Spiritual Intelligence: The Original

Copyright © 2021 Dr. Jennifer Palthe.

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WestBow Press rev. date: 06/16/2021

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I

dedicate this book to the supremely intelligent One.

Holy Spirit

I love You beyond words and appreciate Your profound generosity, Your immeasurable and boundless brilliance, Your inexhaustible guidance, and Your precious counsel and extravagant, enabling power. You indeed are the Spirit of God, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the reverential and obedient fear of the Lord, the Source of all true wisdom and intelligence.

Jennifer Palthe, PhD

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgments

CHAPTER 1

Intelligence: Acquisition and Application of Knowledge

CHAPTER 2

Spiritual Intelligence: Acquisition and Application of Revelation Knowledge

CHAPTER 3

Spiritual Perceptual Awareness

CHAPTER 4

Perceptual Processing

CHAPTER 5

Relationship Management

CHAPTER 6

Degrees, Features, and Fruits of Spiritual Intelligence

CHAPTER 7

Dangers of Low or No Spiritual Intelligence

CHAPTER 8

Counterfeit Spiritual Intelligence: The Copy

CHAPTER 9

Contemporary Versions of Counterfeit Spiritual Intelligence

CHAPTER 10

Modern-Day Pharisees and Gnostics: Masters of the Art of Counterfeit Spiritual Intelligence

CHAPTER 11

Clear Conscience and Quick Repentance:

Requisites for High Spiritual Intelligence

CHAPTER 12

Mind Renewal to Advance Spiritual Intelligence

CHAPTER 13

Prayer and Meditation for Spiritual Intelligence

CHAPTER 14

The Ultimate Fruit of Spiritual Intelligence

CHAPTER 15

Prerequisites for Authentic Spiritual Intelligence

Appendix A: Get Activated or Reactivated

Appendix B: Get Filled or Refilled

Appendix C: Prayers to Develop Spiritual Intelligence

FOREWORD

Years ago, I stood in a long line waiting to attend a conference at a popular church known for having a supernatural movement around the globe. I was an emerging leader and frustrated with my obvious limitations and inexperience in leading ministry and ministry teams successfully. As I stood patiently in line, I clearly saw an angel approach me with something in his hand. The angel was the size and build of a tall man, but glistening white in appearance. It held in its hand something that looked like a grid. The grid was about ten inches long and wide and then very thin in height much like a disc that you would insert into a computer. The grid was army green in color and held several floating horizontal and vertical lines perfectly ordered about ¼" from its base. He then threw the grid inside of my mind and I felt something structural and organizational get released.

That same night as I slept, I had a dream. I saw a hand reach down from heaven and drop a living mathematical equation inside of my mind. I describe it as living because it had some kind of life-giving power on it and it was something discernable. When I woke up, I literally thought different thoughts and could see things from a broader and bigger perspective. Until this encounter and dream, I often felt lost, unfocused, and scattered in my organizational abilities. I struggled with planning and strategy and couldn’t hold ideas together properly. When I went home, the very first thing I did was to reorganize my staff into something more efficient. I could now see where everything needed to be placed for optimal results and it just took off from there. This was the beginning stage of organizing and strategizing a supernatural and global thrust myself that would serve to impact the nations. I believe there are grids, math equations, tech solutions, wisdom solutions and divinely inspired systems just waiting to be released to you and I by the Holy Spirit. Will you be a receiver? If so, your world will shift and then you’ll shift the world in response.

Jesus is the door to all wisdom, intelligence, and solutions needed to advance and perfect every system and structure in the earth. He is always the perfect answer for whatever we need personally and for every need in the earth. Like the Apostle John, He joyfully invites you and I to come up higher and reassess what we see and what we believe is possible in Him. Additionally, He delights to prophetically reveal the things coming upon the earth to us, His children, and then how to infuse the future with His higher thoughts and higher ways. We are His created ones, created with His divine design, wisdom, and mind. This makes us receivers of God’s spiritual intelligence and distributers of His divine creativity and reformation in every area of society.

In Jennifer Palthe’s new book, Spiritual Intelligence – the Original, she beautifully languages the possibilities and exciting realities of joining with God’s wisdom and intelligence. She describes how true spiritual intelligence is the by-product of relationship with God and infers that spiritual intelligence is unavoidable for those who love God with all their passion, prayer, and intelligence.

I’m so glad Jennifer wrote this book. Jennifer not only presents spiritual intelligence in a meaningful way, but she enthusiastically models it. For her, spiritual intelligence is not just a trendy sounding theory. It’s her entire life, which is why she presents it with such depth. Read her book from cover to cover, use highlighters, take notes, and share her prophetic revelation with others. It’s time for thought leaders to emerge who truly hold kingdom solutions and live it and demonstrate it. Jennifer Palthe is that leader.

Jennifer Eivaz

Founder, Harvest Ministries International

Co-Pastor, Harvest Church Turlock California

Author of Prophetic Secrets, Glory Carriers,

Seeing the Supernatural, and The Intercessors Handbook

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to thank my amazing husband, Tako, for his phenomenal support while I wrote this book. He is the love of my life and my best friend. His constant encouragement and belief in the significance of the topic and the need for people worldwide to develop it have been extraordinary. Thanks for all your love, patience, and understanding as I invested hours of our time studying for this project.

To Daniel, my oldest son, thank you for the continued guidance with the etymology of words and your wisdom on matters pertaining to history and theology. To Justin, my middle son, thank you for always reminding me to take note of the details, to strive for accuracy and authenticity, and to be adventurous. To my youngest son, Joshua, I want to say a special thank you for the hours of debriefing and endless discussions about what God was revealing to me as I wrote this book. Your capacity to grasp the knowledge presented with such speed and precision is a testament to your remarkable spiritual intelligence.

To my students and mentees over the past twenty years of being a professor, thank you for constantly reminding me of the beauty of a teachable mind and unbiased curiosity. While I haven’t been able to teach you specifically about spiritual intelligence in our classes, I trust that, as you read this book, you will appreciate the importance of the subject and how to harness it’s life-transforming benefits.

I also want to thank my mentors, both near and far, whom God has used to guide my understanding of His Word. For decades, John and Lisa Bevere have served as incredible spiritual parents to so many of us throughout the world. Their God-centered ministry and many Holy Spirit–inspired books continue to rescue people from spiritual dormancy and ignorance. I am forever grateful for their influence in my life.

I am particularly thankful to Dr. Dave Williams, a spiritual father to me and thousands around the globe. I want to extend special thanks to him for his strong support of this book and for his divine wisdom and wit during numerous formal training classes and informal mentorship. To Jennifer Eivaz, who has written some of my favorite go-to books, I am thankful for her mentorship and formal support of this book. I also appreciate that she’s such an excellent role model for women authors. To my pastors, Lee Cummings and Jon Zondervan of Radiant Church Kalamazoo, thank you for your exemplary change leadership and for brilliantly demonstrating to the world what an authentic praying church looks like. To Cory Asbury and Caleb Culver, my worship pastors at Radiant, for writing and releasing the song Reckless Love. I listened to it repeatedly while writing and it became the unofficial anthem of this book. The lyrics serve as a powerful reminder of the overwhelming love of God towards humanity. It captures the essence of the Father’s heart toward a world desperate for authentic love and a genuine revelation of Him.

I am most thankful to my heavenly Father, Adonai, for giving me the privilege of being one of His daughters. I was fatherless at a young age, but You adopted me as Your own. Your constant love and generosity have made me accomplish things that otherwise would’ve been completely impossible. I also want to thank my Messiah and Lord, Yeshua, for being such a phenomenal leader, teacher, and friend. I marvel at Your brilliance. I could not have written this book without Your wisdom and input. To Holy Spirit, Ruach Elohim, I extend my deepest appreciation for giving me so much revelation, understanding, and counsel as I wrote. I am in awe of You and so thankful for Your profound love and empowerment. Finally, I want to thank the many people who have prayed for me and encouraged me to write this book. I’m especially thankful for my personal prayer partners because of their ongoing encouragement and continued prayers for me and for those who will read this book. Thanks to each of you for your faithfulness to pray for what God wants to achieve through Spiritual Intelligence. May you reap an eternal reward for your investments of time and travail in this project. I love you all.

CHAPTER

1

Intelligence: Acquisition and Application of Knowledge

A person who acquires intelligence loves his life. A person who guards understanding finds a good thing.

—Proverbs 19:8 (EHV; emphasis mine)

Imagine if you were able to discover and develop the spiritual broadband capacity to link up with the mind of God. What would it be like to have high-speed access to His heart and the ability to tap into His thoughts and perspective? What would life be like if you were able to get a glimpse of His perspective and plans for your life, organization, or nation? What if you could access answers to the most perplexing questions and find solutions to the most complicated problems?

If you could have a sense of the speed and strength of your connection to Him, how intense and how fast would it be? How determined are you to discover your genuine spiritual intelligence? How exhaustive and thorough are you prepared to be in examining the real state of your spiritual condition? How sure are you that your spiritual aptitude is at the level it was designed to be?

This is a book that is going to challenge you to think about your spiritual intellectual quotient, test your assumptions about your spiritual aptitude, and examine the nature of your connectivity with the spiritual realm. This book isn’t intended to be a vehicle to make you more religious or self-righteous. Nor is it a tool to gather tips to merely enhance your current way of living. The ever-increasing plethora of self-help books can assist you with that. Irrespective of where you are in your spiritual journey, I invite you to venture with me as we explore the phenomenon of spiritual intelligence—why it’s so vital, what its dimensions and degrees are, what the knock-off brands look like, and what the keys to developing and maintaining high levels of it are.

Many of us throughout the world have the privilege of enjoying wireless internet access to a seemingly unlimited supply of information. We’ve come to appreciate continuous, high-speed connectivity with its many advantages and features, which offer better navigational tools, more current and real-time information, and better predictive data. These ever-increasing functionalities have helped us to have access to real-time data, which continue to help us make better everyday decisions. We can easily locate people and places, identify the perceived quality of products and services, and instantly interact with people and organizations around the world.

Imagine for a moment that you could experience this same level of connectivity with the ultimate Source of all knowledge, that you could shift your limited knowledge source from yourself and this world to a dimension and realm that is unlimited? What if you could shift your thinking processes and spiritual aptitude from a single-dimensional analogue system to a multidimensional network system that is unconstrained by time, education, or location? What could the implications be for your relationships, choices, strategic life decisions, or career and calling? Why, if your eternal destiny depends on it, wouldn’t you at least be curious about acquiring and developing it?

A NEW ERA

At the dawn of the intelligence era, the speed and accessibility of knowledge have escalated at an unprecedented rate. No prior era has been able to convert information and translate it into working knowledge across such immense distances with such speed. Unquestionably, the rate and scope of this accessibility to knowledge have had a profound effect on how humans perform even the most essential everyday activities. Virtually instantaneous answers to fundamental questions regarding location, distance, time, and temperature are readily available.

Ironically, however, the overabundance of knowledge hasn’t produced a substantial increase in authentically intelligent action. While our access to and awareness of intelligence has increased, there are still people everywhere who are desperate for answers, solutions, foresight, and truth. Even our deeper appreciation for the value of things like emotional intelligence and cultural intelligence have not solved our growing global social crises. The commodity of genuine wisdom in action appears scarce if we look at the state of the world. With all our advancements and the surge of accessibility to knowledge, so-called smart has turned out to be quite stupid because it is devoid of true intelligence.

Don’t fool yourself. Don’t think that you can be wise merely by being up-to-date with the times. Be God’s fool—that’s the path to true wisdom. What the world calls smart, God calls stupid. It’s written in Scripture, He exposes the chicanery of the chic. The Master sees through the smoke screens of the know-it-alls. (1 Corinthians 3:18 MSG)

Could it be we have been duped into thinking we could obtain wisdom outside our Maker? Have we ignored the ancient proverbs, which implore us to call out for intelligence from the Source of it?

Call out for intelligence,

if you raise your voice for understanding,

if you search for it like silver,

if you hunt for it like hidden treasure,

then you will understand the fear of the Lord,

then you will find the knowledge of God,

because the Lord gives wisdom.

Knowledge and understanding come from his mouth. (Proverbs 2:1–6 EHV; emphasis mine)

It seems like all creation is at a tipping point, and there is a growing global sense that we are approaching something of eternal finality. Are we ready? Have we exhausted the depths of true wisdom? Where do intelligence and spirituality intersect? Have we applied to spiritual intelligence the same level of attention we’ve given to academic intelligence and artificial intelligence? Have we simply been accumulating knowledge but missed the Originator of it? Have we overly embraced rationality and the material world at the expense of a personal relationship with our Maker? If our technological innovations have produced such advancements, why is our world experiencing all-time record levels of crises? Could it be that we’ve been conned into consuming a counterfeit through our neglect of our Creator? Could this be why we’ve been so spiritually naive and gullible as a global society?

Before we examine spiritual intelligence more closely, let’s take a look at the phenomenon of intelligence more broadly, both theologically and theoretically.

INTELLIGENCE

Intelligence is the capacity to acquire and apply knowledge and is vital for human functioning and well-being.¹ Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines it as the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations, the skilled use of reason, the ability to apply knowledge.² It involves perceptual awareness, the act of grasping, and the capacity to practically apply what’s comprehended.

All intelligence involves superior understanding and secret information. It therefore entails a reasonable number of important areas of thought, reflection, problem solving, choice making, and action. For someone to possess any type of intelligence, they should be able to offer practical solutions and solve problems that someone without it couldn’t.

At its root, intelligence advances the speed and pace at which knowledge is translated into understanding and subsequent action. It is a class of mental processes that form the subset or species of the genus of the mind. In other words, the two are inseparable. The mind involves a flow of thoughts, feelings, and perceptions (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile), and intelligence involves the evaluation and ordering of them to make decisions, solve problems, and act on them. The mind accumulates, stores, visualizes, and assesses objects and ideas; and it is the seat of our emotions. Intelligence decides among the collection of perceptions, thoughts, and feelings what action needs to be taken, thereby providing clarity to the mind and wisdom to action.

The Hebrew word for intelligence is sakal or sekel, which means to be prudent, act wisely, comprehend, show discernment, and understand.³ It denotes one’s capacity to get right to the heart of a matter, to cut through the irrelevant minutiae, to intuitively identify the crux of a matter, and to act on it. It involves understanding the essence of what needs to be done, doing precisely the right thing, and quickly achieving the most desirable outcomes.

Jesus, our Jewish Messiah, had phenomenal sekel! He had (and still has) the ability to cut through trivia, religious jargon, and highfalutin heresy with absolute ease. He was (and still is) totally brilliant, authentic, and unpretentious. In addition to all the profound miracles He performed, people marveled at His intelligence.

All who heard Him were amazed by His intelligence and His understanding and His answers. (Luke 2:47 AMP; emphasis mine)

And on the Sabbath He began to teach in the synagogue; and many who listened to Him were utterly astonished, saying, Where did this Man acquire all this? What is the wisdom [the broad and full intelligence which has been] given to Him? What mighty works and exhibitions of power are wrought by His hands! (Mark 6:2 AMPC; emphasis mine)

The religion scholar said, "A wonderful answer, Teacher! So lucid and accurate—that God is one and there is no other. And loving him with all passion and intelligence and energy, and loving others as well as you love yourself. Why, that’s better than all offerings and sacrifices put together!" (Mark 12:32–33 MSG; emphasis mine)

Look at how Jesus admired the scholar of religion’s intelligent answer, noting he was close to the kingdom of God because of it. "And when Jesus saw that he answered intelligently (discreetly and having his wits about him), He said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God. And after that no one ventured or dared to ask Him any further question" (Mark 12:34 AMPC; emphasis mine).

The Greek word for intelligence is phronimos, which means a type of wisdom relevant to practical action, a practical virtue that incorporates both good judgement and excellence of character and prudent habits.⁴ The Bible is very clear on the importance of seeking and acquiring wisdom. Intelligence is a type of wisdom applicable to real-world, hands-on, everyday action. So when the Bible encourages us to seek true wisdom and ask God for it, we are essentially also pursuing spiritual intelligence, because wisdom and intelligence, while distinct, are inseparable. Read how the Bible encourages us to ask for wisdom. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you (James 1:5 NIV).

In the Old Testament, we see how Solomon asked God for a hearing heart and a wise, understanding mind so he could judge and lead effectively. Solomon called for a heart that was perceptually aware and a mind that could discern and translate what he was sensing into productive action. God was so impressed with his request that He granted it to him at an unprecedented level, together with riches and honor. Through a prayer, Solomon was given the unrivaled ability to translate wisdom into action. Can you see the connection to intelligence? He didn’t just have a revelation of God’s justice and wisdom but the ability to practically apply them in the way he led others.

So give Your servant an understanding mind and a hearing heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge and rule this Your great people? It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. God said to him, Because you have asked this and have not asked for long life or for riches, nor for the lives of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to recognize what is just and right, Behold, I have done as you asked. I have given you a wise, discerning mind, so that no one before you was your equal, nor shall any arise after you equal to you. I have also given you what you have not