You cannot follow whom you cannot see, so not being able to see or hear God has a severe impact on your faith. Many have tried to see God, waited helplessly, and then given up. Others have gone further and say that God only reveals Himself through the Bible, and therefore any vision or prophecy is not from God as that would be adding to the Bible.

Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt 5:8).

⁸“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Alternatively, He rebukes Israel’s religious leaders for having “eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear” (Matt 13:14

¹⁴Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “‘“You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.”

; Mark 4:12

¹²so that “‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’”

; John 12:40).

⁴⁰“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.”

Jesus is quoting Isa 6:9–10,

⁹And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ ¹⁰Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

which in itself is a quotation of Deut 29:4,

⁴But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.

both of which are rebukes of Israel’s leaders for their sin. Spiritual blindness and deafness are not new problems, and neither is the solution. You cannot see God because of sin. Purify your heart and you will see God.

How Do I Purify My Heart to See God?

The Mosaic covenant encapsulates the most common answer: obey the law (Deut 11:13),

¹³“And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul

which is usually framed in today’s churches as “read the Bible more, pray more, join a small group”, or perform other good works. Obeying these laws do not work, “for what the law could not do in that it was weak in the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom 8:3).

³For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh

Self-efforts to purify hearts have never worked (that’s called religion). Instead, if you release the sins that you commit to God (i.e. repentance), and release the sins that others commit against you (i.e. forgiveness), then Jesus will take those sins and replace them with His righteousness (2 Cor 5:21)

²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

without you having to earn it (i.e. the gospel). Repentance and forgiveness are necessary because God does not force you against His will (i.e. abuse), but instead convinces you to confess your sins (John 16:8)

⁸And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:

though His Spirit (i.e. conviction) so that He can set you free (i.e. deliverance).

So How Do I Get Rid of My Sins?

To open a clear channel to see and hear God, you must find the sins that separate you from God (Isa 59:2),

²but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

repent of them, and then ask God to remove them from you.

Some sins are known to you, and others are unknown. Some are so core to your identity that they have become strongholds which need third-party intercession to tear down (2 Cor 10:4).

⁴For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

A lifetime of sins will separate you from God to the point where you think it is normal to not be able to hear from Him at all. Get serious about systematically and completely removing them (i.e. consecration), and then you will be able to see and hear God.

One approach to doing that is to fill out a form of all the possible types of sins in your life and then repent of them.

This is common among cognitive approaches which rely on professional or self-evaluation services to diagnose your problem. You will miss the sins that are either unknown, not on the list, or you have trouble recalling. For highly blocked people, that’s most of them. Furthermore, a fixed list of sins has the simultaneous problems of being too broad to focus on your core issues, and too narrow to the author’s culturally-specific list which may not apply to you. What is more important is finding your core issues, which will be different than anybody else’s.

The alternative is to take a Spirit-led approach that asks God to reveal your sin, whether known or unknown.

The Bible calls this conviction (John 16:7–8).

⁷Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:

A comprehensive understanding of salvation by grace says you cannot do any part of the sin-removal process without God, and that includes knowing all the sins committed by you and against you. When you follow God in repenting of known and unknown sins, He will eventually lead you to a stronghold. Strongholds are reinforced areas of sin that you need third-party intercession to be freed from, like childhood traumas. They are often the root cause of an addiction, chronic illness, or recurring spiritual attack (2 Cor 12:7).

⁷So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

Strongholds in Scripture are consistently associated with warfare, so an intercessor needs to engage in spiritual warfare to tear them down in you (2 Cor 10:3–5).

³For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. ⁴For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. ⁵We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ

When you are cleared of a stronghold, you will feel a lot better and your spiritual hearing and seeing will noticeably improve; however, you may have multiple strongholds in your life, as well as layer upon layer of sins still to remove. The result is that your spiritual seeing may still be like looking through a straw.

However, you can repeat the process of following Him to identify sins and get rid of them, only this time it will be faster as your spiritual hearing and seeing will be better.

Nevertheless, it can take weeks, months, and even years to get completely free depending on how many sins you have committed, how many strongholds were built up in your life, and how many hours per week you devote to consecration. Generally, the older you are, the longer it will take to reach full consecration because you have a longer lifetime of sins to get through. Children naturally believe in God (Matt 18:3)

³and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

and hear Him well, but life events cause them to stumble and they lose their ability to hear and see God well (Matt 18:6).

⁶but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

The fastest consecration we have witnessed was Full Healing in Seven Minutes Flat, completed for a nine-year old who just simply believed in miracles and thus received one, and then performed one for her aunt. Adults, particularly traumatized ones, or those who have been taught that it is not possible to hear or see God, are not able to believe until God deals with the strongholds in their life.

When God has revealed and removed every foundational stronghold in your life, the remaining sin systems tend to collapse and you move into the mop up phase. You may not find every last sin, but you will no longer have a problem hearing and seeing God.

However, this does not mean that you stop sinning, or that your future sins can block you from experiencing God and distancing yourself from Him (Matt 13:22

²²As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

; Mark 4:18–19).

¹⁸And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, ¹⁹but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

Many people do not complete the consecration process because that was never their goal. When God healed their presenting physical issue, they return to their normal life because their symptom was healed, but not their root problem (Luke 17:14–19).

¹⁴When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. ¹⁵Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; ¹⁶and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? ¹⁸Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

Others lose interest because life gets busy and they feel that they are healed enough anyway until the next crisis hits (Matt 13:20–21

²⁰As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, ²¹yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

; Mark 4:16–17).

¹⁶And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. ¹⁷And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.

Still others have their healing stolen by Satan (Matt 13:19

¹⁹When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.

; Mark 4:15).

¹⁵And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.

Those however who produce lasting fruit are the ones who hear and understand the Word of God (Matt 13:23),

²³As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

accept it (Mark 4:20),

²⁰But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

and then most importantly, does it (Matt 7:24).

²⁴“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt 5:8).

⁸“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Take-aways

Further Reading

If you cannot hear God to even start the consecration process, follow the Story Method to unblock your hearing before you work on your spiritual sight. Unblocking Your Spiritual Senses gives a step-by-step flowchart of how you can choose the best strategy to heal your spiritual sight, as each person’s circumstance is unique. Note however, spiritual hearing and seeing can and will be faked by the enemy (John 8:44),

⁴⁴You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

“deceiving if possible, even the elect” (Matt 24:24).

²⁴For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

How Do I Know I’m Hearing from God equips you with the biblical principles to “test the spirits” (1 John 4:1)

¹Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

and thus be assured that what you hear and see is from God and not the enemy.