Perhaps nobody has ever prophesied over you yet, and no apostle has ever laid hands on you to impart yet. But you really are crying out to the Lord and desiring it from Him.

Paul told us that there are two ways of receiving spiritual gifts. But you see something different at the end of 1 Corinthians 12 where he has given us a summary of how all these things work. He says,

I will show you are more excellent way.

Later, in chapter 14 of this book he summarizes his teaching and shows that there are two things that we should do as follows:

1. Follow after love

2. Earnestly desire spiritual gifts

Love Comes First

I assume that by now you already have a passionate desire for these gifts. That is a good start, but following after love actually comes first, and this is the tricky part.

Love is always other-oriented and unselfish. I remember in my own experience when I first received the Baptism of the Spirit, was turned on to the Lord and began to move in the supernatural.

I wanted to be used by the Lord, and I bombarded everyone with questions and cried out to the Lord, asking,

"Lord, how can I get this?"

I remember someone telling me,

"Les, the key is love. Love is the key to entering into the Gifts of the Spirit."

I did not understand how that worked so I began to wait on the Lord to find out. I realized that if God was going to use me to minister to other people, I needed to have the correct motive for ministry.

I wanted to be used by God in ministry so that I could be a 'hot shot'. I wanted to feel good about myself and have people feel good about me. I wanted to prove to those who thought I was a loser, that I was really not one.

When it comes to ministry there are often a whole lot of selfish motivations all mixed in there. But unless your ministry is totally love-motivated and other-oriented, why should God give you His power?

Will He do it to make you look good? That is not what it is for. The gifts are always given to minister to other people.

I remember crying out to the Lord with this earnest desire. I so wanted to be used by Him, and I came up with a way of getting myself in a place where God could use me.

How to Develop Love

As I looked at people in general, I had to admit that I did not have very much love at all. It is easy to love those that are good to you and those that you know.

But I found myself sitting in my car in town watching people walk by. As I watched them walking by, the Lord spoke in my heart and said to me,

"Do you realize that I love every one of those people the same way that I love you?"

That really touched my heart. There were some people out there who were not very pretty. Try some time sitting out in the marketplace and watching people.

There are some not really nice people out there; people that you would not even want to hold a conversation with. But Jesus loves them.

Then He said to me,

"I want you to start, in the Spirit, changing your attitude towards every person that you see. Get My love to flow out of you; because if you can learn to do that, I will give you what you need to love them with."

He said He would then give me the power that I needed.

You may really want to be used in healing. But do you care for the sick? Are you so concerned with those who are sick and suffering that your heart cries out?

"Oh Lord, if I could only reach out, lay my hands on them and pray the prayer of faith and see them get healed."

Or are you perhaps thinking?

"I would really like to be used by God so that everyone is talking about me and wanting to come to me with their problems."

You want to become famous as being 'the healer'.

God will not give His honor to another. So the way I started out was simply to make a point, wherever I went, of looking at every person with different eyes.

I began to look at them through the eyes of the Lord, and I started to say under my breath or even out loud,

"Jesus loves you and I also love you."

It gets stuck in your mouth the first time you try it. Start by picking the ugly people first. Pick someone from a racial group, gender, age or type that you do not particularly like. Tell them that Jesus loves them and that you love them.

The Lord said I should then go beyond that and pray for them. That person has a need. Every person you see has their own personal conflicts and needs. To themselves, they are the most important person in the world.

Do you care? Because the Lord said, "I care."

I began to enter into their experience and see each one as a person in need. What kind of need do they have? Do they have a financial need? Are they lonely? Are they suffering in their body with sickness and disease?

Are they born again and going to Heaven? Are they struggling or feeling depressed? Take a good look and tell the Lord that you want to be His instrument of blessing.

It Works

I gave it a try and began to pray,

"Jesus loves you, and I love you. Lord I just pour your love out now towards that person and I speak your blessing on them."

Bam! Something took place inside of me and I thought,

"Wow, where did that come from?"

Suddenly the anointing of God began to manifest upon me and I started to feel the power of God.

What happened? It was the power of love.

The key to all kinds of ministry is the power of love. Follow after love first, and then desire spiritual gifts.

When your heart is filled with love for God's people and for the world out there that need Him, then God will give you what you desire.

Then you can take those tools and use them to pour His love out towards the people. That is the key to blessing. Love must come first, and then the desire.

Combining the Two Kinds of Anointing

To understand the realm of love, let us return once more to man's makeup of spirit, soul and body.

We saw earlier that there are two kinds of anointing - the Internal Anointing and the External Anointing.

The Internal Anointing starts from deep within and pours outwards. Think of it as being an underground stream, deep inside of you that you can tap into and draw water from.

The External Anointing is the power that comes from outside. You can think of that as a thunderstorm that comes upon you and saturates you until you are drenched.

These are two different kinds of flow, but where does the love come from? It comes from the Internal Anointing.

If you look at Paul's description of love in 1 Corinthians 13, you will see that what he describes includes all the Fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5.

That is the passage about walking in the Spirit and manifesting the fruit of the Spirit.

You can walk in love and have no power at all, except to put your arms around people to tell them that you love and care for them.

You could win a lot of people to the Lord that way, but you will not get people healed or receive prophetic words for them.

You will not be able to give them a word of wisdom or word of knowledge. You won't be able to move in the miraculous or supernatural. You need the External Anointing for that.

But what would happen if you could somehow combine the two kinds of anointing together? This is what Paul begins to describe in 1 Corinthians 13.

Coming to Maturity

I want to look at some verses now from that chapter. 1 Corinthians 13:8 says:

Divine love never loses its efficiency: but if [there are] prophecies, they will come to an end; if [there are] tongues, they will cease; if [there is] knowledge, it will vanish away.

This sounds almost as though you do not need the Gifts of the Spirit any more. Is that not what it sounds like?

Surely Paul is not telling us to take love and drop the Gifts of the Spirit? But there is more. Verse 9 says:

For our knowledge is limited, and our prophecy is limited.

He says that our knowledge and prophecy are limited. Why are they limited?

When we considered the Gifts of the Spirit, I said that the word of knowledge and word of wisdom are just a small piece of what God has. They do not involve infinite wisdom or knowing all things. They are only a small piece.

When you get a prophetic word it is one short word concerning a specific situation and circumstance. It applies only to now, and then it is over.

All of these gifts have their place, but they are limited. Paul tells us that we can come to a place where we break free of the limitations. He goes on and tells us more. He says in verse 10:

But when maturity has come, then the limitations will be removed.

The older translations said when that which is perfect has come, and some people said that this referred to the Bible. But Paul was speaking about maturity. He says in verse 13:

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

He says that before we reach maturity, it is like looking through a mirror and seeing a puzzling image. But when we come to maturity, then it will be like seeing face to face. Verse 12 says:

For now we see through a mirror, a puzzling image; but then [we will see] face to face: now I know partially; but then I will know just as I also am known.

He says that when you get to that place, you will know as you are known.

How then do you get to this place of maturity? How can you come to a place where you no longer need to be limited; where you no longer need limited knowledge?

How can our knowledge expand beyond the little revelations that we get from the Gifts of the Spirit?

Maturity Involves Both Anointings

What exactly is maturity? It is when both the Internal and External Anointing combine together and flow at the same time.

In Part 1 of this book on Finding Your Ministry Calling, we spoke about the dove with its two wings. On one side are the Gifts of the Spirit, and on the other are the Fruit of the Spirit.

When you combine these two together and you come to minister, you no longer need to wait for an external anointing to come.

Anyone who has ever stood up to preach to a group knows this experience.

There are times when you stand up to preach and the power of God comes down on you. The External Anointing hits you so strong that you feel like a roaring lion.

But there are other times when things seem to go wrong and the Lord is not there. Then you are only human and you struggle through the whole time. It is an unpleasant experience.

Paul says that if you can come to a place of maturity, you no longer need to rely on one anointing or the other. You put the two of them together. Then as you tap into your underground stream and combine it with the external, the limitations fall away.

After you have received your word of wisdom or word of knowledge from the Lord and that gift has accomplished its purpose, you are not stuck without any further revelation.

You have access to something far deeper inside of you. You have a face-to-face experience with the Lord Himself.

Relationship with Jesus and the Spirit

When you combine the two kinds of anointing together, you come into a new intimate relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit together.

This takes you to a new level of spirituality. The Lord now becomes so real to you that you can hear His voice speaking to you as though you were talking with a friend.

The mechanics of things now change. As you come to pray with someone, the Lord could give you a revelation or a prophetic word to speak over them. But you do not need to be limited by that. You could stop right there and say,

"Lord, tell me more. I need to know more so that I can give this person direction in their life and you have not given me a word of wisdom or knowledge or any other revelation.

You have not given me a prophetic word. Lord, show me what your purpose is for this person."

Then you will hear His voice speaking to you from deep down within.

You will develop a relationship with the Lord so that if you are walking down the street and you see someone needing ministry, you do not need to wait for the Gifts of the Spirit to operate.

The Lord is so real to you that He is walking by your side. All you need to do is turn to Him and ask,

"Lord, what do you want to do here?"

Then the Lord will tell you what He wants to do. Then you say,

"Lord, what do you want me to do?"

The Lord will then tell you what He wants you to do. So all you need to do is simply walk over and do what He told you to do.

Is this not what is involved in walking in the Spirit? It is hearing His voice and doing what He tells you to do.

If you can learn to tap into both kinds of anointing and allow your inner gifts to flow out, God can now even begin to use some of your natural gifts.

He can anoint them with His Spirit, coming up from deep within, as you have submitted those gifts to Him. You can combine them with the external gifts that He brings upon you.

If there are no gifts of healing, you can still lay your hands on the person and speak a word of authority and faith.

You can release and pour into them what God has put into you. It may not be as powerful, but it will have an effect. You are no longer limited by saying,

"I have this gift, and I have that gift."

You now have the Lord Jesus and you have the Holy Spirit. Together they are the ultimate gift, and all that you will ever need in order to do the work of the ministry.

When you stand up to speak, you are speaking for Him. You are speaking under His power and you are hearing His words.

Do It the Right Way

Sometimes preachers like to get very spiritual, and I have seen them do it. They will stand up there, look upwards as though they are talking directly to the Lord and say,

"Yes Lord? What is that you said? Ok Lord, I will tell that to the people."

They will then say to the people that the Lord just told them to say this. I personally do not like such antics. I think preachers do it to make themselves look really spiritual and make people think they are such wonderful men or women of God.

However it is possible to come to that place. God could stop you in the middle of your preaching and tell you to say something different. You then simply obey His instructions.

Does this mean that you received a revelation? Did you get a prophetic word? Was it a word of wisdom that God gave you? No, He simply spoke to you and said,

"Stop and say this."

Which gift of the Spirit does that fall under? You cannot really define it as such. But it is walking in a new relationship with the Lord where Jesus now walks in you.

Then when you go out, Jesus does through you whatever He chooses to do.

Summary of the Principles

All of these abilities are available to us. So as we come to the end of this teaching, you need to remember these main principles.

1. You need to identify your gifts.

2. Identify those things that you had early in life.

3. Identify the things that you developed over time.

4. Identify what you received at salvation when you accepted Jesus as your Savior.

5. Identify what you received with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

6. Identify what you received by prophetic decree or impartation from an apostle.

All of these are different ways to receive gifts, and as you put all of them together you should be able to assess yourself and say,

"These are all the gifts and abilities that God has given me."

Now that you know this, what will you do with it? Let me tell you what the Lord wants you to do with it.

He wants you to go out and love people with it.

That is all He wants you to do, and in summary this is what we will cover in the next module on Demonstrating Your Gifts. But it will be much bigger than that.

For now I have tried to help you identify what God has put into you. I want you to see what is available to you and I have explained to you how to go about getting it.

As you have reached out and received these things from the Lord, you may think that you are now ready to go out and do the work. But it is not as easy at that.

The first time I spoke in tongues I had to speak very fast without thinking about what I was saying. As I learned to develop that gift over time I became more confident until I could speak in tongues as slowly as I do in my normal language.

All of the gifts need to be developed and you need to learn how to use them. After receiving them, you need to learn how they should be brought to life and released outwards.

We will look at this in more detail in the next series on how to develop your spiritual gifts. I will share many of my own experiences so that you can more easily identify what you are experiencing.

You will then understand better where you are headed. For now I hope you are excited about the gifts and have been able to find some of your own gifts.

I hope that you are inspired to reach out and receive all that the Lord has for you.

The Dove Example Reference

Temperamental Chart Reference