Hebrews 5:12 says, "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

The senses he is talking about here are not our natural senses but our spiritual senses; our senses of faith and they sharpen with use as we get into the Word and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us.

We are just on the brink of God doing something huge in this world. September 11th was just a wake-up call that God is using to shake the world and the city. How well we are trained to use our spiritual senses is going to determine how well we stand when things around us are shaken on the earth.

Faith is not a new subject. We all understand that faith isn't an idle, passive principle. Some people think that belief alone in God is enough but that just makes them equal with the devil. Satan believes in God and even takes it one step further, he even trembles.

Faith is not passive or a mental ascent to the fact that God exists. Faith is a vital, living part of life. James even says in the Bible that faith that is not backed up with action is dead. True faith is the exercise of our spiritual senses that are innate in every human being, saved or unsaved.

The scriptures say that God has given everyone a measure of faith. Even the Athiest has a type of faith. The difference between believers and non-believers is where they put their faith. Some non-believers have more faith in the lie they believe in than some believers have in the truth. Scripture even says that there are those who are weak in their faith and some that are strong in their faith.

In the natural we all have five senses: sight, taste, touch, smell and hearing. When any of those senses are damaged or destroyed it makes life a little more difficult since we are created to use those five senses. In the spiritual realm where faith lives we also have these five senses: sight, taste, touch, smell and hearing; and we can exercise those things by what we speak. We can even say that speaking faith is our sixth sense.... not ESP but speaking, what we say.

How these spiritual senses are functioning are normally demonstrated by what we say, how we speak, how we act and how we react to different situations that God allows us to go through.

In the days ahead as God changes the face of what we are familiar with we are going to need to see through the eyes of faith and hear what the Spirit of God is saying throughout the world.

Faith speaks. We have an example of that in Hebrews 11. It says in verse 2, "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." We can also say of this verse that we understand that by faith, God spoke and the worlds came into being. That is a perfectly scriptural premise because Jesus said in the parable of the fig tree (Mark 11:12) "have faith in God." The literal translation of that is "have the faith of God."

God has faith. God doesn't wonder if He speaks something that it may not come to pass. In the parable of the fig tree Jesus didn't wait around to see if the fig tree would die when he cursed it, He knew it would and it happened.

Paul speaks about this in 2 Corinthians 4:13. "Since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, 'I believed and therefore I spoke,' we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised us up with Jesus, will also present us with you."

There was a real problem in the church world in the early 80s concerning the "confess it, possess it; blab it and grab it" or what we know as the "word of faith" doctrine. Many felt this was like making God your bus boy or servant but it really isn't. When you speak to a servant you are telling him what to do. But with God speaking in faith is speaking back to God what He has already said He is going to do anyway. Therefore, we believe it and we speak it. Faith speaks and always agrees with what God has said concerning us.

Faith also sees things. It sees beyond the natural realm and sees the thing it is proclaiming, the things that are invisible to the naked eye. Hebrews 11 says "the things which are seen were not made of the things which are visible." In verse 27 it describes Moses enduring. "By faith he (Moses) forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible." He saw the invisible.

Let's go back to 2 Corinthians 4 verse 16 to find the strength to endure the valleys we have to go through in our lives. How do we not faint half way through these transitions in our lives? Paul says in verse 16, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us are far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

In our transitions our "outward man is perishing." There are things that God is allowing to die in us. At times, our "light affliction" may seem heavy but is for a moment and is working towards us for a higher purpose. Even though what we see in the natural defies what we know we can see through the eyes of faith. That is why faith is describes as the "substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." We can see through our spiritual eyes because God can open our spiritual eyes and senses to allow us to see and hear and speak faith.

Faith also hears. It is our sense of spiritual hearing which sustains and strengthens faith. Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Understand what Paul is saying here. Hearing the Word of God does not create faith. You already have faith. Romans 12:3 tells us that God has alloted to every man a measure of faith. The Word of God takes the faith that God has put in us and makes it come alive and directs us in the right direction so we can exercise it. The first time we do that is when we become saved. God in His grace takes our raw faith and moves it from the wrong thing we were putting it in and places it onto His Son allowing us to experience salvation.

The Word of God, when we hear it, quickens, expands and strengthens our faith, in turn helping us to see the invisible things of God more clearly. These spiritual senses all work together just as our natural senses work together.

At times when our body is sick we can't really taste what we are eating, we can't smell our food either because our sinuses or sense of smell is also affected. But when our natural senses are functioning properly we can appreciate the food we eat because we can see it, smell it and taste it.

In the same way, our spiritual senses work together. As we believe something, we speak it. We speak it, we see it. As we see it more clearly, we speak more confidently. It's a wonderful, life-giving cycle that draws us to God and draws us closer to obtaining what God has for us.

We can even taste things in the spiritual realm as a believer that the unsaved person hasn't tasted but are also invited to partake of. Psalms 34:8 says by faith we can taste God. "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!"

The word "taste" here means "to become acquainted with by experience, to ascertain the flavor of by taking into the mouth, to perceive or recognize as if by the sense of taste."

We can recognize foods we eat and things we drink by the way they taste and we can taste and know God by experience. We can ascertain what He is like and recognize Him by the sweetness of His taste.

Faith also smells as well as tastes. We can smell the aroma of God. Not only can we smell the Presence of the Lord there is a fragrance among believers in the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 2:14 says, "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing."

We need the Word for faith to grow. It is by the Word that all these senses faith are developed and trained to discern between good and evil. Living by faith is all about knowing how to use our spiritual senses. We are going to need that in the weeks ahead. Things are changing all around us. The face of the church is changing, ministry is changing. It has to, we need to hear and see, taste and see in order to obey God and do the miraculous.