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Quenching the Spirit Ch 7 part 64 page 135

Everyone assumes they can tell the difference between an angel of the Lord and a fallen angel of Satan. I have found that it is easy to miss the presence of the angelic host of God. When they go unnoticed they depart, leaving you without direction. We are led by the Holy Spirit, as He appoints His angels (ministering spirits) to direct us. In order to properly discern the will of God, you must be very sensitive to the ministering spirits appointed to you. If you provoke one of these appointed angels, you can leave yourself wide open for a demonic attack.

“Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for my name is in Him. But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries” (Exod. 23:20-22).

God will never leave you nor forsake you, but you can quench the Holy Spirit, causing Him to withdraw His protective angels. When ministering, it is very important not to quench the Spirit. I cannot express the importance of how careful you must be not to transgress the ministering spirits that are appointed to minister for you. It is a frightening thing to stand before a group of people telling them you are going to hear God for them, and then the spirit of prophecy not be there for you.

“And I fell at his feet to worship him (the angel). But he said to me, ‘See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy'” (Rev. 19:10).

Many have interpreted this scripture in different ways. I will share with you what the Holy Spirit said to me in regards to its meaning. In the last line it says, “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” The Holy Spirit said to me, “It is not one’s personal testimony that is the spirit of prophecy; but the spirit of prophecy is the testimony revealing that Jesus is not dead but alive because He is speaking to you.” Through the prophetic gifts we know many things about Him and what He is revealing about each one of us.

It only takes one blasphemous word or deed to cause the spirits of our Heavenly Father to leave you vulnerable to satanic attacks. Not only do you have to mind your manners in the presence of the ministering spirits, but the people must be in line with His desires as well. Keep watch over your thoughts or deeds, otherwise the spirits of our Heavenly Father will leave you high and dry.

“Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?” (Hebrews 12:9).

I recall back in early 1995, I was ministering in a church of about 250 good ole country folks. During those days, I did not know that the Lord would show you whom to call out of a crowd to receive a word of prophecy, so I would just have everyone in the building that wanted a word form a single line at the altar. I would minister until everyone who wanted a word had received one. This could take hours! The longest period of time I have ministered non-stop is five and a half hours. That’s without any kind of break at all; no water, no sitting down, and no stopping. With the supernatural strength of the ministering spirits, you do not have any physical needs; you are caught up in the realm of the spirit.

Now, after I had delivered my sermon I asked the people in this little country church to line up if they wanted a word from God. I did not really think many would believe I could hear God for them, because none of them had even heard of me. To my surprise, everyone in the building that I could see jumped into formation ready to receive.

After ministering to the first hundred or so, from the corner of my eye I saw a bright light flash by and depart from the sanctuary. I stopped ministering and turned to the pastor and elders who were standing right behind me. I said, “Someone has grieved the Holy Spirit and the spirit of prophecy has left the building. I cannot minister anymore here today. I am sorry.”

The crowd was confused and the pastor and elders began questioning me about what had happened. I told them that the last person I had ministered to had caused the angel to depart. They said, “It couldn’t have been this person. He is very sensitive to the Holy Spirit. It had to be the person you ministered to right before him because she is not living right.” I knew who had offended the messenger of God and it was not the person who the pastor and elders thought it was.

Six months later, I received a call from the pastor and he had a report for me. He reported that last Sunday morning the person I had said offended the angel of the Lord came before the congregation. He confessed he had believed my ministry was not of God and asked the people for forgiveness for being wrong. Since then I have ministered to that same congregation more than ten times, and our Lord has given life-changing prophetic words. To this day many of the people have remained partners and a few have become very close friends.

The manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is a sign from God that He is alive and watching over us. You may have never thought of it this way. I learned this truth from the Holy Spirit.

Angels are ministering for us as we operate in these gifts. When you are slain in the spirit it can feel like someone physically pushed you down or clipped you from behind the knees. It is an angel of the Lord that is doing the work of the Holy Spirit. Have you noticed that some ministers demonstrate more of the gifts in their ministry than others?

The reason is that they have more angels appointed to them than some of the other ministers. When ministering you begin to recognize the different presence of the various angels. This is one way we know what gift the Holy Spirit will have you to operate in next.

The presence of the ministering spirit that slays people in the Holy Ghost is different from that of the ministering spirit that brings the gift of healing. There are various gifts and ministry functions imparted by God and are appointed to different people.

“And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues” (1 Cor. 12:28).

There are angels that have different powers over disease and sickness, just as Gabriel had different powers than Michael, the arch angel. I have seen people get frustrated and turn from using the gift God has given them because they did not understand this valuable revelation. At times they would pray for the sick and they would be healed, while other times they would not. Out of frustration, they gave it up altogether. A lot of the time, the reason why some were healed and others were not is because their ministering spirit only had power over certain illnesses, afflictions, or infirmities.

We are to perfect the gift by using it until we find out the measure of its power. We are given to minister God’s love through His saving grace. What power does the ministering spirit have that is appointed to you?

To experience the accuracy of any gift, you must first find out what your calling is all about. When you know your calling, and you begin following its course, then you can focus on your gift. Most people want to just move in their gift but do not have a clue as to what they are called to do. If you do not follow your calling, your angel is not obligated to minister for you, hence no manifestation of the gifts.

Your calling may be evangelism, teaching, faith, hearing God, feeding the poor, helping orphanages or visiting prisoners. Whatever you are called of God to do, He is faithful to endorse it by signs and wonders following after you. However, if we are not willing to do what God has called us to do, His angels will not minister for us. Once you have clarity of what your calling is then do it and stick with it; in doing so you will experience the continual flow of the gifts.

When dealing with the prophetic, angels are vital parts in seeing the word delivered with power. Angels are sent to signify and clarify what God’s purpose is for His people and to witness to the lost and uninformed people.

The book of Revelation was given to John by an angel. Prophets of today cannot deny that prophecy, words of knowledge, and words of wisdom are given to them in part by angels. To deny that His angels are speaking to us today would be to say that the Holy Scriptures are a lie.

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants; things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near” (Rev. 1:1-3).

“Then he (the angel) said to me, ‘These words are faithful and true.’ And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place” (Rev. 22:6).

“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star” (Rev. 22:16).

Molded by Trials and Tribulations Ch 8 part 69 page 143
In Numbers Chapter 20, Moses disobeyed God’s instructions and struck a rock rather than speak to it. One time before that, when the people needed water, God had Moses strike the rock. When he did, water from the dry rock appeared. However, this time God told Moses to SPEAK to the rock. Moses did not speak to it, but struck the rock like before.

Over and over again, Moses struck the rock. Water eventually came out of the rock; however, God was angry with Moses for not obeying His command. Because of Moses’ disobedience, God was not going to let Moses and the Israelites move one more inch. They were going to stay right there until they learned a hard lesson for Moses’ disobedience.

They were trying to get to the Promise Land. However, the King of Edom would not let them go through his land and threatened to kill them if they tried. Moses tried to negotiate with the King: he promised not to drink the water, and he said they would walk through the land instead of riding their beasts. They even swore to remove their shoes. They were willing to do whatever the king wanted, but the King of Edom refused their request.

Have you ever been in a place where God wouldn’t let you leave or go where you needed to be? Every time you went into your place of prayer, nothing would happen, even though you prayed for days. It seemed like the heavens were closed. You couldn’t get through. You couldn’t hear God. Nothing was changing. Everything kept dishing out sorrow upon sorrow. There were only trials and tribulations.

You may have wondered how you were supposed to persevere through this and have endurance to grow in faith. Have you ever been in that place where all of a sudden you felt void of God’s presence? You may question whether you are even saved. Have you ever experienced the feeling that you had messed up so badly that you were not ever going to make it out of the mess you had made? God does not want you to go any further until you deal with your disobedience to His word. God told you what to do and you did not do it.

Were you ever grounded from the things you loved to do because you didn’t take out the trash like your parents asked? Your parents were not going to let you go anywhere until the trash was taken out, but you couldn’t understand why it was such a big deal. It is not any different with our Heavenly Father. He wants you to do what He wants you to do and He wants you to do it the way He said to do it. We are talking about hearing God, but also obeying His every word. If you are hearing God but not doing what He is saying to do, you will find yourself suffering for stepping out of His will.

Pray, Hear, and Obey, For It’s the Christian Way part 65 page 145
It is much easier to hear God for others and give them the words He wants said than it is to find God for yourself. When you are trying to hear God for yourself in the midst of a difficult situation, your emotions seem to be screaming at you, and when all your concerns are hollering it is very difficult to find out what you need to do. This is a similar situation Moses and Aaron found themselves in. They were thinking, “What are we going to do now? We can’t get through Edom. Let us go back to the tabernacle and fall on our faces and see what God has to say.”

It doesn’t say how long they prayed, but when they went back, this is what the Lord had to say, “I want you to take Aaron and set him up at Mount Hor, strip him naked, and leave him for dead.”

The Levitical law tells us that we are purged of our sins by putting an animal up for sacrifice. It doesn’t say anything about a brother. When did it come about that we are supposed to leave a brother, a human being, as a sacrifice? Nowhere in the Levitical law did it say to do this, but it is what God was telling them to do. They had to pay the price before the people could go on, and the price was Aaron’s life. The Lord said to take Aaron and put him on the mountain, strip him, put his clothes on his son, and leave Aaron there to die. So that is what they did. Aaron paid the price.

Do you see the prophetic story in that? Aaron paid the price for Moses’ disobedience just as Jesus Christ has paid for all the many times you and I have disobeyed the voice of God. At some point, each and every one of us has disobeyed God’s direct word, but the punishment has already been paid. Jesus has been made a sacrifice for all of us. Out of our disobedience we have been made obedient through what Jesus has done for us.

Aaron is an Old Testament symbol, a shadow of Christ. Aaron was placed on the hill and left for dead. The Israelites were then able to go on, but they had to go around Edom. God’s word and Aaron’s sacrifice gave them clearance to get around Edom. They would not have moved forward until Aaron was offered up as a sacrifice for Moses’ sin against God, the sin of being disobedient to God’s command.

God told Moses in Egypt that He would give him Aaron to be his spokesman. God said in Exodus 4:14-16, “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do.

So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.”
Aaron was the prophet and voice for Moses. Aaron vocalized whatever he heard Moses say. Aaron was also the sacrifice that allowed his people to move forward. Aaron was the type and shadow of the one to come,

“And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying: ‘Aaron shall be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah'” (Num. 20:23-24).

We cannot just do whatever we want and expect God’s blessing to always be with us. Grace abounds until our disobedience causes grace to run out. Understand what the Lord is teaching us through this tragic story of Aaron’s death. Those of you who are in ministry must know from experience that the closer you get to the Lord, the quicker God’s judgment comes.

Those of us in ministry suffer severe judgment for leading His people astray through incorrect actions or teachings. What you used to get away with before you started hearing God’s voice you will no longer be able to get away with as you grow in the Lord. Lessons in life will quickly teach you that He is serious, so do not make the mistake of taking His word as an option. The positive side of this is that you will learn more about His ways and thoughts and how He sees His Church today. At all cost, stay away from the things that anger God the most! Disobedience is at the top of His list.

I Am a Witness part 66 page 148
My brother-in-law, Wes, was the praise and worship leader when his pastor decided to move to another state. The pastor wanted Wes to take over as pastor of the church. He did not want to do that because his father had been a pastor and Wes had watched his father go through some very hard times.

However, Wes finally surrendered and accepted the position. The following day, the pastor received an offer on his house which he had been trying to sell for over a year. At the same time, Wes experienced a breakthrough. You see, Wes was in business with his brother Steven; they were buying and fixing up homes to sell, but the homes were not selling. They tried everything they knew to sell these properties. They put up banners and contracted the specialized services of different realtors, but nothing good was coming of it. Only more debt.
Wes decided to accept the pastoral position, and right after he did everything started to change. Within a couple of weeks, the homes which were a heavy financial burden to the brothers were sold. Because of this, Wes was a changed person. He was truly blessed after yielding and moving into the very position he had tried to avoid. When we are in God’s will the devil cannot touch us. Everything changes when we decide to die to our desires and follow Jesus.

“We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him” (1 John 5:18).

The Abundant Life part 67 page 149
“And the disciples came and said to Him, ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?’ He answered and said to them, ‘Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but to them it has not been given'” (Matt. 13:10-11).

Unbelievers cannot understand us, for they only have the knowledge of this world. They do not know where we are coming from or what is going on within us. All they see is the outer shell. They think we have lost our minds, or are just stupid.

We know we are peculiar in the name of Christ. We have a life that they could only hope for. It is only by the grace of God that we have what we have. It was by His choice that He chose us and we received Him as our Lord and Savior.

There are people who reject eternal life and choose to only live the way of the world. They rejected the conviction of the Holy Spirit and have found themselves miserable, though some have returned, crying out to God to receive them. When that door opens, you had better go through it right away. You do not choose when to be born-again; that choice is God’s. It is only when God opens the door for you that you can truly come in.

But when God closes the door, no man can open it for you. When you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit upon you, you cannot afford to reject His calling. Many have lived a lukewarm life for Christ, denying Him full control of their life, thus losing in the exchange His gift of eternal life. “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:16).

“Then He said to them, ‘Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him'” (Mark 4:24-25).

This verse is talking about the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus said, when you pray, go to the Father in reverence, and when you receive the revelation from Heaven and act upon it you will have the abundant life. Many people refer to the abundant life spoken of in the book of Acts, but they do not have an abundant life. They don’t understand why Satan has entered into their lives to steal, kill, and destroy them. They question why these things happen to them, but do not understand that it is because there is a lack of obedience.

The Key is Obedience part 68 page 150
If you will crucify your flesh and not reason it within your soul, you will have the abundance and God will continue to bless you over and over again.

Obedience requires self-humiliation and humbling yourself to Christ in order for the obedience to actually work in your life. When Jesus asks you to do something, you may fight it within yourself. There is a warring between the flesh and the spirit, but if you will crucify the flesh and not reason it within your soul (mind, will, and emotions), you will have the abundance of God and He will continue to bless you over and over again. Don’t weigh it out, just do it.

“Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear” (Matt. 13:13-16).

This is not about the physical eyes and physical ears. This is about visions and hearing in the realm of the spirit, for that is where Christ lives. That is why the Lord prayed so much, to receive what God the Father wanted Him to do next.
Jesus waited four days before he went to the tomb of Lazarus. He could not go on the second or the third day because it wouldn’t have worked. It had to be in God’s timing. It had to be when God the Father said “Go.”

“Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word” (Ps.103:20).

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