MORE ABOUT THE “SENSES” OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 

10/04/21  MORE ABOUT THE “SENSES” OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 

HEARD: They fell in love with Diana. Stop! Remain sensitive to ME. I am your focus.

Early this same week, the Lord gave me His Word about a season of becoming more sensitive to His gift of sensing His Word. So I know this Word companions with that. When I heard Him say, Diana, I immediately remembered the story I have in my book, 101+ Ways God Speaks and How to Hear Him.  I thought this was a good warning. Learning to identify what we sense is NOT about ESP or any other form of occult activity. The enemy always counterfeits the Holy Spirits and His gifts. As we focus on The Lord as our Source, His gifts flow naturally as a result of our fellowship with Him. If we get our focus on the gifts, we can get derailed. The following is my fun story about Diana Troy.

WING ON IN

Story from my book, 101+ Ways God Speaks and How to Hear Him

I went through a long blind season when I couldn’t see what the Lord was doing in my life. At first I questioned what was happening, and the Lord told me it was a season of “winging it on in.” Having little idea of what that meant, I continued to plod through my days. The season stretched on and on and I began to doubt if I heard the Lord about the season and if I was in His will. I was at a loss and could not discern the answer. Prior to this time, I had received a little bird house for Christmas. The inscription said, “Wing on in.” So when the Lord had said, “Wing on in,” I thought of that birdhouse. I interpreted it to be something like, “Fly by the seat of your pants!” That didn’t sound too great to me. It was solid food, (strong meat) and I wasn’t sure I liked chewing it.

Later I began to complain about being so blind and without understanding, and finally His 3-fold answer came to me. One night I was watching Star Trek about Diana Troy who had lost the gift of her unique intuition. She said it was as though she had lost her sight and had become blind. (That grabbed my attention because I had been complaining how blind I was to the Lord.) They said her loss was an opportunity to develop her other assets and make them stronger. So my first answer was “OK, He has put me in a blind season to help me develop other capabilities.”

That night as I was pondering this answer, I flipped through some magazines and read two stories. The first one was about a student who was painstakingly learning to write the alphabet. The letters seemed almost perfect to the student. He held his breath waiting for the instructor’s feedback. “No, no, you are trying too hard!” the instructor said in exasperation. “There is no feeling.” He took the student down the hall into a darkened classroom. “Now work here in the dark” and closed the door. Stunned, the student sat there fumbling with the pens. But gradually he began to relax and let his feelings rather than his eyes guide the pen. He began to let his creative side take over and felt the freedom of expression. He was no longer struggling to perfect his movements. He let the process flow.

I thought about how this applied to me. The words wing on in, inner abilities and now creative side seemed to have something in common. It still shouted fly by the seat of your pants! But what for? I thought, like the student writer, maybe I had been too uptight about discerning His will in my life. Maybe He wanted me to learn to relax and trust that He was leading me on the inside, in my conscience. (Conscience is discussed in chapter eight.)

The last story was about a young girl who landed a small airplane because her father had a heart attack. Not knowing specifically how, but being a passenger many times in childhood, she operated the plane by a little knowledge and memories. When she approached the runway, she knew she was going too fast to make the landing in a difficult cross wind. She closed her eyes to all the dials and buttons and listened to the motor. At first she would slow down too much, then would readjust her speed. She finally heard the right pitch to the motor and subconsciously knew it was right and landed successfully.

Thinking through this second story, I again saw the connection with “wing on in, inner abilities and creative side” but literally added, “Fly by the seat of your pants!” However this time I realized the girl wasn’t using just her instinct to come up with guesswork. She was NOT making uneducated choices. She had been trained and educated in past experience, she just hadn’t realized it.

Finally the three stories came together and I realized He wanted some hidden training I’d had in my past to come to the surface and become stronger. That was enough for me! Realizing I was in the Lord’s will, I was just going to have to tough it out and hang in there. I needed to stop struggling with this season, knowing He was silently with me in this sightless place, and I was to hang in there until it was over.

When I went through this process to unravel the three stories that night, (Diana Troy, the student writer, and the pilot) a crimson thread of blindness tied them together: lost insight, placed in a darkened room and flying with closed eyes. They matched my situation (were quickened) and I knew (revelation) the Lord was trying to answer my complaints. But the process of how I figured out WHAT He was saying was discernment. It was just like digesting the good parts of the stories that were pertinent to me, and discarding the rest. That process took effort on my part to think it through.