Signs and gifts (1)

In this lesson we will discuss the various signs that people experience, because they are closely related to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. When we speak about the gifts and the moving of God within the services we must include the unusual spiritual phenomena of signs that have been taking place within the recent years. I doubt whether these signs very ever appeared at any other time in the history of the Church. Although I am not an authority on all the early Church records, in reading many of them I have not found one reference to these signs being manifested in the early Church. This in no way suggests that the signs we are receiving are false. It rather suggests that this is a dispensational moving of the Spirit reserved for the end-time remnant that God is raising up, that company to whom God purposes to give a great deal more wisdom and guidance in the realm of spirit than we have ever known. After interviewing, for example, a pastor who is hungry for God and does not know his right hand from his left when it comes to things of the Spirit, we begin to appreciate the significance of the signs and the leadings of the Lord. Confused, without the guidance of knowing what to do, at bests he hopes for a good anointed hunch once in a while to help him with the services and whatever he is doing. He does not have the signs, nor does he know the leading of the Lord.

Although this is a very unique manifestation that God is bringing to us, we find that it is embraced in the Scriptures. Again we will refer to the passage in I Corinthians 12:4-12 to see what God is trying to do now.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of ‘effects’, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit; and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit;; and another gifts of healings by the one Spirit; and to another the affecting of miracles, and to another prophecy; and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues; and to another, the interpretation of tongues. But the one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually, just as He wills. For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.

Note in the above passage the varieties of gifts and of ministries, the varieties of effects or operations. Anyone who insists that God can only move in a specific traditional channel is not observant of the Scriptures, for the Bible reveals that God was constantly doing things that had not been done before.

The New Testament is distinguished primarily from the Old Testament in the step-up in the spirit realm. In the Old Testament they were throwing rocks at giants, or something of that nature, on a physical level. In the New Testament Jesus and the disciples healed the sick and cast out devils. A few isolated miracles were recorded here and there in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament they reached into a whole new realm as demons were shrieking out in recognition of Christ. We are now facing the great Kingdom of God on earth, the coming of our Lord, the first resurrection, the end-time judgments, the Parousia (though not in that order). We are entering into it and watching it progress most rapidly. Another age is coming. It is significant and most likely that God will move to prepare people for a higher spiritual level.

In the New Testament times, there were people like Anna and Simeon who were in the temple waiting on God continually. They prophesied the moment they saw the babe Christ, for their hearts were prepared. Think of the hundreds of people milling around who did not even recognize that child. Millions of people today do not recognize that God is moving now. There must be the Simeon and the Anna in this day also—people who will be alert, whose eyes will be open to see what God is doing in the earth. Then when something happens they will be able to identify it immediately and relate it to the great revelation that God has given their own hearts. And it is for this that the signs and gifts are being manifested.

God may have given you hands that burn or various other signs upon your person and you say, “We didn’t have this in the denominational churches.” They had their signs too. There were other times when God did some unique things. The early accounts of the Methodist church tell how some people who scoffed and mocked at the preaching shook so violently that they died of broken necks. The sign of the Spirit, the judgments of God, fell upon those who scoffed. Every move of God’s Spirit has brought some kind of unique sign or manifestation. For that reason we should not be critical of the things that happened in the early days of the Pentecostal outpourings. The false was present, but there was also the true: people were literally slain under the power of God, unable to move, or in some instances moving violently. What God is doing today seems sophisticated compared to what has been seen in the awakenings and revivals of past generations.

Today God is making people alert and aware of a world they have no senses to perceive. How are we going to know there are devils if we cannot see them with our eyes? We may be able to smell them or feel their vibrations; there may be a sign, or a revelation may come directly apart from any sign. We are not left ignorant of the presence of the enemy. It is just that the enemy is not our focus. We do go around looking for demon activity, and as we move more and more into the Spirit we will be less and less moved by this kind of activity. No longer are we creatures walking about with the five senses, completely unaware of what is taking place in the realm of spirit. The signs are important, though not as infallible guides. But until we know what is going on in the spirit world, by revelation or spiritual perception or insight, we can thank God for these signs that are like seeing-eye dogs for the blind.

The signs can alert you. You may say, “I don’t know what’s wrong, but I’m getting a sign of confusion.” Your seeing eye dog has stopped and it is time for you to be alert. By the Spirit these signs operate like a seeing-eye dog: revealing dangers of the traffic, receiving signals and hearing sounds that you cannot hear. The Spirit within you is alert to that realm. Thank God for the signs. If they do nothing more than make you alert to the fact that something is going on, they are very valuable.

In the signs that are coming now, I am aware there are three basic types: symptomatic, sympathetic, and symbolic that can move in symbiotic, synergistic and synchronistic patterns. In the midst of spiritual conflict, or in ministering to someone, the signs that come seem to be in those categories. Let us analyze the signs, and then in a very practical application see how they could be used in a New Testament church service where the gifts are in operation.

Signs are symptomatic when we feel the direct symptom. For example, in warfare when you are being hit you may feel pain in your neck that is a symptom. It is not symbolic, and in this case it is not a sympathetic sign that you are getting for someone else. In most times of assault or warfare it is the real thing. If someone hits you in the nose, it may have a certain symbolic quality, and even a certain sympathetic quality, but your bleeding nose is a symptom of direct assault; the pain is your pain, not anyone else’s. Likewise, when you are being hit by the devil or by some psychic assault coming from a devil-possessed person, what you feel is not a sympathetic sign for someone else, nor is it symbolic; it is a direct symptom of your own assault. You can be in battle and have nose bleeds, indicative of a direct assault against you. If you are under assault and have heart pains, those are not just symbolic heart pains they are very real.

When you have sympathetic signs, they are almost the same set of signs. Then when you stand beside someone and feed the heart pains, you know they are not yours. Sympathetically you are feeling the pains of the individual who is being hit directly in his heart. When you pray for a person who is under a direct assault of the devil, you are in tune with him immediately, and sympathetically you feel the pressures and the battles he feels. You must be able to distinguish between your direct symptoms and sympathetic sign you feel for another person. Suppose you stand in a line for prayer. Specific things may be happening to you because of your personal problem, but as you stand near another person, suddenly you may feel confused. That means you are tuned into that other person, and sympathetically you feel his oppression of confusion.

The third sign is the symbolic sign. You can have almost the same sign symbolically. For example, if heart pains are a symptom of direct attack upon you, you will have a certain pain. If it is a sympathetic pain, indicating that you are to have a burden for someone else, it is a certain pain. But if it is a symbolic sign, it does not refer to the physical organ at all, but to something of the heart, and you may feel another sign completely that makes it a symbolic sign for you. I am sure you will agree that we all have much to learn about signs. Can you tell the difference between a symptomatic and symbolic sign? Most of us find that as God gives grace it is amazing how we feel our way along and come into an understanding of this.

There is such a closeness in the signs that come. First you should analyze the signs in your own experience. What is your ministry? What is God doing through you in the Body? Which gifts are you to move in? When you relate all of this directly to the signs, you have at least a suggestion to the key that will help you. Let me give you an illustration to clarify it. Suppose you are in a prophecy service. Everyone is worshiping and rejoicing; one prophecy after another is coming. You want to prophesy, but you do not know what to prophesy abut. What is the message; what is the word that is coming? You should follow two or three suggestions. First, be very careful to note the specific trend of the current dealings of God upon the church and have those clearly in your mind. If it is judgment, in al likelihood God will be speaking of some aspect of that. Secondly, notice the specific trend of God’s dealing within that specific service. God may be exhorting that the people worship and praise God for the coming judgments. Keep that in mind. Then you will want to tune in to what you are going to prophesy. You can always give a “me too” prophecy. When you hear a prophecy that registers with you, prophesy the same thing. But suppose you are getting a certain sign, which in this case would be a symbolic sign. You are beginning to feel something. You are ready to prophesy judgment is coming, and as the people are worshiping the Lord in the midst of judgment, suddenly you get a strong sign in the forearm and your arm begins to ache. That does it! You know what the prophecy is going to be about. The Lord is going to bring miracle deliverance to His people through the judgments that are coming through the movings of the Lord that will affect the whole earth. You have taken the specific current of God’s flowing; you have heeded a sign. Then you turn you heart toward it. The minute that you are directed toward it, you prophecy comes forth in the exact presentation that should come. Why didn’t it come before? It could have, but this particular day you were having a little problem, and as you looked at all the doors, suddenly you sense this was the right door and you opened it. When you opened the door, the flood of revelation that was to come in that prophecy was right there, and you were able to move.