Gifted! - Lesson 6: Unleashing the Perceiving Gifts

Well, all right, all righty. I'm excited about tonight. I'm just excited to share what I believe the Lord's directing us in. And now it's gonna really start getting fun. You know, I feel like what we've been doing is kind of expanding ourselves in a way to really kind of understand some things about the gifts and having to basically, not unlearn, but maybe clarify some things that maybe we have learned or thought we learned in the past. But tonight, what we're gonna be doing is we're gonna be taking and starting the next three weeks, so the next three times we're together, really looking at the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. And let me tell you what my hope is. My hope is that by the time we get through this, not only are you gonna have your understanding better, but you're gonna begin unleashing the gifts as the Holy Spirit guides you. That's the goal. That's the hope that we have. So tonight, I've titled the lesson for tonight, Unleashing the Perceiving Gifts. I'm gonna talk about what that is. But as I've said every time, what is the goal of the course? Because as we're in this together, man, I just want you to understand, obviously, but more than that, to unleash the gifts of the Holy Spirit into a world that is literally bound and blind and broken.

And yet God wants to release the divine healing through us. So tonight, I wanna focus on those perceiving gifts. And so here's the question that I'm hoping to answer tonight. And I hope that it will make sense. And that is, what are the perceiving gifts? And how do we unleash those gifts? So what are they? And how do we unleash them? So we're gonna start off about what they are. And then we're gonna end by kind of, how do we, how can I know that tonight or tomorrow or at any time, God will unleash those gifts? And he's gonna show us how. I'm gonna show you how to do that. And we're gonna be looking at those, not only tonight, but then over the next couple of weeks, we're gonna continue with that, how do we unleash them? And we're gonna see some things, hopefully in scripture, that will literally, I hope, set us free. So let's just read in 1 Corinthians 12, verses seven through 11. I just wanna read those nine gifts and we're gonna look at it. But it says this, to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To the one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom. To another, the utterance of knowledge

according to the same Spirit. To another, faith by the same Spirit. To another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit. To another, the working of miracles. To another, prophecy. To another, the ability to distinguish between spirits. To another, various kinds of tongues. And another, the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills. Now let me just go back and see, because you're gonna see in this, there's nine different gifts of the Spirit that are talked about here in this passage. And these are the ones we're gonna focus on as we've been walking through this, because I believe they're the ones we need to focus. I'm not saying they're the only out there, I'm just saying they're the ones we're focusing on. So as we look at them, it talks about, to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given, and here's the first one, the utterance of wisdom. We're gonna look at that one tonight. And to another, the utterance of knowledge. Second one there. To another, faith. And then gifts of healing. And then the working of miracles.

Prophecy. Another, the ability to distinguish between spirits. To another, various kinds of tongues. And to the last, the interpretation of tongues. So as we look at that, now here's basically how I have taught them for years. I'm not this, my words are me up there, the perceiving power, but they're not. And other people have put different things up there. In fact, I've used different words in the past. But for us, taking the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit, and this is not in your outline, but I'll give them to you as we go. But basically, tonight we're gonna be looking at that first three on the left-hand side, the perceiving gifts. Word of wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of spirits. And then power is gonna be next week, Lord willing, where we'll be. Faith, healing, and working of miracles. And then the last week, or the next week after that, will be the proclaiming gifts, is what I call them, which is prophecy, various kinds of tongues, and interpretation of tongues. So that's kind of the way, as I'm looking at them, as I've looked at them over the years, and we could go different ways. I've taught many different things on this. But tonight, what we're gonna do is we're gonna start with those perceiving ones.

And so, this is in your outline, I believe. And we're gonna fill that in tonight. And so we're gonna start, first of all, with a word of wisdom, a word of wisdom. And so as we look at that passage again, it says this, for to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom. The word, the Greek there says, logia, it says logos, sophios, and sophia is the word for wisdom, if you're named Sophia, your parents named you to be wise. But logos is the word for word. Now, as we look at this, one of the things that, just to point out for, you know, for us to kind of know, whenever it says a word of wisdom, I think it's important to make a, quickly just say this. He doesn't say to one is given the gift of wisdom. Some people say, oh, that person is wise. That is not what this is. The statement here is a word of wisdom. And so as we look at that, what does it say? And so let me just give you a quick little definition that may help. What is wisdom or a word of wisdom? It's a supernatural revelation from God to an individual of his, talking about God's, mind and purpose. It's really a supernatural download

from God's heart to the believer. It's something in the spirit world that you could not know otherwise, that he wants to unleash to you, to let you know for the purpose of the advancement of his kingdom. And so whenever we think about that, we know that God has literally, we say, well, that's from the mind of God. What do we, how can we know the mind of God? Well, the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter two, listen to what it says in verse 16. It says, for who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? And then he says, but we have the mind of Christ. The believer has within us that. And so whenever we think about this, it's, let me just kind of say it this way, another way of kind of saying what is a word of wisdom? It's really this. A word of wisdom is a tiny portion of God's total wisdom directly and supernaturally imparted by the Holy Spirit. It's where God says and gives you just a portion of wisdom from his total wisdom, since he is all wise, and we get to see it there. And so God wants to give us that and let us see those things. Let me just give you a couple of maybe examples

that might help and might show, you know, one of the places we know that whenever the church was just getting going, you may remember the apostles were there and things kind of got a little crazy, started having problems. And I believe that the Bible teaches that God gave the apostles a word of wisdom on a decision that needed to be made. Let's read it, it's in Acts chapter six. Listen to what it says. It says, now in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenist arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the 12 summoned the full number of the disciples and said, it is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and wisdom. Look at that, full of the spirit and wisdom whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. God gifted them with a wisdom and a decision that they may make. Maybe you remember what the Bible says in Acts chapter 15, whenever it talks about how there was a group of, well, I believe they were Pharisees that had been saved.

They were on the side of being a Jewish people who had been saved that believed that the church, that the church was really a sect of Judaism, not separate, but the Holy Spirit was showing, no, it's bigger than that. And in reality, Judaism is just those that get saved, they become a sect of Christianity. It's not the same. And so what was happening was that the Jews wanted all the Gentiles, once they got saved, they had to go through all the Jewish customs and become basically Jewish. And as the church got together and began to pray about that, began to look at that, listen to what the Bible says in Acts 15, verses 28 and 29. It says, for it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. This was what they sent to the Gentile believers. To lay on you no greater burden than these requirements, that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell. That literally as they prayed, the Holy Spirit gave them or gifted them with a word of wisdom. Does that make sense? And that's how He directs us and leads each one of us. You know, years ago I was, we were in church and we had a family in our church where the wife was just a godly woman. I mean, she was just one of those, just special. And her sons had gotten saved in our church, and they were good kids, but their dad didn't come to church. And that just has an effect. It just does. And so they had become teenagers. They were the age of my boys at that time, pretty much about the same age. And so anyway, they had pulled away from the church. They kind of quit coming. They, oh, you know, it's not cool anymore. And dad didn't go, and they didn't want to go either kind of thing. And so the mother, their mother, wound up having, feeling like she was sick, didn't know what it was, went

to the doctor, and the doctor found a tumor that was in her uterus. And of course, you know, she was the glue of the family. I mean, she was the one that it all held together. And so the dad just went into this panic. Suddenly, you know, it's kind of like that 911 Christian kind of guy, you know, that, oh no, you know. And so they came to church on a Sunday night. And whenever we came around to prayer time, he and her came down front. And I mean, he was nervous, but it was a panic that was in him, not just nervous, but a panic in him like, oh no. And you know, that thing that we would have if you found out your spouse may have cancer. And it, you know, and, and so I just remember they came down and wanted us to pray. And so we gathered around them and, you know, an order with oil, laid hands on her. And so we had a group of people that were praying and I was just praying. And honestly, what I do is I'm just praying in the spirit and just asking her. And while I was praying for her and people praying, I mean, praying heaven down, you know, for healing. And as I was praying, I saw just a picture and I heard in my spirit what this was. And the Lord just said, what this is, is it's a picture. The physical tumor in her uterus is a spiritual reality about her sons that came from there. And this is what he told me in my spirit. He said, I want you to let her know that she's been praying and she'd been praying for a long time for her boys, but to let her know that the tumor is going to be healed and when it's healed, this will be a sign to her that her boys, that her prayers have been heard and her boys are going to come back to the Lord. So everybody finishes, you know, and I'm not going to like get the microphone and get up in front of people and say that, but after everybody was gone, I said, Hey, can I say something to you? And they're sitting there. And of course he's just tore up and she's as calm as can be. I mean, when you were walking with God and you trust in the spirit, you just have a piece that God puts on you. You can tell the difference between the two. And so I told her that and told him that, but told her, well, whenever I told them that the difference in their faces was intriguing to me because he listened to it. Like, I don't know what in the world you're saying or what you've been smoking or whatever's going on here. But she looked at me with that, I mean, teared up looking at me because she'd been praying for them boys. And sure enough, God healed her of the tumor. And then within a year, both of her boys repented and came back to the Lord. And so what was that that God gave me? It was a word of wisdom. Does

that make sense? It was just that thing that God wanted to share with her. And so that's the first one is a word of wisdom. The second one we have whenever we're talking about these is a word of knowledge. And he says there in that first Corinthians chapter 12 verse 8, and to another, the utterance of knowledge according to the same spirit. And literally it's the word logos again, and it's a word of knowledge. And so whenever we think about that and look at that, what are we talking about there? Well, in this one, I just said it this way, is if you have your little outline, want to put it in a supernatural, a word of knowledge is a supernatural revelation from God to an individual of any fact. or event. Word of knowledge is just this, it's a supernatural revelation, past or present that's given to a believer by the Holy Spirit. It's just something that he gives us. It's a fact that he will share with us. It's insight into something that could not have been known through natural means. In other words, it's not, here's the danger. We, you know, the sad thing is that the word knowledge can mean a lot of things. We have to look at it in its context, and in this context it's not talking about reading a book. That's not what it's talking about. It's not talking about that you've had experiences and you know things. It's talking about a divine download by the Holy Spirit into our lives. So just write this down next to it. It's similar to what I gave you before. Word of knowledge is a tiny portion of God's total knowledge. You know, he's all knowing, right? And it's a tiny portion that he, of God's knowledge, directly and supernaturally imparted by the Holy Spirit. That's what it is. It's where you just know something that you would not know otherwise. And again, I just want to just remind you of this. Did everybody get that written down? If not, look on your neighbor. But here's what I'm saying. Supernatural knowledge does not come, look at this, by natural reasoning, education, or training, but directly by the Holy Spirit. So one of the dangers we have in a Western culture is we believe because we know something, we got it. Because I've read a book, I know it. And I'm saying, uh, no. In fact, I was talking to some young guys this week, some of our young guys on staff, just helping them learn how to walk in the Spirit. And so I was talking to them and one of them isn't married yet. And I said, so let's just say you're not married. You know, you got a girlfriend, you're not married. What if you decided you were going to write a book on marriage because you've observed marriages and you've read other books

about marriage and you were going to write that book? And anybody who's married goes, yeah, right. I want you to hear me. It's the same way in the church. I watched a list of quick interview and these people were for, and I'll be getting on this a couple of weeks, for the gift of tongues. They weren't against it, but it was interesting to me that the two guys they interviewed to talk about tongues, neither one spoke in tongues. And I'm like, what in the world? I mean, I'm all, I'm over sitting there watching it. Raised my hand. I'll come, let me talk to you. Because they, they said, well, I think, and I, well, it seems to, and all that. I'm going, come on. Does that make sense? And so as we come to this, know this, that a word of knowledge is not, a word of knowledge doesn't come because you have a PhD behind your name or because you've been to seminary. Remember this, the vast majority of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout history could not read or write. So how in the world did God advance his kingdom with power? He did it through as he always does through the divine work of the spirit. So as we're, as we're going in that, thinking about that, let me just give you a couple of things about a word of knowledge that, that we see in scripture. One of them we find actually in Acts chapter five, and it's one of the examples that, that we read about and kind of get a little bit nervous about, but listen to what it says in Acts chapter five, verses one through two. It says, but a man named Ananias with his wife, Sapphira sold a piece of property and with his wife's knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. And then we go down to verse three, look what it says. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? How did he know that? Did he do a quick search of, you know, Ananias' bank account and saw that he was lying? No, it was a word of knowledge from the Holy Spirit told him that. Does that make sense? It was a fact that he could not have known otherwise. By the way, remember what happened to him? Fell over dead as a hammer right there. Anyway, so that's the I mean, here's another one that just in Acts chapter 20, I love this, how the Holy Spirit had given Paul a word of knowledge, but the word of knowledge was just, remember what I said about a tiny portion? It doesn't mean he tells you everything, even a tiny portion, and he was going to be

going to, he was on his way to Jerusalem, and in Acts chapter 20, some elders from Ephesus were talking to him and said, please don't go, please, because I mean, it was obvious it wasn't going to work out well. But listen to what he says in verses 22 through 23 of Acts 20. It says, and now behold, I am going to Jerusalem, look at this, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me, and it's what he says, in other words, he tells me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. How would you like that to be the word from God you had? God been talking to you today? Well, yeah. What do you say? Well, I'm about to go to another city and imprisonment and afflictions are going to come. Oh, wow. You sure that's from God? Well, it had to be or I wouldn't be trusting him, but anyway. So we see that God will give those words of knowledge to us. I know I've probably told you this story, but in 1996, my wife and I had gone to, back to, I guess 96, maybe 97, 97 I believe it was, went back to a revival that was going on in Pensacola, Florida. Many of you have heard me talk about it before. Anyway, while we were there, what they would do is the revival services would be in the evenings and about mid afternoon, they had a group of about 200 intercessors or prayer warriors that would go into a room and a lady who was the prayer minister at the church, her name was Lila Terhune, that she would have them pray because they were going to try to, they were asking the Lord to show them what he planned to do that night in the service. And I got invited to go to it. And so, you know, talking about feeling nervous, I mean, I'm walking in there with, with people

that, man, I'm, oh man, these are giants with God, you know, and intercessors and prayer warriors. And I just felt like, you know, this old Dave, Baptist Dave, you know, and so we get in there and everybody's praying and we're all praying and I'm praying and while I'm praying, man, I just know, I just know something. And I immediately go to my Bible. And what God told me was, he said that, you know, the story whenever King David was bringing the ark, the people were bringing the ark into Jerusalem and he was singing and shouting and they were dancing and celebrating as they were bringing it in. And you remember as they were bringing it in, in this great celebration, that his wife Michael, you remember the story, that she was up and she was watching. And the Bible says that she became indignant in her heart toward him. And he, whenever he came, you know, whenever he came home, she says, oh, how you've distinguished yourself today. And he, you know, he said, I'll even be more distinguished, you know, or undignified, you know, then, then that, and, and, and then it says after it, it ends by saying, and Michael remained unable to have children. And here's what the spirit of God told me, that there are going to be Michaels that are going to be here tonight. And God's going to give them an opportunity in worship to repent and to step into the celebration. But if they don't, they're going to be impotent spiritually. So I'm standing here going, well, and I had these guys, it was really kind of neat. They had these three people that would walk around. And if you felt like God gave you a word, you told them. And so they were walking around and one of them just had like, Hey, so I showed him in the scripture, what I was talking about. And then I said, I believe that Michael, I believe that the Lord wants us to call the Michaels down tonight, give it to them. So anyway, what they, they, they started the prayer time.

This was all just kind of praying, but then they started the corporate intercession and, and more, and they just did a wonderful job of pulling it together. And we came to the last one and then Lila turned to me. She didn't know who I was out there in the group. And she said, you over there, is that the one? Yeah, that's the one. You come here. And I'm like, Oh boy, you know, I'm in trouble. And gives me a mic and says, call down the Michaels. And I don't, I just know this, the spirit of God came on me when you got 200 prayer warriors praying and man, we called the Michaels down. And what was neat was that night in the service, cause I apparently, she told them, she told pastor and them kind of what had happened, obviously. And he gets up in the service and stands up and does the same thing and calls the Michaels down and just believed that God set many people free. So it was just a word that God had given. Does that make sense? It's just kind of how, how God functions. And I can tell you, you know, this, I've talked about this before, how many times that whenever we're praying and we're praying for somebody and you've had this happen where you're praying for something and all of a sudden you just know something, you don't know why you know it. You just know it. You know what I'm talking about? It's just this thing in here. Now it's not opinions. All right. It's that's be careful because that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about a divine download of a tiny portion of God's total knowledge into our hearts. And so he brings that to us. Well, let me go on. We're doing okay. Aren't we doing okay. All right, let's go to the next one. And that is the distinguishing or the discerning of spirits. And so he says, it says in verse 10 to another, the ability to distinguish between spirits. This is just what I've written it down. Discerning of spirits. He could be distinguishing or discerning. It says it's a supernatural revelation from God of the presence or activities of the spirit world. Now, whenever we think about that, the, the, the presence or activities of the spirit world, it's not just talking about demons. Okay. It's it's in other

words, I would say this, I would say, have you ever had times where you came in here and you just suddenly are overwhelmed of the presence of God and you just know the spirit of God's here. Well, part of that's Holy Spirit. And you just giving you that discerning of the spirit of God being present. And so as we think about that, I would just say it this way, just another way of saying it, if you have your notes, the distinguishing of spirits or the discerning of spirits is the supernatural ability to perceive what is happening in the spiritual realm. What's going on to see behind the veil, if you will. And the Holy Spirit will give that to us. Now, actually what it says is it says distinguishings of spirits. They're both in the plural. It's a distinguishings of spirits with distinguishings. If you put that, you type that in, it's going to get mad at you and tell you that it's misspelled, but it's really what he's talking about. What does he mean by that? Well, he means distinguishings are discerning certain things like what? Well, one is I said, well, no discerning of the Holy Spirit. How do you know this is people ask me this a lot of times. How do you know if it's a word from God? Well, I mean, there's a lot of ways to know whenever you're there, but, but I've told you that the Bible is very clear that God taught as a talker. He's going to talk to us. Matter of fact, this morning in my one year reading, it just was a reminder again, where he is, where he reminds the Israelites. You remember when God was on the mountain of Mount Sinai and he spoke, did you realize that the very first scripture that was ever written was from the voice of God by the finger of God? The very first word, not by Moses, by God with his own finger. I think that's pretty important. And he spoke it. And so as we think about that, again, the Bible talks about, he has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. We know that that's there, but there's that, that, but there's also the discerning of an angelic spirits. We know that there are angels that we need to be knowing are around and are functioning. And of course, you know, the Bible says, you know, show hospitality for some have entertained angels without being aware. That means they didn't have the discerning of that, a spirit at that point, but it can also happen where you do know, we find that at various, several places and see that in, in many times in the scripture, the Bible says this, whenever Jesus is talking to Nathaniel, you remember whenever he, first of all, he uses a word of, of knowledge, knowing I saw you under there. But then he says in, in John one, verse 51, he says, and he said to him, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son

of man. He says, you're going to be able to see those things. That's what he said to him. Now we know that he was also referencing the word of God that had come in the old Testament, but he was also saying that I don't believe he said that and then was lying about it. And so we see that also, you find also the discerning of angelic spirits or knowing was an angelic spirit at the resurrection with Mary Magdalene. You remember in John 20 verses 10 through 12 says the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. And as she wept, She stooped to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. And then we know that the angelic work, and I've talked about this before, about the number of times in scripture where it talks about angels working with the people of God. You find it in the Old Testament, but you find it a boatload of times in the New Testament, and you find it an unbelievable amount of times in the book of Acts, which is after the Holy Spirit has come. Here was one of them, I could have picked many, but here's one of them that you find whenever you see in Acts chapter 8, the Bible says this, in verses 26 through the first part of 27, it says, now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, you remember when Philip went to Samaria, and he was there and a mighty revival was going on, and why did he leave? I mean, why would he ever leave? Well, here's what it says, it says that an angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place, and he rose and went. And so we see that there's that going on, but then the one that you're probably most familiar with is the discerning of demonic spirits, and we find that a lot of places and we see that, and I've talked about it, if you were here last fall, I talked about that many times and talked about those things. But as we think about that, there's a couple of places in the scriptures that just talk about it. One of them is in Luke 13, and this is what the Bible says in verses 11 through 13, it says this, and behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for 18 years.

How'd they know it was a disabling spirit? Because they knew, of course Jesus knew. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, by the way, I don't know if I've taught this before, but just as a reminder for some who may not know this, there's two things that he does that are very important when it comes to demonic deliverance that I think are pictures for us. The first we see, listen to what he says, he says when he saw the woman, he called her over and said to her, woman, you are freed from your disability. And he, and he laid his hands on her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. Did you see what he did? He did two steps. First he spoke to a spirit, but as he spoke to the spirit, guess what? She's still just like this. So he speaks to the spirit and then it says, and then he laid his hands on her and healing was released. Does that make sense? So two of the gifts were used right there. So you find that is that, that you see those things happening in scripture many, many times in scripture. You find also Acts chapter 16 talks about a spirit of divination or a great spirit. It says this in verses 16 through 18, and as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and, and brought her owners much gain by fortune telling. In other words, that spirit would through her tell the future. She followed Paul, Paul and us crying out, these men are servants of the most high God who proclaim to you the way of salvation. Isn't it interesting that that's what a demon would say. You see the deception to me, I see that as deception because fortunately Paul had a discerning of spirits, but you know, a lot of times in our churches, somebody comes in and says,

Oh, you got the presence of God. Oh, we need to make you a deacon in the church. You know, he's arguing, we need to bring you in more than you just see that you speaking the truth and all that stuff. Just because somebody speaking the truth doesn't mean it's the guy it's God that's speaking through them. And that's what they were saying here. And this, she kept doing for many days, Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out that very hour. So he discerned that that was not the Lord, that that was not what God was doing. It wasn't just her own craziness. That was a demon. And then of course, there's also the side of discerning of human spirits. And we see that in scripture. Of course, I told you about Nathanael and Jesus, but we find Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said, behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. And then Paul, you remember with the crippled man, whenever this guy was crippled, listen to what it says in the passage, verses eight through 10. Now at Lystra, there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul's speaking and Paul looking intently. at him and seeing that he had faith, how did he see that he had faith to be made well? Said in a loud voice, stand upright on your feet and he sprang up and began walking. So as we look at that we get to see some of those things and so those are just the first three and we'll be looking and I hope that you can see that what God wants to do is he wants to give us divine perception into what's happening behind the veil and the Holy Spirit in us sees it and wants us to know. And so now we just kind of have to say okay, but then that comes back to the question that I said I hope to be able to answer whenever we started. I said there's the questions I hope to answer, really the questions, but it's a question.

What are the perceiving gifts and how do we unleash them? That's the next one. How do we unleash the gifts? That's really what we want to know is how do we do it? Now this is something I'm going to go over in different ways over the next few weeks because when I learned this, everything in my life changed. It didn't make it easy, but it definitely made my life more powerful. And so as we come to it, what are we looking at whenever we think about that? I just want to say this, that the Holy Spirit in you wants to permeate every part of your life. He did not, listen, he didn't save you to come to church on a Wednesday night. He saved you to release the kingdom of God in every aspect of our life. You know, sadly we've created in Christianity a compartmentalized mindset whenever it comes to the things of God. So we can go out there and live one way and come in here and live another and God says, that's not what I have for you. I want to permeate every aspect of your life. I want to do things in and through you that go way beyond you inside. I want to permeate your motives. I want to permeate every area, but not only that, but he wants to perpetuate the kingdom of God through you. There are people that you're going to be at work with or in your neighborhood or in your home or at school or wherever you're going this week that need a touch from the kingdom of God. And so God says, I want to do that through you. And so as we look at that, how does that happen? Now, honestly, most of us don't think God wants to use us like that. We want it. I mean, if you're saved, you want it, you want that. But many of us don't think of that that way. And so how does it happen? It happens as we unleash the Holy Spirit that's within us. So I want to show you this. I've given this out so many times here that many of you are going to say, well, I've seen that before. But the Bible talks about a human and how we've been created and we've been created. I call it the trichotomy of man. We've been created as a spirit, a soul, and a body, right? We have those three aspects of who we are. And the reason why this is important. So let me just kind of say this. I believe that the evolutionary mindset is literally has come into the church enough that even the church, many of the church say, well, the soul and the spirit are basically the same thing. They are not. As a matter of fact, an animal does not have a spirit. They have a soul, but a spirit is how we communicate in the spirit world. It's how we communicate and connect with God. God has created us. It's the image of God stamped within us. And so as we look at this and see

this, I want to talk about those things. And so the first one we talk about is the body and the body is, I just call it our world awareness. How do you know that you are actually in the world? You only know it by your five senses. That's, I mean, that's it. You know, you take all those out and nothing there, you know, and I want to say this also about that just because I think it's important for us to see that and to know this, that your body is not evil. Okay. Whenever, whenever the Bible uses and translates the word and uses, it's actually the word sarks in Greek, but it's the word flesh. It's not talking about this skin. It's talking about the sinful nature, the propensity within me to be my own God. I want to be my own. I want to call my own shots, that kind of thing. But the body is not evil. Now I've talked about this many times before you say, well, how do you know that? Well, if the body was evil, Jesus could not have had a body. And it's literally became a theology that something that it was a sect really. In fact, it was a heresy that was trying to come into the church that Jesus never had a physical body. Why? Because the Greeks believed that the body was inherently evil. And so the Greek philosophy was the body's evil, and so it came up with two different groups, and I've talked about this before, that there was two different schools of thought with regard to the body. One was called Stoicism, and the Stoics said, yeah, the body's evil, so don't give it nothing. Don't let it have anything, just, you know. But the other group was called the Epicureans, and the Epicureans said the body's evil, so just let it do what it's, it's gonna do it anyway. And that was the two basic schools of thought. And so whenever we come to Christianity, many times that's where people would struggle about the fact that Jesus couldn't take a body,

but the body is not evil. Matter of fact, listen to what the Bible tells us about the body that you and I have in 1 Corinthians chapter six, verse 19. It says, or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own. In other words, the Holy Spirit dwells within the temple of the body. Does that make sense? So think about the picture, and of course I could go a lot farther with this, but tonight, just for our purposes, we're just gonna start with the body being the temple. We go on next to the next part of us, and that's the soul. And whenever we think about the soul, what are we talking about? Well, we're talking about our mind, our will, and our emotions. It's the self-life. It's our self-awareness, you know, of us, of, you know, it's where the emotions come in, the mind comes in, it's where our thinking side comes in. And again, it's not evil, but it does wanna be in charge. And so we need to see that we have those. Now I could, I've taught on this so many times here, I hope it helps, but just for tonight, I'm just trying to say we have those two, and then we have within those, we have the spirit.

And our spirit is our God awareness or our spiritual awareness. It's what, when we died in Genesis three, it's what died or disconnected, became disconnected from God. We still had a spirit, it just had no connection to God. Severed. So we were dead to God. And so as we come to this and we see those things, whenever a person gets saved, where does the Holy Spirit come to dwell? In our spirit, right? Now, as he comes to dwell in our spirit, do you notice again what's here? I mean, again, just looking at those things, the spirit wants to take and permeate our soul and our body and be released to the world. And how does that happen? Well, I've told you the most often quoted statement of Jesus, I've actually told you the second most often quoted statement of Jesus in the New Testament. You know what it is? Let me just give you, let me give you, let's see if Luke chapter nine, verse 23 and 24, talk about it. Says this, and he said to all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. Notice what he says. For whoever would save his life,

the word life there is the word soul. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his soul for my sake will save it. You see, within every believer, lots of people don't have this. We have, lots of people have morals, but they don't have the battle. In fact, if you ever, maybe some of you here, you know, your life wasn't doing terrible and then you got saved and it's like, man, everything kind of fell apart. Well, that's because a war started. The Holy Spirit dwelling in you doesn't want to just stay there. He wants to permeate every area of your life and it just hacks you off. And it's a war that takes place. The Bible talks about it in Galatians chapter five, verses 16 through 17. He said it this way, but I say, walk by the spirit and you'll not gratify the desires of the flesh, which is the sinful nature. The desire to be in charge. For the desires of the sinful nature of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the sinful nature. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. So how do we break the work of the soul and the body so that the spirit can be released,

so that the gifts can flow? How do we do it? How does it happen? Well, listen. how Jesus said it happens in John chapter 12 this is on that Thursday night before he goes to the cross he's there with his closest friends and he knows and now they know that this is not going to turn out well listen to what he says in John chapter 12 beginning in verse 24 he says this truly truly I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains alone but if it dies it bears much fruit whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life if anyone serves me he must follow me where was he telling us to follow him to the cross and where I am there my will my servant be also if anyone serves me the father will honor him now I've already had people ask me about the two bags I've got here and I'm going to talk about them I know security probably got nervous about them but but I was thinking last week after we finished I thought how do I help you how do I help you really understand that the Holy Spirit dwelling in you is going to be unleashed through you in divine and supernatural ways but there is a way that it happens in fact I would say for those who have experienced what you would call the baptism of the Holy Spirit that that here's what happened to you you totally surrendered to the Lord's guidance you just said I mean whatever I don't even know what you meant but you surrendered to the Lord and in that moment what you did was that hard shell on the outside broke and guess what happened inside of you begin to just burst forth life now you think about a seed and what I thought I'd do is I thought I'd bring this is a walnut inside of this heart I can't I tried already I can't break it with my hands and somebody here might so I can do it I can't do it all right but however I happen to bring a nut cracker here's what I want you to know inside of this hard shell is the life of a walnut tree how does the life of the walnut tree become a walnut tree it has to do what be buried and what has to happen it has to die and in that place literally what it means by dying is the hard outer shell cracks and as it cracks what's inside the life of a walnut tree now not all walnuts become trees in fact this one is not going to become a tree because also the life that is inside of it the fruit that is within it is for the consumption of us so if I took and said you

know what I think I'm just gonna that just it's probably good they said to eat a walnut and I just popped it in my mouth first of all I would choke we'd have to call 9-1-1 but I cannot get the life out of this unless it's broken that makes sense so whenever I take it and that begins to happen what happens all of a sudden the life the pleasing to my body comes open the nourishment of a walnut tree now becomes nourishment for me does that make sense this is what God's saying to us and this is where most Christians never fully ever feel and experience and encounter the power of the Holy Spirit and the gifts being released is because we're unwilling to die it's not about something you soup up it's not about something getting pumped up it's not about getting your emotions up in fact I can tell you this I've been in this a long time And there's nothing wrong with display of emotions, by the way, don't hear that. But what I'm saying is that whenever you go that direction only, what happens is you start falling into literally paganism is what you start following in to mysticism, you start falling into all sorts of demonic kind of activity, and you're not listening and following the Lord. But when you choose to die to self, when you say to the Lord, I'm in, what happens is he brings situations in our life that crack the heart out or shell. Some of you right now, maybe you lost a job. Maybe you got a bad report in your health. And I'm not saying God caused it. But what I'm saying is that you have an opportunity for him to take his own divine nutcracker, if you will, and crack some more of that outer shell. So that what happens is the people that you come and encounter with are gonna start experiencing the life of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you.

Does that make sense? That's how the kingdom of God flows. And I can tell you that, you know, I've been, whenever I first stepped in to the, just the supernatural gifts of the Spirit, baptism of the Spirit, tongues, all those kind of things. Man, I was hyped up, ready to get going because what I had early learned was the idea that, man, that's the victorious life, and it is. The problem I had was I was reading the New Testament. And as you read the New Testament, here's the problem you run into. The Apostle Paul, I would say, lived the victorious life, wouldn't you? Does anybody here believe he lived the victorious life? I think some of you do. Some of you are wondering, maybe you're ready to go. I get it. He spent half of his ministry in prison. When Jesus says, anyone who will come after me, what does he mean by that? We are walking in his steps. He says it this way, if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this, you have been called, 1 Peter chapter two. Since Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should do what? Follow in his steps. You know the old, what would Jesus do, WWJD bracelets?

Came from a book that was written many, many years ago. If you've never read it, you ought to read it, called In His Steps. And it was written around that verse, 1 Peter chapter two, verses 20 through 23. And in that, here's what he's saying to us. He's calling us to die. But when we do, it's not that my body is evil. It's not that, you know, I'm not talking about you just, you know, deprive your soul and you deprive your, that's not what he's talking about. That's, you know, asceticism. That's not surrendering. What surrender is is whenever you say, I am choosing to surrender my mind and my emotions and my body to the direction and guidance of my spirit, where the Holy Spirit dwells. That's what it means. That's what surrender is. And when that happens, there's a lot of breaking going on because here's what I've found over the years. God, you know, I may tell you, hey, I'm doing good. But God doesn't say, oh, that's right, I forgot. He said, well, David, have you really opened up and looked at your motives? He starts going down to the ugly things on the inside, not because he's mad at me, but because he wants to release his kingdom through me. Does that make sense? That's what God is doing.

So this is what I wanted, that's why I brought these. They're full of walnuts. I don't want you just to take one so you can enjoy a walnut, even though I don't mind you doing that. I want to ask you, are you ready to surrender? And say, God, I don't want to just learn more about the gifts, I want to walk in them. And this is what I want you to do. Get you one, I've got, there's plenty in here. I'll put one side over here. And it's not gonna be at the invitation, but after the service, if you don't get one, great. If you don't, fine, I'll just eat them. But grab you one. And take it home. And get before God. And say, God, I do want more of your power flowing. I don't want to just. Simply be going along. I don't want to, I hear people talking about, you know, the discerning of spirits or I hear people talking about, you know, healing and the gift of healing. But I want to, I want you to release your kingdom through me. Because I've said it and I say it again and I've always said it, the same Jesus that lives in me lives in you. The same power that lives in me lives in you. The problem is not more power, the problem is more brokenness. And guess what? There are some of you that have gone through brokenness, and you know what I'm talking about, you've gone through brokenness. And in that midst of that brokenness where you felt despair, I mean deep, and hurt deep, and problems deep, it wasn't God causing them, but he allowed them because he says, I'm breaking the outer man. As Paul says, though my outer self is wasting away, my inner man is being

renewed day by day. Amen? So let me pray for us and then we'll be ready to go and get you a walnut, all right? Father, we come and know that, Lord, that you have a broken world around us and you haven't called us to just avoid it in the sense of stay away from it. You've called us to be in it, not of it, but in it because you want your kingdom to be seen. Our Jesus, you told us that we're to let our light shine before men, that we are the salt of the earth. And so, Father, I just pray that for many that are here, if they'll take one of these walnuts, I pray, Father, that you will turn it in not just to an illustration, but to a spiritual encounter with you where they step into brokenness, maybe for the first time. For others, maybe it's another time, or maybe it's just a reminder of what you're currently doing, or what you've done in the past. You and them will know. And I pray, Father, that what happens is that we'll begin to see you unleash through us words of wisdom, words of knowledge, discerning of spirits, not only in our homes and in our lives and in the people around us, but in our church. And God, that through that, that your kingdom will advance in magnitudes of ways that we could have never dreamed otherwise. So, Lord, do this for your glory, and I pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. All right.