Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 43:19 (AMPC)

 

I want us to take note of a particular word in this phrase. God said "I am doing a new thing!" The word "doing" there is an action word, and it depicts what is currently happening. Dictionary defines the word "doing" as "the act of making something happen through your own action." In other words, God was saying there that He is doing a new thing. It is not that He has done a new thing and the people didn't see it. He said He is doing a new thing, and when He is done doing it, it will spring forth. The phrase "springs forth" there means it would be "out into notice or view." That means, when God is done doing what He was doing, everyone would see it. It would become visible, and not hidden.

 

Listen to Podcast: UNDERSTANDING SPIRITUAL PERCEPTION

 

But there is a bit of challenge here, and I am going to quickly point it out to us. God said further "do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it?" The only reason you will not perceive or know what God is doing and give heed to it is if you lack SPIRITUAL PERCEPTION. Before we examine what spiritual perception is, let us begin by understanding what the word "perception" is. What is Perception?

 

"Perception is the way that you notice or understand something using one of your senses." When we talk about senses, we are talking about your eyes for seeing, ears for hearing, tongue for tasting, skin for feeling and nose for smelling. Each of these organs responds to external stimuli by conveying impulses to the sensory nervous system. Now, knowledge that comes via this means is usually referred to as carnal knowledge. But spiritual perception does not operate in the sense realm. The Bible says a natural man or better still, a sensual man cannot know and understand the things of God because they are spiritually coded.

 

Originally, God made and wired man to be spiritually alive and sensitive unto Him. Adam was first spiritually perceptive before he became carnally perceptive. In Genesis 2:19, the Bible records that "Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name." The question is: How was Adam able to do this? Because he was spiritually perceptive and alive unto God. He was able to partner with God in the naming of the things that God has made because he knew the mind of God.

 

In 1 Corinthians 2:10-16, the Bible says:

 

When you read the this chapter from verse 9, it tells us that there are certain things, secrets that God has made available for those who love Him. Now, you must come to this awareness that God has so many things in stock for you, simply because you love Him. Ephesians 1:3 says "God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." You see, the blessings of God are spiritual blessings, you must be able to perceive them so, and receive them so before you can see them manifest in the physical. That is how God has designed it.

 

Your car has been released to you spiritually, your house, your dream job, your husband or wife, has been released to you spiritually. You must need receive them in that state first and foremost before you can see them manifest in the physical. This is why apostle Paul prayed that the eyes of our understanding being enlightened that we may know what is the hope of his calling and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints (Ephesians 1:18). That phrase eyes of our understanding is talking about spiritual perception, being able to appreciate the things and the dealings of God in the spiritual realm before they manifest in the sensual realm.

 

So, in 1 Corinthians 2:10, the Scripture says:

 

¹⁰ Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the [Holy] Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God [the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man’s scrutiny].

 

You must learn this: that whatever it is that God has promised to give you, either you saw it on the pages of His word, or the Holy Spirit ministers it to your spirit, you must learn to receive it and perceive it first in the spirit. Beginning from the book of Genesis chapter 12, God began to speak to Abraham about all that He is ready to do and accomplish through him. Even though at the time God was sharing all those promises with Abraham, there was nothing physically around him that could depict them, in Genesis 15:1, the Bible says "and he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness."

 

Anything God says to you and you believe it spiritually, the first thing that happens is that you receive a spiritual credit alert. That thing is spiritually credited into your account, and at the fullness of time, you would see them manifest.

 

¹¹ For what person perceives (knows and understands) what passes through a man’s thoughts except the man’s own spirit within him? Just so no one discerns (comes to know and comprehend) the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

 

God is thinking about you. But isn't it wonderful to have a glimpse of what God is thinking about you? In Jeremiah 29:11, God says "I know the thoughts that I think towards you.." The Scripture says it is possible to know what God is thinking about you, but you can't know it by your natural mind, but except by the Spirit of God. You see, your natural mind, if it is not helped by the Spirit of God, may not possible come to terms or be able to comprehend what God is thinking about you.

 

¹² Now we have not received the spirit [that belongs to] the world, but the [Holy] Spirit Who is from God, [given to us] that we might realize and comprehend and appreciate the gifts [of divine favor and blessing so freely and lavishly] bestowed on us by God. ¹³ And we are setting these truths forth in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the [Holy] Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual truths with spiritual language [to those who possess the Holy Spirit]. ¹⁴ But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated. ¹⁵ But the spiritual man tries all things [he examines, investigates, inquires into, questions, and discerns all things], yet is himself to be put on trial and judged by no one [he can read the meaning of everything, but no one can properly discern or appraise or get an insight into him]. ¹⁶ For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart.

 

So, what we could put together from the passage above is that the doings and the workings of God are seeing and understood spiritually.

 

What Then Is Spiritual Perception?

Spiritual perception is seeing and knowing things through the eyes of The Holy Spirit. Each time God does a new thing, we are meant to know it. Our lack of knowing what God is doing per time or not taking heed to what He is doing is simply a problem of lack of perception. As God's children, He does not want us to live our lives without us not understanding the things He is doing per time. When God is doing something, he WANTS US to know what He is doing so that we can partner with him intelligibly. HE wants us to know it and give heed to it. God said concerning Abraham, shall I do something and my friend Abraham will not be aware (Genesis 18:17).

 

God called Abraham His friend because Abraham was able to partner with God in faith and in all He wanted to do. In verse 19 of Genesis 18, God said concerning Abraham that He knows he would command his household to follow the Lord. Now, that tells you that it takes somebody who have understood the workings and the plans of God to be able to partner with God like Abraham did, even to the point of his household. Much more than having your physical senses developed, God's desire for you is that you are spiritually perceptive.

 

God is Spirit, He does not dwell in the sense realm. And so, if you are going to be alive to God, your spiritual perception and sensitivity must be topnotch. Man as we know is a spiritual being, that tells you that being spiritually perceptive is not out of place.

 

 

The Danger of Lacking Spiritual Perception

1. Lack of Spiritual Perception Can Make One To Incur The Wrath Of God

 

"But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear. Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the Lord of hosts."

Zachariah 7:11-12

 

When you are not spiritually perceptive, you can knowingly or unknowingly incur the wrath of God. This was one of the mistakes of Lot, had it not been the timely intervention of Abraham pleading with the Lord on his behalf. Lot and his household could have perished with the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot acted on his impulse in the first place by choosing to dwell in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was not as if God told him to dwell there, but he saw that the land was good and beautiful and so, he went there.

 

When the cup of sins of that land was full, God was ready to destroy it, but still, Lot didn't know. But God was faithful, He didn't hide what He was about to do in that place from Abraham, and so, Abraham began to plead. In the long run, Lot and his household were preserved, except for his wife who disobeyed.

 

2. Lack of Spiritual Perception Can Make One May Miss His/her Appointed Time

 

The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet."

John 4:19

 

The Samaritan woman could have missed out her day of salvation if she had not perceived Jesus Correctly. You know, a random woman who has had five husbands and currently lives with another who isn't married to her, could have thought that Jesus talking to her was one of those men who had come to ask her out again. But she was able to quickly know and sensed it that Jesus was not ordinary and so, by that, she did not miss her own time visitation. Many believers today miss out on God's timing and visitation simply because they do not perceive correctly what God is doing per time in their lives. They don't know it.

 

Another case study of missing out on one's appointed time due to lack of spiritual perception is the city of Jerusalem. Jesus lamented concerning Jerusalem in Luke 19:41-44 because the city did not know her time of visitation. Now, there were not many places in the Bible that recorded that Jesus except, except at the tomb of Lazarus and over the city of Jerusalem.

 

⁴¹ Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, ⁴² saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, ⁴⁴ and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation."

 

Now, Jerusalem was supposed to be a peaceful city, but for many years in the past, and even till this present day, the city has not known so much peace. It has always been a contentious city and yet, it was still supposed to be the center of God's kingdom on earth. So, Jesus wept over the city saying: "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes." Jesus was among them, as the Prince of Peace, the one that they have longed for, the only Messiah that is coming which they had read about in the Torah, yet, HE was among them, live and direct, and they did not perceive Him. Guess what they did to Jesus; they got Him crucified.

 

They killed the man upon whose shoulders their peace was and guess what, that city has not known any peace till now. And guess what, the lack peace would continue in that holy city, till probably when Jesus comes back again because, "they did not know the time of your visitation."

 

3. Lack of Spiritual Perception Can Make One Fixate On The Past

 

“Do not remember the former things,
Nor consider the things of old.
¹⁹ Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 43:18-19

 

Now, as good or bad as the past may be, they can't be compared with whatever it is that God has planned for your future. 1 Corinthians 2:9 tells us that God has prepared wonderful things for those who love Him. If you love God, you have access to those things. When you don't perceive what God is doing in your life right now or is about to do, you would always think that your yesterday is better than your today, and may probably be better than your tomorrow. But this is not the realm where God wants you to dwell. God wants you to see the new things that He is doing.

 

 

 

Things That Hinders Spiritual Perception

 

1. Carnal Mindedness

"For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

Romans 8:6-8

 

Now, being carnally minded is death, and never you for once be tempted that that phrase is talking about physical death, which is the cessation of life. There are three different kind of death that the Bible talks about. There Is Spiritual Death, Physical Death and Second Death. Spiritual Death refers to a situation where a man is spiritually separated from God. In other words, such a man has lost touch with the reality of God and therefore cannot perceive or know what God is doing. In Genesis 2:17, God instructed Adam and said "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die."

 

But you and I know that Adam didn't die after that disobedience because it was after that time the rest of humanity came into existence. If Adam had died, there wouldn't have been the rest of us, and the Bible wouldn't have recorded that Adam lived an astonishing total of 930 years on the face of the earth (Genesis 5:5). What God meant by "die" in that passage was that Adam would become separated from Him as a result of the consequences of eating of that tree. So, this is the first type of death and it is as a result of sin. Romans 3:23 tells us that "for the wages of sin is death."

 

The second kind of death as recorded in the Bible is Physical Death. Physical death happens when a man's spirit and soul is separated from his body. Now, don't forget that man is a tripartite being which has a spirit, a soul and a container called the body to house the spirit and his soul. So, when a man experiences physical death, his spirit leaves his body. Where does the spirit goes when it leaves the body? Ecclesiastes 12:7 tells us "then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it." The spirit goes back to God who gave it in the first place.

 

Then the soul becomes unresponsive because what gives the soul expression in the first place is the spirit. Once the spirit leaves the body, the soul becomes inactive or unresponsive. So, your mind ceases to function, your will ceases to function and your emotions ceases to function. And then, the body is committed back to the mother earth where it originally came from. When this occurs, then we can say that a man or a woman has experienced what is known as physical death.

 

The third kind of death the Bible talks about is known as Second Death. Now, Revelation 20:14-15 identified the second death as the lake of fire. It says: "Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." That then tells us that it is not everyone that is qualified to experience this second death. verse 15 says as many whose name is not found in the book of life are the ones that will experience the second death. No wonder apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:11 that "know therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade all men.." persuade all men to do what? To come to terms with God their maker and be reconciled with Him.

 

Back to our Text: Romans 8:6 "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." When a man is carnally minded, the implication of that is that the person is spiritually separated from God and therefore, cannot perceive anything that God is doing. What is the remedy to this? The only remedy to this is for a man to find his way back to God and then reconcile with Him.

 

2. Spiritual Unyieldedness

 

"Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.."

1 Timothy 4:1

 

Now, the first thing you should notice in that Bible passage was who made the statement. Although it was apostle Paul who wrote it for us to read today, but he alluded to the fact that the Holy Spirit himself made the statement above, for us to know the gravity of what he was talking about. Now, many people are not spiritually perceptive because they have not yielded their spirit to God. God is Spirit as we read in John 4:23, and He communicates to us spiritually. When your spirit is not yielded to His Spirit, there is no way you would be aware of what He is doing.

 

See what 1 Corinthians 2:14 (AMP) says again: ¹⁴ But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated. When you don't yield your spirit to God, you can't hear or know what He is doing.

 

Many people complain..."I don't hear from God", "how do I hear from God?" The reason why this happens is because you haven't yielded yourself enough. Haven't you read that to whom you yield your spirit, that person becomes your master. Let me show us: Romans 6:13-16, the Bible says

 

¹³ And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. ¹⁴ For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. ¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! ¹⁶ Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

 

It is as simple as the above Scripture have put it. So, when people, either knowingly or unknowingly give themselves over to seducing spirits and demons, as said by the Holy Spirit, there is no way they can be alive to God or be spiritually perceptive. There is no way you can pick that heavenly signal. So, be deliberate about whom you yield your spirit. It is a deliberate thing, you have to deliberately and constantly give yourself to God.

 

3. The 3 Categories Of Lusts: Flesh, Eyes, Pride

The three categories of lusts: Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the Pride of Life can hinder a man from being spiritually perceptive.

 

¹⁵ Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. ¹⁷ And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

1 John 2:15-17

 

 

Perception And The New Man In Christ

 

¹⁰ And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” ¹¹ He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. ¹² For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. ¹³ Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

Matthew 13:10-13

 

Jesus said to His disciples, "it has been given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." What then is the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven Jesus was talking about? First, the mystery of the kingdom of heaven is Christ Jesus Himself. Colossians 2:2-3 (ESV) tells us: “My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” That means having the knowledge of Christ is having access to the kingdom of God. Jesus said "no man comes to the Father except through me."

 

So, spiritual perception for a new man in Christ began when Christ is accepted as one's personal Lord and savior. So Jesus said it has been given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom because He Himself is that mystery.

Thanks for the gift of your time, Obayomi Abiola Benjamin!
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