This document discusses the development of human senses from an embryo to adulthood and compares it to the development of spiritual senses. It notes that each of the five physical senses - touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight - emerge at different points in fetal and infant development. It then explores how each spiritual sense - touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight - relates to discerning spiritual truths and realities. The document emphasizes that regularly exercising our spiritual senses through reading Scripture, prayer, and obedience helps them to mature so we can better distinguish good from evil.

1. TRAINING OF
THE SENSES
HEBREWS 5:14

2. Hebrews 5:14 NKJV
•14 But solid food belongs to those
who are [a]of full age, that is,
those who by reason of [b]use
have their senses exercised to
discern both good and evil.

3. • Hebrews 5:11-14
• A mature Christian has his senses trained to distinguish
good from evil.
• This verse calls our attention on the reality that it is not easy to
distinguish between good and evil.
• Evil has the ability to dress up as good, causing the untrained to
believe that evil things are good.
• 2 Corinthians 11:14
• 14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself
into an angel of light.

4. The Five Senses
• Each of our senses uses its own detection system to get information from our
surroundings.The information is sent to the brain where it will be processed and
combined to create a complete sensory picture of our environment.
• 1. Sight: light and colour is detected by cells in the retina at the back of the eye.
• 2. Sound: hair cells in the ear move in response to specific frequencies of sound.
• 3. Taste: taste buds on the tongue react to salt, sour, bitter, sweet and umami
tastes in our food.
• 4. Smell: special cells in the nose detect different chemicals in the air that we
breathe in.We also detect the flavours in food as air moves from our mouth up into
the back of the nasal cavity.
• 5. Touch: various receptors in our skin can detect different types of touch, including
pressure and vibrations.

5. • Eyes: Scan the environment, see the future, see visions, perception of
people & events
• Ears: Hearing words fromGod, obedience, servanthood, knowing the
will of God
• Taste: “Taste and see that the Lord is good” - discernment via
experience
• Smell: Fragrance of holiness, rapid discernment, “smells funny”
avoids toxic teaching
• Touch: Communication of holiness, healing, anointing and spiritual
power, also 'touch not the unclean'

6. • We have distinct spiritual senses which are part of our conscience / inner
world
• The spiritual senses are inner senses and are different from our five outer
senses
• The spiritual senses enable us to digest “solid food” and to discern good and
evil
• The spiritual senses require practice and constant use
• The spiritual senses enable us to receive direct revelation from God
• Good spiritual senses are necessary for Christian maturity and blessing
• The use of the spiritual senses is emphasized by the prophets and by Jesus.

7. Human senses from embryo
to adulthood.
• Tonight we’ll discuss the body senses in the order that an embryo,
then a fetus, a born baby, an adult have developed their senses.
• Right from conception, many of a baby’s senses are developing,
continuing to do so through the pregnancy.When born, some of their
senses are fully formed, while others will advance further as the baby
grows.
• We will compare this senses with the spiritual connection.

8. • Touch
• A baby’s sense of touch is one of the earliest to emerge,
with some touch acknowledgement at three weeks. By the
20th week of pregnancy, this is further developed to where
the baby can feel and respond to touch over the majority of
their body, except for the very top of their head. At about
eight months, a baby can identify a nearby object by touch
alone.

9. • The spiritual sense of touch is quite different from the other spiritual
senses.
• It is not much used to receive heavenly information or as an aid to
discern things.
• Instead is a means of transferring spiritual power.
• Matthew 14:36 And they begged Him that they might only touch
them
• Luke 6:19 MKJV And all the crowd sought to touch Him, for power
went out of Him and healed them all.

10. The sense of touch operates by faith (just as
all the other spiritual senses do). One
day many people were pressing around
Jesus but only one was 'touched':
• Mark 5:25-34 EMTV Now a certain woman, suffering from a flow of
blood twelve years, (26) and who had suffered many things under many
physicians, and who had spent everything at her disposal, and was no
better, but rather having become worse, (27) when she heard about
Jesus, she came from behind Him in the crowd and touched His clothing.
(28) For she was saying, "If only I may touch His clothes, I will be
healed." (29) And immediately the flow of her blood was dried up, and
she knew in her body that she had been healed from the affliction. (30)
AndJesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of
Him, He turned in the crowd and said, "Who touched My clothes?"

11. The spiritual sense of touch seems to lie behind
the doctrine of the laying on of hands which
Hebrews considers one of the Christian basics:
• The laying on of hands imparts the baptism of the Holy Spirit:
• Acts 8:17 EMTV Then they (the apostles Peter &John) laid hands upon
them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
• The laying on of hands (accompanied by faith) can impart spiritual
gifts: in this case, the gift of healing.
• Acts 9:17 EMTV And Ananias departed and entered the house; and
putting his hands on him, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord has sent me,
the One who appeared to you in the way which you were coming, so
that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit."

12. • The laying on of hands (accompanied by faith) also can
impart spiritual gifts:
• 1Timothy 4:14 EMTV Do not neglect the gift that is in you,
which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on
of the hands of the eldership.
• 2Timothy 1:6 EMTV For which cause I remind you to stir up
the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my
hands.
• What about a holy hug, a hand shake, a friendly pat on the
shoulder, a caress on the cheek? A hand extended to bless?
This are touches that transfer the power conferred to us.

13. • Taste
• An unborn child’s taste buds first begin to emerge at about
the 8-week stage of development. At the 13 – 15 week
stage, they have similar taste buds to adults. Anything the
mother eats while the baby is inside the womb will flavour
the amniotic fluid that the baby consumes. A newborn baby
has an inclination to sweet tastes over sour or bitter
flavours.

14. • Tasting is an immediate experience.You taste something like food or
drink in your mouth.You only put a little in at first to test it out, but if
it is good you then consume it all.
• In the spirit taste has two aspects:
• Discerning what is spiritually good to 'consume' and,
• Full participation in a spiritual reality that “is good”

15. • Discernment ofWhichThat is Good
• 1 Peter 2:2-3 MKJV desire the sincere milk of theWord, as newborn
babes, so that you may grow by it; (3) if truly you have tasted that the
Lord is gracious.
• Psalms 34:8Webster O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is
the man that trusteth in him.The new believer 'tastes' God in order to
ascertain if the Lord is good.When this is of course found to be true then
he or she will lap up the milk of theWord.This then results in the new
believer increasing in their trust of God and being blessed by Him.

16. Our spiritual sense of taste needs to be trained
to feed on the right food: the Word of God.
His Word is truly desirable.
• Psalms 119:103 MKJV How sweet areYourWords to my taste!
More than honey to my mouth!
• John 4:34 EMTV Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will
of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.What the soul
enjoys and desires, it seeks to acquire. If we enjoy spiritual
things we will go after them. On the other hand if they bore
us and are 'tasteless' to us then we will run after the things of
this world and this always results in spiritual catastrophe:

17. • Smell
• A sense of smell begins to happen around the same time
that the baby has the taste function. From the day the baby
is born, it can identify it’s Mum by smell alone, especially
the breast milk.That’s why a baby will instinctively head for
the breast after it has been born.

18. • THE SENSE OF SMELL
• The sense of smell is related to the sense of taste.
• The nose is placed directly over the mouth to control what goes into
it. If the milk has and awful smell, you won’t take into your mouth.
• Just as taste and smell are related in the human body, so they are
related in the spiritual realm.
• We can smell things that we don’t see.
• We can smell the works of the Holy Spirit
• So we can smell the works of the devil.

19. • Ephesians 5:2 NKJV
• 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself
for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling
aroma.
• 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 EMTV (14) Now thanks be to God, who
always leads us in triumph in Christ, and making known through
us the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. (15) For we are
the fragrance of Christ to God among those being saved, and
among those perishing. (16)To some we are the fragrance of death
leading to death, but to others the fragrance of life leading to life.
And who is sufficient for these things? (17) For we are not as the
rest, corrupting the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from
God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.

20. • Hearing
• The hearing system is fully-developed at 20 weeks
gestation. At 23 weeks, an unborn baby can respond to loud
noises or even begin to hiccup or kick if they hear a loud
noise.The baby can identify the voices of family members it
had heard when it was in the womb too. Babies with
normal hearing also startle in response to loud sounds.
Newborn babies do prefer a higher pitched voice such as
their mother, over a lower pitched voice of their father.

21. • Mark 4:24-25 NKJV
• 24Then He said to them, “Take heed what you hear.With the same
measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more
will be given. 25 For whoever has, to him more will be given; but
whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from
him.”
• Romans 10:17 NKJV
• 17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

22. • Deuteronomy 6:4-25 NKJV
• 4 “Hear, O Israel: [a]The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5You shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all
your strength.
• Hearing the case of the poor, the needy, the orphan and the
oppressed; the rejected, the abused, the condemned, the
marginalized people, when we hear them and act we the love of God,
we will be training our ear to listen the heart of God.

23. • Eyesight:
• A newborn baby is very short-sighted, able to only see
about 8 to 12 inches in front of their face.
• Newborn babies eyes are susceptible to bright lights,
closing their eyes instead of looking at the light.
• At one-month-old, a newborn can see colours but often
prefers black and white toys and objects to look at.
• By about seven months, a baby’s eyesight has matured,
have developed their hand-eye coordination and depth
perception to be able to reach for toys outside their
immediate area.

24. • Eyesight:
• Their focus will improve over the next two to three years as
their eyes mature and they can see more clearly.
• A great way to develop your baby’s eyesight is hanging a
baby mobile above their crib or changing table.

25. PAUL PRAY FOR THE EPHESIANS
• Ephesians 1:17-20 MKJV that the God of our LordJesus Christ, the
Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of Him, (18) the eyes of your
understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the
hope of His calling, and what is the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints, (19) and what is the surpassing greatness
of His power toward us, the ones believing according to the
working of His mighty strength (20) which He worked in Christ in
raising Him from the dead, and He seated Him at His right hand in
the heavenlies,

26. • We can see that the spiritual sense of sight enables the Christian to be
perceptive of spiritual realities and truth and to discern good from
evil.
• Matthew 5:8 NKJV 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see
God.
• 2 Corinthians 3:18 KJV 18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a
glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory
to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

27. • The spiritual sense of sight is an essential prerequisite to 'living in the
light’ , this is living an obedient Christian life that is on track with God.
• Something amazing has to happen if we are to ever be able to grasp
spiritual truth! We need to be 'enlightened in our understanding' -
even long after we become believers, and this process is called the
renewing of the mind (Romans 12:1,2; Ephesians 4:23).
• Our mental faculties are renewed as we deliberately admit the Holy
Spirit to them. Consecration and devotion lead to renewing of the
mind.
• The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace but the mind set on the
flesh is death (Romans 8:4-6).

28. It is time to pray.
• Thank you for joining us today.
• Marco Lafebre, Learning to prophesy.
• October 20, 2021