When Jesus accuses the Pharisees of 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.”

we can immediately infer that the spiritual senses do not come from physical senses or religious expertise. That means everything that relies on the physical senses, including the sciences, cannot be used to study the causes of spirituality, only their effects (John 3:8).

⁸The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

You cannot prove nor disprove spirituality through science. You need spiritual eyes to see spiritual things, and spiritual ears to hear spiritual things. A godly understanding of the spiritual senses then has to come through divine revelation rather than through physical observation, and for that, we go to the Bible.

Comparing Physical Senses with Spiritual Senses

The following simplified model of a person illustrates the difference between physical and spiritual senses.

God created humans with a body and a spirit (Gen 2:7).

⁷then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Bodies have physical senses and spirits have spiritual senses. Just as there are more physical senses than just seeing and hearing, there are more spiritual senses than spiritual seeing and hearing. For example, your conscience is the intuitive knowledge of what is right and wrong (Rom 2:15),

¹⁵They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them

a type of spiritual sense that is apart from spiritual seeing and hearing.

How the Senses are Processed

Once you receive input through one of your physical or spiritual senses, you have to recognize and distinguish what you are sensing. For example, when parents hear a loud, modulating sound in the middle of the night, they recognize it as their baby’s cry, and eventually learn to distinguish the types of cries to what the baby means.

Those decoded, recognized messages are then combined and processed into a coherent story in a place called your imagination. You can also willingly project things onto your imagination without it coming through your senses. These imagined stories, regardless of whether they came through your senses or your will, are the processed inputs to your decision-making center, called the Will. To the Will, it does not matter whether the input came from your physical senses, spiritual senses or itself. This is why visionary leadership or the power of positive thinking is so powerful—your imagination defines your hope, which defines your reality.

The Effect of Sin on the Senses

The Will decides which stories in your imagination to follow, and which ones to discard. Sinful decisions lead to death (Rom 6:23).

²³For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

For example, if you willingly violate your conscience over and over again, then God will grant your death wish to your conscience and it will no longer prick you (Rom 1:21–24

²¹For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²²Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. ²⁴Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves

; 1 Tim 4:2).

²through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared

Similarly, rationalizing your spiritual senses away will dull them so that you cannot use them, even if you wanted to (Matt 13:15).

¹⁵For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’

Even if you could sense spiritual things, sin and lack of practice may harm your ability to distinguish between the voice of your flesh (Rom 7:18),

¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:5),

⁵For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

or a demon (1 Kgs 22:22

²²And the LORD said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’

; 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.

You could also fill your imagination with evil things to tempt your will towards sin rather than godliness. Sin corrupts and eventually kills your ability to spiritually sense, recognize, imagine, and even will to do what is right. That is why you cannot study, work, or perform any religious activity to see God; you are spiritually dead (Eph 2:1).

¹And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

Instead, God has to remove your sins to restore the eyes of your heart (Ezek 36:26

²⁶And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

; Eph 1:18)

¹⁸having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints

and resurrect you just as He resurrected His Son (1 Cor 15:21–22).

²¹For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. ²²For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Take-aways

Further Reading

How Can I See God explains the theology of restoring your spiritual senses, and Unblocking Your Spiritual Senses gives you the practical steps of how to do so. How Do I Know I’m Hearing from God gives 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 therefore be assured that what you spiritually sense is from God, and not the enemy.