How to Hear From The Holy Spirit!

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” Romans 8:14 My friend Henry Amuoghobor, narrated to me, some months ago, the story of a woman, who went for a religious meeting. According to my friend, as this woman participated in the meeting, the so-called prophet, called out to her, and gave her a personal prophecy about her family… The prophet told this naïve and ignorant lady, that her Father and Mother In-law, are responsible for her predicaments. Then foolishly, this lady just went straight to her in-laws, and accused them confrontationally, of being the evil hands behind her predicaments. When the said lady’s husband eventually returned, and eventually got to his parents, they narrated to him how his wife had insolently accused them of witchcraft, and being responsible for their problems. After the man heard of the insult of the wife to his parents, as he got home, the issue eventually led to the breakage of their heavenly ordained marriage. This story is just one of many disasters that many spiritually ignorant individuals have caused themselves and others- by always trying to get direction and instruction from God through their fellow humans. Instead of going to God directly to hear from him. People have lost their money, their God given wives, relationships, ministries and other valuables by their undue inquisitiveness, and trying to pry into the future through human agents. And this is mainly as a result of ignorance to scriptural truth. They fail to understand that in the New Testament, Prophets are not given to give personal directions to any child of God. Yes, in the New Testament, there is the ministry of prophet. And their primary duty is to preach and teach the word of God, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, just like every other ministry gift. And also, because they always have revelational gifts, they can also give direction to the general assembly of a Church by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit concerning God’s agenda per time. But when it comes to personal messages to the individuals in the Church, they are to only confirm to the believer only what God has already revealed to them personally for the purpose of confirmation and strengthening of faith. To this end, an individual believer, with the Holy Spirit in him or her, should not depend on prophets to give him/her direction for personal life. They should only go to the prophet to hear preaching or teaching. Then in the process of preaching or teaching, God can occasionally use the prophet to confirm what he has already revealed personally to the believer. However, if the prophet gives the believer a message that God has never revealed to him or her before time, and does not bear witness with the spirit, the believer should discard it. Then on the other hand, if he suspects there could be truth in it, he should personally go and inquire from God concerning the revelation before agreeing to or acting on it. It is very risky and dangerous to take any man’s word for it, without hearing the truth from God first. And when I say any man, I mean any man- regardless of whom the person may be. No matter the position of the man, we can’t afford to put our destinies in the hand of any man. Even if the individual has the true gift of prophecy, he is only a human as much as you are, and as such, is bound to make mistakes. Prophets operate in the realm of the spirit, and as the scriptures said, there are many voices in the spirit realm. Familiar spirits (that mimic the Holy Spirit) can speak through people. Including even genuine prophet or a child of God. Peter did yield to the devil, and started speaking against Jesus’s death. Anybody can at one time or the other, yield to the wrong spirit. So committing your destiny to any mortal man to direct, is to be toiling with your life and destiny. It is better to develop your relationship with God personally, and always consult him for any direction or instruction you need in any area of your life. If you want to make any business decision, go to him in a prayer of inquiries (if you want, you can take up some days of fasting and prayers)… If you want to marry, ask him for the right person. If you have a call for the ministry, go to him for instructions. Don’t allow anybody prophesy or call you into the ministry. If things are not going well with you in any area of your life, ask him personally to reveal to you what is going on. He is always ready and available inside of you to answer you if you are truly living in and for him… So my message in essence, is that you should learn to walk in the Spirit, instead of walking in men and prophets. When a believer always runs to a fellow man for answers, God is provoked to jealousy. Because by so doing, we tend to treat the man as God, and relegate God to the background. Hence, the errors many folks find themselves in the quest of seeking directions from prophets. So what are the various ways the Holy Spirit speaks to his Children? There are several ways the Holy Spirit lead or speak to his children. Principally, he speaks through the Witness of the spirit, the written word of God, small still voice (in the heart), audible voice (rarely), Wisdom (Godly wisdom, not sensual), situations or providence, visions and a host of other means. I’ll be discussing in details how the Holy Spirit speaks to the Believers through all these medium in my next article. But in the interim, I encourage you to smoothen out your relationship with God and his Holy Spirit, and learn how to be sensitive to his voice and leadings. Learn how to hear him for yourself for any situation you find yourself in; that you need direction for… Don’t subject your destiny to the direction of any man, no matter whatever title he or she is called. Right now, I decree your spiritual ears to pop open, in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. I command every deafening forces in you, to lose their grips off you, in the name of Jesus Christ! From now onwards, begin to hear God, per second, per minute, in the name of Jesus Christ! Remain Blessed! Emeke Odili