Spiritual Senses – Which one is your strongest?
When I began to perceive the spiritual realm, I wasn’t really sure
how I “knew” the things I knew. Part of me was convinced that when I
sensed something that it was really there and part of me tried to
rationalize away the feeling and just dismiss it. We have all probably
experienced that.
I learned from Arthur Burk in his series, Nurturing the Spirit, that our soul tends to rationalize away the impressions we get in our spirit because they don’t necessarily make logical sense. For instance, when I was a child and I sensed that there was something scary lurking at the end of the hall or under my bed, my natural eyes could turn on the light and see that there’s nothing there in the visible realm. “See, you’re just making things up!” my mind would tell me. Or as most children are told by adults, “There’s no boogey-man under the bed or in the closet. See?” They open the closet and look under the bed just to convince you. But as soon as they leave, what do you believe if you can still “feel” them in the room? Does it mean you are crazy?
Anyway, during my studies of trying to figure out how this “sensing” the unseen realm stuff works, I came across a book. I can’t recall the title, but the concept has stayed with me. The author suggested that since we have 5 senses in our physical body, perhaps we have 5 senses in our spiritual body. Since that time, I have met people who have experienced the unseen realm through their spiritual senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell or taste. Then there’s that “sixth sense” where you just have an inner knowing, but you can’t exactly explain why. Either your senses are picking something up and your brain comes to a conclusion so quickly that you are not conscious of it or perhaps the Holy Spirit gives you the information through a word of knowledge. Somehow you just know.
Some people who “see” in the spirit say they can see the unseen realm with their natural eyes just like they would look at you or me. Blake Healy in his book, The Veil, describes his sight that way. For me, I “see” things in my mind while my natural eyes are looking at the location where I sense a presence. It’s like I’m seeing in my mind the exact same picture I see with my natural eyes except there is an added element there, such as an angel. I learned this (or was strengthened in it) through Gary Oates’ teaching called “Open My Eyes, Lord”. Both of these materials are listed on the Resources tab above. In Blake’s book, he says he encourages people to increase their perception through whatever way they normally use to “hear” from God. Is it through pictures in their mind or a feeling or hearing words in their thoughts? Whichever way God speaks to them is a sense they have learned to trust, so he says that’s a good place to start when learning to sense the unseen realm. His book has exercises to help you “practice”.
I don’t often hear things, but I have met people who do. Touch is the one I guess I relate to the most – I “feel” things often, everywhere I go. I am also very sensitive to the presence of the Lord and often “feel” His presence. Taste and smell are the most unusual ones – not too many people mention these. I have smelled anointing oil in a service that was thick with the Presence of the Holy Spirit. I have read of people who get a bad “taste” in their mouth when certain demonic spirits are nearby. I’ve never experienced that one, have you?
One other thing I realized recently – I think we sense things differently in our spirit versus in our soul. For instance, my soul can easily detect anything that is evil or unclean. And it usually freaks me out – my soul doesn’t know what to do with the information. However, my spirit does know what to do – so I have to remember to consciously choose to connect with my spirit and then use my authority to remove anything evil that’s bothering me (in my home or near me in a public place).
I also have very sensitive discernment when it comes to dealing with people. That’s a gift in my spirit. When I look in someone’s eyes, 9 times out of 10 I can see their soul. My gift is emotional healing so I see clearly their soul wounds. I can often also see their gifting or original design from the Father. Sometimes I can also discern if there are evil spirits oppressing the person. As you can imagine, I have to be very cautious not to reveal all this information on my face when I’m introduced to someone I’ve never met. I get it all pretty quickly. Being in a party full of people can sometimes be pretty overwhelming to my senses, receiving all this information at once.
So, how do you sense the unseen realm? As I shared on another post, what helped me was finding someone who sensed things using a different method than I did. We would go places and share what we were each aware of. By comparing notes, we grew exponentially both in confidence and in accuracy in being able to identify what we were experiencing. So if you naturally “see” in the unseen realm, go find someone who “feels” and vice versa. You’ll be glad you did.
I learned from Arthur Burk in his series, Nurturing the Spirit, that our soul tends to rationalize away the impressions we get in our spirit because they don’t necessarily make logical sense. For instance, when I was a child and I sensed that there was something scary lurking at the end of the hall or under my bed, my natural eyes could turn on the light and see that there’s nothing there in the visible realm. “See, you’re just making things up!” my mind would tell me. Or as most children are told by adults, “There’s no boogey-man under the bed or in the closet. See?” They open the closet and look under the bed just to convince you. But as soon as they leave, what do you believe if you can still “feel” them in the room? Does it mean you are crazy?
Anyway, during my studies of trying to figure out how this “sensing” the unseen realm stuff works, I came across a book. I can’t recall the title, but the concept has stayed with me. The author suggested that since we have 5 senses in our physical body, perhaps we have 5 senses in our spiritual body. Since that time, I have met people who have experienced the unseen realm through their spiritual senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell or taste. Then there’s that “sixth sense” where you just have an inner knowing, but you can’t exactly explain why. Either your senses are picking something up and your brain comes to a conclusion so quickly that you are not conscious of it or perhaps the Holy Spirit gives you the information through a word of knowledge. Somehow you just know.
Some people who “see” in the spirit say they can see the unseen realm with their natural eyes just like they would look at you or me. Blake Healy in his book, The Veil, describes his sight that way. For me, I “see” things in my mind while my natural eyes are looking at the location where I sense a presence. It’s like I’m seeing in my mind the exact same picture I see with my natural eyes except there is an added element there, such as an angel. I learned this (or was strengthened in it) through Gary Oates’ teaching called “Open My Eyes, Lord”. Both of these materials are listed on the Resources tab above. In Blake’s book, he says he encourages people to increase their perception through whatever way they normally use to “hear” from God. Is it through pictures in their mind or a feeling or hearing words in their thoughts? Whichever way God speaks to them is a sense they have learned to trust, so he says that’s a good place to start when learning to sense the unseen realm. His book has exercises to help you “practice”.
I don’t often hear things, but I have met people who do. Touch is the one I guess I relate to the most – I “feel” things often, everywhere I go. I am also very sensitive to the presence of the Lord and often “feel” His presence. Taste and smell are the most unusual ones – not too many people mention these. I have smelled anointing oil in a service that was thick with the Presence of the Holy Spirit. I have read of people who get a bad “taste” in their mouth when certain demonic spirits are nearby. I’ve never experienced that one, have you?
One other thing I realized recently – I think we sense things differently in our spirit versus in our soul. For instance, my soul can easily detect anything that is evil or unclean. And it usually freaks me out – my soul doesn’t know what to do with the information. However, my spirit does know what to do – so I have to remember to consciously choose to connect with my spirit and then use my authority to remove anything evil that’s bothering me (in my home or near me in a public place).
I also have very sensitive discernment when it comes to dealing with people. That’s a gift in my spirit. When I look in someone’s eyes, 9 times out of 10 I can see their soul. My gift is emotional healing so I see clearly their soul wounds. I can often also see their gifting or original design from the Father. Sometimes I can also discern if there are evil spirits oppressing the person. As you can imagine, I have to be very cautious not to reveal all this information on my face when I’m introduced to someone I’ve never met. I get it all pretty quickly. Being in a party full of people can sometimes be pretty overwhelming to my senses, receiving all this information at once.
So, how do you sense the unseen realm? As I shared on another post, what helped me was finding someone who sensed things using a different method than I did. We would go places and share what we were each aware of. By comparing notes, we grew exponentially both in confidence and in accuracy in being able to identify what we were experiencing. So if you naturally “see” in the unseen realm, go find someone who “feels” and vice versa. You’ll be glad you did.
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