If you have read part one of this teaching, you have become aware that the fruit in your life matters when learning to hear God’s voice. Your fruit can be any part of your manifestation, including words, actions, and the condition of your heart, all of which comes from within. The fruit (which also includes your thoughts) reveals what seed was planted in you, whether good or evil. It also reveals the sower, which is the spirit of him who is speaking to you. We must learn to discern the spirit of the voice that is speaking, and with the same idea as discerning the fruit, we must also discern the voice itself.
Ultimately the goal is to grow into a perfect man in Christ Jesus. To be a perfect image of Jesus, we must learn the revelation of Jesus, which is the revelation of the WORD. Within this revelation are many voices, both good and evil. Growing up spiritually means learning to discern every voice within the WORD. Some are true, and others have been perverted and are lies. We must learn to hear from God and discern every voice. God is a Spirit, but also the WORD; therefore, every voice originated from Him, the WORD. All voices must be examined, discerned, understood, and judged righteously.
The focus is the revelation of Jesus Christ. In learning the revelation of Jesus, all other voices are discerned. In other words, We don’t need to focus all our attention on voices that are not God. As it is written,
Look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Jesus also said, It’s the Spirit of truth that will guide you into all truth, and He will not speak of Himself, but what He hears from heaven, that is what He will speak and testify to you. He will glorify me and will take what is mine and declare it unto you.
It’s clear that with the guidance of the Spirit, the revelation of Jesus will be revealed to us if we continue to follow Him.
With this in mind, we need to examine what a word from the mouth of God will say when He does speak. John is one of the Apostles with much to say about what things the Spirit of truth will speak. But before we look at John’s witness on how to discern spirits and voices, we must pay attention to the desire that Jesus has for us in His revelation. Jesus has desires. He desires to share His witness of heaven with us. He wants to show us who He really is. In His prayer to His Father, He says
I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me.
This saying of Jesus is important because it shows us His desire and reveals what He wants to speak to us so that He can reveal Himself. Again Jesus said,
He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what He has seen and heard, yet no one receives His testimony. Whoever receives His testimony sets His seal to this, that God is true. For He whom God has sent utters the words of God, for He gives the Spirit without measure.
There has never been any doubt about what is in the heart of Jesus; He wants to talk to you about heavenly things. Why? Because that’s where He lives and where you will live forever with Him, free of sin and death. (Earth is not your home, you’re just passing through, so don’t get too caught up in the world so you don’t have time to prepare yourself for your eternal home.)
Hearing from the perception of Jesus.
Now, with this idea in front of us, we must approach hearing God’s voice in the light of how Jesus wants to reveal Himself to us. To help with this, let’s look at what John said concerning discerning spirits and what they say. John says,
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
In John’s writings, he teaches us exactly how to know if it is the Spirit of truth speaking or the spirit of error speaking. Where you look for it is in the conversation. What is being spoken? The old man is a conversation of the world, while the new man is a conversation in heaven.
The apostle Paul also added,
If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
All of these witnesses are saying the same thing; we must seek the things that are above because when the Spirit of truth speaks, that’s what He will talk to us about. With these witnesses in front of us, learning how to discern God’s voice doesn’t get any clearer for us.
What about the earth?
Some may say that Jesus did talk about things on the earth, and it wasn’t all heavenly; after all, the earth does belong to Him. But that is only true for those who approach His teachings from an earthly perception. In that case, it may seem that way. I agree that Jesus cares much about the earth, and so should we. But He used it for His purpose with earthly examples (parables) to show spiritual ideas. Even when He used earthly images, He was still talking about heavenly things. What is the earth without spiritual enlightenment?
Jesus was always revealing eternal life to those who could see and hear past the flesh. But that’s the masteries of Jesus; He could use earthly images to reveal heavenly secrets while hiding all His secrets from those who seek after the flesh. That’s the reason why God put Himself in an earthly body; so He could hide who He was from the wicked. There is a big difference between being a spiritual teacher on earth versus having our conversation on earth.
A good example of this concerning Jesus is His approach to healing the sick. Many would see these acts as speaking and doing works concerning earthly things. But I provoke you to look deeper beyond the surface of the flesh and see that the healing of the earthly body was never the focus. This was never more evident when Jesus explained that forgiving sins is the same as healing the sick. (Mark 2:1-12) Every time Jesus healed the sick, it was to show us what the forgiveness of sins looks like.
It wasn’t about healing the earthly body as much as forgiving their sins. By manifesting healing, Jesus was teaching them who He is. There is no sin, sickness, or disease in Christ Jesus. All are healed and forgiven. The blind see because there is no darkness in Him. My point is that Jesus spoke heavenly when He did works on the earth. He is heavenly; therefore, He speaks heavenly.
To discern what spirit is talking and the word you hear, look at what it points you to. Does it glorify God? Or does it speak of worldly things? Knowing this is everything because if it speaks of the world, it will keep you in death because it is the spirit of antichrist. As we established earlier, if it speaks of heavenly things, then it is of God. (Remember, Jesus desires to show you His glory and have you share it with Him. He does this by having conversations of heaven with you.)
The spirits who confess Jesus came in the flesh.
If you remember, John said that if a spirit confesses that Jesus came in the flesh, He is of God. If not, he is the spirit of antichrist. To capture the full truth of this, you have to see that Jesus is not just a man in the flesh; He is the Christ, the Son of God. He is God manifested in the flesh. To deny this would say that Jesus was not the image of God, that came to save the world. (That’s why I said Jesus desires you to see His glory. John 1:14)
A good example was Peter when He confessed that Jesus is Christ, the Son of God. Jesus replied that flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. In this case, the Father, the Spirit, the WORD, who spoke to Peter, is of God and revealed that Jesus was more than a man; He was the Christ from heaven. The revelation showed Peter that Jesus was the WORD-made flesh. He was God manifested in the flesh. His confession said that Jesus (God) came in the flesh.
On the other hand, the Pharisees denied that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, and in doing so, they confessed that Jesus was not the image of God who was manifested in the flesh. Jesus called them out by saying they were of their father, the devil, who is a liar. It makes sense why their confession would deny Jesus as the Son of God in the flesh because their whole gospel was built on doing works of the flesh and being seen by men. If they confessed that Jesus was the Christ, they would have had to give up their self-righteousness and begin to walk by the Spirit. Their gospel would have had to change from earthly to heavenly, and they refused to humble themselves to that truth.
In other words, it means they spoke early about the things of God, therefore perverting His word. Their confession said that Jesus is not the Christ, the Son of God who has come down from heaven; He is just a man. Therefore they confess that Jesus did not come in the flesh. (They weren’t saying that Jesus was never on the earth; they were saying He wasn’t the true Messiah God sent into the world.)
Let’s get back to the fruit.
When a seed brings forth its fruit, the fruit confesses what seed it came from. When a tree brings forth his fruit, it confesses what kind of tree it is. When a woman brings forth a child (the fruit of her womb), she is making a confession of where the seed came from. In other words, the child tells the story of who the father is. When the Holy Ghost overshadowed Mary and Jesus was born, the confession of God worked in Jesus.
If you look closely, the confession will reveal its origin. The Spirit of truth confesses heavenly things. The Spirit of truth wants to cause you to sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Spirit of truth doesn’t keep you focused on how to fix your earthly life; it teaches you the heavenly will of God so that you know how the will of God will manifest in your earthly life.
When the word we hear keeps our focus on earthly things and never takes us higher, this will be the spirit of error.
Let’s conclude.
Ok, this has been longer than normal, but by now, you should better understand whether God is talking to you. If He is talking to you, pay attention, prove it out, and ask the question of who this is glorifying. In time, all things will be revealed.