Heaven Touching Earth

Hello everyone,

What an amazing journey of discovering and exploring the powerful and precious gifts of the Holy Spirit we’ve been on! While doing this study and meditating on the truth we’ve found, I’ve experienced significant impartation from the Holy Spirit. The truth of His Word brings such freedom and confidence to dig deeper, expect and anticipate the practical experience of it in our lives! In our study together, we’ve discovered the gifts of the Holy Spirit are exactly what the Word says they are - gifts that enrich our lives more than words can express. Never have I been more motivated to move and operate in these gifts each day. Which is really what I’ve been praying would happen for each of you too!

Ephesians 4:23-24 in the Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) says, “…Be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude], and put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God’s image, [Godlike] in true righteousness and holiness.” To me, this describes a life that is continually operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These gifts were never meant to be isolated in the four walls of a church building. They are a vital part of our spiritual lives. They are our direct link between heaven and earth, through which we communicate and demonstrate the power of God. They are in fact, heaven touching earth through us! It’s this power that constantly renews and refreshes us and causes us to walk in a partnership with the Holy Spirit to do His work and will on the earth. The powerful presence of God that is daily activated in our lives is what causes us to walk in daily victory.

Just the other day I was in a gathering where, out of the 35 people present, 21 nationalities were represented from all over the world. It was remarkable to see how each one individually communicated and expressed the culture of his country of origin by his name and language. For instance Mr Kuzentsov didn’t have to tell us he was from Russia when he introduced himself in his thick Russian accent. Neither did Mr Esposito, with his musical accent, need to tell us he hailed from Italy! What I’m trying to say is just as each nation on earth has its own distinctive culture that is communicated through its citizens’ names and languages; heaven has a distinctive culture too. Jesus told us that since we are in Him, we are not of this world but rather citizens of heaven - that is our real home. We have been adopted into His family and carry His Name; and we have a heavenly language that is directly linked to the culture of heaven!

Every gift of the Holy Spirit communicates the culture of heaven…Which brings me to the two gifts we are going to discuss in this letter and the next. They are the gift of interpretation of tongues and the gift of prophecy; both are inspiration or vocal gifts, and of course, they completely coincide with the gift of diverse tongues which we previously discussed in great detail. In fact, if you remember we spoke about diverse tongues: one being our personal heavenly prayer language and another, a language used as a sign for unbelievers. Either one communicates a heavenly culture that can’t always be expressed by our limited human intellect or expressions.

Haven’t you experienced times where you have a burden to pray but your own human language cannot express what you feel in your spirit? Or what about the times you are worshipping the Lord and there are simply no human words appropriate enough to express the affection your heart is simply bursting to tell Him? In Romans 8:26 Paul says, “So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance.” There it is: the very essence and culture of heaven itself is communicated and transported into our lives and the atmosphere through the supernatural operation of each of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Whether it’s through the utterance gifts (through our heavenly language, or the revelation gifts) where a specific word directly from the heart of God is spoken that could not have come from our own knowledge; or the power gifts (where God’s power is communicated through healings and miracles). All demonstrate and communicate the divine, supernatural culture of heaven - something that has always meant to be a common, daily occurrence in the lives of every born-again believer!

Now, back to the gift we are discussing today: the gift of interpretation of tongues.

The Apostle Paul speaks of the importance of having the interpretation of a sign tongue accompanying it. Now, although only the tongue that is used for a sign to the unbelievers is required to have an interpretation, both our personal prayer language and a sign tongue can be accompanied by an interpretation.

Let me explain…

Kenneth Copeland tells of how he was preaching in a particular town and the meetings were extended. He knew in his spirit that this was the will of God and was happy to remain in that town to continue teaching and preaching to the people of God. The only problem was he had come to the end of the teaching material he had prepared for the trip. So he went before the Lord and began to pray in his heavenly language to receive guidance from the Lord. While he was praying in the Spirit, a thought suddenly interrupted his praying. It told him to go look in the back seat of his car. Now he couldn’t understand why he would need to do that and quite frankly thought it was a distraction to keep him from pressing into the presence and wisdom of God. So he pushed the thought aside and kept on praying. That thought just kept popping right back into his mind, again and again, until all he could do was go and take a look at what was in the back of his car - so that he could be done with that annoying distraction. When he did look in his car he found a pile of books and teaching material that a man had given to him during one of the services. He had forgotten all about it; and as he looked through the material, his spirit leapt inside him and he instantly knew this was what he was meant to meditate on and teach the people. Mr Copeland had gone before the Lord specifically asking for wisdom and direction; and while he was praying in his personal heavenly language, the Holy Spirit revealed exactly what he needed to hear.

Remember, when we pray in the Holy Spirit, we speak the perfect will of God into our circumstances; as brother Kenneth did that, the Holy Spirit gave him the interpretation of what that will was!

When I heard that, I saw praying in the Holy Spirit in my own personal prayer time in a whole new light! I began to listen intently for any unction and tug from Him as I prayed; getting my mind to focus and follow the flow of power the Spirit was leading. Did I receive the wisdom or direction or peace or words I was looking and asking for? Yes, yes, yes - I did! Hallelujah! I started making this a habit in my life and using it as an opportunity to bless others. I would ask the Lord to give me a Word in season for a friend and as I prayed in the Holy Spirit, listening for His voice, a particular scripture would pop into my mind specifically for them. When I shared it with them it was exactly what they needed from the Lord for that time and situation. That’s all part of communicating the culture of heaven!

In the next letter, we are going to see how the gift of interpretation operates with sign tongues and how, together, they relate to the gift of prophecy.

Until then, enjoy communicating the culture of heaven, bringing its influence into your own personal life as well as those around you!

All my love,

Jenny