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". 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 began. 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.
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.
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 had almost 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. The Lord Sent a young electrical contractor the same evening that I landed at the airport westward. He simply told him to start driving and he was obedient to the voice of The LORD. About 3:30am on the following morning, I was awake and hitchhiking again. The third car stopped and it was this young man who picked me up and eventually explained the meaning of the prophesy that The Lord had given to me a couple of days before this. The young man explained briefly that the three numbers meant: "The Lord", "Signs and Wonders" and "Double Signs and Wonders".
The first set of signs and wonders took place as foretold and I fully expect that the second half will also, although there has been a long interval between them. I am still being faithful and am staying where He placed me. He has shown to me some incredible things indeed.
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 became 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 "Spiritual Discernment". I have seen spirits apart from human beings and have learned to recognize those people who are controlled or have allowed themselves to become influenced in a variety of different 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. Satan's children can often perform false signs and even "speak in tongues" which are false tongues, a type of babbling. Mediums or channels can also "speak in tongues and perform other deceptive acts. We must rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us through God's Word as well as speak to our spirit , if we will only learn to listen.
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.
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. 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 whose people also do this kind of "babble" which is dangerously deceptive. Mediums or those in the "New Age Movement and the Holy Spirit that dwells in all "True Believers".
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! I really need to qualify this by saying that most false Christians do believe that they are real Christians but have never truly humbled themselves before the LORD and confessed with true contrition that they are "Sinners" and only by the true "Grace of God" can they be saved apart from any goodness of their own for "Only GOD is Good" and we are ALL sinners. These are actually deceived. There are some who are true deceivers and hucksters that prey on those who are unlearned and naive. Until they reach that point of true humility confessing to God that they have no hope at all without God's deliverance from the power of sin by His grace alone! It is then that the Holy Spirit truly causes us to be re-born or born anew in our spirit or soul. Until this takes place, there are no spiritual gifts from God imparted unto them!
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