Starlight and Wonder: Sensing His Voice and His Spirit

I don’t think I have ever known a time where I didn’t feel as though the Lord wasn’t showing me something about Himself.  I remember being five years old, looking at the stars, and marveling at our wondrous creator.  I can’t exactly explain it or tell you how this natural wonder was born. I like to think I have always been pretty introspective and contemplative, but the knowing that comes from the stillness is supernatural, I think. All I know is my Spirit has always been drawn to His. It reminds me that I didn’t actually choose Him, He has always chosen me.

Supernatural peace has always washed over as I look at His stars with that same simple knowing I had about 20 years ago. It’s beautiful, really. When speaking about His voice or asking him to awaken me to His secrets, I can’t help but think of that very moment--  looking at the stars, simply knowing that He is.

To me, hearing His voice is as simple as seeing the stars. However, it takes time to acknowledge the stars-- to sit and wonder for a little while. I think the same is true with listening and seeing Him. Stillness, silence, opening our minds, and clearing the chaos to listen to Him is what births His voice inside of us.

When we listen, we see. When we see, we create.

The prophetic is simply hearing, seeing, and creating where God has given us vision.

There are many ways this happens, and I believe it can be specific to the timing and the person He is speaking to. Nevertheless, I want to take you on a brief journey of what the prophetic has looked like for me-- how it was discovered, how it changed, and how it is still growing inside of me.

Like I said before, I don’t recall a time where I wasn’t sensing God’s Spirit and voice in some way. However, the way in which I experience His voice and the discovery of what He is saying has drastically changed over the years of following Him.

I grew up in a Church where the prophetic wasn’t necessarily talked about from stage, but it was interwoven within the DNA and was continually in the process of growing, becoming, and acted upon. Quite frankly, the term “prophecy” wasn’t in my spiritual vocabulary outside of what I knew and referred to dark magic, psychic readings, witchraft, etc. etc.

Little did I know that the original intent of a prophetic voice breathing life into someone or signaling direction for any entity is actually holy, good, and so so pleasing to God’s heart. Before I came to know His original design, I had actually always been drawn to super super spiritual things... In fact, my family history is deeply interwoven within deep connections to the spiritual world; some good and some not so great! Thus, I do believe through some generational inheritance, I have been both blessed and maybe even slightly cursed by being ultra susceptible to “voices” and “senses”  so to speak; whether it’s the Lord’s, or it isn’t. Good thing the Lord took me on a pretty significant healing journey!

For example, when I was a little girl, I would have nightmares; lots of them. The dreams continued, ebbing and flowing throughout my adolescent years into early adulthood. It was a strange and unique tension of sorts. To give a tangible expression, I had always been afraid of the dark and where my imagination would take me when looking into a dark abyss. I also was hyper aware of anything that may be of dark power in cities, hotels I stayed in, and houses in my neighborhood. I could, and still can, almost feel it in my body. At the same time, I would also see flashes of light in my room, moving pictures, and colors in the spirit that somehow gave me supernatural peace. His presence always felt so thick to me, when He was making Himself known.

During the daylight, I could spend hours alone either in my room or somewhere in the thick of His creation and I would just know that He was speaking to me, catching my attention. And then other times, my days would consist of being overwhelmed with sadness for the world. It wasn’t either good or bad. It was both and I didn’t understand the perplexities and the extremes of what I was feeling at the time-- or how God could actually be using this gift to speak to me.

It sounds strange. Trust me, I know. But it is true; God speaks through connecting us to the Spiritual realm, where His voice and direction reside. However, I haven’t always trusted the connection, what He was saying, or how to conceptualize the moments where I experienced things that were less heavenly.

Trust and understanding of His voice began to be rebuilt in my college years by sending me to a place full of God’s voice for me to finally become aware that I do actually hear Him very clearly and what I hear/see can be used for good.

I remember God specifically positioning me in situations where I would be singled out in large groups and prophesied over. Again, I didn’t necessarily choose it, but He chose me over and over again. I was curious about it, too. I would find myself going to more prayer meetings, spending time with people that openly talked about hearing God’s voice and encounters with Him. At the end of my senior year, I decided to actually fly out to Bethel Church on a whim. Most of my reasoning to go to Bethel was actually to visit Northern California (it’s one of my dreams to be out in the pacific northwest one day) and I had no idea who or what Bethel was or the DNA of their ministry. HA. Let's just say, God rocked my world. So much so that there was one point where I couldn’t stand up because of God’s thundering voice that was very specific to me.

This continued to happen for several years after-- specific words, dreams, and encounters took place. God was redeeming the pieces of me that were tainted from the former generations. it was surely a process. I remember going through about a 9 month spell of interactions with the supernatural during the night hours that were unexplainable. I think I probably read through the Psalms about two times through that season in the late night hours, because I couldn’t sleep.

It was exhilarating and terrifying at the very same time.

He was purifying the gift of seeing and hearing, though I didn’t know it.
Like any process or maturing, the intensity has leveled out, and I am stronger now than I once was. And because He taught me how to hear His voice in the middle of the chaos, I am certainly better at hearing Him now.

Hearing and seeing Him, takes my intentionality now more than ever. While I wouldn’t call it a luxury, the times where I was under immense attack and when He was drawing me in from the wilderness into an oasis of His voice, it didn’t take much effort on my part to hear and see.

Now, I am in a season where distraction is high and I almost have to fight to sit still and just listen. In this time, when I honor His presence with no expectation or ambition of speaking, I often find that His nearness is truly the only thing I need. Then all of a sudden, I begin to see and hear clearly again.

It’s all about connection.  

Also, it's all about love.

Paul always reminds me of this when he speaks of using the spiritual gifts in the church. He says in 1 Corinthians that one day all prophecies and words will fade away, but love is the only thing that will remain. There are so many secrets of the Kingdom the Lord wants to show us; keys that He wants to give us to unlock movements of glory and beauty on Earth. However, if it’s not done in and for love… it doesn’t matter. It won’t last. In fact, I think we will see that there will be a fading away and even a rejection of words that are not given in and for love itself. It will be noisy and people will not listen.

So, as you embark on your journey with listening and seeing, I pray that you experience and give it in love. I pray that you ask the Lord what love truly means to Him, and let Him lead you in that way. I pray that you are able to distinguish words that are from God and ones that are not. I pray that veils are removed from your spirit and it intertwines with His launching you into the destiny that you were created for; to see and to know Him. I pray that you are able to be still as the stars and that you see them and marvel at the ways He speaks. I pray that He gives you vision, and you are able to interact with the supernatural in excitement and wonder!!! Remember this, He has more for you-- always, and what if the prophetic is His more?? Simply ask and you will receive one of the most desirable gifts that He wants to give!

Author | Emily Helton

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