Romans 12:6
• Prophecy
• Ministering
• Teaching
• Exhortation
• Giving with simplicity
• Ruling with diligence
• Showing mercy with Cheerfulness
1CORINTHIANS12:8-12
The Gift of;
• Word of Wisdom
• Word of Knowledge
• Faith
• Healing
• Working of Miracles
• Prophecy
• Discerning of Spirits
• Divers kinds of Tongues
• Interpretation of Tongues
I believe that one of the biggest reasons that the body of Christ hasn't made a greater impact on our generation today like in the book of Acts is Discerning of our failure to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Without a doubt, Jesus and the first apostles used the gifts like a bell, calling men to their message and confirming that God was truly the One speaking through them.
Hebrews 2:3-4 says,
"How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?" The Lord bore witness to the accuracy of their message through miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit.
In Mark 16:17-18, Jesus said all true believers would flow in the miraculous: "And these signs will follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
If a Christian's life isn't supernatural, it's superficial. If its possible for you to explain away every event in your life then you are in the natural not in the supernatural . This is a radical statement going by todays trend in the church.
Mark goes on to say that messages based in God's Word would be confirmed by signs following: "So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen."
Jesus even said, "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not" (John 10:37). That's another strong statement.
If we were to apply that standard to ministers today, that means most wouldn't be believed. The vast majority of preaching done in the name of the Lord today is without the power of the Holy Spirit manifest through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is not the way the Lord intended it to be.
The "main line" denominations have developed doctrines to cope with this obvious discrepancy. And many church goers having no experience of these things think its okay to do without them.
However, regardless of the rationale, it's absurd to think that we can be effective without the power of the Holy Spirit confirming the preaching of God's Word. If Jesus and the early apostles needed their preaching validated, how can we do any less? "signs and wonders in a sense are God's trademark of approval, otherwise that preaching is just cheap talk.
Even the non-denominational churches have fallen away from ministering in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gifts that operate in most "Spirit-filled" churches are simply words of exhortation or prophecy, but the bible reveals much more.
The Lord has used the gifts of the Holy Spirit mightily in my life and ministry to confirm His Word. There are countless times when people were still skeptical after hearing me teach, but the demonstration of God's power through the gifts turned them into believers. It's like the teaching fills their mouths with God's Word, then the gifts of the Holy Spirit slap them on the back and make them swallow it. Hallelujah!
One of the most important steps to flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit is to earnestly desire them.
• Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12:31, "But covet earnestly the best gifts."
• He repeated that thought in 1 Corinthians 14:1 when he said, "Desire spiritual gifts." Simply put, for as long as you can live without flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you will. You have to seek these gifts with all your heart, as its not a half hearted experience (Jer. 29:13). "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."
It's also very important to understand that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are always flowing. God doesn't turn them "on" and "off." We are the ones who are "on" or "off." That's a startling statement to many people and one that verges on blasphemy to some, but it's true. The Lord is always ready to flow through us in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
It's just like praying in tongues. We don't have to wait for the anointing of the Holy Spirit to come on us to speak in tongues. We can pray in tongues at any time. It's not us turning on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is always on and giving us the ability to speak in tongues. Therefore, whenever we turn ourselves on, the gift of tongues is there to allow us to communicate with our heavenly Father. Praise the Lord! That's the way it is with all the gifts.
One time when Andrew Womack was teaching along these lines in Charis Bible College. One of the students said, "So, you are saying that you can flow in the gifts of the Holy Spirit at any time?" Andrfew said , "That's right and I'll prove it to you." He then started down each row and just started "reading the students' mail. He was telling them things that had to be coming from the Holy Spirit. It was awesome.
No one has received everything that the Holy Spirit has for them. Therefore, the Lord is always seeking to release more to us through His supernatural gifts. Whenever we put ourselves in a mode to be His channel, His gifts will flow. The old "Pentecostal" doctrine of the anointing coming and going is not a New Testament truth. First John 2:27 says, "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you."
Another great truth about flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit is what John Osteen called "the divine flow." This is based on, "God is love"
(1 John 4:8). --"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." Therefore, whenever we discern the love of God flowing through us toward someone, God is reaching out to them through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. All we have to do is follow that flow through faith.
Once when Andrew Wommack was pastoring a little church in Pritchett, Colorado, his heart just went out to a woman in the back of the room. He'd never seen her before, and there was nothing natural that drew him to her. It was just the love of God flowing through him to her. Because of that love alone, he told her that God had a word for her. Andrew didn't have one single word to say to her, but he knew God's love was flowing; and therefore, God and His gifts were flowing to her. So Womack just started by saying, "God loves you." God then flooded his mind with things to minister to her.
It was a long word from the Lord, but Andrew specifically told her about how she was grieving over the loss of someone and was confused about why God allowed it. Andrew kept saying, "It wasn't God that allowed it. It was the Destroyer." He said that a number of times. She broke down in tears and was really ministered to.
After the service, she told him that she had just lost her son to leukemia. They believed that God allowed this disease. But just before her son died, her husband saw this huge demon over their town, which the Lord told him was named the Destroyer. They didn't know how to interpret that until Andrew spoke to them through the gifts of the Holy Spirit and put it all in order. They were set free.
This was the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom in operation. God gave Andrew the knowledge of what had happened and then gave words of wisdom to instruct them on how to deal with it. This all came because Andrfew followed the love that I felt in my heart.
This has happened to us all, but most of the time we don't understand this is a gift of the Holy Spirit, and we miss an opportunity. According to Andrew he learned this the hard way.
There was a man who had been Andrew's youth director when he was just a young boy. He left our Baptist church before Andrew was a teenager, and Andrew heard how he had been baptized in the Holy Spirit and was seeing great miracles happen. He had one room in his church that was filled with the wheelchairs, crutches, and braces of people who were healed and didn't need them anymore.
During a three- or four-month period of time, Andrew thought about this man often. It was usually while he was in prayer that he would just come to mind, and Andrew would feel the compassion of God toward him. He would just wonder what was happening with him and then dismiss the thoughts. Later, he found that he had died in a freak accident where a red ant bit him on the thumb, imagine.
As soon as Wommack heard of his death, he knew that the reason he had been thinking of him so often was because the Lord was trying to get him to intercede for him. Over a decade later, Andrew met this man's son, and he confessed to him his failure to pray for his dad. He told him that he was at least the twelfth person who had told him a similar story. The Lord had impressed many of them to intercede for this man, but none of them recognized it as the Lord.
It is imperative that we learn to recognize and flow in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It's not only a blessing to us, but the lives of other people may depend on it. You are carrying someone's miracle. Don't let it stay inside. You have to learn how to release it.
There is much more that the Lord has shown us about flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This article doesn't come close to covering all the material but there are series by Andrew Wommack entitled, How To: Flow in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Getting to Hear God's Voice, Tuning your Receiver
One of the greatest benefits of our salvation has to be that of hearing God speak to us personally. There can be no intimate relationship with our heavenly Father without it. But, as easy as it is for us to speak to Him, most of us believers have a hard time hearing His voice.
This is not the way the Lord intended it to be. This is an abnormality. We are spirit beings who should live in the supernatural, as its the parent realm and faith is what reconnects us back into that realm from this physical realm we live in.
Learning to clearly distinguish God's voice is invaluable. Instead of going through life blindly, we can have the wisdom of God guide and protect us. There isn't a single person reading this letter who couldn't have their life radically transformed by hearing the voice of the Lord better. If you have sickness or disease, one living word from the Lord will instantly heal you. If you are in financial crisis, the Lord knows exactly how to turn your situation around. It's just a matter of hearing His voice. You might be at the brink of death and yet one tiny piece of information could tremendously save your life.
For example some URA staff could have been involved in the bomb blasts at Kyadondo if it wasnt for CG's invitation to the drive in at NIP. Maybe the Lord was behind that very unusual gesture, but the point is that God was behind the protection of the URA staff from that explosion.
The Lord constantly speaks to us and gives us His direction. It's never the Lord who is not speaking, but it's us who are not hearing. Jesus made some radical statements about hearing His voice in John 10:3-5. He was speaking about Himself as the Shepherd of the sheep and the only way to enter the sheepfold.
"To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice; and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers."
Notice that He said in verse 3, His sheep hear His voice. He didn't say His sheep CAN hear His voice or SHOULD hear His voice. He made the emphatic statement that His sheep DO hear His voice. Its like saying Living beings breath air, period. So as a sheep you have been inbuilt with a God hearing device, the question is whether you use it.
Most Christians would question the accuracy of the above statements since their experiences don't line up with what I am saying. But it's not what Jesus said that is wrong; all true believers can and do hear the voice of God; they just don't recognize that what they are hearing is God's voice.
Radio, television and mobile phone transmitters send out signals twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week; but we only hear them when we turn the receiver on and tune it in. A mobile phone is a receiver as well. Failure to hear the signal doesn't mean the station isn't transmitting. If your phone loses network it is not the problem of MTN or Warid.
Likewise, God is constantly transmitting His voice to His sheep, but few are turned on and tuned in. Its just like saying that God is always posting emails to your mailbox, but the question is ...do you access it and read them, before you complain that God is not communicating?
Most Christians are busy pleading with God in prayer to transmit when the problem is with their receivers. They are haranging God to drop them directions when they do not open their mailboxes which are incidentally very accessible.
The first thing we need to do is fix our receivers or get into the habit of accessing and reading our spiritual emails — believe that God is already speaking or sending emails and now it is time for you to embark on listening in or reading your messages.
However, note that is gonna take you time, some serious persistence, and steady focus. The average Christian's lifestyle is so hectic, it isn't conducive to hearing God's voice. In URA with all the pressure and balanced score card and perfomance objectives, life has become even more hectic.
For instance, what is your typical answer to the question, "How are you?" Many of you probably answer something about being very busy or something like "very stressed". I often say, "I'm busier than a mother with triplets." All of us seem to be busier than ever, and that's one of the BIG reasons we don't hear the voice of the Lord better. This is the trend everywhere.
We're just too busy. There's hardly any space for quiet time even for our earthly darlings. We are just super busy, we even take work home with or without good planning. Everything is an emergency. Any time that we free up is promptly taken up by entertainment, fellowship or overnights. There is always stuff that is awaiting.
Psalm 46:10 says,
"Be still, and know that I am God."
It's in stillness, not busyness, that we tune our spiritual ears to hear the voice of God. You can only know God when your engine is in idle state rather than in motion. The Lord always speaks to us in that "STILL, small voice" (1 Kings 19:12, emphasis mine), but often it's drowned out amid all the turmoil of our daily lives. We run a very tight ship.
Second, and this is very important, most often we mistake the voice of the Lord for our own thoughts. That's right. I said the voice of the Lord comes to us in our own thoughts. Its like when your stomach rumbles to your mind about hunger, you wont say my stomach is hungry. Instead it comes out of your mouth as if its your thought. You say to yourself, i need to eat in a monotone or self-tone.
In the same way your spirit Man speaks to your brain or mind what he receives from God. Your new man communicates telepathically with God- The Holy Spirit and the two are in perfect harmony as your spirit is IDENTICAL to Jesus. One Spirit speaks to another spirit. Both are in the spirit realm, your body/mind which is in the physical realm simply captures it, as a thought and converts the thought into audio format when u speak or verbalize your thoughts
John 4:24 says,
"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
This is saying that communication with God is Spirit to spirit, not brain to brain or mouth to ear, the way we communicate in the physical realm. The Lord speaks to our spirits, not in words, but in thoughts and impressions. Then our spirits speak to our minds which we capture in our imagination or subconscious in thoughts and convert to words like, "I think the Lord wants me to do this or that."
The Lord doesn't typically say "You do this or that," like a second voice from outer space, but He will impress your spirit to do something, and then your spirit says, "I think I should do . . ." when it dawns on your mind. Therefore, we often miss the leading of the Lord, thinking it's our own thoughts.
Every one of us has done something that we later regretted afterwards saying, "I knew that was the wrong thing to do. Something tried holding me back but I insisted" We didn't feel right about our decision, but we followed reasoning or logic or pressure rather than intuition only to find that our impression was right all along and that it was actually the Lord speaking to us. Sometimes it is our senses or the carnal nature that clouds God's leading.
I learned this the hard way when I started making bricks for my house using the soil on my plot. Before I went into the venture something was holding me back and telling me to instead buy.
Initially I had incurred serious losses with the very 1st "tanulu" or Kiln when I began construction. Now later as I made bricks for the perimeter wall I felt an impression to quit the idea with the 1st porter handling the project. Matter of fact that "tanulu" had even collapsed during the baking process.
So I hired a more skilled porter but immediately my heart was not at peace with this guy, yet physically he was more energetic and skilled. I reasoned a lot with keeping this fellow at my premises as I gave him other duties apart from brickmaking in his free time. The truth is that guy was hardworking although he was a habitual drunko and sometimes he would steal our food which was in the store adjacent to his living quaters, to fund his drinking habit.
To cut the story short 2 years later this guy became the devil himself, there is hardly anything I ever profited in any of the work he undertook. Things would seem like they are shifting but then turn out badly in the end. On top of being a theif, I discovered that he had abondoned his family and kept rejecting my calls for him to get saved after preaching grace to him on many ocassions. Can u imagine my wife through her intuition felt that we should terminate his work immediately, however, being a man, I went with logic or my reasoning instead of my heart. I made some of the worst losses in terms of where I used the money for the house.
It was a terrible experience. As soon as this man showed his true colors, I knew in my heart that the feelings and thoughts I had were the Lord speaking to me, and I had dismissed them as my own. I made a decision there and then that I would never ignore my heart again.Sometimes we call this intuition but it needs to backed by scripture to know that it is not carnal. Women especially, have great intution developed from being mothers.
Psalm 37:4 says,
"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."
This verse has often been interpreted to mean that the Lord will give you whatever you want and has been used to justify selfish mortives, greed, and even adultery. But it doesn't mean that the Lord will give you whatever you want; it means that when you are seeking the Lord, He will put His wants or desires into your heart. He will make His desires become your desires. The Lord changes your "want tos." Then you will find that when u want something its like God himself wanting it, and God always gets His wants met.
A friend of mine survived the Sunday bomb blast because he got a sudden urge to go to the loos at the precise moment of the explosion. Again many guys survived because they decided to go to a different place on that fateful day.
I for one had prepared to hang out that night and watch that cup final in an unsual place with my Wife, but I was interrupted by a late night visitor. Who knows I could have ended up there and we'd be both dead. Actually towards the start of the match I lost interest in going out and this was compounded when my wife suddenly abondoned the idea of partying that night.
That is the dominant way the Lord speaks to us, and we often miss that kind of communication. Its like missing timely intelligence information and then you wind up with a bomb blast.
As believers we need to get into the habit of listening. Some people who have advanced in these things have setup personal listening posts already. This is the best intelligence information you can get even it sounds crazy.
Am in the midst of making one of the most important decisions of my life. Ever since the Lord touched me with the revelation of Grace I have began feeling I should not be where I am currently. My desires have changed, and I don't want to be in a certain place anymore. And following those new desires, I intend to make a radical decision to quit.
There are many risks with that decision and I am sure some people might hate me for being "unreasonable". But when I look at the prospects and the divine purpose of my decision I know this is not the work of the devil. I stand to lose many opportunities, friends and about 1.2 million per month in Salary, plus possible hindrance in supporting the education of my children, but I also stand to gain much much more.
Madness is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result each time. I have been buried at this place for over 13 years with fear to make a radical decision, and as a result I have not experienced radical changes in my life. If you aim at nothing you hit nothing. If you aim at the stars you could easily hit the moon.
I have toyed with this idea since 2009, because of these adverse risks to my decision, I had backed off for a while and I have been absolutely miserable. This has been going on for 1 year and I feel I cannot take it anymore, I just know that I have to move and If I do It will spark off a series of activities in the spirit realm that are mainly to my benefit and calling.
When I read Romans 14:23, it says,
"Whatsoever is not of faith is sin."
With this verse I realize It is sin to be undecided and yet I feel the time is now. By the way the bible says the Just shall live by faith and that those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham, its like faith drives you into the spirit realm away from the physical carnal realm.
Back in the old testament people were spiritually dead but God was able to use them mightily whenever they put their faith in Him. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Samson were not exactly holy but God used them and yet He considered them friends. These guys were not saved, but through their faith they experienced God's power and were in a sense saved on Credit.
We are supposed to walk by faith and not sight. It is always better to make a mistake in faith than ignore God's leading. There is a strong connection between faith and the supernatural realm. Even non believers who follow intuition and God's promptings are far better than believers who do not and have gotten all rational and confused with indecision, double mindedness resulting from mixing law and grace.
Anyway I am determined to make a faith decision and I believe I will stick with it. As I pray and study the Word for guidance, let me share Colossians 3:15, which says,
"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts."
The Lord will always lead you into the direction that gives you the most peace. To be truthful, I don't have total peace in any direction, whether to stay or move on but just as an umpire has to make a decision and stick with it, I need to make the call. I have the most peace about quitting this place, so I intend to make the call and step out of indecision into faith, to the best of my understanding.
Already in my Spirit I feel like The Lord has already began giving me such confirmation and joy that I have no doubt about the decision. I know there will be an avalanche of opportunities and activity in the spirit realm the moment I put pen to paper. Somehow my sitting on the fence is holding up so many things including the deployment of angels to their assignments. Its that serious guys.
That one decision, possibly more than any other, might set my life on a course that might bring me to the place I never dreamt I would be. It seems I have not been living up until now.
I am convinced that our gracious heavenly Father speaks constantly to every one of His children in this way, giving us all the information and guidance we need to be total overcomers. There isn't a problem with His transmitter; it's our receiver that needs help, its our mailbox that needs sorting out. Its our mails that need to be read, its that intelligent piece of infomation that needs to be processed in a timely manner.
Most people are imploring God to speak, when it's our inbuilt hearing device that needs to be adjusted. Taking this faith-stance that God is speaking and then learning to listen and obey will transform your relationship with the Lord. It could even save your life. Am sure that most of the 7/11 survivors in Kampala did something similar to this kind of thing and survived.
If CG had not invited URA staff for the NIP drive in, many URA staff would have been among the dead of 7/11. That invitation could have been the result of a prompting by God.
This is not the way the Lord intended it to be. This is an abnormality. We are spirit beings who should live in the supernatural, as its the parent realm and faith is what reconnects us back into that realm from this physical realm we live in.
Learning to clearly distinguish God's voice is invaluable. Instead of going through life blindly, we can have the wisdom of God guide and protect us. There isn't a single person reading this letter who couldn't have their life radically transformed by hearing the voice of the Lord better. If you have sickness or disease, one living word from the Lord will instantly heal you. If you are in financial crisis, the Lord knows exactly how to turn your situation around. It's just a matter of hearing His voice. You might be at the brink of death and yet one tiny piece of information could tremendously save your life.
For example some URA staff could have been involved in the bomb blasts at Kyadondo if it wasnt for CG's invitation to the drive in at NIP. Maybe the Lord was behind that very unusual gesture, but the point is that God was behind the protection of the URA staff from that explosion.
The Lord constantly speaks to us and gives us His direction. It's never the Lord who is not speaking, but it's us who are not hearing. Jesus made some radical statements about hearing His voice in John 10:3-5. He was speaking about Himself as the Shepherd of the sheep and the only way to enter the sheepfold.
"To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice; and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers."
Notice that He said in verse 3, His sheep hear His voice. He didn't say His sheep CAN hear His voice or SHOULD hear His voice. He made the emphatic statement that His sheep DO hear His voice. Its like saying Living beings breath air, period. So as a sheep you have been inbuilt with a God hearing device, the question is whether you use it.
Most Christians would question the accuracy of the above statements since their experiences don't line up with what I am saying. But it's not what Jesus said that is wrong; all true believers can and do hear the voice of God; they just don't recognize that what they are hearing is God's voice.
Radio, television and mobile phone transmitters send out signals twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week; but we only hear them when we turn the receiver on and tune it in. A mobile phone is a receiver as well. Failure to hear the signal doesn't mean the station isn't transmitting. If your phone loses network it is not the problem of MTN or Warid.
Likewise, God is constantly transmitting His voice to His sheep, but few are turned on and tuned in. Its just like saying that God is always posting emails to your mailbox, but the question is ...do you access it and read them, before you complain that God is not communicating?
Most Christians are busy pleading with God in prayer to transmit when the problem is with their receivers. They are haranging God to drop them directions when they do not open their mailboxes which are incidentally very accessible.
The first thing we need to do is fix our receivers or get into the habit of accessing and reading our spiritual emails — believe that God is already speaking or sending emails and now it is time for you to embark on listening in or reading your messages.
However, note that is gonna take you time, some serious persistence, and steady focus. The average Christian's lifestyle is so hectic, it isn't conducive to hearing God's voice. In URA with all the pressure and balanced score card and perfomance objectives, life has become even more hectic.
For instance, what is your typical answer to the question, "How are you?" Many of you probably answer something about being very busy or something like "very stressed". I often say, "I'm busier than a mother with triplets." All of us seem to be busier than ever, and that's one of the BIG reasons we don't hear the voice of the Lord better. This is the trend everywhere.
We're just too busy. There's hardly any space for quiet time even for our earthly darlings. We are just super busy, we even take work home with or without good planning. Everything is an emergency. Any time that we free up is promptly taken up by entertainment, fellowship or overnights. There is always stuff that is awaiting.
Psalm 46:10 says,
"Be still, and know that I am God."
It's in stillness, not busyness, that we tune our spiritual ears to hear the voice of God. You can only know God when your engine is in idle state rather than in motion. The Lord always speaks to us in that "STILL, small voice" (1 Kings 19:12, emphasis mine), but often it's drowned out amid all the turmoil of our daily lives. We run a very tight ship.
Second, and this is very important, most often we mistake the voice of the Lord for our own thoughts. That's right. I said the voice of the Lord comes to us in our own thoughts. Its like when your stomach rumbles to your mind about hunger, you wont say my stomach is hungry. Instead it comes out of your mouth as if its your thought. You say to yourself, i need to eat in a monotone or self-tone.
In the same way your spirit Man speaks to your brain or mind what he receives from God. Your new man communicates telepathically with God- The Holy Spirit and the two are in perfect harmony as your spirit is IDENTICAL to Jesus. One Spirit speaks to another spirit. Both are in the spirit realm, your body/mind which is in the physical realm simply captures it, as a thought and converts the thought into audio format when u speak or verbalize your thoughts
John 4:24 says,
"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
This is saying that communication with God is Spirit to spirit, not brain to brain or mouth to ear, the way we communicate in the physical realm. The Lord speaks to our spirits, not in words, but in thoughts and impressions. Then our spirits speak to our minds which we capture in our imagination or subconscious in thoughts and convert to words like, "I think the Lord wants me to do this or that."
The Lord doesn't typically say "You do this or that," like a second voice from outer space, but He will impress your spirit to do something, and then your spirit says, "I think I should do . . ." when it dawns on your mind. Therefore, we often miss the leading of the Lord, thinking it's our own thoughts.
Every one of us has done something that we later regretted afterwards saying, "I knew that was the wrong thing to do. Something tried holding me back but I insisted" We didn't feel right about our decision, but we followed reasoning or logic or pressure rather than intuition only to find that our impression was right all along and that it was actually the Lord speaking to us. Sometimes it is our senses or the carnal nature that clouds God's leading.
I learned this the hard way when I started making bricks for my house using the soil on my plot. Before I went into the venture something was holding me back and telling me to instead buy.
Initially I had incurred serious losses with the very 1st "tanulu" or Kiln when I began construction. Now later as I made bricks for the perimeter wall I felt an impression to quit the idea with the 1st porter handling the project. Matter of fact that "tanulu" had even collapsed during the baking process.
So I hired a more skilled porter but immediately my heart was not at peace with this guy, yet physically he was more energetic and skilled. I reasoned a lot with keeping this fellow at my premises as I gave him other duties apart from brickmaking in his free time. The truth is that guy was hardworking although he was a habitual drunko and sometimes he would steal our food which was in the store adjacent to his living quaters, to fund his drinking habit.
To cut the story short 2 years later this guy became the devil himself, there is hardly anything I ever profited in any of the work he undertook. Things would seem like they are shifting but then turn out badly in the end. On top of being a theif, I discovered that he had abondoned his family and kept rejecting my calls for him to get saved after preaching grace to him on many ocassions. Can u imagine my wife through her intuition felt that we should terminate his work immediately, however, being a man, I went with logic or my reasoning instead of my heart. I made some of the worst losses in terms of where I used the money for the house.
It was a terrible experience. As soon as this man showed his true colors, I knew in my heart that the feelings and thoughts I had were the Lord speaking to me, and I had dismissed them as my own. I made a decision there and then that I would never ignore my heart again.Sometimes we call this intuition but it needs to backed by scripture to know that it is not carnal. Women especially, have great intution developed from being mothers.
Psalm 37:4 says,
"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."
This verse has often been interpreted to mean that the Lord will give you whatever you want and has been used to justify selfish mortives, greed, and even adultery. But it doesn't mean that the Lord will give you whatever you want; it means that when you are seeking the Lord, He will put His wants or desires into your heart. He will make His desires become your desires. The Lord changes your "want tos." Then you will find that when u want something its like God himself wanting it, and God always gets His wants met.
A friend of mine survived the Sunday bomb blast because he got a sudden urge to go to the loos at the precise moment of the explosion. Again many guys survived because they decided to go to a different place on that fateful day.
I for one had prepared to hang out that night and watch that cup final in an unsual place with my Wife, but I was interrupted by a late night visitor. Who knows I could have ended up there and we'd be both dead. Actually towards the start of the match I lost interest in going out and this was compounded when my wife suddenly abondoned the idea of partying that night.
That is the dominant way the Lord speaks to us, and we often miss that kind of communication. Its like missing timely intelligence information and then you wind up with a bomb blast.
As believers we need to get into the habit of listening. Some people who have advanced in these things have setup personal listening posts already. This is the best intelligence information you can get even it sounds crazy.
Am in the midst of making one of the most important decisions of my life. Ever since the Lord touched me with the revelation of Grace I have began feeling I should not be where I am currently. My desires have changed, and I don't want to be in a certain place anymore. And following those new desires, I intend to make a radical decision to quit.
There are many risks with that decision and I am sure some people might hate me for being "unreasonable". But when I look at the prospects and the divine purpose of my decision I know this is not the work of the devil. I stand to lose many opportunities, friends and about 1.2 million per month in Salary, plus possible hindrance in supporting the education of my children, but I also stand to gain much much more.
Madness is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result each time. I have been buried at this place for over 13 years with fear to make a radical decision, and as a result I have not experienced radical changes in my life. If you aim at nothing you hit nothing. If you aim at the stars you could easily hit the moon.
I have toyed with this idea since 2009, because of these adverse risks to my decision, I had backed off for a while and I have been absolutely miserable. This has been going on for 1 year and I feel I cannot take it anymore, I just know that I have to move and If I do It will spark off a series of activities in the spirit realm that are mainly to my benefit and calling.
When I read Romans 14:23, it says,
"Whatsoever is not of faith is sin."
With this verse I realize It is sin to be undecided and yet I feel the time is now. By the way the bible says the Just shall live by faith and that those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham, its like faith drives you into the spirit realm away from the physical carnal realm.
Back in the old testament people were spiritually dead but God was able to use them mightily whenever they put their faith in Him. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Samson were not exactly holy but God used them and yet He considered them friends. These guys were not saved, but through their faith they experienced God's power and were in a sense saved on Credit.
We are supposed to walk by faith and not sight. It is always better to make a mistake in faith than ignore God's leading. There is a strong connection between faith and the supernatural realm. Even non believers who follow intuition and God's promptings are far better than believers who do not and have gotten all rational and confused with indecision, double mindedness resulting from mixing law and grace.
Anyway I am determined to make a faith decision and I believe I will stick with it. As I pray and study the Word for guidance, let me share Colossians 3:15, which says,
"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts."
The Lord will always lead you into the direction that gives you the most peace. To be truthful, I don't have total peace in any direction, whether to stay or move on but just as an umpire has to make a decision and stick with it, I need to make the call. I have the most peace about quitting this place, so I intend to make the call and step out of indecision into faith, to the best of my understanding.
Already in my Spirit I feel like The Lord has already began giving me such confirmation and joy that I have no doubt about the decision. I know there will be an avalanche of opportunities and activity in the spirit realm the moment I put pen to paper. Somehow my sitting on the fence is holding up so many things including the deployment of angels to their assignments. Its that serious guys.
That one decision, possibly more than any other, might set my life on a course that might bring me to the place I never dreamt I would be. It seems I have not been living up until now.
I am convinced that our gracious heavenly Father speaks constantly to every one of His children in this way, giving us all the information and guidance we need to be total overcomers. There isn't a problem with His transmitter; it's our receiver that needs help, its our mailbox that needs sorting out. Its our mails that need to be read, its that intelligent piece of infomation that needs to be processed in a timely manner.
Most people are imploring God to speak, when it's our inbuilt hearing device that needs to be adjusted. Taking this faith-stance that God is speaking and then learning to listen and obey will transform your relationship with the Lord. It could even save your life. Am sure that most of the 7/11 survivors in Kampala did something similar to this kind of thing and survived.
If CG had not invited URA staff for the NIP drive in, many URA staff would have been among the dead of 7/11. That invitation could have been the result of a prompting by God.
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