Activating the Gifts of the Spirit (4 of 5) - Discerning of Sprits / Words of Wisdom

if you're back and we see all the seats are pretty full only one or two escaped so it's great to have you all back i want to especially uh welcome pastor stan from chinese church up in auckland we're relating connecting with he was over there i don't know where he is there he is there with the same similar shirt to me give him a great welcome it's great to have you with us fantastic and he and his wife served in our junior church ministry many years ago went to auckland set up business worked in children's ministry now they've planted a church reaching just all these young peoples fantastic church great to have you with us and look forward to seeing your whole family tomorrow okay then sunday session we're going to uh start i'm going to do some teaching on discerning of spirits and then we're going to do some activations for a little while just to get you busy so we've probably got a little period of time while you've still got energy after lunch and after that we'll get you doing some activations we've got um i'll try to keep the teaching sessions about 30 minutes time so if you open up your notes there you'll see the uh the section there on discerning of spirits we all got it there and uh well i'll i'll just read you a scripture passage then we'll go into explaining it and uh this is uh out of uh book of acts chapter 16 verse 16 and uh lucas writing and he's writing about his adventures with paul and it came to pass when we went to prayer a certain young woman who was possessed with a spirit of divination met us and bought her masters much gain by fortune telling and the same followed paul at us and cried out saying these men are servants of the most high god they show us the way of salvation and she did this many days but poor men grieved turned and said to the spirit i command you in the name of jesus christ come out of her and he came out that very hour so this is a uh an interesting story in the new testament of paul is uh going to a prayer meeting and as he goes to a prayer meeting uh the place that they were in uh was the center of occult activities it was a center of uh spiritism divination that kind of thing and so uh what happens is there's a young woman there and she noticed her message her messages these are the servants of the most high god is that correct yes it was they're showing us the way of salvation is that correct yes it was what she was saying was correct but the motivating power behind it was a demonic spirit because she herself was involved in divination it said this a young woman who was possessed with the spirit of divination met us the word possessed is a very bad translation because it actually means literally to have a spirit not uh to be totally controlled usually we're possessed you think totally controlled you're not totally controlled she had a familiar spirit because she was involved in fortune telling and it says she had a spirit of divination the word divination is the word python literally she had a python spirit wrapped around her speaking into her ear talking into her was invisible to the natural eye but it was very real in the spirit world so constantly because of her involvement in divination in the occult she had the spirit familiar to her attached to her joined her would talk to her and give information about people and so people would come they'd pay money to have their fortune told and the spirit because it had access to the spirit realm and spiritual network spirit internet it could share facts about people that would stun them and then as a result of that they would open up their heart to receive direction and their lives would come into agreement with the spirit and into bondage now when you look at it the woman is saying all the right things but paul discerns that behind it there's a spirit operating and he discerned exactly what it was luke said it's a spirit of a python and it bought the masters so she was a servant girl a lot of money because of her fortune telling so the whole of that area was given over to fortune telling was given over to divination given over to uh uh the demonic realm and this girl came with a spirit now paul it says interesting saying it said paul that she followed us and cried out so so she did this many days so paul didn't address it immediately but he became irritated by it it says paul being grieved or feeling oppressed the exact meaning of that the exact meaning of that word i'll just get for you let me just find it here uh the exact word there means literally to toil or to struggle to break through or to uh feel worried or pressured or to feel grief that interesting so when a spirit is operating against us then you can feel all kinds of feelings or sensations like difficulty breaking through there's no freedom or flow uh you can feel a turmoil around you you can feel uh perhaps a stress trying to achieve what you're trying to achieve or you may even feel grief those are the kinds of meanings associated with that word and so he was experiencing the sensations what she said was okay but what was behind it at the root of it was demonic and eventually when the holy ghost led him he turned around spoke and directly commanded the spirit come out of her and immediately the woman or over the next hour she was delivered of that spirit and of course if you read on you find then that there was a massive reaction and paul was then put into jail and beaten up and uh but there was again further miracles took place so this is a region full of demonic activity and this is the gift of discerning of spirits operating he discerned or looked right through and found what was at the cause what was the source of the problem so discerning of spirits this is what it is it is knowledge god gives you so it's it's a revelation god gives you god reveals something to you what does he reveal he reveals what spirit is operating right behind some activity or action so it's a supernatural gift of revelation it means to see right through to what is the root or what is behind this matter so the the gift of discerning of spirits gives you information or insight or revelation about three areas one the activity of the holy spirit we need to discern the work of the holy spirit jesus consistently discerned what the holy spirit was doing and did it so so so one aspect of discerning of spirits is the realm of being able to see right through to what the holy spirit is doing another aspect of it is to be able to identify demonic activity when there are spirits in a place spirits in a person or spirit behind someone's actions we need to be able to discern or see what is operating there otherwise we come under the influence of it many times on some of the big moves of god they lacked experience and discerning of spirits and a lot of things they said with the holy spirit was actually demonic manifestations i can remember being in a meeting one time and they were just saying this is all just the holy spirit working and so on and i looked at the person that was next to me or just in front of me and i could see clearly there was a spirit operating so i just quietly went up and just commanded the spirit to go the person dropped to the ground it was all over and she was set free i found it impossible to just focus while there's all this demonic stuff just going on around me so that sort of dealt to that so you have to understand this is not one of the things it's not it's not natural discernment it's not working things out you know some people train in body language so they can work out things from body language look at the person figure them out you know it's not natural it's not you've developed some skill at being able to work out some things going on in people it's actually revelation that just comes to you god just speaks and reveals it to you and so that's how you know so he can reveal the uh activity or nature or name of spirits that are in a person so this morning when i was praying you notice i spoke against the spirit of infirmity now you notice that the moment i stood against that spirit of infirmity there was quite a quick reaction or response so that tells me that it was exactly what the problem was there was a spirit was causing the pain in the person's body for example i had a young man i was speaking in city harvest and i had a a word of knowledge that was a young man with a shoulder condition and uh he had pain in his shoulder so the young guy came up and as he began to speak to me and interact with me i thought the lord say he he has a major root of bitterness against his father so i asked him how do you get on with your father he said i love my dad so it seemed like his initial response contradicted what god had shown me so i said to him well uh isn't it true that your father travels a lot and he's not there for you and actually you've got quite a lot of feelings about that he said that's right i said lord shows me that you've been quite angry and actually become resentful and bitter that your dad has not been available for you when you've needed them and he said that's true i said well the lord showed me that the reason you have this pain in your shoulder it's actually a spirit of infirmity and it's come because of the unforgiveness in your heart towards your father they see so some of that was word of knowledge and some of that is discerning of spirits the cause of the sickness is a demonic spirit that's discerning of spirits the nature of the problem the issue with his father that's word of knowledge okay and so i asked him he's willing to forgive his father which he was i led him in a simple prayer forgave his father as soon as i commanded the spirit to come out of him it manifested quite strongly he fell on the ground he got up after that and he then testified he said actually i didn't just have pain in my shoulder i'd paint everywhere all over my body i've had this pains the doctor has told me my back is stiffening and by the age of 40 i would not be able to bend or move or twist at all but he said i now i'm completely free so the spirit of infirmity had created pains in his body and they were associated with an issue in his life of unforgiveness with someone so so you see how gifts work together and we'll get on to the word of wisdom a little shortly but so the gift of word of knowledge and discerning of spirits they work very closely together one gives you some information you couldn't know and the other gives you a discernment to see right through to the problem so a discerning of spirits is not natural figuring things out by studying a person's body or body language or so on it's not a natural gift it's a supernatural where god just reveals to you that's what the problem is so again with all of these gifts we need to learn how to listen and receive from god another thing that it is not so it's not natural but there's another thing it's not it's not judging i want to show you another scripture in matthew chapter seven it's not mentioned in there i don't think uh but in matthew chapter seven and the first few verses discerning of spirits is not the same as as judging in the in the worst sense of judging let's read a few verses in verse 1 and verse 1 of matthew chapter 7 judge not that you be not judged for with the same judgment you judge you will be judged and whatever measure you measure to others it will be measured back to you again so why do you look at the beam of the the small speck that's in your brother's eye and you do not consider the beam as in your own eye how would you say to your brother let me pull out the beam from your other respect from your eye and behold there's a beam in your own hypocrite first cast the beam out of your own eye then you'll see clearly to cast the moat or the speck out of your brother's eye don't give that which is holy to dogs neither cast your uh your pearls before swine unless they trample you under your feet and turn again and render you all right then now let me just go into that scripture jesus is speaking about a principle is very important he's talking about a principle of judging this word judge means literally to make a decision against someone because of what you see or think you see or whatever and virtually to pass a sentence on them you are guilty according to the way i've charged you therefore you need to pay the price so he's talking about having a judgmental attitude and what he's saying is that if you judge others you unlock against yourself a spirit of judgment you the very thing you've judged will come back to you okay let me just give you an example of that i had to pray for a woman one time not so last year in taiwan and they sent her in first for ministry asked what the problem is and she said well uh i've got this uh um young man interested in marrying me i said okay so what's the deal and she said well we were going out before and then our relationship broke up and i got involved with someone else had a baby to him and now i've got the baby and now this guy's come back and wants to marry me so what do you think now she people only give you the sanitized version that makes them look really good you know so i said is he a christian no he's not a christian i said well that the long bells go off for us straight away and uh i said what about this other guy well he really would like to marry me too he's the father of the child what do you feel in your heart no not not again not for that person i said well now tell me then why did your relationship break up she said well while i was going out with him he was unfaithful to me he had other girls on the side so i said well is there any evidence that that has changed in his life is any reason why he would be different and he hasn't become a christian he hasn't changed in his heart you get you're in for more of the same and uh so why would you want to marry him so i really feel he's right for me i said tell me about your father and now so why would i ask him about the father when it's an issue of marriage because the lord dropped in there's an issue with her dad so she said oh i don't talk to my dad i said why is that you well mom and dad broke up they divorced when i was in early teens i said really i said i said do you have any content no no almost no contact whatsoever and uh i said is that right and i said tell me what was the reason that he the marriage broke up and he and she said very simply he was unfaithful to my mother how many times he had three times he was unfaithful to my mother i said isn't this extraordinary you've got a result you've got a conflict or in your heart with your dad and you have judged him and now it's replaying in your life again you actually the judgment you gave out about him now it's re being replayed back in your life again do you not see the connection that what you're struggling with currently actually is an overflow of what's been going on in your past she couldn't see it i said i don't think i can help you then because you're going to go down that route and play this thing right out until you've actually experienced all the consequences of what you've got in your heart towards your father now you understand she had judged her father and found him lacking and now unlocked against herself a real cycle of issues that would then go through the rest of her life so that's what judging is about discerning is being able to discerning has more to do with being an observer than a judge for example a judge will stand up on a a judge will usually be seated in an elevated position so you go to a court the judge is in the high position so when the bible talks about judging it's speaking about elevating yourself up as though you know everything and why people do things and then passing a judgment on someone against them you felt you found them guilty okay and now you've condemned them right now this is different to discerning discerning you're not coming from the high ground of pride and being above everyone else you're coming down from you're actually a human being yourself understanding that people do have issues and make mistakes and you're looking as an observer to see what god says about the situation and so god shows you the root of this is the spirit the root of this is bitterness the root of this is this it's informational it's not judgmental it's to inform you of the nature of the problem not step up on the high ground and look down and find the person guilty and condemn them that's the difference now many people think that christians shouldn't judge but the bible says the spiritual man judges all things notice what jesus just said in those verses he said look he said he gets those verses back again notice he said don't give what's holy to dogs neither cast your pearls before swine unless they trample them under your feet and turn on you clearly he's saying you need to know what to share and who to share it with because some people if you share it with them it's like casting something out before pigs they'll trample it under foot and turn on you now he's not being judgmental he's just saying that you have to look at people and look at situations and be understanding of where they're at and how they receive things he said you don't give everything you have to everyone so the bible is very clear a spiritual man judges all things that means looks right through to what the real issue is and identifies it not as one sitting up high looking down condemning but as a fellow traveler looking and observing and seeing that something is like this you getting the idea okay then so uh for example uh and there's and the more you have examples the easier it is to see it so discerning then is to be able to look through and see what is behind this matter i know what they're all saying or i know what i can see but what lies behind it that's the driving factor and we need discernment because in the in in the world and in the church people have all kinds of agendas and it shouldn't be that way but that's how people are people have usually hidden agendas and the agendas are not so obvious but if you have discerning of spirits you can often pick what lies behind it so there are a number of bible examples of that we shared with one of you in the last session and that was uh found in uh in acts chapter 8 where peter discerned the motives of simon the sorcerer so everyone was coming up and saying we want the power of god we want the power of god we want the power of god he came up and said listen i'll give you some money just give me the power of god. and he was able to look in and say no you have got an issue he said underneath this desire for the power of god is a deep root of bitterness and a crookedness that makes you seek power so you can promote yourself you've got a deep rooted issue of insecurity in your life and paul peter discerned it he saw right to the root of it and confronted the man about it you know idea so discernment enables you to see what is really there as you see shortly will need a word of wisdom to know what to do with it so um uh in luke chapter 13 i'll just find another example in luke chapter 13 uh luke chapter 13 and verse 10. and jesus was teaching in the synagogue on the sabbath and behold there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bowed down and could not lift herself up and jesus saw her caught her to him and said woman be loosed of your infirmity he laid hands on her and immediately she was made straight and glorified god now jesus is in a synagogue a place of prayer and there's a woman who has an incredibly serious back problem she's bent and crippled right over now to everyone who looked it's a back problem and she has a back problem that's true but he saw the root source is a demonic spirit there's a spirit attached to her spine and when she was delivered immediately she was set free i had a situation in fiji i was invited by one of the members of our church to go up with him to his property up in yasawa's which beautiful that's beautiful here fiji and uh it's but it's very remote it's right at the outer end of the fiji area and right up in the outer islands so we in order to get there we had to catch a boat and then we had to kind of catch a little boat ashore all of that kind of thing and then we were invited to a meeting for me to speak at a meeting in a village so to get there we waited out into the surf got into a boat travel around through the through the reefs and landed on another beach and someone met us with a lamp and we went in and we were in a building and i i was the first white man to speak there apparently and there was a gathering of people there the men had fled the place they heard i was coming they fled and there was a problem with spiritism and witchcraft going on in that area so i went into the meeting at the end of the meeting there was a lady came up and she when i say came up she crawled up she crawled herself up and she she came up there and i could see that she's she was in trouble from her waist down that she actually could not walk she had come with two uh two crutches she was unable to walk and so i looked at her and i said i asked some questions first of all how long have you been like that she said 10 years then the lord just dropped into my heart exactly what the problem is so how did i get it i got one discerning of spirits and two word of knowledge the first word of knowledge was it had to do with their husband the second was discerning it was actually a spirit of infirmity associated with the occult so i asked her the questions then and this is how you can bring out revenue just ask questions i said what happened ten years ago she i said did someone near you close to you die she said my husband died i said is it not true that he was involved in the occult in witchcraft she said yes now this was very significant because this is a religious community everyone's supposedly christians but actually then many of them were not and many of them were practicing witchcraft and this was why the god got me to come over because the conditions he described i could tell were witchcraft was operating everyone was denying it including the local minister this brought it right out into the light so now the woman's saying yes my husband was involved in witchcraft he was involved in spiritism i said the lord shows me because the two of you will become one through marriage that when he died that spirit has come into you you have a spirit of infirmity associated with your husband and so and the witchcraft so now everyone's absolutely stunned and so i commanded i broke the curse i broke the the soul ties to her husband i broke the curses that had been upon her through her husband's activities commanded the spirit of infirmity to go helped her to her feet and she stood up and she walked without crutches she walked home so you see again the the spirit the discerning of spirits helps you know what the issue is and it's you get a revelation to get it from god any idea so we've seen a number a number so the the the gift of discerning of spirits enables you one to discern the activity of the holy spirit two to discern what the motives of people are three to discern the activity of demonic spirits and identify what they are now it would help if i just shared a little bit about your senses and how they work um we touched on it before you have natural sensitive senses and you have spiritual senses so your natural senses after a little while you gain a memory bank of experiences so you smell food oh curry sergeants in the building so you know we we sort of you know you you you identify with a physical sensation you have a memory you attach to it and you identify it like that so after a little while you can pick up lots of things you can recognize voices someone rings up and they don't tell you who they are oh i know that voice i recognize that voice so we attach our associations to the to the experiences we have naturally now spiritually the same thing happens you are a spirit being and do have spiritual senses and you do pick up stuff people often call it a sixth sense but it's actually your spirit man for example how many of you have had some decision you had to make but you felt this terrible uneasiness and lack of peace about that haven't even known that experience like that okay very good and of course if you went against that and did it you ended up in trouble we won't ask about that you put that down to wisdom okay now so that's one thing how many of you have met a person that's a woman have met a person and that person was uh just incredible it's incredibly creepy there's something about them oh don't go near me don't i feel defiled just being near you okay so how many how many women would identify that experience quite a lot of women okay so probably the second thought that came into your mind was i shouldn't think like that but actually you were right what's happening is you're discerning an unclean spirit or intention around the person and you're feeling up the impr you're feeling the impressions of it and you're identifying it as a yuck i don't like this i don't trust that man i'll stay away you understand that's actually discernment your spirit is sensing things you've got to learn how to recognize what it is and how to work with i'll show you what to do in a moment okay so um uh or so and men have a similar kind of thing you may find yourself in situations or ever been into a house for example and you go in there to meet some couple and as you go in there everyone's being polite and nice but you can feel like the whole atmosphere is full of tension as though there's been a big row or something going on how many now let me ask you this then how on earth did you feel tension what part of you felt that your spirit felt it so all of us have a human spirit and all of us can sense things but we can develop that so we become sharper at it and become more used to dealing with it any idea okay then now so so you have ability then to sense things spiritually and when we're born again of course that whole is brought to a different realm altogether we now have the holy spirit with us he can actually identify for us what the things are that we're dealing with so here's a thing remember in almost all of the moving in the spirit what you get seems to be a thought or impression or picture comes into your mind it's not strong necessarily or very big you could easily sweep it aside if you didn't stop and focus on it so the way to deal with it is simply this is and i think there's a couple of practical things number one i think we need to ask the lord to help us to deal with having a judgmental attitude you can never discern properly if you have a judging attitude you notice what jesus said in matthew 7 he said he said this he said if you judge you'll be judged the measure you give to others is how it'll come back to you then he said in a three thing he said why do you say i want to get the speck out of your eye when you've got a big beam in your own notice then what he's in other words he's saying i'll put it to you a different way if you had a little speck in your eye you wouldn't ask someone to help you dig it out who had this huge log covering most of their vision you'd say no way do you get near mii you can't see clearly you'll mess this up you'll damage me and hurt me now so what jesus then said was he said take the beam out of your own eye speaking of judgment and then you'll see clearly so what he's putting it another way saying if you have a judgment in your heart against any person or you hold judgments about certain matters it will affect how you see and interpret what's in front of you in life so in the journey of growing in the things of the spirit we need to deal with bitterness and judgment and unforgiveness in our heart because it will color how we see people it'll color how we interpret life it will affect our ability to discern we will tend to judge rather than discern and think we're completely right and justified that make sense to you very very important so if i was to allow my the lord to help me deal with any judging attitude in my heart against myself or against people and to begin to meditate on the love of god and his great love for me and grow in that love i will see clearly because when you love people you see clearly when you have judgment in your heart you can't see clearly and you mess it up every time so this is an important thing i need to cultivate purity of heart in my motives towards people or i can't see very clearly so uh so that's a very very important i'll just stop from that point and then just move on to it so how can you work in this area so just give me i'll give you an example of it a person uh i i use this illustration recently because i've had this experience there's two people standing in the entrance of a church and one of them has got a deep rejection in his life or a judgment that there's something wrong with me people don't like me you learned that years ago another one hasn't got that at all he's quite free and suppose uh the pastor walks in and he's very very busy preoccupied he walks past and both say hello pastor and he just doesn't hear he didn't hear it he was preoccupied so there was no willing rejection of them he stood in here and carried on now each of them has had an experience an identical experience each of them will interpret it now one can the one who's got the rejection and judgment in his heart will pass judgment on what it means he'll say this means he doesn't like me and they'll get angry won't enjoy the service at all he'll be angry all through the service parts unlike me and you know and all stir up all these anger over the but the judgment was in his own heart the other person looks and says i can't hear what i had to kind of notice me he must have been busy i'll catch up with him later two people same experience but responded completely different one just observed it and worked out a different strategy the other judged it and ended up in turmoil any idea so so if you've got judgments in your heart it'll filter all discernment so discernment you it practice rooting your heart of judgments about people and learn to be an observer to be an observer you ask the question i wonder what this means rather than this means that okay you ask the question what does this mean what am i feeling what am i sensing what does this mean you let god help you see his perspective on it jesus said i don't judge as the world judges he said i judge righteously i don't judge what i see i judge by what my father says to me so he judged things on what he heard from god so how can i develop the the area of discerning of spirits very very simply one i need to deal with the issue of judging in my heart that will cloud my ability to sense two i can develop my sensitivity through fasting fasting and prayer helps me develop sensitivity to the holy spirit and then what you need to do is learn how to identify what you feel when you're in different situations identify impressions you have when you're talking with someone when you are meeting someone when you come into a meeting when you come into a room when you go to different places look for chances to identify what your first impression is the first impression is usually the one that impacts you as you engage something then you just move out of that and start to reason everything out and interact with it differently but when you're a spiritual person at which you are you tend to be more sensitive so you can feel things or sense things quite easily and so try to when you sense something ask this question what do i sense what impression do i have what am i feeling try to just get a name for it don't dismiss it just inquire holy spirit what is that then the next question what do you want me to do with that what does this mean if you judge it must mean this you've then lost your discernment if you just say lord what does this mean how do you want me to deal with this you'll start to then develop a lifestyle being able to discern things so there's heaps of places that you can pick it up so one of the place to pick it up is when you meet people when you meet people just come with an open heart and shake their hand and look them right in the eyes and just let them interact with you and as they interact with you you'll have an impression come try to identify what the impression is listen for the things the holy spirit drops in your heart you walk into someone's house what impression do you get what does the atmosphere feel like you walk into a church meeting what does it feel like what does the atmosphere feel like when the everyone's worshiping or things are happening what does it feel like what is it sense is there develop practice discerning or exercising your senses to listen and identify impressions you have about situations and then act as an observer not a judge oh that's interesting i'm feeling this i wonder how i should respond i wonder what god wants me to do so you don't move into judging mode you stay in discerning working with the holy spirit mode now notice paul went for several days before he turned around to the woman and rebuked the spirit in other words he waited until he had actual wisdom from god what he should do you notice this if he had if he had stopped and reacted on the first day he'd have had he'd been in jail straight away and had no chance to do any ministry at all so he didn't immediately address what he could see was the problem until he felt the holy spirit show him this is what you need to do do it today a lot of people can't handle that they pick something up they want to deal with it straight away now it isn't always how god works because dealing with it straight away can create more problems than what you may solve one but you've actually created something bigger and different so if paul for example had turned and rebuked the spirit that same day all those days that he was able to preach and minister would have been cut out and cancelled short like that so he knew there was a spirit but waited till the right time then turned and dealt with it and that triggered off a reaction in the whole city towards him and shortly after he exited the city so we need to know and be able to discern what god is saying or what god is wanting us to learn and we need to be able to identify those sensations and impressions we have so just all you do is just identify what did you feel you're on a phone to someone we used to teach this when people were doing phone ministry to people after you get off the phone just quiet down and just worship the lord and just sense what are you feeling in your spirit i'll give you an example i had someone that i spoke to and they're incredibly angry and they were angry with me and i thought that's interesting i know why they're angry with me so he checked it out and this is what had happened they had been talking with someone else who had an unresolved offense and was angry at me and after being with them they came away angry at me as well so what had happened was they had not discerned this person has an offence and the biblical way of dealing with the offences put it right with the person they they came under the influence of the spirit of anger and bitterness over the person it affected them and they were then operating with that thing around their life so i always ask people after you've been in an interaction how did you feel what did you sense what are you sensing in your spirit just practice doing it try to identify the sensations identify the feeling and then we need wisdom from god what to do so in the next session we will look at the word of wisdom and where to go with that and and how to uh how to respond to that but i'll get you now to just do some interaction we're going to do activations i think you need to do something now otherwise you fall asleep okay then okay then so liz we've got heaps of things that we could do but i'm going to give you one that's an interesting one and this one there will challenge you a bit so you'll need a pen and a paper to do this one because you're going to write something need a bit of space if you if you need a bit of space you can move your chair out and this is what we're going to do this is this this activation is called inspired writing inspired writing so you've had an inspired picture inspired thought inspired prayer this is inspired writing so if he has a heavy piece of paper or write it on the cover at the back of the of the of the manual be fine and i want you to write up this question write up this question and you're going to listen to let god speak to you about you okay so so here's the question you write up lord how do you see me lord how do you see write it down exactly as i said it lord how do you see me now this is your prayer or question to the lord and what we're going to do is just going to pray for a little while and just now we're going to do this just like you were ministering to someone except you're just coming into a place where you're listening to let god speak to yourself if you can get into a flow of this this will be one of the greatest assets to you over the course of your life to help you hear from god and develop hearing from god and it's called journaling and journaling's got a number of aspects but this aspect of journaling one aspect of journaling is just writing your thoughts and feelings experience this aspect is journaling what god is saying to you so you ask the question god lord how do you see me now i know how you some of you see yourself and you may not see yourself too good you come to all kinds of conclusions about yourself wouldn't it be good if you stopped listening to all of that junk and instead lord how do you see me you might find it a little hard to take how he sees you because it's very loving and very kind and it's not like others who you may have experienced so he can be incredibly kind and loving and so what i want you to do is we're going to do very simply like we did the others we would say you know hey can i practice on you this is just a practice you're practicing on yourself okay then and very positive response yes this is going to be great and then we're just going to pray in tongues for a little bit and i want you to pray in tongues and then begin to focus on just begin to think about the lord think about his goodness to you and then you may start to get him just some thought come to mind start to write now don't try and work out what you're going to write next uh you're a loser don't work it out you know you might get terrible things if you try and work it out you certainly won't hear god on that so what you do is just relax listening to him until you sort of start to get a thought or an idea and then start to write now just relax as you're right and just let it flow let it flow out of your writing flow and flow and flow and if you find the flow stops just rest again thank you lord lord just speak to me give me more lord and just stay focused on him and then because continue writing and begin to write again what will happen is right from the flow that comes from your spirit don't try and figure this out with your head you try and figure it out with your head you'll be completely limited you won't have revelation god actually wants to speak to you now you could pro it's like prophesying over yourself virtually and here's the interesting thing when you learn how to do this you can do this any day you like all the rest of your life you can ask the lord questions and begin to journal what he has to say to you for some it may be very lots of things to say some of maybe just a few lines hey we're just practicing ready okay then and some may have a blank paper that's okay too all at me and if you find you have a blank that's interesting i have a blank i wonder why i can speak to others about what god sees about them i'm finding it hard to speak to myself what's going on here why is there that block can you see it's like instead of being a judge you just be the observer and the listener and the one who shares what you're observing and hearing it's a very very important positioning in your heart to take where you don't become a judge anymore in life you become an observer oh that's interesting i wonder what that means lord how would you have me respond so in this one lord how do you see me how do you see me lord how do you see me lord i just reach out to you now so come on let's just begin to pray in tongues and then we'll give you just a few minutes to write if you're looking at this on the internet you could sit down with a piece of paper and you could do this too write down the question lord how do you see me just begin to pray pray in tongues just worship god for a little while and then as a thought comes to you begin to write and you're writing a letter to yourself like you're writing from god to you you're putting words to what god's saying let's do it together shall we thank you lord lord release the spirit of revelation right now i think it'd be quite good if we put the air con on too i think i need to cool down a bit thank you lord thank you lord we'll begin to speak to individuals here reveal the tremendous amazing love the wonderful heart that you have for each of us let it just flow out of their hearts onto paper thank you lord we just bind every distracting influence everything that would hinder us stop us and we just release that life and vitality now in jesus name thank you lord as soon as you feel free and start to get an idea just begin to write you're not trying to work it you're just writing out of the flow of what's in your heart like you're listening to someone dictate to you and you're writing it and you're actually writing it to yourself it's this flow of the spirit coming up from within if you get stuck just pray in tongues relax and refocus on the lord again all right then how are we doing i see a lot of people are writing and all got to different levels let me just ask for a little bit of feedback how many had a flow of writing you had some thoughts come to you that came from the lord you obviously felt a flow of things start to come that's right then did anyone get stuck you just went blank no one got completely stuck did some find that just had a little bit but there wasn't much flow in it some had that there would be always something like that and sometimes that can reflect that we're not good writers we're better talkers and uh we talk better than we write but again relax and let the flow come how many of you found that what god spoke to you was very personal actually was extremely specific for you how many found that well that's great how many were quite encouraged by what god said that's really good too wow this is very very good how many of you god told you how much he loved you [Laughter] he often starts with that and uh and and talks with that how many of you do god give you some kind of direction or insight to what you need to be doing at this time in your life isn't that good wow that's great isn't it that's helpful isn't it so it's quite good for you to come to the lord and to learn how to journal daily with them because and keep a track record of what god is speaking to you because you can go back and look at it again and uh if you have a journal and you're keeping a journal god is talking to you it still helps if you've got someone else you can run your thoughts around or run your thoughts with before you make any major decisions just so you've got the wisdom the bible says in the wisdom of many councillors there's safety so this is a great way it also has limits on it and so it's helpful if we stay having counsel about any major decisions so there's many questions you could start to ask the lord now huh so we just asked you how does he see you and he would talk about the goodness and the good things he sees in you the possibilities in you so you could ask about how he sees your church you could ask about various aspects then wait on the law just let him talk with you about life and about things that wonderful and that great thank you lord how many people were quite surprised by what god shared with them have you a bit of a surprise oh that's interesting what was it surprised you um wow wow so it's very specific and it's picked even as you are you're precious wonderful so god assured he had a plan he's precious as she is but that plan will bring enlargement and greatness it's wonderful don't you love that such a wonderful thing so you're a good space now to be able to minister to someone else so what we'll do now is get you to break into peers and what i'd like you to do is to bring a word of encouragement now it's not we're not going to prophesy that would be too spiritual for us what we'll just do is we'll just bring an inspired word for someone so again we'll get with someone that preferably someone you have not prayed with before someone that's different and remember ask permission can i can i just uh can i practice on you get a good positive response and then we pray in tongues pray in the spirit for a little bit and then listen and then share something that you feel god shows them that would encourage them you've just done it for yourself now do it for the other person so you're looking for a thought and an idea remember pray relax and focus on the source listening just waiting and just let thoughts just come something drops into your mind focus on it until it comes a little clearer then start to share well i just sensed this as i was praying for you keep it simple and easy and light okay let's see how we do find someone and let's have a practice if you're watching this on the internet once you find someone to practice on especially someone you don't know so well okay let's just come back close up what you're doing let's us get some feedback on how it's going how many of you were really touched by what the person shared with you was very appropriate for you wow that's wonderful great how many sort of felt god as they share with you oh my that's god speaking to me how many felt that very good wonderful okay then anyone got blocks in this how many have struggled to get something okay we've all moved quite a long way now that's fantastic how many of you it still just feels like it's you doing it you kind of think so much seems like me i don't sort of feel much of god in it how many found that actually that's quite it's quite normal to tell the truth some of the best ministries i've had to people i didn't feel a thing you just but i have learned to just relax and and understand i am a spirit being god is in me and if i will yield he will speak through me whether i feel anything much or experienced anything is irrelevant it's not about me it's for the other person i'm just the servant to bring about the work once you get that idea we're just there to serve people it's not about your feelings or experiences at all it's actually what god does in their life it's about them and god and of course as you do it you just grow so immensely amen okay so you've found that's been a good challenge for you okay then would you like to stretch out a little further try a little something harder a little bit harder no please don't make it any harder okay all right then well this is this one i just need someone to help me just need a volunteer really someone who can help me okay you're going to help me all right then all right okay so just come on up here now this is what i want us to do this time uh we're going to get you to do two things the first thing is i want you to do is to see if you can get a word of knowledge about the person in other words a little piece of information that we wouldn't have known naturally now i do know carolyn so i've got to then dismiss from my mind everything i know about her i have to just literally push aside and listen to my heart not listen to my mind if i go anywhere towards what i know then i won't hear my spirit at all so i've got to just push aside anything i may know about her and then actually just identify what i'm feeling in my spirit i then say and i want to show you just something hacking and maybe we share with you for getting words of knowledge about the body just just begin to think about a person's body and you may just face the right side the left side is it you know and just go through the parts of the body and you may feel drawn to a part just only the slightest draw that can be what a word of knowledge is just the slightest little impression so what we're going to do is we're going to look for an area where the person is facing a struggle we're asking this question lord is there any person any area of this person's life where they're facing a struggle okay and we'll show you just how to do that in just a moment and then the second part will be now lord how do you want to speak to them to encourage them okay so the first is the word of knowledge the second's the prophetic the word of knowledge is there an area where there is a struggle going on second part is there's something god wants to say to help the person in that part of their life so if god identifies the struggle he certainly will want to do something to help them and there could be many ways they could be helped but at this point the level of help will give is we'll look for a word of comfort and inspiration encouragement for them okay that keeps it quite an evil level and we're not trying to prophesy we're actually just see if we can find out a little piece of information now remember when we asked you in the second activation of the series go to someone and ask them a question find out something about them so now we're going to ask the lord questions so you've already done it for yourself lord how do you see me you know you can ask god a question and he will answer so now we've got to in love say lord is there any area of this personal struggle there may well be there's none and if there's none then there's none don't make one up don't put on them your struggle is there australia and if there is a struggle see if you can frame up what it might be and then lay out then just we need to look for god for a word for the person okay all right then so just come and stand in front of me there so if i have to pray and minister to a person there's a number of ways if you you can just say oh god just show me and just wait for something to happen that's one way or you can use your imagination a little bit and just reach into different areas now for most people in their life there's not a lot of areas that they would have a struggle if you think about it if i was to look and to just look say back through caroline to her family background she could have a struggle with her father and mother in the family so if i was just to mentally just look this had been a struggle there yes or no no i don't feel anything okay so i think well that's all right then so if she's a married person then i might look is this someone on the right the the person standing next to him is there a struggle there no all right that's okay all right are there children i look down because there's offspring so look is there some issue there that there's a trouble no all right then so what other areas are left well is there trouble in the body just look at her is there an area of sickness or struggle going on no right then so then we look then what other areas are there well is it work related or is it finance related relationship related or ministry it's not so many areas we've covered most areas of a person's life now so if i just mentally just stop and look and while i'm listening i'm just meeting around is there any one of those i'm drawn to then i may just find a draw to one of them and so i'll just stop for a moment and if i feel the draw there then there's something going on there that i need to be able to get a word from god for okay so it's not such a hard thing so if i just can i practice on you great stuff and so bearing in mind i've got to dismiss anything i might know and now just begin to look into the lord so holy spirit you just know everything about caroline you know lord where her life is at at this point and lord you can just reveal things that you want to help her and encourage it so lord i'm just asking you well just show me where there's any area of struggle so i'll just start to mentally now do what i'm going to do just go looking in each area just mentally reaching in to see if god will show me something so i reach in the background i don't feel god quickly there could be an issue or something but not god's not wanting to do that today so i don't have to worry i'm not trying to make something happen i'm just looking and inquiring i'm just an observer listening for god see so i could reach in there is there anything there no reaching and then marriage no there's nothing there reaching then any children no there's nothing there so then what other areas oh and i just become conscious of a hand and i'm thinking finance i could look around all the other areas man i might just stop there and say oh just stop thank you lord and i sense that's a struggle area so i could say lord what is the struggle and what do you want to say to help her in this area there could be other areas of struggle so we can pray for two or three people and you may pick up all people pick up all kinds of different things but this is not about knowing a problem it's about loving a person it's not about being nosy it's about finding a way that to bring god to them in their struggle because when you have a struggle you get preoccupied with it it overwhelms you it gets out of perspective and you feel alone and so if you identify a struggle a person has even if you don't go into all the details of it then and you bring something from god it can bring tremendous comfort right then so father i just thank you well what i sensed was there's a struggle around finances though there's not enough and as though it seems like there's never been enough and it's been quite a difficult situation for you to manage because in your heart you don't feel there's enough for you god wants you to know that he is your source and supply that you can trust in him have you ever gone without have you ever gone in lack or need have you ever suffered lord says i've always been there to provide for you and i know the pressure and difficulty you're feeling right now but the lord says i will help you i will give you victory in this area that's been a struggle for you i will help you come from the place of struggle into the place of rest and the place of abundance the lord says in me there is always more than enough all right now i'm going to go a little further because i feel god wants to help her wants to minister to her so you notice we've just touched an area i didn't go and expose all kinds of details or anything but there's enough has come for me to be aware god wants to comfort and help her in the midst of the struggle now you notice what i said with struggles there's also a lot of emotion and pain in it but with this particular struggle i feel a spirit has come against her to continually tell her there's not enough there's something has rested on her so even in good times and when there was enough there's never been enough see it doesn't matter how wealthy you are if there's a spirit sits on you and your heart believes it's not enough there's not enough because you can't see this enough you just can't see it you're in torment all the time and then as the wrestling goes on so what god's given you you can't enjoy because of the torment so i found that people enter into peace not because of how much they have but because they find contentment in their heart and learn to live within the framework that god has given them godliness and contentment's tremendous gain so let me just pray thank you lord now this has come over you long time ago this came over you when you're a young girl it came over you in the midst of turmoil it's come around your life through your mother and god wants to help you today wants to break the belief there's not enough for me he wants you to see that he's a god of abundance and will help you in every situation father in the name of the lord jesus christ i break the ungodly belief that there's not enough for me i break the ungodly belief of financial failure and poverty i come against fear and the spirit of poverty right now in jesus name let your presence and peace just come over her life thank you lord there it is god just touching you now just bring rest around your life jesus mighty name thank you lord holy ghost just stay there and just enjoy him now did you notice all i did was just start to just look waiting listening on god to give me some if he doesn't give anything that's okay i'm not going to nose it's just i have a heart to love the person to help them and so because of that we're willing to just look and reach into god for something for the person now sometimes god can just drop it in and you didn't even do any of that but i'm trying to provide for you a an approach that you can grow in this gift area you understand that actively pursuing is always a vital part of it and so i just looked back around the parents spouse children finance work relationships ministry is there any of those areas and that pretty all covers everything and and so in the midst of looking like that god can just cause you to be drawn to something feel a struggle around a relationship we'll wonder what the struggle is or what the relationship is and as you you don't have to get all the details but if you get a little bit of detail then now you've opened up the person and god what does god want to do to help them amen bless you how was that for you um yes of course i didn't say anything about that area but should you please right so this is obviously and what shared is in line with what god is speaking to you about this area in your life right now yeah that is wonderful no great [Laughter] and hence today [Laughter] well thank you for your honesty let's give her a clap and just appreciate it remember the minister of the spirit is always gentle and loving he said so when paul is writing about the gifts of the spirit in romans 12 and romans 14 in the middle of it he stops and he said you have to be loving of all things be loving or this is very empty and doesn't represent what christ is like so the power ministry is wonderful but we have to be loving of people honoring of people valuing people in the flow of the ministry so we don't do things that would embarrass them and you can word things in ways that are not embarrassing i could just say well you know do you have a struggle or is there a difficulty in your life in this area is there something going on and just put it in the form of a question or if god spoke to you more clearly you may just put it i feel this uh so god has got to show you and we'll talk about that when we get to words of wisdom so why don't you all have a try and have a practice how about that oh that's very excited respondent are they so what we'll do for this one here what we're going to do is this i'd like you just in this time instead of all of you just going at your own pace and right we've let it free run i'd like us just to do it as a just a step by step so what i'll do is i'll encourage you where to look otherwise you just get then you can't remember everything all right you know and where to go so what i'll do is we're just going to do it step by step and i'll guide you and all i want you to do is just be open to the lord and if you feel a draw around something just identify it and that's it that's all you need that's my one you know there may be others but you won't worry about those the one you feel that that's the draw on or that's the yeah i feel something draws me over that one that's the one you just hold in your mind and then we'll ask the lord for what to say okay all right then so get him here especially with someone you don't know okay let's get in piers you can come out the front here over the sides okay all right now i want you just to do this uh if you're watching this on internet you can just follow it through step by step just leave the volume on and the picture on and you can walk through it step by step and then later on turn it all off and just try it without me guiding you in it so but for this session we're going to just guide you step by step okay so the first thing is of course what we've done smile and look at the person can i practice on you give a very positive response okay all right then now uh you may know a little bit about the person uh please just push aside all you know because if you look in that area of what you know you'll just have turmoil you've got to be listening for god you're listening for the impression of the holy spirit so let's just begin to pray quietly and just worship god just for just for a little moment there just begin to worship the lord kobaba sikhala bharata thank you lord we thank you lord we love you lord we thank you know everything about this person you love them deeply and you're so willing to help them right where they are right now okay now just go quiet i want you to look with me there's the person standing in front of you it looked like you were looking behind them and in the background behind them their parents the father the mother is there a problem there between the parents or with the father with the mother do you sense something there all right then now just look to the left of that person maybe there's a spouse maybe there's an issue in a relationship is there a difficulty or a challenge there yes or no do you feel a draw there what is that problem then look like you're looking down at the feet of their children is there a problem in family challenge something that's creating difficulties now look over to the right of the person their workplace what they do is there a challenge they're experiencing i just look at the person again is there a problem in their body is there some struggle that they're having internally is there a difficulty in a relationship then look upward are they having a struggle in their walk with god perhaps you've felt something there i'll just go back through them again and and as i go through them if you feel a draw on one of these just stop and then what is the struggle lord how do you want me what do you want to say to them to share with them is it a problem in their background with their father or their mother their family is there a problem with a spouse is there a problem in the family is there a struggle in some relationship is there a struggle at work financially is there a struggle in their ministry is there a struggle inside themselves what is the struggle now lord give me something to encourage them so just begin very simply well i just felt an impression that there's a struggle going on in this part of your life may it be it's this just be quite gentle and easily entreated over it and then share what god has given you and share what god is saying to encourage the person let's just do it and see what god does okay first one begin to share fail ugh i get change over so the other one's shared so guys okay let's close our sharing and let's get some feedback how it went all right then okay just sit down for a moment let's just see what how people got on how many uh the person how many people had this experience they identified exactly an area of struggle that you had how many had that experience personally identified very clearly that was very good how many of you found it was a struggle to get that one so yeah because a bit more specific you're reaching into an area that's okay okay how many of you were deeply touched by what we shared with you it really helped you well that's wonderful come on give yourselves a clap then very very good [Applause] well done well done okay so you can see that you approach it within where focus is on jesus and we are listening and observing and seeking to find something that's the spirit that you work in it's a one of inquiry and observing and then sharing what god has given you quite it's not not um over the top or way out there it's quite gentle flow of the spirit you can break everyone can practice these things so i'm going to share with you we'll have a coffee break shortly i want to share with you a little bit on the word of wisdom and then we'll have a break for afternoon tea so you've done very very well so the word of wisdom that's section 15 in your notes wisdom is a great gift wisdom is knowing what to do wisdom is knowing what to do and when to do it and how to do it wisdom is knowing what to do when to do it how to do it so we face many challenges in life and a ministry when you're working to minister to someone if god gives you a word of knowledge you need wisdom to know what to do with it if god wish you prophecy you need wisdom to know what to do with it god gives you discernment you need wisdom to know what to do with it so the wisdom is a very important gift to get and word of wisdom doesn't to get a word of wisdom does not make you a wise person you are wise for five minutes that's it i'm sorry and it doesn't stick because five minutes later you can be very foolish so the word of wisdom does not make you a wise person does not make you a spiritual person it means someone smarter than you shared with you something very smart that's really what it's all it is someone who was very wise shared with you something that was surprisingly wise and appropriate so the word of wisdom is just it's an it's a revelation from the lord what to do in a certain situation when to do it and how to do it remember i shared with you story about buying a gift for my grandmother only god could have known what to get and what would do the trick only he knew and so listening to him i was able to get wisdom and get an outcome that far surpassed anything i could naturally do so we need words of wisdom so to one is given the word of wisdom through the spirit it's the first one mentioned in the list of the gifts of the spirit is the word of wisdom it is a great gift to pursue god give me wisdom to know what to do in james 1 it says if any man lacks wisdom let him ask of god who gives freely to all men but let him ask in faith not doubting for he that doubts is like the waves just tossed this way in that way so if you're going to ask god for wisdom expect him to give it to you and then you've got to step out that what he's given to you is right thing to do and the right way to do it the right time to do it okay then so that's the word of wisdom so wisdom works uh uh on how to do it shows you what god wants you to do how he wants you to go about doing it uh how to resolve the situation sometimes solutions of uh sometimes problems you know are really messy and sometimes you try and you can't seem to fix it you've got to ask god for a word of wisdom god what do you want me to do and then be happy to trust that that's actually the right thing to do and leave it at that sometimes we can be in so much turmoil ourselves we just want to get everything right so we feel better and god will just say no i want you to leave it be for the moment i'll work on it myself and then i'll show you when you need to step up and do something and so i found some situations i haven't known what to do and haven't been able to do it and actually attempts to do it have made it worse if someone just left it to the lord and said god show me what to do and when to do it then he'll suddenly just now move now act now speak now this is the time to say something and when that happens don't miss it you don't miss that moment that's the important moment so how to pray for a person someone tells you their problems think oh my goodness what do i do lord i need wisdom what to do show me how to pray because what they ask for may not be what you really need to be praying about that's the dilemma people come and if you tell them what's your need or what is your problem they'll fill you with so much stuff they already have lost their way and they're trying to get you to also lose your way by telling you all the problems what you really need is i've learned now when people come for prayer say don't tell me all your problem just what is it you're believing god for what do you need from god and that forces people out of i'm full of problems to looking for solutions and uh so for example if if you go to mcdonald's and line up at mcdonald's and they say what do you want you just stand there so i don't know you know whatever you feel to give me yeah that's sort of nonsense isn't it really so when so oh and you guys suppose you go to mcdonald's to stand in line up there and they say what do you want you begin to talk about how hungry you are and how long it is since you've had your last meal and you start to you know they're going to get bored with all that so just tell me what you need you know and so when you come to an altar call or someone's come up for prayer and you ask what do you want and they say oh whatever god wants for me well he wants lots of things for you but if you don't know them specifically you probably won't get any of them and people don't like that answer but it's actually very true sounds very spiritual or whatever god wants actually if we know what god wants for us we can ask specifically and believe to receive it if we have that kind of attitude whatever he wants to give it's passivity and full of unbelief it'll produce nothing you don't realize that so that's why jesus many times in the gospels ask people what do you want the blind man comes up now hello what's up with jesus you know there's a blind man like this and you what do you want hello i know i can't see [Laughter] but you can you get the idea but jesus was wanting to verbalize what he was looking for so many times jesus asked the person what you want so he made them express their need or their faith he made them give voice to what they wanting from him so when you're ministering to people it's helpful if they tell you what they want what they're believing god for or looking to god to do and you may not have all the answers but at least you're focused on the solution not all the problems having said that there are some counselling issues that people need help to pull their problem apart and find out what it's rooted in and sort that out and without knowing that you can't deal with it so um but it just helps if you can keep people in the faith mode so the word of wisdom is what do we do in 2 samuel 5 22 to 25 david was the was anointed king and immediately he was anointed king the philistines rose up to go out to battle and they want to kill him and so he his immediate response was this he put on his armor put on his sword got the army together went out to fight then when he slowed down a bit he said lord do you want me to fight should i go into this battle and two questions lord and notice the simple and they both actually have a yes no answer lord should i fight this battle yes or no god says yes see the second question will i win the battle yes so i said then how do you want me to do it and he showed him how to do it that is a word of wisdom what to do when to do it next time he comes back they come back again he defeats them routes them out gets rid of their idols they come back a little while later back into a new battle so now the tendency is to think like this oh all the philistines i know how to deal with them i've already won one victory i'll do it this way leaning on your experience rather than leaning on the holy spirit he was not like that he went god what do you want me to do god said don't do it the same way this is how you do it this way you wait go around behind the trees and ambush them from behind when i set it up for you so that is a word of wisdom what to do when to do it how to do it so you'll find many situations in marriage family ministry work you don't know what to do you need a word of wisdom what to do when to do it and how to do it noah got a word of wisdom god showed him to build an ark god revealed what's about to come gave him a prophetic word there's going to be rain what's rain lord did they have any rain is it okay let me put it to you this way if there was a ground to stand on the whole place can be covered in water he said well what do i do build an ark so showed him what to do gave him the pattern and how to do it that's wisdom it's a wisdom from god so think about this jesus was out there with a group of uh the the religious leaders they bought a woman caught in adultery she's caught in the very act now she's caught in the act where's the man they caught them in the act i mean they're caught in the act there's got to be two of them where's the guy so there's a hypocrisy here where they're judging the woman and they're trying to set jesus up so they bring the woman to jesus and say jesus moses law said she's been caught in adultery we caught her in the act there's no doubt about the crime moses law said she shall be stoned to death what do you say now it was a set up from the beginning because if he said or most lord said stone to their stoner to death then they said whoa what kind of loving preachers this man he's hard well we don't even do that you know we let him off from time to time too so they do that if he said oh let them off they say oh well he's against moses law mosel very clears what needs to happen if jesus is against the law he's eroding the law we need to put him or put him away and kill him you see the trap religious spirits will always try to set up this or that right or wrong yes or no god has got a hundred ways through it and so when you're trapped in a right and wrong yes or no jesus never never went either way he found a different way through it word of wisdom so jesus in this case didn't even answer them he just carried on writing in the sand while he's right in the sand he's saying father what do you want me to say what do i say word of wisdom drops and said okay guys you're right that's what the law says whoever's got no sin cast the first stone he's carried on writing now he stunned them because now they're trapped sure that's what the law says stoner okay if you've got no sin you go and throw the stone really no sin they walk away their own conscience convicted and they know what they're up to and they and there's no way if they came out and did that someone would expose it there's no way they're going to go so they set up the trap and he snapped them and then he turned the woman said where are your accusers i don't see anyone no they say i don't accuse you either go away don't sin anymore. so he didn't minimize the issue of sin it's just he didn't judge her son of man's not come to judge come to save so he doesn't he didn't judge her he just said this is destructive in your life don't do this you know you need to change your lifestyle change what you do don't sin anymore so that's a word of wisdom so there are many situations we need a word of wisdom and uh so get me i'll give me a few practical things just on the word of wisdom first one is don't be impulsive in making decisions don't be impulsive in making decisions impulsiveness inevitably ends up with a disaster or some kind of problem second thing is don't act under pressure of people or circumstances don't react because people are pressuring you or circumstances of pressuring you soul did that in 1 samuel 13 cost him his whole leadership because he so blew it by responding to pressure so ask the lord for wisdom lord what should i do or we talk to you about experiencing things of the kingdom how you need to have the attitude of child father what do i do i don't know what to do help me to know what to do give me an insight how i should respond and what should i do and when should i do it and so we just have a simple thing and you may just suddenly see a picture of what you need to do it can drop in like a picture drop in as a thought drop it as an idea and you suddenly you don't know how you know you just know exactly what you need to do and when you know what to do peace comes the problem isn't solved but you are at peace because now you have wisdom you know what to do so word of wisdom is an important gift to seek after because in every situation where you're ministering have needs or whatever it gives you direction from the holy spirit what to do it comes as a picture impression thought inspired idea and you might just be reading and suddenly something leaps up and you've got it a word of wisdom from god just exactly what to do you might even be listening someone speak and they're speaking on one thing and in the middle of it you just hear i know exactly what to do might even be having a shower in the middle of shower whoop i know exactly what to do you might just be lying down resting as you're going to sleep more often it happens when you wake up you go to bed asking the lord what to do wake up i know what to do because your spirit stayed working through the night so that's all it is it's just what to do when to do it how to do it and it comes as a picture and impression and it makes a huge difference the biggest issue is we tend to react to circumstances and people rather than waiting and leaning on god for wisdom what to do here's a simple typical example jesus uh had his had a very close friend called lazarus john chapter 11 and lazarus was sick and they said your friend is dying he did nothing he said excuse me jesus your friend is dying to hear the word dying and nothing and then a third time you know jesus he is nearly dead so this pressure in other words the implication is you're his friend some kind of friend you are you could heal him and you won't so you see the pressure that brings but jesus refused to respond and then he got a freedom he saw what the father was doing this is not going to end with death it's going to end with glory there's a resurrection coming so when he got there already the family were offended because they expected them to come straight away this is their friend jesus and he didn't help what is that about but he had a word of wisdom and he was able to bring a much greater miracle into that situation a resurrection so so pressures of people and circumstances can lean you into having to operate in the flesh rather than just lean into god and say i can wait until god speaks to me what to do it's so important to really desire of all things seek wisdom wisdom knowing the right thing to do the right time this is one of the biggest and best gifts to have solomon when he was given an opportunity for everything riches and whatever he said i have one thing give me a heart that hears and wisdom to know what to do and god said boy you asked that was a great request i'll give you that i'm going to give you everything else that you didn't ask for as well because if you have a hearing heart and wisdom you can handle all the other things okay this will take a break now let's have a break for uh about half an hour and then after that we'll come in and we'll look at faith miracles and healing that'll be great

Channel: Mike Connell

Views: 67,427

Rating: 4.8766232 out of 5

Keywords: discerning of spirits, revelation, word of wisdom, word of word of knowledge, supernatural gift, information, insight, Holy Spirit, identify demonic activity, knowledge God gives you, God reveals, fortune-telling, tongues, divination, possessed, spirit of judgement, spiritism, witchcraft, occult, wisdom from God, inspired writing, inspired picture, inspired thought, inspired prayer, impression, spirit of divination, spirit of infirmity, python spirit

Id: 1iuOs5Q9sh4

Length: 96min 45sec (5805 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 05 2013