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The BIG Picture
"Collected
wisdom from the journey."
from Doug
Perry - www.FellowshipOfTheMartyrs.com
- May, 2007
Chapter Six
– Dials
(excerpted from
“Rain Down NOW, Lord!” - with additions) (Printable
PDF file)
We don't have
enough Fear of the Lord or we would have a better sense of how
intensely complicated this is! We always seek to simplify and
compartmentalize God so that we can get our head around Him.
The idea of the
Dials has application across a whole bunch of spectrums, but let's
just talk about it first in terms of Gifts of the Spirit for
illustration. OK? (Like you have a choice.)
People seem to
think the Gifts of the Spirit are on/off switches that you either
have or you don't. People actually preach that you may only have one
or two gifts, but nobody has ALL of them. And whatever the Holy
Spirit gives you, that's what you get and you should be content with
it. But I think that's just not at all scriptural on a whole number
of levels.
First,
they're clearly NOT on/off switches, they're Dials. There's no other
way to explain how someone could have an anointing to heal a
headache, but another can regrow a limb or raise the dead. Some have
a prophecy gift that just comes as a “deja vu” sort
of vague sense of familiarity when something happens and some others
see hyper-accurate dreams and visions of the future all the time.
Some have just barely enough Gift of Faith to endure a couple weeks
without a paycheck and some can endure shipwrecks and torture and
jail and total dependence on God for everything. It has to be a
spectrum, not a fixed quantity. I Corinthians 11:11 says that the “Holy
Spirit gives them to each one, just as He determines.” That
may mean that He gives the Gift itself to those He determines, but it
also surely means that He gives it in the quantity that He
determines. Sometimes a person gets “dialed up” just long
enough for a crisis situation or an immediate need for healing or
evangelism or whatever and then may never see that gift again like
that. The Holy Spirit's management of each of our Gift's Inventory is
a lot more fluid and complicated than we give Him credit for. (I hope
that the result of this chapter, too, is more Fear of the Lord.)
Second, Paul
specifically instructs us to desire spiritual gifts, especially the
big ones that have the biggest impact. He says:
Remember, Paul is
talking to people (the Church in Corinth) that already have SOME
spiritual gifts. He encourages them at least twice in this letter to
seek more and bigger weapons, especially prophecy.
Best –
kreitton {krite'-tohn} – (Strong's 2909)1) more useful, more
serviceable, more advantageous 2) more excellent
Translated as
“better” 11 times and only once as “best”. Better
implies degrees of usefulness. A plurality of possible usefulnesses
from among which you should seek the highest possible choice in any
given situation.
Gifts –
charisma {khar'-is-mah} – (Strong's 5486)1) a favour with which
one receives without any merit of his own 2) the gift of divine grace
3) the gift of faith, knowledge, holiness, virtue 4) the economy of
divine grace, by which the pardon of sin and eternal salvation is appointed
to sinners in consideration of the merits of Christ laid hold of by
faith 5) grace or gifts denoting extraordinary powers, distinguishing
certain Christians and enabling
them to serve the church of Christ, the reception of which is due to
the power of divine grace operating on their souls by the Holy Spirit
If the Father is
willing to give us gifts, then we should seek them and be good
stewards of them. Jesus doesn't say to wait for the Lord to do
everything and never ask. Jesus is clear that we should petition the
Father in the name of Jesus for ANYTHING. He tells two different
parables about pestering someone until they give in! (Luke
11:5-10 & Luke 18:1-8)
Luke 11:5-10 –
Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and
he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of
bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I
have nothing to set before him.' Then the one inside answers, 'Don't
bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in
bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' I tell you, though
he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend,
yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much
as he needs. So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek
and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For
everyone that asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who
knocks, the door will be opened.”
Can it be any more
clear that if you don't have, it's because you don't ask? If you have
a sincere heart and you just want more of the Holy Spirit, He's not
going to give you a demon! He can't. He's a good Dad. You CANNOT get
a demon in you by asking God for Spiritual Gifts with a pure heart.
If you ask for bread, He's not going to give you a stone. But if you
go down the aisle and ask for whatever THAT guy has, there's no
telling what you might get!
OK, back to the
point here. There are LOTS of different kinds of gifts, a lot more
than people realize, and nearly endless variants and interactivities
between them. It's not nearly as cut and dried as people think. I
hope that when you get a little glimpse of it this way, you will
marvel even more at God's love for you and the complexity of all that
the Holy Spirit does inside of you every day, just to manage all this stuff!
2 Peter 1:3 – According
as his divine power (dunamis) hath given unto us all things
that [pertain] unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him
that hath called us to glory and virtue.
Hebrews 2:4 – God
also bearing [them] witness, both with signs and wonders, and with
divers (poikilos) miracles (dunamis), and gifts of the Holy
Ghost, according to his own will?
Poikilos is
translated here “divers” but defined by Strong's (4164) as:
1) a various
colours, variegated 2) of various sorts
It is translated
eight times as “divers” and twice as “manifold”.
1 Corinthians 12:4 –
Now there are diversities (diairesis) of gifts (charisma), but the
same Spirit.
1 Corinthians 7:7
– For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every
man hath his proper gift (charisma) of God, one after this manner,
and another after that.
1 Corin. 1:7 –
So that ye come behind in no gift (charisma);
waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:
So He has given us
all things pertaining unto life and godliness, through the knowledge
of him that called us to glory and virtue. Did you know you were
called to glory and virtue? Isn't that cool?! Great, so how do
we do it? By the dunamis of God. There's no other way.
The Hebrews 2:4
verse also indicates that the miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost
are poikilos – that is, if you seek and find, what you'll
probably get is variegated, diverse dunamis – lots of flavors,
colors, frequencies, wavelengths! Wow! Not only is the
Holy Spirit living inside you, He has to keep track of all this stuff
on the fly for your benefit and for the Father's glory.
How complicated
could it be?
There are only
a few Gifts of the Spirit, right?
Yeah, you'd think
it would be easy wouldn't you? I've seen Spiritual Gift Inventory
tests with 20 to 100 questions that help you narrow in on what you're
good at. We have those so that we can identify tendencies or
behaviors that are ALREADY in place, but not potentialities and
future giftings or callings. Basically, we don't really have anointed
apostles and prophets and people operating in discernment of spirits
in any big enough quantity to just SEE who has what gifts and we (as
a whole) don't hear God well enough to just ask Him ourselves. So we
have to have psychological and behavioral inventories. It's really
very sad.
OK, here is the
generally agreed upon list:
|
The Gifts and
Callings of the Holy Spirit |
|
I Corinthians 12:4-14 |
I Corinthians 12:27-30 |
Romans 12:6-8 |
Ephesians 4:11 |
|
Word of WisdomWord
of KnowledgeFaithHealingsWorking of MiraclesProphecyDiscernment of
spiritsSpeaking in TonguesInterpretation of Tongues |
Apostles
Prophets
Teachers
Miracles
Healings
Helps
Administrations
Variety of Tongues |
Prophecy
Ministry
Teaching
Exhortation
Giving
Leading
Showing Mercy |
ApostlesProphetsEvangelistsPastors
and Teachers*
|
Note: *
Some “authorities” distinguish between Pastors and Teachers
in the list contained in Ephesians. That's how they get a
“Five-fold” instead of a “Four-fold” ministry.
Personally, I don't care to argue about it.
There are some
others that are a little less clearly stated and some folks disagree
with them being added to the list above. They include; hospitality,
celibacy, voluntary poverty and exorcism/deliverance (although that
is generally classified within the healing gift).
Gifts of the
Spirit are not the same as the “fruit of the spirit”
(Galatians 5:22). Since the “sign gifts” or manifestation
gifts can sometimes be faked or come from evil sources (Matt. 24:24,
7:22-23), the true and better test is of the specific fruit listed here.
Fruit of the
Spirit (Galatians. 5:22-23)
Love, Joy,
Peace, Long-suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Temperance.
Please note the
things that CANNOT be used to determine spiritual fruit. There are
some obvious things missing from this list. Things like; size of
ministry, eloquence of speech, new book deal, longevity in office,
number of advanced degrees, physical attractiveness or magnetism,
material wealth, number of people that agree with them, quantity or
size of their miracles, likeability by the “world”,
etc. If you have been judging someone based on anything OTHER
than the Biblical Fruit, you might want to say you're sorry and
rethink to whom you've been listening. Jesus said that the more
you were like Him, the more you would be hated and persecuted, so
someone with lots of the TRUE Fruit is most likely going to be
surrounded by a big cloud of controversy and lies. Don't let that
automatically scare you off.
Basically, you
can't dial up the Fruit of the Spirit. You can impart them to someone
– you can share your Peace or Joy or Self-Control, but they have
to walk it out before it becomes Fruit. You can pour it (sow
it) into them all you want, but it's dead seed until it sprouts and
produces a harvest – THEN it's Fruit. Basically, the
bigger their “cup” gets, the more they are filled with
Jesus, the more these Fruits will manifest because it is Christ in
them that lives and there's not very much of their own selfish,
sinful nature to get in the way anymore.
Some of these
overlap substantially. You CAN dial up Peace, Joy, Patience because
they are things you're “full of” in addition to being
Fruits. Also, you can be full of Mercy and that would drive a
bunch of the Fruits (Kindness, Generosity, Patience, Gentleness,
Faithfulness). Wisdom would drive others (Patience, Modesty,
Self-Control, Chastity, Generosity, etc.) Basically, you can
take any one of these and replace it with “Jesus” and it
retains the same meaning. So more Jesus means more Fruits and more
Gifts. Some say there is just ONE Fruit divided in 9 parts. Same
difference, the more you look like Jesus, the more this stuff all
shows up. But it's important for you to get a sense of how intensely
complicated this is. My goal is for you to get so mentally exhausted
that you'll stop trying to control or manipulate what God wants and
just lay it all at His feet and pour out whatever He tells you, when
He tells you. If you try to fiddle with the dials yourself,
you'll just make a mess.
Maybe some
pictures will help. Imagine that each of these circles is a
Spiritual Gift “dial”. They interlock and mesh together and
overlap in ways we can't even possibly understand. My goal in this
book is not to explain exactly how it all works, I don't think any
human can. My goal is to motivate people to lovingly share with each
as they have a need and to teach AWE and the bigness and complexity
of what God is doing in ALL of us.
Can you see that
even through the course of a single day, we all are tested and tried
and we either pass or fail? We may also meet with people that pray
for us, and the Holy Spirit intercedes for us directly with the
Father, and maybe we spend time in the Word and receive some
spiritual blessing. Throughout the day, this graphic is in
constant motion. Like raindrops in a puddle, constantly flowing and
rippling and expanding and contracting. Do you really think you can
design a Spiritual Gifts inventory that will be accurate a week from
now? Only if it is so basic as to be practically useless! (Or
you are completely stagnant.)
Do they really
overlap like that? Well, I've read about people with a massive gift
of healing – people like Smith Wigglesworth, William Branham,
James Dunn, Kathryn Kuhlman, Maria Woodworth-Etter, John G. Lake, A.
A. Allen and others. (Go look them up online.) They all have their
Faith dial up really high – that seems to control most
everything. But the ones that seem to keep their head on straight and
not start thinking they're Elijah usually also have their Wisdom and
Discernment of Spirits dial up really high as well. You can see where
someone goes terribly, horribly wrong in the “charismania”
side of the Body and they nearly always have a serious shortage of
Wisdom (Fear of the Lord is the BEGINNING of Wisdom) and an excess of
some manifestation gift. Maybe their Prophecy dial is up really high,
but they don't know when to keep their mouth shut and not cast pearls
before swine. Maybe their Healing dial is up really high but they
started making it about THEM instead of giving God the glory. On the
other side of the Body we have folks who also don't have enough Fear
of the Lord because they think their doctrines are able to perfectly
explain God and so they put Him in a box.
Romans 11:29
says that “God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.” That
means the Gifts are permanent. He'll pour Himself into you, but if
you let some of it leak out, you're going to not be balanced as you
should be. You'll probably guard carefully the Gift that makes you
someone famous, but you'll let leak out the sub-components that made
it work within His purposes and bring Him all the glory – like
the wisdom and the discernment and the self-control and the modesty
and the humility. You'll keep the flashy stuff and let go of the
harder ones that require more maintenance. You can't keep humility
and fear of the Lord and self-control if you're not on your knees all
the time, keeping your cup full of Jesus daily/hourly. But you might
keep the dreams and visions or healing – but now it's going to
be used against you by the enemy because you stopped maintenancing
the self-control and patience and humility and Fear of the Lord
necessary to keep from making it about YOU.
Some big
evangelists that end up in scandal or prison or excess had great big
cups and they were all the way full, then they stopped praying and
keeping them full and the enemy got in and started messing with them.
If you have a cup the size of an oil tanker, just the daily
evaporation rate could be tens of thousands of gallons! That
much volume filled with sin would shatter the normal person
instantly. You better keep your cup full ALL the time!
Proverbs 25:26 – “Like a muddied spring or a polluted well
is a righteous man who gives way to the wicked.” (A well is a
really big 'cup'.)
Said again (for
emphasis), if you have a candle and you go stand out in the backyard
on a summer night, a couple of bugs will come see what's going on.
But if God has dialed you up really bright and you're like the
halogen arrays on top of a professional football stadium, every bug
for MILES is going to come try to smother you! The badness will
SWARM on the great big cups and try to crush them any way possible.
If you have no openings, they will go for any soft target around you
– like your spouse and kids and ministry partners.
There are people
all over the world right now raising the dead and seeing people
regrow limbs in front of their eyes and healed of all kinds of
terminal illnesses. More of that is coming as soon as the Body starts
fully walking in our inheritance and sharing with each other from the
abundance of what we've been given. Do you want to see God pour out
His Spirit on all men? Go find a man and dump out on him all of the
Spirit of God that is in you!
You have an
endless spring of living water flowing from inside of you, so go
point it at somebody and open the faucet all the way! If you
have a cup like a shot glass, they may not notice that anything
happened. But if you have a cup like an oil tanker and you point a
big, fat fire hose at them and crank it on real fast, it will
probably knock them down. But PLEASE don't go trying to knock them
down for fun, that's just showing off. (And don't put your hand
on them and PUSH them down either, that's just witchcraft and
manipulation of the worst sort. Please tell God you're sorry for
trying to force your will on people and look “cool” –
and pray for more Fear of the Lord while you're at it.)
Are you getting
this yet? Let's try another picture.
Know what that is?
If you go to church in America, you probably do. Just in case you
don't, it's a mixing board for a sound system. All the different
dials and buttons and slides control the microphones and sound
effects and lighting and all the different things that might be
plugged into it. If you don't know what you're doing, you just should
NOT be allowed to play with something like this! This is a very
valuable piece of equipment and should not be toyed around with!
This particular board is a professional model used in recording
studios and costs many thousands of dollars. Like my cell phone, it
has a great long list of cool features, most of which I may never
figure out how to use. But they're there just in case, just a couple
of buttons away.
Every person that
you know has a “mixing board” far bigger, far more
complicated and far more valuable than this one. ONLY the Holy Spirit
can manage it. Only God knows what it's true potential and maximum
possible range might be. We are like the little kid that peeks into
the control room of a nuclear power plant and is awed by the walls of
dials and gauges and switches. But you want to be sure not to let a
little kid mess with anything in the control center of a nuclear
power plant! See the picture. Would YOU want to be in charge of
that? If I'm right about this, shouldn't we be putting a WHOLE lot
more value on the individuals under our care? Shouldn't we be more
careful with their potential?
The variables in
play in even a single life are staggeringly massive. Since God sees
the end from the beginning, He also knows all at once what came
before and what is and what is coming. He knows how many souls that
kid in your youth group COULD bring into the kingdom, but some or all
of them will depend on YOU being obedient and speaking the right word
at the right time to that kid. You can't possibly understand the
value God places on that kid and the critical importance that you not
try to do God's job for Him! You're just going to blow something up.
How can we keep
from having more blood on our heads? We are already swimming in guilt
and responsibility for all the missed opportunities, disobedience,
refusal to share with and care for and love on brethren in need. Not
to mention the darkness in the world that's because we didn't take
our light out there in sufficient measure. We can't possibly even
imagine how many are already going to hell because of the times we
didn't do all that we could have. Is that legalism? No, Jesus wants
obedience. Why? Because He's the ONLY ONE that can direct our paths
so that we don't make things worse and worse all the time. He doesn't
want to boss us around and make us miserable! He wants to gently walk
us out of the giant bonfire we're standing in the middle of –
that we started ourselves! He's the only one that knows the safest
possible route out of the fire. It might take a little longer, it
might twist and turn and look like we're losing ground, but He knows
it's not quite as hot as the direct route that looked good to us but
would have killed us instantly.
You see, if a
person comes to you and asks for advice about whether to take Job A
or Job B and you use all your reason and experience and knowledge and
weigh the pro's and con's and help them to decide to take Job B –
but that's not what God wanted for them and it wrecks their life
– well, that's on your head. It's their fault for listening to
you, but it's your fault (especially if you're in a leadership role)
for not making sure they were following God and not Man. It could be
that you should have just prayed and sought God together and He would
have said to turn down both jobs and wait a week because BOTH are
decoys from the enemy and Job C is coming and that's the really BIG
payoff that was His Perfect Will all along for that person. (Unless
you don't think God talks to people, in which case all you've got
left is to lean on your own understanding. How's that working for you?)
How many
earth-shaking evangelists never launched because we didn't raise them
up? How many prophets and apostles and teachers are lost because we
had pizza parties and ski trips instead of preaching the power of the
Cross? How many people have we filled with the wisdom of man and the
ways of the world instead of filling them with Jesus and Faith and
Godly Wisdom and Fear of the Lord?
Colossians 2:8 –
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive
philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles
of this world rather than on Christ.
Paul boasted that
the blood of no man was on his head. Wow!! How did he do that?!
He wrote letters, he traveled all over – he preached until
people fell out of windows and died! (But Paul raised him from the
dead. Acts 20:7-12) How did he never steer anyone wrong? How
did he never make it about him?
Because he always
just pointed them toward Jesus. He didn't draw men unto himself, he
got behind them and shoved them toward Jesus. He taught relationship
and hearing God's voice and obedience to the Spirit in you. He didn't
teach obedience to legalism or to systems and structures of man. He
didn't seek obedience to Paul, he sought that they obey God alone. He
didn't have them grow up into Paul is their head, he urged them to
grow up into CHRIST. He didn't get them under his
“cover” - he told them to run into the Strong Tower.
I don't want you
to even remember me. I just want you to get cleaned out, get a big
cup of Jesus, get more Fear of the Lord, hear Him really well and
then HE will direct your paths. If you let ME direct your paths,
you're toast. Don't do it!! Take everything here to the Lord
and have Him explain it to you and confirm it to you and write it on
your heart. Don't take my word for anything.
Ok, sorry. Little detour.
None of the
Spiritual Gifts assessments that I have seen take into account all
the possible variables. Also, I've never seen one that assumes that
everybody has ALL of the Gifts. I'm just sure that if you have ANY
Jesus in you, then ALL the Gifts are present. That is, when you get
Jesus, all the dials move off of ZERO. Some may never move any
higher, but it's there if you need it. That is, I know people
that get saved and start hearing God better right away. At first it
starts as conviction of sin, but also some zeal and a desire to
evangelize. They have more urge to pray and intercede and pray for
people that are sick and lost. Some of those prayers get answered. To
the degree that they have faith, God continues to pour more into them
and dial them up as they are obedient and continue to walk it out and
be good stewards of what they have been given. Some people have a big
anointing right away for evangelism or prophecy or something, some
sneak up on it over time. God can do whatever He wants with your
dials. If you don't have, it's because you don't ask – or you
got it and didn't use it and it got rusty.
How else can you
explain someone that has exceptional wisdom, but only in a given
situation. Or someone that can pray healing or miraculous provision
down, but only in an emergency. Or people that can heal anything and
raise the dead, but only on the mission field? There are times when
we “spike” because we're available and willing or we're in
the right place at the right time. And times when it dials down
dramatically because we're not on our own “land” –
we're trying to operate outside of the sphere of authority God has
assigned to us.
If you don't have
a gift, it's because you don't ask. How many times in charismatic
congregations does someone come down the aisle seeking the Baptism in
the Holy Spirit just so they can speak in tongues? But that's
at the BOTTOM of the list of gifts! Paul says to seek the ones at the
TOP. I say, seek them ALL! What if you went down the
aisle expecting to get them all, begging God to get them all,
offering to lay down anything that was in the way so that you could
have them all and use them effectively for the Kingdom? Do you think
you might get a head start on the person that came down seeking
tongues because they just wanted to fit in with everybody else in the
youth group?
If you don't have,
it's because you don't ask. This is a war between good and evil
and we're getting creamed. Why? Because people aren't asking for the
really dangerous stuff. The things that really push back the
darkness. Particularly wisdom, prophecy, discernment of spirits and
interpretation of tongues. In all of my travels around dozens and
dozens of congregations (sometimes visiting four or five on one
Sunday), I have only RARELY met anyone that has interpretation of
tongues and even more rarely people that can see demons. Sadly
also, few people that clearly hear the voice of God – and that's
not even a Gift of the Spirit! That's just an automatic for ALL
believers! What kind of a war are we fighting here?! Where are
the people bristling with weapons and wisdom and love and authority?
Why are our congregations full of spiritual pygmies that are blind
and deaf and weak – but are sure they're fine? Maybe the enemy
is a lot sneakier than we thought. Maybe we don't have to worry about
some future “falling away” – I think we're fully
fallen already. Read Ezekiel 9. I think our temples are already full
of dead bodies. Because we're not weeping and mourning about the sad
state of our cities, our nation, our own hearts, our congregations,
the Bride. Everybody that's not crying is going to be, or
already is, a dead body piled in the temple. (Oops. I started
preaching again. Sorry.)
At any moment, God
can dial you all the way up and you can do anything that any other
brother or sister has ever done. You're just one instant (and a dead
body) away from seeing someone raised from the dead. The Jesus
in you can do anything, all you have to do is get out of the way and
let Him do it through you. You need to get all cleaned out, get your
Faith dial turned up really high and know that it's your birthright.
Hope to see His glory fill you, do it for the sake of Love and then
you'll see the dead raised.
The Master Dials
that drive them all are Faith, Hope and Love. But the greatest is
Love. All the other dials are limited by how high the master
Love dial is turned up. Everything else is just feedback and
nasty, useless noise if the Love dial isn't turned up. Want
more prophecy? Want more wisdom? Want more effectiveness for the
kingdom? Want to be more dangerous to the enemy of our souls? Get
more Love. And not fluffy, man-made love. Godly love includes
turning over the tables and speaking truth. God can wield a
bull-whip and still do it in Love. His ways are NOT our
ways!! Learn it. Seek it.
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