Understanding Presence

Eight Secrets to Operating

In Creative Miracles (Part 1)

Genesis 1:1-5 1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning-the first day.

John 1:3

3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

Hebrews 11:3

3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

When I Prayed For Someone, I Wanted Something to Happen.

He has taught me many things about living a life full of spiritual power. God has allowed me to witness the demonstration of His power thousands of times in the lives of countless people. A walk of intimacy with God along with a deep rooting in His word became the foundation from which I saw tremendous power released through my life. You can begin to operate in the Spirit the moment Christ enters your heart. You don't have to be saved 20 years before walking in God's power. I experienced many encounters and many moments of God's power during my early years as a Christian. Those encounters shaped who I am today. God's timing is perfect and His preparations are essential. Preparations don't earn the anointing, they simply enable us to carry it for the long haul.

The Power of God Flows Out of His Grace And Is Activated by Faith.

One thing I have learned about God's power and gifts is that they flow out of His grace and are activated by faith. Personal preparation in the areas of character, integrity and holiness enable you to sustain a constant flow of His power through your life. But we must always remember that He is the source and it is by His grace that we are qualified to be partakers of His heavenly glory. It really has nothing to do with our efforts or works. If it did we could take some of the credit. Since it doesn't, God gets all the glory. It is this deep inner working of character that grounds us so deep in Christ that God is able to pour an immeasurable amount of His power through our lives.

Eight Secrets

Today I want to share with you eight secrets to operating in the creative miracle power of God. If you apply these principles to your life, you can be a person who lives and sees signs and wonders released through you on a daily basis.

1.Cultivate God's presence in your life. The glory is the source of all miracles. The more you can cultivate an environment that is conducive to the Holy Spirit, the more of God's presence you will carry. The more of His presence you carry, the more power you will have. You achieve this by spending time doing whatever it takes to have the tangible Person and presence of the Holy Spirit hanging out with you. Quickly confess and repent of the slightest leaning toward sin or spiritual darkness. Pray in tongues often. Cover yourself under the blood of Jesus. Meditate in the word. Express worship to the Lord through song and prayer. Constantly invite the Holy Spirit to be with you in a tangible way as often as possible. Avoid anything that would grieve Him. You'll find that as your life is filled with the atmosphere of the Holy Spirit, miracles, signs and wonders will be a natural overflow.

Psalm 16:11

11 You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

Passion of His Presence .

Psalm 42 NKJV

To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation of the Sons of Korah. 1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, “Where is your God?” 4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast. 5 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance. 6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me; Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, And from the heights of Hermon, From the Hill Mizar. 7 Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me. 8 The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall be with me— A prayer to the God of my life. 9 I will say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” 10 As with a breaking of my bones, My enemies reproach me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” 11 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

Psalm 84:8–12 NKJV

8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; Give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah 9 O God, behold our shield, And look upon the face of Your anointed. 10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly. 12 O Lord of hosts, Blessed is the man who trusts in You!

Psalm 63:1–8 NKJV

1 O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. 2 So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. 3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You. 4 Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. 5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips. 6 When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. 7 Because You have been my help, Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. 8 My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me.

2. Cultivate God's faith in your heart. True supernatural faith flows out of the spirit and affects the mind. Not the other way around. Faith defies logic and natural reality for a higher spiritual reality. It causes the natural to line up with what God has already accomplished in the spirit. We must live in the word and constantly renew our minds. Faith is born out of heart revelation. When truth is revealed to your mind and heart by the Holy Spirit through the word, faith comes alive on the inside of you. John 8:32 says "And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Soak your mind and spirit in God's word by constantly setting your mind on it and revelation of truth will produce supernatural faith in your heart. Heart faith produced by revelation of truth is the ultimate key to operating in God's power.

Heb 12:2"Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]." (Amp).

Faith action activates the supernatural , place demand on the anointing. Expectation driven by hunger and revelations .

Luke 17:5-10

5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

3. Add action to your faith.

One thing you must understand about the power anointing is that it comes for a reason and with an intended purpose. Isa 61:1 says “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound." The power anointing for healing and miracles will only manifest if you are praying for sick people to be healed. We must be intentional in looking for opportunities where the power anointing will be needed

Faith without works is dead (James 2:20). The power anointing is given to help other people in a supernatural way and in the process reveal God's heart and nature to them. Don't allow yourself to get discouraged. You must stay focused and tenacious. No matter what you see in the natural, set your vision higher, know and understand God's will and truth and allow His faith to move you to action. This action will release the power of God and produce the miraculous.

4. Passionately pursue spiritual gifts. 1Cor 14:1 tells us to earnestly desire spiritual gifts. I often lay my hands on my own belly during times of prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to stir up and manifest the gifts of the Spirit within me. Spiritual gifts of healing, working of miracles, the word of knowledge and the gift of faith are all invaluable manifestations for the ministry of the miraculous. As you ask God to stir them up, He will. The gifts of the Spirit are called in Greek "charisma" and are defined as "gifts of grace; a favor with which one receives without any merit of his own." (Strong's Concordance) They are a manifestation of God's grace. You cannot work for or earn them. They are given freely by the Holy Spirit just like salvation is. The more you pursue them, the more you will have them. And you can have all of them!

Acts 10:38

38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

Acts 10:38

The Message

37-38 “You know the story of what happened in Judea. It began in Galilee after John preached a total life-change. Then Jesus arrived from Nazareth, anointed by God with the Holy Spirit, ready for action. He went through the country helping people and healing everyone who was beaten down by the Devil. He was able to do all this because God was with him.

5. Practice prayer and fasting. There was an instance in the Bible where the disciples could not cure an epileptic boy in Mt 17:16. When Jesus was questioned about this He said the reason was because of the disciples' little faith. It wasn't a question of God's will. Nor did Jesus focus on the boy's faith. It was the level of faith in the disciples' heart. But also factoring in was the element of prayer and fasting. There is a place in prayer and fasting where your flesh and natural mind become so subject to the heart and mind of God that His faith replaces your doubt. Prayer and fasting help release God's faith within us. It's His faith within us that produces the miracle, not the fasting. Fasting and prayer in this instance serves as the passageway into the fullness of faith that exists in God's heart. Again, it is not by our works, but by His faith and grace extended towards us.

6. Learn to hear God's voice. To operate in the supernatural we must develop a keen sensitivity to the Person of the Holy Spirit. God does not work in cookie cutter formulas and He doesn't work the same way all the time! This can be frustrating, but it's true. We see this even in the life of Jesus. He saw signs and wonders on a consistent basis in His daily life. But He rarely prayed the same way for each person. Sometimes He laid hands on people, sometimes He instructed them to take a specific action, sometimes He even did some very unusual things, like spit in mud and put it into people's eyes. He was very unconventional and very Spirit led. The key here is He did only what He saw His Father doing. (John 5:19) This ability to hear and see the actions of His heavenly Father came out of the time He spent with Him in prayer and communion. If we are to sensitize our spiritual eyes and ears, we must put ourselves in a place where we can see and hear God. This will often require you to pull away into a "deserted place" so you can place all your heart and mind on Him. When you exercise your spiritual senses by learning to listen and not just talk, you will be led by the Spirit to see wonderful manifestations of His power.

7. Associate with the anointing. A major key for me in being brought to a new level of God's power was learning that it was ok to go where God was moving. Some people believe "Well, if God wants to give me something He can come right here into my room. I don't need to go anywhere." Of course God can meet us in our own room and many times He does. However, that does not negate the fact that you can literally "catch" the anointing by putting yourself in a place where God is moving.

Find people and ministries that are carrying God and get around them. We learn from each other and receive impartation of power through association.

These corporate encounters with God do not replace our hidden devotion expressed in the place of private prayer. They simply add to and enhance our relationship with God. I have been blessed to have been able to associate and hang around some of the most anointed people on the earth today. That fellowship has not only stirred my faith but has released transference of wisdom, revelation and power into my own life and ministry. Anointed fellowship is crucial to cultivating the anointing in your life. That fellowship can come one on one around a cup of coffee or can happen just by listening to anointed teaching CD's and videos, as well as by worshipping together in a corporate gathering. Associate with God's power by hanging out where He is.

8. Be motivated by love. A factor I believe to be the most crucial one of all and maybe the greatest missing ingredient is love. Jesus was moved with compassion and healed their sick. (Mt 14:14) We are powerless without the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. Love must be the foundation for everything we do. It must be the foundation for our desire for spiritual power. With out love power can lead to pride and self inflation. Really with out the love of God in our hearts for people, the power is empty. (1 Cor 13:2) Love is actually the greatest manifestation of God's power. It was because of love that Jesus walked in total obedience. It was because of love that the power of sin and satan was defeated. It is by love that we lay our lives down for each other. Love is what motivates our faith (Gal 5:6). Love is what causes us to live in the Spirit. Love is the greatest virtue of all. Without faith you can't please God. But without love you can't know Him at all. Love filled with truth is the ultimate spiritual weapon against sin, temptation, offense, disunity, sickness, oppression and spiritual corruption and death. Love conquers all.

As you apply these principles to your life and walk with God, expect to see His glorious power and anointing released in and through you. There is someone out there waiting for a miracle. Your life and obedience to God may be the missing ingredient!