Sensing The Supernatural

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The Word tells us our fight is with the rulers of darkness, the powers and principalities and spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. How do we fight unseen foes? Believe it or not, our senses are able to detect them. For instance, we can all see evidence of the enemy manifesting through people as they lose control of their temper and abuse, kill and destroy. The descendants of Adam raised on the knowledge of Satan, the Tree of Good and Evil, are easy marks and without knowing it are pawns on this earth used by spirits to carry out his plans to eradicate man, thus we have fighting and wars all over the globe.

We hear the voice of the enemy as one out of control screams, hollers and yells, using filthy language, many times even using the name of God. Cruel remarks are heard as they fly out of the mouth of one possessed with a spirit of anger. Word curses are shouted over children as out of control parents allow evil spirits to manifest through them. Husbands and wives curse each other, opening the door for the enemy to cause havoc in their lives by fulfilling the curses.

We smell the enemy when death is approaching, or blood is shed. What about the odor of wounds that are infected etc. All of it is the smell of corruption and decay that affects all of creation, brought on by the enemy. We smell the spirits of addiction, cigarettes, beer, whiskey etc. A person possessed by these spirits may not be indulging at the moment, but you can smell the spirit in them. We can smell mold and mildew. Our nose is in many ways quite successful at pointing out enemy invasion.

We can taste the intrusion of the enemy as well. For instance as we bite into tainted food we can detect the taste of aged food. Not only do we smell corruption, but the odor also affects our taste buds, so we can actually taste sickness and death, taste mold on something we eat etc. Yes, all this is brought on by the enemy. There was no sickness or death, mold or corruption, in the garden of Eden before the fall. All was good.

We can feel the enemy in many ways also. Different spirits affect us in different ways. For instance, a religious spirit, that walks in rebellion against truth, can give you a stiff neck and shoulders. Leviathan makes you feel sleepy when truth is being taught in attempt to keep you from grasping it. Intellect can give you a splitting headache, perversion makes your heart skip or beat rapidly, on and on. There are so many spirits, therefore many different symptoms can be felt.

Now let me ask, if scripture tells us Jesus bore our infirmities, and took our diseases and by His stripes we were healed, then what we are actually experiencing when we feel sick? Is it not the influence and attack of the enemy? Much of what happens in the natural world around us is the result of action taken by beings in the supernatural. Understanding this is paramount to us being able to experience Christ's victory over the enemy, not only in our personal lives, but for all creation. How do I mean this? Let us look at several different situations.

Take marriage for example, we've all heard the quote, "it's a marriage made in heaven". Well, perhaps it was God who drew them together. Who better to choose? But, more times than not, because we do not want to wait for the right one, we take matters in our own hands and marry people that deep down inside we had doubts about. "Is this really who I want to spend the rest of eternity with?" Our spirit knew all along our choice was not a good one, because it sees into the supernatural. The thought that produced doubt came from our spirit voicing its opinion, but unfortunately, for the most part, we are run by our soul man. Since our spirit is sensitive to the Spirit of God and our soul is in touch with the world and its master, which should we listen to?

If given a chance, God will lead that perfect one, created with us in mind, to us and our spirit will know when it is perfect and right. The Lord wants us to be in harmony with one another, equally yoked as the scripture explains, so we can serve God in the capacity He has called us to, unhindered. He wants us to fit perfectly as a family unit into the eternal peace and harmony of God's Kingdom complementing the rest of His family. Satan on the other hand likes strife, anger and frustration so he assigns spirits to bring this about. Someone that appeals to your soul man is sure to appear. Another well-used tactic of Satan is to bring one into our life that we feel sorry for, a victim that appears helpless and we feel without our relationship they would be devastated and lost. Satan clouds the fact that God can do more for them than we ever could. If He should refuse help then we surely should not have intervened either. Spiritually this person may not have anything to offer the relationship, so if it advances to marriage, division is inevitable. The Devil wins! Division is necessary to destroy God's plans for humanity, plans for restoration, renewal, total shalom. What better way to create trouble than to cause strife and division in human homes? So we must be very discerning when it comes to marriage. It affects more than us!

Does this example help you to see how supernatural residents affect our lives? Influence from the spirit realm, the good and the evil, applies to all areas of our existence. Let me explain with another example. When we ask the Lord into our hearts, He comes in with His Kingdom. As we die into His death at baptism the Holy Spirit resurrects our spirit man, dormant since the fall of Adam, into the likeness of the resurrection of Jesus. Our spirit man is a child of the Kingdom of God creating a whole new creature and spiritual realm within our body. We therefore experience salvation from a supernatural God we cannot physically see. Now beings from the dark side of the supernatural begin to move. They attack the new creature, hoping to cause situations that will result in drawing the born again back to his old carnal self, back to his original state as Adam. You see, Satan holds the descendants of Adam captive in their hearts, bound in a spiritual prison, the complete opposite of the Kingdom of God. This is why the new creature must be aware of the Devil's devices, why they particularly must be able to sense him. Unfortunately, he doesn't always show up in evil situations where you can easily detect the wrong side. He can appear as an angel of light and approach from a seemingly righteous scenario.

If you are sensitive though, you will sense the enemy. You may hear him through conversation, sense him through crudeness or immodesty, smell alcohol, or feel physically ill if infirmity is in your space. Experiencing warfare can be quite uncomfortable at times, especially if it comes from spirits of infirmity, but it can also be a real blessing as well if you understand it. Example, scripture tells us we are born through incorruptible seed, when we are born again through Christ and that sin no longer has control over us. We are righteous through the blood of Jesus. So if you feel angry, edgy, at odds with God's people around you, it's not the nature of the new creature to feel this way, so we know it is an attack of the enemy.

The more we read, understand and believe the Word, the more faith we will develop. So if we believe the scripture that tells us "the Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost", yet we find ourselves unhappy, depressed, dissatisfied with everything around us, based on what we know to be true from the Word of God, again, we realize we are under attack.

Sensing the enemy can also keep us stable mentally in times of tragedy if we really believe what the Word says. Let's say a baby falls into a pool and drowns before anyone can get there. We should not mentally accept death. As scripture says, God takes no pleasure in the death of His saints, Jesus loves the little children, no fire shall burn us or water drown us. We might sense spirits of doubt and unbelief in bystanders however, or spirits of fear in parents, so we'll ask them to leave, loose the spirit of death from its assignment, and command the life of that child back in its body. All done quietly with complete faith in the authority of the name of Jesus to resurrect the child even as Jesus did Lazarus. After all, He is not a respecter of persons, right? His Word never comes back void, correct? So we call those things that are not as though they are and the child lives. If we wish to minister further, we can loose the spirits of doubt, unbelief and fear from those we asked to leave and loose the enemy from them, cast these spirits also into the pit. What we loose on earth is loosed in heaven so the enemy has to go and they are set free.

Further examples: we can sense wrongful prayer. People can mean well, but if they pray their personal desire concerning us rather than God's will, we will sense the enemy that is sent in on their prayers. It is a form of witchcraft. So it is true that there are unpleasant sensations when people pray wrongly for us, yet people ask anyone and everyone to pray for them, having no idea if they are spiritually mature or not.

We may feel ill, sleepy, drained of energy, weak or dizzy etc. at times around certain people, but basically the warfare, the sensation of the enemy in our atmosphere, is well worth it. Sensing or discerning spirits can enhance our lives, even save our lives and the lives of others. Discerning of spirits is a gift of the Holy Spirit.

Remember, we can also sense the good side. We feel the Lord's presence, and know when to press on in spiritual battle because He is with us to succeed. We see the shine on people's faces when the anointing of God is on them, so we know we should pay attention to what they are saying as they are flowing through God's Spirit. We hear the voice of God through His prophets. We can even smell an odor, much like orange blossoms or even roses, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, There are many ways our God interacts with His people, and there is not one of us that would trade those moments for anything in the world!

We should all want to be super-sensitive to the Holy Spirit. As we develop a closer relationship with the Lord our spirit man will grow stronger, making us much more sensitive to the spirit realm. This means we will sense good and evil beings much as we do in the physical world. Not all are good that we meet, nor are all evil. We react to them accordingly. It's the same in the spirit realm. Our fight is with the wicked, yet we must learn to tap into the supernatural better to interact with the holy, but above all, we must be able to sense the difference.

In closing, I hope this blast helps us understand that not everything around us is as it seems. We are very much affected by an unseen realm for good and evil. Jesus gained authority over the enemy as He resurrected from the grips of death and hell itself. This precious victory can only be brought into the natural to bless and restore humanity, renew and refurbish the earth however, through God's people sensing His presence, recognizing His anointing, and allowing His Spirit to move within them to implement that victory. In other words, if we mortals want to become immortal, if we want to step out of time into eternity, if we want to see all of creation perfected as in the beginning, then we must exercise our gifting to be able to successfully sense the supernatural.