- 1 Corinthians 16:13

 

     There are so many things going on in this world that appear to be sudden mishaps. We are witnessing more and more random attacks on folks who are being overtaken by calamity and destructive forces. The world is not just changing. It has changed, and the warfare we are engaging is more intense now than ever before.

     This is why it behooves us to raise our spiritual alert status. Jesus told us to "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation" (Matt. 26:41). Literally, what he was saying is: "Become alert to your surroundings. Allow prayer to guide you, so that you are not caught in a test of your own making." It is so necessary that we follow the Holy Spirit in our everyday activities.

     I remember back in February 2014, as I was praying about an upcoming meeting where I was asked to minister, the Lord showed me a lioness on an open plain pacing back and forth. I knew in the spirit she was quite frustrated and anxious to ravage whatever she could sink her teeth into. The Holy Spirit said to me, "She represents a spirit of death that is seeking to devour." I knew in my heart the Lord was warning me that a spirit of death was about to go on the prey with the intent of striking more frequently with more intensity than I had ever seen in my lifetime. The Holy Spirit made it very clear for me to stay alert and watch in the spirit. Haven't we seen this come to pass over these past months. 

     The strategy of the enemy is and always has been to provoke fear. Fear is a spirit that attracts calamity and mishaps. It becomes an open door for misery and destruction. The Bible clearly tells us, "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Tim. 1:7). But very often folks aren't watching like they should, and so they set themselves us for things to happen that could and should be avoided.

     We do not have to be a prey for the enemy or miss something significant that God wants to warn us about. We can heighten our awareness to hidden activities that go on around us so that we are not caught off guard or faced with predicaments that make life difficult. 
     Jesus said, "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). There are things that we may face that seek to press against us, but we do not have to be overcome by any of them.

     Learning how to heighten our perceptibility empowers us to be on the offense rather than the defense. We don't have to be in the dark. We can be in the know! We can know things, by the Holy Spirit, that will alert us and keep us informed so that nothing takes us by surprise.

     Isaiah eleven says, "And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears" (Isa. 11:3). There is a way to see and know things that are beyond our natural senses. The word "quick" is the Hebrew word RUWACH. We often see it used in the place of spirit: "The RUWACH of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Gen. 1:2). It is also used for wind or breath. Here, in this particular verse, RUWACH has to do with our sense of smell. We breathe in through our nostrils air. This air or RUWACH enables us to detect odors where our sense of smell sends a signal to our brain to inform us of what is in the air. If a smell is pungent, we turn away. If a smell is pleasant, we take it in. There is a scent to understanding things in the spirit. We need to become more sensitive to the spiritual sense of smell concerning our surroundings. We should learn how to operate from our spiritual senses, perceiving things that our natural senses cannot detect.

     We should be able to detect danger (Acts 27:10).
     We should be able to detect the enemy trying to infiltrate our churches (Acts 8:23).
     We should be able to detect the plan of God and what he wants to do in our midst (Acts 10:34).
     That is part of the prophetic giftings of the Holy Spirit. The scriptures describe it as being perceptive...learning to see, hear, taste, touch, and smell things in the spirit and by the Spirit.

     It is actually the power of seeing and knowing through spiritual observation. There is much to behold in the observing. When we keep ourselves steadily in a spirit of watching (observing), God can enable us to get a whiff of things that are going on around us. We can know because we have an inner unction from the Holy One, and he keeps us informed even in the minor details of life.*