This is a good story. Joyce got her bonus and took us out to “Steak and Chops,” a restaurant in Grimes, Iowa. It was a celebration of five days of intense ministry which we had just completed at Grimes United Methodist Church. The Lord visited us in a way that would make the happiest Pentecostal jealous. Really, the altar was filled every night and during the day over 80 people received counseling and powerful personal ministry.

What is it about this place called “Steak and Chops?” Well, every politician wanting to be president has been there, including Clinton and Bush. In one night you might see Dan Rather, Sam Donaldson and many others who run the news desks across the country.

We sat in a booth overlooking a table of eight and everyone was smiling and eating. The waiter looked at us as though we were $100 bills. The table was impeccable and the waiter cleaned it with an instrument that reminded me of a mini-vacuum cleaner. The glass he brought for Sprite was the size of a bottle, and the fork and knife weighed more than my hand.

The ceiling was filled with shadows, the sub lights reminding me of a place where no one else was saved but the three of us. I wanted to shout, “Halleluiah!” but my hosts might be embarrassed and Joyce would probably go check the weather, leaving Glenn Ray and myself to pay for the meal ourselves.

I looked at the ceiling and a thought came to me:” If this is the heart of American elections and this is the place where the media is having supper, why not get up out of my booth and do some preaching?” It would be in the evening news or in the police blotter, one of the two. I wanted to yell, “The Lord Jesus is coming; do you hear it??”

Then, the miracle took place. I knew I was in the heartland of America. This is the land of the best corn in the world, the Iowa Cyclones and Hockeye football. However, I had forgotten that this is also “pig country,” the land of the pork chop! This state will produce a two-ton swine that will crash your scale. I ordered a pork chop which is more famous than Elvis Presley. It was 20 ounces of lean, mean, juicy meat that will “make you want to slap your mother” (so says Glenn Ray). Since I do not eat red meat, “the other white meat” seemed to be the best choice. I can eat seafood in the south anytime, but not an IOWA PORK CHOP.

I began to contemplate this meal and in my mind I thought my disposition would not be able to deal with it. The aroma seemed to rise from the plate as an offering. After prayer, I began to battle against it and in no time, the swine could speak no longer.

All of this blessing was because of Joyce’s bonus. You see, a preacher like me would be eating at Wendy’s. This was a treat of a lifetime, and I was impressed. Joyce paid for it and I salute her. Glenn Ray ordered the same and together we celebrated all that God did during a powerful revival at GUMC.

Thank God for Joyce, thank God for Glenn, thank God for Iowa, and more than anything else, “Holy Spirit, You are a blessing to anyone low enough to submit. THANK YOU, JESUS!”

Rick Bonfim

Edited by Betty McKinney

1 - The Holy Spirit speaks to all of us. It is the specifics of the message which need to be clarified. Just as it is difficult to read a .pdf document on your computer without a program such as Adobe Reader, it is difficult to hear the Holy Spirit if you cannot recognize His voice. Once you hear it, you will never confuse it with any other voice or even your own thoughts. 

2 - You can be assured that the Person of the Holy Spirit wants to talk with you. What clarifies the message is your mode of thinking. It is difficult to hear from a person whom you reject in his or her entirety; however, you do begin to hear from this person when there comes a time of acceptance or intimacy.  Some of you cannot hear because you have never recognized the Presence in your services or your thinking. When you begin to recognize the presence of God in your midst, you will say with open arms, “Welcome, Holy Spirit,” and things will start to move forward.

3 - At present, you may care only what your peers say and think about you. Once you have been touched, filled, baptized, burned, loved, strangely warmed, and cared for by the Holy Spirit, the change in you will be phenomenal. After this experience you will not care or even think in the same way. You will have a change as drastic as Clark Kent’s experience in the phone booth! You will be another person altogether.

4 - The Apostle Paul was correct in identifying nine gifts of the Holy Spirit in I Corinthians 12:4-11.  Some have tried to increase the ways in which the Holy operates by adding more gifts based on Romans 12:6-8 but the Christian community has, for the most part, rightfully rejected this proposition.  Biblically, there are nine gifts, divided into three areas:  a) the gifts of revelation, b) the gifts of power, and c) the vocal gifts.  We will look at them one at a time.

5 - The word of knowledge is the first gift of revelation. It is the manner in which heaven begins to communicate with you in an act of ministry. The word of knowledge relates to persons, places, objects, events, and situations past and present.  Examples of this gift in the Bible are very convincing, especially in the ministry of our Lord. Jesus is our best source when we want to learn about the word of knowledge.

In John 1:48, Jesus said to Nathanael, “Before Phillip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”  This word of knowledge pertained to a person, Nathanael, and a place, the fig tree.

When Jesus spoke to the woman at the well in Samaria, He told her, “You have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband.”  This was a word of knowledge given to Jesus by the Holy Spirit pertaining to the past and present of this woman.

Jesus was led to stay where He was for two more days when He received news that His friend, Lazarus, was sick.  This direction came to Him as a word of knowledge from the Holy Spirit. (John 11:6)

6 - A word of knowledge will help you to pray with more accuracy for someone in need. It is a revelation pertaining to details which can totally change the way you deal with something happening before you. For example, you may be simply praying for a person in the area of forgiveness, and you hear the words, “the brother.”  Your prayer is then directed toward forgiveness of a brother. This is revolutionary, especially when you see the person receiving prayer come under instant conviction, which confirms the word of knowledge.

7 - For you to understand one gift of revelation, you have to understand how all three move and operate together. It is like a precision Swiss watch: one hand does this, another does that and the last performs another movement. All three hands cooperate with each other to bring you the hour, the minutes and the seconds. It is the same with the word of knowledge which brings information pertaining to the past and present of the person in front of you not only accurately but quickly. The work of this gift searches years past and conveys it to you. At times, it may provide information pertaining to a grandfather on the mother’s side. The word will say whatever is necessary for you to understand where God is moving in the individual’s life. Now your prayer is no longer a shot in the dark, but a prayer of accuracy based on personal information which will make it powerful and effective.

8 - Last but not least, the way a word of knowledge operates is “people friendly.”  You will hear from the Holy Spirit only when there is a need in front of you and at just the right moment, never before, never to please, never to show off. In my 28-plus years of ministering in this way, I have never heard a word of knowledge at the wrong time. The timing of the Holy Spirit is a wonder in itself. You will be amazed at the ethics of the Holy Spirit, and how timely He is in His movement. I do not understand how a person serving God can pray without this connection to the Holy Spirit. It is amazing how God is pouring out His Holy Spirit on United Methodists, mainly because they are ones who are crying for it. Come Holy Spirit!

Rick Bonfim

Edited By Betty McKinney