My husband was studying yesterday and had this
scripture. I was like, I'm starting it out
with that because that's this is where it's at for Romans 111 and
12 says for I long or I earnestly desire to see you that
I may impart to you some spiritual gift and and literally
there. We're not talking about the
gifts of the Spirit. It's just talking about I'm
longing to be here this morning with you, to do the will of God,
to follow the Holy Ghost, so that you may be established.
That is, that I may be, that I may be encouraged together with
you by the mutual faith, both of you and me, that we would be
established this morning. That means that we would be
fixed, that we would understand, and that we would be steadfast
in this. Now, if you're a first time
guest, we are ministering on spiritual gifts the whole month
of September. We started this off with being
hungry and learning how to earnestly desire spiritual
gifts, how to be filled with the Spirit, how to stay filled with
the Holy Ghost, how to be hungry.
You know, we've got to be a body that's hungry.
And I believe you are hungry. Actually this morning I believe
we did come hungry, but all month we're doing these.
There are 9 gifts of the Spirit and we laid some foundation that
first week. And if you don't know when you
get born again, we understand your spirit is made brand new
and the Holy Ghost comes to live on the inside of you and and
within you, you can cultivate the 9 fruits of the spirit which
is love and joy and peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.
We used to sing a kid song. Don't be a coconut.
I won't sing it for you, but it was, it was about the fruits of
the Spirit. Something about it.
Don't be a coconut, but be but bear the fruits of the Spirit
instead. OK, so when you're born again,
you ought to be bearing those fruits.
But then when you get the baptism of the Holy Ghost, that
is the endowment of power from on high, there are 9 gifts or
spirituals or things of the Spirit that you can operate in.
And then we should be operating in, we're going to see today
that in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, everywhere,
the gifts of the Spirit were in operation.
Why are they not in operation as much today?
I think because sometimes there's two, there can be two
extremes. People that get off and get
kooky and get weird about spiritual things, and then
people that just are so afraid because they don't want to be
kooky and they don't want to yield to the gifts of the
Spirit. But you know, it'd be good if we
just stick right here where we're supposed to be and go with
Scripture and make sure we're doing what the Scripture says,
earnestly desiring those things. And then and then Pastor last
week, he talked about the three power gifts, which was the gift
of faith, gifts of healings and workings of miracles.
And so you understand, and we'll talk about it, The gift of faith
that is a spiritual gift. All of these that we're talking
about is not the same as your everyday faith.
Your everyday faith is you live by faith.
But this gift of faith is a supernatural endowment of, of a
supernatural resting faith that'll cause you to do or
perform something miraculous. And all of these gifts of the
Spirit are that way. They're all that way.
But today we're going to talk about the revelation gifts.
And the revelation gifts are the Word of Wisdom, the Word of
knowledge and discerning of spirits.
Now we're going to jump into all three of these, but I've got to
set some foundation first, OK, before we talk about it.
And we're going to look at examples.
And I'm trusting the Holy Ghost. The Lord already spoke to me in
the shower about one thing we needed to do, and we'll just
trust Him the rest of the way. Amen.
So let's read. Let's start out in First
Corinthians chapter 12 and let's read that and then we're going
to lay some foundation, it says in verse one.
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to
be what? Ignorant.
We're not going to be ignorant of these spiritual gifts.
I do not want you to be ignorant.
You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb
idols. However you were led.
Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the
Spirit of God calls Jesus a cursed, and no one can say that
Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord,
and there are diversities of activities, but it is the same
God who works All in all. But the manifestation of the
Spirit is given to each one for the prophet of all, for to one
is given the Word of wisdom. We're going to talk about that
today. Through the Spirit to another,
the word of knowledge, through the same Spirit and to another
faith, by the same spirit, to another gifts of healings, by
the same Spirit to another working of miracles, to another
prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, and to another,
different kinds of tongues, to another, the interpretation of
tongues. But one and the same Spirit
works all these things, distributing to each one
individually as He wills. Now, one of the main things
we've got to understand about these spiritual gifts is that
it's as He wills. I can't just decide I'm going to
do a word of knowledge. I can't just decide I'm going to
have a word of wisdom. I can't just decide that a a
miracle's going to take place or gifts of healings.
It is as he wills, but we we learned the first week how we
can be in a posture, a position to be ready and eagerly
desiring. I can't tell you how many
hospital visits I've been on where I've said, Lord, I
earnestly desire spiritual gifts.
If you desire to move in the gifts of the Spirit, I am ready.
I'm ready, and we've got to posture our hearts to be ready.
So in First Corinthians chapter 12, he distinguishes between
gifts, ministries, and operations.
And we understand that that word gifts was added.
So that word gifts is really actually not in the original
text. So it really should say,
brethren, now when he's talking to you concerning spirituals are
concerning things of the Spirit, which is my favorite.
That's the way I like to say it concerning things of the Spirit
because they're not all gifts. Some of them are ministries,
some of them are administrations, some of them
do. Some of them say they're
different gifts, but the Scripture says they profit
everybody. They profit everybody involved
in the gift. So 2 important things when a
gift is in manifestation is that Jesus will be glorified and the
body will benefit, or if you do them outside of here, the person
that receives it will benefit from it.
Now remember the Holy Ghost upon you is for service.
Remember we talked about that. So, so for service, these 9
manifestations of the Spirit are really for outside of here,
therefore here and we can operate in them here.
And actually tongues, interpretation of tongues and
prophecy are the main three that operate in the church, But the
the other six really mainly would be happening outside of
here. You know, how do, how do we
trust that the community that people we encounter all the time
are going to believe in the power of God?
It's because we walk in it and we demonstrate it and we can
give a word of knowledge if the Holy Ghost wills, and we can
give a word of wisdom, or we can operate in gifts of the Spirit
in any kind of way as a Holy Spirit draws us to do that.
So I want to tell you, I want to share this with you.
I believe when we began, our pastors are led by the Holy
Ghost. And when we began this series,
we didn't even realize the influx of guests that we would
have that showed up on that first Sunday and the wave of the
Spirit that began to move. And when we were in prayer
Monday or Tuesday night, I remember seeing that this move
of the Holy Ghost in this wave that He wants to do through us.
It's not about who's up here. It's about you and it's about
you operating in these gifts, and it's about you being led by
the Spirit outside of here. It's about you the, the, the
word that that he spoke. It's about you having knowledge
when you need it and wisdom when you need it or a word when you
need it. And this is the move of God.
Not that not that we can just come up here and fall out in the
spirit. Not that we can just do that,
but that we can have the preaching of the word because
after the preaching of the word, signs and wonders and miracles
should follow that. And so you've got to be just as
engaged as we dive in because sometimes I, this has happened
for me. You hear the word of God and
something goes off in you and you got to run or do something.
I remember when I was at Rhema, I'm going to share some personal
stories. Actually, my son is here and he
didn't know I was ministering today.
I said, oh, good, I can talk about you because I was going
to. I love to talk about him.
But when I was at Rhema, I remember I was in my little, I
drove a little Mazda Miata that had a broken door.
And so in at Rhema we used to have to wear pantyhose and, and
you know, get all dressed up all the time.
So when I went to school every day and I, I had to crawl over
my stick shift and crawl out of the car and get my little self
together. And it wasn't cute.
It wasn't cute. But he liked me still.
So it's all good. But I was at Raymond, I went
home one night and I was listening to Brother Hagin.
And he was talking about, it was a Casting Your Care series, I
think. And he was talking about how
we're seated at the table. And I'm just saying this to you
because the word should be that alive to you that that when you
hear the word, it's like glory to God, yes, that that something
goes off in you, I in your spirit.
Not just that we could do it during worship or, or if we have
a, a healing line or baptism of the Holy Ghost or a refreshing
or what not just here, but that the word is alive in you.
So back to my story. So I was in my car, pulled up to
my apartment, and he was talking about sitting at the table and
grabbing a big bowl of victory. But pass me the the joy.
Pass me the big bowl of joy. And I was sitting there and I
was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then next thing you know, my
door was open. And I took his pitch black dark.
And I took off running down the street all by myself, All by
myself. I didn't care.
It was alive in me. And I was like, this is good.
Yes, I love this. And that's what the Word should
do in you. So let's get into it, OK?
You know, Lester Sumar all said this about the gifts of the
Spirit. He said he believes that the
gifts of the Spirit will be part of the last day revival.
They will be so sensitive to the Holy Ghost that we can yield
quickly. And that's why as a body, we've
got to learn how to take dominion in our own personal
lives. To understand that, wow, this
isn't about me. This actually isn't about me.
And then I can go outside of here and yield to the Holy Ghost
easily for you because God loves you.
He's going to speak to you for you, for your finances, for your
brokenness, for your hard things that you walk through, for your
mountain that's standing in front of you.
He'll talk to you about those things.
He's such a good loving father and he'll do those kind of
things. But man, it gets exciting when
you start getting the victory in in those things.
And then you can start given out the victory.
You can start giving out the bowl of joy.
You can start giving out the bowl of peace or whatever it is
because it's in you. It's in you.
OK Matthew chapter 16. I don't have it for them.
I just want to say this. And Simon Peter answered and
said thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are thou Simon
Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to to you, but
my Father, which is in heaven. And I say unto thee that thou
art Peter. And upon this rock I will build
my church. And this is the part I just
wanted to ignite you with real quick.
And the gates of hell will not prevail against the church no
matter what's happening in these last days, no matter what you
see, no matter what you watch on the news.
And you ought to guard your your ears and your eye, your eye
gate, your ear gate, everything that you're hearing and
watching. But no matter what you see, the
Bible says the gates of hell will not prevail against the
church. Nothing can stop the move of
God. Nothing can stop the move of the
church in the last days. Not one thing.
So you better get in. You better not be hanging out on
the fringe or straddling the fence.
You better not be hanging out over here still wanting to do
your do your little stuff when the Holy Ghost is talking to
you, when the Holy Ghost is saying I told you to let that
go, man. If you only knew the freedom
that's on the other side of letting it go.
If you only knew the freedom for you, If you just let go of those
things that keep you in a stronghold, they keep you in the
things that you're in. Things need to be broken.
Things are going to be broken today.
I believe it in Jesus name. If I can get to this message,
we're going to do it. In Daniel it says those who know
their God will do great exploits.
Great. Are we doing great exploits?
Are we set up for that? Are we believing God for that
man? OK, this is exciting.
Now I want to say something about First Corinthians chapter
212 that we just read. If you go on to read after, he's
talking about the gifts of the Spirit.
If you go on to read, he's talking about unity and love and
those that's the foundation we got to start with real quick.
The two components that must be in operation as we begin to
operate in the gifts of the Spirit are unity and love.
Unity and love has to be in position, has to be in place.
And so if we keep reading in verse 12, it says just as a
body, though one has many parts, but all its many parts form 1
body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by 1
spirit so as to form 1 body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slave
or free, And we were all given the one spirit to drink.
And so the body is not made-up of one part, but many.
And then if you jump down to verse 31, it says now eagerly
desire greater. The greater gifts are the best
gifts. And we understand as we learn
about these spiritual gifts, the best one is the one that's
needed at the time. That's the best one.
And then he goes on to say, and yet I'll show you a more
excellent way. So what is this more excellent
way? In First Corinthians 14 and in
verse one, in the beginning it says, pursue love and desire
spiritual gifts. So we can't just come up in here
going, I'm earnestly desiring spiritual gifts or go to our
work. I'm earnestly desiring spiritual
gift, yet you ain't right with your brother and you're not
right with your sister in Christ.
Love is first. Love is the foundation and
unity. They have to be part of this.
It says pursue love 1st and desire spiritual gifts.
And what is the chapter that sandwiched in between 1st
Corinthians 12 and 1st Corinthians 1413?
And we all know First Corinthians.
Here we go. 1st Corinthians 13 is the love chapter.
I'm going to read it. Verses 4 through 8 though, I
speak. I'm going to start a little bit
before that though. I speak with the tongues of men
and of angels, but have not love.
I have become a sounding brass or a clanging symbol.
And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all
mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that
I could remove mountains, but I have not love.
I am nothing. And though I bestow all, I have
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but I
have not love. It profits me nothing.
Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy.
It does not parade itself. It is not puffed up.
It does not behave rudely. It does not seek its own.
It's not provoked. It thinks no evil.
It does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
endures all things. Love never fails, but where
there is prophecies, they will fail.
Whether there are tongues, they will cease.
Whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
But love never fails. It's the first.
It's the first thing, and your faith won't even work without
it. Love is the foundation of your
faith. Ephesians chapter 4.
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk
worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all
lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one
another in love, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called
in one hope. Of your calling, 1 Lord, 1
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all
and through all, and in you all. Now when it says bearing with
one another, that means to hold each other up.
In other words, I got you. We support each other, we're for
each other, we love each other, we encourage each other, we
highlight each other's gifts because we're all a different
part of the body and we need each part.
I remember when I dislocated my pinky toe and I dislocated it on
the Princess table at my house when the girls were little and I
was walking to open the blinds in the morning and somehow my
pinky toe got caught just right on that table and it was
shooting to China or somewhere. It was shooting somewhere and,
and so it was completely sideways.
I had socks on. I could see that.
And so I was like, oh, wow. And it hurt.
It hurt, but nothing hurt worse than Miss Evelyn putting it back
in place. That made me cry.
That was the worst. I don't know why it's worth
putting it back in place or if it was Miss Evelyn's fault.
Was it your fault? I don't know, it hurt.
My point I'm going to get, oh, it hurt.
I'm getting all focused on it. My point though, is that P, that
toe, that piece of my body that was shooting sideways, man, I
knew it. I knew it was out of place.
It hurt. It wasn't right.
I needed it back where it belonged.
And that's how it is with you. Just think of my pinky toe.
When you start getting sideways and you're thinking, just think
about, just think about it. I want you to because I need you
to just think about that toe. You just think about that when
you're getting crooked, OK? You just remember you have a
place in the body, and He's placed you where it pleases Him
not, not you. So don't get ahead of Him.
The Bible says your gifts make room for you and you just got to
take that first step, whatever that is, and jump in.
OK, Psalms 133 Behold how good and how pleasant it is for
brethren to dwell together in unity.
It is like the precious oil upon the head running down on the
beard, the beard of Aaron running down on the edge of his
garments. It's like the dew of Herman
descending upon the mountains of Zion for listen.
For there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore.
In other in other words, where there's unity, there's blessing.
That's where God commands the blessing, where there's unity.
So we've got to be all joined, all fitted.
And you know that word unity actually means all alike.
So look at your neighbor and say you're just like me.
I saw some of your faces. You're thinking your heart ain't
right. You're thinking, Nope.
They they're not like me. He's not like me.
She's not like you ain't right. We'll have an altar call for you
at the end. You're not right.
OK, love. Love, unity, unity, such a big
deal. Now as we begin to operate and
yield and see the supernatural, we got to talk about one more
thing. One more thing.
The Bible says to test everything.
OK, First Thessalonians chapter 5, verses 19 through 21 says do
not quench the spirit, do not despise prophecies.
Listen, test all things, hold fast to that which is good.
We've got to test all things. This is important as things
begin to happen in the church, that we have proper discernment,
that we know what is right according to Scripture, that we
know what bears witness with our spirit.
First John chapter 4 verse one says, beloved, listen beloved,
do not believe every spirit, do not believe every spirit, but
test the spirits, whether they are from God.
So as things begin to happen in the church, we need to make sure
that we're always in a position to to look to.
I'm not talking about being critical.
I'm not talking about quenching the Holy Ghost and despising
what God is doing. God is going to do some things
in our church that are not going to look perfect, may look a
little sloppy sometimes It may be like that sometimes.
I'm not talking about being critical.
I'm talking about judging according to the word of God and
the Holy Ghost. What's right?
So the scripture tells us to prove it, test it, judge it by
the word and the Spirit of God. Now I want to tell you this,
there's three sources of of the way things can come.
It's something can come through the Spirit of God.
Something can come through the flesh or it could come through a
wrong spirit. And there's a difference.
You know, the Bible says many people are drawn away by their
flesh. Not and always some people think
it might be a spirit or demonic thing.
No, sometimes it's just your flesh and sometimes it just
means you need to get control of your flesh all the time.
Actually, it means that you need to get control of your flesh.
But but it's going to be one of those three things.
The Holy Ghost is moving, God is moving through the word and the
Spirit. Or it could be a wrong spirit,
or it could be the flesh. Not everybody who quotes
scripture and says it's God is right.
Not everyone. Remember the devil tempted Jesus
and he quoted scripture. Was he right?
No, he wasn't right. You know, I remember, I'll give
you, I'm going to give you several stories today.
When I was at Rhema, I had somebody come to me and tell me,
and this was somebody that was in ministry at the church before
I went to Rhema. And they came and and up to
Tulsa and had a meeting with me and sat across from me and said,
I believe you're supposed to be my wife.
God spoke to me, you're supposed to be my wife.
And he already had gone to my dad and spoken to my dad.
And I was totally taken aback. And I was like, well, God's
going to have to tell me. And that's what I told him.
And I walked away from that meeting going, it ain't right.
That was not that was a wrong spirit is what that was.
And so everybody that thinks they hear from God doesn't mean
it's God. So you shouldn't believe
everything unless you test it and you test it according to the
word and you test it according to the the Spirit of God.
Remember the, the slave girl that was possessed with the
spirit of divination that kept going to Paul and, and saying
these men are servants of the most high God, these men.
And she just kept saying it, You know, people in the church that
don't have discernment would be like, oh, that's so nice.
Oh, that's so great. Oh, yay, she's glorifying God.
But Paul got irritated because she was of a wrong spirit.
And the Scripture says he turned and looked at the Spirit and
told it to go. And so you need to understand
not everything that's quoting and and shouting and, you know,
saying it's of God. Not everything's right.
And so we need to have enough wisdom and enough knowledge of
the word of God to go set me right with that.
That don't seem right to me. You know, that's the number one
way the Holy Ghost will lead you is by bearing witness on the
inside of you. So, so you can say, no, that
doesn't seem right or oh, that does seem right.
And that's how he'll lead you and guide you.
Now. Acts chapter.
No, I don't want to go to Acts. Let's jump into we are going to
go to Acts. Let's jump into these revelation
gifts, the Word of Wisdom, Word of knowledge and discerning of
spirits. I want to start with the word of
Wisdom. Are y'all taking notes today?
Good. The Word of Wisdom is defined as
supernatural revelation of the mind and purpose of God
communicated by the Holy Spirit. Supernatural revelation of the
mind and purpose of God, communicated by the Holy Spirit.
In other words, it's God's wisdom imparted to man.
A word of wisdom always speaks of the future.
Always. It's supernatural revelation of
things that are to come, concerning the world, concerning
cities, concerning your personal life.
A word of wisdom is something that would be not happened yet,
and God can give you a word of wisdom personally through a
dream, through an Angel, through a person, through a pastor, you
can get a word of wisdom. Now I want to give you a couple
of examples of word of wisdom. Joseph in Genesis 37, verses 5
through 11. Remember, Joseph had a dream,
Joseph had a dream and he went to his brothers and he went to
his dad and he shared his dream that he would rule, that he was
going to be in a position to rule over them, which was
accurate. I'm not sure if it was super
wise for him to to share that. And that's another thing.
And I remember learning that when I was in Bible college that
when God tells you something, it's not always for you to go
shouting it from the mountain tops.
If he tells you something about somebody to pray, you know,
something you have discernment about, or he tells you something
about your life, you know, it's a major red flag when somebody
says, I believe I'm going to be the next Joyce Meyer or
whatever. You know, when people have to
announce it, then you're probably not going to be that,
probably not because you know, in the in the last days, the
Bible talks about people being lovers of themselves.
And you know, that happens even in the ministry.
That happens even in the church. And people want to say, I laid
hands on so and so and they were healed.
I did that. I did that.
If there's a lot of eyes in your in your mouth, you might ought
to check yourself. It's not about you.
It's not about me. It's about his word, his glory,
him being glorified and everything that we do,
everything that we do. So he went to them.
He told them that was a word of wisdom that God gave him that
dream. And then remember, after he got
thrown in prison, remember he was with the Baker and the
Butler and, and they had dreams and he was able to interpret
their dreams for them. In three days one of them was
going to be killed, and in three days one of them was going to be
restored back to the position. And so that again a word of
wisdom that the Lord gave him. If the Lord can give in the Old
Testament, have the Holy Ghost come upon men in the Old
Testament for gift of the Spirit to operate.
How much more should we be operating a gift of the Spirit
who have the Holy Ghost within us and upon us?
So much more we should be operating in these things.
And then remember, after the Butler went and told Pharaoh
about Joseph and remember they he had a dream and it and Joseph
was able to say, Yep, you're going to have seven years of
plenty. You're going to have seven years
of famine. And if you can find a wise man,
you know, to govern it for you. And of course, they were like,
well, you're that, you know, and that's what's going to happen in
the church when we begin operating in these gifts of the
Spirit and yielding to the Spirit of God that that people
look at us and say, I believe you're the one that needs to
take this role. I believe you're the one that
needs to take this position. You got such wisdom.
There's there's something. And in that moment, I'm going to
tell you everything that anybody ever says to you.
That's a compliment. You ought to let that just go
just like that. Anybody anything somebody says
to you say glory to God. Yeah, I'm not saying you have to
be weird and glory to God. I remember when I was at
Raymond, I said, how are you doing today?
Bless highly favor. And they go through all the
thing. I'm like, you're weird and
that's not a right. You're a coconut for sure.
You're you're that you're a coconut.
OK, let's do this word of knowledge.
Word of knowledge. Some of these examples that I'm
going to give are going to have a word of knowledge and a word
of wisdom and discerning of spirits in them.
You know multiple gifts can operate at the same time and
that that will happen. Where's four or five gifts at
one time can operate. So let's do the definition real
quick before I give you these examples of a word of knowledge.
A word of knowledge is supernatural revelation of the
existence or nature of a person or a thing or the knowledge of
some event given to us by the Holy Spirit for a specific
purpose. A word of knowledge is not
learned, it's revealed. It's a gift of the Spirit.
It's revealed to you, it's always word of knowledge is
always past or present. Word of wisdom is future.
OK? These are going to operate
together oftentimes. So a word of knowledge could be
a supernatural insight that just comes from him about something.
I believe what I got in the shower this morning was a word
of knowledge for someone that I know when we close up here
today, I'm going to lay hands on them and they're going to be
completely free from that because a word of knowledge
came. I believe a word of wisdom came
in a dream recently and and I believe that thing is going to
come to pass and we should be having dreams.
I'm not talking about you go to bed and you ate pizza and you
had a weird dream. I'm talking about a dream that's
from God, and you should know the difference, A dream that's
from God where he speaks to you. The Bible says even at night my
heart instructs me. So even at night the Lord can
speak to you and say things to you, give you a dream about
something. And the Bible says that in the
last days we will have dreams, we will see visions.
Those things will be happening. OK, Acts Chapter 9, verses 10
and 11. I'm going to start back at verse
one and get there. Then Saul, still breathing
threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to
the high priest and asked letters from him to the
synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the
way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to
Jerusalem. As he journeyed, he came near
Damascus and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven,
and he fell to the ground. Thank God he was persecuting the
church, and a light came and shone around him from heaven,
and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him,
Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
And he said, Who are you, Lord? And then the Lord said, I am
Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick
against the goads. So he, trembling and astonished,
said, Lord, what do you want me to do?
When the Lord said to him, Arise and go into the city, and you'll
be told what you must do. And the men who journeyed with
him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no one.
And Paul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were open, he
saw no one, but they led him by the hand and brought him to
Damascus. And he was three days without
sight, and he neither ate nor drank.
Verse 10 Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named
Ananias. Now Ananias was a person in the
church, a disciple like you and me.
And to him the Lord said in a vision, Ananias.
And he said, Here I am Lord. This is how we ought to be, that
he's talking to us as disciples, as people in the body of the
Christ. And when he speaks, we say, here
I am Lord, I'm ready. So the Lord said to him, Arise
and go to the street called straight, and inquire at the
House of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus.
For behold, he is praying. And in a vision he has seen a
man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him so that
he might receive his sight. This is a word of knowledge.
He is telling Ananias, You're going to go, he's going to be
praying. And this is what's happening
right now. That's a word of knowledge,
verse 15 But the Lord said to him, go, for he's a chosen
vessel of mine, to bear my name before the Gentiles, kings, and
the children of Israel. For I will show him how many
things he must suffer for my sake.
That is a word of wisdom. So you see the difference?
He's saying go right now. Saul is there, he's praying, and
I've told him what's going to happen that's happening right
now, a word of knowledge. But then he says, here's what
I'm going to do for Saul. This is what he's going to do.
This is what I've created him to do.
And that's a word of wisdom in play.
So a word of knowledge is always present or past, and they can
operate together. A word of knowledge can come
through revelation, open vision, a dream, or a tongue in
interpretation or a prophecy. And word of wisdom always has to
do with the future plan of God. Everybody got it, Everybody with
me. And the wisdom of God always is
going to include the plan of God.
Now let's look at Revelation chapter one in this that we're
going to read. You're going to see word of
knowledge, word of wisdom and discerning of spirits.
And I'll point it out to you. Revelation chapter one, verse
10. I was in the Spirit on the Lords
day, and I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet
saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the 1st and the last.
And what you see, write it in a book and send it to the seven
churches which are in Asia, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, Pergamos,
Thyatira, as Sardis and Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.
Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me, and having
turned, I saw 7 golden lampstands, and in the midst of
the seven lampstands, one, like the Son of Man, clothed with a
garment down to his feet and girded about the chest with a
golden band. His head and hair were like
white wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like a flame
of fire. His feet were like fine brass,
as if refined in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many
waters. He had in his right hand seven
stars, and out of his mouth when a sharp 2 edged sword, and his
countenance was like the sun shining and its strength.
And when I saw him, I fell as his feet as dead.
And he laid his right hand on me, saying, Do not be afraid.
I am the 1st and the last. I am He who lives and was dead,
and behold, I am alive forevermore.
Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and
death. Write the things which you have
seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take
place after this. So you see in the vision, the
Lord revealed the current spiritual position of the seven
churches to him. That is a word of knowledge, the
current current spiritual condition.
And then the word of wisdom came instructing each church what to
do in the future plan what they were going to do.
If you do this, you know how the the letters to the churches say
if you did do this, you'll overcome and eat from the tree
of life. If you don't do this, this is
what's going to happen to your lampstand.
But then discerning of spirits is also in play because he saw
the Lord. He saw the Lord.
And that's what discerning of spirits is, is that you will see
into the spirit realm whether you see the Lord or you see a
demon or you see an Angel. That's discerning of spirits.
So he saw clearly the Lord and what he look like, what he had
on. That's discerning of spirits.
Now Acts chapter 10, verses 9 through 20.
I'm not going to read it to you, but Peter had fallen into a
trance and had a vision. It's there that the Holy Spirit
told him, three men are coming for you.
Three men are coming to seek you.
This was a word of knowledge, but the vision was discerning of
spirits because he saw something.
Now, why do we lay all these things out?
Is it so that we can say I'm about to give you a word of
wisdom, I'm about to give you a word of knowledge, or I'm having
discerning of spirits right now? Not at all.
In fact, you're not ever really going to do that.
You're really not ever going to do that.
And I guarantee you, a lot of you have operated in a word of
knowledge already where you may be.
I know in counseling, it's happened where I may be talking
with someone and it's just coming from, you know, from me,
from from the Holy Ghost, just everyday wisdom that God gives
me. But then they'll be a
supernatural word that comes and I know it, and I know it, and
I'll say it. And sometimes I'll even say that
was God, that was the Holy Ghost to differentiate between that
was a Rhema, that was a word of knowledge.
That was a right now word for you.
You better grab that. And so I guarantee you, a lot of
you have probably operated in a word of knowledge before and
just didn't know. And you're not going to you're
not going to go claiming it or advertising that you did it.
We just teach it so that we understand it because if we
understand it, then we can go, yeah, that was a word of wisdom.
That was just why did I walk into this place?
And and I was able to actually see into the spirit, the demon
that was on that person that was discerning of spirits.
And we understand it when we're taught it.
So the three men seek you. That was a word of knowledge.
And then he saw because he had a vision that was discerning of
spirits. The woman at the well, John
chapter 4. That was a that was a word of
knowledge where she said, I don't have a husband.
She said, you're right, you got 5 or 4.
Whatever he said you got, what was it?
5 And the one you're with now is actually not your husband.
If if those kind of words start operating in here and they have
they have if they start operating more and more.
I'm telling you what the fear of God, the fear of God should come
on you and and it shouldn't make you go.
How dare, how dare he say that to me?
How dare she say that to me? I'm telling you something better
rise up in you. I better do that.
I better go do that. The Lord spoke to me recently,
probably a month ago at night, woke me straight up in the
middle of the night and spoke some things very clear to me.
And I had a, an awe that came over me like I will obey this
and people. And if I can just say this to
you, people wonder why they're sick or they, they consistently
walk with strongholds or consistently have lack or
consistently have troubles. And we, they, we, they want to
blame it on God when actually, if you go back to what he
actually told you to do that you didn't yield to, there's not
anything that he can't give you the answer to.
There's not anything that he can't speak to you about to
cause you to get over and to, to overcome.
We shouldn't be consistently walking in lack or walking in
poverty, walking in discouragement, walking in
depression, walking in anything like that.
We shouldn't be consistently doing that.
And if you are, you should stop and go, OK Holy Ghost, be like
David and just say, Lord, search my heart and see if there's any
offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
He will do it every time. He will do it every time.
OK, let's get through here. Old Testament examples first
Kings 19 when Elijah fled for his life because of Jezebel.
He was bold up until that point, but then he he then asked God to
let him die and he thought he was the only one who had not who
had not bowed his knee to bail. And God opened his eyes and
showed him, spoke to him. Nope, there's 7 thousand others
that are doing that. That was a word of knowledge.
It brought him encouragement. It lifted him up to say I'm not
the only one. I don't have to die.
Some of y'all need to get off the little corner of your
housetop going. I'm going to die.
I everything is so bad. It's not.
And you got a lot of believers who are going through similar
things that have overcome. So just overcome.
Just know that you can. You don't have to stay there and
shouldn't stay there. So a word of wisdom can be
conditional. For example, God told Isaiah to
tell Hezekiah to set his house in order because he was going to
die. And then Hezekiah repented,
prayed, and God said, OK, I'm going to give you another 15
years. That's a word of wisdom.
But that word of wisdom was conditional.
He was going to die if he didn't get things right, but he got
things right and the Lord gave him more time.
Thank God for that word of wisdom.
Thank God for the first word of wisdom that caused him to repent
and that was the goal. Some personal examples of a word
of knowledge. I remember not knowing Jacob
totally was going to be here today.
I remember he may not remember this, but when we lived out at
World Golf Village, him and Mike were out somewhere.
There must have been some water. I don't remember where they were
at, but I was in the kitchen and I remember the Lord spoke to me
and said, there's danger, there's danger, pray right now.
And so I, I began to pray in the spirit.
I didn't know exactly what it was.
And they came back and told me they had encountered a water
moccasin. Do you remember that happening?
Some kind of snake that you know, I'm sure would have killed
both of them. And I, I would, I definitely
would have been sad. I was going to, I was going to
play with you. I would have definitely been
sad. But but that came to me to say
something's dangerous, Pray right now, do it.
And so I did. And it wasn't 5 minutes.
They both came running back into the house and told me what was
happening. The Lord gave me a word of
wisdom and told me that my dad was going to die.
And I remember my dad was only 53.
And so my dad was a man of God, loved the Lord, grew up Baptist.
I grew up Baptist. But there were things going on,
and there's things going on in people's hearts that you don't
know about. And that's why you can't just
walk up into a hospital and say, everybody's going to live and
not die unless the Holy Ghost told you that that's what's
going to happen. And so you got to know.
And when my dad passed away, I remember I was playing healing
scriptures in the room and I was standing, you know, I had been
taught, I knew. And I was like, he's going to
live. It's not his time to go.
I thank you, Lord, for healing. And I just, I just give you all
the praise. Pray played the scriptures for
him. And I remember we took turns
with him. I went back to wherever I was
staying that night and the Lord spoke to me.
I think it was a dream. I can't remember exactly.
Well, it wasn't said your dad is going to die.
And so the next day I went up there and I already knew right
here. And I was obviously sad, but I
had such a peace. God will supernaturally tell you
things, good or bad, that are coming so that you can conquer
it. Because how would it have been
if I would have said Nope, Nope, that was the devil.
I don't believe it, not one bit. He's going to live.
And what if he died and I was right there in the hospital room
and I'm like, you're supposed to live.
This is not right. That's how people get
discouraged. It's how people say this word is
not real. It's not right.
No, we just need to hear God. We just need to hear what he's
saying. And so my dad passed that next
day and I was with him and I had such a peace and I knew it was
going to happen and, and we had to make decisions.
I knew what decisions needed to be made because I knew he wasn't
going to live. And the Lord gave me a
supernatural peace about that. That's a word of wisdom.
This is what's going to happen. I'm preparing your heart for
this and that's what he'll do for you.
Vision of future ministry or future plans for your business
or future things to come in your life.
God can can show you those things.
I'll give you another personal example.
When I was at Rhema, I was in my apartment and I was went down to
pray. I was on my knees praying and I
saw, I saw a vision of, of just, it was just a simple thing, but
I just saw laying hands on on women, I saw emotional healing.
You can't necessarily lay hands on someone for that
specifically. You know, they can get a word
that delivers them and sets them free emotionally.
But but, but that's what I saw and and I remember going, huh,
what is that? Well, they had taught us, just
put that on the shelf. You know, if you don't know and
you trust in God, I didn't walk out of my apartment and walk up
on the campus and say I'm going to be the next choice Meyer or
I'm going to be because I didn't believe that or think that at
all. But I knew what the Lord had
showed me and I I just hid it in my heart.
And it wasn't until about 15 years later, Pastor Marcy and I
were in a doing a call her blessed together in Nautilus.
And I'll never forget it because it was when the Lord spoke to me
about it. And we, I don't even remember
what we ministered on. We tag teamed and ministered
something. We were going through the the
crowd of women and we were just praying with them and laying
hands on them and talking with them.
And when I was doing it, the Holy Ghost spoke to me and said,
this is that. And in that moment I went, Oh
yeah, I see it. And to, to, to tell you, you
know what God has done since that time.
But but he'll speak to you. You have a job, you have a
business. The Lord wants to tell you
places to invest, things that are going to happen.
Do you think that he wouldn't tell you a decline in the
economy or something that was coming down the pipe that would
affect you? You think he wouldn't tell you
about that? No, He'll tell you, He'll prep
you. He'll tell you anything that you
need to know about business, about life, about ministry,
about everything. Now let me give you the
definition of discerning of spirits so we can move through
this. The definition of discerning of
spirits is the gift of the Holy Spirit by which the possessor is
enabled. The one having that gift is
enabled to see into the spirit world, to see the likeness of
God, the Risen Christ, the Holy Spirit, angels or demons.
It can reveal a demon possessing or oppressing a person.
Discerning means to look at or to distinguish and into the
realm of the spirit. Like I said, it can be good or
bad what you see. It can be demonic or not what
you see in the spirit. Discerning of spirits means the
discerning of angels, demons, and even the human spirit,
whether good or evil. When you entertain angels, the
Bible says we entertain angels unaware.
This is not discerning of spirits.
If they're in a bodily form and you entertained an Angel
unaware, that's not discerning the spirits because they have a
body. I remember when I'll give you
another example, when I was at Rhema and the Lord had spoke to
me about going to Bible college. And so I drove down to campus
and I was sitting in the gazebo in the park and out of nowhere
Sunday afternoon, nobody's on campus at all.
And I didn't know anything about Rhema other than my
brother-in-law had told me about it.
And so I go and I'm sitting in the gazebo and I'm watching the
faith show build, go around and around and I'm thinking there is
no way they would accept me because I know what I did.
I know what my past life was. There's no way I'm dealing with
that. I'm thinking about it and this
little girl comes out of the woods area where the tracks
were. This little girl comes out of
there and has a stick in her hand like a a baton in a race,
runs up to me, hands me the baton and I when when she handed
me that something went off in me and I knew do it apply go.
You need to do this and and it I believe to this day that was an
Angel, but that was not discerning of spirits because
that was just entertaining angels unaware.
I was like, where'd that girl come from?
Because there was no reason that she would have come out of
there. I kept that stick for a long
time and then my Mama threw it away.
She came and cleaned my house and threw my stick away.
Good thing I'm not attached to that stick.
Good thing we don't have to to be attached with gimmicks and
things that that are promoted and sometimes in ministry on TV.
We don't have to trust in that. We have the Holy Ghost, we have
the greater one on the inside. My heart was not attached to
that stick. And so I'm doing good today.
So discerning of spirits. Another example that was not was
just knowing an Angel was present years ago.
Years ago, we went to the one of those festivals they have
downtown here in Saint Augustine.
And Abby and Coco were little and I shouldn't have gone.
And that's the first thing you need to understand.
I knew in my spirit I shouldn't have gone and I made an excuse
and I went anyway. And when I was there, I wasn't
there 5 minutes and I was holding Coco and Abby was right
beside me. Some kid got on a golf cart and
stood up and just floored it, stood up and was standing on.
It hit us from behind. I went, I was holding Coco.
It went over Abby's, ran over Abby's head.
The tire, she had a tire mark over her ear and her head.
I went down like this in a cocoon and covered Coco.
But I knew, I knew when it was happening.
There's an Angel here. I knew it.
I knew there was an Angel and that wasn't discerning of
spirits because I didn't see it, but I knew it was there.
I knew that my Angel was there. And I thank God for that and I
thank God for his mercy. You know His mercy will keep you
and protect you, but you better not be putting yourself out
there saying, ah, the mercy of God will cover me.
You ought to have the fear of the Lord enough that you
understand. I have such a, a reverence.
I felt so grieved in my spirit after that.
I was so thankful that God ambulance came, but I knew we
were OK. I knew we were going to be fine.
It was really miraculous for Coco and really for Abby that
nothing happened to her. But I knew we were going to be
fine. I knew God protected us and I
went home and I repented and I said, Holy Ghost, I'll yield to
you. I'll listen to you.
Forgive me. I should not have even gone and
I knew it. I knew it.
I knew I shouldn't have done it. But that wasn't discerning of
spirits. I'm giving you a lot of what's
not discerning of spirit because I didn't see it.
In discerning of spirits, you can see into the spirit world.
Let me give you a couple of examples.
Isaiah 61 says in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord
sitting on a throne high and lifted up in the train of his
robe filled the temple. That is discerning of spirits.
Also Stephen in Acts 7 verse 51 they you stiff necked and
uncircumcised in heart and ears. You always resist the Holy
Spirit as your father's dead, and so do you.
Which of the prophets did your father's not persecute?
And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just,
one of whom you now have become the betrayers and the murderers,
who have received the law by the direction of the angels, and
have not kept it. Verse 54.
When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and
they gnashed him with their teeth.
But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven, and
saw. He saw that's discerning of
spirits, he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right
hand of God and said, look, I see the heavens opened and the
Son of man standing at the right hand of God.
And then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their
ears, and ran at him with one accord.
And they cast him out of the city and stoned him.
And the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of the young
man named Saul. And they stoned Steven as he was
calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus received my spirit.
Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not
charge them with this sin. And when he said this, he fell
asleep. That is an example of discerning
of spirits where he saw the Lord Elijah Elisha when he had to
comfort his servant and say open his eyes so he can see.
That's in Second Kings 616. So he answered, do not fear for
those who are are with us or more than those who are with
them. And Elisha prayed and said,
Lord, I pray open his eyes that he may see.
And the Lord open the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and
behold, the mountain was full of horses and Chariots of fire all
around Elisha. That is discerning of spirits.
Joseph seen an Angel in a dream to go and marry, marry and and
to, to tell him about Herod and to tell him what to do, tell him
when he can go home. That's discerning of spirits.
This is why, if I can be honest with you, This is why the devil
wants you caught up in the things of the flesh.
And, and I'll say this, and I know this is not our church
majority, but drinking drugs, the the, the alternative to
having a sound mind keeps you unaware of the spirit realm and
what you do, whether you drink or do drugs or do any of those
kind of things at all. What you do every day to stay in
tune with the Spirit of God is so important.
It's so important that you're yielded that you're aware.
Some of us go about our day and we don't even think about what
the Holy Ghost is saying to us. Band, you can come.
We don't even think about what what the Lord wants to say.
Two of the most important things that you do in life, listen to
me while they're coming up, is learning what to yield to and
what to resist. That you know what's God and
what's not, that you don't allow your mind to entertain anything
that is not of God ever. And and that includes any
thought process that goes against who you are in Christ.
That includes that. And that applies to a whole lot
of people right here today. Anything, if you're, if you're
being water baptized, I want to go ahead and release you to go
and change anything that comes against your mind that you're
believing is dulling your senses and dulling your spirit to the
Holy Ghost. And we need to be aware of that.
The Scripture in Hebrews chapter 12 says pursue peace with all
people and holiness without which no one, no one will see
the Lord. Pursue peace with all people and
holiness, love, can I say love and unity, without which no one
will see the Lord. We've got to position ourselves
as a body to not only be consistent in the Word.
And I pray for you today that the Word of God becomes alive to
you, that it's not just a religious exercise that you go
through every day even though you need to be going through it
every day, but that it becomes alive to you that when you open
the word of God that you say, Lord, speak to me.