Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of understanding and operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as outlined in 1 Corinthians 12. He stresses that these gifts are available to every believer and encourages the congregation to recognize and act upon the subtle impressions from the Holy Spirit, rather than waiting for dramatic manifestations. Bickle explains the nine gifts, categorizing them into revelation, power, and utterance gifts, and highlights the importance of faith and expression in activating these gifts. He urges believers to value the 'whispers' of the Spirit and to step out in faith to minister to others, thereby experiencing the power of God in their lives.

Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus for the Word of God. We ask you for impartation. We ask you for instruction. We ask you to build our faith by hearing the Word. For faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God. In the name of Jesus, amen. Well, tonight I want to talk about the gifts of the Spirit. The nine gifts of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12. I want to give a just real brief definition of the nine. And give a gifts of the Spirit 101 course here. Just for just one brief session here. 1 Corinthians 12 verse 1. Paul the apostle says, I do not want you to be ignorant of the spiritual gifts. And much of the body of Christ is ignorant of the spiritual gifts. Meaning they've not been taught them. It's not normal for them to expect them. And when people are unaware of the spiritual gifts, the teaching on them and what they mean, they back away from them. And they don't expect them. And if they don't expect them, they don't operate in them. So it begins by being informed. The opposite of ignorance. Being informed. Because Romans 10, 17 says, faith comes by hearing the Word of God. So when we give instruction, faith arises. Ignorance or no teaching on it, unbelief sets in. Paragraph B, the manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for everyone. For every single believer. Every born-again believer. Let's read 1 Corinthians 12 verse 7 to 11. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone for the profit of all. For to one is given the Word of wisdom through the Spirit. To another, the Word of knowledge through the same Spirit. To another, faith by the same Spirit. To another, healings by the same Spirit. To another, working of miracles. To another, prophecy. To another, discerning of Spirits. To another, different kinds of tongues. To another, the interpretation of tongues. And the Spirit works all of these, distribute them to each one. There you have again, individually. It is your inheritance to function in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Now one of the biggest reasons that people don't function in the gifts of the Holy Spirit is because they have a wrong view of how the gifts function. What I mean by that, or let's take it, approach it in a positive sense. How can you grow in the gifts of the Holy Spirit? How can you grow in them? I don't have this on the notes, but just a simple little one, two, three. Number one is have a right perspective of how the gifts operate. Have a right perspective of how the gifts operate. Meaning, mostly the gifts begin as subtle impressions. I call it the whisper of the Lord. The subtle impression of the Holy Spirit into your spirit. It's subtle. And it's so subtle that a lot of believers don't catch it. They don't discern its value and they just ignore it. It begins with visions in the mind, pictures in our mind. Like pictures in the mind, a lot of believers would think, I don't really want to mess with that. What I want is the open vision, the movie screen vision. And those exist. What many are waiting for is the dramatic demonstration of power in their life before they start. And what they don't understand is that most of the gifts of the Spirit, they begin subtle in a small measure as a whisper. And if they can understand that one point, it changes their mindset radically. Because then they begin to be attentive to those subtle impressions. Like at 1 Kings 19, the famous passage, 1 Kings 19 verse 12, when the Lord told Elijah, He said, I'm not in the wind, the fire, and the earthquake. I'm not in that. I'm in the still, small voice. Now, that was in that one particular encounter with Elijah, that the Lord was in the wind, the fire, and the earthquake. He was in the still, small voice. And that's the point I want to mention. He's in the still, small voice. 1 Kings 19, 12. But understand, in the larger context, the Lord is in the wind, the earthquake, and the fire. I mean, the demonstrations of the Lord, the powerful, demonstrative, dramatic demonstrations, they are God. Because all that wind, fire, and earthquake, those things happened in the book of Acts. Acts chapter 2 and Acts chapter 4. The wind came, the mighty rushing wind, the fire of God fell, and in Acts 4, the building shook. So the Lord is in the dramatic. And a number of our folks are being touched in a dramatic way by the Lord, and He's in it. And we want it to be as strong, and as dramatic, and as wild, and as anything that the Holy Spirit wants it to be. I just want to say that. So when I'm talking about the still, small voice, I'm not talking about what you receive from the Lord. Receive as big a portion, in as different a way that the Lord wants to give it. But I'm talking about when we're ministering to others. Let's not wait for the dramatic before we involve ourselves in ministry. Or you might be waiting for years, and years, and years. But begin with the whisper. Get in the game. Do the stuff when it's small. Don't wait for the dramatic. When you got just a subtle impression, start praying that impression over people. So the way that we grow the prophetic gifts, we first, we start with the right perspective. I just said that. We understand that most of the gifts of the Spirit begin in the subtle, small impression in your spirit. As the mental picture, we call it a vision in our mind. I'm talking about just a mental picture. And don't wait for the dramatic moments before you begin. I like to compare it to a little sailboat out on a lake on a calm day. So the little sailboat's out there. The day is, I mean, it's so calm, you can't hardly see the water moving. But you put that sail up, even though you can't feel wind. You put your hand up and say, boy, I can't feel anything. You put that sail up. There is a subtle wind blowing. Maybe not much. But that boat will begin to move. That little sailboat will begin to move. You put your sail up, meaning you ask the question in your spirit, Lord, what are you doing? And what do you want to say through me to somebody else? You put your sail up on a calm day when seemingly there's no wind. Doesn't seem like much is happening. But you go ahead and ask the question, Lord, what are you doing? Is there anything you want me to do or say right now? That's what I call putting your sail up. And you will be surprised, if this is new to you, that there's a lot of wind even on those calm days. There's more wind than meets the eye. That little sailboat will move. You will function in the gifts of the spirit, in the introductory way. So you change your mindset, and you value the small impressions of the spirit. And don't wait. Don't hold out until the dramatic ones. Again, we love the dramatic ones, but don't wait for them. Get in the game. Do the stuff. Even when it's a calm, seemingly very little wind blowing, seemingly no wind blowing, still put your sail up and get in the game, so to speak. Then you got to exercise it. You got to exercise what God gives you. It gives you just a little picture, a little impression. You got to express it. You got to tell somebody. You got to pray it over somebody. You got to give expression to it. Because when you give expression to it, it's like the key that unlocks the door. So the Lord gives you just a picture in your mind. A lot of word of knowledge works this way. And in the picture of your mind, you're picturing, you just got this kind of a reoccurring thought of someone's left shoulder. I'm just using that hypothetically. I did that this morning. A couple of people came up with left shoulder and said, hey, my left shoulder, the fire of God's on it. I think it was word of knowledge. I go, that was just purely accidental if it was. But a few folks came and said, the fire's on me right now. My left shoulder, would you pray for me? I said, well, there you have it. So I'm going for the left shoulder people today. Anyway, you're praying, you're worshiping, and you're saying, Lord, what are you saying? You just kind of keep thinking about the left shoulder. It's that subtle. It's that subtle. So you pray for somebody and they say, you know, or maybe you're in a home group and there's 10 or 15 people. Anybody need prayer on their left shoulder? And if nobody does, don't worry about it. Don't worry. Just go ahead and step out and say, hey, I want to pray for somebody. I'm looking for a left shoulder. Anybody got one that needs prayer? So you got to exercise it. You have to give expression to the impression because the word of God, I mean, the power of God follows the declaration of the saints. When the saints declare the will of God, the Holy Spirit will back it up with power, even though it might just touch their left shoulder a little bit. It's still power. It's power when it's the introductory measure. It's not only power when it's beyond the book of Acts. It's power when 10% of a person's headache goes away. That's power. That's not the devil. That's not the flesh. That's the power of God. The smallest measure of power is still the power of God. And we value those small measures. And if you exercise, if you exercise your faith, meaning you give expression to those impressions, which means you actually pray it or you say it in a group of 10 or 15 people in a classroom, a home group, a prayer group, a few friends in the car. You just say it. I want to pray for somebody with this. More times than not, you'll find somebody. If you miss it, so what? People are so afraid of missing it. I'll tell you what we should be more concerned with, never doing it. People are so afraid of missing. What if it's just me? What if it's God? Yeah, but what if it's just me and I miss it? What if it's God and you didn't do nothing? Well, Lord will use somebody else. No, it doesn't always work that way. So we need to shift our concern from what if we miss it and we look bad or we look dumb or we don't want to fake anything. What if we miss an opportunity to move in the Spirit? Let's ask that question more than the other question. And what if it's not really from God? It's just a mental picture. It's just a little beginning. Well, I encourage people to use supernatural. I encourage them to function the gifts of the Spirit in a supernatural, a supernaturally natural, is how I like to say it. It is the Spirit of God giving you the picture, but the natural way is that you, the way you present it, like you don't have to say, well, maybe you don't know if someone's left shoulder. You just get this, it's in your mind. You go, I'm not positive it's God or not. Well, you don't have to be positive. You don't have to say, thus says the Lord, someone's left shoulder now for sure is going to be healed. You don't have to present it at that level. You can, because you don't know. You're new at it. You just say, hey, I just keep getting left shoulder. And what you mean is I get this picture in my mind. Now I want to pray for somebody that has a problem in their left shoulder. And what happens if you do it, if you share it, you present it in a soft way. You can experiment with it, meaning you can step out of the boat. And if you're wrong, it didn't hurt anybody. But again, what if you're right and you don't do it, then somebody misses out. So you can present it in a natural way. You can present it in a lower way. You can say, I want to pray for somebody that has a pain in the left shoulder or you might say it a little stronger. I think the Lord wants to touch somebody's left shoulder or even stronger. He is going to touch somebody's left shoulder. I mean, you can say it at any level. And, you know, you can say it stronger or softer in terms of how you present it. So don't get out of the game, so to speak, because you're not sure. Go ahead and step out. Just use softer language when you're not sure. Use language and say, hey, I want to pray for somebody's left shoulder instead of making some thus says the Lord statement. Just, and if you do it, you'll find out more and more people are getting touched. You think this is really how it works. This is remarkable. Like again, a couple of guys came forward, had left shoulder problems with fire on them. And I'm going to hear tomorrow if they got healed. You know, the guy said, the one I prayed for over here because I think, you know, wow. And I said, well, tell me tomorrow. That was just the random analogy I was using. Because, you know, I've had, well, right shoulder, left shoulder kind of words through the years. So I was just giving one example. Another thing when you pray for people is that, John Wimber said this over and over, dial down. What do I mean by dial down? Emotionally. I'm talking about when you're praying for the person. I'm not talking about when the Lord's touching you. I mean, you can get as loud and wild and anything the Lord wants, as long as it honors the word of God. As long as it doesn't dishonor anything in the scripture. So when you're receiving, I mean, just don't have any boundaries at all when the Holy Spirit's receiving. I'm talking about when you're praying for people. And what I mean by dial down is, I'm not talking about quench the spirit. I'm just talking about the supernaturally natural. This is, again, something that John Wimber emphasized over and over when you're praying for somebody. Don't give a five or seven minute rapid fire prayer from shouting over them in rapid fire prayer. Say, Lord, touch their left shoulder. Then pause. You will get impressions. You will feel more. Just let the Lord work you. You can pray for 10, 20, 30 seconds, whatever. And then wait for a minute or two. There's no real timeframe. Or wait for 30, 60 seconds. Then pray again. Then just wait. Meaning you don't have to engage in a kind of a preaching style prayer over the guy. Rather, you wanna draw back and hear and receive and feel what the spirit's doing. Because the key is to get the impression. Because that's the key that unlocks the door. You wanna pick up those impressions from the Lord. John 5, 19 is the key verse. John Wimber used to preach this all the time. This is where I learned to pray for the sick in this model. John 5, 9. I don't have it on the notes. John 5, 19. That Jesus said he only did what he saw the Father do. In other words, when we dial down, we get quiet. We ask the question, what are you doing? We get the impression. We get the idea. I'm gonna give you some ways words of knowledge work in a minute. And then those are ways, those are subtle whispers of what the Father's doing. He's, you know, I see a left shoulder in my mind. The Father is saying in that, I'm touching left shoulders today. And so John 5, 19, we wanna ask the question, what are you doing right now? Lord, what do you want me to do? How do you want me to pray? I mean, in terms of what is my focus? And then you'll get a picture. You'll get certain times of feelings, emotions, different impressions. Again, we'll look at that in a minute. And then when you pray it, you're actually doing what the Father's doing. But you have to dial down a little bit and ask the question and just kind of get into a receive mode as a person praying for other people. And you can pray all kinds of ways. I don't mean you have to stay that way the whole time. But I'm just saying that if you will get in that posture, more will happen inside of you when you're praying for another person. Now, again, so you don't misunderstand, when you're in the someone's praying for you mode, throw all that away and just let the Lord touch you any way that he wants. You know, I just, I mean, just as strong and dramatic as God wants it, we want it. I mean, full on beyond anything we've ever seen in terms of the manifestation of his power, the way he's touching people. We just want no boundaries on what God will do in this place. So I wanna honor that 100%. Okay, paragraph C. All these gifts that we just read are supernatural. They are manifestations of power. They are not natural abilities. For instance, the word of knowledge is not the gift of knowledge of a guy that has a lot of Bible knowledge. It's not a natural ability. It's a supernatural grace of God on. You for just a moment to release the power of God in that moment right there. And then that certain gift of the spirit, it's over. And then he gives you another word or gives you another direction. So it's not a natural ability you've developed over 10 or 20 years. It's a supernatural anointing and operation of the spirit for that moment. And it comes and goes. So don't let anybody read these nine gifts of the spirit to you and reduce them to natural giftings. These are supernatural manifestations of power. It's common to recognize the three different categories of the gifts of the spirit of these nine manifestation gifts. Sometimes they're called manifestation gifts. And the reason I said it because the Lord gives us other graces in our life. And they're gifts in the technical sense. They are a gift from God. I mean, everything God has given you is a gift. And that way, so therefore, many people would use the title. These are the manifestation gifts. Or some will use the category or title, the supernatural gifts of the spirit. Because everything you have is a gift of the spirit. And that says your very breath itself is a gift from God. Okay, most recognize three different categories within the manifestation gifts. The gifts of revelation, they reveal something. That's a word of knowledge, word of wisdom, discerning of spirits. Then there's the gifts of power. They do something. This is the gift of faith, the working of miracles and the gifts of healings. And then there's the gifts of inspiration or some people will say the utterance gifts, the utterance. Because it's an utterance, you say something. So just to go through it again, the revelation gifts reveal something. The power gifts do something. The inspiration or the utterance gifts, they say something. Paragraph D, Acts chapter 2, verse 17. We all know this passage, but I want to just emphasize it again. In the last days, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. And that's the point I want to emphasize. Every single born again believer on the entire planet is going to operate in the spirit of prophecy in those years leading up to the coming of the Lord. Right now, many do and still many don't. Right now, worldwide, it's about 50% of the body of Christ believes in the supernatural gifts of the Spirit. For the first time in a long time, the majority of the body of Christ has a perspective of the gifts of the Spirit as being real and for the day, for today. Because of the charismatic renewal and outpouring of the Spirit in the 60s that went around the world and hundreds of millions have been touched by the anointing of the Spirit starting in the 60s. Very dramatic that those that know the statistics are saying just a couple of years ago, for the first time since the early church, the majority of the body of Christ now believes these gifts are supernatural and not just natural gifts. Whereas it was common for many to think the supernatural gifts passed away with the early church. But it's going to be more than 50-50 like it is now or whatever the percent is. Every single believer will function in the anointing of the Spirit in those years coming up to the coming of the Lord. There's an outpouring of the Spirit that every believer will operate in. Like I've talked to leaders over the years. They want to argue about it. They say, where in the Bible does it say that healing and prophecy? And I don't even have energy for it. I'm so positive they're going to prophesy in a little while anyway. They're going to get a dream in the night and one experience and they're going to change their theology. And I've talked to guys like, I don't even have energy to prove that. I'd rather talk about Jesus and tell me about your ministry. And, you know, let's just fellowship around the glory of Jesus because it's a mute argument. You're going to prophesy anyway. And I like to tease pastors, you know, some are real energetic. You know, why not? This isn't biblical. You're a heretic and this is false. And I say, oh, Lord, may you give his wife prophetic dreams. Boy, he'll be in a catch-22, you know. And let her tell all the elders in the church. And let her refuse to be denied and just let things kind of stew in the pot and see what happens. I've said that to a few guys, even when we're debating and we're having fun. I don't really want to do this, but I'm going to pray that your wife gets it. They go, don't you dare. I've used that joke for years, but I actually say it to them. And I pray that she'll tell the elders, ah, then you'll be in a catch-22. I go, but really, you're going to get it anyway. Your kids are going to get it. So it's not even worth arguing about. Although, you know, it is kind to take time to explain it to people. But all flesh, every believer. I just want to make it emphatic. Every believer will operate in the supernatural gifts of the Spirit before the Lord returns. I mean, everyone that's on the earth in those final, that final decade or two that's leading up to it. There won't be anybody who's not prophesying, getting dreams or visions. 1 Corinthians 14, Paul said, I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more, I wish you all prophesied. 1 Corinthians 14, 5. Verse 24, he said, I'll give you an example. If all of you prophesied and an unbeliever came in, he'd be convicted. But the idea goes, if every one of you had a prophecy, the unbelievers would be convicted by them. In other words, he's talking about the, the goodness and the power and the value of prophecy. Then in verse 31, he removes all doubt. For you all can prophesy. He says it crystal clear. Every one of you can prophesy. Now, paragraph E, prophecy is released to us most often by giving us faint impressions from the Spirit. That's most often how the gift of prophecy starts. And we just covered that a few moments ago. We have to pay attention to these faint impressions. That's 1 Kings 19, 12, what God told Elijah, the whisper. The Lord says, I'm in the whisper. I whisper. Now, I'm going to give you four different ways, subtle ways the Holy Spirit can give you a word of knowledge. Now, these are the subtle ones. I mean, there's very dramatic ones, like an open vision, an angel appearing to you. But I'm talking about the real subtle ones. One is a term that's been used by many groups. It's not original to me. I'm in fact, I've just picked up this stuff over the years, studying it and watching it. And many people use the same ideas. Symptomatic pains. What I mean by that, I'll go to the left shoulder. Analogy. You're in a small group. There's 10 people. And you're praying or you're on your way to it. And you're saying, Lord, what do you want me to do? What do you want to say through me? What do you want to do with me? Or you're any kind of context. And this is what Alan and Wes are doing up here in the Renewal Maze. They're saying, Lord, speak to us. And in many ways, the word of knowledge comes is there will be a pain in your body. That's not a pain that is normally there. I mean, it's not related to something you've done. It's a pain that's coming on you. Sometimes I'll just use that analogy because it's happened before, where my left shoulder was throbbing and it wasn't hurt before. And I said, who has a problem in the left shoulder? A couple of people will raise their hand and some of them get healed. And the Lord will actually give you highlight your body. He'll let you feel a little bit of the pain they are feeling. That's why it's called the symptomatic or sympathetic. It's another word, sympathetic or symptomatic pains. Both phrases are used by different groups. There's a certain sympathy because you're feeling their pain. I remember a really remarkable time where this really struck me in a big way. It was in way back in 1987. I remember it was the night that I met Paul Cain. It was in Birmingham, Alabama, 1987. And I'd heard that the Lord used him in very dramatic ways in healing and prophecy and all this. So I'm meeting with him and we go out after the meeting to a restaurant, just the two of us. And we put all the foods on the table. And I don't know Paul, I've heard about him. And so I'm excited here to talk to him for the first time. And he says, hey, can we move all the food to the back of the restaurant over there by the wall? Because we're in the walkway. And I go, because it's all on the table and we're eating. I go, okay. Is there a reason? He goes, yeah. He goes, because I'm tired. Okay. You want to move the food because you're tired. That works. Why are you tired? I asked him. He said, well, after the meeting, the Spirit of the Lord's still resting on me. He goes, here in the walkway, all the people that are walking by, I'm picking up the pain that's happening in their body. I said, no way. He goes, yeah. He goes like, that guy over there, he's got kidney problem. The waitress, this and that, he describes. And then another, he gave me three of them. I said, I got to test this out. So I went over to the guy, the table. I said, I just, you know, I'm in a foreign city. You know, I make a fool of myself. I figure I'm not going to bring the Lord into it, you know, unless the Lord's in it. And so I go, sir, excuse me. I got to ask you a question. This is really random, really weird. Do you have a kidney problem? He goes, what? This is random. He goes, yes. Why? How do you know? I go, amazing. And he's looking at me. I go sit down at the table. I go, he does. And Paul says, yeah, yeah, I know. I know. Every time he goes by, it hurts my kidney. He says, the waitress, this and that. So she comes out. And I said, ma'am, can I ask you a question? She goes, well, yes. And do you have this? And she goes, oh, my goodness. How do you know? Do you know me? And I went, whoa, whoa. So then I looked at Paul. And this waitress is a little bit perplexed, a little bit flustered by it. Who are you? Are you following me? How come you know this? Now, then I asked her. I said, which is completely the wrong response. I said, can we move over there? Because my friend's tired. That was my answer. I should have said, can I pray for you? I was so struck by how this was working. I didn't pray for it. It's one of my greatest missed opportunities. I didn't pray for the guy with a kidney or the gal. I was so kind of, this is bizarre. So she goes, yeah, you move over there. She goes, why? I go, because my friend's tired. And she goes, what? I go, just never mind. Now, I know many people, many, many people. Matter of fact, many of you have these symptomatic or sympathetic pains. You will have a pain in your body that the Lord's highlighting. That's what he wants to. He's giving you a word of knowledge. That's what he wants you to pray for, for someone else. And because you might not know that's how it works, you'll just kind of ignore it and say, man, it's got this back pain. It's kind of weird. I've never had a back pain. That's a word of knowledge. More times than not. Well, I mean, when you're in a meeting or you're going to be with people and you're actively engaging with the Spirit and you're asking him, show me, he'll do it that way. Another way would be the reoccurring mental picture. As simple as it is, it's a picture that keeps coming to your mind. And you're just kind of preoccupied with it. It's not even that strong. You want to give expression to it by praying, not necessarily describing the picture to somebody else, but the meaning of the picture. You know, the, I want to pray for somebody with a, that has pain in their left shoulder. You get a picture. You just got to, it comes to your mind, regular. I mean, just you're there in a ministry time, just left shoulder, left shoulder. Maybe you're right. Maybe you're not right. Pray for somebody with the left shoulder. Do it. And as time goes on, you'll gain more confidence that those mental pictures are really the whisper of the Holy Spirit. I'm trying to demystify the process to you. I'm trying to get you to see it's supernaturally natural. There's a natural rhythm in this. Another one is having a distinct emotional stirring that isn't related to how you normally feel. Like when you came in the meeting, meaning it's not just an extension of how you're feeling personally. It's not just the Lord touching you in your personality about you. He's touching you in your personality. So you can minister to others. Like for instance, you may have sadness. That's an unusual sadness. Or you may have a joy. Or you may have a burden for souls. Or you may have a tenderness and tears that you don't know why. The Lord is saying more times than not when you're in a ministry context, which is the whole, your whole life is a ministry context, by the way. But it's when you're asking the Lord in your tent, if you really want to pay attention to this, you've got sadness. You think, I don't even know why I have this. It's probably a word of knowledge in the form of just touching your body. I mean, touching your human makeup. Pray for people with sadness. And as you pray for them, you'll get more insight, whether it's sadness because of they're sad for someone else. You're going to join them. Or they're sad because of their own something in their own life. Or maybe for joy. That's what's happening a lot. That the people leading ministry, either down there or up here, they're feeling joy. And it's not just that they have joy. It's a, it's a word of knowledge to release joy. The same with having a burden for souls or having a, just an unusual tenderness for Jesus. The Lord's saying, I want to call people to the first commandment. I want to release an anointing. That's a word of knowledge functioning in you. The fourth subtle way. These are subtle ones because the Lord gives open visions and angels. He can tell you. He can give us insight through far more dramatic ways. Those are easy to know because the angel appeared and told you something. So you have it. It's the subtle ones that we miss. And of the four, this, these, this fourth one is the one that I'm most familiar with. It's happened for the last number of years, just for maybe 20 years or so. A whole lot since I connected with Wimber. Is that I will have the presence of the Lord on a part of my body. I'll have burning in my hands, my stomach, my back, my leg, my knee. I'll have a, the intellect, the electricity of the Lord. It feels like a tingling electricity, or it feels like a, a cool wind, like a breeze. I'll feel it around my hand, my head. And, and I will not always say it. Matter of fact, many times I don't say it, but I'll pray in that direction. When I'm leading ministry or when I'm talking, praying for someone in the prayer line. I don't always tell them what's happening, but I pray what's happening to me, to them. And it's, it's good to tell them, but it's okay not to tell them. Like, I don't want to stop every time and say, I'm feeling a swirling around my head. The Lord must be touching you in this way. I don't want to explain it all. I just, I've learned a little bit what it might mean. It's, it's not like I know exactly what it means every time, but I pray along those lines. Of the, of those, of the four, that's the one, the presence of the spirit. It's not a pain, but it's fire, electricity, wind. I feel that many times, uh, through, through, uh, through the years. And I know folks that feel that a whole lot. I mean, that's, you might move in one of the others. You might move in all four of these. I've experienced all four of them plenty of times, but it's that fourth one. And that's how Bob Jones, that's the strongest one he's operated in. And he, uh, after the Lord touched him, he called it, the Lord anointed his five senses. And he doesn't mean all day, every day. But he says, when I'm in a ministry mode, I can, he can, uh, a number of times smell. He can smell, uh, roses, fragrances. I've seen this. This is the strangest. When I first saw this back in 83, when I first saw, he would have wind. He would feel the wind on his hand. I understand that now, but in the early days, I didn't understand that at all. Or he would feel oil on his hand. Or he would feel fire on his hand. He would have smell, sight, feeling, the five senses. And that's, he would prophesy to people when the Lord, when, when those manifestations would come on his senses. And sometimes he told the people, sometimes he didn't. So anyway, my point of this, these are subtle ways the spirit whispers to us. But if you don't know, these are many times words of knowledge to be a key, to give you direction, how to open a door, a key to open a door, or it's a direction on how to pray for somebody. More will happen if you follow those keys. And I believe that most of you in this room are receiving these, but they're so subtle. And you might be more preoccupied with, I don't want to miss it. I don't want to fake it. I don't want to be wrong. You need to get more preoccupied with missing an opportunity to move in the power of God. And the power of God remembers even the little measures of power is still the power of God. When the guy has the 10% headache healed, 90% is not healed. That 10% is still the power of God. It really is. It's not only when somebody is raised from the dead, a headache being healed is the power of God, particularly if you have the headache. Paragraph F, we have to give demonstration. We, I mean, I mean, the spirit gives demonstration of power. We declare it. We have to say, we have to say it to somebody in the form of a prayer or a declaration. The Lord's touching your left shoulder. The Lord wants to touch your heart for souls because you're feeling a burden for souls and you're interpreting it is for you. It's always for you in those ways because the Lord is wanting you to have a burden for souls. But many times, it's a burden. He's wanting you to pray with someone else to, for that burden to be released. So when you desire to prophesy, paragraph F, number one, ask the question. This is how you put the sail up. Lord, what are you saying? What are you doing? You ask that question everywhere you go. You ask that question throughout the day on your way to a class, on your way to a home group with 10 people. You don't have to wait till a big conference meeting when you're on the stage. Just in your coming and going, you're going to go fellowship with a few folks at a restaurant, a coffee shop, your home for family gathering. Just you're saying, Lord, is there anything you want me to say or do? Anything you want me to say or do? And maybe your family doesn't understand this. So you don't have to say, hey, I just got fire on my left shoulder. And that's a supernatural word of knowledge for you. Does anybody here have a left shoulder problem? You don't have to do that. You can say it. You could present it according to their understanding. You can say this, you know, or you can wait and say, Lord, just let him bring it up. Or you can say, has anybody got a problem with their left shoulder? You can just bring it up or, hey, I want to pray for somebody's shoulder. You know, your family might laugh and then there they go again. They're a little weird. So you don't have to say it so strong in every setting. My point being, don't neglect to do this. You could just kind of inch your way into the water, so to speak, in terms of flowing of these gifts. Top of page two. Let's just give a minute or two on each one of these nine gifts of the Spirit. Word of knowledge. First of all, it's a word of knowledge. It's not a sentence, a paragraph, or a chapter. It's a fragment. It actually means a fragment. That's what, it's just a portion of, it's a portion of knowledge. God has all knowledge. He's going to give you a fragment of it. I mean, I prefer the whole sentence, the whole chapter, the whole paragraph or chapter, but typically he'll just give you the fragment, the word. And his invitation, you use it, you say it over somebody, pray it, more will happen. I'll give you more of them and more will happen if you follow. Just follow, uh, where this will lead you. When you, you'll, you'll say it, you'll pray it over somebody, it will lead to more and more and more. So it's a key that opens the door. And the reason you would say it, again, you don't have to say, thus says the Lord, but you can say that, you know, I want to pray for people with their left shoulder. If that's, again, the analogy I'm just going to use. It builds their faith if they know it's a word of knowledge. The truth is they can be healed by asking the Lord himself for their left shoulder. But when somebody else says it and they have the condition, it does build their faith. It's very powerful. So the word of knowledge, it's a fragment of knowledge. It's information related to the past or present. Now it's not the gift of knowledge. I've heard that over the years, like a guy knows the Bible real well, or maybe the guy is real smart in science or something. And they go, well, his gift is the gift of knowledge. I mean, he, he got the highest scores in the nation on his ACT test, or something like that. He has, that's not the gift of knowledge. I mean, he is blessed with great knowledge, but that's not, this is a spiritual manifestation of the Spirit. It's a fragment of information. It's about the past or present. Now it can be manifest in those subtle ways I mentioned a minute ago through. You can feel the pain. You can feel the, that electricity or energy of the Lord in emotion, or just the mental picture. Or you can have the more dramatic vision, dream, angelic appearance, etc., etc., etc. Now many times these gifts will operate together. It's not just one of the nine. Sometimes two and three of them will operate together in one experience. I'll give you experience, uh, uh, uh, analogy to that in just a moment. Okay, the word of wisdom. The word of wisdom is very sim, similar to the word of knowledge. But the word of wisdom is a fragment of information related to the future. Instead of the past. And again, it's not the gift of wisdom. Like some people have an unusual wisdom in the way they make decisions in their finances, the way they make decisions and, and just life decisions. They have good counsel. They have a spirit of wisdom. That's not what this is. I'm gonna talk about a general ability that's cultivated to have a wise heart. That is biblical and that is the grace of God for sure. But the word of wisdom is a supernatural piece of information related to the future. It was in, I've told the story several times since in September 2005 when I saw an angel. And this angel put a trumpet to his lips. Now this wasn't a dream, vision. My eyes were wide open. I was wide awake and I saw it. And it was so startling. And he put a trumpet to his mouth. He did it three times actually. And it meant in Numbers 10, the trumpet, there's two purposes for the trumpet. There's more than two, but these are the two that apply to this. The trumpet would gather people to the temple or the house of prayer, we would call it. But the priest blew the trumpet and people gathered before the Lord. And they would cry out to God in prayer, fasting type of thing. A psalm assembly. They blow the trumpet and people gather to fast and pray. And then the trumpet also meant trouble is coming around the corner. And it was clear to me that the Lord, there's an anointing to gather. And there's an anointing to give clarity about the future. Because if we have clarity that trouble's coming, we can have victory and move in power in the midst of the trouble. And we can stop some of the trouble. We can actually stop through our prayers. And so the Lord was showing me that there was an anointing to gather and an anointing to get people ready in their spirit to have victory in the time of pressure. I didn't even mean the tribulation. I'm talking about just some troubles in our nation. Now that was a word of wisdom through an angel. It gave me information about what's coming in the future. And so the next one I want to look at, a gift is paragraph C, discerning of spirits. The discerning of spirits is not the gift of discernment. It means to discern or to see or to perceive. To see with your eyes or the eyes of your spirit into the spirit world where you see spirits. It means perceiving spirits. Now it's good and bad. You can see angels. You can see demons. With the discerning of the of spirits, you may see the Lord. I've had two occasions in 30 years where I've seen the Lord, but in a dream setting. And that's a gift of the discerning of spirits operating in a dream. When I saw the angel, that was a word of wisdom telling the future. And it was a discerning of spirits. I discerned a spirit being. Now there's angels all over this room right now. And there's demons. But sometimes in order to open up the eyes of your spirit, you'll see them. You'll actually see them with your eyes. It was some years ago, I saw two demons appeared in my room once. I, you know, I was in bed and I woke up and it was in the morning. I'd rather them show up in the morning than the night. But anyway, I was just laying there praying. I was wide awake and I saw what is happening. And they were just staring at me. And they had with a very stern countenance. And in the name of Jesus, I just rebuked them. But there was more than just getting rid of them. It was a tip off. It was a discerning of spirits that there was going to come a demonic attack. And there was where people rose up and were attacking and they were resisting and that kind of thing. But it was a tip off, that discerning of spirits. Again, this is not the gift of discernment, which often is the gift of criticism. Or the gift of suspicion. A lot of, I've heard this one. This is the one that people have claimed most over the years. I discern that guy has a bad spirit. Well, he's pushy. He's got a big agenda. Everybody discerns it. That doesn't take a supernatural operation of the spirit to catch that guy's pushy. He's bugging all of us. That's not the gift of discernment. That's just the power of observation. No, it is. And there's nothing wrong with seeing and observing. But the discerning of spirits is a perceiving into the spirit realm. Good or bad. It is seeing in a supernatural way what's happening in the human spirit and somebody's spirit as well. But it's more than just a, a cultivated observation. I'm talking about that's even powerful to be able to see people with the wrong spirit. But a lot of that is, is natural observation just with experience in life. You can see that. This is higher than that. That's what I'm trying to get at. Okay, let's move on to the next three. I mean, the next category, which is three gifts, the power gifts, the working miracles, the gift of faith and the gifts of healings. Now the working of miracles. Again, it's a manifestation of power where the miracle is instantaneous. Where God releases a miracle to others through you. It's a miracle released to others through you. It's instantaneous. It's a working of miracles. There's an active nowness to it. It's happening right now in this moment. Like when Jesus turned the water to wine, when he fed the 5,000. Now, this is something I've observed through the years, but I'm not positive. It's true, but I think it's true. Is that this gift operates often like the gift of faith and the working of miracles without feeling much when you're operating in it. Meaning, uh, John Wimber, the man that many of you know, his name that I traveled with in the, uh, early, uh, late eighties, early nineties for about four, three years. And he had these large healing conferences of, you know, five and 10,000 around the world at different places and many of them all around the world. And I had the privilege of traveling with him and he would bring me up on the platform. And, uh, he says, now I want you to, you know, be, uh, be with me and do this. And he would pray. The room was just wild. I mean, everything that we're seeing was happening and more. I mean, it was wild, strange manifestations, loud and exciting and dynamic and strange. And people were freaked out and others were completely captured in the spirit. He would just say, come Holy spirit. This would happen. This was a very common thing in his ministry. And a lot of people instantaneous creative miracles, creative miracles being, uh, uh, there was an instant, uh, power of God that would create in their body. That element that was missing. I mean, a creative miracle is an awesome. He had a number of creative miracles. I mean, he prayed several times where people didn't have, you know, one story that I wasn't at, but I heard it several times where someone didn't have pupils in their eyes. He prayed and pupils appeared. That's a creative miracle. He had a number of very dynamic working of miracles and healings, as well as the whole room being captured. And, uh, uh, in the power of the spirit thousands at a time of going for hours and hours. And so John would bring me up on the platform and then afterwards I'd ask him questions and I say, John, what, what were you feeling? And he says, absolutely nothing. And I thought he was being, you know, false humility. I go, what do you mean? Nothing. I mean, that's inconceivable. He goes, no, he goes, when I'm in that mode and I'm releasing it, I don't feel anything. I go, well, how do you know what to do? He goes, I just get a picture of my mind. It's real faint, real subtle, but I've learned to just express it anyway, to obey it, give expression to it. And the power hits it. He goes, I have confidence in it. He goes, it's so easy. It's so simple what the Lord gives me. It's a very subtle impression. He goes, everybody else is feeling it. I mean, I was feeling a lot and I was saying, how is it possible? You're not feeling it. He goes, I just, I don't know. He goes, I never feel it. And I thought that's not possible. But you know, a couple of years later I said, John, I think you really don't ever feel it. He goes, I never do, but the Lord releases it through me to others. Now in his personal prayer time with the Lord, he would feel it. But when he was in the ministry mode, it was the strangest thing. Because Bob Jones would feel a lot of fire and electricity and power. But John operated in the working of miracles and felt so little. I mean, nothing is what he said. I remember one time, very dramatic experience. Maybe it was the year 2000, seems like, 2000, 2001. I was invited to the charismatic Catholic conference in Italy. And you know, Italy has a lot of Catholics. And so the conference was big, like 50,000 people. It was like a four-day conference. I mean, it was huge. And they invited me to do a little bit, not much, you know, being a Protestant and all. But did a little bit with them. And I was just, it was so captured. I actually went two years in a row. But one I remember so dramatic is that this elderly priest, he's in his 80s, named Father Matteo, well known all through Italy as a prophet. He's a priest that moves in great power. He was sitting in the chair. I can remember just like yesterday, sitting up there in the chair. And I'm on row, I'm at the front, like I'm on row 68. So I'm at the front, 50,000 people. And I have on my English translation earphones. And they're giving the spontaneous translation. So he's back there. He doesn't, he doesn't stand. He's in his 80s. He was a priest during World War II in Italy. And so I had a chance to be with him a couple of times and had a couple of dinners with him, actually, and got to ask him about what was Mussolini like? What was Hitler like? What was it really like? And he had so many stories. And so, but I didn't mess up when I started with. I started with asking him, I go, what were you feeling? Because when he prayed, he was just, you know, in Italian. And he would pray. And he said, and I could hear in the translation, he was praying for oppression against demons. So he goes, you know, if you have a oppression, stand up. And thousands, you know, out of 50,000, I'm guessing maybe 5, 10,000. I don't know how many, but thousands, you can't tell. But it was a huge number stood up. And he just mumbled, apparently, I mean, seemingly mumbled a prayer. You know, I caught the word Christo, you know, the name of Christo. And so I thought, I got that one, you know. And when he prayed, gave about 60 second prayer. Demons were coming out of people with so much power. I've never seen a demonstration of power in a room of that level. I mean, people were being thrown back in their chairs. I mean, they were on the floor and manifesting a demon. And it was thousands of them. I mean, were writhing. And it was, oh, he was just up there. He'd praise 60. Then he, no music, no nothing. Just 10 minutes later, people screaming, chairs knocking off. And then it kind of calmed down. He'd break out again. He never stood up. He just kind of mumbled it. And I went to dinner with him. I said, whoa, what were you feeling up there? He goes, nothing. I go, no, what do you mean? He goes, no, I just got a, he goes, I've done this for years. I got the idea. It came to my mind. Oppression. So I've been following it. When that touches me, I follow it. I just say it. And the power backs it up. I said, yeah, but that was intense power. He goes, well, yeah, this kind of stuff happens a lot. You Protestants do that, don't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we do that back there too, yeah. I remember, uh, it was in the eighties. I was at a meeting and Bob Jones came up to the front with a mic. He got on the microphone and just, ah, I'm just remembering. It was, I can remember the negative feeling I had, but it ended up so good. He got up on the microphone and said, uh, well, I had a dream last night and God's gonna use Mike Bickle tonight in a working a miracles. So if you have a, if you need a creative miracle, just come on up. Yeah. Come on up right now. Am I going to pray for you? You can get healed. I went, I mean, I was just like completely not feeling anything like on steroids, not feeling anything. I mean, really, I was actually pretty annoyed by that. So, cause it's cause the expectation, you know, a creative miracle. And so this only one person comes up. I mean, it's, it's, it's embarrassing. It's pressure. It's, but it's only because I didn't get what was happening. Bob says, well, pray for her. There'll be creative miracle. I said, okay. And it was at a Tuesday night meeting, our midweek service. And there were several hundred people there. And I, I said, uh, well, what do you need? She goes, well, I'm going to have a hysterectomy tomorrow. And I'm really sad because for years I've been praying for healing and the Lord told me it healed me and it's not happened. And she goes, oh, it's going to, it's, it's a real major radical surgery tomorrow. He goes, I'm just getting a whole lot of things done. She goes, will you pray for me? And I go, yeah. So I laid on her and I laid my hands on her and I went, laid my hands on her and said, okay, stay in the spirit here. More, more. Okay. I'll try to get you back in the river. And 60 seconds. I mean, I was annoyed at Bob Jones. So I didn't even have a chance to get recovered. I'm completely in the flesh. And so I look, I go in the name of Jesus, Lord, I just ask you for this. You would completely heal this hysterectomy problem. I didn't know what Jesus name. Bob goes, there you go. You got it. He goes, there you have it, hon. You're going to be fine. She goes, is that it? I mean, it was just, it was 60 seconds. The whole thing was real short. She felt nothing. I felt nothing. And I went afterwards, don't do that. That was like so embarrassing. He goes, he goes, the Lord told me you'd be dull. I didn't think you'd be this dull. That was the Lord. You know, and I, you know, it kind of slipped in, you know, in my mind. I didn't actually say it. Lord, steer the, you know, direct the surgeon's hands tomorrow. You know, I was already into, you know, pray for tomorrow. I said, well, come back tomorrow and tell me what, you know, what happens when you see your doctor. She went and said, ask the doctor, let me get one more check. He goes, well, you know, it's clear you got the problem. I mean, it's a historical documentary problem. She goes, just please check one more time. He goes, well, it's really not necessary. So they did instantly healed, totally healed. She came back and I, so I said, did you feel anything last night? She goes, not a thing. I go, neither did I. The only thing I felt was annoyed at Bob Jones. I go, that's how the working of miracles works. You know, I was expecting, you know, I mean, I watched the 10 commandments with Charlton Heston and the sea divided. And I mean, I just have this feeling that lightning, it hits me and rushes. And it was nothing Lord Hiller, you know, name of Jesus and help her out. And amen. Bob, don't ever do that to me again. So I have to call Bob Jones. I go, Bob, he goes, what would the lady get healed? I go, yeah, because I told you she'd be healed. I said, Bob, that is remarkable. He says, well, he goes, one thing you don't understand is when the working of miracles happens, a lot of times you don't feel anything. And it's instantaneous. The gift of faith. You can just read that on your own. I'm out of time here. The gifts of healings. I just want to point this out. The gift of healings is a supernatural gift. It's not, you know, like some the cessationist people that say the gifts have ceased with the early church. They say, well, doctors have the gift of healing because they heal people through natural means, which we really like that. That's really powerful and important. But this is a supernatural anointing for an instant. I mean, for a move, the Holy Spirit's power to be released. But the gifts of healing more times than not are a process. Miracles are instantaneous. Healings are process. And sometimes you'll pray for healing and get a miracle. But what I mean is sometimes it may the Lord may touch them and they may not. They may feel fire and burning. They may feel nothing. And the next day, like this lady, she was completely healed that neither of us felt anything like this. Father Mateo, when he said Christo, you know, the thing just he didn't feel a thing. But the power was hitting other people. Sometimes it's like that. But but the healing, it might be weeks. It may be hours, days or weeks before the healing is complete. But it's still the operation of the power of God. Amen. We're just going to end with that. Let's stand. So it is for you to move in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Don't wait for the dramatic. Start experiencing the impressions. Those different subtle ways. I mean, they're already happening in your life right now. You're just not paying attention to it. I mean, some of you, some of you really are. I want to invite folks to come up that are saying, you know, I'm this is right, meaning the Lord wants me to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And I'm willing to begin with the subtle impressions I'm in. I'm going to start asking for them, reaching for them. I'm going to start expressing them. Which means praying them over people and doing something with them. But if you're making a statement tonight, say, I need to change my mindset. I want to really take hold of the of the day of small beginnings. I want you to come up to these lines. And what I mean by the day of small beginnings, I'm talking about, I'll say it more accurately to value the the faint whisper. That's what I really mean. To value the faint whisper of the Lord. Whether it's your left shoulder is feeling pain, whether you get the emotions, you're going to value those. Impressions of the Lord, those faint impressions, those whispers. OK, just so I don't miss out on this, who's who needs prayer for their left shoulder? We're going to get it over with right now. Go ahead, raise your hand. OK, let's just do this for real. Left shoulder people. OK, somebody pray for that beautiful girl right there in the the vest. Diane. Left shoulder people, keep your hand up. Let's just take care of this for one moment. OK, I want the folks standing up there. Turn around, gifts of the spirit. People that are in line right behind you. Go ahead. Right here, people right behind you. We're going to do left shoulders just for a moment. Ed, you got something, your left shoulder bugging you? OK, let's pray right now. Anybody else left shoulder? That's not. Lord, in the name of Jesus, we just speak to that left shoulder right now. And we speak healing, release healing power. Release your healing power right now. Release your presence. Release the fire of the Holy Spirit. More, Lord. When we pray more, we mean more of your manifest presence because he's always here. So we don't ask him to come. He's already here. But more of your manifest presence. OK, we're going to continue to pray for the left shoulders. But we're going to switch over and pray for these folks here that are saying, you know, I want to do this. I'm happy to. I'm going to value the faint whisper. I'm going to start doing it. If the manifestation of the spirit is for everyone. Well, I'm one of the everyone's. I'm gonna start doing this. In the name of Jesus, I just ask you, Lord, release your glory on. Release your glory right now. Just anything the Lord does to you, whether it's the fire, the wine, the tears, the burden, anything. Lord, release your glory. Just be free to receive anything from the Lord. I'm going to have a bunch of you go ahead and come on up and pray for them right now. About 100 of you just come. More right now, I'm not feeling anything. And so what I'm doing in my spirit with God, I'm looking at the room, but I'm asking the Lord, give me a picture. Touch me. Give me a direction to focus on. In other words, I'm saying, Lord, what are you doing right now? See, a lot of times when West is feeling the joy, that's a word of knowledge to release the joy of the Holy Spirit. He didn't have to feel the joy to release it. But I'm saying that. And sometimes the Lord's just touching him for him. But many times he's touching him. It's a word of knowledge for you. More. We're in no hurry. See, when you transition, sometimes it takes a few moments because you're moving out of the taking notes mode to the I'm receiving direct from you mode. And it takes a minute because we're human beings. It takes a minute to transition. So don't ever be impatient about that. When you're in a ministry time, let people take that few minutes to transition. More. Release your joy, Lord. Release your joy right now in this room. Now, don't limit it to the people up front. This is for everyone in the room and everybody on the webcast. Release the joy of the Holy Spirit to those on the webcast. Release the power of God right now to those that are joining us. More, Lord. Good, let's get some catchers up here. And I need about 50 of you to come up and pray for people. About 50 more of you. Let's get some guys as catchers just standing behind people. More. Release your fire, Lord. So right now, just this last five seconds, I'm feeling heat now. It's starting to touch my chest. And it's just subtle. And my guess is it's going to build in the next few minutes. Often, if you take time, it will build. You know, we might say, Holy Spirit, just do it all in one second. He goes, no, there's a human process. He's not in a hurry. He doesn't want us to be in a hurry. I'm feeling heat on my chest. So I'm going to pray for the fire of the Holy Spirit and the joy of the Lord. Continue to receive the joy of the Lord. And I won't always tell you what I'm feeling. Typically, I'll just pray it. But I'm feeling fire in my chest. I'm feeling fire on my left hand, on my palm. And that would mean he's dealing with emotions for you to experience the love of God. That's how I interpret that. To experience the love of God. And in my left hand, I feel fire on it right now, on my palm. He's wanting to activate people to pray for people. And so he's touching my hand. That's a way he's talking to me about you. Now, how many of you are feeling heat? Anywhere in the room, you're feeling heat on you. I want you to raise your hand. Anybody feeling heat on your chest, on your hands? I want you to raise your hand. Just throughout the room, too. Okay, who's ever got their hand up, I want priority right now to go pray for them. Because it's happening to me, it's like the Holy Spirit's saying, because I'm leading the ministry, focus on this for a moment. Focus on this. So I want the prayer team to focus on anybody that has their hand up right now. Now, release the fire. Release more. The Lord's wanting you to receive the love of God right now. That's what that burning is about. That's how I'm interpreting it. How many of you are feeling fire on your hands? You're feeling heat on your hands. Raise your hands if you are. I want people being prayed for, for their hands. And the Lord's saying, I want to activate you in ministry. Of course, He wants to activate everyone in ministry, but He's saying, I want to make a point to you right now. I want these hands being laid on people. I'm talking about the people whose hands have heat on them. The Lord's speaking to you. I want you to start praying for people more. Now, release, Lord. Fire. Release your glory on them right now. Release your glory, your fire on these hands. That's just a symbolic way of the Lord saying, I want these people praying for the sick more, praying for their friends more. More, Lord. If you've got a problem with your left foot, I believe the Lord wants to touch you. Raise your hand if that's you. You're okay. Left foot. Go ahead and let folks that pray for their left foot. Go ahead. Raise your hand. More, Lord. Let your fire come. More.