| The Gun Analogy |
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About 5-6 years ago, I felt God gave me a powerful revelation on the power of combining the Word and the Spirit. The knowing that came up from Him was that many Christians really do not appreciate or see the real power that is in the written Word of God itself - the Bible! I felt like He gave me this gun analogy in order to show people how powerful the written Word of God really is when you combine it with the power of the Holy Spirit operating through you. The anointing of God is really the power of God operating through you to get a particular job done. You can have the anointing of God - the power of God - on whatever it is God will be asking you to do for Him in this life. You can have the anointing to witness to others to get them saved, the anointing to heal someone, the anointing to cast out demons, and the anointing to teach and disciple others. However, when you cut a little further into the anointing, it is the power of the Holy Spirit Himself operating through you. However, the Holy Spirit is always operating under the direct authority and guidance of God the Father. The Two of Them work in perfect harmony and tandem with one another. The Holy Spirit will not manifest His power unless He has a green light from God the Father to do so. God the Father always calls all of the shots. The Bible tells us that all of Jesus’ miracles were done by the power of the Holy Spirit. These miracles were not done by His own divine power because He was incarnated into a human flesh body exactly as we have. He totally depended on the Holy Spirit’s power to cast out demons, to heal the sick and to walk on water. Many men love guns and hunting. For many men, guns represent power. And guns are definitely powerful! The fact that a small revolver can create enough explosive force to propel a bullet out of a gun barrel that can literally kill someone is proof positive on just how powerful guns really are.
If each Christian would spend some kind of regular quality time in doing this, then God will anoint you with His power through the Holy Spirit when that power is needed for a particular situation! The words coming out of your mouth will have no supernatural power on their own. All of the power is with the Holy Spirit. You could memorize half of the Bible - but if you don’t have the power of the Holy Spirit operating through you, then saying all of the correct Scripture verses for a particular situation will not get the job done. There will be no healing, no deliverance and no breakthrough. It is only when the Holy Spirit will manifest His power that the miracle will take place. There are preachers who can quote Scripture all day long - but there is no power in their sermons because they are not operating under the true anointing of God. They do not have the power of the Holy Spirit on their preaching. They are all Word and no Spirit. You have to have both the Word and the Spirit operating through you if you want to produce real fruit for God. However, the catch is that the Holy Spirit will not manifest His power at times unless you have some of the Word loaded up in you. He will then lead you to speak out some appropriate Scripture verses for whatever miracle you are seeking after. Once you speak out what He leads you to say, then His power will manifest into the situation to give you the supernatural miracle you are looking for! However, there is a flip side to all of this. It is the Word and the Spirit working together that will produce the miracle. If all you did was read the Bible, but had no real personal relationship established with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, then nothing would ever happen.
Many Christians have established good personal relationships with God and Jesus, but they have not spent much time in the Bible seeking to obtain more knowledge about the Lord. The Bible is the only written source we have that gives us all of the knowledge about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I feel like God was trying to convey to me that if His people were really interested in learning more about Him, His Son, and His Spirit and all of Their ways, then His people would seek out more of this knowledge by studying the Bible. When you enter into any type of deep personal relationship with someone - the first thing you are going to want to do is to try and find out as much as you can about the person you are entering into the relationship with. You will want to know all about their past and everything they have gone through in their lives. Why? Because when you learn about their past, you will get to know them better! You’ll begin to understand why they are the way they are. It’s the same way in your personal relationship with God. Once you find out that this direct personal relationship is possible with the Three of Them, then your next step should be to want to try and find out everything that you can about Them and Their past! And the Bible is the only true, accurate written account that we have that will tell us all about Their past, Their ways, who They are, what They are really like as far as Their personality qualities, and why Jesus was sent to our earth to save us and give us the gift of eternal life. You can’t find this information anywhere else other than the Holy Bible.
No one will ever master the Bible in this lifetime. You don’t have to become a Bible scholar in order to get God to anoint you with His power through the Holy Spirit when it is needed. God Himself will personally guide you in your study of Scripture. The Holy Spirit will lead you as how often to read and how much to read. God will easily fit the study of the Bible into your normal everyday activities if you really want Him to. I feel that all He is really looking for is that each and every Christian do the best they can in their study of Scripture. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth and teach you all things. The Holy Spirit Himself will help guide you and teach you as to what Scripture means when you read it. It is His job to enlighten you and illuminate your mind so that you can understand what you are reading. Simply ask for the Holy Spirit’s help when you study Scripture and He will come to help you out. But you have to go into a seeking mode when you study the Bible with the intention of wanting to learn more about God. If you try to study the Bible just to see if God will anoint you with His supernatural power rather than for the express purpose of wanting to enter into a deeper personal relationship with Him, His Son and His Spirit - He will see right though your impure motives and there will be no anointing when you need it. Now here is the gun analogy that I feel God gave me to show how powerful it really is when you combine the Word and the Spirit together - or to put it another way - when you combine the Word and a personal relationship with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The Gun Analogy1. Here is the basic gist of the analogy:
The Bible says that the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit! Notice the word "sword." A sword is an offensive weapon to be used in combat. When you are trying to cast demons out of someone, trying to heal someone from an illness or disease, or trying to get someone saved from the fires of hell, you are really going into combat! The demons who may be inside of a person do not want to leave! The person who has a terminal disease or illness and who needs a healing - that terminal illness or disease is not going to leave or subside on its own! The person you are witnessing to trying to get saved may be resisting God’s message of eternal salvation being presented to him. You thus need God's supernatural power to come into these type of situations - to cast the demons out, to heal the person with the illness or disease that the doctors can’t cure, or to convince the unsaved person that they need to accept God’s free gift of eternal salvation through the blood of His Son.
Example: say you are dealing with someone who needs a physical healing. You will lay hands on this person, say the words that God will give you, and then the Holy Spirit will move in with His manifest power to produce the healing. However, you have to be willing to speak out the words God will give you before the Holy Spirit will move in with His supernatural power to heal them. The Bible says, "out of your belly will flow rivers of living waters." Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit when He made this statement. Key on the word "flow." Many of the times, when God leads you to lay hands and pray for someone who needs a healing, you will get what is called a flow of words from the Holy Spirit. In this flow of words will probably be some Scripture verses on healing. If you had not spent enough time in the Bible getting some of these healing verses loaded up in you, then the Holy Spirit would have had nothing to work with and God probably would have never even led you to try for this healing in the first place.
You can’t heal someone unless you understand that it is God’s will to heal through His Word. Most of the time, you will have to have some of these healing verses loaded up in your mind through the study of Scripture before God will move to heal. You cannot witness to someone to try and get them saved if you don’t have some of the basic salvation verses loaded up in your mind to present to that person. You cannot cast demons out of someone unless you quote some of the appropriate Scripture verses when engaging with the demons. I’ve seen deliverance minister Bob Larson cast demons out of quite a few people and he is always quoting the appropriate Scripture verses when engaging with the demons. You can really feel the power of God on his words when he is quoting Scripture to the demons.
2. Now here is the gun analogy God gave me so people can really grasp how powerful it really is when you combine the Word and the Spirit together. Since I don’t have graphics capability on my computer, you will have to use your imagination to visualize all of this. Imagine a revolver and a single bullet lying next to it. Actually the bullet is just a part of what is really called the cartridge. A) The CartridgeThere are 3 main parts to the cartridge.
B) The RevolverHere are the main parts of the revolver.
Once the hammer snaps forward, the hammer will strike the back of the cartridge causing the gunpowder inside the casing to explode. Once that explosion occurs, the bullet will propel forward, flying out of the barrel of the gun to hit the intended target.
Here is How it Works in the Spiritual Realm1. You load your mind up with the Word of God by studying the Bible, seeking to understand it and committing certain Scripture verses to memorization. 2. You establish an intimate personal relationship with all three members of the Godhead - God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Do both of these, and then God will anoint you with His supernatural power though the Holy Spirit when you need His power to receive some type of miracle. When it is time for the miracle to be brought about - here is what you may have to do that will line up with the shooting of a gun! If God tells you that He wants to heal your sister of cancer - then what you will have to do is to go over and pray for her and possibly lay hands on her for the healing power of God to go through her body to bring about the healing. When you lay hands on her, you will have to pray words, possibly out loud, before God will move in with His healing power through the Holy Spirit. Once you pray the words that God may give you, then the Holy Spirit Himself will move into her body to bring about the healing. However, He will not move until you say the words that God wants you to pray out loud! In these flow of words that you may receive from the Holy Spirit will probably be some healing verses from the Bible. The Holy Spirit will bring back up to your remembrance certain healing verses that you have already read! Since you have already done your homework by studying Scripture, the Holy Spirit is free to bring these verses back up to your remembrance when you may need them to either heal someone, deliver someone from demons or to get someone saved. However, if you have not spent enough time in Scripture and have never read some of these particular verses - then the Holy Spirit will have nothing to work with. He cannot bring something back up to your remembrance unless it has first been read and assimilated from the Bible!
When it comes time for the miracle to take place - you are already to go. You are fully loaded with the Word in your mind the same way the chamber of the gun is fully loaded up with the bullets. The Holy Spirit is the bullet - ready to shoot out of you when His supernatural power is needed to bring about the miracle.
What causes the explosion to occur in the gun that will propel the bullet out of the barrel into the intended target? It is the pulling back of the trigger, and then the hammer comes down striking the back of the cartridge! What will cause the Holy Spirit to release through your hands or body to go into the other person to heal them?
If you don’t tell or command the demons to go out of person when attempting a deliverance, then the Holy Spirit will not move in with His power to blow them out of there. You speak out the appropriate words first - and then the Holy Spirit will move in with His power to bring about the miracle. Your words by themselves will have no power to bring about any miracle. It is only the power of the Holy Spirit Himself that can bring about a miracle. However, God has it set up where He wants you to speak out the appropriate words first before He will release His manifest power into the situation to bring about the miracle.
Once you are fully loaded with the Word and the power of the Holy Spirit - then the only thing you will have to focus on is not to be afraid to speak out the appropriate words when God places you in a situation for a healing or deliverance to take place. If you are fully loaded with enough Scripture to be considered dangerous, and you have the anointing of God ready to flow through you because you have established a good enough personal relationship with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit - then the only thing that can stop you from bringing God’s miraculous power into a needed situation is your fear of stepping out and being willing to say the appropriate words. If you don’t have enough courage to lay hands on someone and pray for the healing - then nothing will happen! If you don’t have enough courage to talk directly to someone who has demons and be willing to cast them out by saying the appropriate words - then nothing will happen. If you don’t have enough courage to witness to someone to try and get them saved - then nothing will happen. Many of God’s people are fully loaded with the Word and power of the Holy Spirit! They are ready to go! The only thing holding them back is fear. They are to afraid to step out of the boat to witness to someone or to pray for someone else’s healing. If they are not willing to step out of the boat and "trigger" the release of God’s power by being willing to say the right words and do exactly what God may lead them to do on the spot, then God will simply hold back His power and that person will continue to remain in bondage to his condition - whether it be from a physical illness, under the influence or possession of demons, or continuing to remain unsaved and thus in danger of losing his soul should he die anytime in the near future. I will be doing a separate article sometime in the near future on walking with the anointing of God. I feel God has given me quite a bit of information on the conditions that need to be met before He will release this kind of miraculous power through a believer. However, I just wanted to bait all of you with the above analogy. The power of God is real! The Bible is loaded with verses showing that God does want to anoint His people with His manifest power like the early apostles and Jesus Himself walked with.
The Holy Spirit lives and dwells on the inside of every believer. The Holy Spirit is the One who has the responsibility and ministry of releasing God’s supernatural power into any situation that may need it. In the meantime all of you "loaded revolvers" - keep your radars up! You just never know when God will lead you into a situation that He will ask you to work with Him to bring about a real miracle! God will set the entire stage up for you. Just stay with your leadings from the Holy Spirit and He will perfectly lead you as to what He wants you to do, when He wants you to do it, and how He wants you to do it. Be willing to step out and follow the leadings of the Holy Spirit, and God may just arrange for you not to only witness a dramatic miracle - but to be an actual participant in the miracle itself! God may choose you to manifest His power through to help someone else out. If He does, there can be no greater honor or thrill than to have God personally manifest His power through you to save the day for someone else. It will be an experience you will never forget - ever! Now I will end this article with a few Scripture verses to back up some of the above points. Scripture Verses1. This first Scripture verse is where the Word of God is compared to a sword! This verse tells us that the Word of God is sharper than any two edged sword any human can make on this earth. God is using this analogy to show how us powerful the Word of God really is. After this verse makes this statement - it then goes one step further and tells us that the Word of God can cut right through the body, soul and spirit of a man. People have a slang expression that someone’s words can "cut right through you like a knife." Words are powerful - especially if your words are anointed by the power of the Holy Spirit. If someone’s negative words can cut right through you like a knife - can you imagine what someone’s words can do if they are anointed by God’s power? This verse tells us that the Word of God is living and powerful! Here is the verse:
2. This next verse tells us that God can make our mouths like a sharp sword. This verse is a nice extension off of the above verse. This is why the Word of God is considered to be the Sword of the Holy Spirit.
3. This next verse adds more to the power of God’s words coming out of your mouth. This verse tells us that God’s words can be like fire coming out of your mouth and the verse then ends saying that the Word of God can also be like a hammer that can break a rock into pieces. Again, this verse is really emphasizing the power of God’s Words that can be put into your mouth if you will spend some time studying and loading up on the Word of God.
4. This next verse will tell us that if God’s Word is sent out - that it will not return back to God void. In other words, God’s Word will accomplish what it is sent out to do in the first place! This is an extremely powerful Scripture verse.
5. This next verse will tell us that God can give each one of us an "utterance" - a flow of words when we would need them to pray, to witness, to counsel, or to cast out demons. Not only can God give us His utterances when needed - but with this utterance will come His boldness so we will not be afraid to speak out God’s word to someone else.
6. This next verse is the one about being able to receive "flows" from the Holy Spirit. This is Jesus talking.
In this verse, God is telling us that we can get "flows" from the Holy Spirit. I believe there are different kinds of flows God can give us through the Holy Spirit. The gift of tongues would definitely be considered one of these flows. If someone has the gift of prophecy coming into manifestation - he or she is getting a flow of words from God to speak out to someone else. In addition to tongues and prophecy - I believe God can simply give each believer a nice flow of words whenever they would need it to properly witness to someone, to pray for a healing, or to cast demons out of someone. If you ever watch preachers who are truly anointed to preach - they operate under a very nice flow. It’s just one torpedo after another when they preach or teach the Word of God to you. It’s not that they are robots or puppets - it’s just that the Holy Spirit is anointing their speech with His power so that you are really fed when you listen to them. These preachers and teachers still have to mesh and flow with the anointing when it comes up on them. God can do the exact same thing for you when you need to talk to someone else about Him. This is why the anointing is so important for each Christian to have. Without God’s power operating through you - nothing will happen. 7. This next verse specifically tells us that things are not accomplished by your power or by your might - but only by the power of the Holy Spirit! This verse is short and sweet - but it is one of the most powerful verses in all of Scripture. In this verse, God is telling us that if we want to be successful in anything that we try to do for Him - then it has to be done operating under the anointing of God - which is the power of the Holy Spirit operating through you. Our own efforts and our own power will not be enough to get the job done. Jesus has already told us that without Him we can do absolutely nothing. Here it is:
8. Here is another powerful verse telling us that God can make our words like fire if we are willing to speak out His words when they are given to us!
9. These next two verses specifically tell us that demons are cast out of a person by two things - by the power of God and by the Word of God. It’s verbal warfare when you cast demons out of someone. Speak out the appropriate words when attempting a deliverance, and then God will back you up with His supernatural power to get the job done.
10. This next verse also tells us that God will give us His boldness if we are willing to speak out His words. This boldness comes from the Holy Spirit.
11. Now I will end this article with several good Scripture verses showing you that God does want to anoint His people with His supernatural power to witness, to heal, to save, and to deliver. These verses are all emphasizing the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit that is available to all believers if they will only allow God to work and build them up in it.
It was only when the first set of apostles received the power of the Holy Spirit upon them at Pentecost that they had the power, the boldness and the courage to go out and start the evangelism of this world that still has not quit to this day - and will not quit until Jesus returns back to us in His second coming to set up His millennium kingdom. ConclusionThere are many more Scripture verses about being able to walk with God’s anointing and power operating in your life. I will be doing a much more thorough analysis on the anointing of God and how to really enter into it in an upcoming article for those of you who want to really tread into these deeper waters with the Lord. In the meantime, I will leave you with one last thought:
This 1-2 punch is what will truly release the power of God into any situation when a supernatural miracle is the only thing that will save the day for someone. The early apostles had this kind of power, and I really believe that God wants to raise up an army of overcoming believers in this day and age to walk with this same kind of power as we approach what may be the end times as prophesied in the Bible. |