How to Listen to God

2 Corinthians 4:15-16 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

You cannot let your outward man drag you down. If you have afflictions in your body, the Word of God tells you to rejoice and be glad, knowing that the perseverance of your faith produces patience, virtue, and temperance.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Paul's prayer is asking that the Lord will open your spiritual eyes and your ability to see and perceive in the spirit.

The things that are in the spirit are all around you. You cannot see many things with your natural eyes. Science has proven that. As an example, you cannot see WI-FI or radio signals.

Your spiritual eyes and ears are in your heart. You have to learn to tune your spiritual ears up, just like you might dial into a particular station on a radio. In the same way that there are many stations playing on the airwaves that you do not want to listen to, it is the same in the spiritual realm. You must to dial into the right "frequency" to hear God, as there will be many other voices that you could pick up on that are from the enemy.

Learning to listen to God's voice is learning to be led by the Holy Spirit.

Distraction is a tool that the enemy will often use against you. When you are distracted, then you cannot listen to God.

Saul was not a good listener to God, but David was a good listener. David was a man after God's own heart. Many Christians have a Saul-like mentality where they are trying to do things in their own strength or power.

A good question to ask yourself is, "Am I a Saul listener or David listener? ". Saul was listening to his own self, but David was listening to God.

Listening is a big key to learning how to walk in the Spirit.

The key to walking with the Lord is to understand that you will walk by faith, and not by what your natural eyes can see.

God's Word says that Love will never pass away. Even the gifts of the Spirit will pass away, but it's Love that will never pass away. That is because God is Love. So, if you're going to see with your spiritual eyes and ears, then you must learn to tune into the things which are above and not the things which are below.

You are seated with Christ in Heavenly places now. You must learn that you are only a temporary pilgrim passing through this temporary world.

A discerning Christian will avoid coming into agreement with the world by being careful about what they listen to. Additionally, it is wise to be careful and discerning about who you are listening to.

That is why being in fellowship with other mature, spirit-filled Believers is vitally important.

You have to be careful about what you are training by what you are hearing (and therefore receiving): are you training your natural eyes and ears or are you training your spiritual eyes and ears?

You must learn to walk by faith.

Walking in the Spirit is important for not seeing with your natural eyes and not hearing with your natural ears. You have to learn how to listen to God.

When you begin to walk in the Spirit, you'll start your day by asking God questions or making statements like:

• "Lord, what are You doing today?"

• "What are we doing today?"

• "Your will be done and not mine. What do You want to do today, Lord?"

• "What do You want me to do today, Lord?"

• I am yours. Whatever You want, I am yours. Lord, I make myself Your servant. I cast down "I".

• Is that what you ask the Lord when you wake up every morning?

When you start to have your mind set on the Lord, instead of yourself, you will mature in your ability to hear God through the Holy Spirit.

God will begin to direct your thoughts. But, you must also discern your thoughts and determine their source. Directing your thoughts is how the Lord works. You will become one with Christ and you will have His mind: the mind of Christ.

What is the mind of Christ? The mind of Christ is His thoughts. It is not your thoughts.

You must lean towards His understanding and not your own! How do you do that? You do that by listening to God.

You must overcome mind control spirits, which will direct your thoughts away from God. You overcome mind control spirits by the Sword of the Spirit. The Sword of the Spirit cuts off the carnal mind and the flesh.

You must learn to identify when you are operating in your carnal mind. Satan influences the carnal mind through subliminal mind control. You must be careful to listen to God. You also need to untrain yourself from the mindset that comes from the world. Believers constantly get bombarded with the world's mindset through television and other media every single day.

Many Believers go under the Law without realizing it. If you have feelings of guilt, shame, condemnation or anything like that, then you've actually fallen from grace. Instead of living in God's grace, you are living under the Law of Sin and Death. To live under that Law is to not abide in faith. You overcome by the Blood of the Lamb (that's the Cross) and by the word of your testimony.

If you are remembering your old life and whoever you were before the Cross, then you have not understood that your former life has been cut off. There is no reason for you to dwell on the past.

Rather, by faith you must believe that you have died with Christ and that you are a New Creation.

Now, you have virtue. You have morality because your conscience has been restored and you have been given a heart of flesh. You know the difference between good and evil because you've been given knowledge and temperance.

Temperance is the ability to make a choice and then choosing to do good over evil. It means to not allow the flesh to have dominion over you any more. It is walking in the Spirit, learning to listen to God, and choosing to follow God over evil. You will begin to learn wisdom and to choose to have disdain for the things of the world and evil.

Understand that guilt, shame, and the like were all cut off at the Cross. If you choose to abide in blame, judgment, woe or self-pity, then you have fallen from grace and are actually rebelling against God. Rebellion is a grave offense against God. Satan is a deceiver. He does not want you to know your true identity and who you are in Christ. You must choose to believe who God says you are by faith and to reject the lies of the enemy.

Once you receive temperance, then that will bring the peace and patience of God. Patience then leads to godliness, which is God's character. God's character produces brotherly kindness and love.

2 Peter 1:1-8 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Faith is the substance that leads you to godliness.

If you're abiding in guilt and shame, then you are not abiding in faith. Instead, you are living under condemnation. Condemnation is not from the Lord, nor is it walking in the Spirit. Remember, that without faith it is impossible to please God. The just shall live by faith.

Those in the Body of Christ who have wisdom and understanding about this have a responsibility to correct others in a spirit of wisdom and love. By showing brotherly kindness, the mature may show others their error so that they can repent and allow the Holy Spirit to change them.

It's the Holy Spirit that brings restoration, deliverance, and transformation. When you humble yourself, then the Holy Spirit will be able to bring correction.

Living under shame, guilt, or condemnation will cause you to go around the proverbial mountain over and over, until you learn to overcome that deception about your identity. Understanding your identity in Christ and the work of the Cross is the key to lasting freedom.

Circumcision in the Old Testament was the cutting off of the foreskin. It was a physical cutting of the flesh. But, in the New Testament it is a circumcision of the heart performed by the Holy Spirit.

The New Testament circumcision is the baptism into Christ. You died with Christ, and then the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God cut off the heart of stone and replaced it with a new heart of flesh. This is a spiritual surgery performed by God's own hands.

You became a New Creation, a New Man, the born-again man from above. Are you walking in your New Man? Or are you walking in the Old Man by walking in the past?

Learn to walk by faith in the eternal promise. Understand that when you belong to Jesus you have been delivered from sin and out of the Law of Sin and Death. By faith, you must choose to live under the Law of Liberty in Christ.

Which are you living under right now: The Law of Liberty or the Law of Sin and Death?

Which spirit are you living under? If it is the one that is outside the Word of God and is a lie then you have allowed leaven into your life. Jesus said to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees because leaven separates you from God and Christ Jesus.

The Pharisees were taking new believers and not only stopping them from entering the Kingdom of Heaven but making them twice the sons of Hell. That is serious. You need to be careful that you are not being excluded from God's grace. Paul was angry with false teachers who'd led the Galatian Church astray because they were undoing everything that he'd taught them. They had fallen from Grace, fallen out of the perfect secret place of the Most High, and fallen away from abiding in the peace of God that passes all understanding. Instead of living under the Law of Liberty they had come under the Law of Sin and Death. They came under a spirit of condemnation.

When it comes to deliverance, many Christians are deceived by not understanding their identity. Everything in the Kingdom of God is received by faith. All you have to do is believe.

You enter into the secret place of the Most High, then you are hidden in Christ. It means the devil cannot even see you because you are abiding in perfect light. Then, the darkness has no power over you purely because of grace and faith.

Have you had the revelation that you are a New Creature in Christ and that there is no condemnation or you? Understand that it is not your righteousness but Christ's righteousness that you are now walking in. Your righteousness was cut off at the Cross when you were baptized into Him.

Your Old Man died. Self pity and woe were all cut off at the cross. Do you believe that?

if you don't believe that, then ask the Lord for more understanding. It is an essential belief that you must lay hold of. Deliverance ministers can cast demons out of you forever, but if you don't get the revelation of what took place at the Cross, then the demons will keep coming back.

That hurt and pain, where ever it is in your heart or soul, is a room that you haven't let the Lord into.

• Have you let the Lord into every room of your heart?

• Have you restricted His access to the areas where you've hidden your pets hurts?

• Where in the house have you taken the Lord?

• Have you handed him the keys to every room of your heart?

To do so requires trusting God. Not trusting in God will hinder you from receiving your healing and deliverance.

When you understand that you are under the Law of Liberty in Christ (which means that you are totally free, that there is no condemnation, and that you are loved by God) then God can work though you to accomplish His plans and purposes. God is able to do this because it is based on His righteousness and not yours.

If you're trying to be righteous in your own strength or by any other way than received what Jesus accomplished on the Cross by faith, then you are in works. Those are dead works.

When faith said that faith without works is dead, he was talking about the works of Jesus.

You must abide in Christ's works and not your own.

Don't ever get caught up in self works. Receive the finished work of the Cross and everything that was given to you at Calvary. Everything has already been given to you! It has been placed in you already. The fullness of the Godhead abides in you.

How do you release the divine nature that is in you? How do you manifest that?

By your faith! Purely by believing who you are in Christ!

Delight in the Law of God according to your inward man. Your outward man is perishing. The outward man was crucified with Christ.

Where are your eyes: in the outward man or the inward man?

Your inward man does not look at the things that can be seen with your natural eyes, but at the things which cannot be seen, the spiritual things.

You have to learn to look at the things of the spirit. You have to learn to operate in the gifts of the Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit you will be lost and will not make it. It is the Holy Spirit that guides and leads you in all truth.

To recap, you must tune your inward man to the frequency of God. The frequency of the Spirit is the Word of God. When you start to meditate on and tune into the Word of God, you must do so by faith and by the Spirit.

Remember, that you enter into God through faith. Faith is like a portal into God. Your faith produces virtue (morality). Your conscience gets tuned into God and then you start to get a hunger for God and for His Word. That leads to knowledge of the Word, which produces temperance.

Temperance is defined as "moderation of voluntary self-restraint. It is typically defined as what an individual refrains from doing. This includes restraint from retaliation in the form of non-violence and forgiveness, restraint from arrogance, in a form of humility and modesty, restraint from excesses such as splurging, in the form of prudence, and restraint from excessive anger or craving for something in the form of calmness and self-control."

The Word of God cuts off your carnality, cuts off worldliness, and cuts off your flesh. The Sword of the Spirit cuts off the carnal mind. It divides the soul from the spirit and is sharper than any two-edged sword. The demons hate the Sword of the Spirit. They can't handle it. It literally torments them. They do not want you to understand the Word of truth because when you do, then you will be set free from all of their lies.

Temperance is a type of self-control and self-restraint. With temperance you get to choose if you're going to sin or to follow God. When you possess temperance the Holy Spirit is able to work through you to produce the fruit of the Spirit in your life which is patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love.

These are the keys to walking in the Spirit.