November 20, 2006

"The Charismatic Gifts"

I would like to go through the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit because they are part of the gift of intercession in a very special way.  Charismatic gifts are given to us for others.  We receive the gift of wisdom.  This is a gift of the Holy Spirit that is given to us for personal sanctification. There is also a charismatic gift of wisdom which is to be used for others.  It will help us to make decisions and judgments and will help bring others into that deeper wisdom gift.  There is a charismatic gift of knowledge.  It comes from the Holy Spirit for our personal sanctification as well.  It is also for the common good, so that we can know how to pray.  Intercessors use this gift a great deal.  We need it.  We need to know how to pray for others.  We need to know how to pray for others' situations.  Spiritual directors need this gift.  Any one in intercession, in fact, anyone in any kind of ministry for the Church, people who have families, anybody involved with others, in other people's lives, must have these gifts.

The gift of faith is a beautiful charismatic gift.  It is a gift we received at Baptism and at the Baptism of the Spirit.  It is a gift that helps us to know, really know, what God is going to do.  We know what He wants to do as long as we ask Him to do it.  Once we, as intercessors, know what God wants, we pray differently.  We no longer pray, "If it be Your will.."  We know His will so we can pray boldly in the Spirit, "Do it Lord!  Do it."

We have been watching the case of the Holloway girl and have been doing some intercession for it.  I was trying to catch it on the news one night to see what was going on.  Two of our stations had the 10 o'clock news but neither station was running a thing about it.  Our third station had a basketball game on.   I thought, "Well, I will just leave that to the Lord and I will go to bed.  We will just keep praying for this girl that is missing."   At about 11 o'clock I had been in bed just maybe 20 minutes.  I was not yet asleep when I got this strong impulse (you know that feeling you get when you are almost driven  - gentle but firm). I turned on the TV.  The basketball game was over and the news was just coming on.  A flash story had just come over the news station that a Tsunami alert was issued off the coast of San Francisco.  I was immediately alerted by the Spirit.  Everything in me just knew that the Lord was saying, "I want to stop it."  I said a simple little prayer, "Stop it, Lord!"   Sometimes it is just that simple.  You do not have to call up anybody and begin asking, "Should we discern what God is saying?"  You just know.  It is a simple little prayer and you do it.  The next morning we discovered that it had been stopped.  The newscasters and weather forecasters were bewildered. They were saying, "Somebody must have given a false alarm!" And, "They did not read this right and that right."  God can do that!  So be alert and attentive.  It may be that you are the only intercessor who is going to hear Him and who will be able to say, "Lord, stop it."  And He will - if you have been prompted by the Spirit.

Look how easy the prayer was at Cana.  Our Lady was prompted by the Holy Spirit to bring to the attention of her Son the fact that the hosts had no more wine.  It surprised Jesus but He knew that His mother had been prompted by the Spirit.  She simply followed the prompting.   "They haven't any wine!"  Look at the power that moved in that kind of prompting, that kind of obedience. That is anointed intercession.  That is the empowerment of God.  A tremendous  miracle came forth that day.  Miracles always come forth when we are led by the Spirit, when it is anointed intercession.

There is a charismatic gift of healing.  Intercessors are getting healings all the time.  Requests for prayer pour into our place every day.  God is healing through intercession.  God is doing miracles through the charismatic gifts and it comes through intercession.  Have you ever noticed that all the ministries eventually have to go to intercession? No matter what it is, you eventually will have to ask God.  That is intercession, to ask God to do something for someone else.

The gift of prophecy is a beautiful gift which intercessors need.  We have to become a prophetic Church again.  We have to become a listening Church.  We have to become a desert people again so that we can hear the voice of the Spirit, and can hear what God is saying.  What an intercessor does, is simply to pray, right back to the Lord, whatever we hear from Him in prayer.

One of the greatest gifts that comes through the Holy Spirit is the gift of discernment itself.  We could not make a move without discernment.  What does God want to do?  Where does He want to do it?  What is His strategy?  How does He want to do it?  This is a tremendous gift.  We must pray that this gift will be released more and more upon the Church.  It comes, again, through the wonderful gift of wisdom.

There is also a beautiful gift of shepherding that comes through the gift of anointed intercession.  We become spiritual parents. We are giving life, aren't we?  We are giving birth to Jesus in souls.  When I first received this calling, one of the scriptures, which the Lord gave to me was, "They are like sheep without a shepherd."  Then He said in a pleading, almost childlike voice, "I want to go."  They need the Shepherd don't they?  They need to know that Jesus is the Good Shepherd and that they are lambs.  Priests need to know this as well.  They not only shepherd the flock, they also need to be shepherded by "The Shepherd."   We all must have the experience of the Shepherd within our hearts.

Evangelization is a beautiful gift.  As intercessors, we tap into the gift of evangelization because we have a zeal for souls.  We would not be praying the way we pray and paying the price we pay if we were not trying to bring souls to God.  It is through the tremendous power of evangelization and the power of apostleship that intercession is being given to a world that needs it more so today than ever.  Intercession can go anywhere in the world, so can deliverance ministry, through the prayer of command that goes with it.  We simply need to learn how to recognize God's Spirit within us, to seek eagerly after love, to set our hearts on the spiritual gifts and especially the great gift of God's love.  Because of this great gift of God's love, we know that we have become the heartbeat of the Church.  We are at the very heart of the Church.  It is love that is going to give new life to the whole body, the whole mystical body.  We have had many images where the whole body is going to start coming alive.  It is going to come alive.

Excerpt from Mother Nadine's, "The Power of Anointed Intercession," Omaha, NE  2005