SPIRITUAL SENSES
16th Dec 2020
I want to encourage you to use your spiritual senses. In the physical body you have five senses - taste, sight, hearing, touch and smell, all feeding you information, and whenever one of those is missing, you don’t function well.
The spiritual realm parallels the natural, and once you are regenerated, born from above, the spirit becomes alive and the spiritual senses need to be used to understand the realm of the Spirit.
Jesus saw into the hearts of men and women and knew their thoughts; He could then meet their real needs not simply respond to their external behaviour. He looked at the woman at the well in John 4, saw her longing for love, and was aware of her deep loneliness; her aggressive argumentative behaviour was the result of inner needs, which He then addressed.
Jesus was always listening to his Father, he declares, “I only do what I see my Father doing and say what He tells me to say and how to say it.” (John 12:49) Jesus wants us to feed on Him, to receive Him like fresh manna on a daily basis. Taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed are those who put their trust in Him. Taste His wisdom today, His comfort, His instruction. The word of God is living and active and you and I need revelation as we feed on the written Word as well as the internal voice of the Spirit.
Prophetically Jesus is described in fragrant terms, the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley, His garments drenched with myrrh, cassia and aloes. (Psalm 45:8) I have experienced His fragrance in special times of prayer and worship.
During a revival time in the Hebridean Island of Skye, the presence of Jesus was so strong, a friend of mine told how a unique perfume clung to her clothes during the meeting, and remained as she returned home. The following day as she went to to teach in the local school, wearing the same clothes, even the normally ‘naughty boys’ would settle and be like lambs.
It is also possible to smell the stench of the kingdom of darkness, especially useful in recognising deceiving demons. Unclean spirits stink, and when deliverance is needed smell is often an indictor.
Jesus used touch to connect with people. He touched them and made lepers whole, brought love to the neglected and comfort to the sad and lonely. Another friend of ours told how when his first wife died shortly after childbirth, and he was struggling with grief as well as a new baby. At the graveside he felt a strong hand grip his shoulder, and when he looked to see who touched him, saw only the indentation of a hand on his jacket and comfort flooded into him. “He saw Him who is invisible.”
Today cry out for an awakening of the reality of your spiritual senses and expect increasingly to reach out to and understand the world around you in the way that Jesus did.
by Joyce Sibthorpe
