The promised Holy Spirit we read in the Scriptures has 9 manifestations at work in human beings to make sharing of the Gospel not just evangelism but power evangelism. We will take a look at 4 categories to help us understand how to operate in the power of the Holy Spirit. The first being Intelligible Utterance, the second is Power, the third is Spiritual Discernment and fourth, Ecstatic Utterance. You have the fullness of the Holy Spirit inside of you and let’s take a look at what this means.
Part 1: Intelligible Utterance
WISDOM
I want us to take a look at the first manifestation category of the Holy Spirit. Intelligible Utterance, which consists of wisdom, knowledge and prophesy. First, we find wisdom in the Scriptures such as Ephesians 1:16-19, Colossians 2:2-3, Colossians 1:9, and 1 Corinthians 1:24. We read in these Scriptures that Jesus is the wisdom of God. We also find that we are called to be filled with all spiritual wisdom, understanding, and in Christ are hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
In power evangelism, seeing this manifestation of wisdom through the Holy Spirit is when we put knowledge into action. What this means is that it’s a revelation that comes from above which would enlighten the eyes of the blind to those you speak to. He will reveal the heart of a man. He speaks life into a dead soul. Provides God-given guidance to someone. Produces clarity in someone’s decisions, the things they face or circumstances they’re in. The Holy Spirit also removes the doubtful strongholds in the person’s life and breaks them down at the revelation of the light of Jesus.
You see, the beauty of this manifestation of the Holy Spirit that makes evangelism so powerful and effective is that you carry the wisdom, through the knowledge of Jesus Himself. You carry His knowledge to the people you encounter, to nurture those who are hungry and souls longing for truth in this life. Practically speaking, you attempt to evangelize by coming up to someone and you find out that this person is in need of wisdom for his family, wisdom for his next step in life, maybe school, finances, or marriage. The Holy Spirit manifests through you to bring forth the wisdom to speak into this person exactly for the situation of their life they needed to hear. This is not because you’re wise, but because the wisdom of God rests on you as you operate in perfect obedience unto the Holy Spirit to bring breakthrough in peoples’ lives, to bring answers to people in desperate need of this world.
KNOWLEDGE
Onto category number two for manifestation of the Holy Spirt, being part of the Intelligible Utterance, where there is a spirit of knowledge. We find this in Scriptures of Malachi 2:7, Isaiah 11:2, and 1 Corinthians 12:8. We read that the priests receive, guard and utter instruction to the people. They have the knowledge of the Lord, they hold the Scriptures, the message of God. And being priests and kings unto the Lord, we hold that knowledge in the Holy Spirit and we are the messengers of the Lord. The Scripture says His Spirit is a Spirit of knowledge. When the Spirit of God resides inside of us, manifests through us, there’s a knowledge that automatically pours through us into people. So practically speaking, your message from the Lord is the answer to the questioning and seeking person that has perhaps been looking for a long time. You are the navigation source by giving divine instruction, not simply knowledge of man but divine instruction through the Spirit of Jesus. By holding this knowledge, you are feeding, you are a source of food to people when you are operating in the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to manifest the Spirit of knowledge. And you’re not guessing a person’s problem, but it is the perfect aim for what is needed to be spoken into their life.
PROPHESY
The third category of intelligible utterance is the Spirit of Prophesy. The Word of the Lord speaks on this in 2 Peter 1:21, Amos 3:7, and 1 Corin 14:3. We read that these men were carried along by the Holy Spirit, not by their own will. So what the Spirit moved them to say, they spoke and did not say anything of their own. People today can say things of their own, their own mind, their own pursuits, desires, steal the words of other prophets. But true prophesy is when a person is speaking not of his own but being carried along by the Holy Spirit to speak His words. We also understand and read in the Scriptures that it is the revealing of God’s secrets. God says He does not do anything without revealing His secrets to the prophets and when the prophet speaks, the Bible clearly speaks it is for upbuilding, encouragement, and consolation. If we hear a prophet bring words of destruction, break someone down, instead of upbuilding, encouraging, or consoling someone, there’s a good chance it was not spoken on behalf of the Lord. We’re not saying that there’s no hard or heavy Word from the Lord, it must be the true Word and could be heavy or lighter but it is a Word that brings forth comfort even in the midst of rebuke. The Word brings hope, life and consolation at the end of the day.
When we go out to do power evangelism and seeing the prophetic manifestation of the Holy Spirit at work, we can even prophetically pray over people. Even when you have a conversation with someone, simply your words can bring life into others and as the Spirit gives us utterance, we speak exactly into their situation, speak into their future, speak into their destiny. These words, being moved by the Holy Spirit, we speak not of our own will but we speak being carried along by the Holy Spirit. So it could be a prophetic prayer or a simple conversation but even the words could turn into the prophetic and the message goes forth as a Word from the Lord.
Part 2: POWER
Let’s take a look at the second category of the Holy Spirit manifestations, which is power. The three manifestations that we find in scriptures to display the power of God are: faith, healings and miracles.
FAITH
We will find in the Scriptures of Matthew 21:22, Mark 9:23, and 1-Corinthians 2:5 about faith. These passages speak about faith as a deep knowing and confidence that something you believe for has been done and will be manifested in the physical realm. We also find that faith is walking out the prayer, in the perfect will of the Father who guarantees His answer to our plea. It’s when the impossible becomes possible with one who believes and you start to rest your faith in Him to manifest His power.
When we start to walk out in faith, it brings the supernatural to be natural as a form of restoration of what was lost in the garden of Eden. Everything flowed so naturally in the presence of God for Adam and Eve even being in the physical form. When faith is manifested in you as you share Jesus with someone, you are bringing the supernatural encounter for the person to experience the divine Person of God, Jesus Himself. Walking it out in obedience displays the power of God working through you to open the channel of your spirit understanding His Spirit. Salvation comes and received in the spirit man and when faith is flowing, it is affecting the spirit realm for the greatest impact in evangelism, and not human wisdom which cannot change a person.
HEALINGS
The second manifestation within the Power category is Healing. We’ll find many Scripture on healing and some of them will be found in Matthew 10:8, Acts 4:30, and Acts 10:38. We find that Healing was given as a free gift from God to bring a recovering and restoration of the body, soul and spirit. Another Name and characteristic for Jesus is Healer and the disciples clearly exalt Him and give Him glory for healings they experienced and even give all the credit saying: “while You stretch out Your hand to heal…”. Healings become so evident and so natural when supplemented with the Gospel message because it becomes the living Word with power.
When you take the Gospel message to your workplace, school, the grocery store or any situation the Holy Spirit prompts you to share the Good News, Jesus always wants to reveal Himself to those you’re reaching out to. He loves to show the working power of the Gospel and not just the logos (written Word) but rhema (living Word) coming into action. This is why the disciples saw many healings come so naturally, it’s because they went out to preach. Jesus speaks of healing to destroy oppression power the devil binds people with and many physical ailments have a spiritual bondage behind them. Jesus comes to set the captives free and let loose the spirit man from spiritual entanglement which often times brings a restoration to the physical.
MIRACLES
Moving on to the third manifestation within the Power category is Miracles. Jesus loved to perform miracles and they were evident after His death as well with some of the Scriptures we can reference being Acts 4:30, Acts 19:11, 1-Corinthians 12:10, and Psalm 77:14. We find that various miracles and signs to be unusual and yet they were performed to work wonders and make people wonder. What did they need to wonder about? Jesus Himself. Jesus was always trying to bring a knowing of Him through every sermon, healing, miracle and simple conversations to restore that relationship back with the Father for all humanity. Handkerchiefs and aprons were laid on people after apostles prayed over them to show a miracle working power and cast out evil spirits. A multiplication of bread and fish, water into wine, surviving shipwrecks and snakebites, were just some of the miracles Jesus and believers experienced. He promised that those who believe will see these things and do even more.
Miracles are the divine manifestation to make others stand in awe and wonder of God’s power. When the Holy Spirit manifests through you to perform a miracle and surprise the unbelievers, you begin to take these people to see a glimpse of the supernatural to make it a little more natural. The impossible things become possible for those who believe. When unbelievers begin to see these signs and wonders, Psalms 77:14 says: “You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your might among the peoples”. You begin to bring people to a knowing of the Heavenly Father as they see the miracle working power of the Holy Spirit working through your life.
Part 3: Spiritual Discernment
DISCERNING OF SPIRITS
Let’s continue to take a look at the third category of the Holy Spirit manifestations, which is Spiritual Discernment. The third category that we find in scriptures for Spiritual Discernment would be discerning of spirits. In 1-John 4:1, Matthew 10:26, and Colossians 2:8, we find passages describing discerning of spirits as a precaution against evil spirits. The Holy Spirit gives you a taste for testing for who is from God and who is not. When you step into a new day, it’s a new battle, and this discernment is a defense against every thought ready to take captive against Christ. Everything experienced in the physical is a reflection of the spiritual realm, hence Jesus warns us to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves as we are sent out in the midst of wolves.
When you’re involved in a conversation with a person or working alongside with them, the Holy Spirit brings sensation to let your spirit know what spirit you are dealing with. Any form of reaction such as anger, anxiety, fear or any other feelings and actions could simply be a caution for your own defense and reminder that you’re always engaged in spiritual warfare. Learn to recognize and act appropriately in dealing with it as the Spirit leads you. You start to clearly see this manifestation of discernment so that you become more aware and know who you’re walking among to walk with all wisdom in every situation of life.
Part 4: Ecstatic Utterance
TONGUES
Onto the fourth category, being Ecstatic Utterance, are: tongues and interpretation. Let’s take a look at tongues first. 1-Corinthians 14:2 & 22, Mark 16:17, and Acts 10:46 are some of the Scriptures that provide us with understanding of this gifting and manifestation. We find that when you speak in tongues, you utter the mysteries of God, which actually is the most perfect prayer you can ever pray - they are not your own words and are perfectly aligning with what the Holy Spirit longs to utter unto the Father. As a matter of fact, tongues can also manifest to speak the language of other nations without even learning it and becomes a sign for unbelievers as we find in Acts 2 when they first encountered such an experience. When you begin to pray in tongues, we find that you won’t be able to pray the wrong prayer but instead extol God for Who He is, putting blasphemy out of the picture.
As you pray and speak in tongues, it manifests the power of God. You could supernaturally be interceding on someones behalf without even knowing it but the Spirit moved you to do so in the perfect timing as well. There’s been instances even of the last century where preachers of the Gospel start to speak in tongues of foreign countries and becomes a perfect sermon in the language of those people to understand it. There were times when others received a Word from the Lord and convicted when understanding the tongues in their own language, therefore repenting of their sins without even the intention of the person speaking it in the first place. This is the power of tongues! Even though you might not understand what you’re praying, you build yourself up to become a witness to those around you.
INTERPRETATION
Another manifestation of the Ecstatic Utterance category is interpretation. In 1 Corinthians 14:27 and also majority of chapter 2 of Acts we find the power of interpretation of tongues which in some way is another form of prophesy or Word from the Lord. The person speaking in tongues is speaking the words of God and to God. The person interpreting brings an understanding of these words to listeners. The heavenly language becomes a familiar earthly language, which would be the role of interpretation. This is a special gift and we are urged to pray for interpretation which enlightens our understanding of God Himself.
When the Holy Spirit manifests through interpretation, He sends forth an understandable Word from the Lord to provide divine direction for the listener. The supernatural manifestation displays the power of God to even bewilder and bring wonder to people. Again, this encourages every person coming into contact with any of these manifestations to simply see Jesus and get to know Him. As an obedient vessel, you can be that instrument in God’s hand to send forth His Word to a desperate and longing generation looking for answers.
We’ve just covered all 9 manifestations of the Holy Spirit. More importantly, when we step out to preach the Gospel message, we can clearly see His working power in evangelism to allow His Spirit move in the heart of the hearer. Learn to hear His voice, recognize when He’s moving and walk in perfect obedience to His desires.