You’ve probably heard the story about Jesus healing the paralytic man in Mark chapter 2. But He demonstrated several spiritual principles that we have access to as Believers in Christ. Before I tell you what these are, let’s review the context of this exciting event.

Jesus Heals the Paralytic Man

“And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. 

And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 

Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 

And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”–he said to the paralytic– “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”” (Mark 2:1-12 ESV)

Jesus Perceived in His Spirit

Now, this story is amazing and demonstrates the power of Jesus to heal. However, I want to draw your attention to the first spiritual principle, the ability to pick “things” up with our human spirits and have this information relayed to our minds.

Let’s see what the Word says about this interesting scenario in our story from the perspective of Mark, Matthew, and Luke.

Keep in mind: there is a reason that all three of these guys added the descriptions in their texts by the leading of the Holy Spirit. Repetition in the Bible means emphasis.

“And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts?” (Mark 2:8 ESV)

“But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4 ESV)

“When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts?” (Luke 5:22 ESV)

Mark says Jesus perceived in His Spirit their questions within themselves.

Matthew says Jesus knew their thoughts.

Luke says Jesus perceived their thoughts.

The Heart

In every single account, Jesus points out that these questions come from the heart. Heart questions. Their hearts were revealed to Jesus by the Holy Spirit, and this divine knowledge became available to Jesus in His mind. 

And then He called it out! He addressed their poor heart condition of unbelief. They did not believe Jesus was who He said He was.

Jesus also demonstrated an act of faith. The revelation brought to His mind by the power of the Holy Spirit was spiritual intel that He then used to speak out by faith to address heart conditions. And you can bet that the religious leaders were very surprised when Jesus “read their mail.” It was confirmed to be accurate.

What About Us?

Remember, Jesus Himself told us that we would be doing the same works that He did, and even greater (John 14:12). Even more than that, we are one with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is in us, and we are in Him (John 17:21-23). Many, many verses support these statements that I don’t have time to go into today (see John 14, Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 1:30, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 3:28, 1 John 4).

So therefore, we also have the ability to perceive the thoughts and intentions of people’s hearts and call it out, both negative and positive. We can sense a heart condition of unbelief and call it out in love (Ephesians 4:15). We can also sense a heart condition of belief and faith, and encourage it (Ephesians 4:1-16).

The Mind is a Spiritual Receiver 

Your brain, or it may be better to call it the mind, is a spiritual receiver. You can receive spiritual signals from spiritual beings. These include: God, Yourself, Angels & Demons, and other people.

Receiving Spiritual Signals from God Himself

You can receive spiritual signals from God Himself: from God the Father, from God the Son, from God the Holy Spirit. I’ve witnessed this myself, receiving messages from all three members of the Trinity. (See Deuteronomy 13:4, John 10:27, John 16:13)

Getting spiritual signals from God is an amazing expectation for every Believer. Have you heard from God? If not, keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking on His door (Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9). He will teach you how to hear His voice. It is possible! It is our inheritance!

Spiritual Signals Within Your Own Being

God made you as a spirit, a soul, and a body. (For more information, check out this post.) You can receive spiritual signals from your own body, from your soul, and from your human spirit. 

How do you know when your body is hungry? Signals are sent and interpreted by your brain, sent to your mind, and you act upon it. These can work in your favor, or, in the case of addictions, can work against you (Romans 6:12-19, Ephesians 2:3, James 3:6).

Your soul can have fractures and pieces that have their own personalities and identities. These parts of your soul can voice their concerns in your mind, and you may or may not agree with what they are saying. This may sound strange, but we’ve all experienced it. Many of us have even verbalized it, “There’s a part of me that wants to go, but there’s another part of me that doesn’t.” (See Job 19:2, Psalm 7:1-2, Psalm 119:20, Psalm 23:3, Psalm 143:3-4, Psalm 86:11, James 1:5-8, this post)

Your human spirit can also relay information to your mind. This is also one of the reasons that the voice of God sometimes sounds like your voice. It’s possible that God has spoken to or given a Heavenly scroll to your human spirit. Then your human spirit decodes the spiritual information into a language that your mind can understand. (See 1 Corinthians 2:9-16, Hebrew 4:12, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, 1 Corinthians 5:3-5, John 4:23-24, John 6:63)

Spiritual Signals from Angels and Demons

You can receive spiritual signals from angels, demons and other spiritual beings.

If you go back a chapter from the story of the healing of the paralytic man, back to Mark chapter 1, we are introduced to an afflicted man. The man with demons inside of him voiced what the demons were saying, and Jesus responded. These evil spirits had such control that their spiritual signals were the only ones coming out of the man’s mouth.

Demons will lie to you, point you away from God, try to destroy your godly callings, and try to isolate you away from the church community (John 10:10). They can be kicked out of the soul (Mark 16:17-18). Sometimes they’re not inside, but on the outside sending lies into our minds. We have the choice to agree and partner with those lies or the choice to arrest those thoughts and bring them in submission to the feet of Jesus (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

During my Christmas Eve message this year, I talked about how Joseph, Jesus’ earthly dad, heard from an angel in four different dreams, and then obeyed the word of the Lord spoken through the angel (Matthew 1:19-25, 2:13-14, 2:19-21, 2:22-23). We have many examples in the Bible of believers and men and women of faith hearing angels, seeing angels, and partnering with angels in various exploits and assignments. Some of my favorites: Judges 6:11-24, Luke 1 & 2, Acts 10 & 12.

Spiritual Signals from People

You can receive spiritual signals from other people. This is what Jesus demonstrated in our first passage today (Mark 2:1-12), the ability to perceive the spiritual signals from the hearts of the people around Him.

Why do you think He was such a fantastic minister? Because he ministered on the spiritual plane as well as the physical. He brought into the physical world what was already going on in the spiritual world. 

I’ve heard about studies attempting to measure the distance of human interaction or human energy. I don’t have a great word for it, but it’s about 6 feet on average. You are spiritually affecting the people around you by about 6 feet. They may not know what you’ve been going through, but they can probably detect your mood, whether you’ve been in the light or the dark, and probably the spiritual ecosystem around you. 

And why do you think “they” wanted us to all be separated by at least 6 feet during 2020-2021? It was to isolate people and eliminate the spiritual interaction that we need! God created us for community and for proximity to community (Hebrews 10:24-25). Being in the presence of a joyful person can bring you joy. Being around happy people can make you happy. Little kids have this perception: they can typically tell who are safe people and who are not safe people.

Testimony of a Guy on a Motorcycle

In one of my more interesting encounters a few years ago, I had been driving south on Mopac (S. Austin, TX) during construction. The overpass hadn’t been constructed, so all traffic was routed to the stoplights. I arrived at the stoplight on a yellow and came to a stop. A man on a motorcycle pulled up behind our family vehicle, and I immediately knew exactly what the man was going to do.

In less than a second, the Holy Spirit gave me a vision of what the man intended. I knew he intended to pass me illegally in the middle of the intersection on the right. If I accelerated quickly and did not give him room, it would have been possible for him to clip an orange barrel, sending him flying off his bike and potentially getting run over.

With this “Holy heads up” I decided to give him the room he needed to pass me as he intended. When the light turned green, I proceeded a bit slower than normal and veered slightly left. The motorcycle man zoomed past me. Then I straightened out and expertly navigated the single lane bordered by orange construction barrels.

Cherise and the kids were with me in the car. When Cherise saw what happened, she looked at me with wonder in her eyes and said, “How did you know to do that?” I said, “The Holy Spirit let me know what he was going to do.” And then I told her all the details.

The Lord cares deeply about you and the people around you. He gives us spiritual insight into the goings-on and internal worlds of people around us in order for us to minister to them, showing them the love of Jesus, and pouring out grace, mercy, and truth to them.

You Can Grow in This!

Let me tell you, Friend, you can grow in your abilities to perceive spiritual things.

“But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:14 ESV)

By constant practice, and seeking the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, you can grow in your powers of discernment of spiritual things.

The inheritance is for you to be constantly connected to God. I encourage you to keep asking God, to keep seeking earnestly after Him, and to keep knocking on Heaven’s door. He will answer; he will be found; he will open the door.

If you’re interested in going deeper, I encourage you to look up all the Bible references I added in this post. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal Truth to you, and He will. Talk about these things with people you trust, and you may just find that the Lord brings Holy Spirit-filled Jesus followers your way to help teach you further.