In Part l of Kingdom Gifts, I spoke about the first three gifts that God gives to His people to use for the glory of the Kingdom. Just to recap–the first gift was the gift of the Faith that moves Mountains. The second gift is the gift of Service, and the third gift is the gift of Laying Hands and Healing the sick. Let’s look at the next two gifts that God gives: (5 out of 7)
#4- Casting Out Demons
Matthew 17:14-20, “And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, said, ‘Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.’ And Jesus answered, ‘O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.’
“And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly“.
ESV
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ He said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” Through our faith, God gives us authority through the Holy Spirit that lives in us–to set out for each task–for each gift that we have already been given. Let’s take a look at another verse of scripture that is about this same story, although written by a different author, used still by one spirit–The Holy Spirit: Mark 9:14-29, “When they came to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and scribes disputing with them. When the whole crowd saw him, they were amazed and ran to greet him. He asked them, ‘What are you arguing with them about?’ Someone from the crowd answered him, ‘Teacher, I brought my son to you. He has a spirit that makes him unable to speak. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they couldn’t.’ He replied to them, ‘You unbelieving generation, how long will I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him to me.’ So they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, it immediately threw the boy into convulsions. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. ‘How long has this been happening to him?’ Jesus asked his father. ‘From childhood,’ he said. ‘And many times it has thrown him into fire or water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘If you can’? Everything is possible for the one who believes.’ Immediately the father of the boy cried out, ‘I do believe; help my unbelief!’ When Jesus saw that the crowd was quickly gathering, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, ‘You mute and deaf spirit, I command you: Come out of him and never enter him again.’ Then it came out shrieking and throwing him into terrible convulsions. The boy became like a corpse, so that many said, ‘He’s dead.’ But Jesus, taking him by the hand, raised him, and he stood up. After he had gone into the house, his disciples asked him privately, ‘Why couldn’t we drive it out?’ And he told them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer.” BUT JESUS. I don’t know about you, but when Jesus places his hand on a situation–you better believe that He can turn it around for your good! He can raise you up from that pit of darkness you find yourself in, he can get you to stand up and walk in the name of Jesus. There is nothing that Jesus can’t fix, there is nothing that Jesus can’t touch and bring healing and restoration in the name of Jesus. There is power in your prayer, you better believe it. You better receive the healing power of Jesus. Jesus can turn around a situation that seems lifeless, Jesus can turn it around and bring life in abundance in the name of Jesus. Just take time right now to thank God for how good He is. He is a God of mercy and grace, and He finds joy in extending His mercy towards us. Thank God for a good God.
The King James Version says it like this:
Mark 9:29, “And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” KJV
The Power of the Fast
There is power in your fasting. Fasting yields results, fasting brings blessings, fasting brings response from the Lord. Fasting brings breakthroughs. If you are needing some answers from the Lord, if you need a breakthrough in your job, if you need a breakthrough in your walk with God, if you need a breakthrough in your family–start a fast. This doesn’t have to be complicated, give up something that takes up all your time. Fast from your phone, fast from sweets, fast from something that is replacing your time with God. When you go on your fast, pray consistently–the time that you would have been on your phone, pray instead. There is a fresh anointing when you fast, there is a process of being made new when you fast. Matthew 9:14-17, “Then John’s disciples came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them? The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and they will fast. No one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth, because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse, And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. No, they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.” New wine is a fresh anointing from the Holy Spirit–the process of being made new through the Holy Spirit–the fresh wineskins is you, your body. You come from being the old wineskins into fresh new wineskins for the Holy Spirit (the New Wine) to be put into. Remember we are vessels of the Lord–to be used by God because of His endless grace.
#5- Dreams & Visions
The Lord will speak to some of His people through dreams and visions. There have been several occasions where I have had spiritual dreams and visions from the Lord. Usually I know when I have a spiritual dream, because the Lord will speak to me in numbers in my dreams or if there are things repeated in the dream–then I know I need to write it down and interpret the dream. I have also had several visions with significant meanings behind it. It’s usually every once in a while for me to receive a dream or a vision–but when I do I write it down quickly. I actually had a vision a little over a month ago, and I wrote down what I saw and God continued to reveal more things as I was writing it–visions happen pretty quickly so I’m thankful that the Lord revealed more things to me that I saw in the vision that I was able to pray about. In Revelation 1:9-20, you will see that the Lord brings John a vision that he is commanded to write down. “I, John, your brother and partner in the affliction, kingdom, and endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet saying, ‘Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.’ Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me. When I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was one like the Son of Man, dressed in a robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” (ESV) There are several people in the Bible that God speaks to directly through the gift of dreams. There was a man in the Bible named Joseph, (Now not the father of Jesus, but the son of Jacob), who was named the ‘King of Dreams’ because the Lord would bring many dreams to his attention. God even gives Joseph the ability to interpret these dreams. When he was in Egypt, after being thrown into prison he had interpreted two other prisoner’s dreams. If you haven’t read this story I highly recommend that you study it more closely in Genesis chapters: 37 & 39-45. Later in the Bible God even uses the other Joseph (Jesus’ earthly Father) in Matthew 1:18-25, “The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. So her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly. But after he considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.” When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her but did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son. And he named him Jesus.” Joseph only thought about divorcing Mary privately–God sent word to him to not be afraid to take her as his wife–there was something in her that was about to be birthed–something that was necessary that needed to take place. Whatever season you are in–it is necessary for it to take place. The Lord is about to birth something inside of you–through the Holy Spirit–just trust the process. Not all artwork looks good during the process of the painting–but when the painting is finished that is when it’s art.
Part lll Coming Soon!
