This is my attempt to share the very unusual life occurrences that The GOD of our universe has so graciously allowed me to experience, even great pain! I will also try to share what HE has taught me through my pain and study of HIM.
The Holy Spirit Today / Spiritual Gifting
Through years of intense study on my own as well as with some of the best Bible teachers available, I have come to the stark realization that I have been "Spiritually Gifted" with the "Gift of Spiritual Discernment" which is more properly called "Discerning of Spirits". It is the only way to explain all of the spiritual / supernatural things that I have seen including demons and the Devil himself. I do not seek to have these experiences but I now know that The LORD has allowed these realizations, for the lack of a better way of describing what has happened to me, to prepare me for a great task that He has already begun. After decades of spiritual oppression with Satanic attacks through wicked people, in my dreams and in ways that I still do not fully comprehend, GOD has been preparing me for an even greater battle ahead. The LORD has also made great promises to me many years ago otherwise I would not have had the strength to continue with the mind boggling events that I have endured. I am a great threat to the Adversary who is the Devil otherwise he would not be so interested in harming me. This has encompassed the first half of my life to toughen me up for the later stages in my life
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The later stages began at the age of 30 in a very unusual way. It has been an even more challenging set of circumstances than the first half of my life and even harder to describe, although I will try my best to inspire you to believe even unto "Eternal Salvation" if at all possible
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After years of great hardship, both physically and psychologically, The Lord stepped into my life by sending an elderly man who I had just met a couple of days earlier. It was in the evening at a van customizing shop that virtually had no business and an owner who preferred to develop his country western band. This was his uncle. I manned the office in exchange for a place to plug-in my camper van and a place to sleep. His uncle presented himself with the exclamation that he had just had a "vision" about me personally. Even though I had been a believer in The LORD since I was 6 years old, I had not become grounded in the teachings of the Bible. Life had been too intense and I had not found anyone to mentor me from a Biblical point of view. This elderly man said that this, as well as previous visions included color similar to a stop light, red, yellow and green which told him whether or not to share the vision. My vision was green which told him to tell me. It simply consisted of three numbers, 7, 9, and 18, as I recall. He also gave to me 3 airline tickets that were for a flight that was departing in a day or two. I had to make a decision to trust God with this because it was around the holidays and the destination was Baltimore from Tucson and I was broke except for 8 dollars. I prayed about it and then on the next afternoon, I was on my way even though there were blizzard conditions in the Northeast USA and I would be hitch-hiking back. Thankfully, the plane landed at the Dallas / Fort Worth airport for a brief layover. I decided that it would be best for me to start hitch-hiking back from there.
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This was the beginning of my choice to start trusting my LORD and Savior in a big way. I did not really have many other choices available and it was time for me to start to follow Him where-ever he led me by faith! IT was because of this major choice that made me become a major target for the adversary (Satan) and he has been relentless except for periods where he tried to get me to let my guard down. My thirst to study the Bible has been ever increasing since then! Great pain and suffering has had a way of forcing me to focus on Him as well. It has been this great increase in Bible study that has helped me to understand that all of these spiritual encounters were directly related to Spiritual Gifts that The LORD has given to me and in particular "Discerning of Spirits". I have seen spirits apart from having a human body and have learned to recognized those people who are controlled or have allowed themselves to become influenced in a variety of ways. There are certain characteristics that I will notice after getting to know a particular person. The Devil and his minions are very deceptive so a person (believer) needs to be very careful who they allow into their lives. There are many within the Body of Christ that try to practice a sort of religion but it is in no way pleasing to God.
There are a number of other "Gifts" that are enumerated in the New Testament. These can be found in 1st Corinthians chapters 12 and 14, 1st Peter chapter 4 and Ephesians Chapter 4. and of course the book of Acts. You can glean other information about the working of the Holy Spirit throughout the bible. It is the Holy Spirit who primarily works within us and "Gifts" us as he sees fit for the edification of the Body of Christ. Some people are in the habit of naming 9 Gifts of the Spirit but I am convinced that you can not put The Holy Spirit in a box by limiting how He gifts people. There are variations of gifts, just as there are variations in personalities. The gift of "Sight" in another person might be somewhat different yet similar to my "Gift" of Spititual Sight or Discernment.
I am not prepared at this time to delve into the other "Gifts" in detail because there is still much discussion and many differences in opinion concerning which gifts are still active today and even whether we can have more than one spiritual gift per person. I personally believe that a true believer by "Faith in Christ", has a primary spiritual gift that they need to focus on and develop by the Holy Spirit's power, and secondary gifts as well.
There is one thing that I do know from personal experience and that concerns "tongues". There are "Cults" who specialize in tongues as well as the Occult and this is straight from Satan who's people also do this kind of "babble" which is dangerously deceptive, even Mediums or those in the "New Age Movement can do this kind of deceptive babble. There are many in the "Church" that are planted by Satan. They are known as "Tares" or false believers who pretend to be "Saved" but are not! They may actually believe that they are true Christians, but are not! I have personal experience with one of the so-called Christian cults called "The Way International". I have a cousin who was ensnared by this organization many years ago. Their specialty was also "tongues" but I was able to discern that these were false and from Satan after listening to both my cousin and her friend do this kind of babble in front of me! The book of Acts illustrated the ability to speak in front of a mixed crowd from different cultures and hear "Peter's" words for example, in their own native tongues (languages) and including their different dialects as well. Be very careful of those who claim to have this kind of ability because they ar likely to be doing the Devil's work!
One of my friends
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- Davey
- Arizona, United States
- I am amazed by all of God's Creation but dismayed by all of the evil that has corrupted it ! I have seen God's hand at work in my life and because I am actively seeking His will, I am also a target for Satan's attacks and have been attacked for decades! I am willing to share as much as I can to those who are honestly seeking the Truth.
