WHEN THE GIFTS AREN’T WORKING

Lightbearers MinistriesUncategorized

Hey guys!

Our HOLY SPIRIT ENCOUNTER in March is just about full, but we announcing another week in June – June 21 through the 27th – for you to enjoy!

THE HOLY SPIRIT ENCOUNTER

It is like nothing you have ever experienced! We will send a full week praying, praising, learning and practicing the gifts of the Spirit in an environment where we will turn off the world, unplug from the stresses of life, and seek the Lord God Almighty with full-throated fervor and joy!

 Won’t you join us? For more information contact Yahna at admin@lightbearers-ministries.com!

WHEN THE GIFTS AREN’T WORKING…

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…Acts 1:8 NKJV

Are you a Spirit-filled believer, yet you are not seeing the signs, miracles, and wonders that one would expect from such a believer? Jesus said that those who believe in Him would do the works that He did, including healing the sick, raising the dead, walking on water, casting out demons, etc. Are you doing those works, or are for some reason the gifts of the Spirit not working in your life?

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also… John 14:12 NKJV

I want to examine with you three general reasons for not seeing the gifts in manifestation, and what you can do about them.

Reason #1 – Lack of self-discipline.

…pray without ceasing… 1 Thess. 5:17 NKJV

There is an axiom in leadership, indeed in all of life that says that no great good can be accomplished for which someone is not willing to pay the price. There is no success without sacrifice. Indeed, the Lord Himself is a great example of this principle. You have to be willing to pay the price and continue paying the price if you want to continue to succeed.

I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all…1 Cor. 14:18 NKJV

The single greatest key to walking in the power of God is to pray much in tongues daily. Assuming you feed your heart daily on the written Word, nothing is greater than this principle. Paul understood this reality. Tongues are the foundational, ‘platform’ gift on which all the others are built. When you pray in tongues, your spirit, the spirit of man in you, is edified and strengthened with might by the Spirit of God. When your spirit is built up, the Lord can put more of His glory upon you. The word for ‘glory’ in the Hebrew is CHABOD, meaning ‘weight,’ something heavy that must be carried. If your spirit is weak, unedified, it cannot carry the weight of the glory of God that produces the power of God.

People say I don’t have time to speak in tongues much. The truth is, you don’t have time NOT to speak in tongues much. People say I need my ME time. Crucify your ME time. You need HIM time. If you really had the revelation and power gifts working in your life, think of how much time you could save! Just mitigating, or even eliminating, the daily disasters, tragedies, accidents, thefts, losses and wastes, and other avoidable attacks of the enemy, will bring so much peace to your life, and time, you will slap yourself for not adopting that prayer time sooner…

If you will discipline yourself to pray in tongues for an hour (sixty good minutes) in the morning you will begin to see miracles shortly. You will get happier, healthier and better looking

(Romans 8:11 – 13). Revelation will come easier. Faith will rise up, and those promises of God you have never experienced will begin to become yours. You can read the Word silently while you are praying in tongues out loud. Start in the morning, and keep it up all day long…

Pray in tongues much daily, starting with that first hour, regardless of how you feel. An old coach once told me that the time you must work out is when you don’t ‘feel’ like working out. If you don’t, you are going to be left wondering what time the bus left the station, because you missed it…

Reason #2 – Lack of knowledge or understanding.

…My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge… Hos 4:6 KJV

Most believers, even Bible college grads, seem to have very little accurate knowledge of the gifts of the Spirit. Most don’t seem to grasp the concept (or are wholly ignorant of the concept) that the nine gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12 make one complete whole. They don’t even recognize that the word translated ‘manifestation’ in verse seven is in the singular in both Greek and English, indicating the wholeness, as a unit, of the gifts. Let me explain!

All the gifts can be involved, either directly or indirectly, in each manifestation of the Spirit.

For instance, to ‘do’ the working of a miracle, you have to, either consciously or unconsciously

(you aren’t aware of it), receive revelation and, consciously or unconsciously, operate the gift of faith. At least five gifts (word of knowledge, word of wisdom, discerning of spirits, faith, working of miracles) are directly involved in that one manifestation of the Spirit, the working of a miracle.

Now, if you gain an understanding of the gifts of the Spirit, you can learn to do miracles consciously, as Jesus did. If you gain understanding, you can learn to prophesy and walk in the other gifts of the Spirit, just like Jesus, the apostles and the other believers in the Book of Acts did. You can do it! You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you…

Now, the first key in understanding is realizing you need to understand. Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you the gifts of the Spirit. Ask Him to bring you into a relationship with ministries that can help you to understand. He sets teachers in the Body for a purpose, to impart understanding and power. The first key to being taught is to be teachable, to be willing to submit yourself and learn. You hold in your heart the key to learning, which is to open it…

Now, we have briefly looked at two reasons for not walking in the gifts. These two are personal and can be corrected personally. The third one, sadly to say, is not personal but has to do with the Christian community, seemingly all over the world…

Reason #3 – Lack of encouragement or support.

In almost every church everywhere I go, the gifts of the Spirit are marginalized or not in evidence at all. I have never heard a pastor say that his goal for every member of his church is that they are filled with the Spirit and walk in the power of God. I have heard them say that their goal is to make every member a ‘tither,’ but not the power of God.

(Now, there is nothing wrong with tithing…we are tithers, and beyond…but, dear pastor, what are we trying to accomplish? Are we trying to free people to accomplish their ministries in power? Then we must train them up in the gifts of the Spirit! Correspondingly, if you as the pastor don’t know the gifts of the Spirit (be honest with yourself), then find someone to train you…)

Sadly, if you are going to learn to walk by the Spirit in power, you are going to have ‘swim upstream’ against the current and flow of the modern church, even the ones that call themselves charismatic or Pentecostal. Tradition, religion, institutional pride, but mostly fear hold back the churches from really walking in the power of God. The difference between what the church could be (a city on a hill, the light of the world, God’s instrument to ‘turn the world upside down’), and what it is (mostly irrelevant), is the saddest thing of all.

But you must not use this as an excuse. Be strong, my dear one! What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Having done all…Stand fast!

Don’t blame God, or the devil, or your wife, husband, or anyone else, if you are not walking in the power of God. Talk with the man or woman in the mirror. Get things right with them, and the gifts can start working in your life immediately…

Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…