Hearing the Still Small Voice

Something stirs in me when I see sisters and brothers in Christ still caught up in law no matter how subtle it is. God is constantly calling us to come up higher - to leave behind the elementary teachings and enter new mansions in faith as the Spirit opens up our inner eyes to new and unchartered spiritual sceneries.

I notice that many still see God as apart from them, and one of the consequences of having this inner outlook is that we strain our ears to hear God’s still small voice. We are taught that in order to be obedient to God and His voice that somehow comes to us from outside ourselves we have to learn to be quiet, take no thought, there must be no fear in us because it overrides God’s voice (ergo our fear is greater than God which is nonsense) etc etc. We all start out here, because this is how God comes to us in the beginning, that is, as apart from us. But, there is a better way. It is what Paul called the obedience of faith. Simply put it is doing the next thing and trusting it is God.

In John 8 Jesus outlines what hearing is and how this hearing is spontaneously, without any effort on our part, expressed by our lives in every now. “I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father” (John 8:38). The Pharisees trouble was that they were completely blinded to that they expressed what they heard from their father (the spirit of error). A hearing hidden from them, but nevertheless, operative in them. Jesus even said that their desire was to do the will of their father. Something they of course vehemently denied.

Since the Pharisees heard without hearing, as it were, this evidently must be true also about those who belong to Christ. We hear and see what our Father speaks and is doing and by faith we speak and do accordingly. It is a very spontaneous thing. And like the Pharisees, our desire is to do the will of our Father whether we know it is so or not. The Pharisees were blinded to this, and so are we when we start out on our faith walk. Appearances and sense-knowledge are the beacons we navigate after in the beginning. But these things have to be brought down by the Spirit as we are brought to faith only.

Not few of us face difficulties with our prayer life and we find it also hard to speak words of faith often afraid of the results, and we are also wavering because we think that it is “only us.” This has been a lifelong battle for me, and I find only one way out of this battle and that is in simple obedience of faith saying that it is all Him by me.

My present outlook is thus: God is responsible for the results, not I. And if He wants to look like a fool because I see no results in the visible that is His problem, not mine. My stance is that He prays by me and He speaks His words of faith as me. Anything less than that causes unrest and confusion in my consciousness. To step into the obedience of faith when it comes to these things can be a bit unnerving in the beginning, but the Spirit pushes me onwards.

Paul encourages us to cast our burdens on God which of course means that the burden of prayer, words of faith and results are on Him. The heat is on Christ, not the vessels. It is very tempting to say that something is wrong with us when the answer lingers or the result seemingly fails to appear. Please don’t take that! Christ is working His faith by us, and we cannot say that His faith has failed in accomplishing whatever we have prayed or spoken. The faith heroes of old are our example if we are seemingly confronted with a “failure”: These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar (Hebr 11:13). And then we have Abraham who waited 25 years for God to fulfill the promise He had declared to him.

I do not pray because I have to pray. I do not listen intently in order to know what my Father is up to. If I pray or not pray it is Him. What I do next is Him. This is the oneness Jesus spoke about which was true about Him, and which is true about me too because I am also a son. That God in a sense has made Him available to us is beyond comprehension. Likewise, that He lets His sons be an active part of running His business. Grace upon grace – love too grand to comprehend.

As we are increasingly established in our oneness with God another way of listening comes into play. The Spirit begins teaching us to listen to what we say as a way of finding out what God is up to. God spoke this universe into existence by a word. The foolishness of God is this very thing that we speak substance into existence by our words or confessions. Of course, it is not us, but God speaking as us, yet it is us calling things into existence that are not as if they were. Words that expand the universe and penetrate the invisible. Words that move God. Words that activate all the power of God. Words that open up a way where there is no way. Words that call the impossible into existence.

By faith, just like Sarah, we receive power to conceive (Hebr 11:11).

Becoming Settled - An Exchange between Harriet Wearren and Ole Henrik

Ole Henrik: When you had spoken your word concerning your marriage did you often wrestle with doubt in regards to that you actually had heard from God and had spoken His word?

Harriet: I did, but the same words of faith kept coming back in my head so finally I became settled that the word was from God!  But, you know it went on for a long, long time, so I had a lot of practice in replacing what appeared to be with the word God had given me. And I might add it was not all bliss!! Sometimes I was berserk with all that was going on with us, but would go back to my word. It was very up and down in the appearance realm. It took me to hell and killed me!!! Eventually it was settled in me and I rose!!!

OH: Standing in faith for something is a very lonely affair, isn't it?

Harriet: Right, but it makes us stronger and things learned there, can be gotten no other way!!! It is walking through the valley of the shadow of death or going to the Promised Land, do we see the giants or do we see God!

OH: What is faith actions? Is it to believe against appearances? Is it to do a particular thing?

H: A specific word is to believe against the appearances. We live by faith and we walk by faith, so how the Holy Spirit lives through us is His business. I usually just take no thought or notice unless he gets my attention to something. Simply believing never seems like we are doing enough, because we are used to doing and fixing things. But when you think about it, when we stand on a word of faith, we are activating the power of the Holy Spirit or all the power of God!!! That is doing the most!

OH: What about all these hard days we go through? The sadness etc?

H: Just know that your tough days and rivers of sadness and crying are designed by God for you! It is through these times that God fixes us in what we believe! Norman used to talk about....commission ,cost and completion. Commission is the word we get from God to believe for something, the cost is our tough days, sadness, etc. - the price we pay, and completion comes from the other side, from God. Your faith is swallowed up in knowing that it is finished, before you even see evidence. We do know the voice of the shepherd....trust Him. You are not just you, you are a spirit joined to Him, so it can't be just fooling yourself. He is bigger than we are, He will get His point across!

OH: I have noticed one thing: I am stretched far beyond my comfort zone concerning the things I say. I can for instance not say "if" "what if" or "but", I can only say "when" and that really takes me out on "thin" ice.....And I feel discomfort when I am that bold and say..."When I..." "When this happens....".....and I feel this discomfort because I am far outside my comfort zone....my safety zone......

H: Funny how God loves to get us outside our comfort zone, or sometimes we say outside our zipcode!

OH: What about doubt?

H: The wonderful thing that we know and can trust is that we are no longer for ourselves, we are for others!! And, of course doubts do come and further down the road you will see that they are what make us stronger. When we stand against appearances we become more solid in our word of faith. The gates of hell will not prevail against it! He will not let you sink!!

When I am doubting, sometimes a verse will pop in my head and quite often it is the one in Timothy....."Even when we believe not, He abideth faithful, for He will not deny Himself!" (In me).  And I also know that the doubt is for something constructive..  Because God is always upward!!  "If I ask my father for bread, He will not give me a stone!"

Binding and Loosing

By DeeDee Winter

This was originally written to a friend who asked about a spouse….

You asked about “binding and loosing”…it is simply what we 'say' about a person or situation. We either hold/bind them or free/loose them by our word...what we say about them and their situation. An example would be a friend with a drinking problem. I can say, "She is an alcoholic and that is all she will ever be" or I can say, "She is not an alcoholic...Christ is her life and He knows the way through for her". The first holds her there...binds...and the second frees her to the Life within her and Christ revealing the freedom in His finished work of the Cross that is hers.

We may have many more times when outward evidence (the appearance) screams at us that what we said and are believing for her is rubbish. Never mind that. It is good practice and only strengthens our word. As we come to know the “still small voice” within ourselves and begin to truly 'hear' His voice we understand that our word is really agreeing with what He has spoken in our heart. His voice and our desires, which are His also, accomplish all He has for our friend.

How does this apply to our unsaved ones? I think we would begin by stating the basic truths. Even if a person is unsaved the Gospel of John in the first few verses states that there IS “the light that lighteth every man who comes into the world” residing in him. That light is Christ. For the born-again we see Christ as their life; for those who have not yet received Him we see Him in His un-lit, so to say, form….like a pilot light verses a full flame.

See nothing less than the truth about that person. It is very difficult to say that a person is unsaved…unless they would say that about themselves. We can never know just what goes on in a person’s heart and mind. That is totally between him and the Holy Spirit. So many churches judge by standards that are far from Biblical standards. Don’t be held by any denominational teachings….God is not! He judges the heart. There is even a passage in Romans 2:14-16 where Paul gives a wide birth to folks of many different religions or no ‘religion’ at all. It was transformative to me when the Spirit illuminated this Romans passage to me some years ago.

You also pose the question about our spouses who are His, but who do not ‘see’ their union with God. For your husband or wife stand that he or she IS in union with Christ Jesus and that he or she is only expressing the life of Christ…sometimes even in a negative form. “There You are, Lord.” The Spirit will reveal his or her oneness/union in due time…when he or she is ready. Many times they are held in their unknowing in order that we might get settled in faith. Meanwhile know that God is accomplishing eternal glories in these negatives …nothing wasted…all meant for good!

I was raised Catholic and came to know the Lord through the baptism of the Holy Spirit in 1974. God revealed union to me in 1980. My husband has been a Christian since he was a young child, but wanted little to do with Catholicism or the baptism of the HS. But when God took me the next step into union Gary saw something different about me. Since then he has been fully supportive of me in every way, but is not one to go to Bible studies or sit around and talk doctrine…but he LIVES Christ. From the day that I saw Christ as my life, I had to say the same about him…that Christ was his life and the fact that he did NOT want to go to Bible studies or sit around and talk about what he believed was God’s way/life in Gary. As I began to see him rightly he became even more fully his wonderful, God-created self! My judgments of him had held him in some places that were less that what God had for us both.

This is a perfect example of binding and loosing. I was well-trained in the deliverance ministry in my charismatic days and my new understanding of binding and loosing was far superior to what we had been taught. Our statements of FAITH bind OR loose a person.

A brilliant truth Norman Grubb imparted to us was “the greater the negative, the greater the positive”. Just as a pebble in a slingshot is thrust forward farther (positive) when it is pulled farther back (negative) so are our circumstances of life. As we begin to see this and trust God in these right negatives, we will begin to be excited when they surface. We will begin to say, “Well, Lord, here You are. Now let’s see just how You are going to bring good from this!!!” WE will be transformed as well as the object of our faith!

That's Called Grace

The following is from an email exchange.

Q: I would like to know your thoughts and advice on the following.

We have a new spirit and a new heart, so our souls are a pure expression of the indwelling spirit. So we should never say that we constantly sin in many unconscious ways during the day. The approach is that we only accept sin as the Spirit reveals so.

The only possibility to sin is when we don’t live according to the faith of the Son of God (Gal. 2:20). So unbelief is the only possibility to sin and may come to us along the lines the illusion of an independent self-life or giving in to temptation.

A: I honestly do not see sin anymore. It isn't in my consciousness any longer as something I can do whether by this or that, or as something I do determined by whether I believe or not believe. Christ is my faith so how can I ever be found in unbelief? You know, Jesus was tempted in every way but without sinning. I say that is true about me too (My personal word of faith concerning this. I cannot say that word for you. That is something you have to do for yourself). Why? Because the sin spirit is kicked out and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth who was in Jesus is in me, and it is God who directs and orders my steps. We learn by and by that temptation is an asset. It is God’s way of settling us into Himself.

Q: In your correspondence with Fred I read:
In a way, temptation comes two ways most of the time. A temptation “up,” to see “this thing” as God and in God and at work for Divine purposes out of our inner oneness; or a temptation “down” in which our sight is locked into the temporal appearance as something in itself and “we” as “something in our selves” (separation) responding to this “thing” as if it is outside God, along with us outside God, too. Alone.

I do not grasp these two ways of ‘up’ and ‘down’ well. Would you be so kind to clarify it somewhat and give an example of both.

A: I also struggled a while with what Fred wrote me, but it is much clearer to me now. Assume you were put in a situation that to all appearances look like a disaster, and even challenge your last remnants of morality (we have to learn we are inner driven people, and God has His ways of accomplishing that). In that position you will be drawn in two directions. Either seeing the thing as your fault, that you are to blame for what happened or take place because you have acted irresponsible or something like that. That is the temptation downwards, that is, to see yourself alone apart from God doing your own damned thing. But, there is also an upward pull/temptation from God to see your situation in faith as His perfect situation for you into which He has taken you for His love purposes.

Q: May we call the upward pull a ‘temptation’ because God tempts nobody?

A: Words are of minor importance in this context. Call it upward pull or upward temptation or whatever. Deep down you know what this is. In a sense we can even say that God tempted us to receive Jesus.

Q: If I can never be found in unbelief, how can I ever come in Romans 7 again?

A: In my Father's house there are many mansions, that is, levels of faith which when faith is consummated become levels of consciousness. These consciousnesses are something the Spirit gives us when we are ready. One day we step into a consciousness where Romans 7 is only a vague memory and we are never again worried about going back to the law. We forget the former things and our inner word is: My meat is to do the will of the Father.

Q: If God shows my unbelief then He shows me because it was there and I was not aware of it. It was there unconsciously while I lived up to that moment in the knowledge to be a pure expression of Him, while that was not the case because of my unbelief.

A: My friend, you always are and always have been a pure expression of Him ever since you received Christ. Our baby days are not counted against us. They are a part of growing up. That's all. One day you will to your surprise find that Christ was your faith and did things in faith as you even in those days when you thought you were in unbelief and didn't recognize His faith working in you. That's called grace.

This faith of Christ that works in us is not under any law. We cannot set the ways of the Spirit by us in stone. God always drives us to reach for the impossible so that His faith in us can be stretched and exercised causing us in increasing measure to live by what we not see. It was Norman Grubb who said: Be a grabber of the impossible and not a nibbler of the possible. Welcome to the adventure!

Christ Speaking As Me

By Clint Freeman and Ole Henrik Skjelstad

Moses and the burning bush is a type of how God speaks out of us. We all speak words of faith concerning a matter, both consciously and unconsciously. Christ’s faith is operative in us and as us and the Spirit speaks by us, as promised. By faith recognition we come to affirm what the Spirit has shown us concerning this.

A marvelous word that confirms this is 2 Corinthians 13:3 (KJV) "Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you"

The Amplified version really brings it out!!

"Since you desire and seek [perceptible] proof of the Christ Who speaks in and through me. [For He] is not weak and feeble in dealing with you, but is a mighty power within you;"

Here is the thing, the word "IN" in this scripture is Strong’s #1722 and according to the exhaustive concordance (http://biblesuite.com/greek/1722.htm) it can also be translated "AS"!!! Mark 2:15 is an example: "And (G2532) it came to pass, (G1096) that, as (G1722) Jesus (G846) sat,…"

So back to the original 2 Corinthians 13:3 (KJV); we can in fact translate it like this:

"Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking AS (1722) me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty AS (1722) you!" Another possible translation is: "Christ speaking BY me"

Faith is Substance

What does it mean that faith is substance? It must first of all mean that faith is an entity apart from anything else whether it is emotions, appearances, circumstances or whatever tangible or intangible we can imagine. Faith has its own particular life, not moved by anything. It is like a bright star shining of its own accord.

Peter walking on water is a faith illustration pointing to that the only thing that kept him from sinking was faith. The substance to carry Peter’s weight was not in the water. The water represents that there is nothing apart from faith that is substance. We like to find substance in perhaps an inner knowing, in peace, an inner seeing, in some sort of confirming emotion, in some sort of inner or outer experience or we look for signs that will give us some measure of substance. But, faith is found in none of these. Its substance is apart from all that. Yet, faith is swallowed up in knowing it is finished, even before we see any evidences.

But, nevertheless, faith is in us and as us. We walk in faith every day, but the paradox is that faith is also a choice – a commitment to something.

Faith also has this quality that it leaves reason in ruins, but yearns to be man’s reason.

Doubt and faith go hand in hand. Doubt is faith’s sparring partner training the faith muscle by its negatives and reverse motions. Faith yearns to be challenged, to be exercised and to be tried against the impossible. The nature of faith is that it rejoices when everything seems utterly hopeless and impossible, because it is the substance of the thing and thus knows it exists against whatever testimony to the contrary.

Faith does not make us its slaves; instead it becomes our servant in the will of God. We cannot find faith, but faith finds us and asks us to receive it so that it can be used by the one to whom it offers itself, and faith attracts to itself the secrets of God so that they are revealed to the one who has faith (to those much given more will be given).

Faith is a response to the Word of God either by how He speaks to us in the Bible concerning who we are or how we respond to His promises, or how He speaks personally to each and every one of us concerning a matter. Like with Mary God always takes the initiative and we receive in faith what He wants to do by us, and His commandments are not burdensome, because we will what He wills. But, faith is also found in: "What do you want me to do for you?"

I once had a question in regards to faith which I addressed to the Spirit. I asked Him how I was to know whether my faith was true or not. He said: “Everything you speak is true.” I didn’t understand what He meant right away. But, later I was reminded about Jesus’ words: “According to your faith be it unto you.” In a sense we speak into existence our own truth. Either a “truth” of bondage or a truth of liberty. Either a “truth” according to reason or a truth according to spiritual realities.

Faith is also a consciousness: It doesn’t spring forth from our thoughts which are the wisdom of man. It springs forth from a consciousness higher than ours and which we now partake from and are one with. Faith generates thoughts, but thoughts cannot generate faith.

Clouds That Dim Our Vision

We can easily store up an impressive conceptual knowledge-base about faith and mean a lot about it without knowing what it really is. It is my clear conviction that faith can only be learned in the school of faith in which we are given a faith commission which results in human terms would be said to be utterly impossible to achieve. Not least because we might experience that we are stretched to the limits in the sense that the thing cannot possibly come into being by any human means.

Yesterday it was almost as I could behold faith while I in an odd way was standing outside myself, and I saw how it is purified and "cleansed" by the different challenges we face in a faith commission. Circumstances, appearances, darkness, a rich variety of emotions and suffering are all sent our way so that we learn that we do not find faith in any of those. In that glimpse I saw faith as something (Someone) apart from all those things, but, nevertheless, one with us.

Further, I saw faith as something inner - an inner consciousness of some sort - an inner knowing apart from all those outer things. It is so tempting to read and interpret "the signs" in these outer things in which we are walking, but they carry no weight whatsoever. They are only clouds that dim our vision, whereas faith is clear as daylight and shine in the dimness and we see it and follow it, even when we not “see” it.

And when our vision fails, Christ, nevertheless, walks steady on and suddenly as out of nothing when our eyes are again opened we are surrounded by a new landscape taken there by the One who is our life.

“I have been thinking all morning about what you said about "signs" dimming our vision, but they carry no weight, whereas faith is what we are drawn toward!  Isn't it just amazing ......because we are spirit people, we cannot be satisfied with flesh answers!” (Harriet Wearren)

Another aspect of this which Harriet pointed out: We once in our unredeemed state were slaves of the visible and the tangible. Now, however, we are slaves of the invisible. Of course, the carnal mind - the flesh - still prefers the old state of things. But, we are constantly nudged upwards to leave behind (take off the grave clothes) these elementary things and speak our words of faith with boldness into the invisible seeing the thing as done and expect it to manifest in the visible. As spirit people we are irrevocably drawn into the invisible, because the invisible is the Real from which all things originate.

One last thing: Remember we are calling into existence things that be not as if they were. There are no formulas or precepts to follow. Some will find it peculiar that we have this inner drive to speak our word again and again – often several times a day, that is, repeatedly confessing the thing as done and thanking it is so. If so, that is not unbelief or doubt. It is the Spirit’s way with us. Again, remember, we are calling things into existence. In other instances we might speak the word once and almost forget about it. The inner law of the Spirit is what determines the route – not methods.

Yes, there is a price to pay. There are costs and you might be killed a couple of times before you see the completion. But, the Spirit is persistent and determined to see this through by the sons, and we will prevail. God will pull us through, because it is His battle.

We enroll into this school of faith by speaking our word of faith knowing that faith starts in desire. And from where does desire come? Who is it that makes us to will and act according to His good pleasure? Step out of the boat and be prepared to sink a couple of times……