Our bodies are so incredible. God placed this internal communication system between our brain and parts of our body to help us process and experience the world around us. Our five senses have been put in place to help us navigate the world around us, bring us pleasure, warn us of danger, guide us and keep us safe. There is nothing better than smelling fresh mountain air, the fragrance of a flower or a batch of cookies right out of the oven. For me, these fragrances bring a sense of happiness. They are attached to good things. If those cookies have been cooked too long and began to burn, my nose is the first to alert me that something is not right. God has given us physical senses to discern what is happening around us. Often what we experience in the natural is a reflection of what is in the supernatural. Just like we have the human senses, so also do we have supernatural senses. These spiritual senses may not be as pronounced to you, but I would venture to say, you are using them and you don’t even know it!
Just as we rely heavily on our sense of sight and hearing in the natural, we need our spiritual eyes and ears attentive and ready to recognize what God is doing and how he is moving. We need to be alert to the schemes of the enemy as well. Our spiritual senses can serve as a warning to notify us to pray and seek God’s direction. I love how in God’s word, he includes all our other senses as well. And while the idea of tasting or smelling in the spirit might seem a little weird, we want every part of us to be sensitive to God’s leading. I often ask the Holy Spirit to train my spiritual senses to recognize what God is doing. I remember when I was just learning to hear God’s voice, I would sit on my couch for long periods of time when my children were in school and just wait and listen for God to speak. I would ask God to show pictures and speak to me about what they meant. I would ask for scriptures to back up what he was showing me so I would learn when it was him and when it was me. I was in training and I still am. As we carve out time to be still and learn, he begins to share with each of us in the unique ways we were created to perceive him. It is here the Holy Spirit deposits images, visions, and dreams. It’s where we hear his voice, get those ideas that were way too good to be our own, find solutions to problems. It’s where God gives us words to say that are filled with wisdom we do not possess. It’s where his power flows through us and we see people healed. It’s how we recognize the schemes of the enemy and where we receive the battle plans for victory.
Listening Prayer:
Ask the Holy Spirit how he wants to partner with you using your spiritual senses. Write down what you hear.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit, I surrender my physical senses to you. Wash them all clean for your purposes. I give you permission to use all of me, even my five senses. I ask that you train my spiritual senses to be in tune with you. Open my eyes to see you and my ears to hear your voice. I dedicate my sense of smell and taste to you. I give you my hands, my sense of touch, to be filled with your love and your power when I lay hands on people and pray. I sanctify my imagination and use it for your glory. Purify my thoughts and take back the areas of my mind where I have entertained things or patterns of thought that are not of you. Thank you that you redeem all things. Have your way in me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Resource: Bible Verses on Spiritual Senses
“Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:7-8)
“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” (Psalm 34:8)
“For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” (Ephesians 1:8; emphasis added)
“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)
“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” (2 Corinthians 2:14-16)
“And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:2)
“Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them.” (Luke 4:40)
“Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 8:17)
Worship Song:
“Show Me Your Ways” by Leeland