Raised Chalice of Reverence

We raise the chalice in reverence to the Father. We should raise our hands like they hold an empty cup and ask Him with reverence to fill our hands with His purpose.

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The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

What are Spiritual Gifts?
A gift is something that is given from someone to someone else because he loves him.  That’s it.  God gives us gifts because He loves us.  He gives us presents.  

There are two kinds of presents He gives.  He gives His gifts and He gives Himself.  It is like He is a Father giving his daughter a present on her birthday.  He gives the gift and wants to sit nearby to see the look on her face as she opens the package.  He has gifts for us... many gifts and He wants to be there when we open them.  He has presence with His presents.

A spiritual gift is anything that is not from earth; Anything that is supernatural and not of this world. It is something that we could not come up with on our own.  It is from God’s world; the Heavens and it is sent our way.  It is a touchdown of the Kingdom of God with us.  Often, we don’t recognize when God touches down.  

Why does He give them?
  God touches down to earth because He wants to share His world with us.  He wants us to abide in Him and Him in us.  That is where the combined presents come in.  He wants to come live in us.  The Holy Spirit has been given to us when Jesus ascended to Heaven to help us understand the Kingdom of God.  To help us understand Him.  He is the abiding presence of God on earth.  When we reach out to God and open our heart to Him, then we invite Him into us.  We go to Him and He comes to us. (John 14) Then our spirit is given life.  Our body is alive ever since we were born, however; our spirit becomes alive when we receive the Holy Spirit.  We are able to, not merely breathe, but to walk.    
      The presents of the Holy Spirit make us able to walk.  We are sinners.  We stumble and fall all of the time.  We go from one bumble to the next as we try to do what we think what God wants us to do.  But when we invite the Holy Spirit to help us, He empowers us.  He gives us the ability to do the things that we dream of.  

Isaiah 61

The primary purpose of all of the presents from 
God are toward His people.  I like Isaiah 61.  It is a good list of what God intends to do using the Charismatic Gifts through His Children.

•	Isaiah 61  To preach good news to the poor. How we are poor.  We are in need of a Savior today.
•	To bind up the broken hearted. Our hearts have been repeatedly broken by those who we have entrusted them to.  We have been repeatedly wounded.  Lord, we need some gauze to repair our wounded hearts.

•	to proclaim freedom to the captives. We need freedom.  We have been bound by our sins.  We have depression, lust, agony, sadness, anger, pain.  We need freedom.  We have illness, bad situations, we are in jail.  Lord, we need to become free. 

•	to release from darkness for the prisoners. We are in dark until God shows us who He is.  We have no light unless he gives it to us.  He needs to lead us to Himself.  He will lead us as we seek Him. We are prisoners unless we have the light that leads us.

•	to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, the day of vengeance of our God. God wants to use us to put down the ways of Satan and lift up His Kingdom.  Prayer is what exchanges one kingdom for the other.  When we call on the vengeance of God, His might will put Satan in his place. 

•	to comfort all who mourn. The Holy Spirit is our comforter. He will be our resting place amidst the storms that we face.

•	to provide for those who grieve in Zion. To bestow a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.  Then we will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor. ....You will be named ministers of our God. God wants to provide for us because we are His children.  As his children, he wants to give us a crown just like a King gives his children.  The crown is a symbol of our relationship with him and that he is going to give us the Kingdom as well.  Because we hold the crown, it indicates that there is more to come.  A Kingdom backs the crowns that we hold.  

Our spirit:
We are divided into three parts.  We are body, soul and spirit.  Our body is what we use to walk with, our soul is our will, and our spirit is the part of us that is able to understand spiritual things.  To understand the things of God, we must look at Him through our spiritual eyes.  
How?  
     We must become open and broken.  We must allow God to break us apart; to show us the difference between our flesh, spirit and will.  The flesh is that part of us that wants the lemon pie when we are on a diet.  It calls to us, “Eat it, and you will be happy.”
     The soul is that part of us that helps us plan our own future.  We plan what we want to do and try to do it.  We exercise our will when we don’t snap back at the rude grocery clerk.  Our will drives our flesh to make our mouth not open up and say rude things back.
     Our spirit is the third part of our being.  We commune with God our spirit to His Spirit.  We ‘feel’ Him with our spirit because He is Spirit.  We cannot see God because He is not flesh, so He has made a provision for us to be with Him all of the time.  He talks to our spirit.  Our spirit talks back to Him.  That is how we can pray without moving our mouth.  We pray with our spirit.  This part of our being is pushed and pulled through our heart.  Through love.  What we love, moves our spirit.  Those who love us, move our spirit.  You know.   You can ‘want’ to love someone, yet, you cannot.  Then, there are those you don’t want to love, yet, you do.  That is your spirit driving you.
      God wants to move us through our spirit.  He wants to move our heart to connect it with His.  That is the Fear of the Lord.  This fear is not something you are afraid of.  It is the demonstration of the intensity of the love of God to us that causes us to draw back from Him because of the intensity of it, not because we are afraid of Him.  It is like having a boyfriend that loves you more than you love him.  He is always there with gifts; always quick to say nice things to you before you say them to him.  He can become overwhelming and the tendency is to ‘draw back’ in fear from him because of the intensity of the relationship.  That is the Fear of the Lord.  It is the beginning of all of the gifts of God because it is how we learn about His love. It is His love that is the basis of all of the Spiritual Gifts that He gives.  

Transparency     
 The gifts of the Holy Spirit, the 7 Spirits of God are demonstrated through us when we are open to Him.  (Fear of the Lord, Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, Presence, Counsel, Might  outlined in Miracles’ )   These are in Isaiah 11.  The Holy Spirit has to flow to us, and then in us, then it can flow through us to others.  We must learn how to become open.  It is about becoming transparent.   
     For example, the Spirit of Council will tell us what is on the mind of God.  But, we have to put aside our own plans for the situation.  We must become open to God’s ways.  We have to turn over ourselves to Him, lay ourselves on the altar and become a living sacrifice to Him.   It is only after we have done this, that He can make His plans alive within our lives.  After, they have become alive in us, and then He can make them alive for others through us.
     Every gift that is given to others within the Kingdom of God has to flow through our own lives.  If we intend to use the gift of mercy to help someone through the pain of a loss, then we have to become willing to feel their pain.  The gifts meet in us.  The person meets the power of God at us.  We are on the wall between the Kingdom of God and them.  We become the link between God and others.  It is as if we are the hands of God to them.  
    The safety net that He gives us to make sure we demonstrate His heart is the way the Gifts of the Holy Spirit flow.  If we are not willing to open up with God and with others, the gifts do not flow.  
      We must become open and broken.  The openness makes us to be the hands of God and the brokenness provides direction because we know how to listen to God’s Holy Spirit as He directs us through His Spirit.  Then, when He shows us something in the Spirit world, we ask Him for faith to believe it and grace to walk into it. 

Flow of Gifts: 
Let’s look at the nine Gifts in I Corinthians chapter 12.

Prophecy is understanding the voice of God.  He comes to us, but we don’t hear because we are not sensitive to His voice.  When we become sensitive to His voice, then we will hear it.  Hearing it is one thing, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us interpret it.  He is the one that brings it to our conscious mind and gives the ability to understand it.  Prophecy has to do with the voice of God.  When the Bible was canonized, God did not quit speaking.  He continues to speak today.  He talks in dreams, visions, in audible voice, into our spirit in a quiet voice, and through hundreds of other ways we don’t even know.  He speaks through creation.  Once, in the Bible, He spoke through a donkey.  God is God and can speak any way He wants.  Listen up.

Prophecy to others: Someone with the gift of prophecy ‘unrolls the scroll so that others can run with it.’  The person with this gift has become tender to the voice of God and He is able to give Him messages for others.  They all do Isaiah 61.  It is demonstrated in as many baskets as people bring to the tree of life.  There are artists who paint, and artists who sing.  They both help us to understand the voice of God.  There are book writers, and there are preachers.  These are vehicles which God uses to manifest the gift of prophecy. 

Knowledge:  The gift of Knowledge gives insight to who God is.  Again, there are as many vehicles as there are people with it.  Anyone who helps us understand God’s character has this gift.

Wisdom:  Wisdom is a gift that works within the Spirit of Council.  It is difficult to tell the difference because they are all mixed up like a cake.  God mixes them up and bakes whatever He wants within the individual.  Wisdom tells the mind of God, council tells His plans. (If you ask a question knowledge gives the process to the answer. The answer is wisdom. The answer should correlate with scripture because it is the answer to the question from the mind of God.)

Discernment: Those with the gift of discernment can tell things of the Kingdom of God from those ‘not’ from the Kingdom of God. It is like having several pictures from the same artist on your wall.  You learn his work by his paintings.  If you see another painting that is not hanging on your wall, you will recognize the artist, because you know his work.  Those with this gift, know the artist well.  They know God and His character, so they can recognize a fake.

Faith:  Faith is the ability to see the end before it is here: to see the goal and know it is as good as done.  Those with the gift of faith believe God’s word.  They have to have the gift of prophecy first because they have to hear the voice of God and interpret it for themselves.  Only when they interpret the voice, can they see the outcome.  They believe that God’s word is alive and that his plans are as good as done.   They also must have nearly all of the other gifts.  This one is on the top of the list. 

Miracles:  One with the gift of miracles simply believes God and has learned how to become open and broken.  They allow the Spirit of Might to flow through.

Healing:  Those with the gift of healing have learned how to hear the voice of God, pray into it and walk in that direction.  Isa 61.  God is a healer.  

Tongues : Tongues is a spirit voice.  It comes to us when we open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit and start to commune with Him Spirit to spirit.  His voice wells up within us to bring praise to Him. Our spirit wants to praise Him, and when we receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, it releases our spirit to praise Him.  

Interpretation of Tongues:  The gift of prophecy is the gift of interpretation of the voice of God.  The gift of interpretation of tongues is like the second course in the class.  The gift of prophecy interprets the voice of God from the person’s spirit to make it understood in a language we speak.  This gift goes the other direction.  It is like learning to speak Spanish.  First, we interpret English to Spanish.  Then, when we get better with the language, we can interpret Spanish to English.  
     Tongues is God’s language.  It has to go through the mind, then the spirit of the person with the gift, and then be interpreted back around the corner to be understood. 

Exodus 25.31-40, 27.20, Proverbs 6.16, 9.1, Isaiah 11, 30, Jeremiah 23.29, Zechariah 2-4.

Flow of the Spirit (From book Camezia Reptidad chapter 3)

His faithfulness does not depend on ours. That is why they call it amazing grace. The relationship is uneven and He doesn’t seem to notice.

Fruit from the Tree of Life

There is a serious misunderstanding concerning the gifts of the Holy Spirit. All of the fruits are the same. Think of it like a tree of God’s righteousness which is planted in the Kingdom of God. He gives as we come to the tree of life and receive the fruit from Him.  According to Galatians 5.22 the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. I think of it like a tree with apples, pears, oranges and tangerines. There is a lot of different types of fruit on the same tree: all coming from the same root; the root of David, of course. [Isaiah 11]

And, we each come to the same tree sharing the fruits through the manifestations of the Spirit because when we come to the Spirit, He reflects upon us with His character. We become like little shoots; branches bearing His resemblance sharing through the manifestation of the seven spirits of God: wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, might, fear of the Lord and His presence. 

And, we come to that tree of life and trade in what we have for what He provides. We trade in sin for forgiveness, we trade in rebellion for obedience, we trade in neglect for attentiveness, and we trade in loneliness for company. We drop err and pick up truth. We trade in what we have to have our hands available to receive. You see, that is where the problem is: we know how to come to the tree of life and we know how to drop our sin at the base of that tree, but we neglect to continue to stand under His branches and receive from the branches. It is like branches of a river: there are tributaries that flow to all aspects of our character and flood areas that are thirsty. His Spirit is the life giving water that brings refreshment to our dryness. We don’t know how to drink of the Spirit, so when we leave the base of the tree in a hurry, we continue to be thirsty deep within our soul, longing for relief. And, we hope that someday our rest will come. And, we continue to hope, but adversity attacks our hope and it crumbles because our hope has been built on a false promise: one that we made to ourselves, not one that is from God. 

The problem is that when we come to the tree of life and drop our sin and burdens, we must pick up what He gives to us. We can’t pick from His tree ourselves because of the separation that exists between us and God. He is the one who gives the gifts to us. It is our role to receive. He is the tree and we are the ones who stand in need under the tree. But, we leave too fast without asking to receive because we are not willing to put ourselves in a position of accepting what He wants to give. We fear what He may ask of us and rather than get caught in a position of ‘refusing the request of God’ we don’t give Him an opportunity to ask.  Indeed, He will call us to responsibility for what we have failed to do as well as the ways we have injured others. 

We need to come to the tree of life and learn to wait on God for instructions which are given through these seven spirits listed in Isaiah 11. Then, share with others. We take the words which are the seeds and put them into our wheelbarrow. What we do with them as they are distributed through the gifts of the Holy Spirit is what others see. They do not see the roots of our relationship with God, but rather us as extensions of the branches from the tree of life. We carry the living fruit within our branches and reach out to others. For example: we use the gift of might when we fast for something or someone because it is a miracle that they see when you are filled, but not full and content. They see your contentment drawn from the grace of God rather than being satisfied with food. This is the evidence of the Spirit of might which flows through your action.

And, when we read about the ‘gifts of the Spirit’ in I Corinthians 12-14 we are given a list of ‘manifestations’. These are like flowers at the end of a dogwood tree. For example look at much of my poetry: it is displayed in elegant shapes of wine glasses. This is the manifestation of the gifting which flows through me as I am attached to the tree of life. You see some of His character through my writings [hopefully]. I operate through the gift of mercy hearing the voice of God and sharing the messages of understanding in the daytime and at night through dreams. But, if the poem wasn’t arranged in a beautiful shape would I still have the gift? 

Of course. The difference is that I have allowed the Spirit of Revelation to teach me and lead my fingers toward those shapes. When I write a piece, I can go back, set the curser on ‘center’ and the shape of the glass unfolds in a matter of about five minutes. Note each one is as different as the piece because He said that ‘he draws the shape then pours the words into it’. To be able to end up with such an elegant flower, I have to have followed His leading with the writing. Otherwise it wouldn’t fit into the shape. Get it?

Manifestation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit 

The gifts of the Spirit are from one God but the way in which we share them is as varied as we are. There are creative aspects of God’s character which He employs when we begin to walk into the gifting of His calling. Two people may have a gift of prophecy, but one shares through writing and the other through words of encouragement.  If our desire focuses on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and purity when we receive our calling, then we will be ready to move toward our anointing. 

We need to know who we are and who God is before we are ready for a job in the Kingdom of God. Think of moving into the gifts of the Holy Spirit like signing up for a job. The first week you go to orientation, then you are given a job title, and progress toward training for the assignment of moving into a position. A company wouldn’t put an accountant into a position without sending him through general orientation, training and on-the-job training. Put your mind into John 14-17 mode. Jesus wants us to abide in the Spirit. He wants to become our ‘company’. Next, He wants to train us. It says in Isaiah 54.13 ‘All your sons will be taught by the Lord and great will be our children’s peace.’ And again in John 16.13 ‘When the Spirit of Truth comes He will guide you into all truth’. And, again in John 15.4 ‘No branch can bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in Me.’
 
The first part is learning about the company. The same is true with the calling of God: He calls and we need to get on the line and say, “Hi’. We need to get to know the person who runs the company, and then when He gives us a job, we will understand His management style. Many times God will tell us of our job way ahead of time and we are all ready to move into position. We become impatient and take things into our own hands attempting to ‘grow our own branches’ to get to the place we feel He his going to bring us. But, the problem is that it isn’t our tree, so we can’t pattern our own growth to achieve His outcome. 

We can put up structures and manual stops which prevent growth in specific directions, but we haven’t the power to make ourselves grow. Sometimes, stalls in growth have to do with the seasons: perhaps this isn’t the season to release the blossom of your intention. What if your flower was one that was specially cultivated to be in the Rose Parade on a grand float and you got impatient, added some Weed and Feed and stretched yourself toward a different purpose? And, suppose that you felt you were ‘ready’ to be displayed and went to Washington DC and put yourself in a ‘world class’ demonstration there?  What you have done is no less than rebellion against the purposes of God. Because you have gotten in the way of the person that God intended to do that job and not done the one which you were being cultivated for. It is a serious error which grieves the Holy Spirit when we assume control for our own training. What we do is ‘begin to walk into the Spirit’ then walk out of the light all of the while telling others that ‘this is the way.’

Let me tell you, friend, the last thing God needs in another sign pointing people in the wrong direction. Study the list of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and note that one of the last ones mentioned is self-control. This is a gift of discipline. What God has told me is that I need desire, determination and discipline to fulfill His mission and two out of three doesn’t make me a winner. What I find is that what people lack the most is desire because they lean on their own desire to drive them. We should not be driven by our own desire, but the desires of God. And, only when we pray into our lives, “Give us Your desires,” Does God instill within our spirit His desire. He is the one who will give us the hunger to fulfill His plans according to His purposes. The other two aspects are our volley. I consider my relationship with God like a volley ball game. I try to keep the score love/love. I know it will never be even, but if I call on His grace and the Holy Spirit to fill me daily, then I can send return back the same love. I can return the serve at least. It may be a clumsy back hand or go way over the fence on His side, but I believe He delights each time I am able to return some of the love which He can see. 

You see, God is pure and holy. He cannot intertwine with sinfulness. So, if we send Him fleshly love, He cannot return it back in a volley. There will be no playful interaction [delight] in one another because there is no connection. It continues to be a service toward one another without any return volley. It is like a tennis game where the opponent isn’t able to return the ball.  

That I the first step: accept the call. Then, as we do, we can move into orientation. He will train our ear to hear His voice. Remember that you are created in His image, so you have a ‘God chip’ put in you which enables you to hear His voice. [Romans 1.20]

Each of us hears it our own way. Don’t tell someone how to hear God; let them figure it out for themselves. You don’t know how they hear God because you only have the capability to hear Him for yourself. You only know your own connection to Him, not where or how the other person is connected.  It is like cords on the back of a computer; we all have our own connection port with different colors of cords. Each port plugs into a different place on the same mainframe. God is like our main frame and we connect to Him in different ways. From there He relays His messages to us individually. Who do you think the people on the other side of the world are worshiping? It is the same God with a different connection port. 

Let it go. You need to assume that God is big enough to talk to everyone at the same time. It does not assume that the picture of God that the individual sees is full enough for him or her to get a complete image of who He is… but none of us have a complete image of who God is because He is God and we are mortals. There are many ways to seek God and if it is left to Him, He will manifest Himself His way. We need to trust Him to do it in what ever way the individual needs. What He has told me is that many times we try to transplant others into our pot, but what He desires to do is have the individual learn how to be fed in the pot where he is. We have our connection to God and know it works, we only have a limited capability to connect to others whereas God has an unlimited capacity to connect to His main frame. 

Then, we must put aside distraction and listen to the voice of God. When He talks write it down; if anything is worth noting, do it. Only then are you ready to move into anointing. It takes time to get to know God. The more time and effort you put into it, the faster it will go. When I began to understand I was called, I started spending 5-8 hours three days a week seeking God in a quiet place [the desert] and writing down what I heard from Him. That is what propelled me at such a rapid rate. If you want that, then do it. 
I compare the things of the Holy Spirit to swimming in a pool. Some are casual swimmers and content to stay at the shallow end of the pool. But, there are many who dive right into the deep things of the Spirit. For these, still, they need to learn to swim before they can stay afloat in the deep end of the pool of God’s love. 

The further you venture into the spiritual gifts, the more active your enemies will become because the true threat to the Devil are individuals who listen to God, obey His voice and move into the miracles. Those who walk by faith are impossible for the Devil to stop, so he makes every attempt to stall them before they get to that point. It is like killing the baby before it gets out of the womb. An unborn baby will never walk on its own, but a baby who learns to walk will be able to hold the hand of other children and be a friend to many. Moving into the gifts of the Spirit is like being born again; you are reborn into the things of God. It is as if you never lived because you haven’t. You have a new spiritual birth into the true knowledge of who God is and who He intends for you to become. Up to this time you were not born. That is why it called the ‘second baptism’ because it is another birth channel which must be passed through to be able to breathe on its own. This birth is a spiritual birth, not a physical birth.

Camezi’a Reti’dad

Be my club soda. Seltzer water
Aerated and bubby, overflowing effervescence.
Ready to add whatever flavor I desire.
The keys to the kingdom of God are in your hand.
But, it is not your gift given to them.  Not mine for others through you.
Because they are, but I need to show you how to open a few doors to prove it to you,
 that you have the master key, the skeleton key; the one that opens the entrance to the secret places as well as the public places.
People are the keys, not stuff. 
The bountiful word of God is laid out on a table before me.
I can pick what I want to eat, or I can wait for what He gives me. Both are good.  But, it is the difference between good and best in building His Kingdom.
Father, I want what is best.
Then, eat what I give.  Wait on Me.  Listen and copy. Then be Repiti’dad. 
 Echo My message to others.  
Father, purify your message through me.

Rain Water in a Cup

A cup collects rain water
 as it drips off the
 corner of 
the tent.
Why?
You can’t
 drink from the lake.
The brook could be tainted,
There is no chlorine tablets,
And, the fire went out a long time ago.
 How much water can be collected?
It depends on how big the tent is.
The bigger the canopy, the
 more
 rain can be gathered.
And, when the cup gets full, it is poured into containers.
So, we ask God to cover us with His blessings. They trickle
 down from heaven 
and gather on our tent.
Then, they all migrate toward 
the place where they will fill our cup.
Then what?
We pour those blessings into others lives.
There is a time in this process when we will be
 staring at the bottom     of our blue speckled cup.
 Don’t panic.
Just put it back under the place where the blessings flow.