Can You Evolve Spiritually? Demystifying the Gifts of the Spirit.

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I used to sit on my roof, smoking marijuana, trying to send mental signals to UFOs to pick me up and take me on a trip to the Pleiades. I often used psychedelics to “expand my mind” and help me connect with the multiverse. I had a theory that I was more connected with other dimensions while I was on LSD. While I thought I was becoming more spiritual and increasing my awareness, it was actually leading me to a very dark place. I began to hear audible voices and had a direct, open encounter with multiple demons that lasted for months. I wrote about it in my book Devil Walk. Click for more on my book Devil Walk.

This article isn’t about that encounter, it’s about the mindset that facilitated the encounter. I believed that I could become more spiritual through the knowledge of secrets. I believed that I could ascend the “human condition” through expanded consciousness. The agent of expansion was psychedelics. I believed we were evolving into more spiritual beings. I believed aliens were more advanced humans, and could help me learn to become more evolved. I believed there were secrets I could learn in that altered state that would teach me to live in a higher plane.

Charismatics Are Like New Agers

The New Age community predominantly believes in evolution. They believe that the next phases of human evolution are not physical but spiritual in nature. In other words, we’re not evolving a better body, we’re developing a more spiritual mind or consciousness. This evolved consciousness will be able to interact with higher dimensions of existence that are free from illness, disease, government, religion, war, and a host of other worldly constructs. Many new agers believe you can tap into that realm through drugs.

Why am I making this point? Because many Christians believe the same thing, although they use different terms.

Spiritual Evolution

Spiritual evolution is actually a very common mindset in some circles of Christianity. Charismatic Christians are not necessarily using drugs to try to become more evolved spiritually, but they’re trying to become more spiritual, none the less. The truth is that we are complete in Christ, we have God’s spirit within us and we are as spiritual as we’ll ever be. We can become more confident in the power that is within us, but we can never gain more anointing or power. Most folks would actually agree with that but when the rubber meets the road, many Christians still believe things like this…

• There are different kinds of anointings (healing, prophetic, etc…)

• You can receive different anointings or gifts through impartation

• You can carry someone else’s mantle (anointing)

• You can gain more power over higher levels of demons through fasting

• There are keys to receive more anointing/power

• You can walk in the gifts more as you live more holy

The list goes on. When the Apostle Paul outlines the 9 Gifts or Graces of the Holy Spirit that God will empower within believers, he is very intentional to say there’s one spirit, one baptism of that spirit, one Lord, one body and it’s the same spirit who works all those graces in different people. All the gifts/graces are in all believers but God will lead different people to walk in the gifts/graces in different ways at different times.

Impartation

I make the point because too many believers have been taught that they are not as far along as they should be because they’re not performing miracles or giving prophecies. These kinds of teachers often offer the opportunity for an impartation so you can receive something you didn’t have before or walk in a power they’re walking in. It’s just simply not the way it works.

Many pull their beliefs about impartation from 2 Timothy 1:6 where Paul instructs Timothy to “fan into flame the gift that’s in him through the laying on of my hands.” Remember from my last two articles (here and here) that to have the spirit of God is to be anointed, and that anointing abides.

Paul is referring to Timothy’s ordination at Lystra, when Paul formally placed him as a shepherd in the church. He’s reminding Timothy that his assignment is to not be ashamed and preach the Gospel. If you read the whole chapter, the context is being placed in the body of Christ as an apostle and teacher, not receiving a power he didn’t already have.

How To Operate In The Gifts

Ok, now that you understand that you don’t need another anointing, more power or to grow spiritually, let’s talk about the actual gifts. The graces/gifts of the spirit are simply empowerments that God works through you for the benefit of all.

If you want to operate in the gifts/graces of God’s spirit within you, here are the ingredients.

• Love people, see the person you’re praying for through the eyes of God’s love for them

• Be at peace within your own heart, mind and soul

• Acknowledge God within

• Act on the inspiration that arises

Act On Inspiration

Love never fails! If you want to see God move through you and touch people’s lives with his power, love them. Don’t lead with the gift, don’t worry about trying to give a word or get them healed, just love them. Allow’s God’s love for that person to come alive within you to the point that you’re not even thinking about their need or any gift you want to operate in.

Then…

TRUST GOD!! The Holy Spirit will teach you what to do. Yes, really, that’s it! I promise you God is speaking to you and influencing your heart on what action to take next. No one can activate you into it, no one can impart something to you to make you do it, God won’t give you secret knowledge to help you understand it, but God will influence you and will teach you what to do and say.

How do you hear from him, how do you know what he’s saying? You tell me. You’ll never know if you don’t act.

I am not offering you a course in miracles, an outline of how to get words of knowledge or any information that will give you understanding, I’m simply telling you to love people and trust that God will lead you. You can do it. You hear and follow God better than you think you do. Get over the fear, the shame, the confusion, and act on love.

Where Soul Meets Spirit, the Dwelling Place of the WORD of God

What is The WORD of God?

• Through the WORD of God, all things were made and continue to consist -

• The WORD became flesh so it/he could empathize and become like humankind to set humankind free from sin and death - Hebrews 2:14-15

• The WORD of God is alive and active in the innermost being of mankind -

• A heart that is receptive to the WORD of God will be pruned, taught, transformed and brought to rest in Christ -

Based on all this, the WORD of God sure seems important, what is it exactly?

The word of God is not just the written word...AND it's not just the spoken word. The Greek word for "word" is logos. In Greek philosophy, Heracleitus, Plato and Aristotle agreed on the basic meaning of logos, which is; the divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form and meaning.

Essentially, the Logos was the order and structure behind nature. Philosophers for thousands of years have looked at nature and recognized there's an order to things; a tree bears fruit, rainwater nourishes the plants, humans are sustained by the food that grows, etc...

In some cultures, the logos is called "The Way." Taoism, an ancient Chinese monotheistic religion, looks at the "intelligence" behind the natural world and recognizes that there is order and even design. In fact, in the Chinese Bible, John 1 says, 'in the beginning was the Way."

In addition to being used to describe the order and design upholding nature, Logos is also defined as the logic, order, intent, character and reasoning behind that which is spoken or written. It refers to the character, logic and integrity of the person who has spoken or written those words.

Now let's use this understanding to gain a bigger picture of the WORD of God.

The Word of God became flesh, what does this mean? It means that God's integrity, character, a way of thinking and doing things, became a human. This human is Jesus. Jesus is the exact physical representation of what it looks like for God to be on this planet in human form. The way Jesus treats people is the way God would treat people, the way Jesus conducts himself with the natural elements of the earth are the way God would, the way Jesus teaches is the way God would, etc...

The Word of God was not contained alone in Jesus, it's bigger than him in a sense because it was still holding the universe together while Jesus was in human form. So the Word is in all things and upholds all things. This living essence of God is very similar to spirit in nature, in a sense it is spiritual. You could say spirit gives life to the word.

What does this mean for us?

What do we do with this word? It's obviously more than something that you read. The letters, poems and historical accounts of God's dealings with mankind are certainly an important part of the expression of the living word of God, but it must be more than that for us as humans. It must be a source of influence to which we yield to teach us how to be human, as God intended. 

4:12 NLT For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

We know that God's goal for us is that we are conformed into the image of his dear son, Jesus. We now that God gave us his spirit to insure salvation and our eternal inheritance. We know that transformation happens through mind renewal. Given those things, in light of the Word exposing our innermost thoughts and desires, we can assume that it's for the purpose of transformation so we'll be more like the kind of human Jesus is.

Jesus gives us more insight as to how this Word works in us. He basically says that the receptiveness of your heart to this Word determines the degree to which it will bear fruit after its kind in your life. The Word bears kingdom of God fruit, spiritual fruit. If those things are not in your life, the word of God is not fruitful in your heart in those areas. It's pretty simple really, the seed isn't growing due to the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other things.

When you want something in the world more than what the word of God can yield into your life, you will stop the growth of the Word into your life in pursuit of the worldly thing. This is the continuation of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we seek to establish our own will and desires rather than yield to the influence of God's logic and character within us, which will establish his will and bear the fruit that fulfills that desire in a way that's consistent with his logic, integrity, intention and character.

The Word Will Do Its Job

The only thing you can really do in harmony with the way God created the world to actually function is yield to it, tune yourself in your mind to it. Believe it, trust it, co-labor with it. But the paradox is the way you believe, trust and co-labor is to rest.

The author of Hebrews gives us insight to the intent of the word through a story about the Hebrews wandering in the desert for 40 years. We know God's intention for delivering the Israelites was so he could have a people group on this planet through which to reveal himself and bless the entire world. The Hebrews were the people God picked to establish his spiritual kingdom into this physical world.

Rather than just saying ok and letting him do that, they looked at what was in the world and questioned if God could really do those things. They looked at their present circumstances and questioned if he would do those things for them. This caused their hearts to be desensitized, hardened or untrusting toward him so they quit following/obeying him. Because they didn't just allow him to lead them they eventually came to a place in their minds and hearts where they simply could not receive his leading and therefore could not enter into the blessing that he wanted for all nations through them.

The author of Hebrews admonishes the believers of his time to not be like the Hebrews. Don't look at the condition of your lives and the world to determine what you think God can and will do. In fact, he gave you a tradition in the Sabbath to ready your mind to receive the real Sabbath he wanted for you, which is to cease from your labors for righteousness and blessing from God.

This part of the letter of Hebrews applies directly to us. We too should not look at our lives and circumstances in the world to determine what God can and will do. The reason is beautifully constructed in the first 4 chapters, bringing us to the conclusion that God, who made everything and upholds everything, because human, to empathize with us and set us free from this limiting physical world so he could bring us to a place of rest in Him and so his people would be the conduit through which he blesses all nations. He still wants that.

That is Logos, God's desire and intention to live through us and give life to all creation. When we reject that we will not and cannot participate in that life, on this planet and in the afterlife. You have to let God's logic, integrity, wisdom, character, power and understanding live in the innermost part of your being so he can establish his will in you. His will for you is life, peace and blessing in his grace all the days of your life and all throughout eternity.

Reading the Bible

So when you read the Bible, it should testify of God's power and intention. Yes, there is doctrine to understand and instruction to apply but there is a bigger picture. There is a stream of consciousness to engage with, there is a wisdom that is born of the ancient of days that you can walk within, there is a level of character and integrity that you can be empowered by to display to the created world what it looks like for a human to yield to God.

The Word of God is alive and powerful, able to sustain and transform you into the vessel he always wanted humans to be. Don't allow a temporary, fallen world system determine how you'll think about God. Lift up your minds higher than that, set your eyes on Jesus and allow that logic to infiltrate everything you understand. Think on what's eternally true and bring that level of consciousness into this realm.

Trust God and allow him to glorify himself through you!!