Hearing the Words of God and Seeing the Visions of the Almighty

This is from the blog Daily Meditation:

Numbers 24:4: He saith, who heareth the words of God, Who seeth the vision of the Almighty, Falling down, and having his eyes open:

What would you give to be hearing the words of God and be seeing the visions of God?

That is actually a wrong because the reality is that there is nothing for you to qualify for that flow of God. The divine arrangement is that no one can have the claim for any boast before God, there is nothing you have that you are not given, and if you were given why do you boast (1Corinthians 4:7)?

Let’s clear that, there is no qualifying for the gifts of God, the bible says that the manifestations of the Spirit are given, according to the will of God and not to be qualified for, for the benefit of all (1Corinthians 12:1-11). And hearing the words of God and seeing the visions of the Almighty definitely fall under the idea of the expressions of the Spirit.

However, when talking about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Peter declared that its effect includes seeing visions, dreaming dreams, and prophesying, which means declaring what we are hearing/seeing/having impressed on us in the spirit (Acts 2:1-21). Therefore hearing the words of God and seeing the visions of the almighty should not be a big deal. It should, at least, be a common denominator of all believers who have experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

The bible says that as many as are led by the Holy Spirit they are the children of God (Romans 8:14). And you are led by seeing the visions of the almighty and hearing the words of God.

I want to break that down.  When we get born again, the Holy Spirit gives birth to a new spirit in us (John 3:1-8), and because the things of God are spiritual things, we need to realise that hearing the voice of God and seeing the visions of the almighty, should be viewed in a spiritual sense, that is, it is through the instrument of our spirit that we have those experiences.

Therefore God is interested in training our spirit to function optimally, delivers his words to us, and his vision to us in a spiritual sense. So to hear the words of God and see the visions of the almighty you need to focus on your spirit as the divine connection point.

Remember that we are three-fold in part: spirit, soul and body (1Thessalonians 5:23). The spirit connects with the realm of God who is Spirit (John 4:24), the soul connects with the realm of man, since all men are called souls, and with the body we connect with our physical world via the senses.

Our physical form is based on genetics; our soul form is defined by exposures/experiences through the senses, while our spirit’s form is defined by the Holy Spirit: when Paul says that we have the mind of Christ; that is a direct reference to our spirit; since our union with God is first a spiritual union (1Corinthians 2:9-16). And it is through our spiritual ears and eyes (perception equipment) that we hear the words of God and see the visions of the almighty, because we exist in the world of God who is Spirit by our spirit.

But the problem is that, most of the time, the spirit is smothered by an over bearing soul life, by our natural bent. Therefore we are called to walk according to the Spirit and not after the flesh (Galatians 5:16), to follow the dictates of the spirit, to allowed our spirit to flow with the Holy Spirit.

That is what we are called to fast sometimes, to deny the soul of its need, to allow the spirit to soar, to facilitate the expression of the spirit. With fasting the soul of trained to be still, to be subdued, to give room for the blossoming of the spirit’s enhancement and expression.

The words of God and visions of the almighty are spiritual things, visions are pictures and they occur in various degrees, while the words of God are articulations of the mind of God, which occurs also in degrees. They range from the “is-it-my-mind?” level, to the obviously spectacular; whatever it is we need to develop sensibility of the spirit.

Paul prayed for the Ephesians that the eyes of their understanding, of their hearts (a component of the spirit), be enlightened (Ephesians 1:15-19), that they may know riches of Christ. There are things that you see with the eyes of your heart, which is an inner eye, concerning the will of God for you. There is the stirring of the spiritual consciousness towards discerning the right way to go, the right choices to make.

When Paul was in Athens, seeing how the whole land was given to idolatry, he was stirred in the spirit and he took steps to address the people to stir their conscience, towards the truth (Acts 17:17-34).

When Jesus told the devil that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. It means it is possible to exist in the state of constantly hearing the word of God. Since what Jesus meant is that we are really sustained by the word of God (Luke 4:1-4). If you are sustained by something, it means you have to be exposed to it constantly

In the time of Eli, it was said that the word of God was scarce, meaning the people were spiritually starved (1Samuel 3:1-3).

Across the world, Christians now hold in our hands the scriptures, the very oracles of God. A psalmist asked that God should open his eyes (the inner eyes) to behold wondrous things out of his word (Psalm 119:18). That is the foundational understanding for all disciples of Jesus Christ- the priority of scriptures.

Christ Jesus, when leaving the earth, instructed the apostles that they should make disciples of all nations, teaching them His words (Matthew 28:18-20). And some of those have been packaged in the bible. It is full of the teaching about the Lord, and when the Holy Spirit breathed upon the words, then we see it as the word of God to us today.

We need to be well grounded in the written word. We see Jesus and John and Paul and all the writers of the New Testament in one way or the order making reference to the scriptures (Old Testament). They see it as the living word of God having relevance to the here and now.

We can hear the words of God and see the visions of the almighty from the words of scriptures. The faculty through which images are formed in our minds is our imagination- “our image formation center,” giving us the capacity to see pictures in our mind.  The word of God we read or that we hear have the capacity to create the visions of God in our minds, prompting us to act based on it.

Habakkuk was told to write the vision (Habakkuk 2:1-5), so that those who read it may run; run with the vision. The explanation is that Habakkuk first wrote the vision as words and when the words were read, the original vision is recreated in the reader via the words that have been read though the internal tool of imagination.

Jezebel, in a negative sense used the imagination of Elijah against him (1Kings 19:1-7). She spoke words, fearful words of threat to Elijah, and the bible recorded that Elijah “saw” what she “said” (imaginatively), and he ran for his life. It was as if a psychological DVD was sent to Elijah by Jezebel with the words she sent to him, and he played it with the imagination, and he ran with the vision, fearful for his life; but the words of God are supposed to stir us to run with faith (Habakkuk 2:1-5).

Maybe with the title, you thought I will be writing about high level revelation of the hearing audible voice of God and being taken to the third heavens in visions of the almighty. Sorry to disappoint you. While both are possibilities, they are not the determined common denominators for all Christians.

However, making the word of God a priority is our common denominator. Anybody can read the words of the bible, even if you are illiterate, someone can read it to you in your own language. The scripture is the common denominator (2Timothy 3:14-17). I will be placing false hopes before you if I presume to tell you that you can hear the audible voice and see open visions, going into trances and all works; I will be setting you up to be disappointed, and frustrated.

We hear/read the word in messages and in the bible we read/hear the word, and through the means of our imagination, we see the visions of the almighty, when the word hits on our imagination. When you focus on that and follow it up by practicing truth, then you have the basic foundation to handle the high revelations, or you will be like the children of Israel who said God should stop speaking to them so spectacularly from mount Sinai, but only speak through Moses, because they couldn’t handle it (Hebrews 12:18-20, Exodus 20:18-19, Deuteronomy 5:24-27, 18:16).

If this understanding is settled in you, you will be ready to chew the meat of prophetic revelations (if God so pleases) (Hebrews 5:11-14), and divine inner promptings. God may or may never reveal himself to you in the audible voice, but you hear him in your mind, in strong impressions; you may not be taken to the third heavens in a trance, but you can see things with the eyes of your heart (see the direction God is pointing to within you) that is flooded with the light of the word of God.

God's Glory

This is from the blog Daily Meditation:

Psalm 57:11: Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!

The psalmist is expressing desire for God to show forth himself on the earth, asking that his glory will be above all the earth, that his name be exalted. When Jesus taught on prayer he said that we should pray to our heavenly father: let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). We are to seek that the will of God to be exalted on the earth.

With Adam and Eve in their sin (Genesis 3), there was the throwing down of the will of God, the will of God was jettisoned, trampled upon, disregarded. The will of God was rejected. But in Christ we are to actively in the place of prayer seek that the will of God be done. Through that we are removing ourselves from the rebellion of the first Adam.

When God said that they  should not eat the fruit of the free of the knowledge of good and evil, they were convinced by the devil that God was exaggerating, that the tree only had good and not evil, he sold them a half truth, and caused them to eat the poison of disobedience to God. Now all that has got to change, man has to be called back to loving God, which Jesus defined as obedience. Jesus told the disciples if you love me, you will obey my commandment (John 14:15-23). That will lead to God being exalted in our lives.

Paul wrote that at the name of Jesus everyone knee must bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:5-11). The name is exalted and everything else would have to bow to it. The destiny of the earth is in the direction of being covered by the glory of God and man was to be the medium for this. But man allowed himself to be distracted into selfishness, and was disqualified from being conduits of the glory of God. Selfishness is the alternate motivation to the love of God, and when it comes to manifesting the glory of God, motivation is everything.

When the psalmist said: “be exalted oh Lord”, what he wants is for God to “come out,” for him to be manifestly exalted, show himself for who he really is, for public knowledge, to leave no shadow of doubt about who he is. Otherwise the fools will continue to say that there is no God (Psalm 14:1). But God is exalted above the earth, there will be no gainsaying.

There was no hiding place in the land of Egypt when the God was ready to deliver his people by his mighty outstretched arms (Deuteronomy 26:8). Though Pharaoh was headstrong, he was no match for God when He is ready to show his supremacy. In judgement, Egypt was forced to its knees, when God was ready to set his people free, manifesting his glory as the earth had never seen.

The magnificence of God was shown in Egypt so much that the children of Israel became an object of fear (Psalm 105:26-45, Exodus 15:14-16, 23:27-28). He became the exalted in their lives, his manifest presence in the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, was upon the assembly of the people all the time. He covered them with his protection and grace.

Jesus’ life was about God’s glory. He did not seek his own glory or try to make a name for himself; rather God rewarded him with a name greater than any other name, when he laid down his life. Jesus said that he who seeks to protect his life will lose it. As he laid down his life at God’s request, he was reward with a higher life, resurrected life.

Paul said that it is required in stewards that they are found faithful. And Jesus was faithful to God. He was all for God’s glory. He said to God: I have glorified you on the earth. He said that he had to go about his father’s business; he has to go about doing the will of his father (Luke 2:49).

To God is all the glory in all things because we are nothing more than earthen (earthly) treasures with heavenly treasure in us (2Corinthians 4:7).

God’s glory should be uppermost in our mind and not just our own desire and will. We should be ready to do is bidding; seek to magnify his name. Paul told Timothy: preach the word, in season and out of season, whether it is convenient or not, do the work of an evangelist (2Timothy 4:1-8). He wants him to seek the eternal reward that will come when Jesus will appear and reward the faithful with eternal portions.

Since we walk with a God we do not see, and so walk with him by faith, we have to serve him also by faith, seeking for the reward beyond the veil of time, the realm of what is seen. The writer of the book of Hebrews says: wherefore we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear (Hebrews 12:28).

There is a kingdom that we are working towards on this earth (and working for the king); there is a glory that we must manifest, a fire we must set, a task we must fulfil, and we need to lay aside every sin and the fear, the weight that easily besets us to be able to do that (Hebrews 12:1-2). There is a race set before you, a mandate of heaven you must fulfil. As bearers of the glory of God, our service becomes an outlet of his glory. Wherever we sit, there should have a deposit of the glory of God there, whoever we touch should experience God’s glory.

Miracles happen when cloth items were taken from the body of Paul; devils were cast out, and the sick were healed (Acts 19:11-12). The shadow of Peter healed the sick that were lined up on the street (Acts 5:15-16).

The manifestation of the sons of God which Paul talked about is all about unleashing the glory of God like never before on the earth through God’s vessels (Romans 8:18-21), who are dead to themselves by alive to God, dead to human acclaim but fully given to God, having no eye for human gain but eyes set on God. They will lead many from hell to heaven with the banner of the grace and power of God. They will not be afraid or back down, they will not be shaken, and they know that there is a kingdom that cannot be shaken.