Exercising Spiritual Senses [Sight]

David Edwards • 1 view

Communion with God is the foundation for the activation and exercise of the spiritual senses. Prayer, study, meditation, and personal fellowship with God establish the inward environment necessary for the spirit to function effectively. Yet spiritual sensitivity does not develop through devotional practices alone; the individual senses of the spirit must also be deliberately exercised. Spiritual sight, for example, grows sharper as attention is intentionally given to spiritual impressions and manifestations rather than waiting passively for God to sovereignly reveal something.
There is a distinction between supernatural sight that operates through gifts of the Spirit and the inherent capacity of the regenerated human spirit to perceive spiritual realities. Gifts of the Spirit operate according to the will of the Spirit, but the spiritual senses can be trained through consistent use. Elisha illustrates this mature spiritual functioning: he lived with such awareness of the spiritual realm that heavenly realities became part of his normal environment. His physical limitations did not prevent spiritual perception because he had learned to function through the eyes of his spirit.
The same principle extends into sleep. The body sleeps, but the human spirit possesses the capacity to remain engaged with God. Adam’s experience in Genesis is presented as an example of bodily sleep occurring while spiritual awareness remained active. Through redemption and the reception of eternal life, believers can again develop spiritual consciousness that continues beyond the activity of the physical senses. Cultivate communion, train the spiritual senses, and allow the spirit’s interaction with God to become increasingly continuous so that revelation, insight, and spiritual dealings can continue whether the body is awake or asleep.