How does a watchman hear God’s voice? (a testimony)

How does a Christian hear God’s voice? Today I share my own testimony. For years I sought to hear God. I first encountered God in my spirit and was filled by the Holy Spirit in 1983 in a Spirit-filled church during a six-month work assignment living in a hotel. My spiritual journey stagnated when I returned to my home-base and attended a traditional Evangelical church and its Bible school classes for ten years until my transfer to another town. I spent another ten years in another similar traditional Evangelical church without being taught or built further in my walk in the Spirit. I was taught and trained of many theological studies and their traditional church, Bible school belief, and religious work practices. I was not taught anything about and/or how to practice and minister in the Holy Spirit and the power of God in the supernatural reality. I was filled with head knowledge of the Bible but did not encounter the mighty power of spiritual reality of God and His words. Jesus has said that the flesh (head knowledge of the Bible) profits nothing, and the words He has spoken to us are Spirit and life. In my professional and business venture I have experienced this truth (realizing only after having a major and devastating failure and its resultant significant monetary loss).
I have discovered that it is absolutely essential for a born again Christian to know God and hear Him and the only way is through the Holy Spirit. I arrived at the watershed of my Christian walk when I invested my life saving and knew I had failed even though I was armed with the Bible and the words therein and all my education and professional knowledge and experience. I could not carry on not knowing God is Spirit. Jesus has said that the Holy Spirit would tell us the future. What does He mean? I wanted to know. That started my seeking to hear God’s voice. My journey to become spiritual rather than carnal. The rest is history.
I summarize below the journey:
1. I was introduced to a worship place which emphasized on worshiping God in the Holy Spirit.
2. The grace of God gave me the strength and determination to be humble and hang on despite my dislike and prejudices and critical views of the place.
3. I continued to practice what I learned there at home.
4. I read the Bible to confirm what I learned and practiced.
5. The steps I have practiced over the years: seek God diligently, listen to the voice/words in my spirit, and ask to see visions, record down what I receive (in words, pictures, diagrams, or any other journal ways.)
Last week a friend sent me a link to a book. The friend wrote this remark to me: “Over the years you have shared with us what you have received concerning how you have heard God’s voice, and you tried to teach us the whole process but I did not understand them until I read this present book which has confirmed what you have received even then.”
Here is the link to the book the friend has sent. I pray you may find it simple to apply. For those who are already walking in the Spirit and hearing God in your own way, my prayer is, “Press on.”
http://www.cwgministries.org/Four-Keys-to-Hearing-Gods-Voice
Download MP3: To listen later or transfer to your portable player, right-click here and select “Save Target As…” or “Save Link As…”. (On a Mac, hold the Option button while clicking on the link.)
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John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh conveys no benefit [it is of no account]. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life [providing eternal life].

prayer power 2: case study

Here is a record of a powerful prayer case: Why were the simple and short prayers effective in all cases?

Because Elisha could see the spiritual realm. He had faith as he was not looking at the seen, but at the unseen. He saw in his spirit. He knew His God. He trusted God would send him more horses and chariots than the enemy had. He knew what he had in the spiritual realm was real and he had already won the battle. David heard the marching of God's army in the spiritual realm and then sent out his own physical army, just as the Lord had told him, and he won the battle. The heavenly forces made sure of David's and Elisha's respective victory.

How did Elisha make sure what he had in the spiritual manifest in the physical? He prayed effectual prayers by faith. Effectual prayers produced results we need for victory in life.

 Jesus said, in HIs name, what we bind on earth will be bound in the spiritual realm. Do we march with the heavenly army?

2 kings 6:15-20 (Boldness of letters added)

When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. “Oh, sir, what will we do now?” the young man cried to Elisha.
¹⁶ “Don’t be afraid!” Elisha told him. “For there are more on our side than on theirs!” ¹⁷ Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!” The Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.
¹⁸ As the Aramean army advanced toward him, Elisha prayed, “O Lord, please make them blind.” So the Lord struck them with blindness as Elisha had asked.
¹⁹ Then Elisha went out and told them, “You have come the wrong way! This isn’t the right city! Follow me, and I will take you to the man you are looking for.” And he led them to the city of Samaria.
²⁰ As soon as they had entered Samaria, Elisha prayed, “O Lord, now open their eyes and let them see.” So the Lord opened their eyes, and they discovered that they were in the middle of Samaria.

Journey in the Holy Spirit: being spiritual

Because this blog is all about God, I am reluctant to say much about my own thoughts or sharing my life. But I have been witnessing the increasing chasm between the spiritual and carnal Christians (those who are more accustomed to use their five senses) all over the world. So I have decided to share a bit here, despite the limitation of my words.
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I have lived in different parts of the world and have encountered different customs and cultures for the bulk of my life.
In the last ten years I have gradually encountered the reality of the holy God in the Spirit, in the Bible and in life. I realized what it means to have the reverent fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2). This means agreeing the spiritual existence of absolute good and evil and the final accountability everyone must give to the holy God, who abhors things done not of the Spirit, but out of man’s flesh or carnality.
Jesus has Himself declared, the ruler of this world has nothing in Him. His disciples followed the same principle.

When one aligns with God, one does not yearn to be the same as the Jones. What do Christians have to do with evil? Why bring in their customs and cultures which are abominations in the eyes of the holy God? God wants us set apart for Him, away from the world and its customs, just as He had warned the Israel people. 
Being spiritual means we live in awareness of two realms: the physical and the spiritual. The spiritual reality governs the physical. All customs and cultures have a spiritual realm where the spiritual rulers rule and direct their adherents’ lives. Apostle Paul had revealed this truth in Ephesians 6:12.
Our Lord Jesus warned the disciples to be spiritually discerning when sending them into the world! “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrew as snakes and harmless as doves.” (Matthew 10:16) Jesus was talking about the physical as well as spiritual enemies. Why? Because they were stepping into spiritual enemy’s territory as they go out and witness for Jesus!

The pagans know better about the spiritual. They are wise on what to avoid and when. For example, different cultures round the world have their own ‘ghost’ festivals. The Chinese called the Halloween in the West, the Westerners’ ‘ghost’ night, the night when the evil spirits paraded, (like the Chinese July month when hell opened its gates and let the hungry demons come out) and they avoid going out that night! Other pagan religions too have their own ghost periods and festivals.
A spiritually discerning person can see spirits. They see spirits in unclean houses, the streets, schools, offices, hospitals, shopping malls, movie theaters, and funeral parlors. A normally fit and healthy rational German Christian man recently testified that he walked under the air vent of a shopping mall, and saw this huge black thing coming at him, entered and went through him. He was instantly hit with severe pain and collapsed on the floor. His wife and daughter who regularly attend a Spirit-filled, Bible believing and adhering church, took authority using the name of Jesus, prayed fervently, as he lied there near dead, gasping for breath. he finally survived. The experience was traumatic.
When Christians stay away from certain locations during certain time, they merely obey the leading of the Spirit of the Lord, who is holy. The evil spirits know too whether you are walking in the Holy Spirit or not. The seven sons of the priest were attacked by the evil spirit because they knew Jesus and apostle Paul walked in the power of the Holy Spirit, but this group of exorcists did not. This group of believers were trying to do the right thing, casting demon, using the mighty name of the Lord Jesus. But they were not sent by the Lord. They went on their own flesh and of course they suffered the terrible consequences.
When God sent Moses to Egypt to confront Pharaoh, the Lord gave him spiritual power to overcome the territorial evil spirits controlling the land there. When the prophet Samuel patrolled the Israel land he was just one man, but the territorial spirit of the Philistines feared him, because he walked in the Spirit of the Lord. None of his words fell to the ground. He merely spoke and the words took effect.
Unless we are sent by the Lord and walk in discernment of the spiritual realm and in the power of the Holy Spirit, we do not do exploits. This is what I have learned over thirty years being a born again Christian, after having suffered immense loss.
So what shall an ordinary Christian do? Find out more about the reality of God and His words, the Bible. The Bible cannot be read as a knowledge book. Do not rationalize away the real meaning and purpose of the holy words. Jesus has warned clearly, as the pharisees and other religious leaders, even His own followers/disciples did not believe in the spiritual reality of Jesus and what Jesus has represented. Read the four Gospels again. Ask the Lord Holy Spirit to guide you. Daily pray the prayers of apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians (1:16-23; 3:14-21).
What happens if some still cannot hear the Holy Spirit? I believe in the grace and mercy of God. Keep seeking to know God, keep asking His Spirit to reveal to you. For a start, daily praying the Lord’s Prayer can help you a lot, if you believe!
John 6:61-65 (NKJV)
⁶¹ When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? ⁶² What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? ⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. ⁶⁴ But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. ⁶⁵ And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”

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Hell is real!