Spiritual Signs and Gifts - JRS

(Spiritual Perception Series ** 1980)

This is very important, because prophecy meetings should not be services with a dozen different prophecies and with everyone prophesying in a different direction. The effectiveness is in the flow of the entire current flowing along. Those of you who are a little timid about prophesying should be alert. If you have a sign, you know the general trend, and you are listening to what the prophecies are aimed at in the service—then you can give your prophecy. It will help you to grow; it will put you up in the company of those who are ministering. You are no longer a spectator, but at that moment you are a participator in the flow. The people in a congregation who receive the prophecies of others are blessed, but it is more blessed to be among those who speak the word of the Lord. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Keep alert to what God is saying and doing; be alert to the signs.

If would be good for us to discuss the various kinds of signs, what they mean, and what you should do about them. However, you may have a sing that no one else has, and the Lord will have to help you with that sign. God deals with each of us in a unique way, and no doubt we may get some signs that no one else has. We may get a combination of signs, and we have to understand by the nature of the sign what God is trying to do.

The simplest Scriptural explanation of the signs is found in Roman 8:11. The Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead is quickening our mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in us. Something of the resurrection power of God is operative in our bodies. We are living at the threshold of the manifestation of the sons of god, the first resurrection, the glorification of the believer’s body, and as we are being lifted into a new realm, things do not seem to have an explicit end. The Church age will not be cut off at a precise point by the Kingdom age. Some people made a big mistake in the early days of this Walk, saying, “We’re in the Kingdom. Now we’ll not have Communion or water baptism anymore—that’s past.” They dropped everything and thereby created a vacuum. They had not advanced that far in to the Kingdom

We might compare this with an experience familiar to those who have lived in the Midwest. During the summer it is the custom of farmer’s to store food in their cellars in anticipation and preparation for the winter months. When spring comes the old potatoes are sorted and the one’s that start to sprout are then replanted. The early new potatoes are enjoyable eating, but if there are only a few at first the wise thing to do is not throw out the last season’s potatoes. In the early spring if the vegetable garden did not produce enough for a family’s needs, they would eat some of the canned goods remaining in the cellar until the garden produced in greater abundance. It was a time of transition.

So many things that God has done for us down through the years are valued and still related to us. As the transition takes place, some of them are being discarded and new ones are coming. Think how long a time was involved in the transition between Old Testament law and New Testament grace. After Christ was crucified, an entire generation passed the people realized that the dispensation of grace was upon them. It was an overlapping period, and we are in an overlapping period now.

God is releasing a great amount of the awareness of the whole spirit age before us—beautiful things. Meanwhile other things are still necessary, such as church order and the New Testament church. We may have a form of the church all through the Kingdom. This is not a time to abandon anything; it is a time to praise God for what is coming in the signs and a new understanding of the Word. You may go through periods in which you are blessed when you feed upon the Word as you have done for many years. The next day it may suddenly read much differently. You are in a transition period and the signs are give to help you. They can bless you, for they are a token of the coming day of awareness in the spirit world, when we will see and move and freely have our being in them. Right now the gifts of the Spirit are give to help us through the Church age and into the Kingdom.

The word tells us of the day when the perfect will come. When the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. We read this in I Corinthians 13:8-13. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then fact to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully know. But now abides faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

If we wanted to apply this to the chronological times, we could say the age of love is coming. There may be much hatred, and many things are only partial now, but the perfect will come. We prophesy—and we prophesy in part. But the day will come when we will not be looking to a sign—trying to open a door to find what is going on in a service—looking to the Lord, getting a sure word, bringing it, then praising God for the sure word. Now we are seeing in the glass darkly, but then fact to face. We begin to understand it; then we know and see it clearly. We prophesy in part; we know in part.

We praise God for the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom, for we cannot over-emphasize how great and wonderful they are, but neither can we say it is complete, perfect wisdom and knowledge in it presentation to us, because we only know in part. But there is a perfect day coming.

What is happening now? With all the various types of signs that are coming in this outpouring of the gifts, we are actually anticipating the day of perfection, the day of perfect love. It is coming! Once in awhile we find that love manifest now in a way that overwhelms us. But we realize that the age of love is yet come. Now that love is imperfect in its manifestation; therefore Paul concludes, Follow after love; yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy (especially that you prophesy). I Corinthians 14:1. He is telling you to keep your eye on these goals and keep working toward them, and God will help you, step by step.

Suppose you say, “I want the perfect love; I don’t want the gifts.” You will not come to the perfect love unless you use the gifts. You may say, “I want to go to the church, but I’m tired of using a car.” There will be a day when you can e transported in the Spirit, but today I suggest you use your car. It is a good means to take you there but it is not the perfect means of transportation that will be yours when the day of Spirit is fully set. Thus the gifts become a vehicle.

Saying, “I want only love without gifts,” is like a little child saying, “I don’t want to be a child anymore; I want to be a man.” Some sudden drastic means will not make him a man. You feed, educate, train and bless the child; then after awhile he becomes a man. What happens to the childish things? They were only imperfect, undeveloped manifestations of his character. They seem to be put away. Actually they were swallowed up in the development that became a man. So it is with the gifts of the Spirit. They are the childish, immature, preliminary manifestations of that, which, one day will be so perfect. Paul says, “Now we see and know in part, but then face to face, even as we are known.”

This is the beauty of what God is bringing to us in these signs. Do not despise them; nevertheless, do not build a big denomination or movement around them. They are temporary crutches to help us. When in our spiritual perception we break through, we will use less and less of the signs. Once revelation is established, the signs, that are; the beautiful seeing-eye dog of the Spirit to nudge and warn you, to make you aware of that which you have no awareness, will be done away with, because then you will be able to see. As the sign comes fully and you can see and behold, you will not need the seeing-eye dog. Where there is prophecy, it will be done away with. Why? Because we will actually speak as the oracles of God; we will not need to prophesy to people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

Hebrews 8:11.

That day is coming and the preliminary steps of it should be embraced now. Do not hesitate and say, “I do not know what’s going on.” Feel around a little: ‘I’d surely like to know,” Be very curious. Be very hungry to know. Seek the Lord, “I’m afraid I’ll make mistakes.” Undoubtedly you will. Would you rather remain in the darkness and sit in a corner, or would you like to get up, take your cane, and feel around to see if your can maneuver? While you are doing that, the light begins to come more and more. Do not underestimate the signs, yet do not think you have arrived when you begin having signs. You just have some of God’s blessed helpers to help you.

This teaching reveals the proper perspective toward the signs: we do not make too much of them, but we are going to honor them, and we are going to have them. Many of you have found that when you are going through difficult spiritual experiences and a sign comes to you, you want to sit down and weep, for it is like an old friend or a letter from home. You say, “Oh, thank you, Jesus.” You are so thankful for this sign of God’s presence; it assures you that the Lord still loves you.

A symbolic sign is a symbol of something. A sign in your feet, for example, can mean many different things; it can by symptomatic, indicating that your shoes are too tight; it can be sympathetic, if the person next to you has sore feet or it may be symbolic. Of all the signs, the symbolic sign is the classification of sign for which you must look to the Scriptures to interpret what the sign means. A sign is readily interpreted. A good concordance will usually help, and the Holy Spirit will enlighten it.

Suppose you have the symptom of sore feet. You may need arch supports; maybe you need healing. If, it is a sympathetic sign, there is someone around you whose feet hurt and he needs to be healed. If neither of these two categories is indicated, it is most likely a symbolic sign and you must look to the Scriptures references to interpret it. Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours…go in to possess the land. Deuteronomy 11:24,31. God is motivating you. In the sole of your foot you are receiving a sign that means, “Come on, dear brother; walk through the land and claim it. Wherever you move you possess; whatever you walk on and experience in only a minor way is going to be yours; you will possess it.”

Suppose a sign come in the heel. You refer again to the Scriptures for the interpretation. According to Genesis 3:15, Satan was to be the serpent that would bruise the heel of the seed of the woman. That is interpreted in Romans 16:20, The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. Satan shall bruise his heel. Satan came against Christ and was bruised, but that is not the idea really conveyed. It meant that He would stomp on the serpent’s head so hard that it would bruise His heel. The bruise was the effect of the outrageous stomping the devil was going to receive. The bruise comes from the stomping—not from the serpent. He is only incidental. He bruises your heel because you have stepped on him so hard. It shall please God to bruise Satan under your feet shortly, and in this symbolic sign you feel that bruising within your heel and you think, “Where is he? Let me stomp on him. What is it in my life that God is bruising?”

Again, while that is a symbolic sign, it may be sympathetic. You may be standing beside someone who is telling how he is pressing in and believing God for something, and you get a sign in your heel. You say, “Yes, I get a sign. The devil is going to be bruised. Satan will be defeated just as you claim.” So we see there is an overlapping of signs. The symbolic sign is beautiful to see.

Many of the signs that come in the arms are of that nature also. Simply take certain Scriptures that you can find in abundance and interpret them. “The arm of the Lord is made bare” (Isaiah 52:10). That was a challenge that came back in the early times when issues were settled between leaders rather than the entire army fighting. A champion from each side was chosen to fight. The store of David and Goliath is an example of this practice. The Philistines chose Goliath as their man and David represented Israel, and when David won, the entire army of Israel was victorious. It saved a lot of bloodshed, and no doubt that was the idea. If that policy was followed today and the leaders had to do the fighting, we know there would be no more wars. I remember a scene in the movie, “Patton”. General Patton was in North Africa getting ready to meet Romel of the German army, head on. Patton was standing on the desert—it was winter. He was there with he aide and as he gazes out over the horizon in anticipation of going to war with Romel, he says something like this: “Ah, the Genius, bastard Romel. If I had it my way we would face off. We would meet, just he and I—his tank and mine and we would pick a place. No other soldiers. We would get out of tanks, shake hands then get back into our tanks, and we would fight, bygamit---AHH! Yes, then that would determine the whole outcome of the war. God, I hate the twentieth century.” Patton was a great general. He believed in reincarnation. He prayed often and wasn’t afraid to express certain ‘emphases.’ He was a true warrior and visionary.

The Lord has made His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations (He throws His garment over and bares His arm); and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. Isaiah 52:10. To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant. Isaiah53:;1b-2a. This is speaking about Christ. Whenever Christ is really exalted, an anointing in your arm is the sign of the victory of Jesus Christ, for He is the arm of the Lord.

Because Christ is the arm of the Lord, sign are revealed in various areas of the arm. The upper shoulder represents His responsibility—His ruler-ship and His government. Consequently, wherever the government of Christ over His Body or over the local church is manifested, you may often get a sign in your shoulder. This is according to the Word. The government shall be upon his shoulder is the prophecy in Isaiah 9:6. When you get that sign in the shoulder, it is speaking about authority, because government means authority. When I get a sign in my shoulder as I pray for someone, then I know the authority is coming to break down everything that stands in the way of that individual walking with God and being submissive to the Lord’s will. The sign in the shoulder indicates that the victory of the Lord, Jesus Christ over principalities and powers is in operation.

When you get the sign in the upper arm, you will usually sense with it quite a bit of the presence of devil power and spiritual warfare. The sign in the upper arm indicates that spiritual struggle and conflict in the spirit realm is going to be resolved in Christ’s great victory over principalities.

A sign often comes in the forearm also, and again your arm begins to ache with no physical reason for it. What dos that mean? This sign refers more to deliverance than to the spiritual warfare of the upper arm. It indicates that someone is going to be delivered from an oppressive situation or circumstance, or someone is going to be healed—although the healing sign generally flows down into the hand. Deliverance (forearm), prevailing in warfare (upper arm), authority (shoulder)—all of this is indicated within the arm because the arm of the Lord is being revealed. Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. He came to deliver His people. Many beautiful signs come in the arm, and all of them are explained in the Scriptures and refer to Christ. He is the arm of the Lord.

When the sign comes in the heel, it symbolized Christ’s victory over Satan that God will manifest through you. He is pleased to bruise Satan under your feet, but it is Christ’s victory that is coming to pass in your life. In no case should you feel that the signs are pointing to you, “Oh good, I have a sign in my feet; now I’m going out and take a territory.” No, it means that by faith you are going to enter into what Christ has already taken for you. The sign in the heel does not mean you are going to bruise Satan for the first time. Christ already accomplished that. The old serpent may still be wiggling, but Christ has already bruised him. It will please God to say, “Come on now son, put your foot on him too.” You are stomping on a defeated foe; Christ gave you the victory. In each case you are entering into Christ’s victory, and the signs are manifestations of Christ and His fullness that you are entering into. It is very important that you understand this.

There are many signs in the hand that can speak of so many things. The intricate manifestations of Christ’s out reach are symbolized in the hand. He ascended on high and He gave gifts to men (Ephesians 4:8), and the, hand that reaches out can be represented by the ministries within the church. It can also be representative of the foundational ministries: apostle—the thumb; prophet –forefinger; evangelist—middle finger; pastor—ring finger; teacher—little finger. Often if I am around an individual who is going to have such a ministry, one of those fingers will suddenly come alive by the Spirit. Then I know he is part of God’s hand to reach out. If an individual is not necessarily to be an evangelist, but he does have a very persuasive ministry of exhortation, then the sign will also be manifested in the evangelist finger. In that case it does not necessarily mean that he is going to be an evangelist, but he will have a ministry of strong exhortation similar to that of an evangelist. So it must be interpreted a little differently when the sign comes differently. The sign is present also if there is an oppression against a certain ministry. If someone is set against me, I get a certain sign in my thumb, and I know he is not against me as a individual, but he is antagonistic toward the apostolic ministry. Usually I get a pain my heart simultaneously with the sign in the thumb.

If you hands feel anointed—with a slight burning sensation and a pressure reaching out from the—that is a good sign. If you have the feeling of wanting to dig the palm of your hand, that is an oppressive sign. If you ever dipped your hand in turpentine, you noticed afterward a kind of crawling sensation over your skin—that kind of feeling is your hands is also oppressive. An itching sensation over your hand is indicative of the spirit of witchcraft or dark occult.

If someone is false; the signs shift to the other hand. Sometimes women have the signs reversed; a woman might get a true sign in the left hand and the false sign in her right hand. Most men get the true sign in the right hand and the false sign in the left. If I am around a false apostle, false prophet, false evangelist, or false teacher I get the signs in the left hand. Another distinction in the hand is that the right hand indicates spiritual things and the left hand natural things. This would probably be reversed for most women. Signs in both hands at once indicate a double emphasis.

You will have to study the signs, observe what is going on, and be alert to what is taking place in the service. Then make your own notes as to what sign you are getting compared to what is going on in the service. Keep studying and analyzing it and soon you will see the distinct quality of the signs where you personally are concerned. Encourage them. Do not be discouraged; work with it. You are in a schooling that is priceless. Learn what the signs mean.

Whenever the sign appears in the joint it means that some other related sign is in execution. For instance, the sign may come in the shoulder joint. There have been times when I actually wondered if there was something physically wrong with me because the sign in the shoulder would be so intense. The sign in the shoulder joint means that the authority over principalities and powers is being executed. It is in motion.

I can usually tell when the service is going to break through, approximately two minutes before, because I feel the sign that is coming shift just a little. It is in execution and it is taking place. Be alert—like having your hand on a pulse, you can feel just what the Spirit is doing. Do we always depend on the signs for the services? No. I depend upon them very little; however, they are always good confirmation. I depend upon the revelation the Spirit opens up. I do not use see a seeing-eye dog nearly as much now since my perception has improved.

The sign in the elbow again means something is in execution. This time it is related to the forearm and has to do with your deliverance. It is in action. I not only get the sign in the forearm, but it moves right up into the elbow. This indicates it is not something that is going to happen; it is happening to you in the now. That means it is being done at the very moment you are talking.