7 Listening

The revelatory gifts have got to the most misunderstood gifts of the Holy Spirit – and rightfully so. They can be misused. They can be manipulative. They can be creepy, unpredictable, abusive, and downright rude. In short, they can ruin a life.

Yet, in spite of all that, Jesus used them, the apostles used them, and the church fathers used them. They’ve been the centerpiece of every revival in history, and – as I mentioned in an earlier chapter – a vast majority of the worldwide Body of Christ in this day and age actively engages in the gifts of the Spirit - all of the gifts of the Spirit, including the revelatory/supernatural gifts. Why? The revelatory gifts are powerful avenues wherein God blesses, heals, equips, and anoints his followers to shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

So how do they work? How does a prophet hear God’s word so he can share it with the gathered? How does a vision come, a word of knowledge, a dream, or a healing? In short, how does God speak?

Variety is the Norm. For starters, it is a very individual thing. Different people get it different ways. That’s the beauty of our God. In addition, different ways can be made manifest in the same person. And to raise our faith, no ministry situation is the same as the last ministry situation.

Physical pain. One way people have heard the “voice” of God is though physical pain in the body. Sounds weird, but it’s true. It’s almost as if God allows them to feel what the ailing person is going through as a form of prayer, or intercession.

That happened to me once. I was speaking on the subject of healing at an ALPHA course in Switzerland, Florida, and, as I was asking the Lord how he would minister that evening, I felt an intensely sharp pain in my lower gut – like a needle. It was very painful and, after a second thought, I concluded it must be a word of knowledge for someone in the group. So I said, “I believe the Lord would like to minister to a person having trouble with a gallbladder.”

Just then a slight stirring happened at the back of room and, within a few minutes, I found myself praying for a woman who came forward at the urging of her husband. She told me she didn’t believe in healing and I mentioned that it may not be for her healing – only that God singled her out for prayer of any nature. We prayed, she left, and I went home.

A few weeks later I saw this woman at a party and learned that, since the prayer, she had been completely healed. (She also mentioned she still didn’t really believe in healing, but couldn’t argue with the medical results.) She was slated to have surgery when we met but didn’t need it when she went in to the doctors’ offices later that week. All that happened as a result of me getting a pain in the place where I thought a gallbladder should be.

The mind. God shares his will for us and gives revelatory insight through thoughts, as well as other normal operations of the brain. Visions, for example, come through one’s imagination, sort of like dreams. Visionaries actually see a segment of something notable, describe what they’re seeing, and pray into it. Words of knowledge can flow from verses that we have memorized. Not everything that comes to our imagination is of the Lord, of course. The point here is that visions appear on the same “screen” that everything else in our imagination appears on.

Emotional Feelings and the Past Memories. Other ways God can reveal himself are within the avenues of emotion and memory. If, for example, you are praying with a person and a certain memory emerges from somewhere out of the blue, don’t discount that. It very well may be a word of knowledge for that other person. With that memory you’ll need to ask for wisdom on what to do with what God has just revealed. Just because a person gets a vision doesn’t mean it’s an automatic shoe-in. It could go any number of directions - all of which demand the ongoing discernment and reliance upon the the Spirit. Do you share your vision? Do you share the learning experience you gleaned from the experience, perhaps couching it in a prayer, or full-blown exhortation? Does the memory include the name of a person? If so, is that a name of someone in the life of the person within you’re praying? Should you voice this name? The year of your memory’s conception? You see what I mean? All these questions are open turf and demand the wisdom of the Spirit before you step into articulation of the word.

In the same manner, I have prayed for people and have been overwhelmed by emotions - sometimes grief; other times joy. Chances are, whatever you’re experiencing is something that God is doing, or wanting to do, under your humble hands.

As I close this chapter two things come to mind. First, is the increasing trend on multiple ministers in this area. Gone are the days where one super-Christian knows it all. God likes it when a couple of people get together and decipher what God is up to.

Just last week a woman and I were praying with someone else. In a time of silence I saw the exoskeleton of an insect that had recently discarded its “shell.” It was beige in color and transparent, left hollow on a gravel mound. At the same time, the woman with whom I was ministering saw this person dancing, twirling with delight. We apparently received the visions at about the same time because we interrupted each other when sharing what we were getting from the Lord! After hearing both sides of the same reality, the woman broke into joy and said that’s exactly what the Lord was doing in her life! She had recently made a define decision to leave the past behind and, in her newfound joy and freedom, was now dancing for the Jesus. This completely affirmed what was going on this woman’s life! Sometimes it takes more than one person to decipher what the Lord is doing.

The other thing that comes to mind as we close out the chapter is this: Remember - it’s all about faith. Faith is needed in every situation (whether revelatory or not) with ministry is happening. Even a famous faith healer is, on some level, working on faith - the same the same level of faith that we normal people work on when we’re praying for lesser things. Without faith it is impossible to please the Lord. To be sure, different people have different levels of faith. One person could never have the faith to raise the dead, but - for them - it takes all their faith to pray aloud at Outback. Either way, a person raising the dead is operating in the same proportionate “challenging vacuum of faith” as the person grace. Same faith, same challenges - and sometimes the same nervousness associated with stepping out for God. Sure, the pros may make it look easy but don’t be fooled, they are trucking along, riding the highways of faith, just like the rest of us.

So, in summary, we’ve seen the way God speaks to a person is as varied and as magnificent as the Person we serve. Our minds, emotions, and bodies are all fair game - fair avenues wherein the Spirit can reveal the will of the Father in order to evangelize and equip the followers of Jesus.

The walk-a-way here is to know that God is always working, always speaking, always up to something. And he uses us to get it out into the mainstream.

Of all people - us.