Life Saving The Importance of Hearing the Voice of God

From the Inside Out

“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

        Rom 8:11

“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”

        1Co 3:16

“That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.”

       2Ti 1:14

“Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?

       Jas 4:5

Rom 8:16 says, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” “Beareth witness” is a King James English term for a communication that is taking place between the Holy Spirit and our spirit, inside our spirit. I previously shared that Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would be in us, those that have received salvation, to comfort us, to be with us as Jesus was with the disciples. So in effect, the Holy Spirit speaks to us from the inside out. We hear His voice inside our “hearts” with our “spiritual ears.”

We've been taught that we have 5 physical senses: hearing, seeing, tasting, touching, smelling. But we have spiritual senses, such as spiritual sight and hearing as well. Jesus explains why some people, whom Jesus refers to as “the world,” those who have not come to receive salvation by Him, cannot “see” or “hear.” He is not talking about being blind or deaf in the natural realm but in the spiritual realm. It is receiving Christ, with the manifestation of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit that opens our spirits, our “hearts” to communication with God and to “see” and “hear” what God is trying to communicate supernaturally.

“Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.”

         Mat 13:9-16

In the Scripture quoted above, Jesus said it is possible to see and hear spiritual truths with your five physical senses but not understand them. The Holy Spirit residing in you is what helps you hear and understand spiritual truth (Jhn 16:13). The Bible refers to the place where this spiritual understanding takes place as your “heart.” When the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit dwelling inside you, it is talking about the same place, your “heart.” To be clear, it is not talking about your physical flesh pump consisting of chambers and valves connected to blood vessels, but the center of your being, your spirit. Your spirit is where the Holy Spirit resides, where spiritual understanding takes place, and where communion and communication with God take place.

The Scriptures below talk about the type of activity that the Bible says takes place in the “heart.”

“(Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

Luk 2:35

“Those by the wayside are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.”

Luk 8:12

“To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,”

Act 7:39

“And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;”

Act 15:8

“Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;”

Rom 2:15

“And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”

Gal 4:6

“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,”

Eph 3:17

“And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.”

2Th 3:5

“While it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.”

Heb 3:15

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:”

Heb 8:10

“And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”

Rom 5:5

In Mat 13:9-16, Jesus also talked about people having hearts that have “waxed gross.” The Blue Letter Bible commentary and Strong’s concordance interpret this as “to make stupid (to render the soul dull or callous.” (Blue Letter Bible, n.d.)This is similar to the Bible condition referred to as a hardened heart (Heb 3:8, 3:15, 4:7, 1 Sam 6:6). According to the Blue Letter Bible Commentary and Strong’s concordance, “harden” means “to make hard, harden, to render obstinate, stubborn.” (Blue Letter Bible, n.d.) In either case, this condition of the “heart” or spirit is impaired, and keeps a person from understanding spiritual truths. Your spiritual eyes and ears can’t see or hear spiritual truths that you won’t allow into your heart.