Developing Your Spiritual Eyes and Ears
“Blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear.” Matthew 13:16 KJV
Born again Spirit-filled believers who confess that Jesus is the Son of God and who are filled with the Spirit of the LORD, have the God given ability to see and hear with their spiritual eyes and ears. The Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, has come and is always leading and guiding us, but we have to be willing to see and hear. It is written in John 16:13 NASB, “but when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” And it is written in Romans 8:14 NASB, “for all who are being led by the spirit of God, these are the Sons of God.”
Jesus said unto his disciples in Matthew 13:16 NASB, “but blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear.” In the preceding verse 11, Jesus told his disciples, “to you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.” Our spiritual eyes are blessed to see, and our spiritual ears are blessed to hear. It has been given unto us the spiritual ability to accurately discern, hear, and see spiritual things with clarity; to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. It is written in 1 John 2:20 NKJV, “but you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.” Our born-again Spirits have the God-given ability to see with clarity and accuracy.
How do we develop and fine tune our spiritual eyes and ears? Jesus said in John 6:63 NASB, “the Words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” And in John 1:1 NASB, “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” It all begins with the Word of God which he has exalted above his name and endures forever. The Word of God will never pass away, and it feeds the very life of God into our spirits. As we exalt the Word of God giving it first place in our lives by continually hearing it, seeing it, reading it, meditating upon it, praying it, and doing it, our real selves, the spirit man in us, will grow and build itself up gaining ascendancy over the voices of our soul and flesh.
Therefore, this God-given ability to see and hear spiritual things depends on our willingness to humble ourselves before God by submitting to his Spirit, the Word, and his ways. We must cultivate a lifestyle of submission to the Spirit of the Lord and his Word. We see this modeled for us by the Apostles as recorded in the Book of Acts. For example, in Acts 6:2-4, the apostles said it was not good to neglect the Word, that they must devote themselves to prayer and ministry of the Word, and that men filled with the Spirit were to be appointed to serve the ministry of helps. The impact of these decisions to place the Word and Spirit first led to signs, wonders, miracles, the Word increasing, and the exponential multiplication of believers. The book of Acts records many examples of the impact of submission to the leading of the Spirit of the Lord and of placing the Word of God first. These Spirit and Word led men and women turned the world upside down, according to Acts 17:6.
Our ability to see and hear with our spiritual eyes and ears is strengthened by building up ourselves praying in the Spirit. In Jude 20 NASB, “but you beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.” This is a spiritual mystery that taps into the very power and life of God, which infuses our spirit man with God’s life. Helping us to be strengthened with the very might of God to empower our spirits to rightly discern the soul and spirit, and to gain mastery over our natural tendency to allow our physical senses, the flesh, to rule over our spirits.
The development of our spiritual eyes and ears ability to see and hear with clarity is dependent on how much time we give to hear, meditate, and spiritually study these spiritual principles. Jesus said in Mark 4:24-25 AMPC, “and He said to them, be careful what you are hearing. The measure [of thought and study] you give [to the truth you hear] will be the measure [of virtue and knowledge] that comes back to you—and more [besides] will be given to you who hear. For to him who has will more be given; and from him who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away [by force]. Cultivating a daily lifestyle of giving the Word and Spirit first place in your life, will develop your spiritual eyes and ears to see and hear with clarity spiritual things.
