The Holy Spirit is the believer's ever present companion. He is our Comforter, our Teacher, our Guide, our Strength, our Wisdom. Discovering the joys and benefits of His presence and how to cooperate with Him is one of the greatest privilege given to man.
Living in the balance of Grace and Faith
Other Free Downloads
The Holy Spirit
Moving In The Spirit
Moving in the Spirit
How valuable would it be to you if you could access the wisdom to make sound financial or business decisions? What about knowing how to receive healing? What value would you put on being able to know if buying a house or used car was a good deal? How much heartache do you imagine you could avoid if you could discern if someone was suitable for you to marry before the relationship got complicated? This is the power of being able to move in the spirit and that’s what I want to show you how to do.
But before I do, there’s some basic truths you need to be aware of. There are two realms of existence: the natural realm and the spiritual realm. The natural realm is governed by natural laws such as the law of gravity, laws of electricity, laws of buoyancy. If we can identify and understand natural laws, we can use them to our advantage. For example, someone with some understanding of the laws of electricity installed the cables in your house so that if you want to turn on a light, you just flick a switch. You may not understand how they did it but because of their understanding, you can harness electrical power and not only illuminate your house but use your appliances to cook a meal, make a coffee or watch tv.
We relate to the natural realm with our natural senses: taste, touch, sight, sound and smell. Without these five senses, we could not function in the natural realm.
In the same way, the spiritual realm is governed by spiritual laws. Many believers are totally ignorant to the existence of spiritual laws but it doesn’t mean that they’re not there. Spiritual laws are real and if we can identify and understand spiritual laws, we can use them to our advantage – just like we can use natural laws to our advantage. There are many spiritual laws that govern the spiritual realm - just like there are many natural laws that govern the natural realm. Some examples of spiritual laws are: the law of faith (Mark 11:23), the law of agreement (Matt 18:18-19), the law of sowing and reaping (Gal 6:7-9).
I’ve said all of this to say this: if you are born again, you are both a natural man and a spiritual man so that you can function in both realms. The natural man uses natural things to function in the natural realm and the spiritual man uses spiritual things to function in the spiritual realm.
You need your natural man to function in the natural realm and you need your spiritual man to function in the spiritual realm. A natural man can cook a meal, drive a car, mow a lawn. A spiritual man can receive supernatural healing, finances, wisdom, peace.
“How do you do that?” you ask. Well, how does a natural man pick up a physical object? By using natural means – his eyes locate the object, his feet walk up to it, his hands grab it. In a similar way, a spiritual man will use spiritual means to do things in the spiritual realm. You have spiritual means that your spiritual man can use.
What are some of these spiritual means that your spirit man can use? Your words, your faith, the Word of God, your spiritual senses, your imagination. The following audio files go into greater detail.
Part 1: What it means to Move in the Spirit
Part 2: Preparing to Move in the Spirit
Part 3: How to Move in the Spirit
Recorded at Transformers Christian Church
Spiritual Gifts
Spiritual Gifts
One of the most exciting privileges God gives us as believers is the opportunity to bring the supernatural to the world around us. Whether it’s a healing, a miracle, an insight into a situation or even a glimpse into something that is yet to occur, supernatural manifestations are a stamp of divine authorship. They are irrefutable demonstrations that Christianity is not just a set of morals codes, a philosophical ideology or even a religion; it is a connection with a supernatural Being who is the author of life in the Universe. The supernatural brings an awareness of the presence of God into our every day lives.
In the twelfth to fourteenth chapters of 1 Corinthians, there are a set of 9 supernatural manifestations listed and discussed. They are known as Spiritual Gifts and they are divinely powerful to destroy anything that the devil could possibly throw at us. Sadly, however, most Christians rarely (if ever) experience moving in the Spiritual Gifts. In fact, for most believers, other than attending church, their lives don’t really differ from their unchurched family, friends, neighbours and work associates. While they live in relationship with a supernatural being, their lives are void of the supernatural and the gifts of the Spirit. Why is this and how can we change it?
There are two major reasons why people fail to experience the supernatural gifts of the Spirit :
- Ignorance of what they have and
- A lack of desire to flow in them.
Most Christians are not even aware of what the Gifts of the Spirit are let alone know how they operate. Most are waiting for God to do something, to enable them to flow in the Gifts Of the Spirit. They believe it’s all up to God and unless He does something then there’s nothing we can do. And so they sit idly by day after day, week after week, month after month and even year after year; waiting for God to hit them with the ‘anointing’ or force them to do something extraordinary. Others claim that we shouldn’t say things like ‘I have a spiritual gift’ because that can lead to pride. Many of these insist that it’s wrong to claim that you possess spiritual gifts because they all belong to God. According to these people, it would be wrong to claim to have the gift of healing for example because only God can heal.
Such thinking brings confusion and powerlessness into believers’ lives. The scriptures clearly show that God has given every believer at least one spiritual gift plus the capacity to flow in every one of them from time to time (Rom 12:6; 1 Cor 12:7, 31; 1 Pet 4:10). But if you don’t know this then you’ll be waiting for God to do something when in reality God is waiting for you to stir up the gift within you and move in the gifts of the Spirit (2 Tim 1:6).
It’s not prideful to admit we have certain gifts; the gifts come from God. No amount of study, physical training or self-discipline will bring the gifts into our lives. They come from God and so we can’t really take credit for them but we can give God glory for them. Spiritual Gifts don’t change who we are. Balaam’s donkey was used of God to speak to Balaam but it didn’t transform the donkey into an angel or even into a human (Num 22:22-34). It was a donkey before it spoke to Balaam, it was a donkey while it spoke to Balaam and it remained a donkey after the incident was done and dusted. In the same way, flowing in the gifts of the Spirit don’t change who we are; if we were a donkey before we exercised a spiritual gift then we’ll remain a donkey after we flow in them!
Therefore, there’s no need to ‘hide’ what gifts we have; they all come from God and there’s no way we can flow in any of them without His help. It’s not a pride issue. In fact, in my own experience, the more I experience flowing in the Gifts of the Spirit, the more I’m humbled that in myself I am not qualified to do this.
Furthermore, while it’s true that only God can heal, it’s also true that He puts this power in earthen vessels. Jesus commanded His disciples to ‘heal the sick, cleanse the lepers and raise the dead’. He didn’t tell them to ask God to do this; He told them to do it (Matt 10:8)
The free audio files below go into much more detail identifying what the gifts of the spirit are, how they operate and how we can flow in them.
Purpose and Significance of Spiritual Gifts
Revelation Gifts I
Revelation Gifts II
Revelation Gifts III
Power Gifts
Gifts of Faith & Prophecy
Utterance Gifts
How to flow in the Gifts
Recorded at Transformers Christian Church
The Advantages of Speaking In Tongues
Speaking in Tongues is one of the most powerful gifts God has given believers. Some may ask, ‘What is speaking in tongues?’ It’s the gift that comes in our lives when we receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. After He rose from the dead, Jesus told His disciples that they needed to be clothed with power from Heaven in order to be His witnesses and this would happen when they would be saturated (or baptised) in the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-8). Ten days later, the disciples experienced this supernatural event and amongst other things, they began to speak in languages they had never previously learnt (Acts 2:1-13).
This spiritual gift (Speaking in tongues) remained with them and became a launching pad from which they moved in such astonishing power that even opponents of the Christian faith claimed that believers had ‘turned the world upside down’ (Acts 17:6). So why is speaking in tongues so special and how can it help us?
Firstly, speaking in tongues builds you up. He who speaks in a tongue edifies (builds up) himself (1 Cor 14:4). The New Living Translation says ‘A person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally.’ It is a flow of spiritual power into your body and soul. It affects your mind, will and emotions. You will find that revelation will flow in your life as you practise speaking in tongues. You will gain understanding about yourself or things that may be affecting you. There will also be times where God will give you revelation about those around you so you can help them.
Secondly, speaking in tongues enables us to have an effective prayer life. What’s an effective prayer life? It’s a prayer life that produces results. I don’t know about you but I’m over fruitless praying. What’s the point of praying if it fails to produce results? When it comes to prayer, we often struggle because we’re not always sure how to pray properly. Many times we find ourselves in situations where we don’t know exactly what to say in prayer to God about our circumstance. This is where speaking in tongues is so valuable. The bible says we don’t know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Holy Spirit helps us to pray with groanings which cannot be uttered (Rom 8:26). This is languages that we haven’t previously learnt. Speaking in tongues helps to make our prayer life effective.
Thirdly, as we pray in tongues, we access the wisdom of God within us. Do you realize that as a believer you know all things? That’s not my opinion; that’s what the bible says. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things (1 John 2:20). I remember when I first read that bible verse I thought to myself ‘I can’t possibly know all things because I didn’t know what that verse just told me!’ I failed to understand that the knowledge of all things is in God who lives in my spirit. When I pray in tongues I pray in the Spirit and I unlock the wisdom of God hidden within me (I Cor 2:6-7; 14:2). All the answers I need are in Him and He is in you. The way to get them out is to pray in tongues.
There is much to say on this topic and the following audio recording goes into greater depth. It’s a free download so go ahead and discover the power of speaking in tongues!
The Advantages of Speaking in Tongues
Recorded at Transformers Christian Church