Hearing the voice of God by Uebert Angel
Chapter 1
Open Vision
An open vision is one in which you can see both spiritual and physical things at the same time. I have seen many open visions it will fill books to write them all and other great ones that God has not even permitted me to share. For example, I was in my house in Ashton Under Lyne in Manchester UK one summer evening and I had waited for everyone to go to bed so I could have my quiet time. I had just settled into my favourite sofa with my bible on my lap when the Lord Jesus himself walked into my room. It was as if the walls of my room were announcing his presence I felt every fibre of my being awaken. I could see him physically, I mean like I would see you if I bumped into you in the street but at the same time I didn’t lose sight of where I was. I could still see the couch I was sitting on, and everything else in the room remained the same, but this was the Lord Himself in my room.
I was wide-awake, and I could see Him physically. That was an open vision. The word open refers to your physical senses still being open to the physical world, while at the same time open to the spiritual world. Your inner eyes can become so sharp to the extent that you can see into the spiritual realm just as well as you do the natural. This is why it is important for you to stay in the word for the bible says that the entrance of his word brings light. And as long as you are in a place where strife and fear is not damaging the function of your inner eyes you will be able to see into that realm.
Open visions are something that I began to experience from a young age and just recently before the US Presidential election, I was walking in central London Oxford street, when right in front of me Donald Trump appeared. I could see him standing there. I knew where I was, everything else around me continued as normal. The Lord said to me ‘you are looking at the President of the United States of America’, and I came out of that vision. That is why you will find videos that we released on live television prophesying about him being president way before he even declared his interest to run for the presidency of the united states. I mean we gave the prophecy to the world on live television before the election. I was giving that prophetic word that I had received in that vision. You see in an open vision you can hardly tell the difference between what is in the natural world and the spiritual, you can see both with equal clarity.
When I say that the vision is clear you might not get it, but let me give you an example. While ministering in Africa one of my elders who is based in the UK flew into the country and came to the Sunday service. Now I had not been informed of his coming and when I saw him during the service I walked past and came back again looked and asked my assistant to ring his number. I was convinced that I was seeing a vision when the man was actually there, that is how clearly you can see into the realm of the spirit when your inner recess is flooded with light.
You need to understand that men live in the third-dimension world, and time is considered to be the fourth dimension, according Albert Einstein. When we talk about visions, we are moving into the fifth dimension. Another good example of an open vision is prophet Elisha praying for his servant to see spiritual realities. Let’s look at the scripture:
2 Kings 6: 17
And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray you, open his eyes that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
You see, the young man could see the physical enemy that had come to destroy them with his optical eye, and became afraid, but when Elisha prayed he entered into an open vision, and could see the angel armies that stood with him. He could see both the physical and the natural. They were both equally real. He could now compare the physical enemy to the heavenly armies encamped around him both became real to him.
When you enter into an open vision, you will see both the natural and the spiritual at the same time. But if you look carefully at that scripture we have just read you will notice that as for the young man his eyes were not even open at all. He needed the prophet to ask the Lord to open his eyes so that he could see. The problem was not that he didn’t have eyes but his eyes were not open to that realm, just like you today the reason you are not seeing the things that God wants to show you is not because he has not given you the eye to see but that we need to sharpen that inner sensory system so that it works as it should. Let’s look at another type of vision that God uses to communicate which is the closed vision.
Closed Vision
A closed vision occurs when you can only see what is in the spiritual world, and the natural ceases to be for a moment. This is exactly what I was experiencing in that vision I shared with you at the beginning.
The whole room had disappeared before my eyes, and I could not see anyone else in the room. All I could see at that moment was a baboon in handcuffs riding on an elephant, until I came out of the vision. If somebody shook you while you were having a closed vision, you wouldn’t be aware of it because your physical senses are completely closed, and you are only conscious of what is in the spirit.
These first two types of visions that I have just described to you come as your inner eyes become more sensitive and are exposed to greater light. You don’t do anything to receive that vision. When God wants to show you a vision, He will do so but he can only show you what you are able to see. I can impart on you today to be able to hear from God prophetically but it does not mean that God will choose to speak to you in that way. It is by the grace of God, but when you have no light at all even when God chooses to speak, you won’t be able to see anything.
So, when we talk about a closed vision this is the same thing that happens when you fall into a trance. Your physical senses are suspended, and you are only conscious of the spiritual. However, just as in the experience I have just shared with you, it doesn’t mean that every closed vision will put you in a trance. In fact, this occurs rarely. Let’s look at the book of Acts 10.
Acts 10: 10
And he became hungry and desired something to eat; but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance, and the heaven opened and something descended.
Peter actually fell into a trance, and in that vision, he heard a voice and saw the animals. This happened three times. That was a closed vision, and even when he came out of the vision he wasn’t too sure what it was all pointing to. It is very important to understand the vision’s interpretation and we will get into that a bit more in the following chapters.
You can come to a point where you are so sensitive to the spiritual world to the extent that your natural senses can actually be suspended while you focus only on that which is spiritual. The only problem is that many are so much into the natural and are insensitive to the spiritual that they never get to that point where God can speak to them in this manner. If you are a carnal believer who is still dominated by the flesh it will be very difficult for you to receive such visions.
I know when I say that it sounds a lot more difficult than what it is, so let me break it down a little bit. Have you ever really felt the urge to go and pray knowing in your heart that you need to do this and then just before you get up to go and pray a thought occurs saying, why don’t you just finish watching this episode of Scandal? Immediately the prayer goes to the back of the queue and we do Scandal, that is being dominated by the flesh. You just made a decision in favour of what your flesh wanted to do over the will of the spirit.
Remember as we said earlier that information would have been received from the Spirit of God through the intuition function of your spirit and passed on to the communion function of the spirit which is responsible for worship and then you would have overridden everything. Now you are getting the point, by the way I just prophesied that Scandal bit I have never watched any television program like it. If you are slow, that Scandal bit not ever being watched was a joke. Forget it, let’s move on to the next type of vision.
Inner Vision
The inner vision is the vision you see in your innermost being in your spirit. You can be consciously awake and if somebody touches you, you would know it. Contrary to what most people would think the highest form of revelation comes from this third kind of vision, and the lowest type of revelation is the open vision even though the inner vision might seem less spectacular.
This has happened to me many times as I ministered. The lord would take me to a different location from where I had been standing at the time. I can describe to you what I am seeing there, whilst being with you here. This kind of vision you see inside the corridors of the canvas of your spirit. Some of you would have watched one of the live service broadcasts where I was ministering to one lady and by the spirit of God navigating to her house which I had no way of knowing where it was in the natural by just standing there. I mean going street by street and describing the surrounding areas of a place I have never visited in my life.
This comes naturally to me as prophet but you can develop yourself to that place where the inner vision becomes as clear as your normal sight just by putting those two things I mentioned earlier on together. Walking in the spirit and the light of God’s word illuminating the corridors of your spirit. God already speaks to you this way and the only problem is just that you are not sensitive to see and hear what is being communicated.
Spiritual Radio Waves
I always like to give the example of how radio waves work, how where you are sitting right now there are waves passing through but unless you have a receiver that is able to tap into that wavelength it would just be as if there is nothing happening. But if radio waves could be seen you would be amazed by the hive of activity around you. It is exactly the same in the spirit, God is already speaking, we just need to get you onto the right wavelength to be able to hear him.
Now let us revisit the vision of Peter and look at another type of vision.
When Peter received the vision from the Lord in Acts, after he came out of the vision, the Bible says that he DOUBTED. The same vision had to be repeated three times, and still the man was confused as to what was being communicated.
Acts 10: 17
Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon’s house, and stood before the gate.
Peter had been shown the same vision three times, and was still struggling to find its meaning. You see it’s possible to see a vision and still not know what the Lord is communicating to you. When I had the closed vision I related to you, all I could see was a baboon in handcuffs riding on an elephant. What it had to do with the man I was ministering to at the time was not apparent. I needed the Holy Spirit to give me the meaning of it, so my mind would know the application of it.
There are many Christians who have seen visions, and instead of running with the message that God brought to them through the vision, are still void of understanding. We are going to be dealing with how you can interpret and apply the revelation that God gives you but before we get to that lets deal with the message vision. It is not as the three main ones but one of many other types that we will not concentrate on in this book, seeing that this book is only part 1 (book one) of the series on hearing the voice of God.
Message Vision
In the book of Acts 16, Paul received a message vision with the instruction to go to Macedonia.
Acts 16: 9
And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; there stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, come over into Macedonia, and help us.
This type of vision that can come to people is what we call a message vision. When Paul saw this vision, he knew he had to go to Macedonia and preach the gospel. You will notice that when Paul arrived in Macedonia he did not go around looking for the man he had seen in the vision. He knew the most important thing in that vision was the instruction to go to Macedonia.
There were many things in the vision, but only one message, and that was to go to Macedonia. God wants to be able to lead you and guide you in this way so you do not miss the times and seasons of your life. This is why it is important for you to be able to now recognise a message vision and note the instruction inside the vision. This becomes easy to do once your inner eye is in a good state and not clouded by strife and anxiety. Let’s move on to Clear cut visions which are the most easily understood visions.
Clear-cut Vision
A clear-cut vision, as its name suggests, is one that doesn’t need any interpretation, such as the one Ananias received in the book of Acts that instructed him to go and pray for Paul.
Acts 9: 10
And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And He said, behold, I am here Lord. And the Lord said unto him, arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he prayeth.
The vision was clear, and no interpretation was required. Everything was clearly explained in the vision. In every type of vision we have dealt with, there is a way for you to develop your ability to hear and access the voice of God in visions. I want us to look at an ability in man that our educational institutes often ignore and as result we never develop and that is the ability to see picture in your mind.
Developing Spiritual or Inner Vision
God made you in such a way that you rely very much on visualisation, and everybody thinks in pictures. If I say to you post, immediately your mind is flooded with pictures linked to the word I have just given you.
Some will see images of the postman’s van or bicycle, the post box or even letters. But if I say post office, the images in your mind will change accordingly, since your inner vision has just changed. Some might be seeing their local post office, or the main sorting office in your city.
The biggest problem as we have already covered is that, when man fell, the mind of man became darkened. A part of the life in him was darkened. Paul describes man’s fallen nature in the book of Ephesians:
Ephesians 4: 18
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
When the spiritual life of man was cut off, his mind became darkened. Life was cut off from Adam when he sinned, and darkness came, and man didn’t know what he had known before. Before he fell, Adam looked at the animals and straightaway knew what they were. He could name every single one of them, and never forgot which animal was which. He was never the same after he sinned.
In today’s world, scientists use equipment that Adam didn’t have in the Garden of Eden, and they still cannot attain the same knowledge that Adam had just by using his mind, before his understanding was darkened.
As a believer in this world right now, you have a partial restoration, because if the removal of spiritual life resulted in the darkened understanding, then it would make sense that the reintroduction of spiritual life would result in the enlightenment of your understanding.
So now you have to train and reprogram your mind on how to see into the spirit. The biggest disadvantage you have is that this is one area that all human institutions of learning have completely ignored. When you go to university you are taught to think scientifically, logically, and analytically. Every assignment is meant to sharpen just one part of your mind, and completely ignores the dianoia, the imaginative ability of your mind. As much as you can spend years at university educating your analytical mind very little is invested into your imaginative ability, yet this is one of the biggest thing that God can use to communicate with you.
The level at which you are able to see visions using that imaginative ability depends on the degree and intensity of the spiritual light that you have. The good news is that you can develop the spiritual nerve cells and grow into the spirit realm and develop your dianoia even when you have only developed your dialogismos and be a very logical person. It is important for you to know how to develop that imaginative ability in you, it’s not just your physical eyes that God has given you to see but you need to sharpen your inner senses to be able to see into the spirit. The cure is hidden in feeding on the word of God. The problem is many believers feed their bodies a hot breakfast, lunch and supper and if there is time they feed their spirit just one cold sandwich so to speak!
Seeing in the Spirit
There are three ways you can see. One is the natural way, with your physical eyes. The second is through your soul. The third is through your spirit. Similarly, there are three ways you can hear. You can hear in the natural. You can hear in your mind, and you can hear in your spirit.
There are three ways you can see. You can see with your eyes. You can see with your mind. You can see with your spirit. Spiritual vision is given with the eyes of the spirit. But the eyes of the spirit are connected to the eyes of the mind, and they are connected to the eyes of the flesh.
Knowing this, the devil also tries, through the eyes of the flesh, to make an image for the eyes of your soul, so that the eyes of your spirit will be blurred. When the serpent was tempting Eve, he told her about the fruit and what it was supposed to do for them, which was all lies anyway. Eve fell not only because of the serpent’s reasoning, but also because of what she saw in Genesis 3:
Genesis 3: 6
And the woman SAW that the tree was good for food, and it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise. She took the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.
Eve fell because she saw with her physical eyes. When she saw with her physical eyes, that image got into her soul and it affected the reasoning of her soul, and led her to a decision that caused the spiritual fall. Information is passed from your physical visual faculties to your inner being. The same thing happened when David saw Bathsheba from the roof of his palace.
See it here in 2 Samuel 11: 2;
And it came to pass in an evening tide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
What David saw with his physical eyes produced lust in his soul, and clouded his judgement. It led him to make a decision that cost him dearly, but understand that in his right mind David would never have entertained the thought. He was outraged when Nathan the Prophet came and presented the same scenario to him.
2 Samuel 12: 1–5
And the Lord sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, there were two men in one city: the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him. And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die.
Had he been in his right mind, David would have never taken Bathsheba for himself, but the enemy knew that he could influence what was in his soul through the physical eye, and it clouded his judgement.
Now the devil works from the outside. He tries to get your eyes to see the wrong thing, hoping to impress a wrong image into your soul, and lead you to make a decision that will cause you to fall in the spirit. He knows the connection, but very few believers understand that there is a connection between what they see physically and the soulish and spiritual realms.
Now the key to understanding inner and spiritual vision is to understand the connection between the spirit and the soul, just as Satan understood the connection between the soul and the physical in order to deceive Eve. You must understand the relationship and know how to deal with that area, to help you to really know what God is saying and what is coming from the devil or self.
As mentioned in a previous chapter, many can differentiate the body from their soul to a certain extent. You know that there is a part of you that thinks, called the mind. There is also a bodily part called the brain. These parts are related, but you don’t quite know how they are related. They can dissect your body in a laboratory and they will still not find your soul. They only find your brain because the soul is invisible. So, there is a relationship between the soul and the body yet there is an inner consciousness in you that is outside of the body, feelings, and affection. We have dealt with this differentiation if you still remember but I need to you to go there often and re-learn it because it is very paramount in your journey to hearing the voice of God and I mean very important!
These things are not necessarily caused by the body. But they are real. They are inside us. Human beings feel hurt, jealousy, envy, and other emotions. You don’t see the animals feeling all these things. You don’t see animals experiencing the extent of human experiences. Human beings also know right from wrong to a certain extent. Animals don’t know right and wrong. Animals don’t have moral laws. Only man has. Now I want us to look a little bit deeper into the role of the mind when it comes to visions.
The Mind and Visualisation
When you are asleep and dream, you are not aware of your physical body at all. Your consciousness resides in the realm of your sub-conscious. So, you have the subconscious realm as well as the conscious part of your mind which is called the nous. This conscious part of your mind relates to the physical world and to the soul realm. The nous represents the consciousness of your soul that is in contact with the physical world, and yet it’s in contact with the other world inside you, your soul, and indirectly the spirit world at the same time.
Your consciousness is what stands as this veil between the body and the soul. You are relating to two realms. You are relating to the physical world and the inner realm of your spirit and your soul indirectly. When you are asleep, your consciousness moves out from the conscious realm, and goes into the level of your subconscious. That is where your nous is sort of closed up. The physical world is still there, but you are not conscious of the physical world at all at this stage, your consciousness would have moved deeper.
Now the clarity in your inner vision is affected by where your consciousness is. If you happen to be active in the physical realm, then your consciousness is not that much a part of the inner realm of your soul; you are more conscious of the physical realm. That is why when the Holy Spirit is giving you an inner vision, sometimes you have to possibly close up your body realm. You may even need to close your eyes, so that you can concentrate in order to see clearly what you are receiving in the spirit.
Watching too much T.V. or reading too many wrong things can affect the inner vision that the Holy Spirit is giving you. As you close your eyes, right now, you will see some of those things from your memory echoing through your soul realm. Right now, you could actually see some things in the corridors of your nous. Your consciousness right now is at your nous.
Some Practical Training For You Now
If you close your eyes right now, don’t try to think of anything, but let your inner consciousness hang loose. As your inner consciousness hangs loose, you may just see a dark screen inside you and if you have been watching too much T.V., then a bit of that is coming up. If you have been reading a book recently or whatever things, whatever is your latest impression, comes up on the corridors of your screen. If you have been reading the Bible regularly and praying often, that also comes to your consciousness. That means you see whatever your latest experience is. When you close your eyes, your latest experience is the latest picture to come out. The most recent picture comes to your mind, whether in the spirit, soul, or body realm of your experience.
With all this information coming to you at once you need to be able to quiet your spirit and be sensitive enough to know what is coming from the Spirit of God.
When I minister in the prophetic I have to quieten my spirit so that I can pick whatever God is communicating at the time, it is easy to miss those signals when your spirit is being dominated by your flesh that information will not be clear and it will be difficult for you to know the source of what you are receiving. In this next chapter I want us to go deeper into visions in the prophetic so stay with me.
Chapter 6 Visions in the Prophetic
Not all prophets are the same, there are two Hebrew words for prophet used in the old testament: hazon and nabi. Nabi speaks about a bringing forth of the Word, a bubbling forth. Hazon speaks about the seeing of visions. In the Old Testament, a prophet is called a hazon and a nabi. When you study the Old Testament, you will find that in the book of Samuel the two words are used interchangeably to refer to Samuel as a prophet. So, Samuel was both a hazon and nabi type of prophet. A nabi can prophesy but doesn’t really see visions. When you study the prophets, you will find that this is how Daniel started his prophetic ministry. He only got to see visions at a much later stage in his ministry. He would focus in the area of wisdom, but moved into hazon and started seeing visions.
We have already covered the three types of vision, but right now I want us to look at two levels of vision. There are basically two Hebrew words for the word vision. There are also two Greek words for vision, which we will look at later.
One of the Hebrew words for vision is the word hazah, which means to see, behold, select for oneself. It is the development of the word hozeh, or the seer. Then there are developments like hizzayon, which means vision. All these are different developments of the root word haz or hazo or hazah. So there is a usage of the word hazah, which is one of the words that means to see, to behold. Let’s look at the experiences of Daniel for as minute.
Daniel 7: 1–2
In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters. Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.
The Hebrew word translated above as visions in the first verse is hazah, but when we go to the very next verse, Daniel says, I saw in my vision of the night, and he uses a different Hebrew word hazo.
Again, if you look at Daniel 8: 1–2,
In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision (hazon) appeared to me —to me Daniel—after the one that appeared to me the first time. I saw in the vision (hazon), and it so happened while I was looking, that I was in Shushan, the citadel.
Mara
Everything is very consistent in the Hebrew hazah, hazo, hazon, and these words continue to be used in the same manner until suddenly in chapter 10 there was a different degree of vision. Daniel had an entirely different experience, and this was a different level of vision. Note what the Bible says in Daniel chapter 10:
Daniel 10: 7
And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision (mara), for the men who were with me did not see the vision. But a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled to hide themselves.
This kind of vision was not the same as he had seen before when he had entered into the vision. Even those that were with him who could not see the vision were exceedingly afraid and trembling, to the extent that they ran away and hid themselves. Daniel uses a different word for vision in that scripture, namely mara, not haza. Things had just shifted.
Before that he had had visions, but the people around him had never reacted as they did that day. Just cross-reference this reaction to the one he had earlier. In Chapter 8 when he saw the angel Gabriel in verse 16.
And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.
As he saw the vision there, the Bible never makes mention of the people around him being affected at all. There would probably be people walking around that day. However, there is no record that the people around him were affected. All he had was a personal vision.
But in Daniel 10: 7, nobody else saw the vision, yet everyone around felt something.
We are touching on two levels of vision here that are hazon and mara. The other words are just deviations. Like the testimony I shared in the previous chapter, I was in a hazon, and it was a closed vision. The people around me were not affected by what I was seeing in the vision, and most did not even know what was happening. I just stood there ministering to this guy, and immediately I was taken into the vision and the whole church disappeared. For a moment, all I could see was a baboon in handcuffs riding on an elephant.
We have this on video, and the people who were attending the service were not even affected by the vision. Apart from me telling them, they’d never have known that I was seeing a vision. It was a hazon. This was a completely different experience than the one I had at my house in Ashton Under Lyne, Manchester in Great Britain. It was a Saturday evening, and I had gone into my room to pray. I asked my wife to come and get me after an hour, because I don’t keep time when I pray.
As I was praying and waiting on the Lord, all of a sudden, the walls of the room disappeared, the Lord himself stood before me, and I had to hide my face from him because there was a bright light in the room. At the exact same time, my wife was at the door trying to let me know the hour was up. She tried to open the door, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not get past the entrance into the room. She could feel her own flesh trying to run from her bones. One of my sons who was downstairs could hear the sound and the power at the same time yet he was downstairs and we were upstairs. It was so real and the presence was tangible and light and the sounds we immense but she just couldn’t pass a certain point. It was as though someone had put an invisible barrier that was unsurpassable. She stood there for 20 minutes until the presence of the Lord subsided and the mara left.
I was the one in the vision, but it was affecting even those who were around me at the time, so that was a mara. It is a higher degree of vision than a haza. When you get into a mara, spiritual realities become tangible to you. You can bump into an angel and he will not go through you like a spirit. You will feel his solid body touching yours.
Notice when Daniel had the vision in chapter 10, that this was not the first time he saw the angel Gabriel, but this time even what he saw was different and there was a greater measure of glory.
Daniel 10: 5
I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose waist was girded with gold of Uphaz. His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in colour, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude.
It’s the same Gabriel the Archangel whom Daniel saw in his earlier vision. By now Daniel should be very familiar with Gabriel. He had seen Gabriel in the spirit realm before. He had seen Gabriel earlier on, and Gabriel had spoken to him in chapter 8 in verse 16.
And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of the Ulai, who called, and said, Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.
So, he had seen Gabriel before. Then in chapter 9, it was still Gabriel—the same angel as he had seen before—who came to him. Daniel called him a man, because angel Gabriel looked like a man. In chapter 10 the same angel looked different, he sounded different, his voice was like the voice of many waters, and he was full of glory. When you get into a mara the spiritual is no longer in a spiritual form to you it is solid you can relate to it as you do natural objects. In Mara stage, you can eat an orange inside out and bump into angels as if they are made of physical matter. It is real!
Most people’s visions are of the first degree. A mara is a higher and greater degree of vision and revelation and actually affects your natural body. We need to understand that when they start having visions, most people have an inner vision or a spiritual vision. As they grow in God, their type of vision may change to a closed vision, and sometimes to an open vision. However, it is all of the first degree, which is haza.
The mara is a level in which you enter a realm where the vision has you, and it’s like you are possessed by a vision. It controls your very life, and you live for that vision that God has shown you. At the mara stage, the spiritual has materialized into the natural realm. There is a small degree of hazon when having this materialization of the spiritual. Just like the angel had earlier on had some contact in the physical sense with Daniel, there had been no contact made such as the one made in chapter 10 in his full glory.
Then there is an area in which you are having a vision and the vision grows in you day by day. You still have your free choice to meditate, and to think over that vision. When you reach mara, however, you are bound to that vision. It’s like you are a captive audience of that vision. It has a greater controlling power over your being. Now God doesn’t move us straight into mara, but if we don’t teach people about it they will not know about it, therefore they will never ever experience it. At least when you know about it you can be ready for it.
Getting into a mara kind of vision often can actually be dangerous, one of the reasons why Enoch was translated was because he moved so far into mara. You cannot move into mara for too long, because your physical body cannot take it anymore. It will either have to be renewed, or your physical body will have to die or be transformed. Our physical bodies are not made to sustain mara. It is too powerful for your physical frame. Mortal bodies cannot take on this immortal experience without giving up. This is why people like Enoch moved so far into mara, until his physical body was virtually transformed and he was translated.
Genesis 5: 24
And Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him.
The prophet Elijah moved so far into mara that it was hard to tell the difference between the natural and the spiritual. He moved so far into the spiritual that the spiritual was like the natural. I mean the man just moved into the heavenly realm as if it was natural and in moment of time he was taken up to heaven, watch what the scripture says;
2 Kings 2: 11
And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and parted them both asunder, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven.
The man had stayed too long in mara and ended up checking into heaven early. Mara is a manifestation of the highest degree, and when we talk about visions it is so great that it is impossible to come out of the mara vision the same as we went into it. When you come out of a mara vision, something physically takes place in your natural body. I know we have been talking about the Old Testament prophets, but this is not just about the Old Testament. Let me illustrate what I am saying with the New Testament too.
In the New Testament, there are two Greek words for visions. One is the word optasia, which means an apparition, and the other is horasis, which means to see. In the New Testament, there are different places where optasia takes place and where horasis takes place.
For example, in the book of Acts 10: 3,
About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision (horasis) an angel of God coming in and saying to him, Cornelius.
So he saw a horasis kind of vision.
Now compare it to the book of Acts 26: 19.
Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision (optasia).
The Hebrew hazon vision is like horasis in the Greek, and Mara is a kind of vision like optasia. Paul was talking about his vision in Acts chapter 9 when he met the Lord Jesus Christ on his way to Damascus. It was a mara or an optasia kind of vision. As we said, when you have a mara or optasia, something physical happens. Paul was riding on his transportation. As he came near, suddenly the windows of heaven opened, Paul was knocked off his ride.
Mara can be dangerous, because if you have a very deep mara we may never see you again. Things can happen in a mara kind of vision. There is a physical encounter. Paul got knocked off his horse, and the light he saw was so bright that his natural eyes could not see for three days and three nights. He was totally blind. His physical body was affected by the vision. And also, you will note that even those around him who did not see the vision were affected by the mara. They knew something was taking place and even their natural senses could pick it up.
I have had many visions of the Lord and some of which I have already shared with you but some I am not permitted to relate to you and only the Lord knows the reasons and in this book, I want you to follow this one closely.
A few years ago, while I was in my private quarters at my then home in Ashton Under- Lyne, Manchester at about 12:30am one morning, I had just gone in there to pray by myself. The whole house was quiet and my wife and kids had long settled in bed and I thought this was the perfect time for me to study the word. So, the whole house was on lock down and I was the only one still up, just a few minutes into my quiet time the Lord Jesus walked into the room. I mean real walking into the room and it was not as if a shaft of light just appeared. I saw him and heard his footsteps and he took me outside the house in that vision through the wall of the house to the back garden and began to talk to me about the different things he wanted us to do in ministry.
Understand that at this point in my life, visions were not a rare occurrence so I just assumed that this was just another haza. I thought to myself, when the Lord finishing instructing me, I will just be exactly where I was in the house. When he was about to leave, I walked with him as we continued to talk until we were a few yards from the house and he disappeared right before my eyes. To my complete and utter surprise, even though the vision had ended I was still outside. I didn’t even know how we got outside in the real physical world for everything happened when I was in a vision. Standing there, I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that I was locked outside the house. I mean my physical body got out of a locked house in a vision through a wall and I was just thinking it was a vision and when I came to myself I realised I couldn’t get back in. Even the key to the front door was still in the lock on the inside.
That means I had come out of that house through the physical wall. I had to call for my wife and after endless knocks on the door to let me back into the house who was just as puzzled. This was another level of vision. It had affected my physical being in the natural. When you get to that level of mara kind of vision that is when you can be translated from one location to another in an instance.
Back in 2012 during one of my Sunday services in Harare as I was ministering on stage the whole church disappeared and I began to see myself standing in the London branch of the ministry and I could see people falling under the power some were screaming and shouting for joy and as I came out of that vision trying to enquire of the Lord what it all meant, my church media phone rang and it is the pastor of the London branch on the other side hysterical telling the team that they can’t understand because as they were watching me , yet I also appeared in London and was preaching live. You see, they had just seen me in London on stage ministering while I was still in Harare and the church there was seeing me. That’s when I realised I had just been in mara kind of vision.
At one time, I attended a conference where they had video recording of me doing a healing service in their church which I had never visited. When I arrived on a Saturday for my speaking engagement the people were thanking me for the service I apparently had contacted on the previous day and yet that day I was in my church having a prayer meeting with my church. Some thanked me for the healing service and two people who had been healed among the scores that were healed came to me to thank me. This happened in the summer of 2009 in Rotherham here in the United Kingdom.
God wants to reach out to you in a mara vision so you can access his voice. This is why it is important for you as a believer to develop yourself to a place where your spirit is the one that dominates your entire being and you are no longer confined to the soulish realm by the desires of your flesh. Mara will not be possible for you until you get the light of the word in you and you have your inner sensory perception sharpened by walking in the spirit.
The Lord wants to move you to another dimension where you can hear him clearly and in this next chapter I want to show exactly how God has been speaking to you, yet you didn’t even know about. This is a revelation that will change your life, let’s continue.
Chapter 7 Dreams
One of the ways by which we can access the voice of God is through dreams, but many really don’t understand how this works. In the following pages, you will discover how God has been reaching out to you in dreams. To let you in on a secret that eludes many let me say; the dream realm is the greatest form of revelation and a vision is the greatest form of sight.
The average man spends about a third of their lifetime sleeping, and if you cannot access the voice of God in your dreams that means you will live a third of your life without ever hearing from God. Think about it. All that we have been learning so far only teaches us how to hear the voice of God two-thirds of the time, so what about the rest of the time? This is why it is important for us to talk about dreams.
God can speak to you when you are awake but He is still speaking even when you are asleep, and this is why it is important for you to understand dreams as well as visions. Dreams are so important in your daily life as a believer.
If you look at the word ‘dreams’, you will find that there are two Greek words for dreams. One is the word onar, which is the ordinary word for dreams. But this word for dreams is only used three times in the Bible in the New Testament. One of those few times was in the book of Acts.
Acts 2: 17
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
Now when the Bible talks about old men in that scripture, it is not necessarily referring to those who are now grey-haired and we dealt with that already, but those that have come to maturity. You will notice also that the Greek word used for dreams here is enupnion. So in this particular area, when He talks about these old men dreaming dreams, the Greek word used is so special that it refers to a message, a vision, or a spiritual conscious experience in which God directs and leads in the subconscious stage.
God can give you a vision, but it will only touch your conscious mind. It is only the beginning, and as that vision grows in you it becomes a part of your subconscious.
There is also a negative sense of the word which is used in the book of Jude chapter 8, in reference to Sodom and Gomorrah. Let’s look at that scripture.
Jude 8
Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
I know when we talk about dreams it is normally in reference to what you experience when you are sleeping, but here the Bible is talking about people who are very conscious. They are speaking evil of dignitaries and others, and they are just carrying on, not knowing the source of or the influences behind their actions.
You see this is a group of people that had been led by the flesh to the extent that they were now following the flesh subconsciously. It is not only your conscious mind that needs to be renewed but your subconscious mind as well. You need the word not just in your conscious mind, but also in your subconscious mind.
Romans 12: 2
And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is good, and acceptable and perfect to the will of God.
Your subconscious mind is not in your spirit. It is a part of your soul, so these people were just going along with whatever was coming from their soul. They were far from being sensitive to the voice of the spirit.
The actual Greek definition of shall dream dreams is enupniazo enupnion. It is a combination of two Greek words en and upniazo, which means simply something being presented during your subconscious state, which is usually your sleeping state. This is the definition of a supernatural suggestion or impression received during a subconscious state. They are the supernatural leadings of the Lord and it is important for you to know how God speaks to you in a dream.
The Formation of a Dream
When you look around right now, wherever you are, images are being recorded in your mind. You might be looking at someone wearing a blue suit and a red tie. Another is perhaps wearing green. All those images are taken and recorded in your mind. Your mind has a record of all the different things you come across so when a thought enters your mind it goes back to the information you already have recorded in your mind, in order to make a visual impression of that thought.
For example, if I started talking to you about angels, even though you have never seen one, there are images that come into your mind and you can imagine what angels wear and what sort of hairstyle they might have. How is this possible when you have never seen one? Your mind has just used the different images you already have stored in your mind to create a visual impression of that thought.
If I said to you, oh your friend Ray Ray was chased by a dog today, and ran so fast he even went past his own house. Even though you did not witness this event for yourself, in your mind you can actually see how he could have taken off with that dog behind him. You can even see what he was wearing. That is because your mind has the ability to join different images in you together, to create a picture of what I have just said. He may not even have run the way you are imagining it in your mind or worn what you saw him wearing but it can only use the images in you. Since you have seen someone running before, and you have seen a dog before, your imagination puts them together, and now you can see in your mind how it could have happened.
When it comes to dreams, God speaks to your intuition in the same way as every other revelation from the Spirit, and then your conscience whispers the information that is being received from your intuition to your mind. If it is about people giving you money, then the mind juggles all the images it has to depict the information that is being given. So the pictures in your mind become actors, using the script that is being whispered to your mind from the intuition through your conscience.
This is why you can see a person you have nothing against, chasing you in a dream. It has nothing to do with that particular individual. It is just that those are the images that your mind has managed to piece together to portray the message to you in the dream.
I have heard many people tell me about dreams such as, I saw my mother-in-law in my dream and she was trying to stop everything I was trying to do in my family. Immediately one would think that this dream has wicked mother-in-law written all over it, when the dream is actually pointing to the person having the dream, trying to show them something they are doing is hindering their own progress. It has nothing to do with the poor mother-in-law, and is just your mind using what it deems most appropriate to convey the message.
Three Sources of Dreams
Dreams can come from different sources, I have had people ask me things like, what does it mean when I am eating in a dream, and my answer is always the same. Do you eat in the natural? You probably enjoyed your last meal very much, and it just came from your mind. Dreams can also come from the devil or from God, as we have already proven.
We know from scripture that God speaks to man through dreams as well.
Job 33: 14–16
In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then He openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction.
In everything that God does, it is influenced by love and every dream that comes from Him should point to a solution. This is why we always say that in the prophetic God reveals in order to redeem. If all you ever dream of is snakes chasing you and you wake up in a cold sweat each time you have to question the source of that dream. There is no solution or answer in that dream you can’t be having a bad dream every day.
You have to be able to distinguish between which dreams are coming from the self, the devil, or from God. If you are having the worst nightmare of your life and you wake up in cold sweat, chances are that that dream did not come from God.
Symbolic Dreams
A dream from God can come in three ways. A dream can come as symbolic dream, and this may be the most difficult to understand because it requires interpretation.
The dream of Pharaoh in Genesis 41 was a symbolic one, and required an interpreter to tell you what was being said.
Genesis 41: 1–6
And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river. And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well-favoured kine and fat-fleshed; and they fed in a meadow. And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill-favoured and leanfleshed; and stood by the other kine upon the brink of the river. And the ill favoured and lean-fleshed kine did eat up the seven well-favoured and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke. And he slept and dreamed the second time: and, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good. And, behold, seven thin ears blasted with the east wind sprung up after them. And the seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream.
Pharaoh had no idea what this dream meant and he needed someone to come and interpret it. There was no way for him to just take the dream literally and decipher the meaning of the things he had seen since they were symbolic. Joseph had to be called in to decode the whole thing, so to speak.
King Nebuchadnezzar also had a symbolic dream and had to call for Daniel to give him the interpretation of it. These are the most difficult dreams to interpret.
Reality Dreams
There are dreams that point to real-life situations, and in the book of Matthew, Joseph receives instructions from an angel of the Lord through a dream, and again later on, when the child Jesus was born he was warned in a dream to flee for safety, because Herod intended to kill every male child.
Matthew 2: 13
And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream saying, arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
This is the easiest dream to understand, because the meaning of it is stated very clearly, and there is no need for any interpretation. Many people make the mistake of ignoring their dreams but if you think about the fact that Joseph was warned by God to flee with the baby Jesus and this all happened in a dream then you would know how important dreams are in hearing the voice of God.
I have had occasions where the Lord would minister to me in a dream all the things I was going to do during ministration including the names of people and what conditions they are suffering from and I just walk into the church service and follow the script the Lord would have shown me. This of course requires you to be sensitive to the communications that are coming to you in the realm of the spirit even in your subconscious state.
When Solomon received wisdom and wealth from the Lord it all happened in a dream but he had no doubt in his mind that thing that he had seen in the dream was actually reality. Many miss it because they are more sensitive to the natural world and cannot perceive spiritual realities when they present themselves. Their understanding is still darkened lacking spiritual light of the word.
Message Dream
The message dream will have many things involved in it, but only one message.
Some dreams come from your inner subconscious thinking, and they need to be dealt with. They are not a message from God, but from yourself. They are your own dreams that come forth. It’s funny that you cannot lie to yourself in your dream. Your conscience affects it. Your feelings and your personal attitudes color your dreams. So, to interpret dreams, check the attitudes of the people that received the dream.
Sometimes the prayer life is not there, and the Word is not enough and the attitudes are wrong and colored the dreams. The second rule is to remember—in whichever of the three types of dreams you have—to check your personal attitude and feelings, and ask whether they are coloring the dreams. In helping another person understand their dreams, check their attitudes too. Discern them by the Holy Spirit, in order to get an accurate picture of what God is saying.
Even the fear you have of something can bring dreams concerning that thing. This is why those of you who just fall in love and are praying to God, God is that man (or woman) Your will for me? Then you dream about you and her or him at a wedding. You cannot trust that dream. Do you know why? The reason is because your feelings are involved.
It is very hard to hear God’s dream when your own feelings are involved. We don’t go by feelings but by the word. You see it all comes down to this, there are the times where you should trust your dreams the least, especially dreams in the area of marriage and life partners. Your own feelings, your own desires are coming out. You have to examine them so you cannot say after you wake up from that dream, Bless God, I have the confirmation. When your feelings come into play, it is not necessarily the Lord who has sent you that dream.
God also warns you in your dreams, and sometimes He will even warn you in your business and give you direction. He tells you of situations not to enter. Many get confused when they see something disturbing in a dream that has not yet occurred in the natural, but this is a warning showing you the things you need to prevent. It doesn’t mean that things have to happen that way. The interpretation must always be positive. It must not bring fear or grief into people’s lives.
Interpretation of Dreams
You need to understand that in the spiritual realm a dream is the greatest form of revelation, and an open vision is the greatest form of sight. A dream requires an additional form of revelation that is why most of the time you need an interpreter to tell you the meaning of the dream.
When it comes to the interpretation of dreams it is not just a Spirit gift but a skill that one can learn and know. Of course, the skill also comes as a gift from God but it is something that you can learn and know what the Lord is saying when he speaks to you in dreams. Daniel was a prophet but was also skilled in the interpretation of dreams, watch what the scripture says;
Daniel 1: 17
As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.
So, Daniel was given a skill to interpret dreams and notice the bible does not say a gift but skill. That Hebrew word translated as skill there is sakal it simply means the intelligence to know what the dream means, so some people are not given the intelligence to know how interpret dreams and you can’t pray for it you need to be schooled on the subject.
The sakal or skill to interpret dreams is something out of the supernatural it is an ability that is given. It is the ability to know how to go around the technicalities of a dream. It means to separate mentally, so Daniel had the skill to decipher the message in your dream. As a prophet that ability and skill is a part of my gift but it is something that you can learn to do like any other skill that you can be taught out there. This is different from the interpretation of tongues which not a skill but a gift of the Holy Ghost.
The Voice of God Through Tongues
Whilst the gift of tongues is the result of a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, praying in tongues is the spiritual development of the spirit man. When you pray in tongues, it is actually your spirit man who prays. In other words, if you never pray in tongues that means your spirit man never prays, and your spiritual growth will be little or nonexistent. See what Paul says:
1 Corinthians 14: 14
For if I pray in an unknown tongue my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.
This is different to the gift of speaking in tongues, and every born-again believer is endowed with the ability to pray in tongues. If you are saved, then the Spirit of God is living in you, and He is the one that gives you utterance. Remember, the scripture says that they that believe in my name shall speak with new tongues.
Mark 16: 17
And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues.
You see now that the only qualification you need to be able to speak in tongues, according to the scripture we have just read, is for you to believe in the name of the Lord Jesus. Many people fail to differentiate between the gift of tongues and praying in tongues. As a result, they think that when Paul said that not all speak with tongues, he was referring to praying in tongues.
1 Corinthians 12: 30
Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?
Paul was talking about the gift of tongues and not praying in tongues, which is the right and privilege of every born-again believer. When the newborn spirit prays, it prays in tongues. You can tap into the voice of God simply by the ability to interpret tongues, the same message can be communicated through the prophetic gift as through tongues. This is why it is important for you to learn how the interpretation of tongues works.
The Interpretation of Tongues
The interpretation of tongues is a gift of the Holy Spirit to help interpret a message that has been delivered in an unknown tongue. Please don’t get mixed up. This is the interpretation and not the translation of tongues. The two are very different. The person who interprets the tongues does not understand the tongue, but he receives the interpretation as a message from the Holy Spirit. This is a gift that you can pray about and ask God for.
In fact, the interpretation of tongues is equated to prophecy, and the gift of tongues gives you the ability to receive and deliver a prophetic word in tongues, but then needs interpretation.
1 Corinthians 14: 5
I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.
It is important for you to understand that it is an interpretation of tongues and not a translation. As such, the amount of time required to interpret a message in tongues may sometimes be longer than the message in tongues. Someone can be giving a message in tongues for two minutes, and when the interpretation comes it may only be a single sentence. That is because we do not translate tongues, we interpret them. Most times retrace what your emotions were at the time the tongues were spoken and there is the meaning of those tongues. Emotions are the vehicle that carries the anointing out of a person to the area its needed and there is the secret to interpret tongues or dreams. If it’s a dream try to see whether you were happy seeing what you were seeing or what and there is your greatest weapon to interpretation of that dream!
Sometimes only the gist of the message in tongues is given, which would make it shorter than the message in tongues, and different people receiving the same interpretation may sometimes convey it using different words.
For example, the interpretation of a tongue may be Fear not, I am with you. Another highly educated person may interpret it as God says do not hold on to any phobias for His presence is with you. A young person who receives the same interpretation may interpret it as Don’t be scared for He is near us. The gist of the message is given.
Daniel interpreted the four words Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Upharsin in three long sentences. A strict translation would have been Number, Number, Weigh, Divide. The interpretation of tongues brings forth an application of the message of God that makes it the same as a prophecy, and you do not need to be a prophet to interpret tongues. It is a gift that every believer can pray for, and then access the voice of God through that gift. It boils down to your own desire to access the voice of God through tongues as well as the development of your inner senses in picking and perceiving what is being communicated in the realm of the spirit.
Daniel 5: 25- 28
And this is the handwriting that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This in the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.
You can pray for the ability to interpret your tongues according to the scriptures.
1 Corinthians 14: 13
Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.
God does not require us to understand everything that we pray about in tongues, but as you develop and grow in the things of the Spirit, you can receive an understanding of the gist of what you are praying about.
By walking in the spirit and allowing the light of God’s word to enlighten your understanding this spiritual sensitivity can be nurtured and developed. It is an outworking of the anointing within, whereas the interpretation of tongues is an outworking of the anointing upon. As we bring this whole matter to a conclusion in this last chapter I need you follow very closely as we get into how you can hear the audible voice of God.
Chapter 8 The Audible Voice of God
I wonder how many times God has spoken to you and you never heard a thing. There are conditions to hearing the voice of God and many Christians never position themselves to access the voice of God simply because they have never been taught how to. It is most important that you understand that of all the things we have looked at in this book, that God is not limited to one particular way of doing things. You cannot take him and put him in a box, like, ‘yeah I have got him all figured out now’. If you do so, you will be in for a very big surprise because the more you know God, the more you understand you don’t know him the more!
God does not change, but his methods can change at any time. In the book of Mark, Jesus healed a man that had been sick of the palsy, and the people who were there were amazed, because they had never seen it done in that manner before.
Mark 2: 12
And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God saying, we never saw it in this fashion.
You see they were not saying that they had never witnessed any miracle of the same kind, but it was the manner in which it was done that was different. It was the same healing power and the same God, but an entirely different healing method. This is why it is so important for you to be in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing. Don’t assume that just because that’s the way it happened yesterday that is how God wants to do it today.
As already mentioned, Elijah the prophet was sustained by God during a time of famine, when ravens would bring him food every day, and he would drink water from the brook. Then the brook dried up, and the ravens no longer brought food. He didn’t start looking for another brook to move to, no. He had to hear from God, because the method of bringing provisions had just changed.
1 Kings 17: 6–7
And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
See what the very next verse says:
And the word of the Lord came unto him saying, arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.
Without access to the voice of God, Elijah would have perished right there, but then the Lord said to him, I have commanded a widow to sustain thee, so in the mind of the prophet, this widow should be expecting him according to the word of the Lord.
But see what happened next.
So he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. And she said, As the Lord God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a cruse; and now, I am gathering a couple of sticks, that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
Many are like this poor widow who was looking at herself and her condition. She was looking at her little bit of flour and her little bit of oil. Her eyes and her soul were tied to this life. She was tied to the cares of this life. She was tied to the things of this world. As a result of that, she could not hear God.
Hearing the Audible Voice of God
When we talk about the audible voice of God, however, it is more or less a spiritual voice that has a side effect on the natural sound waves, or that produces certain sound waves in the natural that your natural ears can decipher. At times the audible voice is discernable, but at times you may not even be able to discern what was spoken depending on your spiritual disposition. Remember when God speaks, he intends for you to hear what He is saying so the problem is never with the transmitter but the one receiving who is not tuned in to the right wavelength.
Please understand that when I talk about the audible voice of God that there are 144 ways to hear from God and this is only one of them and I will not cover them in this part one of the series or even in the whole series unless I am ready to write hundreds of books. The Lord can choose to speak to you in a spectacular way, but most of the time the Holy Spirit speaks through the inward witness, and the inward voice of the Holy Spirit. Don’t get me wrong here. Whenever God speaks He is demonstrating the supernatural. For example, even though you speak in tongues, which are supernatural, it is not very spectacular. In the same way, there are certain things that God will let you experience that are very spectacular, and hearing the audible voice of God is one of those things.
It’s not every day that God will speak to the ordinary believer with His ‘audible’ voice, lightning flashing, thunder roaring, earth shaking, angels singing, and His booming voice comes down and says, Thus says the Lord of Hosts.
It’s not every day, and yet even the audible voice of God can be heard but not understood unless your understanding is enlightened. That is the amazing thing, if you understand that the audible voice of God can occur and understand how audible is audible? When we talk about the prophetic it carries the gift to know the language of God and communicate it in words that the intellect of man can understand so I do have a bit of an advantage there.
When God speaks, there is a spiritual vibration caused by the spiritual voice speaking, and it has an effect on the natural realm. You can even hear it in the natural and fail to understand it. Some can hear it and think it must be something else. This does not happen every day, and most of the time when someone tells me they have heard the audible voice of God I know definitely they haven’t, that is how uncommon it can be. On the other hand, when God does choose to speak to you in this way, I don’t want you to miss it.
As we read earlier in the book of Acts, chapter 9, we have Paul, who was not an apostle yet, but called to be an apostle. Saul had an encounter with the Lord on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians that changed his life forever. Let’s look at it one more time.
Acts 9: 3–4
And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, why persecutes thou me?
Saul heard the audible voice of God saying, Saul, why persecutes thou me? With just a little bit of God’s glory Saul was thrown from his donkey. While he was down on the ground, he heard the voice of Jesus.
Then Saul said, Who are you, Lord? The Lord said, I am Jesus. That was a very frightening experience for Saul. After all, this was the same Jesus he was fighting against. Paul was commissioned into the ministry at the same time he was born again during that encounter with the Lord, and his life was never the same.
As he heard this audible voice of God, there were other people with Saul however their experience of the whole event was a little bit different, let’s read it from the scripture;
Acts 9: 7
The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.
They had heard a voice, but they saw no one, and in the book of Acts 22 we read the testimony of Paul’s conversion.
Acts 22: 7
And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And I answered, Who are you, Lord? And He said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting. Now those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.
Now understand that this was about midday, when the sun was at its peak, and yet right there a greater light shone down upon them.
This is when things get confusing, however, when you compare it to Acts 9. Verse 9 says, now those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the One who was speaking to me. When you read Acts 22, however, the Bible says that they did not hear the voice. Before you rush to any conclusion, this is not a contradiction. Every time you think there is a contradiction, it is more likely because there is a revelation. When you find the revelation that is involved, it will harmonize the seemingly contradictory scriptures. The scriptures do not contradict each other at all.
There is a play of words here, and to get the real meaning of what was being said we need to look at the Greek translation of the two scriptures. In the Greek, the word translated as voice is phone, and the word translated as heard is akouo. What has happened is that they used a special ending in the akouo in Acts 9, which means they heard something without understanding. When you tie it back to Acts 22, where it says they did not hear the voice, it means that they did not discern the voice and what He was saying. They could hear a sound without discerning what it meant.
It could have been a voice speaking in a discernable language, but you did not hear it and how the words were enunciated properly. Therefore, you could not comprehend and understand. The audible voice of Jesus just sounded like a sound to them. Of course they heard Paul’s conversation. They never heard the voice in a true sense, though. They may not even have known that it was somebody talking.
We see the same thing that happening with the disciples in the book of John. Let’s read it next.
John 12: 28
Father, glorify Thy name. Then a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again. The crowd standing by heard it and said that it had thundered.
They didn’t hear any voice, and only heard the thunder. That’s all they heard. They just heard some sound, and they possibly wouldn’t know that it was a voice speaking. Some of them could have heard some sort of words. You see God’s audible voice doesn’t sound like the audible voice of the natural man for it even requires interpretation and spiritual level to know it.
This was the other statement some of them made when they said, An angel has spoken to Him. Jesus and His disciples heard the actual voice. That’s how they were able to record it but to the rest of the crowd whose understanding was darkened even though the voice of God spoke they could not discern anything that was said. They were not at the same wavelength with the disciples. These were just people following the Lord looking for a miracle but no relationship with the miracle worker to know His voice.
One more thing I want you to see is what the bible says about what you think Paul’s eyes saw.
Look at this revelation in Acts 9:8;
“When he OPENED HIS EYES saw no man…”
Do you see what the bible says? All along you thought Paul saw Jesus using his naked eye but no he didn’t because the bible says when he opened his eyes he saw no man, so all this happened while he closed his eyes. However, don’t get it twisted, his spiritual eyes were opened but his natural eyes were closed. The spiritual always trumps the natural no matter what.
Spiritual Condition to Hear the Audible Voice
It seems strange to us because it is the same voice, and how can people hear it differently? The audible voice of God is still a spiritual voice. Because it’s still a spiritual voice, depending on the spiritual condition or state of the hearer, they may not be able to discern it. Some people think that you will always be able to pick up the audible voice and discern it with the natural hearing. No. There still needs to be a spiritual state or condition to be able to hear.
You need to hear from the realm of the spirit otherwise even though it’s audible you will miss it completely. Remember the illustration I gave you earlier about how you cannot decipher the barking of a dog, yet other dogs actually understand what is being communicated simply because they are speaking and hearing from the same realm. You also need to be in the spirit in order to be able to hear the audible voice of God.
I remember taking some of our pastors to our prayer mountain in Southern Africa on my many visits to the branches there. While we were sitting around a fire, an angel of the Lord appeared before us. He actually stood there for a good ten minutes or so. Everyone could see him, at least 17 people could see him apart from one of my relatives who had accompanied us. He could not see a thing. I even took him by the hand and stood in front of the angel, and said here is the angel can you see him? and still he could not see anything. He had no spiritual perception whatsoever. My father wept for a good hour after that. It was his first time to see an angel but only one guy had a problem in seeing.
His inner eyes could not perceive anything at all, his understanding was so darkened to the extent that even the blessing that was for everyone who was there to enjoy he could not receive it. It is the same thing with the audible voice of God, just because you are not hearing it does not mean that the ones who are hearing are making it up. When you read the bible, you will often find that when people wanted to hear God they would go up a mountain or separate themselves from the daily routines somehow. They were trying to escape the cares of life that can cloud your hearing.
Anxiety and Worry cancel out the hearing ability
When most people pray and seek answers from God they are already in a state of anxiety and worry. They stand no chance of hearing anything that God is saying. This is why even when you watch me prophesy the first thing I will do is to quieten my spirit, I control my environment so that I can hear that voice when he speaks. The oldest trick of the enemy is to push you straight into the place of fear, anger or strife and once you fall into that one even if God spoke to you audibly you will not hear anything.
If God were to speak audibly right now, some of you will still not hear it. Although it’s called the audible voice of God, it’s still the spiritual voice that needs spiritual discernment, spiritual perception, and spiritual position to hear that voice. Otherwise, we may just say it thundered, or just think that maybe it’s your imagination.
If you are not in the spiritual position, even though the audible voice comes, you will not be able to understand it. You will not be able to discern it. You will think maybe it thundered, and those who heard it are imagining things.
Many times, I have stood in a live service telling people what God is ministering to me at that time, and even when He speaks audibly they can never hear it. I still need to repeat the whole thing, even though the message was meant for them.
The audible voice of God can only be discerned based on your spiritual position. You can only hear God in the spirit. You can only position yourself to hear the audible voice of God when you begin to walk in the spirit and your understanding has been enlightened through the light of God’s word.
Even when I minister with angels you have to understand that the same rules apply. Angels are attracted to light. If you don’t have that light that comes from the word, you are not visible to them. You cannot see them and they can’t see you either and cannot come to your aid. The spiritual realm remains inaccessible to you as long as you are led and dominated by the desires of your flesh.
You need to develop in you the ability to drown out every other distraction apart from the voice of God concerning any situation. This is only possible when you begin to walk in the spirit with the light of the word helping you to comprehend what the Spirit of God is saying. In the Old Testament, Samuel was one of the people that heard directly from God for the very first time audibly, and he could not understand what was happening. Let’s look at the scripture.
I Samuel 3: 2
At that time Eli, whose eyesight had began to grow dim, so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down within the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. The Lord called, Samuel, Samuel. And he said, Here I am, and ran to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. But he said, I did not call you; lie down again. So, he went and lay down. And the Lord called again, Samuel, Samuel, And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here I am for you called me. But he said, I did not call, my son; lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here I am, for you called me. Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy.
Samuel heard the audible voice of God calling. Here the Lord is calling Samuel, and in verse 10, And the Lord came and stood forth, calling as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. This was in the middle of the night. Samuel was sleeping, and he had never before heard the audible voice of God before. Here, he heard God audibly calling him. He could hear his name, but there was a little bit of muddling. He heard the voice as if it were Eli’s voice. We are all are experienced enough to know a person’s voice.
Samuel heard it, and thought that it was Eli. He must have been so convinced to come to him three times. Remember all of Eli’s other sons were also there. Of all the people that were in that place, why would Samuel run to Eli unless the voice he heard distinctly sounded like that of Eli? When you actually hear it, the audible voice of God sometimes sounds like somebody else’s voice you know.
You will also find sometimes that it will be the voice of someone you look up to in the things of God. A lot of people have said to me, oh I dreamt of you, and their dream has to do with the things of God. I did not necessarily visit them in their dream, but because of their connection with me, God is able to use that image and the voice that you already associate with him to give you direction not that this is how it works all the time.
So when you hear the audible voice of God, it can sound like some natural sounds that you have heard. When the audible voice of God is speaking to you, because of all these experiences and the natural knowledge we have, you would hear it to a certain extent because your mind associates the new experience with the old.
Think about how you learn something new. By using examples of the things you already have an understanding of to illustrate the new. In that way, you are building on what you already know, and it becomes easier to grasp. For example, if I wanted to describe to you the way a rotor blade propeller works on a helicopter, and you have never seen one before, I would try to find something you know that is similar. Maybe a fan, since it works in exactly the same way, except that the rotor blade works at a much larger scale and has a different effect.
That is how your natural mind learns. You take about two or three things of the old, and form something new. Then the new thing that we learned is added to our knowledge, and we have more things to compare now.
When you hear the audible voice of God, you will associate it with sounds that you have heard before. When Samuel heard the audible voice of God he thought that it was Eli, because it was within his experience.
He heard an actual voice speaking to him, and he ran to Eli. Apparently, he was in a position where he could hear quite discernibly. The main reason that it was easy for Samuel to hear the voice of God is that he was in the center of God’s will for his life, the bible says: Samuel continually ministered before the Lord. It’s easier to discern God’s voice when you are in the midst of doing the will of God.
A young Christian can hear the audible voice of God, provided he or she is right where God wants him or her to be. Samuel was a little boy, and he was faithful as far as he was concerned.
Responding to the Voice of God
If you respond to the audible voice of God in some way, He will keep on speaking.
Samuel did respond, but he responded to the wrong person. Notice he never heard anything else until he recognized the one who was speaking to him. In other words, it’s like a phone ringing and you don’t hear anything until you pick up the phone. So, when you hear the audible voice of God, you won’t just suddenly get a message until you give a response.
Now notice that Samuel has to say, Speak Lord for thy servant hears. Only then does the voice start speaking to him. He demands a response. Let me tell you, sometimes people have heard the audible voice of God and not discerned it, and they have missed the message. Of course, you don’t respond to every sound. Remember all the spectacular things that are confirmed by the inward witness. Any time God speaks in a spectacular way, you will sense a bubbling in your spirit man.
Think about it, how did Elijah discern all the sounds in I Kings 19? The winds were howling, the rocks were falling, the earth was quaking, the fires were burning, and he heard a still small voice. There was a sound that created a response in his spiritual perception. You can discern the voice of God, the sound, with your spirit man. You need to respond before we receive the rest of the revelation.
God’s desire from the beginning of time was to be able to fellowship with man, and today He still reaches out to his creation in more ways than you have ever imagined. He wants you to hear directly from him the revelation that he has released me to share with you in this book is evidence of that truth. You can begin that exciting journey today and know the mind of Christ concerning every situation in your life.
Chapter 9
Hearing God in the Prophetic
So now that we have dealt with how you can walk in the spirit by walking in love and you have no strife, grief or fear affecting the functioning of your inner sight as well as the light of God’s word illuminating your inner recesses by making his word the standard for your life and living by it with no reservation. We can now get into how you can actually start to tune into the prophetic. You have to understand that this is not the way I hear. It is just the basics of it but it will go a long way into hearing the voice of God and if you get it sharpened you will shock your world. You see these are the basics that I don’t use in this way because I was born like this and before you start arguing with that let me give you biblical proof that prophets are born prophets.
Jeremiah 1:5
Before I formed thee in the womb I knew thee and made you a prophet
This happened while the man was still a thought in God’s realm of thought. Way before his mother met his father.
Now without taking much of your time, the prophetic is not as complicated as you might have imagined. That is because God wants you to hear from Him directly and he is not hiding from you. As you begin to walk in the Spirit as I have been teaching in this book it will become easier and easier for you to access the voice of God.
In this last chapter I want to show you what you need to do now that you are walking in the spirit and have the light of God’s word illuminating your inner recesses. I really need you to follow very closely, and please try not to over think what I am saying just take it as it is.
Seeing what is said
Now I want to first of all look at the keys to the prophetic that were given by the prophet Habakkuk, watch what the scripture says;
Habakkuk 2: 1
I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
If you have ever watched me prophesy you might have noticed that I can stand there in front of someone as if I am fixing my gaze on something. As a prophet, I can hear from God in many ways. I have seen the Lord but what I am about to teach you, to me are the baby steps into the prophetic but most prophets maybe not at my level still use to the amazement of many.
You need to understand that I have been hearing from God since I was seven years old and you cannot expect just to wake up and start walking in prophetic visions or hearing the audible voice of God as I do, so I will try to make it easier at your level in this first part of How to Hear the Voice of God.
You need to understand that as you start to walk in the spirit and sharpen your senses you may not necessarily start by hearing the audible voice of God or entering into open and closed visions that I described to you. The easiest way for you to pick up those signals in the realm of the spirit will be in picture form.
If you notice the scripture we have just read Habakkuk says that; I will watch to see what he will say. So how do you watch to see something that is being spoken if it is words that are being released? You cannot see words. That means Habakkuk was seeing pictures that were showing him what God was actually communicating. This is why I have been teaching you how to get the light of God into your spirit and sharpen your inner sight because God will show you what he is saying most of the time, rather than speak to you with the audible voice. So when you see you will know what God is saying. Now you are getting it.
Positioning yourself to hear
Now we are getting into how you can see what is being said. So the first thing that Habakkuk says is to; stand upon my watch. What that means is you need to calm your spirit clear your mind and control your environment.
If you have ever seen the people I imparted the prophetic on, you will notice that they are very particular about where you stand, what they are singing in that place and who is allowed to move around, why? They are controlling the environment. You will not be able to tell what is coming from God if you are all over the place. You are trying to prophesy and at the same time you are thinking about your lunch meeting after church. Your will be too clouded and even if God tries to show you anything you will not be able to get it.
When you stand clear your mind, relax and quieten your spirit. All this however will only work when you have the light of God’s word and your inner eye is functioning as it should do because you are walking in love. Now the information you are about to receive will drop into your spirit but remember it is of no use until your mind catches the revelation in your spirit.
Now this is where most people miss it so I need you to follow closely. When you are stood in front of someone remember the one who is giving you this information is God and you are not fishing it out of some unknown source. It is important that your mind has this fact settled and I know I said mind not spirit, that is exactly what I mean.
The mind of Christ
To do that, you have to put in your mind the image you associate with the person of the Lord. Whatever you have in your mind when you think of the Lord, whatever you think he looks like, that is the image I want to be in your mind. Now I know you have never seen his face, but whenever you hear his name your mind has already pieced together images in your head to represent him.
And because it is your mind that we are trying to educate that we are hearing from God that image is important and has to be there if you are going to see anything. You place that envisioning of his image between you and the thing you want to know about. It might be just a bill. Remember this book is mainly for you to know about things that affect you not for you to control people’s lives. I wrote this book for you to hear the voice of God and not you moving around claiming you are some sort of predicting machine.
So let’s go back to our scripture now that we have established the ground rules.
Habakkuk 2: 1
I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
Habakkuk says; I will set me upon the tower, so now you are standing there with the thing you are ministering to or about in front of you but in your mind the image you have of Christ is between the two of you. I know right now some are thinking what I am saying is too simple but remember I am the one who can prophesy and you bought this book to learn from me. Don’t try to figure out what I’m about to say before I say it you will only confuse yourself.
Ok back to hearing from God, so now that you have quietened your spirit and cleared your mind and the thing you want to know about or you are ministering to or about is in front of you with the image of Christ between you and that thing, now wait for spontaneous thoughts to come to your mind. Remember, this whole exercise is pointless unless your mind knows that we are hearing from God, so if you forget what I am telling you about placing that image of Christ between you and the person in front of you nothing will work.
As you are standing there you are now doing what Habakkuk calls, ‘watching to see what he will say’ and in this part you can actually start waiting to hear spontaneous thoughts and that is how the Lord speaks in a basic form before he moves to audible. However, if you learn this no one will tell the difference. We need to know how to test if the spontaneous thought we have received or spontaneous sight is coming from God and there are four ways to know that;
Four ways to be sure what you’re hearing is from Him:
1) Test the Source
So here it is; thoughts from our own minds are gradual. We have one thought leading to the next but thoughts from the spirit are spontaneous. The Hebrew word for true prophecy is naba, which means to bubble up, whereas false prophecy is ziyd meaning to boil up. True words from the Lord will bubble up from our innermost being. You don’t try to manufacture them or think too hard on what he could be saying. They bubble up effortlessly.
2) Compare It to the Word of God
God will never tell you something that is contrary to His Scriptures. Whatever ‘bubbles up’ from the inside of you should always be in line with God’s word. Anything that is not backed up by scripture is not of Him. There may be things that are not specifically addressed in the Bible, still, biblical principles ought to be followed regarding that particular matter.
3) Compare It to the Character of God
Anything God says to you will line up with his nature. Get into the word and get to know what the Bible says about Him. It will help you discern what words are from Him. Remember I mentioned earlier the difference between reading about him (or just knowing scriptures) and actually getting to know Him personally (knowing His voice). Once you do this it becomes easier. Make sure what you are hearing lines up with the character of God.
4) Test the Fruit
Check the effect of what you are hearing in your spirit. Remember how I mentioned earlier about how important it is for your spirit to be in charge? If it doesn’t sit right with your spirit it will affect your body and your world is suddenly thrown into turmoil. Words from the Lord will quicken your faith and increase your love, peace and joy. On the other hand, any words you receive which cause you to fear, doubt, cause confusion or anxiety, or which caress your ego must be immediately rebuked as lies of the enemy.
The quickest way to launch into the prophetic and here God is to see that the three stages of prophecy are met which are:
Revelation
Interpretation
Application
Whenever you sense the spontaneous words or naba or bubbling forth coming you know you are getting revelation. The revelation can be given in the form of dreams, visions or impressions or a knowledge. That needs the second stage which is Interpretation. This is the receiving of an understanding of what God gives you. However, that interpretation requires a way to apply it which takes us to the application stage because you can get the right revelation and mess up the interpretation and ultimately mess up the application.
You can even get the revelation correctly as most people do but mess up the interpretation maybe because they hurry into wanting what they got to be heard and by so doing mess it up or get the first two correct and mess up the whole prophecy and run the risk of being called a false prophet. However, understand this book is not here to make you change your title and call yourself a prophet. It’s here to help hear God for yourself as one of his own children and not go around claiming to know about other people when you don’t know nothing about yourself
In Conclusion of this part 1 of the hearing from God series, I would like you to understand that most importantly, it is the eyes and the light that need to be dealt with when you want to hear God. It is also the listening ability that needs to be developed by walking in the spirit which is walking in love. Simply that. Like I said, the prophetic is not as complicated as you might have imagined that is because God wants you to hear from Him directly and he is not hiding from you. As you begin to walk in the Spirit as I have been teaching in this book it will become easier and easier for you to access the voice of God and I pray that the voice of God be so available to you that you speak to him daily.
In this Chapter, we dealt with hearing but mainly in the spirit. In the coming parts of this series we will deal with how to be sensitive to angels and also how to see in the Spirit as you see in the natural. God gave me this mandate and I will fulfil it as best I can. I know his love for you is endless. Go and change your world with this truth!
