These Gifts are vital to us.

Just as God’s Word is alive, so are these “words” when they are authentically spoken.

Through The Spirit, they can minister now in the present and also in the future, because of this.

These words can speak to one person or many different people that hear them. When truly done via the Spirit, it brings confirmation and hope to those who receive it.

They are not a long drawn out documentary of someones life but the key note is a “word.”

The Spirit can do more with a few words than we could do in an entire book. That’s what is so awesome about these two Gifts of the Spirit.

So, how do you know if the “word” you are receiving is truly of the Spirit?

For one, someone being used in this manner may say only a few words that they could never know on their own and the hearer or the church knows that.

Others may know absolutely nothing about what the message is saying, but those for whom it is intended, know exactly what it means. That alone brings awe and reverence.

Maybe most importantly is that there is an “unction” of The Holy Spirit that is felt when these words are spoken.

The person’s spirit is “quickened” and there is no other feeling like it. You know without any doubt that The LORD has used someone in the Holy Ghost to minister to you.

This quickening from the Spirit is the true sign of these gifts. Many today are proclaiming to have a word from the Lord but without the unction of the Holy Spirit to confirm it, it’s only the words of men.

When you are doing everything to follow Christ and live in the Spirit, no one has to tell you everything you have to do in your life, or how you must live, or what direction you must take. A few words from The LORD are sufficient.

I’m not talking about listening to preaching or Bible teaching which we must have. It’s about a Word from The LORD that helps build faith and confidence.

The Spirit can also speak a Word to your spirit at special moments, often one single word that helps you follow the direction in which the Spirit wants to move, whether it be in a service or even as you go about your daily life and with dealing with other people.

Just one Word whispered to you by The Spirit can effect the entire outcome of what you are trying to do and what He wants done at that particular time and place.

If these two Gifts were not vital to us, they would never have been listed with the other Gifts of the Spirit.

First published, November 7, 2011.

~ Robert Blackburn

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Robert Blackburn

 

 

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