ELIJAH: Fighting through to the Cave with Your Sword
Yes, hearing from God is essential, exciting, and necessary for life, health, wisdom, etc.; it is something we all want and should pursue. However, to avoid frustration and misunderstanding here, we need to to clarify exactly how his “word” comes; and how we hear his “voice.”
Jesus can talk to us by appearing in person, sending an angel, or speaking in a physically audible voice. These are all possible and legitimate; and he may speak to us this way from time to time. But by far, the primary way God speaks to us is in our spirit—our inner man, the “hidden man of the heart” (1 Pet. 3:4 KJV). We rarely, if ever, hear him speak with our natural ears. Therefore, we need to understand what he means when he says his sheep hear his voice; we need to become adept at having “ears to hear” that voice—what the Holy Spirit is saying:
(Revelation 2:7a WEB) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says …
The Greek word translated “voice” in Jesus’s statements is derived from light, revealing, and enlightenment. This, of course, is not an abstract, sterile, or independent thought; it is not a logically derived intellectual conclusion; it is the receiving of enlightenment that comes through relationship with the Good Shepherd—the unforceful influence of truth alone in a peaceful, brutally honest heart:
(John 18:37 NKJV) … “Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul helps us understand how to hear the Good Shepherd’s voice.
(Romans 8:16 MKJV) The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
Paul uses the phrase, “bears witness with our spirit.” The Aramaic original of this verse could be translated thus: “testifies to our spirit.” God’s Holy Spirit conveys God’s communication to us in our human spirit, our spirit man. Because God speaks to us in our spirit, we have to learn how to listen for him there.
When I was a new Christian trying to understand how this worked, I heard something that helped me greatly: “The head moves fast, but the spirit is slow.” From this, I understood that spirit communication from God is not like my thoughts that move and change extremely fast. For example, when needing wisdom in life’s pressures; our logic, emotions, rationalization, and imagination almost instantly jump in and try to dominate our mind and will. However, to perceive what God is saying is a slower, longer process. God’s communication comes first to our spirit; this is then translated into thoughts that form in our mind—emotionlessly and gradually. It can come in a single word, phrase, sentence, or message; or like the rising tide; it can simply grow stronger in our hearts over time.
God speaks to us continually. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27 KJV). That means his voice is certainly arriving in our spirit. Yet because we are accustomed to being dominated by our fickle, speedy thoughts and demanding emotions, we are not familiar with listening in our spirits—least of all, continually. How do we tune into our spirits and God’s communication that arrives there? After all, Jesus did say, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says …” (Rev. 2:7 NKJV, etc.). Our spirit has ears, and we hear from God’s spirit through those ears.
A memory from my days on the farm also helped me understand how to go about hearing the Good Shepherd’s voice. As an inquisitive youngster, I was interested in all things mechanical and scientific. In my high school physics class, we constantly learnt about waves and wave motion. Our farm had several dams, so I used to watch the water to study the wave motion.
A revelation hit me. When it is windy, the surface is a mishmash of random large choppy waves; the water is turbulent; you could say, it was “troubled.” On the other hand, on a still day, the dam was literally as “calm as a mill pond.” By throwing stones, pebbles, and big clods of dirt into the dam, I could investigate the waves they produced. What did I learn? When the water is “troubled,” the waves produced by even a large rock are difficult to detect and follow—although the energy is present and traveling through the water. On the other hand, when the surface is perfectly calm, I could easily see even the tiny ripples from the smallest of pebbles and follow them all the way across the dam.
I guess the application of this is obvious; we need a calm heart and mind to decipher God’s voice. If our inner life is in turmoil, too busy, or distracted, his voice is present but we do not hear what he is saying. This is sad because we miss the light, life, healing, grace, and power that he is sending; we cannot see and follow the full extent and entire ramification of his communication. However, if our heart and mind are perfectly calm, God’s voice, thoughts, and words make a clearly discernible impression. Furthermore, we can follow each thought to its full potential. Therefore, we must invest time and focus to calm ourselves to the point where we can hear him. How do we do this?
First, as I mentioned in the previous episode, you have to climb God’s mountain. To do this successfully, you will need to wrestle through every enemy attack and mental pressure that assails your mind; and counter every deceptive feeling of unworthiness, or impression of potential rejection by God. You do this by renewing your mind with God’s word, using it as a weapon against the enemy, and by feeding it into your spirit. In this process, you repel opposing thoughts (2 Cor. 10:3-4) and cast all your cares on the Lord (1 Peter 5:7). Persist in this until you come to peace.
(Isaiah 26:3 MKJV) You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You; because he trusts in You.
(Isaiah 30:15 BBE) For the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, said, “In quiet and rest is your salvation: peace and hope are your strength: but you would not have it so.”
(1 Peter 5:7 MKJV) casting all your anxiety onto Him, for He cares for you.
Peace is not the absence of turmoil; any more than light is the absence of darkness. Peace is the manifest presence of Jesus and his Holy Spirit—Jesus is the “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6 KJV). His manifest presence and that of the Holy Spirit bring the fruit of peace into manifestation. In that divine peace, turmoil goes the way darkness goes when a light comes on. This brings us again to the question: What is our part in setting up the conditions in which Jesus can manifest himself in our lives? First, we can praise God; he inhabits the praise of his people (Psalm 22:3). Second, he is present and active through his word, our faith in it, and our obedience to him, etc.
(John 14:21 EMTV) “He that has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him.”
Jesus is the Living Word of God. Therefore, when we confess the word, put our faith in it, come to God’s throne with it in our mouths, apply it in mind renewal, and use it as a sword against the enemy; the written logos literally comes to life.
The Living Word is Jesus, present and able to help, lead, and guide us. In his presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11), and he is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). When the word comes alive in us, the presence of his peace replaces turmoil; we have literally labored to enter rest:
(Hebrews 4:11 KJV) Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
At this point, I cannot help but put in a plug for God’s written word. Being 100 percent sold out to God’s word is essential for us. I love the passage that introduces John’s gospel: “In the beginning was the word (Logos).” God began with the Logos, and I believe that we should too. I use this passage as a motivation to begin everything with the Logos, God’s written word. Feed on it continually.
Transformation of our lives can only come about through mind renewal. To succeed in this, we need to meditate in God’s written word day and night. This way, his word will be alive and active in our mind, ready to demolish false arguments, tear down evil images, and bring every wayward, deceptive thought into captivity (See: 2 Cor. 10:3-5).
To prepare for victory in spiritual war, we each need to have God’s word lodged firmly in our heart and memory. Then, in pressured times—periods of crisis when we desperately need to hear God’s voice—his word will fight for us. Remember, Jesus our Master repelled the enemy’s attacking thoughts and ideas with, “It is written ...!” He then quoted by heart the exact section of God’s word required to annihilate the enemy’s particular deception. To live the way he did, we need to follow his example in this (see: Mat. 4, Luke 4).
By using God’s written word like Jesus did, we position ourselves to climb his mountain successfully, and to hear his “still, small voice” in our cave—our prayer closet. When we hear his voice and “see” things with him as Jesus did with his Father, then “Life begins.” People used to say, “Life begins at forty.” Now they say, “Fifty is the new forty, so life begins at fifty.” However, true life begins when we hear from God:
(Proverbs 4:20-22) My son, attend to my words; incline your ear unto my sayings. (21) Let them not depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart. (22) For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. (See also: John 6:63)
Brandish your spiritual sword today: “It is written …”
P.S.: I have a series of prophetic messages about our current season on YouTube, under David W Palmer. The one that came out today is on my heart at the moment: "God is crossing over before you." In other words, his manifested glory will no longer be in the old season. To think that he is, would be like one of the children of Israel—after the ark crossed Jordan into the Promised land—returning to the wilderness, expecting manna, quail, cloud, pillar of fire, and water from the rock, etc. under a leader like Moses. That blessed season is over; a new one is beginning—for you.