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Recap of message ‘Stirring up your Spiritual gifts”.
All of us want to see the power of God manifest in our lives; it must become reality for us. God has given us gifts of the Holy Spirit and we are to use them.
In 2 Timothy 1:6, we are reminded to ‘stir up the gift’.
In 1 Corinthians 12: 8–10, there are nine spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit listed:
Revelation gifts
– word of wisdom,
– word of knowledge,
– faith,
Power gifts
– gifts of healings,
– working of miracles,
– prophecy,
Vocal gifts
– discerning of spirits,
– different kinds of tongues,
– interpretation of tongues.
1 Corinthians 12:7 talks about the manifestation of the Spirit… A ‘manifestation’ is something you can clearly perceive, you can see it, hear it, and even feel it by your physical senses. When you can experience the charisma gifts in you, it shows the presence of the Holy Spirit in your lives.
In order to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, we are to use the gift we had been given. We fan the flames of faith by continuing to “keep in step with the Spirit,” following the Holy Spirit’s direction and guidance in every part of our lives.
But many of us may not be confident to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading. But we are designed to flow with the Holy Spirit. And today we like to discover how we can hear what God is telling us what to do. We want to hear from God. We want to recognize the Voice of God. It comes from within, and it is possible exercise our ‘spirit being’ by positioning ourselves to hear and knowing how it comes. We can be trained to recognise spirit impressions and hear God’s voice – for ourselves and others.
Many people had pictured God as an Almighty deity, who created the world, and then sat in the heavens to watch us through emotionless eyes as a remote, impartial observer. The real God desires an intimate relationship with everyone of us. Father God has much to say, much to teach, and a compassionate heart to lead his people along a good path. A vital part of any relationship includes communication. God uses His Word, people who serves Him, or nature to accomplish this. He also reveals his word through prayer, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and various spiritual manifestations.
God still communicates with us today. And He wants us to hear Him. The first reason is that He wants a close relationship with His people. Jesus made this promise to his disciples.
John 10:27-28
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
The original Greek for “hear,” “know,” and “follow” gives us insight to this relationship.
Jesus goes on to say that his sheep will not follow another shepherd. The shepherd would call to his flock and they would respond and follow him. They would not follow a mysterious shepherd’s voice. The sheep have an ear to discern the voice of their shepherd and to follow only him. This resolute trust is the result of a well-established relationship.
The second reason why God still speaks today is for us to continue to proclaim the Gospel. Believers are blessed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be able to spread the message of salvation. When God sees someone in need, His compassion will cause Him to speak to His children to minister through the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit. It is a demonstration of the power of God and the Gospel is proclaimed. But Christians need to hear from God, to activate the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The third reason why God speaks today is to build up the Kingdom of God. How do you strengthen the Kingdom of God? By fortifying the individual believers and churches within it. Apostle Paul explained about spiritual gifts:
1 Corinthians 14:3
But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.
Paul indicated that God’s voice strengthened the people who receives it. Hence, the words build his kingdom. When they hear God’s voice, the people receive assurance that God is actively participating in their lives. They build his kingdom knowing that he is involved with their lives.
Why does God speak today? The bottom line is because he cares. He cares about you, his church, and the millions who have yet to hear.
Take the time to listen today!
John 4:24
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
God usually communicates with us Spirit to spirit. Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Romans 8:16
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
Listen for God to speak to you in your spirit. Why is that the most common way God speaks? It is the most intimate and God desires intimacy with His children.
There are spiritual disciplines that facilitate hearing God’s promptings in our spirit—prayer, contemplation, solitude, stillness, etc. But listen to Him through the spirit.
Matthew 11:16
He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
We are referring to the spiritual ear here.
1 Corinthians 12:1
“Now concerning spiritual gifts, or concerning operations of the spirit, brothers, I would not have you to be ignorant”.
Paul is writing to the church… Notice the first thing: God wants you to move in the supernatural. You are designed to be a supernatural being. You are a spirit being living inside a body.
With your body you are in contact with the external world; with your spirit you can communicate with God in the spiritual realm. You are designed to flow and access with the supernatural realm of God. You don’t have to become a spiritual person – you already are spiritual. You already have a spirit element in you.
God gave us five senses in our natural body: sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. Our spirit man also has spiritual senses. With your physical senses you can interact with the physical world. You perceive things around you, you can begin to identify certain things. It’s the same in your spirit; but many of us haven’t developed our spiritual capacity.
Recognize firstly you are a spirit being. God wants you to operate supernaturally. That’s His plan; and so Paul writes: “I don’t want you to be ignorant of the supernatural realm, or how to work with the Holy Spirit”. We don’t have to be ignorant, or have no practical experience or understanding of the spirit realm. We need to know how, and it takes an open heart to receive that.
Acts 9:10-11
10 Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and to him the Lord said in a vision, “Ananias.”
And he said, “Here I am, Lord.”
11 So the Lord said to him, “Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus…
Saul had been persecuting the church; and as he was going to Damascus, he had an encounter, a supernatural encounter and he was struck blind. There was a man called Ananias.
The Lord called him by name; and he said: “here I am, Lord”. The Lord said to him: “Arise, go into the street called Straight” (He told him exactly which street to go to).
He said: “inquire in the house of Judas…” (he’s told which house to go to – find the house that Judas owns).
God told Ananias to go and lay hands on Saul. God had a plan to use this man to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. Ananias was never mentioned in scripture again. He wasn’t one of the leaders of the church in Damascus. Probably he wasn’t Teacher or leader as well. Do you think God only spoke to Ananias? He’s probably spoken to many others, but they weren’t listening, or think it absurd to obey. But when he called Ananias, Ananias said “Here I am, Lord.”
The story went on to tell how Ananias exercise the spiritual gifts – words of knowledge; works of wisdom (knowing what to do); prophetic utterance (speaking over him); gifts of healing; and faith flowing. That’s a great story, of many of the gifts all flowing together, with one man. Isn’t that a great story!
John 10:3
3 …the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
He didn’t say His sheep CAN hear His voice or SHOULD hear His voice. He made the emphatic statement that His sheep DO hear His voice. Most Christians would say that we cannot hear His voice. What Jesus said is not wrong; all true believers can and do hear the voice of God; they just don’t recognize what they are hearing as being God’s voice.
Radio stations transmit signals twenty-four seven. But we can only hear them when we turn the receiver on and tune it in. Failure to hear the signal doesn’t mean the station isn’t transmitting. God is continuously transmitting His voice to His sheep, but few are turned on and tuned in. Most of us are usually praying or pleading with God to try to get Him to transmit messages. But the real problem is with our receivers.
Fix your receivers! Believe that God is constantly speaking and start listening. Our busyness in life creates ‘noise’ and distractions that is not conducive to hearing from God.
You are designed to be supernatural. God wants you to operate in the supernatural.
What is your part? What is the bit you’ve got to play? He wants you to learn how to flow with the Holy Spirit. You don’t have to be well qualified to move in the supernatural. You don’t have to be highly educated to flow with the Holy Spirit. He will use anyone that will just open their life up and say: God, here I am, I’m available, work through me – so God will work through you.
God will give the gifts of the spirit to anyone. It does not make them spiritual. It means: they’re just listening and responding to God, that’s all.
God wants us to be empowered and equipped to bring His power to people. The world isn’t going to come into a church building; the church has to go to the world and bring God to the world. Learn how to work with the Holy Spirit, Practice and develop what you have learned and grow it. Don’t wait for some revival, and don’t wait for some big experience; begin to learn how to hear from God and apply it. God is more willing to use you than you realise!
Isaiah 30:21
21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,
“This is the way, walk in it,”
Whenever you turn to the right hand
Or whenever you turn to the left.
This is the prophetic word that God will draw you back (especially in your rebellion) and you will hear a voice behind you telling you what to do. God had intended to direct our lives.
Just about every problem is because we do things our way, and we don’t listen to the voice of God. We do not hear the voice of God because we just don’t recognize it as the voice of God. It is not a problem of God not speaking; it’s the problem of us not hearing or paying attention, discounting the voice of god.
John 6:63
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
It’s the spirit that does the quickening. The words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. Being in the spirit is being in the Word. Being in the spirit is following after the Word, doing what the Word of God says and letting your life be controlled by the Word.
Those of you who are in the flesh mind the things of the flesh. Those of you who are in the spirit do mind the things of the spirit. If you mind is stayed in the physical natural realm, you are carnal! You had allowed your carnal body and mind rule you instead of God’s word.
Proverbs 4:20
20 My son, give attention to my words;
Incline your ear to my sayings.
A man has always had a desire to hear the voice of God. Over the centuries, people are interested in knowing the future – spiritualist tarot reading, the Ouija board, science… God has always wanted to speak to the man as well.
So how can we become more sensitive to the voice of God? God speaks to man, through the Word of God and from heart to heart. God so desires to speak to us because He is our Father and desires a relationship with us.
Your experiences with hearing from God may be different from another person’s experiences. God will speak to you the way He wants to speak to you. There is no right way or wrong way. Expect to hear from Him. Listen for His voice in your heart. But you have to make yourself available to God, be prepared to hear from Him through prayer, reading the Word, meditating on His Word… During your prayer time, open your heart to receive promptings and changes that you need to make in your life. If you want to prepare your heart to hear the voice of God, it is important to come clean.
Psalm 46:10
Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!
1. The Word of God
When you read the Bible, that’s when God can speak to you. He may show you a particular verse or portion of Scripture. You receive new insights and revelations into portions of Scripture. It will speak to a particular situation in your life or give you a direction about something you have been praying for.
Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.
2. Dreams
Write down your dreams. Ask the Lord to give you understanding. Share with someone else to get interpretation.
3. A Vision
This is using the spiritual sense of sight. In the Bible gave many examples. Jeremiah described what he ‘saw’ as the word of the Lord came to him (Jer 1:11). Zechariah says the word of the Lord came t him in the night, he had a vision (Zech 1:7-8). God spoke to Ananias in a vision (Acts 9:10).
God can speak to you in colour, or black and white, in still form or moving images. You may have a vision, either open or in your mind’s eye. This vision will speak to you either giving direction, encouragement,, or an answer to prayer.
4. An Inner Witness
This is like a word of knowledge. You know something about the person or situation and you know that it is correct. Example: you may be praying for someone’s healing and you had this knowing that he has a unforgiveness.
5. Audible Voice .
This is not quite common, but you actually hear an audible voice – like Samuel.
6. Impression / Thought
A ‘voice’ that occurs in your mind, like a thought but it is a clear message. It may be a new idea, an instruction, something you had been thinking about and you got a solution, a resolution…
7. Smell / Fragrance
This can be a nice fragrance or foul smell.
8. People
counsel, prophecies, word of knowledge…
Conclusion
God is still speaking today. Can you hear him? His message is like a radio signal pulsing through space. You need to tune in and to the correct frequency.
We are to communicate with God Spirit to spirit. If we still operate in the flesh, you will experience too much ‘noise’ and cannot hear His voice.
God speaks to us in different ways, but He may choose to speak to each of us in a particular way. For many, it is through his word, the Bible. Others discern the still small voice. Some get revelation through dreams and spiritual visions, audible voice, inner witness, people…
God wants to speak to you. He has equipped you, but we need to recognize His voice. We only need to turn down the other voices vying for our attention and turn up the sound waves of God.