The degree to which we are able to make advances in spiritual warfare, is often measured by our ability to perceive the realm of the spirit as we pray.
It is not all the time that we are in the spirit, that we are able to perceive anything. But spiritual things are often perceived, while we are in the spirit.
The Holy Spirit is responsible for bringing spiritual truth to us, while we are in the spirit.
Even though we can perceive spiritual truth, without the help of the Holy Spirit; because our spirit man is redeemed.
Our spirit man has to be able to perceive spiritual truth, without necessarily having to rely on the Holy Spirit. That is one of the benefits of being born of the Spirit of God.
We therefore need to be able to differentiate, the voice of our inner man from that of the Holy Spirit, and the voice of the enemy.
This is very important in spiritual warfare. We must be able to differentiate, what comes to us directly from God, from what comes from our redeemed spirit man.
Just as the Holy Spirit has a voice, the spirit man inside us does has a voice also.
But the enemy also has the ability to speak to us as well.
This is where he ploys to deceive with his lies, so as to get any vulnerable child of God into bondage before destroying him.
This is why the spirit man must be trained, to recognize his voice. He is always full of deceptions and lies.
We as the children of God must be able to perceive his deceptions and lies, so as to deal with them immediately they are being exposed.
Our spirit man must be trained to recognize and know, what comes from the evil one. This is very important in spiritual warfare.
Jesus once said:
“But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.”
Matthew 24:43 NIV
The enemy that we do confront in spiritual warfare, is like a thief that breaks into a house. Our spirit man is the house that he seeks to break into.
He is lurking at every corner, looking for an opportunity to strike at you. You must not accommodate or entertain his voice in your life at all.
You must be ready to vocalize your opposition to his aggressive moves against you at all times.
This is why the Apostle Paul admonished us to be:
” … casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
2 Corinthians 10:5 NKJV
The Passion Translation puts it in this way:
“We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One.”
2 Corinthians 10:5 TPT
We do this during prayer and intercession with spoken words, to stand in opposition against each thought, fantasy or imagination of the evil one by casting each one of them down to obey God’s word.
Your enemy in spiritual warfare is very creepy. He knows how to sniff in on your thoughts, imaginations and fantasies so as to deceive you.
Apostle Peter also enjoins us in our opposition to the enemy to:
“Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour. Withstand him; be firm in faith [against his onset—rooted, established, strong, immovable, and determined], knowing that the same (identical) sufferings are appointed to your brotherhood (the whole body of Christians) throughout the world.”
1 Peter 5:8-9 AMPC
We must give the enemy no breathing space at all.
That is why it’s vitally important that every child of God must be trained in the spirit man, to be vigilant in the warfare against him.
The role of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is never there to do the spiritual warfare for us. He is there to help and support us as we pray.
There are those who think that the Holy Spirit is supposed to be praying for them.
Such ignorance causes them to miss out of the wonderful opportunities, that’s available to them through prayer and intercession.
They normally will just fold their arms, waiting on the Holy Spirit to lead them before they pray.
The problem with this is that nothing actually happens, until we initiate a move purposely to pray. We act by faith in doing this as we move and progress in spiritual warfare.
The Holy Spirit will never involve Himself into situations, that He has not been invited to participate in. He is like a gentleman, who will never go to where He is not needed.
Just as faith moves God to act on our behalf, our faith in prayer is what makes the Holy Spirit to act on our behalf also.
The most effective way to get Him involved with us, is by praying in the spirit.
Every time we do this, He comes along to help us, by strengthening us in the inner man as we pray.
The purpose of the Holy Spirit living in the innermost being of our spirit man, among other things is to help us, to guide us and to counsel us as we are praying into the will of God.
It is our spirit man, who is born of the Spirit of God, that does have the task of praying and interceding. And because we are born of God’s Spirit, our spirit man knows exactly, what to pray for and how to pray.
Jesus said:
“But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf], He will teach you all things. And He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything I have told you.”
John 14:26 AMPC
The Holy Spirit is clearly mentioned here as our Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener and Standby.
These are what He does. He is referred to here as our Intercessor mainly because, He plays that role for us in the spirit world, which is invincible to us in our natural world.
As an Intercessor His job is to reveal to us, what is going on in the spirit realm. He is like our go in between, who brings the spiritual truths that affects us to us, as we are praying into the understanding of our spirit man.
In other words, He reveals the will of God concerning, what we are praying about to us.
The Bible says:
“God, the searcher of the heart, knows fully our longings, yet he also understands the desires of the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit passionately pleads before God for us, his holy ones, in perfect harmony with God’s plan and our destiny.”
Romans 8:27 TPT
He (the Holy Spirit) knows the will of God, the Father for us in all situations, and reveals those purposes of God that are hidden to us.
His work is to bring us into perfect harmony with God’s plan for our destiny in life.
The Holy Spirit knows exactly, what the enemy is planning and doing against us in the spirit realm.
His job is to expose the tactics of the enemy to us, so that we can do something about it.
He therefore expects us to always do something about everything, that He reveals to us.
Without Him playing this role for us, we cannot be effective in prayer.
He is the only personality of the Triune God, who has direct access into heaven, as well as into our lives through our spirit man.
We are the ones who do have to exercise our spiritual authority, through prayer and intercession so as to enforce the will of God for our lives.
But it is easier for us to understand and perceive the voice of our spirit man, than it is for us to pick up the voice of the Holy Spirit as we are praying.
The Bible says:
“For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:11 NIV
Our spirit man knows us better, just as the Holy Spirit knows the things of God better.
Our spirit man knows and can perceive spiritual things, and bring them to our understanding, because his wisdom supersedes any other (Proverbs 18:14).
Our mind or soul cannot match the wisdom that emanates from our redeemed spirit man.
The Holy Spirit often reveals spiritual truth to our spirit man, so that the spirit man can convey them to us in perceiving them.
It is therefore not all the time that the Holy Spirit speaks to us directly.
Perceiving your inward witness.
During prayer and intercession, we are being led from the inward witness, right from under our belly to perceive spiritual things.
The Holy Spirit testifies to us about, what belongs to us in God’s kingdom as we are praying. But we are the ones who will have to take hold of those things by faith.
Samuel as a young child had never heard the voice of God before. Three times he misjudged the voice of God for the voice of the man on earth (Eli), who was spiritually over him.
He went to the right person in discerning what was going on.
But the scriptures say:
“And the Lord called Samuel the third time. And he went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you did call me. Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. So, Eli said to Samuel, Go, lie down. And if He calls you, you shall say, Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening. So, Samuel went and lay down in his place.”
1 Samuel 3:8-9 NKJV
Eli was able to perceive that God was calling Samuel, based on his own past personal encounter with Him. He was able to instruct and guide Samuel into how to respond with the proper response whenever God speaks to him.
God, the searcher of the heart, knows fully our longings, yet he also understands the desires of the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit passionately pleads before God for us, His holy ones, in perfect harmony with God’s plan and our destiny.
Our lives as Christians are directed from our inward witness in the spirit man.
That’s why we need to learn how to listen to him and to respond whenever He’s speaking with the proper response.
It is the work of the Holy Spirit to train us, in listening to the inward witness of our spirit man as we pray.
Development of the spirit man.
The paradox of all of these is that it takes a long time for our spiritual development to get to this level.
It takes a longer time for our spirit man, to become sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit, than it takes to become sensitive to that of the spirit man inside us.
This is due to the nature of sin and death within us (Galatians 5:17), with which as human beings we all often struggle with, even while the spirit man inside of us learns to listen to the Holy Spirit.
Our head often struggles with our spirit man, because of this nature within us.
The longer it takes us to renew your mind with God’s word, the longer it will take to train your spirit man. This is never easy.
Jesus as our example spent thirty years of His life on earth in preparing for His ministry, which was only to be for three and a half years.
Spiritual development is never easy, as we can see from the example of Samuel above, when he heard God’s voice for the very first time.
There will always be bumps on the road to spiritual maturity; but God is patient and full of long suffering.
He will always work with us and work in us, to bring us into that stage of spiritual maturity.
The purpose is for us to be able to perceive His way in our doing things in our individual lives, without the help of the Holy Spirit.
God will always work in us, to develop our spirit man, to the level of spiritual maturity that is required of us to do His work on the earth.
Prayer and intercession are what gets us there. We bloom and glow inside the closet of prayer and intercession. Our spirit man gets empowered as this takes place.
Paul once prayed for the Galatians, as they faced bumps on their pathway to spiritual maturity.
He told them:
“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,”
Galatians 4:19 KJV
Travailing for spiritual birth again is something, that can only be done in the spirit.
We need to note here that, Paul was writing to a body of believers who were born again, but who had been deceived by the enemy.
He was praying for them, and he was comparing praying and interceding for them here, with the travailing of a woman in child bearing labor pain.
The goal here in praying and interceding for the Galatians’ spiritual development, is described by Paul as “until Christ be formed in you.”
This ought to be our spiritual goal also, in learning to perceive the leadings of God inside our spirit man.
It may take a long time and a lot of travailing in prayer; but we will all get there, as long as we are ready to learn from the Holy Spirit.
Great spiritual works in the kingdom of God, blooms and glows into glory from the secret closet of prayer and intercession.
Keep on praying and interceding in the spirit. God is on your side.
