Legacy · Q&A
Recognizing and Resisting the Enemy

Question:
LARY- YOUR ADVICE AND PRAYERS HAVE BEEN TRULY A BLESSING FOR ME AND I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR THEM! THE ENEMY WAS TRYING RO TRICK ME INTO THINKING THAT BECAUSE MY SPIRIT LANGUAGE DIDNT SOUND LIKE EVERYONE ELSE'S IT DIDNT MEAN ANYTHING! HE IS A LIAR AND THE FATHER OF IT! I NOW PRAY IN THE SPIRIT WITH POWER AND NO DOUBTS! I WANT TO BE A MORE POWERFUL AND EFFECTIVE PRAYER WARRIOR. I WANT TO HAVE A MORE PRODUCTIVE PRAYER LIFE- I WANT TO HEAR THE HOLY SPIRITS AUDIBLE VOICE. DO YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS? I HAVE BEEN A BORN-AGAIN CHRISTIAN FOR A YEAR-DOES THAT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH HEARING THE HOLY SPIRITS VOICE? HOW OFTEN DO YOU PRAY IN THE SPIRIT? WHAT ARE YOUR FEELINGS ON PRAYING FOR SOMEONE ELSE IN THE SPIRIT? HOPE THING ARE GOING WELL FOR YOU AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME! MAY GOD RICHLY BLESS YOU- AARON
CURRY
Answer:
Hey Aaron,
It's great to hear from you! It sounds like you're moving along pretty well in the Spirit. The holy Ghost will speak to you in many ways. It's up to us to keep our hearts in a spiritual condition that enables us to hear that voice. An AUDIBLE voice means a voice that you can hear with your ears, just like if someone is sitting next to you speaking to you. For God to speak audibly to an individual is really rare. In twenty five years of serving the Lord, I've heard the audible voice of the Lord a couple of times. It certainly is quite an experience. The Spirit also speaks in an INAUDIBLE voice, meaning that it speaks clearly like someone next to you, except you only hear it in your mind; it's not an external voice like the audible voice. And then there is the IMPRESSION of the Spirit upon your spirit, where the Spirit impresses something strongly upon your spirit, so that it isn't actually a voice like audible or inaudible, but it may as well be because it still translates into words. That's kind of hard to explain, but that's about the best I can do with it. And finally there is the most important "voice" of all, and that is the one that God really wants us to learn how to recognize, because it will be the one that we "hear" most often. That is the STILL SMALL VOICE of the Spirit. You might like to read I Kings 19:9-13, to see how Elijah heard this voice of the Spirit, after realizing that the greater manifestations that he had just witnessed were not what the Lord was speaking to him through. The still small voice of the Spirit is the voice that "teaches us all things," and
"guides us into all truth" (Jn. 14:26; Jn.16:13).
In order to learn how to consistently recognize the still small voice of the Spirit, we MUST keep our hearts pure from all sin, through the power and holiness of God's Spirit. If we DON'T do that, then there will always be other "voices" that sound like the voice of the Spirit, and we will believe that they ARE the holy Ghost, and we will be deceived. Learning to recognize that still small voice is not such an easy thing to do. It takes a lot of willingness to wait on confirmation from the Lord, as to whether we truly have heard something from Him through the Spirit. Anyone who is willing to believe that they have heard something from God, just because it benefits them in some way personally, will be turned over to believe a lie (II Thess. 2:10-12). If God's people all knew that still small voice, there would be absolutely no division or confusion about doctrine in the body of Christ, and we would be "one," as Jesus prayed that we would be (Jn. 17:22). As far as praying in the Spirit, that is how I do the greater majority of my praying. I pray in many ways, depending on how I feel led at a particular moment, but in general I pray most effectively when praying in the Holy Ghost; and I would say that probably close to 90% of my praying is in the Spirit. But I also pray in my mind at the same time that I'm praying in the Spirit, and I'm always praying about better ways to pray. Prayer is just an infinite learning process, because God is an infinite God. We just have to feel our way along in all things, and spiritually learn our way into God's ways. And yes I pray for others in the Spirit all the time, and in my mind at the same time as well (Eph. 6:18). This is just the way I've always felt most comfortable and effective. I believe also that praying is a very individual thing, and what works best for one person may not be the case for someone else. Learning to just be yourself in God is a great blessing
indeed. We can be edified and blessed by the faith and gifts of others, but we don't want to become a polly parrot of someone else. Well, thanks for writing Aaron, and I wish every good and fruitful thing for you in Chirst. God bless you.
Sincerely,
Lary



