4 Keys Abridged Edition - Session 4

Summary

The session reviews the four keys the presenter teaches for hearing God’s voice:

• Stillness — quiet yourself.
• Vision — fix your attention on Jesus.
• Spontaneity — recognize that God’s voice may come as spontaneous thoughts, pictures, or emotions.
• Journaling — write down what you sense in prayer.

The presenter says to use all four keys together, in any order. The session focuses especially on spontaneity and what he calls biblical meditation.

Spontaneous Thoughts and Discernment

The presenter describes thoughts from the mind as analytical or linear, and thoughts from the heart as spontaneous or flowing. He encourages listeners to notice spontaneous thoughts and pictures rather than dismiss them as daydreaming. He interprets the Bible’s language about a river of “living water” flowing from within as referring to the Holy Spirit’s activity.

He also proposes sorting thoughts into three categories:

• One’s own thoughts: Typically analytical and reasoned.
• Thoughts from the Holy Spirit: Spontaneous thoughts that, in his framework, encourage faith, hope, or love, or otherwise align with Jesus.
• Thoughts from the enemy: Spontaneous thoughts that accuse, condemn, or undermine faith, hope, or love.

His suggested response to a negative thought is to reject it in Jesus’ name, turn attention back to Jesus, and ask for a replacing thought. He presents this as a way to counter darkness with a positive, revelatory thought.

Biblical Meditation and Reasoning

The presenter contrasts a primarily analytical approach to Scripture—which he characterizes as a Western habit—with a broader form of meditation. As he describes it, biblical meditation can include:

• Speaking Scripture aloud and affirming it.
• Imagining biblical scenes or visualizing a desired outcome.
• Praying and listening.
• Muting or repeating words.
• Expressing strong emotion, including “roaring” against sickness or other troubles.

He argues that reasoning can still be useful when combined with prayer and what he calls the Spirit’s “flow,” rather than relying on unaided analysis alone. He uses examples of Scripture seeming to “leap off the page” and of visualizing Jesus as sovereign over Washington to illustrate how images and emotions can shape a person’s response.

The presenter also shares healing stories: a man he knows reportedly recovered from Lyme disease after praying and roaring against it, and a woman reportedly said her knee pain had disappeared after a group exercise. These are anecdotes reported by the presenter, not independently verified evidence.

Suggested Practice for Hearing God

The presenter offers a four-part posture based on his reading of John 7:37–39:

1. Be thirsty for God’s anointing.
2. Come to Jesus and ask him to anoint you.
3. Tune to the flow of spontaneous thoughts or impressions.
4. Believe that the inner flow is the Holy Spirit.

He says that, with these postures, the Spirit’s flow should come naturally rather than needing to be manufactured.

Closing Journaling Exercise

Listeners are guided through a short exercise:

1. Choose a question, such as “Lord, what do you want to say to me?” or “Lord, do you love me?”
2. Picture Jesus present in a comfortable setting.
3. Fix your attention on him and repeat the question.
4. Tune to the flow and write down what comes to mind for several minutes.

Speakers and Sources Featured

• Mark Virkler — the presenter and speaker throughout the session.
• Audience members — respond to prompts and participate in the guided exercise; no individual audience member is identified.
• Biblical sources cited or alluded to by the presenter — including 2 Corinthians 10:3–5, John 7:37–39, Isaiah 1:18, 2 Timothy 2:15, Ecclesiastes 12:12, 1 Thessalonians 4:11, and Ephesians 1:17–18.
• Albert Einstein — quoted by the presenter as an example of insight arising through stillness, vision, spontaneity, and later written or mathematical work.
• A man known to the presenter and a woman from a prior group session — their reported healing experiences are recounted by the presenter; neither speaks in the subtitles.