Couple Suffering After Miscarriage Receives Prophetic Word Through Gifts of Tongues and Interpretation

The Holy Spirit dwelling in you seeks to express the Kingdom of God through you, and He does this by the workings commonly called spiritual gifts.

An understanding of the clear scriptural definitions of His workings through the nine manifestations listed in First Corinthians 12, gives you room to expect and dare to give expression to His operations.

Even a casual reading of either the Old or New Testaments will leave one with the distinct impression that those who had a relationship with God walked in the supernatural. The supernatural was not only required to have a relationship with God, but because of their relationship, the prophets lived in a unique flow of the miraculous. This was not just true in their personal lives; it is clear that the corporate meetings portrayed in the New Testament had an expectation of the supernatural as well.

While this miraculous lifestyle was primarily confined to the kings, prophets, and priests in the Old Testament, the New Testament saw a dramatic shift. The miraculous was made available to all believers. It’s made available to you!

Mark 16:17-18, 20 says,

“‘And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.’ So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through accompanying signs. Amen.”

The purpose of this supernatural endowment on all believers was primarily for the proclamation and establishment of the gospel. The method by which God chose this proclamation was so that “everyday believers” could be made witnesses of the Living God. The supernatural was part of the discipleship process. Why would a supernatural God build a supernatural organism—the Church—in a natural way?

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Every believer who is open to the fullness of the Spirit has great possibilities and unlimited power within him. This is not just because of the Spirit’s indwelling but also because the potential of the Spirit’s outpouring. All nine gifts we are looking at can be considered the magnification of a divine seed that is already in us. After all, the giver of these gifts, the Holy Spirit, lives on the inside of us, and when He moved us, He brought everything He had with Him. Every manifestation of the Holy Spirit is a sudden burst of the Holy Ghost that is already in us.

“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” (1 Corinthians 12: 8-10).

Raise up! It’s Not Over!

Let me share with you an example of tongues and interpretation in a service one evening. I was in a weeklong series of meetings in a midwestern church. Many inspired utterances and supernatural occurrences had already happened that week, but as I moved to close the service one particular night, I paced in the front of the church waiting to see if there was anything else the Holy Spirit wanted before we dismissed. I was quietly speaking in tongues as the congregation spontaneously worshipped and prayed. Suddenly, the flow of tongues changed and became more authoritative. I realized that I had shifted from praying in tongues to giving a public tongue that required an interpretation. I quickly quieted myself and immediately the words bubbled out.

“Joshua James! Joshua James! Joshua James!”

This happened three times, and then I fell quiet. I sensed another flow of tongues and this time the interpretation was, “Raise up! Raise up! It’s not over! Don’t say you won’t!”

Strangely, after that I sensed the unction lift, and no other utterance came. The congregation looked at me expectantly, but there was nothing else for me to say. I have learned that we must not try to prolong a service past the flow of the anointing. We must end meetings when the anointing lifts. I had the worship leader lead a song, and then I made my way to the pastor’s office upstairs. I usually try to stay down front after services to meet with people, but I had been advised to leave immediately because of the size of the crowd that night.

About ten minutes after I entered the pastor’s office, the service closed and one of the associate pastors came running into the room. He excitedly told me that a young man had come sobbing to the front of the church, where the leaders were standing, asking if I had really called out the name “Joshua James.” When he was told that I had, he shared with them that six months ago he and his wife had lost a child in the womb. They had wanted to name their son Joshua James, but when they lost him, they had been so badly affected by the death that they had said they would never try for another baby.

Not only had the calling out of their son’s name caught their attention, the exhortation of “Raise up! It’s not over! Don’t say you won’t!” corrected their decision not to try for more children. Two years later when I was back in the same church, I was pleasantly surprised to see the couple after the service…with a newborn son!

These studies on the gifts of the Spirit—and their diverse administrations and operations—have helped me scripturally become quick to recognize the flow of the Spirit. It gave me a confidence to step out and yield to these anointings whenever they presented themselves. Studying along these lines has increased my faith for manifestations. And faith—for anything—comes by hearing what the Word of God has to say (Rom. 10:17). I believe studying about the gifts will empower you as well to flow in the miraculous.