37 ways the Holy Spirit communicates

As we present our entire bodies to God as living sacrifices in worship, we can anticipate to experience the Holy Spirit in all sorts of ways through our physical senses too. Our interactions with God are not just limited to our minds, but through all the faculties of our entire bodies. The Bible tells us that our bodies are just like earthen vessels for the Holy Spirit’s power to work through and the Lord is not limited to how He might choose to do that. What an amazing privilege for those who are called to be children of God. Life with God is never boring.

(简体中文 > 圣灵透过我们感官与我们沟通的37种方式 | 繁體中文 > 聖靈透過我們感官與我們溝通的37種方式)

Romans 12:1 NKJV  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

2 Corinthians 4:7 NKJV  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 

It is interesting to note that the human body has invisible senses that we may not be cognisant about. For example, scientists have observed that the heart generates an electromagnetic field that is significantly larger than the brain’s by a factor of about 5,000 times. This electromagnetic field radiates eight to ten feet beyond the body. This invisible radiating circumstance around us influences our emotions and how we interact with others. 

This is how we can instinctively pick up someone else’s ‘vibes’, get a good or bad ‘feeling’ about a place, or intuitively know when something feels ‘off’. We can’t logically explain why we feel what we do but we just know when something is not right. That is how the Holy Spirit might try to get our attention and warn us.

Amazingly, God created the physical human heart with the power to perceive, process, and pass on information to the brain, even before the brain becomes consciously aware! In fact, the human heart sends more signals to the brain than it receives from the brain.

We should, therefore, not be surprised when the Holy Spirit communicates with us through our spiritual eyes and ears, hearts and physical bodies. Here is a list of ways that the Holy Spirit manifests Himself through all our senses, gathered from numerous testimonies. All of these have been spontaneous and not humanly ‘conjured’ up. 

Thoughts

• A word | The Holy Spirit gives us a word of knowledge for a person or a situation. 
• A name | The Holy Spirit gives us the name of a person that is pertinent to what we are praying about or is someone He wants us to connect with.
• A memory | The Holy Spirit brings up a memory from our past, possibly to remind us of an issue that has not been resolved before God.
  A number | The Holy Spirit gives us a number which could indicate a date, a Bible verse, a quantity, a size, an amount of money or an address etc. that He intends for us to look deeper into.
• An idea | The Holy Spirit inspires us with a spontaneous creative or innovative idea.
• A sudden understanding | The Holy Spirit drops an understanding about a situation or person into us, usually beyond what we can observe or discern with our own eyes.
• Going into a trance like state | The Holy Spirit consumes our attention with a vision, so that we are no longer aware of our surroundings. Both Peter and Paul had trance experiences (Acts 10:10, Acts 22:17).

Emotions

• Fruit of the Holy Spirit | The more we make way for the Holy Spirit, the more we experience His love, joy, and peace (Galatians 5:22-23)
• An unexpected emotion | We suddenly feel an emotion that is not our own. The Holy Spirit could be bringing our attention to someone else’s unspoken emotions so we can minister to them with God’s compassion. This is the gift of empathy.

Physical sensations

• An audible voice | We hear God speak to us through our physical ears. Samuel (1 Samuel 3:4) and people around Jesus heard God’s audible voice (John 12:28-30).
• A cloud or a mist | His presence manifests. An example is when God appeared in a cloud at the Transfiguration of Jesus, see Mark 9:7 and Luke 9:34-35.
• His Word in our mouths | We blurt out words from the Holy Spirit that we did not think up. (Jeremiah 1:9) 
• A hand on the shoulder | There is a sensation of a gentle, comforting, reassuring hand on the shoulder. An example can be found in Daniel 10:10.
• A gentle physical nudge | There is a gentle nudge on some part of the body, as an indication to start moving.
• A burning in the heart | The heart begins to feel warm as if a flame has been lit inside. An example can be found in Luke 24:30-32.
• A trembling, fluttering or pounding in the heart | The heart begins to tremble, it can feel a bit like a panic attack. An example can be found in Job 37:1.
• A fragrance | A sweet fragrance emanates around us from nowhere to indicate His presence or pleasure. The Bible describes the aroma of life in 2 Corinthians 2:15-16 as a fragrance.
• Sympathy pain | The Holy Spirit gives an awareness of someone else’s pain and suffering by allowing us to feel it too. This is a gift of empathy.
• A flutter in stomach | There is an excitement in the stomach.
• Goosebumps | We experience warm tingling goosebumps.
• Warmth | Different parts of our body feel warm.
• Writing | We find ourselves writing or drawing something totally inspired by the Holy Spirit. King David downloaded the plans for the temple in this way, see 1 Chronicles 28:19.

Spiritual revelation 

• A groaning in the spirit | We feel a burden for something that is not our own. (John 11:33)
• A forbidding/foreboding | We get a sense of dread and feel a check in our spirit. (Acts 16:6-7)
• An intuition, internal witness/knowing | We seem to know something intuitively, but cannot explain why. (Romans 8:16)
• An interpretation of tongues | We get the meaning and words to interpret tongues that have been spoken. (1 Corinthians 14:13, 27-28)
• A vision | An independent storyline begins to unfold before us.
• An open vision | Pictures begin to form around our physical surroundings, to indicate another meaning.
• A vision of heavenly realm | We see and experience realms in heavenly places in the Spirit, as in Ezekiel or John did.
• Colours | We see different colours, which represent different things that the Holy Spirit is doing.
• A sudden conviction | We suddenly realise that we have done something wrong or we missed doing something right. (John 16:8, Romans 9:1)
• A sudden restraint | We suddenly have a feeling that we should not say something, go somewhere, or do something.
• A vivid dream | We have a dream that we remember vividly after waking up that we cannot shake off. The scenes we dreamt appear to have a deeper meaning that we need to seek the Holy Spirit for understanding for.
• A night instruction | We hear the Lord impress an instruction on our spirits while we are half-asleep, fully asleep or when He wakes us up in the middle of the night.
• A song | We suddenly remember the lyrics of a song, which appear to be related to our current situation.
• A new song | The Holy Spirit inspires us to compose a new song along with its tune and lyrics.
• Messengers | God brings people we know or do not know to bring revelation. An example if Gideon overhearing his enemy’s dream and meaning, see Judges 7:13-18.

Testimony

“I was chatting with my friend about some of my recent family struggles when it suddenly dawned on me that I had to forgive my father all over again – not for what he had done in the past – but for the way he continues to treat my family and me. I had been blind to the fact that I was praying for my father in selfish, condescending and judgmental ways; focusing on my biological father’s sinful nature, instead of my Heavenly Father’s sovereignty and love for him. I prayed to repent for my attitude.

I also had to repent of the sins of pride, performance, and self-idolisation. These were things I thought were simply “side effects” of my father’s sins against me, but I had made vows for myself that ignored and dishonoured God and His perfect and loving nature. By making these inner vows, I removed God from His throne and chose to place my hope on myself. This was contrary to God’s Word in Jeremiah 29:11. Renouncing and casting out the spirits of pride, performance, and of self-idolisation was particularly difficult to do, and I had a hard time physically saying the words out loud. I ended up saying the prayer three times before it came out of my mouth in a logical flow!

Afterward, I invited Jesus to bring His light into every darkness of my life so I could be set free. Throughout this time of breaking off those spiritual strongholds, I felt a hand on my arm and it felt warm the entire time I prayed and I felt it leave my arm towards the end of the prayer. As I opened my eyes, I was astonished to find that it was not my friend who had touched me and that her hand was nowhere near me!

We instantly knew then that it was the Lord who was touching my arm while I prayed. I am still shocked and amazed by this incredible experience. As the reality is settling in, I am experiencing a quiet and understated joy and a subtle “settled-ness” and peace that is hard to explain. I think I’m also beginning to understand God’s complete acceptance of me and love for me, independent of my ‘performance’.”

May this sharing be a blessing to you as you seek to love the Lord with all your heart and perceive the Spirit of the Lord with all your senses.