Manifestations
- May 29
- 34 min read
Pastor Stan Mons
Sermon Transcription:
A part of the teaching series Discipleship Essentials. If you missed earlier ones, you're able to go back online either on our website or on our YouTube channel, and you're able to find, under the playlist Discipleship Essentials, all the parts of the teachings that are part of that. Discipleship Essentials is really us taking everything the Lord has taught us up until this point in our journey and saying, what is absolutely necessary? If we had to pack the lightest backpack for believers that they need to take along with them when they are in a pinch on this journey of life, running their race, what would be the bare necessities? What has to be in that backpack to really start your discipleship journey?
We came to Discipleship Essentials, and all those parts are things I know I need in order for me to live life while I still fall in love more with Jesus every year of my life. I fall more in love with my wife every year. And I slowly but surely see God take somebody like me, and yet he's able to make somebody like me into a little bit better of a father, a little bit better of a parent, a little bit better of a husband and a friend every year. How he does it, it is miraculous. But I've learned that these things he's taught me, I definitely need, and I need to live by them. Now, I don't mean to tell you that there's things in the Bible that are not as important for you to know, but there are definitely things in the Bible that if you don't know them, or if you're not fully doing them, you can most definitely, wonderfully go to heaven, love your enemies, bless your neighbors, and be a testimony unto Christ.
There's things I learn in the Word almost every day, either things I didn't know, or things that only now God, by his Spirit, begins to teach to my heart. And I was doing fine up until this moment. But slowly in your journey with Jesus, he is going to begin to enlarge that backpack, if you will, that you have in your discipleship journey. And he begins to eventually pack it with things that are really for other people. But you've got to start the journey somewhere. Amen. And that's where Discipleship Essentials comes from. This is your beginner's kit for really starting your discipleship journey with Jesus. Today we're going to talk about manifestations, and that's been quite a topic in our journey of life. We've ministered in many, many countries. We've lived in four different countries over the last 12, 13 years. And in every country, every denomination, every place, every people group that we've ministered, we've encountered, one way or another in each culture, this challenge of people not fully understanding manifestations. And you're going to understand throughout the teaching—if you're not sure what that word means, you're going to get it very, very clear as you go along.
But I've seen absolute ridiculous stuff in places that call themselves churches. I've seen people that are curious to hear about this Jesus Christ who has paid for their sins, and they want to get to know more about him. I've seen people completely confused by churches. I've seen people begin to doubt God, or even begin to turn away from him or turn against him, because of nonsense that was being practiced or done or experienced in churches. And I guess that is probably the biggest problem with Christians or believers not being very well educated. Yes, that is partially part of the job of the church. It's also really the believer's part, because they have the textbook at home. Amen. They've got their Bible at home, and they should be reading it, but sometimes people don't really do it as much maybe as they would like to. And so that's where also the church steps in and makes sure that there's some food prepared, food for the heart, food for the spirit, multiple times a week, so that even when you are not really doing what you should be doing, we're still pursuing Jesus together. And because we're doing it together, even when you miss a day, you're going to make it through. Amen.
When people are not that clear on what the Bible actually says, I've seen this happen time and time again. When people encounter manifestations—things that are happening in a church service, or things they feel, or experiences they have—if it's real, they think it's God. And that is usually the biggest problem for entering into what we call deception: believing you are right, or you're doing something that is right, when in all reality you're wrong. You can't see anymore that you're wrong. You are now in deception. You don't start there. You don't trip up into it. You don't accidentally end up in it. That doesn't happen overnight. You can make many mistakes; you're not just going to be deceived. However, I have personally walked with people that came out of churches, out of lifestyles, out of situations that left them unable to walk by faith. When their feelings do not play ball, they don't know what to believe. They don't feel they're right with God. They're not sure if they're forgiven. They're not sure if they're called. They're not sure if they're anointed when they're leading worship—you name it.
When the feelings are not properly there, they don't really know how to believe. And that is usually a result of experiencing manifestations that are real—they were not produced by God, they were produced by other spirits—but mistakenly we thought, well, if it's real, it's God. And usually that is because we're not fully familiar with the Scripture. So your first Scripture in your notes is actually the whole point for this teaching. Let me read it to you: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world." That sounds old-fashioned. And what that really means is many people have gone into the world that say, "I know what God wants for your life. I know what God is trying to speak to you." That's really what that means. Someone is going to speak into your life, claiming they know what God has on his mind or on his heart for you. Except the problem is the Word says you have to really test every spirit that seeks to minister into your life—whether through a person, whether in personal experience—because many false prophets, false messages, have gone out into the world.
That's a problem. So if you don't know how to test, what's going to happen? You're going to just either swallow everything or resist everything and get lost in the mix. So let's get started defining manifestations. What do we really talk about? What do we mean? Let's define it. In the Greek, this word "manifestation" as its own thing is only found two times in the Bible. It's only found two times in the Bible. Now, the Bible does talk about Christ being manifest. That's a different word. That word means really that he came into this world, that he showed up, that he appeared. Manifestation on itself is only really used two times in the Bible. And obviously you're going to receive those Scriptures in just a moment. But that word in the Greek, what it really means is three words. Let me give them to you. Exhibition—difficult word. It means this: a display or demonstration of a particular skill. It's QVC, is what it is. For the older people—at the young, I just realized as I said that, the young people are not going to know what that is. Shark Tank, yes, they do. A "but wait, there's more." They do a demonstration of a product, and it is an education but it also causes interest. It's a display or demonstration of a particular skill. This is what this device can do, or this is what this service can do in your life. That's an exhibition.
The next one is expression: the process of making known one's thoughts or feelings. That's expression. Now for anybody here that's in relationship, anybody here that is married, you know by now that that's not only words. It is a process. Amen. The process of making known one's thoughts or feelings. All the women said, "Yes, please make him get it." That's expression. The third word is a bestowment. Again, a very old word. This means placing a gift upon someone's life. It's what your boss may do in your life. You apply to become a gardener for a company, but the company is going to give you the truck that goes with the job and all of the tools that is all bestowed on you. So now you are actually enabled to go and do the job that you couldn't do without all of that stuff. That is bestowment. You receive a gift. It is being placed upon your life. Now if we mix all of those three words together, this is what we get: a one-sentence definition of what we mean when we talk about manifestations. It is an expressive demonstration of spiritual gifts.
Let me give you the two Scriptures where the word actually uses the word manifestation.
2 Corinthians 4:2. "But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." Shameful things, we always try to keep it hidden because we are programmed to know what light is and what darkness is. Amen. You ever thought about that? When you do something that you know is wrong, you always want to keep it hidden. And then the next one, 1 Corinthians 12:7–11: "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all." Say each one. That means you. "For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills."
Now when we look over that list, we see that it is an expressive demonstration of spiritual gifts that God gives to the church to get work done that we could never get done without Him. And to have that manifestation of the presence of God upon your life means that you stand under spiritual influence. God's influence on your life is causing me to behave in a new way. I'm not really doing it. I'm being influenced, and it's having an effect. I mean, I can tell that to the young people. Like when you start hanging out with a new friend, you ever catch yourself kind of starting to sound like them, or behave a little bit like them, or dress a little bit like them? That's what the Bible is talking about. When we get a little too close to God, it's He starts to rub off. The influence is rubbing off and it's causing me to behave in a new way. It even changes the way I talk. I even start to speak in a new way. I get excited about stuff I was never excited about. I become apologetic for things I was always just prideful about and would never say sorry for. The way I talk is changing. That's manifestation.
Section B: Discerning manifestations. Because as I said in the beginning, not everything that manifests is God. Because God has an enemy. Amen. Who knows his name? He has a few. I hear Satan, Lucifer, devil, deceiver, accuser of the brethren, serpent. God has an enemy, and that enemy does also have resources and does have the power to mess with people. We see that all throughout the world. Now, he's nobody to be afraid of once Jesus comes to live in your heart, because Jesus, Ella would say, is stronger to the 10th power—and that doesn't quite cover it. But when you know Jesus, you'll never really be afraid of the enemy ever again, because the size difference cannot be put into words. However, what does the Bible tell us? The devil shows up as an angel of light. In other words, he tries to get you to accept some of the stuff that he tries to bring to you. Remember how we started: test every spirit, because a lot of false prophets, false messengers that say they have a word from God have gone out into the world.
That's exactly how the enemy works. He tries to use people. They're not all the devil—sometimes you feel like it, but they're not—but he tries to use people to get a message into your life that is contrary to what God has or wants for your life. But he wraps it up as if it looks like it came from God. It sounds like it came from God, to get you to trust it and accept it. So we have to discern manifestations so we know what's what. We need to know how to read and judge manifestations. You say, "Pastor, stop right there. I hear all kinds of times people just telling me all the time, like, 'Judge not so that you will not be judged.' We should not be judging. Don't judge before it's time." That's all in the Bible. That's talking about telling people they're going to hell. That's judging before it's time. They still have time to repent. They still have time to believe.
But the Bible also tells us we who are spiritual judge all things. We don't judge people—that's God's job—but we judge all things people do, people say, fruit in my own life. Is it good fruit? Is it bad fruit? That's casting judgment. Well, I've decided when I hold the evidence of the Bible next to my life, I've got some bad fruit in my life. I've now cast judgment, and I choose to turn away from that and make a better judgment call next time. Amen.
So we have to learn how to judge all things. We also have to learn how to judge manifestation so that we know what we should pull away from or what we should embrace in life, what we should draw closer to in life. And so we're going to look at three categories very clearly in the Word that have to do with this topic of manifestation—an expressive demonstration of spiritual gifts. First section we're going to look at is spiritually dead. There is spiritually dead manifestation. Then the second one is spiritually evil manifestation. And then the third one is spiritually good manifestation. So they are spiritually dead manifestations, spiritually evil, and spiritually good manifestations that we will look at. First one: spiritual deadness. Ephesians 2:1–3: "Once you were dead, because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil, the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature, we were subject to God's anger, just like everyone else."
So here Ephesians defines it so clearly. This is what shows up. This is how you expressed and demonstrated your spiritual deadness. This is how you expressed it. And this is what I wrote down in my notes: manifestation makes things recognizable. Now you can judge it. I recognize that. I read about that in the Word. I don't want to draw near to that. Or that person really needs to hear that Jesus can forgive them because clearly they have manifestation in their life that shows me that they are dead. I can pray for them. Pray for them all you want, but don't pray for them if you ain't going to tell them about Jesus. Amen. Tell them about Jesus and pray because you know Him. Amen. Now how do you notice that spiritual deadness? Let's go a little deeper in it and I'll give you some examples. James 4:6: "But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
Think about—we can read that kind of quick and think, "Yes, I need to be humble. God gives me grace." Stop. God resists the proud. God makes it a point to get really involved in the life of a proud person. That's what that tells me. And God resists that person. Now I've spoken on this before, but for those that have not heard that, that word "resists" in the original text is a military term. It talks about setting up a stronghold, a boundary that even if the enemy would get this far, then not getting past this. That is what that word is talking about. God sets up a boundary you cannot get past in life when you are walking in pride. Walking in pride—this one's in your notes—walking in pride causes God resistance in your life. You can believe in Jesus all you want, church. When you hold on to your pride and you will not yield to the authorities, you will not yield to even spiritual authority, you will not yield to the Bible, you will not yield to God's opinion, you will not yield, God simply says if you want to live life alone and you don't want to do life my way, you will never get past this. And there's a lot of people—they're doing everything right, they're believing in Jesus, they're praising Jesus—but there's just certain issues in their life and it never seems to be resolved and they don't know why. It's an obstacle they don't seem to be able to get past.
So don't read this scripture too quick. Read it a little slow. "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Change your attitude goes a long way. When walking in pride causes God resistance in your life, here's what is in your notes: God's resistance in your life is the manifestation of your pride. It is an expressive demonstration of spiritual gifts—not a pleasant gift, but God brought it into your life. It's God resistance. It's the manifestation of your own pride. Unfortunately, often we think it's people's fault. Stop being upset with people. You only have to be upset with one: it's you. Acts 8:20–23: "But Peter said to him, 'Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money. You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.'"
Say "poisoned."
He's talking about a believer who is doing ministry alongside of the disciples. You can be a believer walking out a portion of God's plan for your life, and you can be poisoned. Here's what's in your notes: withholding full forgiveness towards the most evil person you can think of—withstanding full forgiveness poisons you. And Peter teaches us right here in the Scriptures that now you're going to start to miss out on things that only God can bring into your life. When you choose that poison over forgiveness, that's where our next point comes in. Being placed outside of God activity is the manifestation of choosing bitterness. You choose unforgiveness towards someone—a people group, or even God Himself—it doesn't matter who you have unforgiveness towards. If you hold on to unforgiveness, you will be poisoned. And when you end up in the poison of bitterness, you will be placed outside of God activity. "You have neither part nor portion in this matter," Peter says. And being placed outside of God activity is the manifestation of choosing bitterness.
Next example, James 4:1: "Where do wars and fights come from among you?" That's a great question. Some of our married couples go, "What is it? Here it comes." "Do they not come from the desires for pleasure that war in your members?" Here's how the NLT writes it: "What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don't they come from the evil desires at war within you?" You're trying to say I'm the problem again, pastor. I'm just reading the Bible. "Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from the desires for pleasure that are in your members?" If you are often fighting—and maybe you're not married, but you're just not a very agreeable person, you just end up in an argument with everybody—you can't leave it alone. Maybe you know someone like that. Maybe it's you. If you are often fighting, you are choosing your own pleasure. That's who you are. That's what you are like. You love to choose your own pleasure. You love to self-serve. You don't like things getting in the way of your will.
That's where all the—you've been asking yourself how come—that's where the quarrels have been coming from. That's why you're argumentative. That's why you can't leave it alone. Fights and quarrels are the manifestation of self-centered living. That's what we learn. Fights and quarrels are the manifestation, the expressive demonstration of self-centered living.
Galatians 5:19–21. I made it a list, but it's all Scripture. I just formulated it differently so that it's a little bit more clear to you. And next to the list I also explain some of the words that are a little bit more old-fashioned words, but it is all Scripture. Let's start in verse 19: "Now the works of the flesh are evident"—the King James Version says manifest—"which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambition, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, rivalries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in times past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." What do we learn from this Scripture?Practicing these things is the manifestation of spiritual deadness. This is how you know if someone is still spiritually dead. This is actually a list of what their life looks like.
If you are saved and forgiven—and you're just as human as I am—you're going to run into one or two or three of those from time to time. That's okay. You stay close to Jesus; He's going to know what to do with it. But when you are spiritually dead, most of this actually is either interesting to you. You have no problem watching it on Netflix without turning it off. You have no problem staying away from some of this stuff. You're just not convicted about it at all. This is kind of in your heart. Practicing these things is the manifestation of spiritual deadness. Who do you need? Jesus. Good job, church. You're catching on. Next point: spiritually evil manifestation.
So this was manifestations of deadness in someone's life. Now we're getting into the area that causes usually the most confusion: spiritually evil manifestations. So these are outside of you, brought into your life—spiritual manifestations—but they did not originate in the kingdom of light. They came from the kingdom of darkness. And remember, the biggest problem is people think, "Hey, it's real, so it's God." It's real, somebody yells "it's God," and we go, "Oh yes," and everybody forgets: where was that again? Test every spirit.
Everybody forgets it's real, I experienced it. Well, did you test it? Did you do the test and figure out: yes, it's real, clearly I'm having a spiritual experience here—but is it God or is it not God?
So here we go, building that discernment. Spiritually evil. Revelation 12:9: "So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." He deceives the whole world. And this is how he deceives the whole world: by expressive demonstrations. That's how he deceives. We're going to see that in the Bible. Yes, he whispers lies, but he tries to use expressive demonstrations to make people swallow the lies. Like the Bible says, he will try to appear as an angel of light, make it look very godly so that you swallow the lie. Counterfeit manifestations, we will call them. Counterfeits definition is this: made in imitation of something with the intent to deceive.
You know, in the last few years I've taken an interest in cars. I've been learning how to fix them up a little bit. And in some cases I've learned what does not fix them. But I watch YouTube videos to learn stuff, and I may have come across a video of somebody that has a counterfeit, a replica car, but they're not really leading with that in the conversation. They're trying to play it off as if they've got the real thing. And they'll try to act like it's real, and somebody that actually knows these cars will walk up and start asking them questions about their car, pretending to be interested. And that person says, "Yes, come sit in it," and all of that. And then the real thing pulls up or whatever, and tries to expose it. But that's really what the enemy does. And God wants you to be able to recognize the real thing so you're not impressed by any of this. You don't even care to sit in it. You don't want to be seen next to it just for fear that somebody sees you next to a fake car. That's how the Lord wants you to be able to discern so quickly those manifestations. But the intent on the enemy's part is to deceive, make you believe this is the real thing.
Matthew 24:4 reads this: "For false Christs and false prophets will rise up and show—here it comes—great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect." Again, don't read too quick. For false Christs and false prophets—messengers of Christ, false ones—will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, to make you believe that's the real thing. Why? So that you swallow their message. Nobody just does a wonder and then walks away. There's always a message, and the wonder makes you swallow it. What are they trying to do? Great signs, great wonders to deceive and bring the message in and say, "This is the real message from God." "If possible, even the elect"—the people that are already saved and are being changed by God more and more into His likeness and less and less into a sinner that hurts other people all the time. "Deceive," as we just read in Matthew 24, implies that counterfeit, which means it will have an appearance of similarities to the working and the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what you should expect. At first glance, it's probably going to sound pretty biblical. It's going to look pretty biblical. But unless you know the real thing, you would have walked right into this one and said, "Man, you must have paid a lot for that. That's awesome. That's great. Can I have a ride in that?"
Unless you know the real thing, you're going to be impressed by the imitation. "For false Christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect." That's what we expect. Now it makes sense that the Scriptures tell us, "Test every spirit," because clearly the enemy has a plan—a spiritual plan—to get every single one of us to go, "Man, that must be the real deal." 2 Thessalonians 2:9–10: "The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all—here we have it again—all power, signs, and lying wonders." All power, signs, and lying wonders. "But pastor, the devil would never heal a sinner made in the likeness of God because he hates people." Oh, sure he will. If that means he can scoop in a lie and deceive somebody and ruin their eternal life, he surely will do whatever he can—whatever he's allowed, however far the Lord allows him to reach into people's lives. He will reach. He will try. He will fight. He will do whatever he can. He will bless you. He will make you rich. He will do whatever gets your heart to accept his message. He'll do it because the goal is even power and signs and lying wonders, that he may bring you to deception.
Verse 10: "And with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved." In other words, they're willing to swallow it because it's real and it's an experience and I feel it and I go through it. But they didn't love the truth that Jesus already plainly gave us in the Scriptures, that we may place our hope and our trust in what Jesus has said—and in doing so be saved and changed. No, there's a certain type of people that that's not enough for them. They want to be touched. They want to feel. They want to experience all the time. And as much as the Lord obviously does those things—or else the enemy wouldn't be imitating it—we don't shove any of that out. But you better know how to discern and how to divide deadness manifestations from evil manifestations from good manifestations, so that you know how to spiritually eat, how to have a spiritually healthy diet that makes you grow and makes you strong and causes you to grow out of some stuff that is really hurting you and hurting others.
The person who walks in counterfeit manifestations has no love for the truth. So this is the person who ministers it is what I'm talking about. The person who walks in counterfeit manifestation has no love for the truth. Instead, they use God and they use His Word for their own intentions. That's why initially it sounds all kosher and good, until you start to look a little deeper and compare it all to the Scriptures—and you start to go, "It doesn't seem to be in here. It doesn't seem like the exact real thing. Seems a little off. It might be counterfeit." The next point: counterfeit manifestations are real, can be experienced, and are supernatural and have a strong persuasion. That's why the enemy does it. If it didn't help his mission, he wouldn't be doing it. Miracles and manifestations both take place in the kingdom of darkness and in the kingdom of light. If all you learn tonight is that and never forget it, half of your battle is won, because you're going to every experience you have, you're going to set a question mark and go back to the Bible and say, "Is this one that belongs to God? Is this God moving or is this a manifestation?"
All right, but it ain't the Lord moving. I made a list for you: heavenly versus counterfeit experiences or manifestations, and you'll see some of the differences. Obviously this is not all; this is a short list that is helpful for me. First of all, the Holy Spirit indwells. He is, as it were, the guest of honor. He behaves like a guest of honor. He does not override your will. He comes and He brings to you the mind and the heart of God, and He invites you to begin to obey God. Demons possess. They're very possessive. What does the Word say? The Spirit sets you on your feet. The Spirit of God restores a dignity into the life of a man and a woman that they really lost ever since the fall in the garden—the dignity of being created in the likeness of God, kind of behaving like God, kind of sounding like God, kind of being related to God. The Holy Spirit restores that. He sets you on your feet. Demons make you fall. They want to see you down, out for the count, on your face. The Spirit of God brings honor upon your life. The enemy seeks to always dishonor God's creation. And I won't get too deep into it, but I've seen people being filled with spirits in churches, and it was disgusting to see what these spirits did with those bodies. And what I will say about it is this: he was dishonoring the fact that we were made in the likeness of God.
The Holy Spirit—what does the Word say?—gives you self-control. You didn't have self-control. You'd always end up where you didn't want to go, or do what you didn't want to do, and then feel guilty. The Holy Spirit gives you self-control. Demons take over control. I've struggled with demon possession before I got saved. And it literally couldn't be simpler than that. Demons take over control. They come in, you're toast. They're stronger—until Jesus comes around.
The Holy Spirit causes a love for the Word. We don't love reading the Bible. Everybody that says they love reading the Bible, you've got it a little bit mistaken. The Holy Spirit loves for you to read the Bible, and you're letting Him do that work in your life. But I remember a time before the Holy Spirit came into your life—you didn't read it that much. And when you read it, you tried to beat people to death with what you learned in the Bible. Amen? Amen. Too many people said amen.
The Holy Spirit causes a love for the Word in your life, even when you don't feel like it and you don't read for a little bit. You ever been there? I've been there. And then you open it, and you haven't even read three verses, and you learn so much here. You read three verses and it's literally as if you can breathe again. I've been there. The Holy Spirit causes a love for the Word.
Evil spirits stir a love for feelings and experience. Evil spirits don't necessarily try to boot you out of the church. It would be a whole lot safer bet to get you into a bad church so that you feel really good about your spiritual journey. There's a way bigger chance you'll stay there all of your life than to get you into a Satan's church. You may just be afraid of that and run straight back to Jesus. We can't have that. So we need to have something counterfeit, something that we can pass off as the real deal, but really it isn't—but they'll probably not notice it if we dress it up well. Evil spirits, what they do is they stir a love for feelings and for experience. And what I've seen when people have—in some cases not because of their own fault, and I really want to put that out there—but in some cases not because of their own fault, I've met a wide variety of people that did come into churches where manifestations that are neither anywhere in the Word nor do they represent the character of God or the character of what God is trying to get done in our lives and through our lives—it doesn't match up with any of it.
It's real, but it doesn't match up with any of it. Every single time that a person has come out of a circle of a church like that—and we've had the privilege of walking with people and serving them—they always had fallen in love with their feelings and fallen in love with their experiences.
They were running to church to have another experience because they had no peace. And every time they had an experience, they were, "Okay, I'm right with God. I'm still good with God. I'm forgiven. Yes, you know, the Lord touched me." And then three days later, they want to come back to church for a feeling and an experience, but they have lost their ability to walk by faith and to stand in the hour of temptation of unbelief, to stand in the moment that the enemy comes with his accusations. They have lost that ability. And they really deserve—with all of my heart I say this—deserve all of the attention, all of the spiritual nourishment to nurse them back to health. But I've seen what these spirits in the long run really tried to do to a poor wretched sinner that Jesus bled and died for so they could be saved. I've seen it.
I've walked with people that have come back to Jesus, come back to the truth, come back to trusting, wanting to trust Him, and their ability to do it has been under fire. They didn't realize it.
In many cases they thought they were doing the right thing because they were deceived into believing that this is the real thing and I want to have a part of that. Evil spirits stir a love for feelings and experiences. The Holy Spirit gives what God wants. It's why we don't always like it.
Evil spirits give you what you want. The Holy Spirit makes you behave like God one degree at a time—more and more. You don't have to do that. You don't have to become good for God. You can try. You'll never win. But when the Lord comes into your life, one moment at a time, you just love on Jesus. You just trust Him. You begin to realize stuff is changing. "I didn't even do it. I didn't even pray about this thing or think about this thing, but it's changing. I'm beginning to treat my girlfriend different. I'm beginning to treat my husband different. And I'm not... it's almost like someone is doing it for me."
The Lord is giving me His strength. The Lord is giving me His mind. The Spirit of God gives you what God wants. An evil spirit gives you what you want. The Holy Spirit makes you behave like God. Evil spirits make you behave unlike God. We have all been there. Amen. We all know what that means. But the Holy Spirit makes you behave more like God. The Holy Spirit makes you convicted of sin: "Shouldn't have done that, you know that, right? Come on. Let's go. Let's go."
An evil spirit condemns you under sin: "You've done it again. Unbelievable. I remember the last time you did it and you were sorry then, and here you are again. I don't know if there's any fixing this. I don't know if there's any good in you. What a problem child you are." An evil spirit makes you feel condemned under sin. It's an imitation, and you can easily mistake it for the voice of the Holy Spirit. And you begin to accept that message for the real thing. And you now start to feel so bad about yourself. You're now not running to God. You're like, "Man, I should really... I gotta cut this. I gotta stop. I gotta fix this thing in my life. God already sees me coming. I could do more. I could resist sin more. I could be nicer. I could try harder." And now you're not even running to the Lord. You're going to do something right now. You're motivated, but in all reality the message was an imitation.
It sounded similar to you because maybe you weren't in truth enough to recognize, "Hey buddy, that ain't the real thing." And then the last one I have on this list: The Holy Spirit gives manifestations for the body—for the body of Christ. Everything is for other people: to bless them, to strengthen them. And then evil spirits give self-centered manifestation. Self-centered manifestation. I've seen it every time. You can, in Dutch I know it doesn't work, but in Dutch we say you can set your watch to death. In other words, that's your zero point, that's what you zero into and then you know you're on point. Like every time people have counterfeit spiritual experiences, they are at the center of it. The purpose of all this—why the enemy does it—is to distract you from the secret closet. Remember the secret closet, when you first found out there even was a secret closet? Where you could just close the door of your bedroom and get on your knees and you could tell that Jesus was with you before you whispered a word, and you didn't really know what to pray, but you were just spending time with Him. And from time to time He would teach you what to pray, but you just loved taking time to be in that secret place with Jesus.
All of this counterfeit stuff—it may look really good because it makes you run to church—but every single time I've seen people begin to forsake the secret closet because they start to run to where the feelings are and they start to run to where their manifestations take place without them doing anything. They just run up to an altar manifestation. They start to forsake the secret closet. That's not their intention when they get into this stuff. They're not that bad of people. That's not what I'm trying to say. That's what the enemy, that's what the imitation is made for: to deceive out of the intimacy with the Father. "Just come here. Just come here and enjoy this." And over time, that intimacy is broken off away from the cross. And people start to feel—those that are into this—they start to feel the cross is not enough. They become a little bit panicky. Like I said, they start running to church because the cross is not enough. I need to be forgiven again. I need to be touched again. I don't know if I'm right with God. And they develop this very softly speaking but very present thing in their heart: this sense that it is not finished for them.
There's still something that needs to happen. And they start to run to church not because they want to worship Jesus and bring sinners into the kingdom. They start to run to church hoping that God will finally finish what I feel is still missing. And they begin to believe over time that message, as the counterfeit was going on, they didn't notice it. That message came in that it's not fully finished for you. Now, let's look at the spiritually good manifestations. Matthew 16:16–17 reads this. Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Jesus says, “Now that’s manifestation. You didn’t do that yourself. That’s spiritual manifestation right there, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.” We’ve compiled this list from 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4. These are the following gifts we see that manifest themselves in a Spirit-filled life.
Talking about the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, He gives the gift of faith where you can now believe on behalf of other people. They don’t go to heaven because you believe for them, but you begin to believe for them so that you begin to speak into their life according to what God sees over their life, what God would do if they would only trust Him. You are now able to believe for things other people are not able to believe for, but you can’t help yourself, you just see it. You just see God will do it. You just see that He will bring it to pass. There’s the word of knowledge, when the Holy Spirit tells you something you could not have known. There’s the gift of miracles, unusual things that God does to draw attention to the preaching of the gospel. Discerning of spirits, that’s the fill-in-the-blank in your list: the ability to right away know what spirit is housed in a person’s heart—a spirit of anger, a spirit of discontent, a love for this world, you name it. It’s a gift of the Holy Spirit that someone is able to speak into your life and say that’s exactly what is in your heart—surrender that to Jesus, let Him fill your heart with His Spirit.
Interpretation of tongues, prayer language, interpretation thereof. Serving and ministering—it’s a gift of the Holy Spirit, the ability to serve in a way you could never do in your own strength. Giving, financial giving—it’s a gift of the Holy Spirit. There are people and God gives them the gift of giving. That means with not that much more work than somebody else puts in, somehow, someway they are able to make way more money than other people because God has called them to be the giving people in the body of Christ. Then there’s the gift of hospitality, being able to make people feel at home when they have nobody. The gift of prayer—the Spirit of God teaches us to pray. The word of wisdom—knowing what to do in a given situation that seems impossible and there’s no way forward. A word of wisdom from the Lord.
Healings, both healings of the heart, healings of the mind, healings of the body. It’s a gift of the Holy Spirit. Prophecy—people being able to speak into your life exactly what you needed to hear, to be lifted up, to turn more to Jesus, to be encouraged. Again, the gift of tongues—speaking in that prayer language, first of all for your own upbuilding, but if there’s interpretation of tongues it can also be for the upbuilding of the whole body. Exhortation—the ability, the God-given ability to persuade people in urgency. It’s a gift of the Spirit. Mercy—being able to show mercy, the kind of mercy that draws people back to God. They didn’t see that coming. They expected judgment and you showed them mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment, and the ability to give that mercy, to not run out of patience, to not run out of mercy with someone. It’s a God-given gift.
Then leadership and administration—being able to get the work done and lead the work. It’s a gift of the Holy Spirit, not a quality that is found in people. Then we read this, 1 Corinthians 12:7. “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.” One of the clearest manifestations of the Spirit of God in you is what you do and what comes out of your mouth consistently profits other believers. That’s one of the clearest manifestations of the Holy Spirit being in your life. Whatever you’re doing and whatever you’re saying is profiting the people that are just trying to follow Jesus—just trying to make it in life, just trying to get home safely to the Lord, just trying to produce some fruit along the way, just trying to tell a couple of people about Jesus along the way. Acts 2:8–11: “And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.”
Then Acts 10:46–47: “For they heard them speak with tongues and magnifying God. Then Peter answered, ‘Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’” Church, when sinners—bad people… and God has a thing for bad people—when sinners cannot be quiet anymore about the power Jesus has to forgive, the Holy Spirit is manifesting. That’s when we know they have become so convinced that God has forgiven someone like them. That’s the manifestation of the Spirit, and their actions are changing, and their speech is being changed, because they’ve become convinced that God is full of love and care for a man like me, in spite of all I’ve done wrong, all I’ve said wrong—because of Jesus. They’ve become convinced. That’s what the Holy Spirit does. And the enemy tries to imitate that. He also tries to convince. He also tries to bring in some experiences and some things that kind of look like the real deal. But here’s the heart.
1 John 4:1–3: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” Well, how do I do that? Let’s keep reading. “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God…” And now I’ve heard false teachers and false preachers go, “I confess that Jesus has come in the flesh, so I’m of God.” That’s not exactly what that Scripture means at all. I will continue reading. “And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and now already is in the world.” That word confess is not just agreeing with your mouth. It is a divine word. It means divine teaching, but personally—it's a work that happens in the heart that no man, no flesh and blood has anything to do with.
Every spirit that teaches your heart that Jesus has arrived on earth and died in your place just for you… every spirit that does that work in your heart, and confesses to your heart personally that the Messiah has come, that all sin has been paid for, that you have been made right with God—every spirit that does that is sent of God. Counterfeit spirits can do a lot of things, but they never do this. They never make you more and more personally convinced. They never cause you to grow in being convinced that despite all that I do wrong, God loves me. He’s for me. He’s with me. He desires my presence. When the Spirit of God is causing manifestations in your life—whether it’s in a church service, one-on-one through a person, or while you are in the secret place—these three things always happen. If you remember anything, this is your road map. You become personally convinced more and more. Your spirit is being taught personally. It’s not head knowledge—your spirit is being taught personally—and all of your soul is learning that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, has come.
There’s not a fiber in your body that can doubt it, because the Spirit of God Himself taught your heart, taught your spirit. All of your soul has now learned that God Himself who made you has sent His Son for you so that you would never be abandoned, rejected, or have to pay for the wrongs that you have done. You are forgiven. You are loved and called into God’s kingdom. All of your being is beginning to understand now what you could never see before. That’s when the Spirit of God is confessing Christ to your spirit, confessing Christ to your heart. Church, you find that in a place, you stick it out. You come to a place where there’s all kinds of expressive demonstrations that are spiritual experiences, but your heart is not being taught, your spirit is not becoming convinced—run. Get out. Pray to God, and He will surely—He’s done it for so many of us—He will surely bring you to a place where He’s seeking to build you up, grow you, strengthen you, and send you out after the ones that are broken, weak, and lost.
Some of you here, you’ve experienced God taking you out of an unhealthy place and you couldn’t see it at the time. God taking you out of an unhealthy place and putting up with all the patience He needed to nourish you back to health and get you where you are growing again, where you’re happy again, where you’re excited again about walking with God, unburdened from all of the nonsense. He will do it for us. But test every spirit before you swallow the word, before you swallow the message, before you swallow anything. Test every spirit. Is this actually causing my heart to become more and more convinced of this one thing—that Jesus has come into this world because He wanted me forgiven? Is that what is happening? That’s how you know if it is the Spirit of God sent upon your life to minister, or whether it’s another spirit—and it looks a lot like the real deal, but that’s not what God sent into my life, that’s not what I need, that’s not what I open my life to.
I want to invite you. You don’t have to come to the altar if that is hard for you. I want to invite you to come to the altar because I really have it on my heart to pray for you and to pray over your life for the gift of discerning of spirits that you may not only—because you are here at Friday Discipleship—you’re not here just because you want to believe Jesus and be saved. You’re also here because you believe God can actually use the life of a man like you or a woman like you. You may not know how, you may not feel qualified, but you believe if anybody can do it, it’s God. And I want to pray that you have the ability from this day forward to discern when something is coming from the Spirit of God or whether it’s another spirit. And it’s going to feel like this: many of you have testified of it already—you’re going to feel a very subtle small check in your heart. That’s the only way I can really put words to it. Somebody begins to speak, it sounds like the Bible, it sounds correct, everybody seems excited about it, but you feel a little caution—something in your heart. That’s what it’s going to feel like. And I want to pray that you have that, so that you eat good food for the rest of your life—good spiritual food that will build you up so that you are strong to care for other people. That’s my heart for you today. So if you would want to come to the front so I can pray over you guys, I would love that. Hallelujah.
-Pastor Stan Mons
