A friend dropped by recently for a visit, and somehow we began to discuss strange things I have seen in the spirit.  I said something about “I looked in the spirit and saw . . . ” After I finished speaking, my friend asked me, “What do you mean when you say you looked in the spirit?”  I was a bit surprised at first because I guess it seemed obvious to me at the time, but then I realized it took me a few years to learn how to do it in the first place, and then a few more years to become really confident with it.  Fifteen years later it has become fairly normal for me, but it wasn’t always that way, and sometimes I forget that fact that I didn’t always know how to see in the spirit on purpose.

I think I must have stared at him strangely for a few seconds before answering.  You see, my friend has been around the gifts of the spirit and the prophetic as a whole for decades longer than I have, so it struck me as strange that he was asking me how to see in the spirit on purpose.  I asked him something to the effect of “Don’t you know how to do it?”  You see, I incorrectly assumed that people who are experienced in the prophetic gifts already know these things, but I am discovering apparently it’s not the “norm” in the church to teach people to do it on purpose, and I think this is partly because people can’t teach it if they can’t do it—and it seems most people can’t do it on purpose.

This isn’t some special superpower I have—it’s a learned ability by means of releasing an expectation I have to perceive things in the spirit.  Quite simply, because I expect it, I have engaged my faith for it to occur, and thus it happens.  It might or might not have happened the first time I tried it, but it is pretty accurate these days as I have learned to expect and perceive what I wish to see.  The information is there in the spirit realm for anyone to access who knows how.  The problem, then, is learning how.  So let me do my best to explain how to see in the spirit on purpose.

Spiritual gifts are what we might call “resident” or indwelling.  Romans 11:29 says,  “For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.”  In other words, it doesn’t matter what we do or don’t do, they remain in us and can be used at our disposal.  Peter and John demonstrated this at the Beautiful Gate in Acts 3:6-8, where it says, “Then Peter said, ‘Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.’  Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong.”  Peter recognized that he had the power of God dwelling within him and at his disposal.  Peter very clearly said “What I do have, I give you.”  Peter knew he had something to give!

This sounds incredibly simple, but it’s a key starting point.  To see in the spirit on purpose, you must realize that the ability to see spiritual reality already exists within you.  Then, you need to practice using it to draw it out.  Years ago, the Lord showed me a key in the book of Ezekiel about seeing in the spirit on purpose.  Early on in the book, when the prophet Ezekiel describes the visions he has, he usually says “I looked and I saw.”  Later on in the book, there is occasionally an “I looked and I saw”, but mostly it just says “I saw”.  As the prophet trained and exercised his spiritual sight, he moved from having to look on purpose, to having engaged and exercised his spiritual sight to the point that sometimes he would see without having to activate it himself.  This is a perfect example of the prophet practicing a gift at his disposal and reaping the results later on.

So how do we do this same thing?  Anyone who knows how to speak in tongues understands that you can do it at will, by your choice, at any time.  The Holy Spirit prays with and through you as you do it, but *you* are the one who initiates it.  How do you initiate speaking in tongues?  Simply by deciding in your heart to do so.  Seeing in the spirit is the same.

Explained another way, we activate it through expectation or belief.  Faith activates function.  Let me give an example of how I do this practically.  Any time I do inner healing and deliverance work, I don’t like hoping or assuming the job is done, so I prefer to have some indicator of when we have finished.  I do this by expecting God to show me.  That expectation is the starting point, but then I focus on my imagination to see what God wants to show me.

One time I was working together with some friends doing inner healing work, and we needed to know if we were done.  What I did was expect to be shown what percentage of the work was done, and then paid attention to my imagination.  What God showed me was a room that looked like it was in an ice-castle.  It had a throne made of ice, and the entire room was filled with floating ice crystals.  As we completed some of this healing work, I would see a portion of the ice crystals in the vision disappear.  Each time we would do some more, I would re-imagine the room God had shown me to re-connect with the vision, and each time the number of ice crystals would lessen until finally I didn’t see any more of them at all!  This was God’s way of showing me clearly through images over the course of an hour or two where we were in the process.

Other times during that session I would look at a power connection we were trying to break in the spirit, and at first I could see the power flowing, then faltering, and eventually ending.  It wasn’t all at once either, so I checked back into that scene multiple times as well.  Again, I did this by expecting to see the flow of power, then looking in my imagination to see what it looked like.  Each time I wanted to check back, I would re-envision the vision I had seen the first time and it would update itself.  A third time we were cutting attachments between the demonic and this person.  I was looking to see if we had cut them all, but could see in my mind’s eye that we weren’t done, so I told my prayer partner to continue praying.  I then mentally zoomed out from what I was seeing (again I did this simply by expecting and wanting to) and saw a crimson cord with three braided strands, of which two had been cut and one was left. When we cut the third one, I saw the whole three-strand cord severed completely in half.  We had thought we were finished before, but my visions told me that we weren’t until I observed this final cut occur.  As I watched this happen in the vision, the person manifested noticeably, showing us a visible sign that confirmed what I saw in the spirit.

Something else that apparently isn’t normal for most believers, even for those who see in the spirit, is to see what other people are describing when they talk about it.  For example, if you were to come up to me and tell me about a vision or dream you had, I will most likely be seeing that same vision or dream in my mind’s eye while you are describing it to me.  I asked some very prophetic friends of mine the other night if everyone does that, because I assume everyone else does, and they looked at me with confusion until I explained what I meant.  It turns out its not something everyone else does, but I don’t think that it couldn’t be—anyone can learn it.  I think I simply expect to see what they are describing, and because of that I see it.

If you want to see in the spirit on purpose, it all begins with expectation.  Well, it all begins with the Holy Spirit, but once you’ve gotten that far, you move on to expectation.  Extend your faith to believe that you can see things, and then pay attention to what is happening in your imagination.  If it helps, close your eyes and then try it.

I get that some people get all freaked out about the whole “doing things at will” thing.  I can’t go into all the reasons why that fear is incredibly misplaced in this article, but it is misplaced.  God has already given me power and authority to release His will on the earth (Matthew 28:18-20), so when I step out in faith and do so, I can do it with confidence I am waking in his will.  This is a tool God has given us, and we need to learn how to use it properly.  Besides, as I mentioned above with the inner healing session, it is incredibly practical, but that is just one possible application.  If you need to hear something from God in your personal life, expect to see the answer.  If you need guidance, expect to see the answer.  When I took my finals for a religious studies class in college, I would pray and expect God to help me.  Once, I prayed, and He gave me a vision of an aerial view of the layout of the desks in the class, with the seat I needed to sit in highlighted in blue.  I prayed, I expected, and got an immediate result.  As you do this, and practice it, like Ezekiel it will begin to happen to you not just when you try, but when you don’t try.  And that’s when things get truly fun.