From the desk of Steve Shultz:
We often speak of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But rarely do we speak of the SEVEN SPIRITS of God! This is both a word from the Lord and a teaching on: what ARE the Seven Spirits of God. It's all in the Word of God.
Understanding of these Seven Spirits will lead you into the next level in your spiritual walk with Jesus.
Also, you'll want to get a hold of these deep, prophetic resources just below:
Keith Miller:
Uncap the Spirit of God! Communion That Releases God's Seven Spirits
And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.—Revelation 4:5
The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.—Isaiah 11:2
A Holy Hunger
This message is actually more like a prayer to the Lord for a release of the Spirit's flow in every person who sets their eyes on this article. I believe that the Lord will quicken and stir a holy hunger after Him for each reader, which will bring a divine encounter that is life-changing. I will be teaching on the "Seven Spirits of God," and my desire is to see each of these seven activated and flowing in every Believer's life through deep to deep communion with the Holy Spirit, "so that by His divine power we will be partakers of His nature in us" (see 2 Peter 1:3-4).
The Lord desires us to enter into a deeper level of pressing into Him, or what I call "pursuit after Him." It is a stirring of the Holy Spirit deep within that literally awakens your inner man, so that you know that you know there is something more that He wants to share with you. This is called holy hunger. Only communion with Him is going to satisfy the deep ache within. This wonderful hunger is stirred up by the Holy Spirit as described in Jeremiah 33:3: "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know."
As we begin to cry out from this deep engaging of the Spirit of the living God within our spirits, we experience the communion of the Holy Spirit, which is a place of deep-to-deep fellowship with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit searches out the deep counsel of God for you and reveals it to you.
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.—1 Corinthians 2:10
Deuteronomy 29:29 declares that, "the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever..."
As the Holy Spirit initiates this hunger, we begin to say "yes" to the Lord in agreement with the stirring of the Holy Spirit. We begin to call out to Him. As we begin to call to Him, He answers us by showing us great and mighty things that we did not know. The word "mighty" here in the Hebrew means inaccessible. He wants to release to us something that was once inaccessible to us that we did not know. He wants to reveal to us by the Revealer the deep counsel of God. It is a precious privilege to know the mysteries and the secrets of the Kingdom. But when the Revealer reveals them to us, they are now for us and our children's children.
A Greater Invitation
In Revelation 3:20 there is a greater invitation from the Lord to the Church: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me." In this verse, Jesus essentially says, "If you hear Me knock and you open your heart (door) to Me, I will come and dine with you (or banquet with you)." This refers to visitation or communion of a greater degree.
As you say "yes" to the Lord, something wonderful and glorious takes place next. Just a few verses later in Revelation 4:1, we see now an invitation to go through the door that is opened by the Lord: "After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in Heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, 'Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.'" He is the Door or Gate to "come up here" and meet with Him. Every prophetic encounter that I have at this level has been a life-changing time for me. It is an encounter with the Lord.
During one of these incredible times of stirring in my own life, I had a prophetic encounter with the Lord where He revealed to me a greater depth of Revelation 4:5: "And from the throne proceeded lightning, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God." This profound prophetic encounter began a series of events that literally caused me to press in for deeper communion with the Lord, and this resulted in the release of the revelation that I am about to share with you on the "seven Spirits of God." My prayer is that as you read this article today on the first three Spirits of God, the most precious Holy Spirit would breathe upon the message for you, and you too would be stirred into a greater place of hunger after Him that releases deep to deep communion, which in turn brings the flow of His fullness in and through your life.
Lord, let it be so, and let it be according to what You have made available to each and every Believer at the Cross.
He Who Has the Seven Spirits of God
Revelation 3:1 describes Jesus as, "He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars." Here we clearly see that Jesus has the seven Spirits of God! We see from John 3:34 that Jesus has the anointing without measure: "For He [Jesus] is sent by God. He speaks God's words, for God gives Him the Spirit without limit" (NLT).
We can find the seven Spirits of God listed in Isaiah 11:2: "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." Each of these great flows of the precious Holy Spirit is available to every Believer. God desires us to see every function and expression of the sevenfold Spirit of God in and through our lives.
Paul declares that his "speech and...preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1 Corinthians 2:4). Please notice he said the Spirit and power. The Lord wants to release in and through your life rivers of living water so that your life would demonstrate on a day-to-day basis the flow of the Holy Spirit.
On the last day that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.—John 7:37-39
We can see here that the Lord shares that out of our hearts shall flow rivers of living water. Rivers (plural) is indicating multiple flows of the precious Holy Spirit. There is only one Holy Spirit but seven functions or expressions of the Holy Spirit through you and I as described here in Isaiah 11:2 and Revelation 4:5. The first of the seven is the Spirit of the Lord upon, or the manifest presence of God. The second is wisdom, the third is understanding, the fourth is counsel, the fifth is might, the sixth is knowledge, and the seventh is of the fear of the Lord.
The Spirit Shall Rest Upon
The first flow of the sevenfold expression of the Holy Spirit in Isaiah 11:2 is "the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him," which is communion with the Lord Himself. This is the place of intimacy with Him that releases these expressions in and through your life.
In just the previous verse it says, "There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots" (Isaiah 11:1). Now this is important. Where did the branch come from? How many of you know John 15? It says there that you will be fruitful by abiding in Jesus: "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). How many want to abide in the vine? See, you can't operate out of the sevenfold flow without being in the vine, which is the Branch of Jesus. This flow is mentioned firstly because it is most vitally important; everything flows out of the anointing, out of the center post, out of the branch. Everything flows out of Christ, the anointed One, and His anointing. That's why I shared 2 Peter 1:3-4 with you in the beginning paragraph, because you can be a partaker of His divine nature by the Spirit of the Lord who is the Branch.
Romans 11:16-17 says that it is your inheritance to be plugged in to the Branch, and if you're plugged in, it says:
"...if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree..."
Become a partaker of the root. Who is the root? The Lord is the root. And the fatness means the richness, the fresh flourishing oil to live in that capacity. Everything flows out of the first one, out of the manifest presence, out of the Lord. All seven functions have to flow out of His presence. I am just touching a little bit on the seven operations of the Holy Spirit, and what I'm bringing out today is just daily living, daily ministry, out of this realm. So, the first Spirit is the manifest presence of the Lord. How many want to live in a place of operating daily out of the fresh presence of the Lord?
The Result of Living Daily in His Presence
Look at the result in Isaiah 11:3 of ministering out of this capacity. It says, "His delight is in the fear of the Lord, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears." That's John 5. Jesus lived in this dimension. He never did anything but what He heard and saw the Father doing.
How many of you know we're here to bring forth justice and righteousness? The Church is coming into a great hour, and we're going to begin to implement justice and righteousness upon the earth, but we have to be in a place where it's not by our ability that we're beginning to move and implement justice and righteousness. Listen to this: "He didn't decide by the sight of His eyes, nor of the hearing of His ears...but with righteousness He judged the poor" (Isaiah 11:3). That's not just talking about poverty. It's talking about those who are poor in spirit. Jesus said that He came to preach good news to whom? Isaiah 61 says He came to preach good news to the poor.
"Decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth." That's the word of the Lord. "And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, and faithfulness the belt of His waist" (Isaiah 11:4-5).
Take a little time to read Zechariah 4:1-14. It uses a picture of a golden candlestick (or lampstand) with "seven oil lamps" on top of it to show a clear and visible picture of the seven flows of the Holy Spirit. To paraphrase what happens, the angel says to Zechariah, "Look here, you are going to see something that's going to release Zechariah 4:11 – the perpetual, ceaseless supply of the Holy Spirit; where your hands will be dripping with oil, and you'll be called sons of fresh anointing." He started with the "lampstand" because it shows first the center pipe with the vat and the two olive trees. I believe the two olive trees are the Word and the anointing. I want to live in the living Word and the fresh anointing of the Lord.
The center pipe is Christ, the Mediator between us and God. Christ is the center, the divine nature, and all of the other six flow out of the center pipe. There are six flows (tubes), plus one in the middle equals seven, the number of fullness. You can't have the fullness without being tapped into the center pipe, if you would – the lampstand. From the middle of the lampstand there are three pairs of pipes that go outward on opposite sides. The three pairs represent the three pairings of flows in Isaiah 11:2: Wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, and knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
Wisdom and Understanding
Remember back in John 7:38 that out of your belly shall flow rivers, multiple flows or functions of the Holy Spirit. Think about a Spirit of wisdom, a river of wisdom coming out of your life. Now, wisdom is not analytical ability. Wisdom is actually creative power. It is an impartation or a river of creative ability to function in what God is calling you to do. As I write this, I'm feeling the zeal of the Holy Spirit right now. You've got to understand that we are not just talking about a gift, moving in wisdom every once in a while, but a river of wisdom; a river of wisdom flowing for you, toward you, but also through you.
Ephesians 1:19 describes the Holy Spirit as exceeding great power that works within you, for you, toward you. How many would like to tap in today into the center pipe? How many of you know that Jesus is pretty wise? He sees the beginning from the end and the end from the beginning. He's the Alpha and Omega. He created it all by just saying (paraphrased), "Bam, happen! Bam, happen!" How many would like to have that kind of wisdom available to you? Let me tell you something, He sees your blueprint in Heaven. He has the plans for your life right in front of Him. He has what God has already ordained for you. He hears from the Father, "Jesus, get it." Then He tells the Holy Spirit, who transmits it to you.
In Mark 6:2 they said of Jesus, "Lord, where did this Man get such wisdom?" It wasn't just what He said; listen to what they went on to say, "Where did this Man get such wisdom that these mighty works are being done by His hands?" You see wisdom mentioned over and over again in Exodus 28, 31 and 35, and all through the Scripture. Proverbs 4 is going to take on a whole new meaning for you today, because when you begin to look at this passage, it says that wisdom will promote you. Wisdom will cause you to have an ornament of grace above your head. How many would like to have an ornament of grace, of oozing grace? How many would like to have a crown of glory?
Wisdom also brings long life. Do you know why? The Lord told me that there are too many of His people dying prematurely from stress. Do you know why? They are trying to do it by their own abilities instead of plugging into His ability. Listen, every one of you has a function in the Kingdom, every one of you. In some capacity, God has purpose and plans for you in the Kingdom. Listen, if you want me to tell you what it is, it's going to be bigger than what you can do. If it's bigger than what you can do, it's either going to drive you or excite you. Usually what we end up doing is let a season of time drive us, so we get worn out and weary trying to do it ourselves, give up and quit trying to do it, and that's when God kicks in and begins to do it through us. But you don't have to live like that! You can actually live in a place where you can just start from the get-go living in His wisdom. How many just want to live in His ability?
"I'm Going to Release a Spirit of Wisdom to Give You the Ability to Do It"
Take a look in Exodus. The Lord told Moses, "Guess what? Make some robes for Aaron and the priests." How many of you know at that point they had never made any robes like that? It had never been done. These weren't just plain old robes; they were blue, and certain colors here, with little pomegranates and all of this stuff. So what did God say? "Make this for Me." But He didn't just leave it at that. He said, "Now I'm going to release a Spirit of wisdom to them to give them the ability to make them." In Exodus 35 He started saying, "I want you to make this. I want you to do this. I want you to do this in the temple." Then He said, "Now I'm going to release a Spirit of wisdom to give you the ability to do it" (see Exodus 35:35, KJV).
Listen to this: He said, "I'm also going to give you the ability to teach what I'm about to show you." The Spirit of wisdom is creative ability to begin to function in what He's showing you. How many today would like to have a river of the Spirit of wisdom through your life? How many today would like to uncap a river of wisdom to begin to function in what God's showing you? Don't say you can't be teachers. Now there are teachers in the Kingdom that teach line upon line. They blow me away! Do you understand that God will put something in you so you can teach out of the Spirit of wisdom? Listen, some of you actually need the Spirit of wisdom to begin to get an impartation, to begin to be released in the thing that's deep in you. How many want not just a little tap today, but you want the Lord to release a river? You understand that as He flows, we're plugged into His divine nature by the divine power, so we can live life in the realm of a river of wisdom – and if we need wisdom, wisdom will be there.
You should dive into the Scripture and also look for the term "the Spirit of wisdom," not just the gift of wisdom. I love the gifts, and I'm still going to function out of the gifts, because the gifts are surrendering my will to His will. As I surrender my will to His will, guess what? Kingdom rule and reign is taking place in me because I'm giving Him authority in my life.
Listen, the Bible says, "Like a city that is broken into and without walls is a man who has no control over his spirit" (Proverbs 25:28). The first place God wants to set up Kingdom domain and dominion is in your inner man.
The Spirit of Understanding
I love the Spirit of understanding. The first thing that happened to Daniel when he began to fast for twenty-one days and press into the things of the Lord was the angel of the Lord came to him. Guess what the first thing the angel of the Lord told him was? He said in Daniel 10:13, "The prince of Persia kept me from going immediately to respond to your prayers." As soon as he came he said, "Now I've come to give you understanding of the word" (verse 14). The Spirit of understanding is the ability to put two and two together. The Spirit of understanding, in a nutshell, is the ability to comprehend the wisdom given and begin to implement it.
Many of you have the vision of the Lord in you and have had encounters of the Lord, but when someone asks you about your purpose and your vision and you try to express it, you say, "You know what I mean? This is what I mean. I just feel this. What do you think?" And the guy's looking at you like, "No, I don't know what you mean." You don't even have language for it. The Spirit of understanding begins walking in the understanding that "as it is in Heaven, so shall it be upon the earth." Begin to walk in that realm where the Spirit of understanding flows out of your life.
So the Spirit of wisdom and understanding always go together. As you begin to flow in wisdom, you begin to flow in understanding. You begin to flow in understanding, and you're going to flow in wisdom. God wants to open up two wells for you today so you live daily under the Spirit of wisdom and the Spirit of understanding. For some of you reading this, and I believe this with all my heart, the government will begin to come to you and say, "We perceive you've got the Spirit of wisdom and understanding in you, like Daniel." He had that ability to interpret dreams and the Lord would give him a dream, but he was able to take from the supernatural and bring interpretation to the natural. He moved in the realm of spiritual understanding. How many of you have a vision in you, and you'd like for the Spirit of understanding to come and give you understanding of it?
I have found so many Scriptures with the Spirit of wisdom and understanding mentioned in them. They said to Jesus when He was twelve years old, "Where did You get such wisdom?" He grew in wisdom and understanding. Some of the other Scriptures are 2 Timothy 2:7, the whole book of Daniel (all kinds of different Scriptures on the Spirit of wisdom and understanding are mentioned throughout), Matthew 13:54 and Mark 6:2.
Today, we're going to ask not just for an uncapping or a little touch of the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, but I'm going to ask that the river of wisdom and the river of understanding will flow for you today. Listen, I'm telling you that the Spirit of wisdom and the Spirit of understanding are just incredible. People can say, "I see it, but I just can't bring myself to see where I can function in the vision God has shown me." Praise God! You get a revelation that you can't, but then you begin to tap into His ability, the divine nature in you.
You can do all things pertaining to life and godliness. You begin to see the impossible become possible. Maybe you're saying, "Well, I can't ever teach." Don't say that, because the Spirit of wisdom gives you the ability to teach, and in such a way that Jesus as a twelve-year-old boy blew the minds of the Pharisees and Sadducees who had been studying for years. Where did this kid get this? Do you understand that there is a progressive acceleration of the things of the Holy Spirit right now? Even young people, 14, 15 and 16 years old, or even 12 years old, will begin to flow in such a dimension of the Spirit of wisdom and understanding that it's going to blow the wisest minds. How many want that today? Do you want that uncapped in your life?
To be continued....
Keith Miller
Stand Firm World Ministries
Email: info@sfwm.org
