PERVERTING THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

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PERVERTING THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Let me begin by sharing a few words regarding a statement I made in a small group setting years ago so that it will open up your thoughts and self reflection.

Meditation and Self Reflection

I once asked a small group to meditate on this and it goes for all of the saints and even church leaders.

I asked them to reflect on this statement and I told them: “If I never preach, never prophecy, never lay hands on the sick, never have a ministry Jesus is enough for me and Jesus is my portion”. When they heard this the room went silent because it was something never mentioned to them before and they had never contemplated this before.

I proceeded to expound. If Jesus is not enough and your “portion” your spiritual gifting will never be enough for you. The focus of your heart will be based on your gifting as the measurement of spiritual success and not your relationship with Jesus! Your heart will be misaligned and the enemy will pull you away from Christ Jesus and personal pride will become your motivation not the Holy Spirit. The gifting and calling is irrevocable so a person may be gifted but that doesn’t make them Christ like. All of the spiritual gifts of Jesus must operate out of HOLINESS, nothing of us and ALL OF JESUS.

When Jesus was on the cross what was spoken to Jesus through the inspiration of the devil through a man: “If you are the King of the Jews remove yourself from that cross”. He wanted a demonstration of power AND it went against the will of the Father for Jesus to remove Himself from the Cross! What happened to Jesus in the wilderness when Satan tried to get Jesus to demonstrate His power and divinity? Did Satan not use Psalm 91 provoking Jesus to demonstrate His power, what about turning the rock into bread? We must not associate power or gifting with Spirit and Truth of Christ Jesus! Jesus spoke to the Devil “IT IS WRITTEN” for what is true godly power without The Holy Spirit and Truth! What did Jesus say to Peter when Peter said he would not let Jesus be taken captive? Jesus said get behind me Satan! It was contrary to the will of the Father.

I mention this because of what the Lord showed me and spoke to me about spiritual gifting as the Lord was revealing HIS gifting in me just after my salvation. I can not over emphasize that this was so liberating and almost as powerful as the gift of salvation! Spiritual gifts are not about performing or performance, it’s about revealing Christ Jesus! I don’t want you to deny the gifts of the Holy Spirit in fact I wish everyone would operate in the fullness of the gifts as when you allow Christ Jesus to operate through you, you grow in the knowledge, faith, trust and intimacy with Jesus. What I can’t stress enough is following the will of Jesus as stated above with Jesus on the cross, in the wilderness and Jesus rebuking Peter. I DO NOT QUESTION THE MOTIVE OF PETERS HEART as we ourselves would lay down our lives for loved ones and Christ Jesus. We must know the will of the Lord in all things before we act and only act or respond as the Holy Spirit leads us.

As I proof read this the Lord prompts me to write more. For those of you who are becoming aware of your spiritual gifts the Lord has prompted me to tell you DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ASK THE LORD QUESTIONS REGARDING WHAT HE HAS SPOKEN OR PROMPTED YOU TO DO OR SPEAK. The Lord is not offended by your desire to be obedient! He will answer you, so if you don’t fully understand just ask the Lord Jesus. Also remember that the words of knowledge or prophecy are not about you they are about the person receiving them and this may lead to your uncertainty. Using your “head knowledge” can taint, block and limit what the Lord wants spoken. When these situations arise just ask the Lord, how do you want me to speak this or apply this, what is my responsibility. Lastly and very vital, surrender the outcome! We are only responsible to do or speak what the Lord asks us. The Lord holds the outcome! That is why Jonah went through what he did. It is liberating and very freeing to surrender the outcome. We are not the Alpha and Omega, Jesus is!

We must not seek to perform or demonstrate the gifts but rather be led by the Holy Spirit to manifest and reveal Christ Jesus by letting Jesus work through us. It is by the power of The Holy Spirit that reveals Christ Jesus.

Gifting without the HOLY ONE is not operating in HOLINESS and the gifting is then corrupted and not of the Lord Jesus. This reminds me of what Isaiah spoke:

Isaiah 55:11 (NKJV)

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

“My” is capitalized as it means the word of God inspired by the Lord.

Jesus will not share His Glory with humanity and when the spiritual gifts have become perverted, twisted and quite frankly demonic in nature and characteristics. They do not reveal Christ Jesus. The divine purpose of the Holy Spirit is to reveal Christ Jesus and bare witness and testify of Christ Jesus. When we operate in the gifts without the prompting or leading of the Holy Spirit we do not reveal Jesus!

John 15:26 (NKJV)

“But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.

Do not be misled by what people speak or claim they need such as prayer, healing or other needs. Stop and seek the Lord and ask the Lord, what do you say they need Lord, what would you like to do for them. This principle also applies when someone comes to you and says brother so and so, or sister so and so needs prayer because of this or because of that. DO NOT PRAY WITHOUT SEEKING THE LORD. If you are uncertain what to pray simply pray that the Lord’s will would be done and that the Lord would be glorified by His will being done. If you follow the words of what others say you might very well be cursing that person in the form of a prayer! Yes many prayers are actually witchcraft in disguise! I know first hand of this by personal experiences.

These are the words Jesus spoke to me about using spiritual gifts.

John 5:19–21 (NKJV)

19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. 20 For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.

If we are to reveal Christ Jesus it MUST be Jesus doing the work through us, not us “performing” the gifts. There is a HUGE difference. This is Satan attempting to get us into PRIDE thinking it is us doing the work! As I refer to Satan’s trinity of ME, MYSELF and I. It is a snare as pride comes before the fall!

What I have written applies to ALL of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. There is another point I would like to mention regarding the gifts especially the gift of prophecy and words of knowledge. Just because the Lord gives you a prophetic word or word of knowledge does not mean that is the time to speak it or share it. You may be called to intercession verses speaking the prophetic word or word of knowledge. If there is no unction from the Holy Spirit to speak do NOT speak the prophetic word or word of knowledge as it is the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT that fulfills that prophetic word or word of knowledge. Therefore it must be spoken only by the unction and prompting of the HOLY SPIRIT that leads you to speak, otherwise the adversary can easily twist and manipulate what is spoken or prophesied. Another example would be praying for an individual. For example, I love to read my bible in public while having coffee and quite often the Lord will have me pray for people. If the Lord puts it on your heart to pray for someone that doesn’t always mean you go to the person unless the Holy Spirit gives you the unction. You can pray for them from your seat. I have done this in public many times as well as approach the person as led by the Holy Spirit. What matters is that you prayed! Praise the Lord. You see quite often the delay is because the Lord is preparing them to receive the word of knowledge, prophecy or prayer that is why we must rely on the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us on how we approach these matters.

I hope this helps some of you to stop striving and just let the Holy Spirit lead you and guide you. Don’t fall snare to the enemies schemes. I know I was blessed and thankful that the Lord spoke and revealed this to me early on in my walk with the Lord. Jesus kept me from the pitfalls of this. Don’t use the spiritual gifts because you can, do it because it is the will of God under the unction and prompting of the Holy Spirit. This will allow you to walk in greater spiritual peace, faith, trust, revelation and intimacy with Christ Jesus.

As I was talking with the Lord about writing this article He placed it upon my heart that this writing is critical be able to have spiritual discernment in these last days as the TWO WITNESSES will be coming forth in the near future. We must discern what miracles are of Jesus and what miracles are of the Antichrist. Oh, how the body of Christ needs spiritual discernment.

John 4:24 (NKJV)

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

1 John 4:1 (NKJV)

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

If you have been blessed by this writing please feel free to share as the Lord Jesus leads you. Grace to you from our Lord Jesus and may you walk in peace and revelations of Christ Jesus.

PREACHING VERSES MINISTERING

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PREACHING VERSES MINISTERING

I believe that if when people read in the bible where Jesus ministered one on one and examine how Jesus ministered and focus on the interaction between Jesus and the person receiving ministry from Jesus, they would have greater understanding of ministry verses preaching. Truthfully speaking both should be together not singular in nature. It’s called Spirit and Truth together and it is the Spirit and fruit of the Spirit that bears witness on a heart of flesh and a new Spirit which ONLY comes from Christ Jesus.

Too often we look at the outcome which is important but NOT the requirements for that outcome! With this being said look at what was required of the individual to receive the ministry, Word, healing or revelation that Jesus was the Christ! Ask yourself, who, what, when, where, why, and how. What might have been different if they had not responded as they did.

Don’t confuse preaching the Word with ministering to the HEART! The main reasons there is no true transformation with many people is because there is no true honesty of the condition of their heart AND/OR there was no Fruit of The Holy Spirit. It is the anointing that breaks the yoke of bondage! (Isaiah 61)

I think if you start with the woman at the well you will see what ministry is verses preaching is. Preaching is the “call to Christ”, a call to repentance while ministering is revealing the heart of Christ to someone.

The objective is not ONLY TRUTH but TRANSFORMATION!  A new heart and a new Spirit!  Preaching is only half of the equation as the anointing is what breaks the yoke of bondage and in that anointing is the Fruit of the Spirit. Isaiah 61 clearly reveals that preaching without ministering does NOT heal the brokenhearted.

 

John 4:1–26 (NKJV)

1 Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), 3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. 4 But He needed to go through Samaria. 5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” 15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” 19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

Isaiah 61:1–11 (NKJV)

— 1 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, 3 To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” 4 And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations. 5 Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, And the sons of the foreigner Shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. 6 But you shall be named the priests of the Lord, They shall call you the servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, And in their glory you shall boast. 7 Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, And instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; Everlasting joy shall be theirs. 8 “For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery for burnt offering; I will direct their work in truth, And will make with them an everlasting covenant. 9 Their descendants shall be known among the Gentiles, And their offspring among the people. All who see them shall acknowledge them, That they are the posterity whom the Lord has blessed.” 10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11 For as the earth brings forth its bud, As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

SPIRITUAL FALSE IDENTITY

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SPIRITUAL FALSE IDENTITY

I have often said and will say it again if you change ONE WORD of the Written Word of God you remove the power of the Word because the Spirit it is spoken in is not of God! God is the same yesterday, today and forever. HE changes NOT.

This being said the Lord is leading me to bring clarity and correction to the following statement often said by people serving the Lord or by the church in general and I pray they will repent once they understand the spiritual consequences of speaking this phrase as it perverts the truth of God’s Word.

“Knowing your identity in Christ Jesus”

I see this statement over and over online as well as being preached and spoken by people who are church goers. Just because it is a modern day quote does NOT make it scriptural or truth!

I ask you to look at this statement a few moments and carefully read and understand it like you are “dissecting” a sentence in English class from school.

Okay, now that you have done that who is the first person mentioned? Who is the second person mentioned? So who’s identity is being magnified. Satan’s trinity is “me, myself and I” so this phrase while sounding good is of the flesh/devil and I can prove this through scripture.

Let me start out by using this scripture to illustrate how the twisting of words or scripture changes the whole meaning. As knowing “your identity” is glorifying you/flesh and not Christ Jesus.

Colossians 1:27-28 NKJV

27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

Here we clearly read that it is CHRIST IN YOU and not you in Christ! It has nothing to do with your identity it is all in Christ’s identity! When you change this you inadvertently make your self god. Jesus didn’t come so you could be found in Him, He came so He could be found in you! He created man in His likeness and image! The problem with this statement about identity is that it gets you focused on “self” and not Jesus.

Ephesians 5:27 NKJV

27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

Acts 19:15-20 NKJV

15 And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”

16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

17 This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

18 And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds.

19 Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver.

20 So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.

Jesus did NOT send the Holy Spirit/Comforter to conform to our identity, but conform His identity in us! When we read above Acts 19:15-20 who’s identity was the evil spirit comparing Paul with? Paul had been conformed to the identity of Christ not of the “old man”. You see it has nothing to do with us personally but it is ALL about Christ in us, not us in Christ!

2 Corinthians 5:17-20 NKJV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,

19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

Romans 6:4-14 NKJV

4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,

6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.

10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

So if the “old man” died and a new creation was resurrected in you that means your identity is not of yourself but of Christ. It’s not my identity in Christ it is Christ identity in me/us. This means by yielding your will/soul to the Holy Spirit the process of sanctification begins purging you from all things contrary to the Spirit of the Living God Christ Jesus. This is why Paul mentions that he died daily and later on Paul gives us that wonderful scripture of Galatians 2:20 and Galatians 6:14-15.

Galatians 2:20 NKJV

20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

Galatians 6:14-15 NKJV

14 But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.

So let me pose these questions. If you no longer live who’s identity is revealed? If you no longer live who’s righteousness do you have? If you no longer live where is your worthiness found? If you no longer live where is the hope of glory found in you? If you no longer live who are you called to reveal to a lost world? If you no longer live who’s testimony and truth do you reveal? (This sentence should also let you know truth from error and lies from truth.) If you no longer live who’s truth do you live by or strive for?

Acts 4:13-22 NKJV

13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

14 And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.

15 But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,

16 saying, “What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

17 But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name.”

18 So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.

20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”

21 So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done.

22 For the man was over forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.

I hope this article has brought some clarity and reveals that all of us should carefully chose our words and not to alter ONE WRITTEN WORD of God’s Word or the works and testimony of Jesus Christ. Jesus said if you have seen me you have seen the Father. The evil spirit mentioned above in Acts 19 didn’t acknowledge the person of Paul but rather Christ in Paul.

The people in Acts 4 perceived Peter and John to have been with Jesus and please note the comment that they appeared uneducated and untrained in man’s teachings and beliefs but however they were trained by Jesus and had the indwelling power of the Living God Christ Jesus. Hallelujah! Glory to God!

So in closing I ask that you chose your words wisely so that the enemy of our souls is unable to get a foothold. I ask that you do NOT change one word of the Written Word and that if you do not understand a scripture ask the Lord in your quiet time. If the motive of your heart is pure the Lord will not hold back from revealing truth. It might take some time in prayer but that is NOT because He is not willing to answer He could be using that situation to draw you deeper in Him! Hallelujah!

It is my hope that this has helped you to understand that we are called to reveal Christ Jesus not ourselves, our identity or even our ministry NOTHING but Christ in us the hope of glory! My identity is Christ in ME NOT me in Christ. The more Christ is established in me the more I am one with Christ and the Father! John 15th chapter.

Some may laugh this off and say it is trivial but I tell you just try to confront the forces of evil or cast out a demon saying or believing “greater is me in Christ” verses the truth of “greater is He in me” and see how that works out for you.

1 John 4:4-5 NKJV

4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.

6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

In closing I hope this offers some insight as all of us should be seeking complete sanctification in and by Christ Jesus. It is my personal prayer from the very beginning of my born again experience that I could stand before the forces of darkness and quote just as Jesus did to Satan in the wilderness, “YOU HAVE NOTHING IN ME”. This should be the cry of all who profess Christ Jesus. Hallelujah! God bless you.