BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

“‘Don't be afraid!’ Elisha told him. ‘For there are more on our side than on theirs!’ Then Elisha prayed, ‘O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!’ The Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire” (2 Kings 6:15-17, "New Living Translation"). Notice that even though in the natural it looked like Elisha and his servant were alone, in reality an army of angels and chariots of fire had already been sent by God to do battle. They didn’t just appear when the eyes of Elisha’s servant were opened. They’d been there all along, in the realm of the spirit, waiting to wipe out that Syrian army or do whatever the man of God told them to do. While that’s an Old Testament story, you as a New Testament believer are in much the same situation: • You have angels with you all the time. (Hebrews 1:14) • You have healing continually available to you. (1 Peter 2:24) • You have rich financial supplies ready and waiting for you. (2 Corinthians 8:9) If you don’t know about those things, however, they won’t be much help to you. If you aren’t hearing from God about them and seeing things from His perspective, you’ll continue to look to this natural world and it doesn’t often have much to offer. It can’t provide solutions for every problem. It can’t bring you out of trouble and into victory. It will let you down time and again. That’s why the devil works so hard to keep you mired down in the things of the natural. It’s the reason he’s happy when you let your life get so busy and cluttered with worldly stuff that when the Holy Spirit tries to talk to you, what He says goes right past you without you even hearing it. Satan has to pull you away from your communication with the Lord to make any headway in your life. He has to keep you carnal and stop you from becoming spiritual because, as Romans 8:6 says, “To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Satan has no defense against life and peace! He can’t defeat believers who are spiritually minded because they won’t believe his lies and get off into sin doing things they shouldn’t do. When you’re walking in the spirit, the devil can’t even manipulate you with natural circumstances. He can’t push you around with problems and pressures because you’re hearing from the Lord through His written Word and by His inward voice. As a result, the spiritual realm is more powerful in you than the natural. The unseen realities of God are bigger to you than what your physical eyes can see so you’re able to walk by faith, which means you can overcome every natural challenge. For, as 1 John 5:4 says, “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” Someone’s Knocking “But Gloria, what if I don’t have the capacity to walk in that kind of fellowship with God?” You do! As a believer you’re born again to walk and talk with God. You have Jesus’ own word on it. He said plain as can be in the New Testament: “The sheep that are My own hear and are listening to My voice; and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27, "The Amplified Bible, Classic Edition"). “It is profitable (good, expedient, advantageous) for you that I go away. Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counselor…) will not come to you [into close fellowship with you]; but if I go away, I will send Him to you [to be in close fellowship with you]. When He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth” (John 16:7, 13, "AMPC"). “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). Talk about equipped to hear from the Lord! According to those verses, not only do you know and hear the voice of Jesus, He’s knocking at the door of your spirit all the time, wanting to communicate with you. As if that’s not enough, the Holy Spirit—the One who knows everything!—has come to live in you to teach you how to walk with God in every situation of life and serve as your personal Counselor. I think one reason pastors these days often have such heavy counseling loads in their churches is because Christians aren’t taking the time to fellowship with THE Counselor. They’re not tuning in to His voice and following the prescription given in James 5:13. It says, “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray” ("New International Version"). The Bible doesn’t say anywhere that when we’re in trouble we should go talk to 45 people about it. It doesn’t tell us to go get a lot of human advice. It tells us that when we have problems we should take them to God and find out what He has to say. I remember many years ago on Christian television I saw an interview with someone from a very large church. She said in their church, when members are having marital problems or whatever, the pastoral staff doesn’t bring them in for a counseling appointment. Instead they tell the person to fast and pray for 36 hours. Then if they still want to see a pastor for counseling they can. Usually after people have spent that much time fellowshiping with the Lord, they don’t need any pastoral counseling. They’ve heard from heaven and they not only know what to do, but they’ve been energized by God to do it. So, even though this particular church had over a million members, their counseling load remained relatively light! Obviously, I’m not suggesting you have to fast and pray for 36 hours every time you want to hear from God. Not at all! Normally, if you’ll just spend an hour or so a day with Him in the Word and in prayer, you’ll be able to hear from Him all the time. How will you hear from Him? Not on the outside, but on the inside. Not with the ears on your head but with the ears of your heart. As 1 Corinthians 3:16 ("New King James Version") says, “You are the temple of God and…the Spirit of God dwells in you.” He’s constantly communicating with your born-again spirit—sometimes through words that seem to come from deep within you, and even more often through “promptings” (Romans 7:6, "AMPC"), impressions, or what Romans 8:16 calls the inward “witness” of the Holy Spirit. 8 : BVOV

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