Section 10 - Receiving Spiritual Gifts

However before we get to that, I want to quickly look at how to deal with the demonic. I have mentioned several times now, the fact that often what we think are gifts from God are actually demonic influences.

We have picked these up along the way; from other people, from associations, from involvement in the occult or whatever the case may be. So let's look at how we deal with these things in our lives.

If you do not deal with them, once you move into this realm of the Spirit there will come a conflict. You will continue to face this conflict and eventually Satan will win.

You will give up and be too afraid to operate in the real gifts because Satan always has a counterfeit for these.

If you have been operating in any of the counterfeit gifts, you will eventually not know which one is from the Lord and which is not. So you need to clear the air and get rid of all demonic influences.

Renouncing

The first thing you must learn is how to renounce. This is a very important process. The Scripture tells us in James 4:7,

Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

There are two processes there that need to be carried out.

1. Submit yourself to God

2. Resist the devil and he will flee

When you opened your heart to a demonic influence, you firstly did something that God said is wrong. God forbids us from doing that and it is sin, and so it affected your relationship with the Lord.

At the same time you also gave license to and invited a demon power to come and live with you; to influence your life from then on.

So when you come to dealing with these influences, the process of renouncing must address both of these things.

Confession of Sin

Renouncing must include confession of sin and this is the first action that you need to take.

Where you have personally opened your heart and become involved in the occult, or given license to any spiritual power, you must come to God and say,

"Father, I was wrong in allowing this thing and I confess it as sin. I receive your forgiveness and cleansing now in Jesus' Name."

You now re-establish your relationship with God.

Then you must address the demon by speaking to it and saying,

"Satan, I renounce every hold that I have given to you in my life now. I make it clear to you that I want nothing more to do with you. I don't want your gifts; I don't want your influences and I command you to leave now in Jesus' Name."

Do not try to do this in your mind because the enemy cannot read your mind. Speak verbally out loud to the demon as though there was a person standing in front of you.

That demon now has to leave.

Family Generations

When it comes to family generations you must do something similar. The difference now is that this influence did not come as a direct result of your own sin.

If you submitted to it and received it, then of course you are also responsible and it is a double thing.

What you are doing is renouncing family generations, so once again it is a simple prayer. You submit yourself to the Lord and say,

"Lord, forgive me for allowing these family generations to affect me. Now in the Name of Jesus I renounce all spiritual links going back into my family generations.

"I reject this influence that came down from my parents and grandparents or wherever it came from. I have nothing to do with this; I cut that tie now and I reject it in Jesus' Name."

You do not need to keep doing this; it only needs to be done once.

However each time you make contact with family members who are still under the influence of those generational bondages, be careful. They may try to come back and affect you again.

Dealing with Idols

We have now renounced both of those demonic influences, but there is another thing that can hold these things in place. I would like to call these idols.

You may think that we no longer worship idols these days. But you would be surprised how many idols you may have in your home.

An idol is simply an object that allows you to communicate with the spiritual world. Our only 'idol' where God is concerned is Jesus; He is the mediator between God and men.

Any object in this world that you use to receive blessing from God is an idol. This includes crucifixes, St Christophers, and any other object that you might think gives you spiritual influence.

Get rid of these things because they are idols in your life. This includes anything that is sentimental to you, especially family heirlooms; anything that belonged to your mother or grandmother, etc.

There may be nothing wrong with the object itself. But it carries a contamination which can encourage the family generation influence to affect you.

Personal Relationships

Sometimes even a person can be an idol, and relationships can open doors to the enemy. So be careful of relationships where you have opened your heart to people. You will continue to receive that influence.

Every time you get together with family, learn to do the following. The moment you leave their presence, take a fresh stand and say,

"In the Name of Jesus I renounce any influence that came upon me now; I break every curse and command it to leave."

You might think that this is paranoia. But when you move in the realm of the supernatural, you cannot afford to have any kind of supernatural influence in your life that does not come from God.

So watch out for relationships. It does not matter if they are family relationships or friends that you have. They are people that are an open door to the enemy and your ministry will be affected by it.

As a child of God and someone who is called to move into ministry, be careful and selective as to whom you have as friends. A friend is someone you open your heart to.

As a minister you must open your heart wide to pour out to others. But you should never be opening your heart wide to receive back from those same people. You will receive a contamination.

Do not expect people to recognize your ministry; to give you acceptance and recognition and meet your need when you minister to them.

There is a danger that you will open your heart to an influence that is coming from them. If you do it you will pick up that demonic contamination which will affect you supernaturally.

Receiving the Gifts of the Spirit

How then do we receive the gifts? I made it clear that you do not receive them at birth. What you received from birth, if it was supernatural, came from your family generations.

I don't care if your family generations were spirit-filled, born again, Gospel preaching believers.

I came from three generations of Christians. Both my parents and grandparents were born again, spirit-filled believers who were on fire for God and came from the early revivals.

I had a good strong Christian heritage, but there were still demonic things there that I had to renounce. The time came when I even had to renounce the 'blessings' that came down to me from them. God had called me to something different.

It is possible to receive good things; spiritual influences from your parents that come down which cause you to be held in special favor.

In the place where God said He would visit the iniquity of the parents on the children, to the third and fourth generations, He said something else also. He said that when it comes to blessing He will cause this to come down to thousands.

Exodus 20:5 and 6 says this:

You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD your God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth [generation] of those that hate me;
And showing mercy to thousands of those that love me, and keep my commandments.

There is no limitation to the blessing of God, and it is wonderful if you can also receive blessing from your family generations. But be very careful because there are many other things mixed up with that blessing.

This leads into the concept of family DNA which I will not be dealing with here.

A simple rule is to be very careful about any influence that was with you from birth. Those things must be dealt with, but we will consider more as we go on.

Three Ways to Receive Gifts

There are different ways in which you can receive the gifts of the Spirit.

Direct from the Lord

You can receive these firstly, direct from the Lord. Since they are the gifts of the Holy Spirit, when you come into a relationship with the Holy Spirit He may manifest those gifts in and through you directly as He chooses.

It is wonderful if you can get something that is unique. When this happens, you may find that the way you manifest any of the nine gifts is different to how other people do it.

God can give you a unique manifestation of a gift and this may sometimes be confusing. You see yourself operating in a gift in a way that is different to how other people operate it.

You thought you knew how the gift operated by looking at others. It always seems to work the same in them, but it operates differently in you.

That is because you received it directly from the Lord and not via someone else. Does this mean then that you can also get it from someone else? You certainly can.

By Prophetic Release

The second way of receiving gifts is by release from a prophet. A prophet cannot impart spiritual gifts to you, but he or she can speak a word of decree to release a gift within you.

A prophet may have a revelation for you. It is in fact a major function of the Prophetic Ministry to identify gifts and ministries in people. The prophet then speaks a decree to release those gifts and ministries in the person.

It is possible for a prophet to prophesy over you and release, say the gifts of healing within you so that you are released into a healing ministry. From that time these things may begin to manifest in you.

By Apostolic Impartation

The apostle alone has the ability to not only release gifts by decree, but he or she can also impart to you directly the gifts that are resident in him or her.

An apostle can, by the laying on of hands, communicate the gift that they have. You can see this in the Acts of the Apostles after Philip had preached in Samaria.

They had a revival and Peter and John were sent down to come and lay hands on the people. When they did this, the people received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and spoke with other tongues. There was an impartation of the anointing.

You will often find that people in a specific group all manifest gifts in a similar way. Those who receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, under the influence of the same minister will often speak in the same tongue as that person.

It means that they received it via another person. It is still the anointing of the Holy Spirit. But God has used that person to communicate it to you and you get the 'flavor' as it were, of how God uses that person in this gift.

The gifts are still 100% supernatural, but there is a mode of operation that is the same as someone else. This happens especially if an apostle imparts a gift to you.

You will likely find yourself operating in the gifts in exactly the same way as that person does. This happens often.

We see then three different ways of receiving the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

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