:2
Many people take what they perceive to be God’s
s ilence as His indifference toward us . But God is not
indifferent toward us . If He wanted, He could manifes t
His voice s o clearly that everyone would hear Him
perfectly. But a God who is s o clearly evident is one
who would remove much of our freedom, including the
freedom to ignore Him if we wis h. God is not s o
intrus ive as to barge into the life of s omeone who would
rather not be troubled by Him. He is a gentleman and He
does not intrude where He is not wanted. In order that
He might allow us the liberty to ignore Him, He has
chos en to conceal Hims elf to a large degree. It is the
glory of God to conceal His affairs —not s o that He
cannot be found, but s o that thos e who earnes tly des ire
to know Him will s eek and find Him.
Part of the hidden nature of God is that He s peaks
veiled mys teries to us through dreams . W hat kind of
mys teries does He reveal? I have a dream journal I’ve
been keeping for the las t eight years . In it are more than
300 dreams on the s ubject of healing alone. Some of the
dreams revealed things about healing that are not
clearly explained in the Bible. I believe the Bible is a
great place to learn the bas ics and from which to build
foundational principles , but many of the details of
s ubjects like healing and deliverance are dis covered as
we operate in them and as God gives us keys to greater
effectivenes s through dreams .
Daniel and Jos eph were both s killed in dream
interpretation and becaus e of it, were promoted to
pos itions of power under the rulers of their res pective
lands . Both men s aid that dreams and their
interpretations came from God (s ee Gen. 40:8 and Dan.
2:28). The Bible is full of accounts where God s poke
through dreams . Here are a few examples :
In Genes is 28, Jacob fell as leep by a river. God came to
him in a dream and gave him s everal covenant promis es :
to bles s him all of his days , to make a great family for
him, to give him the land promis ed to Is aac and
Abraham, and that all the nations of the world would be
bles s ed through him.
Jos eph’s cell-mates had divine dreams ; one of them was
promis ed freedom; the other was warned of his
impending death (s ee Gen. 40:5).
Pharaoh was warned in a dream about a coming famine
that would las t s even years (s ee Gen. 41).
God appeared to Solomon in a dream while he s lept, and
told him to as k for anything he wanted. In the
convers ation, Solomon as ked for wis dom to rule over
God’s people. God gave him wis dom greater than
anyone who ever lived. He als o received great honor,
riches , and a promis e of long life if he would be
obedient. W hen Solomon woke up he realized all thes e
things happened while he was s leeping (s ee 1 Kgs . 3:5-
15).
King Nebuchadnezzar was given a dream concerning his
own kingdom and all the kingdoms to follow. It was
revealed that his kingdom was the greates t of the
kingdoms of man. He was greatly encouraged by this
dream (s ee Dan. 2:36-45).
W hen Jos eph learned that his wife Mary was pregnant,
he cons idered leaving her, but an angel came to him in a
dream and revealed that her pregnancy was a divine
miracle and that he was to fulfill his marriage
commitment. He was als o warned in a dream of Herod’s
plan to kill Jes us and he was told to flee to Egypt. The
accounts are recorded in Matthew chapters 1 & 2.
If you’re not having dreams right now, there are a
couple of things you can do that might help you receive
them. Many Arabs have dreams from God and in s ome
cas es , appearances from Jes us , becaus e they highly
value their dreams . God tends to s peak to us through
the things we value mos t. One key to receiving
revelation is having a healthy des ire for the things of
God. By “healthy des ire” I mean that it is primarily
motivated by a s trong longing to know Him better. Our
motives are extremely important. If we want to have
dreams jus t s o that we can impres s our friends with
them, we’re s eeking them for the wrong reas on. If we
des ire to s ee angels becaus e we feel like it will make us
more important in the eyes of our friends or family, we
are again as king from a wrong motive.
The is s ue that lies beneath wrong motives is us ually a
wounded s oul that feels inferior, unacceptable, or
unloved. The s olution is to have the wounds in your
s oul healed and to develop a better unders tanding of
how much God values you. W hen you truly unders tand
how much He loves you and what your real identity is in
Him, thos e s elf-s erving motives will be a thing of the
pas t.
To receive dreams from God, as k Him for dreams every
night. It als o helps to keep s ome kind of record of the
dreams you have. Your dream journal can be a notebook
with blank pages , a pile of blank note cards , a digital
voice recorder, or whatever works for you. I keep a
couple of pens , a s mall flas hlight, and a few 3 x 5 index
cards on my nights tand. I record my dreams on the
cards , then every few months , I trans fer them to a word
proces s ing document on my computer. I take my dreams
very s erious ly. Part of growing in s piritual maturity is
learning to be a good s teward of the revelation you
receive.
Dreams can come from three different s ources . Some
dreams come from God, s ome originate in our s oul, and
s ome come from the enemy. Dreams from God can be
received directly from the Holy Spirit, Jes us , or from
angels . Dreams from the enemy are us ually s ent by evil
s pirits of various kinds . Dreams that originate in our
s oul tend to be a way in which our mind proces s es our
activities and thoughts of that day.
I’m reluctant to give rules for dis cerning the origin of a
dream. Applying rules too rigidly can lead you to
dis mis s a dream from God as one that was from the
enemy. But it can be helpful to keep a couple of things
in mind when analyzing a dream:
Dreams from our s oul often have a dis jointed feeling to
them and the s cenes s eem to have a random quality with
very little continuity.
Dreams from the enemy often have dark colors in them
that are prominent. They tend to caus e us to feel fear,
s hame, condemnation, lus t, inadequacy, and other
negative emotions that are not cons is tent with the
nature of God.
Dreams from God tend to s peak to us about familiar
s ituations . They’re us ually ins tructive or encouraging,
though they can contain warnings , correction, direction
in a career, information about pers onal finances ,
information about s piritual gifting, information about
relations hips , and jus t about any other part of life.
Mos t people tend to have dreams that are highly
s ymbolic. For this reas on, it’s good to become familiar
with the s ymbolic imagery of dreams . The bes t s ource to
help decode the images you find in dreams is the Bible.
W hen you have a dream, write it down in as much detail
as you can. Mos t dreams —even ones that s eem terribly
complex—can be s ummarized in a few s entences .
Sometimes it is n’t pos s ible to write every detail. Don’t
worry if you mis s s ome of the minor details . I’ve had
many lengthy dreams with details too numerous to write
down in the middle of the night. In thos e cas es , I
generally try to capture the main elements of the dream.
The s etting of a dream and places that are mentioned
can be very important. I once had a dream where I
regis tered for a conference in Corpus Chris ti, Texas .
After looking for conferences in Corpus Chris ti for
s everal weeks , one day it dawned on me that Corpus
Christi is Latin for the body of Christ. It was then that I
realized the dream was s peaking of my minis try to the
followers of Chris t, and not about attending a literal
conference.
Make note of any numbers that appear in a dream, any
colors that are prominent, s poken mes s ages that s eem
s ignificant, and the names of people. Sometimes the
main mes s age of a dream can be determined by looking
up the meaning of the name of the main pers on who
appears in the dream. Sometimes the meaning of their
firs t name is the main mes s age God is trying to get
acros s . You might have a recurring dream where a friend
named Abigail appears . How comforting would it be if
you were to look up the meaning of her Hebrew name
and find that it means “the Father’s joy?”
If the pers on who appears or is mentioned in a dream is
known to you for a s pecific gift or talent, or is an expert
in a certain field, the mes s age may indicate that you
have a s imilar calling as them. During the months I
s pent writing this book there was a period of s everal
weeks where all of my dreams involved C. S. Lewis . In
thes e dreams , God was encouraging me to keep my
focus on writing. I’ve had dreams where other well-
known people were featured prominently or gave me
mes s ages . In thos e dreams , God illus trated that I have
s imilar calling or as s ignment to theirs .
The emotions we feel in a dream are a good indicator of
the s ource of the dream and its interpretation. Many
people have dreams where they’re attending the funeral
of a friend or relative. Often, they have a great s ens e of
peace in the dream, which they would not have if they
were actually attending the funeral. W hen we have a
s trong s ens e of peace in a dream, it’s an indicator of a
couple of things : Firs t, it s trongly s ugges ts that the
dream is from God and not the enemy or our s oul. Peace
is a fruit of the Spirit of God (s ee Gal 5:22). It’s one way
by which we can know that revelation had its origin in
God. Second, a s ens e of peace s ugges ts that the dream
is s ymbolic and not literal. If the dream portrayed a
literal death, we would not expect peace to be the
dominant emotion. Death can s peak of many other
things ; often it’s us ed s ymbolically to portray s piritual
trans formation. If the pers on whos e funeral you’re
attending is about to go through a proces s of s piritual
growth, it may be portrayed to you as you attending
their funeral. Symbolically, you’re witnes s ing the death
of their old life and the beginning of their new one.
Look up the biblical s ignificance of any numbers that
appear in a dream. They us ually hold clues to help you
decode the mes s age. Many times the numbers you s ee
in a dream will point you to a Bible vers e that God wants
to s peak to you through.
Unfortunately, there is n’t s pace in this book to give a
comprehens ive treatment of dreams and their
interpretation. I would, however, like to encourage you
to as k God to s peak to you through dreams and when
you receive them, know that they are love letters from
your heavenly Father.
Exercis e If you’re not having dreams from God, it may
help to develop a bedtime practice of as king Him for
dreams , expecting to receive them, and then journaling
the ones you receive. I have many friends who have
found that as they take their dream life more s erious ly,
they tend to have more dreams and more important
ones . As you’re getting ready to s leep, as k God for a
dream that reveals s omething He wants you to know.
W hen you have a dream, as s oon as you wake up, write
down as much of it as you can recall. Don’t wait—
becaus e the dream may be eas ily forgotten. Each night,
as k for a dream from God and write down every dream
you have. During the daytime hours , think about the
dreams you’ve had and as k God to help you interpret
them. I’ve found many times , as my wife and I dis cus s a
particular dream, He’ll give one of us the interpretation.
 Nature

It’s often been s aid that God s peaks to us powerfully,

yet gently through nature. Even s ome agnos tics will
admit that they feel mos t at peace and perhaps even
s ens e the pres ence of God when hiking alone in the
wildernes s . Mos t of the time, when people s ay God
s peaks to them through nature, they’re des cribing the
fact that they’ve felt unus ually ins pired by a s uns et or
noticed a prophetic s ymbol in the clouds . I’ve had thes e
experiences mys elf.

One morning right around daybreak, as I drove to work,

I noticed the unmis takable figure of a lion in the clouds .
He had a regal and majes tic appearance and s eeing him
in the clouds calmed my nerves , which had been frazzled
by things that were going on at work. That morning I
had a great s ens e of peace and comfort come over me as
I focus ed my thoughts on the lion of the tribe of Judah
who s eemed to be dutifully watching over my affairs .

A friend of mine s hared a s tory about the time s he was

led to s end me a gift of money, which was confirmed to
her in an unus ual way. Here is her explanation of how
God s poke to her:

I was having a chat with the Lord on my daily walk

 around the lake. We were chatting about giving and
tithing. I had s ome money put as ide to give earlier in
the month. I s aid to the Lord, “Do you want me to give
this money to the church or do you want me to give it
to s omeone els e?”
He s aid, “Put your money at the feet of the apos tles .”
Immediately your name popped into my head. I s aid to
the Lord, “Okay that is different than what I was
expecting, s o I would like you to give me
confirmation.” So an idea popped into my head and I
thought: if I s ee a deer walking acros s my path today I
know it is you, Lord.
I kept walking and when I turned the corner, there in
front of me was a s mall muntjac deer. He s tood in the
middle of the path and looked at me and then trotted
away. Now, you might not think that is an unus ual
thing in your part of the world, but I have lived here
for 14 years and have been at that lake thous ands of
times and I have never s een a deer there—ever! I’m
not s ure why the deer reques t popped into my head,
but the Lord obvious ly wanted you to have the
money. So be very bles s ed today.
I’d like to illus trate how God s peaks s pecific revelation to
us through nature by s haring an unus ual experience I had
s everal years ago. My friend who is the editor of the
webs ite Northwest Prophetic had been receiving a lot of
prophetic words about changes God had planned for the
Church that was repres ented in dreams and vis ions people
were having where they s aw a ts unami. He as ked me to
inquire of God and as k if He would give me the revelation I
would need to write a prophetic word on that s ubject. At
firs t, the idea s eemed a bit odd. I’d never cons idered
as king God for s pecific revelation that could be us ed to
write a prophetic word to the church. But I as ked God if He
had anything to s hare on the s ubject and a s hort time later
my reques t was granted in an unus ual way.

My kids and I s pent a lot of time in Long Beach,

Was hington when they were young. One day we s pent a
day at the beach when the moon was full and the forecas t
was for higher than normal s urf. We took our wet s uits and
boards expecting to have a blas t in the big waves . On the
three-hour drive there, we were filled with great
expectations of catching s ome great curls . What actually
happened when we arrived had the potential to be the
greates t tragedy of my life.

We pulled into the parking lot, got our things out of the
trunk of our car, and walked toward the beach. As we
approached, I noticed an enormous mound of s and about
s ix feet high running the entire length of the beach that
was n’t there on any of our previous trips . On top of the
mound of s and lay a dead s eal. The pounding s urf had
completely rearranged the lands cape. The friendly little
cove we’d always known had s uddenly changed.
After ins pecting the dead s eal, my gaze turned to the
enormous waves . Neither I nor my kids had ever s een 20-
foot waves in pers on before. We talked about whether we
wanted to go in the s urf and take a chance on being
injured. They opted to s tay on the beach where it was s afe.
My s ens e of adventure got the bes t of me, s o I pulled my
wet s uit on and paddled into the s urf. I s pent the next hour
in a s lightly terrified s tate of mind trying to read the waves
as they continually grew in s ize. It was all I could do to
hang onto my board and not get beaten to death by the
enormous waves .

I was able to catch a few of the s maller ones and ride them
for a while, but the water was freezing cold. Even with a
good wet s uit, I was beginning to s hiver. When a large
wave approached, I paddled in the direction it was going,
but the volume of water was s o great that when the curl
caught up with me, it drove me forcefully to the bottom.
The hydraulic action of the s urf held me under and no
amount of s wimming would bring me up. I had to wait like a
pair of pants in a was hing machine for the wave to pas s s o
I could come up for air. In one of the waves , I actually
thought for a few moments that I might be killed if I s tayed
out there. As I was under water, I felt like God as ked me if
the thrill I was having was worth the ris k to my life. That
was when I realized I’d had enough. Cold and weakened, I
managed to s wim as hore to s afety. As I s at on the beach
with my kids the res t of the afternoon, I pondered the
awes ome power of the s ea, knowing I would never s ee it
the s ame way again.

To the cas ual obs erver, there is n’t much in this encounter
that might be s een as divine revelation. But when God
s peaks to us through nature, it’s often in relation to our
circums tances at the time. The things we experience in
nature are often s imilar to the things that are on our mind. I
had been thinking a lot about prophecies concerning the
coming move of God that had often been repres ented by a
large wave, and here I was having an encounter with a
wave bigger than I had ever s een before. The firs t hint that
God wanted to get my attention and s peak to me about
s omething s pecific was the fact that I was pers onally
s eeing in nature, s omething people had been s eeing
prophetically for many years . I was n’t abs olutely certain,
but I had a hunch that God wanted to illus trate a few
things that day and have me take note of them.

The firs t impres s ion I had was that the wave—and my

relations hip to it—was not what I was expecting it to be. I
believed we would s ee s ome pretty big waves bas ed on the
fact that there was a full moon, which has a s tronger than
normal effect on the tides . I expected that larger waves
would mean better s urfing, but what it actually meant was
more dangerous s urfing, and not jus t dangerous , but
potentially deadly s urfing.

It was time for me to draw s ome comparis ons . In my mind, I

know that people have been looking forward to the
changes God has planned for the church. This is becaus e
they s ee a need for wide and s weeping changes . But few
have cons idered the full impact thes e changes might have.
Churches that have built platforms honoring men ins tead
of God may be left in ruins in the coming wave. Spiritually
dead churches may likewis e be clos ed for good. When
people think of the changes God will bring to the church,
they don’t generally think in terms of the negative impacts
it may have on people’s lives , but if the coming wave
illus trates the removal of s ome churches , there will be
hards hip for many. I wrote many more details in the
prophetic word that are not included here. The point is not
the prophetic word its elf, but how God can s peak to us
through nature.
 Circumstances

Many people have recognized God s peaking to them

through the circums tances of their lives . Sometimes
thos e circums tances are pos itive. God arranges
meetings and gives us favor with certain people that
benefit us and them. In the two volumes of My Craziest
Adventures with God, I s hare dozens of s tories where
God arranged for me to have encounters with s trangers
for His divine purpos es . But s ome of the circums tances
we go through are difficult. In this chapter, I’m going to
s hare with you the mos t difficult times I’ve ever
experienced, s o that when you go through your own
times of trial, you’ll know how God can s peak to you
through them.
A few months after meeting Jes us , while s itting bes ide
my wood-burning s tove late at night, I had a difficult
convers ation with God. Through a thought impres s ion
that popped into my mind, He as ked me how much I
loved Him.
“I love you more than anything or anyone,” I s aid.
Through another thought impres s ion, I heard His reply.
“W hat would you be willing to give up for me?”
“Everything,” I replied.
“Really?” He as ked.
Becaus e I was feeling bold about my love for Him I s aid,
“You can take my wife, take my kids , take my job, and
take this hous e. You can take it all away. Jus t don’t ever
leave me.” In hinds ight, the s cene was eerily
reminis cent of the convers ation Jes us had with Peter
before Peter denied him three times .
Not long after our fires ide chat, a complaint was filed
agains t me by one of my chiefs . The complaint res ulted
in a protracted s tate inves tigation into s everal
trans ports that I went on. The inves tigation led my
department to place me on adminis trative leave without
pay, which was a violation of the collective bargaining
contract. The violation led to a grievance between the
union and the adminis tration that would drag on for
over a year, res ult in numerous hearings , and cos t the
union and the department thous ands of dollars in legal
fees .
I had never been unemployed before. And the odd thing
was that technically, I s till had a job. I jus t didn’t have a
paycheck or benefits for 16 months . The department
didn’t want to pay me, but neither did they want me to
collect unemployment so they dis puted my
unemployment claim. Becaus e I was undergoing a s tate
inves tigation, no other fire department or ambulance
s ervice in the s tate would cons ider hiring me. All of this
caus ed me to wonder what God was up to. But I felt as
though He was trying in His own way to teach me
s omething about Him and about me that I needed to
know. I had only been a believer for a few months and I
had much to learn.
I had always been a s elf-s ufficient man. I hated the idea
of relying on s omeone els e for financial s upport. I was a
little proud of the fact that I had never been
unemployed and never needed to rely on the
government or anyone els e for my financial provis ion.
But through this particular circums tance of being able
to neither earn a paycheck nor collect unemployment,
He revealed that He is Jehovah Jireh, which means …
“the Lord who is my provider” and I learned that I mus t
never again believe that I was the one res pons ible for
my own paycheck.
I was cleared of any wrongdoing during the
inves tigation, but the s tate had a policy of placing
anyone who was inves tigated on a three-year probation.
Eventually, I was fired from my job, but not before a
s econd complaint was filed and another inves tigation
ens ued. Once again, I was cleared of any wrongdoing
and placed on probation for another three years .
My wife at the time felt as though I mus t be guilty of
the charges agains t me. She couldn’t believe my
employer would accus e me of wrongdoing without good
caus e. She ended up taking the s ide of thos e who had
accus ed me, and that caus ed her to mis trus t me. Her
mis trus t of me des troyed my ability to trus t her. It
was n’t long before I found a s ympathetic female
coworker who was willing to take my s ide. We had an
affair and eventually my wife began to s us pect
s omething was going on. One day, when we were
picking up our kids after s chool, we got into a loud
exchange in the parking lot which drew a crowd of
onlookers . Someone in the crowd called the police and I
was arres ted.
After I was arres ted, my wife s ought legal couns el and
as ked for s eparation. We were eventually divorced. The
divorce was probably the mos t tragic event of my life.
We had been together for more than 20 years . I can only
imagine that like me, my ex-wife mus t have gone through
an emotional fires torm during the proceedings . She was
granted permis s ion by a judge to move 2,000 miles away
with our twins who were 13 years old. I had always been
very clos e to my kids , but the affair and divorce caus ed
my daughter to hate me. She refus ed to return my phone
calls . The thought of her not wanting to s peak to me
broke my heart.
Divorce is hard on everyone involved. In addition to
caus ing emotional hards hip, in mos t cas es , it’s a
financially devas tating proces s that takes years to
recover from. Becaus e I was forced to move out and pay
rent for another hous e, in addition to the mortgage for
the hous e we owned, we nearly los t our home to
foreclos ure. We avoided that, but had to s ell it for a lot
les s than it was worth. We los t our truck and what little
money we managed to earn went to legal fees .
Los ing things that took years of hard work to acquire
was very difficult, but the los s of my kids was by far the
hardes t part of the divorce. My marriage had been going
downhill for years . There was very little love left
between us . But I loved the twins dearly. Being away
from them was one of the mos t painful things I’ve ever
experienced. Fortunately, my s on was willing to keep in
touch with me. He was my lifeline during a time of great
difficulty. I didn’t know when I would s ee the kids again
and I wondered if I had permanently des troyed my
relations hip with my daughter. I was n’t certain s he
would ever forgive me. Some days I wondered if I would
ever s ee her again.
During thes e times , I reflected on my fires ide
convers ation with God. Even though I s aid He could
take thes e things from me, I had a s ens e that He was not
the one doing it. I had read the book of Job and I knew
that it was Satan who afflicted him and tried to ruin his
life. I had als o read where Jes us s aid He came to give us
an abundant life, but the thief came to s teal, kill, and
des troy. At the end of Job’s trials , God res tored and
multiplied what the enemy had taken from him. This
knowledge gave me hope that one day, everything
would be made right again.
Eight months after the twins left, they returned. My
daughter and I had a long talk about what had
happened. She forgave me and today our relations hip is
better than it was before the divorce. Not long after the
kids returned, I married a wonderful woman who has
made my life a joy every day s ince then. That year we
moved into a beautiful home. The job I took after
leaving the fire department was the bes t one I ever had.
In s hort order, God res tored everything I had los t.
W hat the enemy intended for evil, God intended for
good. He s poke to me often through thes e
circums tances . He taught me about His faithfulnes s ; I
never once s ens ed that He had abandoned me. He
taught me about His wis dom; no one could have
imagined how all this devas tation would be redeemed.
He taught me about His ability to provide for all my
needs when my own ability to provide was removed. He
taught me many other things , mos t of which revealed
that He is more caring and compas s ionate than I ever
imagined. The truth is —the difficulties that I faced
happened to develop character in me that probably
couldn’t have been developed any other way. Even
though the circums tances I faced were not the direct
res ult of God’s actions , the circums tances provided an
opportunity for God to teach me becaus e I was willing
to learn. So if you’re facing difficult events that s eem to
have no purpos e, remember that every hards hip we
encounter, every s truggle we endure, and every victory
we experience has the potential to remove from us the
things we don’t need and develop in us the things we
do.
 Art

In this chapter, I’ll dis cus s the ways in which God

s peaks to us through art. I’m married to an artis t and
only recently began s eeing how God s peaks through her
art. If you’ve s eldom thought about this , I hope this
chapter helps you to s ee that He is s peaking to us in
ways we s ometimes fail to cons ider.
At the opening of Genes is we s ee God working as the
Creator of the univers e. Not only do we s ee Him create
things that s erve a purpos e, but we als o s ee Him
creating things s imply becaus e they’re “pleas ing to the
eye.” Beauty is the s ole reas on for s ome of His creation,
and becaus e we are created in His image, we too have
the ability and des ire to appreciate and create things
s imply for the aes thetic beauty they provide. This is a
key to unders tanding how God s peaks through art. If
imagination, creativity, and beauty are important to God,
they might als o be important to us .
Creativity and the arts are central to God’s ins tructions
in Genes is 2:15 to “cultivate the earth.” This directive
gives us authority not s imply to cultivate a garden, but
to s hape and trans form (to cultivate) our culture. We’re
res pons ible for influencing the culture around us , which
includes art, mus ic, literature, and other creative
endeavors , that through them we might reflect God’s
glory. One of the things we do as ambas s adors of God’s
kingdom is reflect His eternal character and beauty
through art.
Art has many different purpos es and it might be helpful
to firs t unders tand what they are. We’re going to take a
s hort les s on in art appreciation from C. S. Lewis . This
s ection contains a number of obs ervations from him
which were taken from a book he wrote titled, An
Experiment in Criticism (Cambridge Univers ity Pres s ,
1965).
Lewis believed one of the purpos es for art is that we
have a need for a view of life that trans cends our own
limited view. W hen we behold art, in a s ens e, we are
given an opportunity to view life from the viewpoint of
others . W hen as ked why people read literature, this was
his reply:
The neares t I have yet got to an ans wer is that we
s eek an enlargement of our being. We want to be
more than ours elves . Each of us by nature s ees the
whole world from one point of view with a
pers pective and a s electivenes s peculiar to
hims elf… We want to s ee with other eyes , to
imagine with other imaginations , to feel with other
hearts , as well as with our own… We therefore
delight to enter into other men’s beliefs , even
though we think them untrue. And into their
 pas s ions , though we think them depraved…
Literature enlarges our being by admitting us to
experiences not our own… My own eyes are not
enough for me, I will s ee through thos e of others … I
will s ee what others have invented… In reading
great literature I become a thous and men and yet
remain mys elf… I s ee with a thous and eyes , but it is
s till I who s ee. Here, as in wors hip, in love, in moral
action, and in knowing, I trans cend mys elf; and am
never more mys elf than when I do.
Getting down to the s pecific purpos e for art Lewis
writes :
The firs t demand any work of any art makes upon
us is s urrender. Look. Lis ten. Receive. Get yours elf
out of the way (there is no good as king firs t
whether the work before you des erves s uch a
s urrender, for until you have s urrendered you
cannot pos s ibly find out).
He notes there are two ways in which we can view a
work of art. One way is to view it without any
expectation at all, except that it has s omething unique to
impart to us . “We s it down before [a work of art] in
order to have s omething done to us , not that we may do
things with it.” The bes t way to approach art and
literature is to “receive” them. He writes , “W hen we
‘receive’ it we exert our s ens es and imagination and
various other powers according to a pattern invented by
the artis t.” Lewis believed there is an inherent mes s age
in every work of art and that we mus t s imply allow it to
be revealed to us .
The other approach is to view art in order to fill a
particular need or to confirm s omething that already
exis ts in our mind. Lewis s ays individuals who view it
this way “us e” art. He writes , “W hen we ‘us e’ it, we
treat it as as s is tance for our own activities .”
For centuries —and particularly during the Renais s ance
—the church was the greates t patron of the arts . Artis ts
and their art informed the world about the realities of
God. During the Protes tant reformation, one s egment of
the church began to take a dim view of art, believing it
to be s ens ual and that it had become an object of
wors hip. The reformers turned their backs on art and
many in the Protes tant church have had little us e for it
s ince. Thos e who embrace art today do s o largely
becaus e they s ee its us e as a medium for a mes s age.
Rather than enjoying or appreciating art for its aes thetic
beauty, we us e it like we us e blankets and water pitchers
—to s erve functions that we deem important. Chris tian
thinking about art has s uffered from pragmatis m. For
many Chris tians , art only has value to the degree that it
conveys a religious mes s age. We’ve turned it into little
more than a billboard for a religious worldview. Lewis
takes exception to this view of art:
To us e art merely to promote a practical or didactic
 purpos e, even a Chris tian one, would s trip the work
of art of any aes thetic qualities it may pos s es s and
offer, and reduce it, pos s ibly, to a boring anes thetic.
Rather, then, our firs t res pons e to art was to
unders tand it in the s ens e of s tanding under it, enjoy
it, receive from it, and experience the experience,
know the s tory, s ee the colors , tas te the realities , and
enjoy the pleas ures it offered.
Lewis believed that art was n’t meant to promote
ideological agendas . Putting a religious mes s age above
aes thetic quality leads to art that is not aes thetically
pleas ing, but boring and trite—defeating one of the
main purpos es for art. Rather than being glaringly
obvious , He believed the mes s age God intends to impart
through a work of art “bubbles up” in s ubtle ways that
we often fail to recognize cons cious ly.
Art that carries an overtly religious mes s age can s uffer
the s ame problems we might s ee in commercial or
advertis ing art. W hen an artis t focus es on rendering the
right s logan or icon to convey a particular mes s age,
their attention is not primarily on the elements that
make for mas terful art. Commercial art is s eldom found in
mus eums and galleries —although there are s ome
exceptions . Art that ins pires and is aes thetically
pleas ing is created us ing criteria that have les s to do
with the mes s age its elf, and more to do with the way in
which the work of art is brought together. Allow me to
illus trate:
There are rules a writer mus t follow if they hope to
create an es s ay that brings pleas ure to a reader. Proper
us e of grammar, s pelling, rhyme, meter, and punctuation
are es s ential if a writer hopes to convey a meaningful
mes s age. W hile a certain mes s age may be found in a
s eries of words —it is the organization of the words that
caus es the des ired effect upon the s oul. In the s ame
way, there are concepts that when us ed properly, create
an aes thetically pleas ing work of art. Skilled artis ts
don’t create a mas terful painting haphazardly. They
apply their knowledge of color theory, compos ition, the
us e of s hadow, highlight, texture, and they employ
different brus h techniques to create a painting that
captures the imagination of a viewer. Art that is
aes thetically pleas ing can s peak to anyone—regardles s
of their religious view—and God may us e s uch art as a
means to deliver His own mes s age.
Art that is created to convey an overtly Chris tian
mes s age is often of low quality. This is why s uch art is
not highly prized by art collectors and mus eums . If
you’re a Chris tian and you believe the s ecular world
rejects Chris tian art becaus e of its religious motifs ,
cons ider that many of the works of the great mas ters of
the Renais s ance depicted biblical s cenes . This art is
highly prized for its quality in s pite of its biblical
imagery. The s ecular world will accept Chris tian art if it
is on par with art being produced by mas ter artis ts .
Chris tian films have a s imilar reputation for being of
poor quality. Screenplays are often poorly written,
acting is often s ub-par, and technical production tends
to be weak. Poor quality trans lates to poor acceptance
among s ociety. Non-Chris tians s eldom pay money to s ee
films that are overtly Chris tian in nature and when they
do, their reviews are us ually negative.
Chris tian books are not immune to thes e problems . Very
few Chris tian books are of high enough quality that
they can be cons idered true literature. A notable
exception is a pair of books written by Lewis that were
des cribed by one of the mos t res pected s cience fiction
writers of all time—Arthur C. Clarke: “Les s s ympathetic
to our aims was Dr. C. S. Lewis , author of two of the
very few works of s pace fiction that can be clas s ed as
literature—Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra.”
Although Lewis dis agreed with the ideas put forth by
Clarke and other s cience fiction writers of the day, his
work was highly regarded by his contemporaries . Clarke
noted that Lewis ’ books were among the few that could
truly be called literature. This remark was made becaus e
Clarke recognized their exceptional quality. Lewis
believed Chris tians mus t firs t be good at the technical
as pects of what they do. Rather than create poor quality
art that was s aturated with religion, Lewis believed the
bes t s trategy was to create excellent quality art and
literature that contained s ubtle mes s ages . To that end,
He wrote The Chronicles of Narnia.
Until J. K. Rowling penned the Harry Potter s eries ,
Lewis ’s Narnia books were the bes t-s elling children’s
fantas y books of all time. Their popularity was due to
the fact that Lewis was an exceptionally s killed writer.
Rather than us ing an overtly Chris tian mes s age, The
Chronicles of Narnia tell a tale of redemption clothed in
clas s ic fictional fantas y. Lewis believed art and
literature have the potential to reach the far reces s es of
the human imagination in ways a Sunday s ermon
cannot. He illus trated this idea in his article, “Sometimes
Fairy Stories May Say Bes t W hat’s to Be Said:”
W hy did one find it s o hard to feel as one was told
one ought to feel about God or about the s ufferings
of Chris t? I thought the chief reas on was that one
was told one ought to. An obligation to feel can
freeze feeling. But s uppos e by cas ting all thes e
things into an imaginary world, s tripping them of
their s tained-glas s and Sunday School as s ociations ,
one could make them for the firs t time appear in
their real potency. Could one not thus s teal pas t
thos e watchful dragons ? I thought one could.
Lewis believed a generation of readers could be taught
the realities of God’s kingdom if he firs t wrote children’s
s tories the way they ought to be written. As with the
parables Jes us told, the realities of the kingdom would
be hidden, except to thos e who had “eyes to s ee” them.
Although many did not realize it at the time, as they
read the Narnia books , they were being taught about
God’s plan of redemption.
Being a writer, I gravitate toward gifted writers . I draw
ins piration from them, pick up tips and learn from their
examples . We all need role models and over the years ,
Lewis has become the main pers on by whom I gauge my
own writing. W hile writing, I often wonder to mys elf,
how would Lewis have addres s ed this is s ue? How
would he build this argument? W hich words might he
choos e to convey this idea?
I never had a chance to meet Lewis . He died in 1963.
One day, I s pent s everal hours wondering about him and
reflecting on how his life has impacted mine. Time its elf
s eemed to s tand s till that afternoon, and then I went to
s leep. That night I had a dream where Lewis paid me a
vis it. The purpos e of our meeting was s o that he might
teach me a few things about writing. I didn’t s ee him in
the way you might typically s ee s omeone in a dream.
It’s not as though we were s itting at a table talking. I
s imply “knew” I was in his pres ence, the way you know
certain facts in a dream. I didn’t hear him s peak the way
you might hear s omeone s peak in a dream. He s poke to
me s pirit-to-s pirit through the trans mis s ion of thoughts .
In the dream, I was being tutored by the s pirit of one of
my favorite men and what he had to s ay s urpris ed me.
He didn’t teach me about drawing clos er to God or
about being a better Chris tian. If what I needed was
another s ermon he could have given me one. Ins tead, he
told me about how the proper s election of words was
critical to being a s ucces s ful writer and illus trated his
point with s everal s tories about the problems he ran
into by not choos ing the right words . He noted that our
choice of words creates either a favorable or an
unfavorable experience in the mind of a reader and that
the s election of one word or another can make a huge
difference in how our writing is perceived. He gave
s everal examples of how the choice of this word or that
one created a completely different s et of circums tances
and told me to choos e my words with care. That is a
brief s ummary of the dream.
True to his convictions while he was walking the earth,
Lewis imparted to me s omething he believed at the core
of his s oul: The world does n’t need more Chris tians who
write about Chris tianity in a mediocre way. W hat the
world needs is more s killed writers who write well about
all the is s ues of life, and who happen to be Chris tians .
Art, mus ic, and literature that is of the highes t quality
has a chance to be s een by the larges t audience. The
s ucces s of Lewis ’ books is evidence of that. Paintings ,
literature, and mus ic that are of high quality—even
though their mes s age is s ubtle—can touch people in a
powerful way.
I once heard a tes timony about how a painting changed
s omeone’s life forever. It’s the s tory of an agnos tic
woman who vis ited a s ecular art gallery. The woman
viewed one painting after another then found hers elf
drawn to one painting in particular. She s tood in front of
it for a long time—her mouth hanging open in s hock as
tears flowed down her cheeks . A friend noticed and
as ked what was wrong with her. She replied that s he had
never s een anything s o beautiful as the painting that
hung in front of her. “I never believed in God,” s he
confes s ed. “But I now know that God mus t exis t. For
only the mind of an incredibly talented and brilliant God
could ins pire s omeone to create a painting s uch as
this .” Without anything that overtly s poke of
Chris tianity, one woman’s agnos ticis m was turned to
belief in God.
My wife is trained as an oil painter in the s tyle of the
old mas ters . She has als o worked in the field of
advertis ing and commercial art. Being an artis t is part of
her divine calling. As I’m writing this chapter s he’s
taking clas s es to s harpen her s kills in drawing and
painting. She’s got a lot of talent already, but s he feels
compelled to move up to a new level. Her aim is to
continually improve her s kills to create paintings that
are every bit as good from a technical s tandpoint, as
thos e that hang in galleries and mus eums .
She’s learning the les s on that Lewis preached. In fact,
s he was the firs t pers on to s how me what that les s on
looks like in practice. My wife us ed to wonder how God
would s peak to others through her art if s he didn’t want
to paint the s tandard motifs of Chris tianity—wooden
cros s es , lions , lambs , or Jes us . But God is s howing her
that it is perfectly alright to paint lands capes , portraits ,
and abs tract forms . In s ome of her paintings (if you can
receive what is there) you’ll find s ubtle s ugges tions of
the cros s , hints of the heavens , or titles that s ubtly
s peak of God. The average pers on may not s ee any of it,
but thos e who have eyes to s ee will notice thes e things ,
even if only s ubcons cious ly, and they will be drawn to
God through them. She’s learning that it’s not up to her
to devis e a clever or emotionally appealing mes s age. It
is God who is able to reach virtually anyone at any time
with a mes s age jus t for them. Jes us s aid no one comes
to Him unles s they are drawn by the Father. How God
s peaks to each pers on through a work of art is
dependent on His knowledge of when and how they can
bes t be drawn into that relations hip.

As Lewis s aid, perhaps we could s trip the art of its

“s tained-glas s and Sunday School as s ociations .” I
wonder what impact our art would have on the world if
we would become highly proficient in our artis tic s kills
and let God elevate His mes s age from the work we
produce.
 Film

One of the mos t popular films of all time is the s cience

fiction clas s ic The Matrix. This film is not overtly
Chris tian, yet many people—believers and non-
believers alike—have found illus trations buried in it
that s peak of God and His kingdom. The Matrix depicts
a dark future-world where reality, as it is perceived by
mos t humans , is a s imulated world known as “the
Matrix.”
The Matrix is a cyber-world created by intelligent
machines who s ubdue humans s o they can harnes s their
body heat and electrical energy to us e them as a power
s ource. Laurence Fis hburne plays Morpheus , a prophet
who is alerted to the advent of a s avior whos e des tiny
is to free the world from the bondage of the Matrix.
Keanu Reeves plays Neo, a computer programmer who
learns the truth about the Matrix and is drawn into a
bizarre s eries of events which bring about the defeat of
the film’s cyber-villains .
Morpheus and Neo are cas t in roles s o reminis cent of
John the Baptis t and Jes us that when I firs t s aw the
film, (before I was a Chris tian) I immediately recognized
the connection between them and their biblical
counterparts . The way in which the battle between good
and evil is portrayed in the film began to s often my
naturalis tic way of thinking. I wonder to this day how
much influence the film had on me on a s ubcons cious
level, as a little more than a year after s eeing the film, I
became a Chris tian.
The Matrix was well-received by critics , winning four
Academy Awards . It received high prais e for its
innovative vis ual effects and cinematography. Like The
Chronicles of Narnia, The Matrix was a big s ucces s
becaus e it was well-executed. It did exactly what films
are s uppos ed to do. And it moved viewers to cons ider
biblical realities becaus e it had hidden s piritual themes
they couldn’t help but notice. W hile The Matrix does n’t
have a mes s age as tangibly s piritual as films like
Heaven is for Real, or The Passion of the Christ,
becaus e of its broad appeal, it has the potential to
impact more people than any Chris tian film ever made.
Early in 2015, I took a job working as a paramedic in
Phoenix, Arizona. Shortly after I was hired, I had a
dream where I was given a pas s by my employer that
granted me free acces s to movie theaters . All I had to do
was s how the pas s at the door and I’d be allowed into a
theater without paying. The pas s was a benefit of
working for my new employer. In the dream, my
coworkers and I were being taught how to us e this
benefit without abus ing it.
Around the s ame time I had the dream, my EMT partner
and I were having a s low s hift and we were hanging out
with another crew at a s hopping mall. One of the EMTs
got the bright idea to go into the theater and as k if we
could watch a movie on duty. He returned and told us
we could go in for free. American Sniper happened to
be playing, s o we went ins ide and took a s eat.
Although the film is filled with profanity, killing, and
other things which Chris tians might find objectionable,
as I watched the film, God brought to mind one dream
after another He had given me over the previous eight
years . The dreams all depicted military themes . Many of
them were dreams I had never fully unders tood. Over
the next month, the Holy Spirit connected s cenes from
the film to the dreams He had given me and I began
s eeing s piritual principles emerge. He taught me that
there are a lot of parallels between the military actions
of Navy SEALS and the kind of warfare believers wage
agains t the kingdom of darknes s . This is another cas e of
a well-made film that lacked an overtly religious
mes s age, but which nonetheles s taught me about the
s piritual realities of the kingdom.

The Chris tian film indus try has many zealous men and
women who are eager to s pread the gos pel, but who lack
the kind of s kill, budgets , and imagination neces s ary to
produce high-quality films . Ins tead, they often end up
producing celluloid s ermons that only appeal to thos e
who are already Chris tians . The res ult of their efforts is
that the church ends up evangelizing its elf. Before a
movie can teach the world anything about God, it mus t
firs t be what films are meant to be: well-written and well-
acted s tories that enlighten, engage, reveal beauty,
entertain, and capture our imaginations . W hen film
makers fail to do this , the res ult is Chris tian art that
puts the world to s leep. But if they make films the way
they are intended to be made, s ociety can be
trans formed by them.
 Music

The celebrated French author Victor Hugo once s aid,

“Mus ic expres s es that which cannot be put into words
and that which cannot remain s ilent.”
God frequently s peaks to me through mus ic. I’ve often
been touched by the lyrics of a s ong as they s poke
almos t prophetically, to s ome pres s ing is s ue I had been
dealing with. After I met my s econd wife, we went
through a clas s together where one of the goals was to
uncover a lie we had believed mos t of our life. My wife’s
lie happened to be “You don’t love me.” She had for
s ome reas on, always s een hers elf as unlovable.
Although many people s aid they loved her, deep down
ins ide, s he never felt as if they were being hones t. She
truly believed no one could really love her. I can only
imagine how hard it mus t have been living with s uch a
lie her entire life. She happened to marry me and it’s
been my greates t pleas ure each day to do two or three
things to prove to her that it really was a lie and that
s he truly is lovable. We both enjoy many types of
mus ic. And we’ve both developed a love for s ome of the
mus ic from our parent’s generation. Frank Sinatra is a
particular favorite. My wife us ed to be a vocalis t and
s he s till loves to s ing. There are s everal s ongs
performed by Sinatra that when we hear them, touch us
deeply. Sometimes we s ing along together to “The Way
You Look Tonight” and God us es it to reaffirm to her
that s he is lovely to me.
The lie that I believed was “You don’t unders tand me.”
Since I was a child, I’ve never felt that anyone has truly
unders tood me. I s pent time and energy trying to make
mys elf unders tood to my friends and family but no
matter how I tried, the real me was never s omething
anyone could gras p. Introverts prefer to keep to
thems elves , but I’m an extrovert by nature. So my life’s
ambition has been to s hare the deepes t parts of my s oul
with anyone who might try to unders tand me. Perhaps
that’s one reas on I’m drawn to writing. It provides an
outlet for my need to be unders tood. For years ,
whenever I heard the s ong “Don’t Let Me Be
Mis unders tood” a popular tune from the 1960s , I felt as
if God was us ing the s ong to s peak to me about my
private pain. Fortunately, my wife finds me quite eas y to
unders tand. To her—there is little mys tery about me.
W hat amazes me mos t is that in the s ame way God loves
me jus t as I am, after s he came to unders tand me, s he
was s till able to love me, unconditionally.
I have a friend named Todd Adams , who is a
percus s ionis t. He’s been hearing God s peak through
mus ic for decades . Todd is part of a wors hip band but
the kind of mus ic the band plays is like nothing I’ve
ever heard. They don’t play hymns or even what can be
referred to as “s ongs ” with lyrics . Elizabeth Cooper is
the band’s leader. She plays keyboard and guitar. Her
hus band Daniel plays drums . Todd plays everything
from wind chimes and flute to djembe and occas ionally
employs an aboriginal form of throat s inging that’s
impos s ible to des cribe. I had an opportunity to s pend a
weekend with the band at a s peaking engagement I did
for a group of friends . Todd’s goal with his percus s ion
is to hear the s ounds that are coming from heaven and
play them to the bes t of his ability. The rhythms he
hears are s eldom the s ame and they’re s ubject to
change at any time. Sometimes what he hears can only
be des cribed as the heartbeat of God. He s ens es the
beat and plays it on his drum. He s ens es other s ounds
in the heavens and adds them as they are heard. The
s ounds he hears coming from heaven are very divers e,
which is why he s its in a cage lined with a vas t array of
odd ins truments that he’s collected over the years . Each
ins trument emits a s ound s imilar to one he hears coming
from heaven.
Elizabeth als o lis tens for the s ounds s he hears coming
from heaven. W hatever melodies and rhythms s he hears
—s he plays . She als o hears the voice of the Holy Spirit
and s ings whatever s he hears Him s peaking. The
mes s ages s he s ings can be about almos t anything. For
this reas on, there are no lyrics to help the audience s ing
along. But thos e who are able to s ens e the s ame s ounds
in the s pirit often join in.
The weekend I was with the band, there happened to be
many people in the audience who s uffered from
conditions s uch as dis s ociative identity dis order and bi-
polar dis order. During the firs t s es s ion, the percus s ion
s eemed to create an atmos phere that attracted angels
and I s ens ed an increas ing angelic pres ence in the room
throughout the evening. Elizabeth began making
declarations about freedom from emotional bondage and
about things from the pas t that were holding people
back. I watched as about half the audience went to the
floor and over the next 90 minutes , the Holy Spirit took
many of my friends through a proces s of emotional
healing.
Todd drives a public trans it bus for thos e with phys ical
handicaps . As a way to help fund his mis s ion trips , he
recorded a couple of CDs . One day he played a track
from one of his CDs on his bus route and as ked one of
the riders to lis ten to it. Todd had originally compos ed it
as a s ong of mourning for the death of a dear friend.
The bus rider loved the mus ic s o much he bought the
CD. Months later, he confes s ed that the medications he
was taking didn’t relieve his chronic pain but when he
played the track, it s omehow eas ed his pain. Todd’s
mus ic became part of his regimen for pain management.
Here is another way in which God s peaks through
mus ic:
Millions of people over the las t few centuries have
heard of Johann Sebas tian Bach. Yet in his day, Bach
was virtually unknown outs ide of the German towns
where he quietly lived and worked. Bach never s ought
fame or fortune. He was employed for mos t of his career
by s mall churches and lived in relative obs curity. Bach
s aid, “Mus ic’s only purpos e s hould be the glory of God
and the recreation of the human s pirit.” Mus ic,
according to Bach, was given to glorify God and to
edify us . You would have to look hard to find anyone
who gave more joy to the world than Bach. More than
250 years after his death, Bach’s mus ic s till lifts the
heart and energizes the s oul.
Bach’s influence on cultures around the world has been
impres s ive, particularly in Japan where les s than one
percent of the population are Chris tians . The beauty of
Bach’s mus ic and gos pel-centered lyrics have created a
s piritual awakening where Japanes e citizens are
exploring the pers on of Jes us . Chris tianity has never
been widely embraced by the people of Japan. In the
18th century, European traders and mis s ionaries came to
the is land and had mixed s ucces s ; commerce did well,
but the gos pel was largely rejected. But Japan embraced
the mus ic of Wes tern culture and in particular—the
mus ic of Bach. His popularity is s o great today that
clas s es at the Felix Mendols s ohn Academy in Bach’s
hometown of Leipzig, Germany are filled with Japanes e
s tudents . Thes e s tudents are learning about more than
jus t Bach’s mus ic. They’re learning about the Spirit of
God that moved him to write.
A Japanes e Chris tian conductor named Mas aaki Suzuki
s aid:
Bach works as a mis s ionary among our people.
After each concert, people crowd the podium
wis hing to talk to me about topics that are normally
taboo in our s ociety—death, for example. Then
they inevitably as k me what ‘hope’ means to
Chris tians . I believe that Bach has already
converted tens of thous ands of Japanes e to the
Chris tian faith. A Japanes e mus icologis t named
Keis uke traveled all the way to Bach’s home
church in Germany to s tudy the biblical bas is for
Bach’s cantatas . He ended up s eeking out a pas tor
and as king, ‘It is not enough to read Chris tian
texts . I want to be a Chris tian mys elf. Pleas e
baptize me.’ Another Japanes e mus ician, a female
organis t and former Buddhis t named Yoko, s aid,
‘Bach introduced me to God, Jes us , and
Chris tianity. W hen I play a fugue, I can hear Bach
talking to God.’
Note:
Todd Adams ' mus ic can be found here.

Elis abeth Cooper’s mus ic can be found here.

 Emotions

In my work, I frequently trans port people who are

addicted to drugs and alcohol. Many of thes e people
are homeles s . I’d like to s ay that I have a heart full of
compas s ion and love for them. But if I s aid that, I would
be lying. To be hones t, I don’t have a lot of natural
affection for thes e people. I’ve been on the receiving
end of my s hare of violence and abus e from s ome of my
former patients who were s truggling with addiction. Yet
God in His wis dom gave me a calling to minis ter healing
to thes e folks . One of the mos t frequent ways He
communicates to me about an addicted pers on He wants
me to pray with is through my emotions .
I’ve s at in the back of the ambulance a thous and times
writing my report as I trans ported an intoxicated,
verbally abus ive pers on to the hos pital. I generally try
to remain as uninvolved with them as I can. The more
detached I remain, the les s likelihood there is of an
altercation. But I’ve been s urpris ed at how often I’ve
felt a deep ache in my s oul over the condition of one of
thes e people. There I am, minding my own bus ines s ,
writing my report, when a wave of broken-heartednes s
comes over me. At firs t I didn’t unders tand what was
happening when I felt thes e emotions . I’m s ure I
s hrugged them off a number of times and didn’t res pond
the way I s hould have. But gradually, I began s eeing a
pattern in thes e emotions and one day, when I was
feeling the deep broken-heartednes s over a drunk I’d
jus t met, I as ked if I could pray for him. He s miled and
s aid, “I’d love that.”
One of the mos t reliable ways of knowing you’re
s ens ing s omething from God is knowing it didn’t come
from you. I s us pect the problem s ome of us have is that
we aren’t s ure which emotions are ours , and which are
external to us . We’ve been trained to think that every
emotion we feel is one of our own emotions . But
emotions are tricky things . Demons can make us feel
certain emotions , and s o can angels . And God often
conveys to us His emotions when He wants to
communicate s omething to us . Even though thes e
emotion s seem to be ours —becaus e they feel the s ame
as the res t of our emotions —there are s ubtle clues that
point to an external origin for s ome of them.
I think we probably give ours elves more credit for
having compas s ion and love for others than we rightly
des erve. It’s feels good to give ours elves a pat on the
back when we s how unus ual kindnes s to a s tranger. It’s
human nature to think we’re the one res pons ible for
“paying it forward” or helping s omeone. But I s us pect
that in many cas es , what’s happening is that God is
communicating the way He feels toward that s tranger
through our emotions . After we s ens e His heart for
them, we’re moved to do the right thing—s omething
other than what we would normally do. We take the
credit for our good deed, but in many cas es , God was
behind it all. Mos t of us feel God’s emotions for the
people around us more often than we realize, but we’re
s imply not aware of where the emotions are coming
from.
Unles s you know yours elf well, it can be difficult to
determine which emotions are “yours ” and which are
“not yours .” I’ve had many convers ations with people
who s uddenly realized the unus ual feelings of
depres s ion and hopeles s nes s they experienced were not
coming from them. They were coming from God and they
were intended to make them aware that a friend was
s truggling with depres s ion and God wanted them to
pray for their friend.
In the s ame way that God can give us a s udden
s ens ation of pain in our knee as a word of knowledge
for the knee pain of s omeone els e, which He wants to
heal, He can give us emotions that are not ours . They’re
from Him and they’re intended to let us know that
s omeone near us is feeling thos e s ame emotions and
needs prayer.
I have friends who cannot walk into a crowded room
without feeling the anger, anxiety, jealous y, fear, and all
the other emotions that are being felt by people in the
room. Thes e individuals have a heightened awarenes s
of how others feel. They’re s ometimes referred to as
“empaths ” becaus e of their ability to eas ily s ens e and
empathize with how others feel. Extreme empathy might
s eem like a gift that only certain people are born with,
but like all other s piritual abilities , empathy is an innate
ability we all pos s es s . Anyone is able to s ens e the
emotions of another pers on. Rather than being a s pecial
gift, what thes e people have is a highly-developed
ability that is common to us all. Jus t as with any other
s piritual ability, we can learn to become more s ens itive
to the feelings of others with practice.
I als o know s ome believers who s ens e feelings of
oppres s ion, hopeles s nes s , fear, and other emotions
when they drive through certain towns . They’ve learned
that the emotions they feel are being s ent from God and
are intended to lead them to pray for the people of that
town. Thes e divine emotions can be thought of as a
kind of prophetic burden that God gives people to move
them to pray. They pray as they’re led by the emotions
they feel, and they keep praying until the emotions are
gone.
The Prince of Peace Another way to deal with the
human emotions God reveals is to change the emotions
others are pres ently experiencing. During the writing of
this book, I had a dream featuring a man who was filled
with peace. He happened to be around people who
didn’t have much peace. In the dream, the emotions of
people were s ymbolized by boards covered with fabric.
The peace-filled man was able to give others the peace
that he had. W hen he wanted to do this , he pulled out a
s pray can and s prayed over the fabric on s omeone’s
emotional board. Then he cut a piece of fabric from his
own emotional board and pas ted it on the board of the
other pers on and in doing s o—he gave them his peace.
One of the implications of s eeing Jes us as a fles h and
blood role model (and not merely as our s avior) is that
we can do the things He did and live the way He lived.
This is the practical s ide of being His dis ciple. He s aid
to His dis ciples , “Peace I leave with you, My peace I
give to you,” (s ee Jn. 14:27). He trans ferred His own
peace to thos e who didn’t have it. And we can learn to
do the s ame. We can learn to impart peace to thos e who
are filled with fear, anxiety, and worry. Here’s what that
might look like:
One day I trans ported a young man who was having
ches t pain. He was s o afraid he was having a heart
attack he didn’t tell the nurs e who was taking care of
him. He als o denied it when I as ked him, but his wife
confronted him about it. “W hy don’t you tell him about
the ches t pain?” She as ked.
He was afraid. He was n’t s ure what would happen if he
told us he was having ches t pain. In his mind, He was
too young for a heart attack and the pos s ibility of
cardiac s urgery. After we began trans porting him to the
hos pital, I took a s eat next to him.
“Hey, Alfred, I have a ques tion for you… would you like
me to pray with you?”
He agreed to let me pray for him. Alfred had been under
a lot of s tres s lately—much more than he was us ed to.
The ches t pain only made things wors e. He als o had a
s evere headache. I as ked how bad his headache was . He
rated it at eight out of ten in s everity.
I placed my hand gently on his s houlder. “Spirit of pain,
I command you to leave. Holy Spirit, touch him with
your power and remove all s icknes s and pain from him. I
bles s your work of healing and Lord, I thank you for
your mercy.” I prayed for a few more minutes and as ked
what he felt.
“It’s gone. It’s all gone.”
“Your headache?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you lying to me?”
“No, I’m not lying. As s oon as you put your hand on me
and s tarted praying, it left. It was like… two s econds
later.”
We both s miled and laughed and s tarted talking about
how amazing God is . Not only was his headache gone,
but s o was all of his anxiety and fear. “All I feel now is
peace,” he s aid with a s mile.
I’ve noticed that many times when I pray for people to
be healed, the thing they notice firs t is that their fear
and anxiety dis appear and they’re overcome by a s trong
s ens e of peace. Even if they don’t receive phys ical
healing, a majority of them report feeling great peace. I
believe that’s becaus e Jes us lives in us , and becaus e He
is the Prince of Peace, He leaves His calling card
wherever He goes and it’s felt by the people we
encounter.
Of cours e, a prerequis ite for releas ing peace to others is
having peace in your own life. We can’t give to others
what we don’t have. So if you’re lacking the peace of
God, you might as k Him to give you His peace s o that
you can releas e it to thos e who need it.
Exercis e
If you’re s ens itive to the emotions of others , it can help
to take an inventory of how you’re feeling before
entering a room or building. If you’re happy before
going into a room full of people, but after being in the
room for a few minutes you begin to feel emotions that
were not pres ent earlier—the emotions may not be your
own. You might as k God if He’s s aying anything through
the emotions you’re feeling. If you believe you’re
feeling an emotion that is n’t yours , you might as k God
what the emotion means and who it is for. As k Him if
there is s omeone in the room who needs prayer and if
you receive confirmation about s omeone, as k them if
they would like prayer.
 Angels

God can s peak to us directly, and He often does jus t

that through His Spirit. But many times , He choos es to
s peak to us through His mes s engers ins tead. Along with
learning to hear the voice of God, we can learn how to
hear angels when they deliver mes s ages . Angels are
s ent by God to all of mankind to as s is t us along our
path of life. Both Chris tians and non-Chris tians have
angels who watch over and as s is t them. The purpos e of
this chapter is to encourage you to learn how to hear
the mes s ages they bring s o that you might fulfill your
heavenly as s ignments and grow in your knowledge of
God and His kingdom.
One of the mos t common ways angels appear as
recorded in the Bible are as mes s engers who impart
ins truction or news to people in dreams . In Genes is
chapter 31, an angel of the Lord appeared to Jacob in a
dream. It contained a s ymbolic mes s age, which the
angel interpreted for him—it was time for Jacob to
return to his father’s home (s ee Gen. 31:11-13).
W hen Abraham s ent his s ervant to find a wife for his
s on Is aac, an angel was s ent with him to help pros per
the s ervant during his journey (s ee Gen. 24:40).
An angel gave Abraham’s wife Hagar a mes s age that her
s on, Is hmael, would not die of thirs t in the wildernes s ,
but that God had heard his cries and provided a pool of
water for them (s ee Gen. 21:17-19).
An angel appeared to Manoah’s wife to announce the
birth of her child Sams on. The Angel gave her s trict
ins tructions about what to do in preparation for his
birth. It was als o revealed that her s on would take the
vow of a Nazarite, and that he would deliver his people
from the Philis tines (s ee Judges 13:2-5).
An angel appeared to Elijah after he had called down
fire from heaven to cons ume the armies of his enemies
on two occas ions . W hen a third captain approached and
begged Elijah not to kill him, the angel ins tructed Elijah
to go with the captain (s ee 2 Kgs . 1:15).
An angel offered encouragement to the apos tle Paul in
the mids t of a dis as ter at s ea, telling him that all thos e
who s ailed with him would not peris h in the s torm, but
that the s hip would run aground and they would be
s aved from death (s ee Acts 27:23-24).
According to the writer of the book of Hebrews , angels
have been s ent for the expres s purpos e of minis tering to
thos e who will inherit s alvation (s ee Heb. 1:14). Since
Chris tians are the heirs of s alvation, angels are s ent for
the purpos e of minis tering to us .
As we can s ee, angels often s erve as divine
mes s engers . In fact, the Greek word for angel, aggelos,
me a n s messenger. But not all of the s pirits who s erve
God are mes s engers . There are a divers ity of heavenly
s pirits with various as s ignments . Some of thes e s pirits
are mes s engers , but s ome are ordained for other things .
Some heavenly s pirits are commis s ioned to bring
healing, s uch as the one who s tood at the pool of
Bethes da and s tirred the water s o that the s ick could be
healed (s ee Jn. 5:4). Some s pecialize in wors hip s uch as
the living creatures mentioned in the book of Revelation
who cried holy, holy, holy, day and night. Some angels
are in charge of the weather s uch as the s pirits who held
back the wind s o that it would not blow on the earth
(s ee Rev. 7:1). Like humans , heavenly s pirits are not all
alike. They are each a little different and their
differences enable them to s erve different purpos es and
carry out different as s ignments .
I often have indirect communication with angels while
praying for people to be healed. Since one of my major
as s ignments from God is healing, I as s ume I have a
number of healing angels as s igned to me, though I
s eldom s ee them. I us ually clos e my eyes as I’m s itting
in my chair praying for s omeone. As I pray, I s ee faint
images in my mind’s eye s ugges tive of s piritual beings
that are moving about in the s pirit world. I’ve given
them commands to releas e healing on the people I’m
praying for. To be perfectly hones t, I don’t know with
certainty what effect this has , s ince I don’t have a
foolproof way to verify the res ults , though I have had a
number of reliable healing tes timonies from people I’ve
prayed with over long dis tances .
My wife and I mos t often have direct communication
with angels as they deliver mes s ages in the middle of
the night. Thes e mes s ages us ually come in the form of a
voice that we hear s peaking, us ually in a dream or
vis ion. Our children have als o received mes s ages from
angels , us ually at night. The mes s ages are typically
s hort. They can have an obvious meaning or they may
be s omewhat cryptic.
At times , a mes s age from an angel will s ound like an
audible voice. But more often, we have convers ations
with them the s ame way we do with the Holy Spirit—
through faint thought impres s ions in our mind.
Remember, angels are s pirits , jus t like the Holy Spirit
and like our own s pirit. Spirit-to-s pirit communication is
generally carried out the s ame way, regardles s of
whether we’re hearing from an evil s pirit, one of God’s
angels , or the Holy Spirit. The key to learning how to
hear angels is exercis ing our s piritual s ens es .
Exercis e
Since many of the angelic encounters in the Bible
involved dreams , before you go to s leep, as k God to
s end you an angel with a mes s age. W hatever experience
you have that night, write in down. If you receive a
cryptic or s ymbolic mes s age in a dream, as k the Holy
Spirit to help you unders tand it.
 Face-to-Face

Jes us is making a habit of vis iting my wife on her

birthday. So far, the vis itations have come through her
dreams . For years s he had been s truggling with the
burden of deciding what s teps to take next in her career.
Although s he had been trained as a painter and her
heart’s des ire was to create fine art that flowed from her
imagination, s he was working as a graphic des igner for
the pas t 15 years becaus e it paid the bills . The des ign
work was no longer ins piring her as it once did and it
often left her with neck pain and a headache at the end
of the day, but s he felt afraid of making the changes
that would allow her to become a full-time painter. Part
of the s truggle was that s he was n’t certain what God
wanted her to do. She wondered—if s he made the career
change, would God bles s that decis ion, or would s he
fail, leaving us in a difficult place, financially. There was
als o s ome anxiety and regret that s he had waited too
long—that s he probably s hould have done it years ago.
It would be almos t like s tarting over.
On her birthday in 2014, s he had a dream where Jes us
paid her a vis it. In the dream, He came to her rather
excitedly and handed her a piece of paper. The paper
was blank except for the letterhead at the top that
appeared in a beautiful pink font which read: “Super
Praying Medic’s Wife.” After handing her the blank
piece of paper, He looked excitedly into her eyes and
as ked, “W hat are you going to be?”
This dream changed the way in which my wife s aw her
relations hip with Jes us . Rather than thinking s he had to
s omehow know what He wanted her to do (and s uffer
the cons equences if s he was wrong) s he realized that
He was actually her bigges t fan, and that regardles s of
which choice s he made, He s upported her decis ion.
Jes us gave her the s ens e that s he could write whatever
s he wanted on the blank canvas of her life, s o to s peak.
The dream des troyed s ome bad theology s he had picked
up and replaced it with a more accurate portrait of God.
On her birthday in 2015, Jes us paid her another vis it in a
dream. This is her account:
I had another dream on my birthday this year. I was
s itting (at an eas el, I think) painting. There was a wall
in front of me as well. Suddenly s omething red, like
blood or paint, began s plattering on the right s ide of
the wall in front of me. It s tarted dripping, running
quickly down the wall. I wondered if it was coming
from a leak in the ceiling. I looked up, s training to s ee,
but couldn’t s ee any evidence of a leak.
With a horizontal motion, I s meared my hand from left
to right through the drips , trying to keep them from
running all the way down to the floor. Then I looked
up again to my left. On the wall, was a large, fabulous ,
 fres hly painted portrait of Jes us ’ face. In the dream, I
s omehow knew that He painted it Hims elf—it was a
s elf-portrait painted us ing only the color red. The
portrait was very large and expres s ive with wild brus h
s trokes , s patters , and drips . To me it was jus t
beautiful!
In the dream, I felt s o excited that He painted it—but
mos tly that He let me s ee it. I hurried to tell my
hus band and s ome other friends in the dream.
Looking back, it all makes s ens e to me. The red
s platters on the wall in the beginning of the dream
were coming from the wild brus h s trokes of Jes us
hims elf. The paint was flying. He is an artis t, a creator
of beauty, and He does it with pas s ion!
This vis it from Jes us helped confirm that my wife’s interes t
in painting was divinely ordained and perhaps there is
even the s ugges tion that Jes us is s o interes ted in art that
He’s painting bes ide her. From the tes timonies I’ve heard
where Jes us has vis ited people in pers on, His vis its s eem
to be for the purpos e of helping us unders tand our true
identity and our divine des tiny. One of the mos t important
things you’ll ever do is dis cover your divine des tiny.
Although there are general purpos es for which man was
created, there are als o unique reas ons why each of us is
brought into the world. Your divine des tiny is the unique
s et of purpos es for which God has created you.
We were created for God’s good pleas ure. Part of His
pleas ure is watching us grow into what He des igned us to
be and to do. How do we know what God has created us
for? Your s pecific des tiny is clos ely tied to the pas s ions of
your heart—the things you des ire more than anything
els e. God is the one who gives us thes e des ires and
they’re given to motivate and propel us toward our
divinely ordained des tiny. However, many times we let
obs tacles like time and money prevent us from fully
purs uing it. One pers on’s des tiny might involve being a
painter, but if they believe painting won’t pay the bills ,
they may forego their des tiny and ins tead, s ettle for a job
at a bank. Another pers on’s des tiny might be to record
mus ic, but if they feel they can’t earn a living as a
mus ician, they might s ettle for a job in a factory. We mus t
learn to trus t that if we purs ue our des tiny, God will
provide the time, res ources and connections to make us
s ucces s ful.
Exercis e #1 Jes us is willing to pers onally s how you what
your divine des tiny is . It’s up to you to as k Him for thos e
details . As k Him to come to you pers onally and reveal to
you how He s ees you and what He created you for. He may
appear to you in a number of ways . It may be in a dream or
a vis ion, or it may be that He vis its you in what appears to
be bodily form. However He reveals Hims elf, write down
what He tells you and believe what He s ays . Begin to
purs ue the des tiny He reveals to you.
Exercis e #2 Fear is what us ually prevents us from
purs uing our des tiny, and the thing that empowers fear is
our belief in the lie that we can’t earn a living from it.
To remove fear from the equation, as k yours elf what you
would do if time and money were no object. If you had all
the res ources you needed, and all the time in the world,
what would you do with the res t of your life?
If you’re going to live out the des tiny God has planned for
you, cons ider taking an inventory of your pas s ions and
as k yours elf what one thing really gets you excited. It’s
likely that this one thing is s omehow tied to your divine
des tiny. If there’s s ome career you can name that involves
this pas s ion, cons ider purs uing it and s ee if God does n’t
open a few doors for you.
 PART THREE

What to Do with What You Hear

 The Gift of Tongues

Now that we’ve s urveyed the different ways in which

God s peak s , it’s time to look at what we might do with
the revelation we receive. In this s ection, Part Three,
we’ll dis cus s the ways in which God s peak s to us and
through us via the gifts of the Holy S pirit. The gifts of
the Holy S pirit are covered in s ome detail in firs t
Corinthians chapters 12 through 14. If you’re not
acquainted with thes e chapters you might read them to
become more familiar with the ways in which thes e
gifts are us ed.
One of the mos t controvers ial s piritual gifts mentioned
in the New Tes tament is the gift of s peak ing in tongues .
Although many good people have rejected the idea that
God s peak s to and through us in this way, I’ve found
that there is great benefit to thos e who practice this
gift. To s ettle any concerns readers may have, it might
be helpful to look at what Jes us s aid about s peak ing in
tongues . His only mention of s peak ing in tongues
happens to be part of “the great commis s ion” which is
accepted by mos t Chris tians as His final ins tructions to
His dis ciples before He as cended into heaven. Here are
his words :
“And these signs will accompany those who
 believe: In my name they will drive out demons;
they will speak in new tongues.”
Mark 16:17
Jes us s aid that s peak ing in tongues is a s upernatural
s ign that can and s hould be practiced by His dis ciples .
When we s peak in tongues we may either s peak in a
language that is k nown to man or in a heavenly
language that is unk nown to us . Paul wrote:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of
angels...”
1 Cor. 13:1
The language we s peak when we operate in this gift
allows us to communicate directly with God. The Holy
S pirit enables us to s peak a language (or s everal of
them) without ever having to learn them. This is why
s peak ing in tongues is cons idered a gift and not an
ability—we receive a divine enabling to do what we
could not do otherwis e.
Res earchers at the Univers ity of Penns ylvania recorded
s cans of the brains of people while they s pok e in
tongues . The s tudy was publis hed in The New York
Times. Dr. Andrew Newberg, who headed the s tudy,
concluded:
We noticed a number of changes that occurred
functionally in the brain. Our finding of decreas ed
 activity in the frontal lobes during the practice of
s peak ing in tongues is fas cinating becaus e thes e
s ubjects truly believe that the s pirit of God is
moving through them and controlling them to
s peak ... Our brain-imaging res earch s hows us that
thes e s ubjects are not in control of the us ual
language centers during this activity, which is
cons is tent with their des cription of a lack of
intentional control while s peak ing in tongues .
When the participants s pok e in tongues , their frontal
lobes (the part of the brain that controls voluntary
action) s howed very little activity. The language center
of the brain lik ewis e s howed little activity as compared
to when the participants s pok e normally. As the
participants s pok e in tongues , res earchers were unable
to pinpoint which part of the brain was controlling their
s peech. Dr. Newberg went on to s ay, “The amazing
thing was how the images s upported people’s
interpretation of what was happening. The way they
des cribe it, and what they believe, is that God is talk ing
through them.” If there is any doubt that s peak ing in
tongues is a real s upernatural phenomenon, this
res earch s eems to s ugges t that it is .
S ome leaders teach that the gift of tongues is only for
certain people. The Bible teaches otherwis e. On the day
of Pentecos t, when the dis ciples were filled with the
Holy S pirit, everyone in attendance s pok e in tongues :
 “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and
began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit
enabled them.”
Acts 2:4
The gift of tongues is not only for a s elect few. Paul
s aid that he wanted every believer to s peak in tongues
and prophes y:
“I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more
that you prophesied”
1 Cor. 14:5
The Bible s ays that thos e who s peak in tongues are
(generally) s peak ing directly to God:
“For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not
speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one
understands him; he utters mysteries with his
spirit.”
1 Cor. 14:2
One of the exceptions is when we s peak in tongues to
declare the wonders of God to others :
“We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our
own tongues!”
Acts 2:11
Or when prais ing God:
“For they heard them speaking in tongues and
 praising God.”
Acts 10:46
Thos e who are experienced with s peak ing in tongues
report that their s pirit is s trengthened the more they
pray in tongues . It als o s eems to open up a clearer
channel of communication between them and God. The
gift of s peak ing in tongues is the one gift given to edify
(s trengthen) the individual. The res t of the gifts of the
Holy S pirit are given to s trengthen the body of Chris t:
“He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he
who prophesies edifies the church.”
1 Cor. 14:4
When I pray with people for healing or deliverance, my
wife often prays alongs ide me. I begin by praying in
Englis h as I’m led by the S pirit—mos t often through
vis ions . S he rarely prays in her native language, which
is Englis h, but prays as s he is led by the S pirit in
tongues . S he’s become s o accus tomed to praying in
tongues that today it’s eas ier for her to pray in tongues
than it is to pray in Englis h.
Occas ionally s omeone will pray in tongues and an
interpretation will be given, but not always . When an
interpretation is given of s omething that was s aid in
tongues , it is us ually a word of encouragement to an
individual or group. In that res pect, the interpretation
of tongues is s imilar to the gift of prophecy.
The gift of s peak ing in tongues is lik e any other gift.
The more we exercis e it, the more proficient we’ll
become at it. If you des ire to operate in the gift of
tongues , pray for it and believe that you will receive it.
S peak ing in tongues is not s omething the Holy S pirit
does to you. It is rather, a way that He operates through
you as you s peak or pray. The k ey is that you mus t
initiate the proces s .
When I firs t began s peak ing in tongues , I heard in my
mind words that were s oftly s pok en in a language I had
never heard before. As I’ve s aid in other chapters , one
way in which you can k now revelation is from God is
when it s ounds unlik e anything you would normally
think . The words I heard in my mind were completely
foreign to me. I as s umed they were the words the Holy
S pirit wanted me to s peak , s o I s aid them to the bes t of
my ability. I have a friend who s aid the firs t time he
s pok e in tongues was when he was riding his
motorcycle. His motorcycle was hit by a car and he went
flying through the air. He s aid as s oon as he was
airborne, he began s peak ing in tongues .
The apos tle Paul s aid that the main problem with
s peak ing in tongues is that our natural mind does n’t
unders tand what we s ay:
“For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my
understanding is unfruitful.”
1 Cor. 14:14
There are times when it is n’t neces s ary to k now what
we are praying. Paul dis cus s ed this in the eighth
chapter of Romans :
“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses.
For we do not know what we should pray for as we
ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Now He who searches the hearts knows what the
mind of the Spirit is, because He makes
intercession for the saints according to the will of
God.”
Rom. 8:26-27
Praying in tongues is a way in which the S pirit of God
can ins pire our prayer when we aren’t s ure how we
ought to pray. The Holy S pirit is our helper, our
comforter, our interces s or, and faithful friend. Praying
in tongues empowers us when we are weak , comforts us
when we are s ad, and through it, He intercedes for us
according to His perfect will.
Exe r c i s e The gift of s peak ing in tongues can be
activated in jus t about any way that you can imagine.
The proces s may be a little different for each pers on.
The main thing is to believe that when you begin
s peak ing, the Holy S pirit will give you ins pired words
to s peak and they will lik ely be words or s ounds that
you don’t unders tand. S peak ing in tongues will s eem
s trange at firs t, but res t as s ured, after jus t a little
practice it will s eem very normal to you. I’ll give you
two ideas that may help you get s tarted.
1. Find s omeone who already s peak s in tongues and as k
them to pray with you to receive the gift. After or while
praying, you may only s peak a couple of “words ” or
phras es . S tarting can be s low, but everyone’s
experience is unique s o don’t worry if words are not
flowing quick ly for you. S peak whatever comes to your
mouth at the time. It’s ok ay if you’re not s peak ing
s entences or paragraphs . Be patient. The more often
you s peak in tongues , the more the gift will flow.
2. Another way to s tart is to jus t pray by yours elf for
this gift. Believe that God will give this to you if you
earnes tly as k . Then open your mouth and begin to
s peak whatever comes out. It may be s omething that
s ounds merely lik e a few s yllables , but again, the more
you do this , the more eas ily the words and phras es will
come through you. S ometimes you may feel that you are
repeating jus t one phras e over and over again. Don’t be
concerned about that. Even in a s tandard prayer, we
s ometimes repeat phras es . For example, you might be
prais ing God, s aying, “Thank you Jes us , thank you
Jes us ” over and over. Jus t s peak what comes and don’t
get your mind involved in trying to decipher it. Als o,
you may feel lik e you’re “mak ing it up.” Many people
worry about this in the beginning and they s top
s peak ing in tongues and never get a chance to develop
it fully. If you let your “intellect or logic” get in the
way, you won’t move forward eas ily—or you’ll s hut
down the gift entirely. I would encourage you to s et
yours elf free from think ing too much and unders tand
that you are in a learning phas e.
 The Gift of Prophecy

When God reveals s omething for another pers on to you,

and you s peak what you hear to them, you’re operating
in what is k nown as the gift of prophecy. The gift of
prophecy requires you to develop your ability to hear
God’s voice before it can function properly. God can
give you mes s ages for others , but if you aren’t able to
receive them, you can’t give them to the people they’re
intended for. The gift of prophecy is not without
controvers y. One of the controvers ies is over the fact
that what I jus t des cribed s ounds a bit lik e fortune
telling.
Prophecy mak es us e of our ability to hear s piritual
communication. Fortune telling als o relies on a
pers on’s ability to hear s piritual communication. The
difference between them is the s ource of the revelation.
Prophecy is revelation which has its origin in God.
Fortune tellers , ps ychics , and thos e who channel other
s pirits us e the s ame mechanis m to hear things that are
s aid by s pirits , but they are not God. Becaus e there is a
bit of uncertainty about which s pirit is behind any
revelation, s ome have chos en to deny that the gift of
prophecy is valid today. Once again, it comes down to a
ques tion of how much (or how little) ris k you’re willing
to tak e. In s pite of any ris k , one of the mos t powerful
us es of our ability to hear God’s voice is the gift of
prophecy. An accurate prophetic word, given at the
right time, can bring hope to the des pairing and reveal
the des tiny of s omeone who feels los t. The apos tle Paul
ins tructed the church at Corinth:
Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but
especially that you may prophesy.
1 Cor. 14:1 NAS B
In Paul’s mind, prophecy was one of the gifts we s hould
des ire mos t. He went on to explain that prophecy is not
jus t for certain individuals , but for all believers . He
als o noted that the purpos e for prophecy is to
encourage others :
For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may
learn and all may be encouraged.
1 Cor. 14:31
When s omeone prophes ies to us , we may learn things
God wants us to k now about our gifting, our
relations hips , our identity, our des tiny, or other as pects
of our life. We can learn about ours elves and about the
plans God has for us .
God may reveal pos itive things about others to us , s uch
as their gifting, talents , s pheres of influence, and
pers onal s trengths . But He may als o reveal negative
things . One of the dangers of receiving revelation from
God about others is that it may be us ed agains t them.
God may dis clos e the dark s ecrets of a pers on’s life to
any of us . A pers on with a des ire to tarnis h another’s
reputation can eas ily us e prophetic revelation to
“correct” them s imply to caus e them s hame or
humiliation. S ome believers have been brought before
church elders for dis cipline bas ed on things dis cerned
about them by s omeone with a s core to s ettle. Before we
cons ider dragging s omeone’s dirty laundry out in the
open for public s crutiny, we might cons ider how we
would feel if we were in the hot s eat.
Prophetic revelation, if it is not us ed wis ely, can caus e
church s plits and des troy life-long friends hips . It has
as much potential to do harm as good, which is one
reas on why prophets have been removed from s o many
churches and the prophetic gifts of the Holy S pirit
rejected. It may be that God will reveal the is s ues of s in
that s omeone s truggles with, but s ince prophecy is
intended to encourage and not condemn, we mus t find a
way to tak e the revelation we receive and s peak it in a
way that encourages . How do we accomplis h this ?
When God s hows us a pers on’s s in, He’s revealing
s omething about their character. What He reveals in
this cas e is not how He intends for them to live, it is
how they happen to be living at the moment. The goal of
prophecy is not to expos e that s in, but to ins pire them to
live as Jes us lived. The power of the prophecy is its
ability to reveal the future. We have the res pons ibility
of revealing the pers on they will become, and not the
pers on they are today.
If for example, God s peak s to you about a woman who
has a problem with gos s ip, you mus t think about the
damage that could be done if you confront her about it,
publicly. Prophecy is not for the purpos e of caus ing
s hame or humiliation. S o it might be bes t to s peak in
terms of the great friend s he will be and about how
pe opl e will come to k now her as a trus ted and loyal
friend. As hard as it might be to s peak the oppos ite of
what you k now to be true at the pres ent, God’s goal for
this woman is that s he would be trans formed. Prophecy
declares and agrees with God’s plans for our future. A
prophetic word that reveals who God intends for her to
be has the power to draw her into that des tiny. And that
is one of the goals of prophecy—to reveal who we are
becoming.
God does n’t orches trate our failures . He is the author
of our faith and the one who brings our s anctification to
completion. We all have in our s piritual DNA the
blueprint for s ucces s , but mos t of us have never s een
the blueprint. When we fail in s ome area, it is becaus e
we have allowed the enemy to lead us from the path God
has prepared for us (s ee Jas . 1:13). Prophecy s hines a
light upon that path. Knowing that God has prepared a
path and a des tiny of righteous nes s for everyone, we
mus t prophes y from the pers on’s divinely ordained
des tiny, and not their failures . If God s peak s about a
man who is s truggling with pornography, we may
prophes y that he will live a life of purity. When He
reveals that a woman is s truggling with addiction to
alcohol, we have a choice: Do we reveal the addiction
and warn them that it dis pleas es God (as if they didn’t
already k now) or do we declare God’s des ire for them to
be a pillar of s ociety and a role model for others ? The
firs t option will leave them feeling condemned and
hopeles s , while the s econd will leave them feeling
encouraged.
Anyone who is reas onably obs ervant can s ee the faults
of others . It does n’t require revelation from the S pirit
of God. But it does tak e the S pirit to reveal how He
wants them to live. Prophecy always calls us to live in a
place that is higher than where we’re currently living.
The prophetic word does n’t jus t call us higher—it
carries the power of God to mak e the things we declare
come to pas s , if the hearer choos es to obey them. In the
s ame way that there is a releas e of power when a s pirit-
filled believer prays for healing, there is a releas e of
power when we prophes y according to the will of God.
S ince a prophetic word carries the power to bring to
pas s what we declare, if we declare a pers on to be a
s inner, we’re us ing the power of the S pirit to reinforce
that identity. We mus t ins tead us e the power of
prophecy to es tablis h their divine identity and des tiny.
Giving a Prophetic Word When I want to give s omeone a
prophetic word, there are a couple of s trategies I us e. I
us ually begin by reques ting information from God for
them. This might s ound obvious to s ome, but it’s a s tep
many of us may never cons ider. There’s nothing wrong
with as k ing God to give us s pecific revelation for an
individual. Yes , He is God, but we’re not being
pres umptuous or rude by as k ing Him to give us
revelation for s omeone. The Bible s ays “we have not
becaus e we as k not.” If you want to give s omeone a
prophetic word, as k God to s how you s omething s pecific
about them. Here’s a warning: Be prepared to receive
s omething as s oon as you as k . Many times the
revelation God gives is nothing more than a brief
thought impres s ion, a word, or an image that flas hes in
our mind. It can appear quick ly and then dis s ipate.
S oon after I began giving prophetic words , I was at a
meeting when I received a word from a mature prophet.
He look ed at me and s aid, “You doubt what God is
s aying. You’re not s ure that what you’re hearing is
from Him and here’s what He wants you to k now: The
firs t thought that enters your mind after you’ve as k ed
—that’s Him.” I’ve found this to be true. In mos t cas es ,
the firs t thought impres s ion that enters my mind after
I’ve as k ed God for revelation is what He wants me to
k now.
After you’ve as k ed God to reveal s omething, expect Him
to s peak in whatever way He wants . It may be a thought
impres s ion. It might be an image in your mind or a
s eries of images , or s omething that appears to be a
video. It might be a s trong emotion that s uddenly grips
you. It might be a s udden pain in your body. Try not to
as s ume too much about what He’s going to reveal to
you.
After you’ve received the revelation, you might begin a
dialog with Him to clarify what it means , if you’re not
certain. This can be particularly helpful if you’re new
to prophecy. You can have the convers ation aloud as if
you’re talk ing to a friend nearby, or it can be in your
mind between you and God. If you have ques tions , as k
for clarification. You might receive new thought
impres s ions , vis ions , or other revelation.
Once you’re clear about what you want to s ay, s imply
s ay it to the pers on. You can us e your normal tone of
voice. It is n’t neces s ary to rais e your voice or to
emphas ize certain words . It is n’t neces s ary to s ay
things lik e “the Lord s ays ” or “thus s ayeth the Lord,”
or to call them “my s on” or “my daughter.” You don’t
need to be weird when you prophes y. I s ometimes give
people prophetic words in public places lik e hos pitals . I
can’t afford to be dramatic or appear overly religious in
thes e s ettings . It’s fine to s peak the way you would if
you were having a normal convers ation with a friend.
A few years ago, my wife and I vis ited a s hopping mall
while on vacation. As s he look ed for dres s es , I gave
people encouraging words . It began when I as k ed God
for a word for a male s tore employee. In my mind’s eye,
I s aw the word “ins ecurity,” s o I encouraged him in the
area of developing s trength and s ecurity in his life. I
als o as k ed God for a word for a female employee. As I
clos ed my eyes , I s aw the word “ins piration.” I told her
s he was ins piring to others and that God would us e her
to be even more ins pirational in the future. A prophetic
word can be very s hort. It does n’t require you to get to
k now the people you’re prophes ying to, though if time
allows , God can s peak even more to them if you’re able
to s pend a few minutes talk ing with them.
Be aware as you’re giving a prophetic word of anything
the Holy S pirit reveals to you that was n’t part of the
initial mes s age. You might s peak for 30 s econds about
the firs t impres s ion you received, then you might
receive a new impres s ion. The new revelation can be
about anything. If you began prophes ying about their
calling to heal the s ick , God might s uddenly s how you
s omething about their finances or marriage. The
images you s ee and impres s ions you receive can flow
lik e a river, s o be ready to go with the flow. Many times
the Holy S pirit will give me a s ingle image, a s ingle
word, or a s ingle thought to begin with. When I begin to
prophes y from the initial image or impres s ion, I receive
two or three more impres s ions or images . Keep
s peak ing what you receive until the flow of revelation
ceas es . Once the revelation has ceas ed, s top
prophes ying. Res is t any temptation to add to what the
S pirit has given you.
One day I pick ed up my daughter from High S chool and
took her to the Department of Licens ing to tak e her
driving tes t. There was a man s itting behind me in the
waiting room who had breathing problems . I could tell
without look ing at him by the s ound he made as he
breathed. I clos ed my eyes , as k ed the Holy S pirit for a
word for him, and s aw a beautiful purple back ground
with drops of water falling from high above into a pond.
I as k ed what it meant. I heard a thought impres s ion in
my mind which s aid, “Thes e are my tears .” I as k ed who
the tears were for. I thought I k new, becaus e my
attention was on the man behind me. God confirmed this
was a word for him. I got up and as k ed the man how he
was doing. He s aid he was doing well. I told him about
the vis ion and what it meant. I as k ed if I could pray for
him, and he s aid, “I need all the prayer I can get.” I
prophes ied and prayed a bles s ing over him.
Don’t be afraid if you don’t k now the meaning or
context of an image, a word, or an impres s ion you
receive. God will often give revelation that only has
meaning to the one you’re giving it to. For example, you
might receive nothing except the number 102. The
number will lik ely mean nothing to you, but you might
tell the pers on you’re prophes ying to, “I’m not s ure
what it means , but I’m getting the number 102. Does
that mean anything to you?” Wouldn’t you be glad you
took the ris k and told them about the number when they
reply, “How s trange! I’m moving to a different
apartment tomorrow. I was going to tak e an apartment
downtown, becaus e it’s near where I work , but I was
hoping one would come available in the s uburbs . I
check ed with a landlord before I came here who s aid
they have a nice apartment that jus t became available
today. The number of the apartment is 102.” Never
underes timate God’s ability to s peak to our s pecific
circums tances .
One day I trans ported a young woman with a tragic
his tory. S he s uffered a dis s ecting aneurys m five years
earlier, and had her aortic valve replaced due to valve
failure. S he s uffered a s trok e while s he was in the
hos pital and los t her ability to s peak . The s trok e als o
caus ed right-s ide weak nes s . S he had two children but
s he lived in a nurs ing home. S he communicated by
writing on a pad of paper. I as k ed God to s how me things
about her during the trans port to the nurs ing home. I
s aw flowers and I got the impres s ion that God wanted
her to k now s he was more beautiful on the ins ide than
any flower He ever created. I s aw an image of a friend
who is a gifted teacher. His image remained in my
mind’s eye for a long time. I believe it meant that s he
had a gift of teaching. In the back ground, I s aw the
word “healing.” My partner and I took her to her room,
then my partner left and went to the ambulance.
Our patient got off the gurney and went to put a blank et
over her window to k eep out the late afternoon s un. S he
fell while reaching up to put a tack in the wall to hold
the blank et. I caught her as s he fell. S he began crying
out of frus tration. I gave her a hug and told her I’d put
the blank et up. It was the perfect way for her to realize
s he could trus t me. S he went to her bed, s at down, and
continued crying. I s at down next to her. “On the way
here I as k ed God about you.” I s aid. “He has a few
things He wants you to k now.” S he was eager to hear
what I had to s ay.
“God wants you to k now you’re more beautiful ins ide
than any flower He’s ever made.” We both began crying.
It was hard for me to continue. S he grabbed me and
hugged me as tears s treamed down her cheek s . I
continued as more thought impres s ions came to mind,
“God is purs uing you, and He’s going to chas e you
every day for as long as it tak es Him to win your heart.
You have a gift of teaching and when you’re ready, He
wants you to teach others about His love. You can be
healed, but you need to tak e your eyes off your pres ent
circums tances and look into the future which is full of
hope.” S he continued crying as I s pok e, then wiped her
nos e and hugged me again. It s eemed as though s he’d
been waiting a long time for s omeone to bring her s ome
good news . It was a divine meeting I’ll never forget.
Accidental Prophecy Another way to prophes y is when
God s uddenly and without warning adds His ins piration
to your normal way of s peak ing. This might s ound odd
if you’ve never thought about it or experienced it, but
the more aware you are of this phenomenon, the more
you’ll realize people do it all the time unk nowingly.
Imagine you’re having a convers ation with a s tranger
while waiting to have the tires changed on your car.
You’re mak ing s mall-talk and you feel an unus ual
connection to this s tranger that s eems odd. That ought
to be the firs t clue that God is up to s omething.
Unus ually s trong emotions we feel for s trangers are
often the means God us es to get us to deliver a mes s age
to them. You’re talk ing to the s tranger when s he s ays
s he’s been worried about her brother who is in the
hos pital with cancer. Without think ing, you blurt out
that s he does n’t need to worry about him. You reas s ure
her that her brother is going to be fine, that the cancer
will leave on its own, and that he’ll be dis charged from
the hos pital in a few days .
S he thank s you for your words of encouragement, gets
up, walk s to the regis ter, and pays her bill. As s he
leaves , s he waves to you on the way out the door. Your
mind is reeling, wondering why on earth you jus t told a
complete s tranger that her brother who has cancer
would be fine. If anything lik e this has ever happened to
you, there is a good chance you prophes ied God’s
pers pective of the s ituation to them and didn’t even
k now it.
This happens to me from time to time in everyday
convers ations with friends . I’m engaged in a dis cus s ion
when s uddenly, I have k nowledge of s omething I did not
k now a few minutes earlier, and could not pos s ibly
k now unles s God revealed it to me. When we’re given a
deep conviction or unders tanding of s omething we could
not pos s ibly k now—it’s lik ely we’re receiving
revelation from God. In the middle of the convers ation
we s uddenly begin explaining the s ituation from God’s
pers pective. We might encourage them or reas s ure
them there’s nothing to worry about. We might reveal
s ome change in their circums tances they aren’t aware
of yet. Many times our k nowledge is n’t delivered as a
prophetic word, but it is .
Exercis e The next time you’re with a group of friends ,
as k if any of them would be willing to receive a
prophetic word from you. If they agree, as k the Holy
S pirit to s how you s omething about them and deliver a
prophetic word bas ed on what He s hows you. As k if they
s ens e that the revelation you gave them s eemed to be
from the heart of God. If they s ay no, don’t get
dis couraged. It tak es practice and pers is tence to
develop the gift.
 Three Gifts From God

In this chapter we’ll dis cus s three different, but related

ways in which God s peak s . Thes e three are the
s piritual gifts k nown as the word of knowledge, the
word of wisdom, and the discerning of spirits. Thes e
gifts are often us ed in the context of healing and
deliverance, though they have other applications as
well. In order to better unders tand how they work , I’ll
provide a brief overview of the biblical model of healing
which will illus trate why thes e gifts are neces s ary.
Jes us healed thous ands of people of every dis eas e
imaginable and rais ed people from the dead, but
confes s ed that His s ecret to s ucces s had to do with the
relationship He had with His Father: “The S on does
nothing, but what He s ees the Father doing.”
There are many people who advocate us ing a s tandard
method to healing and deliverance. It’s human nature to
rely on a s ys tematic approach that has work ed in the
pas t. Everything s eems eas ier when we have a s tep-by-
s tep proces s to follow. The problem is that although
formulas can work , they don’t always give us the
res ults we’re look ing for. Many times it’s only after
our formula has failed that we res ort to as k ing God how
He wants to heal a pers on or s et them free from a
demon. What we ought to do is follow the example of
Jes us .
Rather than us ing a s tandard approach, each time
Jes us was confronted with s omeone who needed healing
or deliverance, He s ought the couns el of His Father to
s ee what was needed in their cas e. His minis try was
always directed by and in accordance with the will and
k nowledge of the Father.
I believe it is God’s will to heal everyone. That’s what
Jes us revealed when He minis tered to the s ick . No one
was turned away who needed healing. Everyone who
reques ted it received it. Jes us is the bes t revelation of
the will of God that we have and He revealed that it is
the Father’s will for all to be healed and s et free of
demonic oppres s ion. I believe that any lack of healing
we s ee today is due to the fact that we have not yet
inquired of the Father about what is needed to s et a
particular pers on free.
God has chos en to releas e healing through believers
lik e you and I. Jes us gave us all the authority we need
to heal. The Holy S pirit, who lives in us , is the s ource
of power for healing. We have acces s to everything we
need, except in s ome cas es , we lack the s pecific
ins tructions from God about how a pers on s hould be
healed. It’s one thing to have power and authority for
healing. It’s another to unders tand how they are to be
us ed.
Imagine for a moment a father who wants his s ons to
learn how to cons truct a building. He provides a level
plot of land, the brick s , s teel, concrete, electrical
wiring, and all the other materials needed to cons truct
the building. He als o provides the heavy equipment and
tools needed for the job. Now imagine his s ons as they
attempt to build a building without plans or
ins tructions . The building s ite quick ly turns into a
mes s . Everything they need is there, but without
s pecific ins tructions about how to get the work done,
the s ons are doomed to failure. Healing and deliverance
are des igned to function in a s imilar way.
God has given us all that we need to operate effectively
in healing and deliverance. We mak e a mes s of it when
we fail to go to Him for ins truction and guidance as to
how our power and authority are to be us ed. God does n’t
mak e things difficult to dis courage us . He allows us to
face challenges and problems s o that we would come to
Him for the s olutions . When we pray and a pers on is
not healed or s et free, what is mis s ing is accurate
information from the Father about what needs to be
done.
The Word of Knowledge God can reveal to us an almos t
unlimited number of things that can bring healing, or
that will prevent it if we’re unaware of them. S ome of
thos e things will be revealed to us by the Holy S pirit if
we as k . The information can come to us in a number of
ways . The word of k nowledge is one of the gifts of the
Holy S pirit mentioned in firs t Corinthians chapter 12.
It is a way in which God imparts to us certain facts that
we do not k now. It is information about a s ituation that
is true which is given to help bring His will to pas s for
that s ituation.
The gifts of the Holy S pirit may be eas ier to unders tand
if we think of them as ways in which the S pirit of God
“manifes ts ” Hims elf to the world. To manifest
s omething is to mak e it k nown. As God wis hes to mak e
Hims elf k nown to His creation, He manifes ts Hims elf
through the s piritual gifts . Although the word of
k nowledge is a gift of the S pirit, it is a gift that can be
given to any S pirit-filled believer at any time. It is not
jus t for s pecial individuals . If the Holy S pirit is in you,
and if you are willing, He is able to manifes t Hims elf
through you in any way He choos es and at any time.
S ince one of the chief obs tacles to healing and
deliverance is our failure to recognize what is needed
in each cas e, receiving words of k nowledge can be
extremely helpful, particularly for difficult cas es .
When we receive a word of k nowledge it is as if we’ve
been given a k ey to unlock a door.
S ome people receive a word of k nowledge through
thought impres s ions they hear in their mind. Others
receive them through dreams and vis ions . S ome people
receive them through the s udden ons et of s trong
emotions . The emotion can be a clue to the emotion
s omeone els e is feeling, s uch as depres s ion or
hopeles s nes s . Learning to receive words of k nowledge
comes by developing greater s ens itivity to the leading
of the Holy S pirit.
Once we receive a word of k nowledge we mus t as k God
what He wants us to do with it. A word of k nowledge may
be given to encourage us to pray for s omeone to be
healed. One day while I was work ing on the ambulance,
I wanted to pray for my patient, but I was n’t s ure what
conditions s he had that needed prayer. I clos ed my eyes
and in my mind’s eye I s aw the words “back pain,”
“ins omnia,” and “anxiety.” I told my patient the things
God s howed me. S he confirmed everything and allowed
me to pray for her.
One S unday morning my wife wok e up with numbnes s
in her hand and told me about it. I was curious , s o I
as k ed God why s he had it. It s eemed as though He s aid
(I heard this as a thought impres s ion in my mind) that
it was a word of k nowledge for healing. When we
arrived at church that morning, I mentioned it to the
pas tor as a word of k nowledge. Four people s aid they
had been experiencing numbnes s in their hands and we
prayed for all of them to be healed.
One day on the way home from work , I went to
S tarbuck s for coffee. I placed my order and waited with
other patrons . As I did, I clos ed my eyes and s aw an
image of the woman s tanding in front of me and the
word “headaches .” I als o s aw a name indicating that
her name was Amanda. As I was leaving, I as k ed if her
name was Amanda. S he s aid, “Yes , how did you k now?”
“God told me,” I replied. “Do you have chronic
headaches ?”
“Yes , I do. Did God tell you about them?”
“As a matter of fact, He did. Can I pray with you to be
healed?” S he happily agreed.
One day I trans ported a woman in her late fifties who
had terminal ovarian cancer. I as k ed God if s he would
be healed if I prayed for her and in my mind I heard the
dis tinct word, “no.” I as k ed why s he would not be
healed. I clos ed my eyes again and s aw a heavenly vis ion
of clouds with a beautiful mans ion res embling a cas tle
in its mids t. I believe it repres ented the fact that s he
was s oon going to be heaven-bound. I talk ed with her
hus band during the trans port about what I s aw. He was
very grateful. He took it as confirmation that s he would
s oon be in paradis e and her s uffering would be over.
The Word of Wis dom The word of wis dom is another
gift (or manifes tation) of the Holy S pirit that is
mentioned in firs t Corinthians chapter 12. The word of
wis dom is s imilar to the word of k nowledge. It is
wis dom about a s ituation that we would not normally
have. The difference between a word of k nowledge and a
word of wis dom can be s een when we unders tand the
difference between k nowledge and wis dom. Knowledge
is information about s omething in particular. It is the
facts we mus t k now about an is s ue. Wis dom is k nowing
what s hould be done with the information we have or the
action we s hould tak e once we k now the facts . Wis dom
is k nowledge correctly applied. In s ome cas es a word of
wis dom will ins truct you about what actions you ought
to tak e.
Before I go into a job interview, I us ually as k God for
any revelation He wants to give me about the interview
proces s and I s pend a few minutes in s ilence waiting for
His reply. I s ometimes receive images in my mind
concerning things I’ve s aid in pas t job interviews that I
might mention. S ometimes I’ll receive images of calls
I’ve res ponded to in the pas t. S ometimes I’ll s ee flas hes
of convers ations I’ve had with cowork ers . S ince God
k nows the mind of the interviewer and what they might
be look ing for in a candidate, I tak e thes e impres s ions
as s ugges tions about things I s hould be ready to
dis cus s in the interview.
S ometimes a word of wis dom will ins truct you about
s omething you s hould not do. One day my partner and I
trans ported an elderly man who fell at home. Bas ed on
his s ymptoms , it s eemed as though he might have had a
hip fracture. We placed him on a plas tic back board to
mak e it eas ier to lift him onto the gurney. My partner
as k ed if I was going to s tart an IV and give him
morphine. I obs erved our patient and noticed that as
long as we didn’t move him too much he s eemed to be
tolerating the pain pretty well. I received a thought
impres s ion in my mind which s eemed lik e a mes s age
from God that s aid, “He does n’t need morphine.” To be
hones t, I was n’t certain it was God. But I proceeded as
if it was , and we trans ported the man without giving him
morphine. During the trans port his pain gradually
s ubs ided. By the time we got him to the hos pital the
pain was almos t gone. Having s een people healed in the
ambulance before without prayer, I wondered if it was
another cas e of the Holy S pirit healing s omeone by
s imply manifes ting His pres ence. It’s difficult to
explain how placing him on a hard plas tic board and
driving him over bumpy roads would mak e him feel
better. I believe I received a word of wis dom telling me
He would be healed if we s imply trans ported him and
allowed God to do the healing during the trip.
Words of wis dom can be given for jus t about any k ind of
s ituation. My family has a tradition of gathering in
s nowy locations over the Chris tmas holidays . One year
it was decided the family would be gathering in New
York . From the moment I firs t heard of the plan, I had a
s ens e that s omething would foul things up. When my
family as k ed if I was going to be there, I politely
declined. When they as k ed why, I explained that I had a
feeling as though the weather was going to caus e
problems . Not unders tanding how God forewarns us
about thes e things , they were dis appointed. But I s tuck
by my convictions and s tayed home. That Chris tmas ,
New York City received almos t two feet of s now and
experienced extremely gus ty winds . Mos t of the main
s treets were impas s able for days . All the airports in the
area were clos ed and inbound flights were diverted to
other cities . Many outbound flights were canceled.
S ome of my brothers and s is ters had to tak e extra time
off work becaus e they could not get flights back home
until the mes s from the s nows torm had been cleaned up.
I believe I had received a word of wis dom about my
plans . I didn’t jus t receive information about an
approaching s torm. God told me what plans to mak e in
order to avoid having travel problems .
After I had publis hed the firs t two book s in this s eries ,
God began giving me dreams s ugges ting that I cons ider
mentoring other authors . One night I had a dream about
one author in particular who was in the proces s of
writing an excellent book . He became dis couraged and
cons idered giving up on the book completely. From my
pers pective in the dream, I could s ee that the enemy was
not happy about the potential impact the book would
have, s o an effort was organized by the enemy to
dis courage him and prevent the book from being
publis hed. In the dream, I k new my part was to
encourage the author and help him s ee the book
through to completion. Right now I’m the adminis trator
of an online group of more than 200 writers . I’m
pers onally mentoring s ome of the authors God has
s hown me in dreams . This is another cas e where God
didn’t jus t give me information about s omeone, but
s pecific actions I s hould tak e in order to help them.
As I’ve become more involved in emotional healing, I’ve
had a number of ins tructive dreams . In one dream I was
interviewing mental health patients to determine if I
could legally treat them. During the interviews , I
realized I could not legally treat s ome of them under
the current definition I was us ing, s o I rewrote the
definition and broadened it. This allowed me to treat
more people. The point of this dream was that there are
many more people who need healing than I firs t
s us pected and that I needed to think in broader terms .
This dream is typical of how God mak es me aware of
problems with how I’m operating. The adjus tments I
need to mak e are illus trated in the dreams .
The Dis cerning of S pirits The dis cerning of s pirits is
another gift of the Holy S pirit mentioned in Firs t
Corinthians chapter 12. As with all the other gifts , it is
a way in which the Holy S pirit manifes ts Hims elf to us .
It is available to any believer. The way in which this gift
operates in us will be determined by how well we’ve
developed our s piritual s ens es and how well we’ve
become acquainted with s ens ing the different ways in
which God s peak s .
Although this gift can be us ed to dis cern the pres ence
and character of evil s pirits , it can als o be us ed to
detect heavenly s pirits . When this gift is in operation,
we might be able to dis cern the s pecific nature of
demons that we would not otherwis e k now. We might be
given the names or areas of s pecialization of the evil
s pirits . S ome demons s pecialize in creating feelings of
des pair or hopeles s nes s , while others may tempt us
with s exual s in. S ome s pecialize in creating attitudes
of religious s uperiority or s elf-importance. Heavenly
s pirits als o s pecialize, but in pos itive ways . S ome
angels bring mes s ages , s ome are res pons ible for
healing, and others bring s piritual revival. S ometimes
the area of s pecialization of a s pirit is revealed by its
name.
S ome people are able to s mell the pres ence of evil
s pirits as an odor lik e rotten eggs or s ulfur. S ome
detect the pres ence of angels by the pres ence of the
s cent of flowers or one of many different s weet or
s avory aromas . It might s eem as if we s mell thes e odors
with our phys ical s ens e of s mell, but it is our s piritual
s ens e of s mell that is at work .
Many people s ee demons and angels as they are
revealed by the Holy S pirit. S ometimes they are s een
with the eyes open. S ometimes they’re s een with the
eyes clos ed. They can appear either as a vis ion in our
mind or as a s cene that is external to us . It does n’t
matter how we s ens e a s pirit’s pres ence. The revelation
of any s pirit, regardles s of how it is done, has the s ame
purpos e. S pirits are us ually (though not always )
revealed s o that we might interact with them for a
s pecific purpos e. That purpos e can be dis covered by
as k ing the Holy S pirit. There will be occas ions when
the revealing of a s pirit is s imply to mak e us aware that
it is there without a need to interact with it.
Healing can be done more effectively as we become
more aware of how angels are involved in the proces s .
Many people I’ve interviewed have tes tified of s eeing
angels of healing at work —us ually at meetings and
conferences that are held for the s pecific purpos e of
healing and deliverance. If you have not s een healing
pers onally, and if you wonder if it is a legitimate
phenomenon, you might cons ider attending one of thes e
healing meetings to s ee for yours elf. In s uch meetings ,
angels are often dis cerned as they carry containers of
oil, that when poured over the s ick , bring healing.
Angels of healing operate in many different ways . I
heard a tes timony from a man who s ees angels during
healing conferences quite often. At one conference he
was praying for a man who needed healing of a brain
tumor. As he prayed he s aw an angel holding what
look ed lik e a torch. The angel held the torch to the
man’s head with the flame aimed at the part of his brain
where the tumor was located. After the prayer s es s ion,
the man reported feeling a very s trong s ens ation of
heat ins ide his head. He later reported that he had been
healed as a res ult of this encounter.
Exercis e
The next time you are around a group of people, quiet
your s oul and as k the Holy S pirit to give you s ome
revelation about another pers on’s need. As k for s pecific
details . As k the Holy S pirit to clarify anything that
is n’t clear to you. S hare the information with the
pers on it pertains to and as k if you can pray for them.
 The Greatest of These

We’ve look ed at the gifts of the S pirit and how Paul

taught the church in Corinth their proper us e. The
believers in Corinth were incredibly gifted. They s pok e
with the tongues of angels , heard the voice of God
accurately, and k new how to heal the s ick . When
comparing his letters to ones he wrote to other
churches , it’s apparent that they were head and
s houlders above the res t with regard to s piritual gifts .
S uch proficiency might lead us to think they’d reached
the pinnacle of s piritual life. We might think that
operating in the gifts of the S pirit mak es us s piritually
mature, but this is not the cas e.
The believers in Corinth were both the mos t s piritually
gifted, but the mos t s piritually immature of all the
early churches . Much of what Paul had to s ay in other
parts of his letter were corrective words that addres s ed
their immature attitudes toward one another. He
reminded them that s piritual maturity is not a matter of
operating proficiently in s piritual gifts , but of
becoming a pers on who cons is tently s hows love to
others :
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of
angels, but have not love, I have become sounding
 brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the
gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and
all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that
I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am
nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed
the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,
but have not love, it profits me nothing.”
1 Cor 13:1-3
There are many who would lik e to operate more
proficiently in the s piritual gifts , but the gifts are not
an end in thems elves . We can s eek them for the wrong
reas ons . They don’t demons trate that we’ve achieved
s omething great. They’re intended to be a manifes tation
of God’s love. The reas ons why we s eek the gifts can
s ometimes reveal a wrong s ens e of identity. Allow me to
illus trate this point:
There were many Jewis h leaders who oppos ed the
minis try of Jes us . The s cribes and Pharis ees were
often mentioned in the gos pels as being antagonis tic to
Him. The s cribes and Pharis ees were s een as religious
experts . People held them in high es teem becaus e of
their k nowledge of the s criptures . But Jes us drew
people away from them. When the crowds s howed
preference to Him, the s cribes and Pharis ees became
envious and plotted to k ill Him.
Thes e leaders were motivated to be s een as experts
becaus e it gave them a s ens e of s ignificance. No child
ever dreams of growing up to be ins ignificant. We’re
born with a des ire to do great things . Our true
s ignificance is given to us by God, who created each of
us with a divine purpos e in mind. Once we unders tand
what that purpos e is and accept it, it begins to manifes t
in all that we do. The s cribes and Pharis ees didn’t
unders tand that they were God’s beloved children. They
s aw thems elves as orphans . They didn’t k now that He
had planned great things for them, s o they s ought
greatnes s on their own.
When you s ee yours elf as an orphan, you believe it’s up
to you to mak e the bes t life for yours elf. Many
Chris tians , who profes s that God is their Father, live
from the belief that He has little interes t in tak ing care
of them or helping them find their des tiny. They s ee
Him doing thes e things for others , but not for them.
They s ecretly believe He mus t have favorites and that
they are not among the favored few. When you don’t
unders tand who you truly are, you’ll s trive to become
s omeone that you are not. You attempt to find
s ignificance on your own. Orphans s eek to have their
need for s ignificance met by the world. And the world
cannot do that which God intends to do Hims elf.
The child of God mus t allow their needs to be met by
Him. Having our needs met by Him removes the
expectation that we mus t have them met by the world.
This allows us the freedom to love others without
conditions and without expecting anything in return. If
the world does n’t treat us the way we expect, it does n’t
matter. We can res t in the k nowledge that the God who
created all things loves us .
We cannot love God until we firs t k now that He loves
us . The k nowledge that He loves us trans forms our
heart into one that has the capacity to love Him back .
Neither can we love other humans before we apprehend
His love for us . His love changes our heart and mak es
it capable of loving thos e who s eem to us to be
unlovable. Once we k now how loved we are by God, we
can s how that s ame love to others . God is love and we
are intended to be His expres s ion of love to the world. If
you tak e nothing els e away from this book , let it be the
s imple fact that you are greatly loved by Him and that
He des ires to meet all your needs , s o that you can live
out your unique des tiny and expres s His love in the way
that only you can.

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