So that we might understand
We speak these things that the Holy Spirit has given us, with spiritual words that He has taught us
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| End Time Guidance and Leading - Holy Spirit Praying | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The end time church needs to have a method of guidance that allows Jesus to be the head of the church in a practical way. In most churches today, the pastor along with the elders, seek God for the direction of the church from Jesus and then bring what they get to the church. This seems alright, so what?s the problem? The problem with this is that Jesus directions are always conveyed to the church by a middle-man, which opens up the possibility for it to be tainted by that person or person?s biases, opinions, attitude, etc. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| There needs to be a procedure for Jesus to be able to lead the church in a more direct way. Obviously the most effective manner would be for him to physically appear and tell us what to do. But since that doesn?t happen very frequently we need something else. What we have found to be the most effective way so far is Holy Spirit Praying. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| What is Holy Spirit Praying | ||||||||||||||||||||
| We had a deliverance minister, Richard Tackman, come to our church and teach us a new process for doing deliverance (Coal of Fire #11) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| In this deliverance process, one of the first things we were taught to do, was to ask the Holy Spirit who came into this person?s life when they were first born again, which unclean spirit the Lord wanted us to deal with in a person?s life. The response was, they would hear an answer pop into their head and after checking it we would proceed to cast that spirit out. Then at the end of the deliverance, we would again address the Holy Spirit and ask what blessings He would like us to pray back into their life to fill up the void left by the unclean spirit?s departure and again they would hear the answers pop into to their head. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| One night the thought occurred to me, if we could ask the Holy Spirit these questions during deliverance and get answers, why couldn't we use the process and ask the Lord about other things in our lives. So my wife and I stay up late one night and did a little experimenting and discovered that we could. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| We found out that we could ask about direction in our life, what our ministry is, what our gifts are, what needs to be dealt with in healing someone, how our walk with Him is going and on and on. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 	At first, this just seemed to be too good to be true, because for most of my Christian life, alot of my time in prayer was spent just agonizing over what God was trying to tell me. So to just ask God and get the answer right away seemed some how like we were cheating. However a thought came wouldn?t it be neat to spend the bulk of my time in prayer on doing God's will instead if trying to figure out what it was. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| But can we find it in the Bible? | ||||||||||||||||||||
| To answer this question we need to do a biblical study on the topic. To start off we need to examine the relationship between Prophecy and Holy Spirit Praying? | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Prophecy - Is when the Holy Spirit who is resident in a person?s life, speaks the Word of the Lord through the person to those around. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Holy Spirit Praying ? Takes prophecy one step further, so that after He has spoken the word of the Lord through that person, we are able to respond and ask the Holy Spirit, who is resident in that person a question, and the Holy Spirit is able to answer us through that person. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 Cor 12:2,3 - You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the dumb idols, however you were led. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Shows us that the way we are different from pagans is that there gods are dumb, they can?t speak, where as we serve a God who does speak. This being the case, we then need to have a way to make sure it is Him and not an unclean spirit. This leads us to the next verse where Paul gives us a way of testing to see if who we are hearing is the Spirit of God. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 Therefore I make known to you, that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed"; and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| In 1 John 4:1,2 - we are given a second way to test the spirits 1)Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2) This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Here?s a question for you to ponder, "If the only spirits we can talk to, are unclean spirits, then why do we need a test?" | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The next logical question then is how does a spirit God?s or an unclean spirit speaks through a person. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| In Luke 8:27	And when He had come out onto the land, He was met by a certain man from the city who was possessed with demons; and who had not put on any clothing for a long time, and was not living in a house, but in the tombs. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 28	And seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before Him, and said in a loud voice, "What do I have to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me." 29 For He had been commanding the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had seized him many times; and he was bound with chains and shackles and kept under guard; and yet he would burst his fetters and be driven by the demon into the desert. 30 And Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Legion"; for many demons had entered him. 31 And they were entreating Him not to command them to depart into the abyss. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| In these verses we see that these spirits used the man?s mouth and voice to talk to Jesus. So then obvious next question is "Can God's Holy Spirit also speak through a person?" | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Matt 10:19 But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20	for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| In 1 Cor. 2:11-16 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 11	For who among men know the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 12	We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 13	This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 16	"For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Let me summarize, in point form, the logical progression that is revealed in these verses:The only one who knows the thoughts of God is | ||||||||||||||||||||
| His Spirit.We have been given His Spirit So that we might understand We speak these things that the Holy Spirit has given us, with spiritual words that He has taught us |
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| 5) Since we have received the Holy Spirit and He know the mind of the Lord; therefore we do have access to the mind of Christ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| We have had some people who challenge us, saying "Isn?t it rather presumptuous of us to think that we can just go and ask God questions, like he is at our beck and call?" | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The answer is in James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Almost every Christian knows this verse and quotes it when they are in perplexing times, but it has often caused as much frustration as it has comfort. The reason why if a person is in a situation that they don?t know what to do, in most cases they have already been praying up a storm and asking God but they are still confused, so this verse is just a frustration. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| If, however it means going to another Christian or a group of Christians and asking God the questions through them, now the verse makes sense. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Leading and Guidance of the End Time Church | ||||||||||||||||||||
| So how does this all apply to the leading and guidance of the endtime church? | ||||||||||||||||||||
| "Holy Spirit Praying" provides the church with a method of hearing God in a corporate manner. This way, the church is lead, in a more direct manner from the Lord. The key then in making decisions is what is the Spirit saying to the church, not what we work out politically. Many times all of the leaders and elders won't want to do a certain action, but the Lord makes it clear that it is His will, so that is what the church does because Jesus is the leader. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Doing "Holy Spirit Prayer" over all of the major decisions of the Church or a person's life will be just a matter of course. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Practical Instructions | ||||||||||||||||||||
| In the Presence of Many Counselors | ||||||||||||||||||||
| We have learned that Holy Spirit praying works best when you pray with a group of people, "In the presence of many counselors there is safety". The reason for this is because when we hear from God what we get is a mixture of soul and Spirit. If we have been diligent to let the word of God have it's effect to rightly divide between soul and spirit (Heb. 4:12) then we will know which part of what we are hearing is from the spirit and which part is from our soul. The picture of this person is like a sink that has twotaps; one hot (Holy Spirit) and one cold (our soul). It is very easy to know which one is which. Most people, however, are like a sink that has the two taps but only one faucet, so the hot and cold water gets mixed together and comes out warm. This makes it very difficult, in trying to discern which part is from the Holy Spirit and which part is coming a person's soul. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| When we try to discern the word a person gets a word from God, like putting our hands in the stream of water coming out from the tap, we can feel the warmth so we know that the Holy Spirit is in there some where, but we also notice that it's not hot, so we know that there is some soul also mixed in there, but we don't know which is which. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| We have discovered that if you pray with a number of different people, that part of the word that is from the Holy Spirit, will keep popping up over again and again and those parts that are from the soul, are all different and are just ignored. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Remember as we hear spiritual things it comes through our mind and get interpreted by us. So, for instance, God could show us all the same spirit that is attacking the church, but one person would interpret it as "violence", the next "aggression", the next "pushy", the next "violator", the next "severity". | ||||||||||||||||||||
| I think you are starting to get the idea, since the spiritual concept comes through human vessels and our interpretations, there needs to be some understanding of that, when you put the results together. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| What happens if it isn't clear in the group? | ||||||||||||||||||||
| We have found there are usually 3 reasons for it.1) One ore more of us are so much in the flesh we aren't hearing clearly | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 2) The enemy has a number of curses in this area that is causing confusion | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 3) It just isn't God's time for us to hear it yet | ||||||||||||||||||||