Gifted! - Lesson 9: Unleashing the Proclaiming Gifts - Prophecy Part 2

- Amen. - Hey, y'all did great last week on praying for those people. Man, there's no telling what God did as we prayed for them and we were believing all those things for those lives. And we did see some amazing work of God on Easter Sunday. And so man, we just rejoice in that. I'm gonna go ahead and get into where we are. And I'm gonna spend this time again on prophecy. I was gonna leak in a little bit on tongues, but I really feel like that. Of all the gifts, it just appears to me in the New Testament that prophecy is the one that the New Testament writers talked about the most. If you look at all the different areas where the gifts are mentioned in the scriptures, whether it's Romans 12, Ephesians 4, our 1 Corinthians 12, the one gift you find in all of them is prophecy. And except for, I would say, let me go a side note, except for Ephesians 4 where it's called prophet. And I'll mention that in just a minute. But last time where we met, we talked about all of those different things. And I showed you the times in the New Testament where I have 15 times that it's recorded. Anyone who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit, so God's a talker, that is something that's unusual in finding. Man, it's going on what little crew you run around with

and I just kind of stay out of running around too many crews. But with my book coming out, I don't think of it as being different. I think of it as being Christianity and just the Bible, but I was talking with a guy who's read about a third of it and he functions in a, he loves it, but he functions in a group that don't like it so much, if that makes sense. And just to kind of tell you what's in our nation and what's going on, to let you really hear. He was in a conference, this brother I was talking to, out in California with a group of Baptist pastors, Baptist ministers, and it was a prayer conference and it was on praying and he was just telling me, just in a side note, 'cause he told me, he said, "Well, your book," you know, he said, "Now, there's things that are pretty controversial." And I said, "Well, yeah." And he said, "Of course," he said, "I guess Jesus was pretty controversial as well." I said, "Yeah." But he said, "He was in California, and anyway, "one of the things he does is he's getting a, "one of those going," he says, "Okay man, "just bow your head, talk with him." And he says, "If you give him a few leader and prompts." And then one of the things he's been saying over the last few years is he said, "Now, why don't you just right now ask the Holy Spirit "to just kind of guide what he wants to say to you?"

That's all he said. And had one of the main leaders that was over, several of those pastors went to the Galilee running the thing and said, "We won't be coming back "because he's talking about the Holy Spirit." Now, let me just kind of tell you where I am on this, all right, I just want you to hear me because more than likely most of us in here have a skewed view when it comes to the Holy Spirit, because we haven't been guided in the function of the Holy Spirit, but the thing, and I've said this before, but I just say it again, that whenever we think of the Pharisees, we have a very negative connotation of them, but we need to understand in their day they were the most respected spiritual leaders in Israel. I mean, think about it like this. If you think about a favorite pastor, wherever you want to be, whoever it is, and if somebody comes in and says that he is following Satan, would that make you a little upset? Well, that's the way they heard Jesus. Now, let me say another thing about those Pharisees. They were some of the most spiritual people that quote religious people, they were the ones, they were shoeing to heaven kind of people, and yet Jesus says that you're following your father Satan. Not only that, but let me just kind of say this, that they would have argued

and had a strong argument on their beliefs in Messiah. They could quote all the scriptures about Messiah. They would argue with you up and down that they believed every word of the scripture, which then was the Old Testament, and they did. In fact, they'd memorized it. And yet when they mean it, They not only reject Him, but they become hostile toward Him and reject fully to the point of killing Him. Now, why don't you keep that in mind? And I want you to think about the Western church and what we have in pretty much, not everybody, but across the board in the evangelical church. If you were to ask most pastors, most spiritual leaders, and many of the Christians, if they believe in the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they would argue up and down they do. If they were to say, if you were to ask them, and do you believe in the Holy Spirit, yes, they do. If you were to ask Him, they believe every word of the Scriptures front and back, they'd say, yes, I do, in fact, I believe in the maps. But when they meet the activity of the Spirit, do you see what's happened? So when it comes to things like prophecy, I mean, one of the struggles that I have is I've got swings of both sides. One group that's absolutely scared to death of anything like it and are afraid that,

well, I don't want to give anything might be false. And that's what I'm trying to help you with. But another group that, man, they just listen to anybody. Call them a prophet. Somebody says, there a prophet puts up a little sign. I'm a prophet, and we're going to listen to them. You can't have bad ideas around the world. I was in Africa several years ago now, I was teaching a group of pastors there. They're just, like I say, house church pastors are farmers, but in fact, I almost brought a picture of it, under a blue tent and just covering us, and I don't know, there's probably about 70 or 80 of them in there. And they began to ask me some questions. And one of them, I said, you're the pastor of the church. You man, you just lead the church. That kind of stuff, you're church. And that's one of them raising them, but let me ask a question. We have prophets come through the area. And when they come through, they come and want, and they demand to speak and preach at our church and demand us to give them money, a tithe. And what do we do? And I said, you tell them no. And they were like, can we say that? I said, in your heart, if you're the pastor, if you don't believe this is what God wants to do in your church, tell them no. Now, if you believe it's what God wants to do, let them.

But you're the one that's the spiritual leader. You're the one that is the under shepherd of the flock. You me tell you what happened next? Of course, in Africa, they just a little bit more excited. They jump up and start applauding, hooping and hollering. They didn't know they could do that. Do you see, so whenever we come to this, trying to stay in the scriptures on it, we want to follow that. And so as we walk in it, we talked about last week, we talked about several things, like the nature of prophecy. We talked about that, that it's revelation and not a script. I think I gave you those in the outline already. And we talked to the several of them. Let me give you this, I've got it in there. I forgot to put it in last time. But let me give you this one because I have it. Whenever I talk about those proclaiming gifts and in your outline, just what is prophecy? It's a supernatural utterance given by God to an individual in a language known to the person. And I say language, and it's really kind of a, I didn't know a simple word to say, but a prophecy can come in a dream or a vision. It can happen in a picture. But it's a known, when it's spoken, it's a known language. So we know what it's talking about.

So as we're going in this, and we've been looking at it, we went on from there and talked about the purpose of prophecy, is to build, strengthen, and to console. And we talked about those things, what that meant, there in 1 Corinthians 14. And then we ended in number three, which is the practice of prophecy. And it just focused in for just a little bit on prophecy, balances, humility, and boldness, those two go together. And I talked about, you know, whenever somebody calls themselves a prophet, and they act like, you know, they're, we think, whenever we think of a prophet, we think of something a little more on that line. And that's not really what the call of prophet is, especially in the New Testament, is not what it's called. So we're going to go on and look at some things that I want to kind of talk about. And before I get into number four, and talk about, let me just run over real quick, some, let me get to another picture beside that one. That's not up there, okay, we're good. Is, let me tell you what, what I'm focused in on is in the scriptures, there are really two things we read. One is, make sense? And I'm not talking about the office of profit, even though it still lives and still alive, but I'm not focused on that. I'm focused on when the Scripture teaches about prophecy and whenever it says for us to prophesy. And so whenever we think about that, there's some ways of looking at it. Sometimes prophecy is basically just a short,

and I just wrote this down, a short impression that edifies, or as I talked about, consoles or encourages. It could be that. It could just be a word like that. It could go on from there. It could be whenever you receive something that's in a dream, and it could be a revelatory dream that God gives you. Those are prophetic dreams. It could also be that it even goes where it's an area where in the church you've got people who function in the area of the prophetic that we bring together as a group that come together to ask God, and we do that on Tuesday nights here. We have a group that does that and meets and prays through things like that. So you can have all of those, and those are more of what I'm talking about. Does that make sense? When we talk about the gift of prophecy, I'm talking about it in that way. And so as we move on and look at it, let me go down and just take, go to number four, and let me find it here. There we are. I'm just calling it the discernment of prophecy. And so, and basically, how do we know if what we've received or what somebody is telling us is actually a word from God or not? And so there's a way to know that, and there's some really good stuff out that you can look up. I'm going to try to give you a few things. But here's what I'm saying that just to get us to know, prophecy is guided by the Spirit and grounded in Scripture. That doesn't mean it's quoting Scripture. That means it's grounded in it. That's why a person that's functioning in the prophetic gifts, that's why I'm so big on you reading the Bible every day, spending time in God's word every day, spending time in prayer every day, because what that does is that helps build one a foundation from which the Holy Spirit can glean even more through your through your Spirit. But the second thing it does is it builds fences to guard us from going outside and saying things that are contrary to Scripture. And so those things work together. And so as we look at that, we want to know that as we're coming to discernment, let me just go on and start off with this way on the kind of the negative side. I don't mean to say it that way, but false prophecy is real. False prophecy is very real and it's also very dangerous. Jesus talked about it in several times when he was one of the places. He says in Matthew chapter 24 verse 11, he said, "Many false prophets will arise and lead many astrays," talking about as we're coming close to the end times. We're going to see more false prophets rise up. That's what's going to happen. And we know that first John 4, verse 1 says, "Beloved do not believe every Spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God." For many false prophets have gone out into it. He's talking about even in the first century that were there. So you have that reality we need to know about and we need to see that. But at the

same time, we don't want to use that as an excuse not to one practice it and another one not to use that as an excuse to avoid it altogether. In other words, as I've told you before, what I believe about the realities of these things is that anything that is counterfeited, it's counterfeited because there is something that's real. That's the thing about counterfeits. In other words, if there's false prophecy, what does that guarantee us? That there is genuine true prophecy. Nobody counterfeits, as I've said it before. Nobody counterfeits a three dollar bill because they're not real. So whenever Satan's counterfeiting, he's going to counterfeit things that are real. Secondly, that I say this is nobody ever counterfeits things that aren't valuable. We don't counterfeit pennies. And so if there are false prophecies, guess what that means. Prophecy is a big deal. And the Bible tells us it is. So we're not going to avoid it, but we need to be aware. We have to have that great balance that God wants to bring into our life. And so as we come into that, is we need to understand that when somebody is giving a prophetic word, you may give one, I may give one, we need to know that if they make a mistake. See, here's what's out here. And I've heard this because of being in the kind of lean over in the scholarly side of the non prophecy teaching people is that, well, the Bible says if they say it wrong, burn them. You know, just don't listen to them. Well, Well, that's Old Testament prophets. That's a little different than-- than New Testament prophets. But in this, we need to understand that in the mistake we make sometimes is that sometimes if it's, if somebody says something and it doesn't make sense, it doesn't mean they're a false prophet. It may mean they're just human. And so you've heard me say my thing, there's the prophetic and there's the pathetic. And we need to be able to balance that and understand that even sometimes I may feel as though God's given me a word and it may not be from God. That's why I'm very careful to say, you know, I feel like God may be saying,

what do you think? Is that from the Lord? Do you feel like that may be? And if there's spirit bears witness, then hey man, this could very well be a word from God. And so we don't need to get upset about that and we need to understand it's real. Now, let me just tell you that this is something that happens and I wanna give you just a quick and I wanna do this real quick before I even say that. I was reading in a guy that wrote a great book back several years ago and you may know of him, some of you may, his name is Mike Bickle and he wrote a book on prophecy and it was really good. But in there, he gives one of the best ways for the prophets and the prophetic to be able to give those words. And I like the way he did it. He actually used Proverbs chapter 24 verses three through four. And it says this in that passage. It says, I'm just not gonna be on the screens. This extra credit, by the way. (congregation laughing) It says, by wisdom, a house is built. So by wisdom, a house is built. And by understanding, it is established. By knowledge, the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches and he just takes those three words and says that wisdom is about revelation. And so he said, when somebody receives a prophetic word,

it's a revelation as I talked about. It's not a script, it's a word that comes from heaven into our spirits. And when that comes there, it doesn't mean that we immediately know what we're supposed to say. As a matter of fact, he takes it to the next level 'cause after that, you had wisdom and then from there, it went to understanding. He takes and uses the word understanding and talks about interpretation, which means discerning God's meaning. So you may, in fact, I have this happen all the time. People will have dreams and they, and how you know if it's a dream, or I say, how you know, if it's a dream from the Lord, first of all, is you remember every detail. I mean, I can go back to dreams that I know have come from God and I could, that were years ago. And it's like I'm right there in the middle of it again immediately because he planted it in my spirit. And that's what can happen. You know, now, if you're like me, you may had a dream last night and you couldn't a bit more tell me anything about it now than anything. Well, that's not a dream that came necessarily from the Lord. Or you may have a vision and whenever you have it. Here's what happens next.

When those kinds of things happen or maybe even a word that happens, the first thing you do is not immediately give the interpretation. You ask the Lord to guide you into what that interpretation. What is God trying to say? That may take time. Does that make sense? You know, it's something that we ask the Holy Spirit. In other words, He gives you a vision of something and we call it, in other words, they talk about interpretation of dreams. Well, that would be a spiritual reality that God wants to do as a part of that. So there's the revelation. After that comes that interpretation where you're really walking through it. And then the last thing is application. And so it's this beautiful reality when a word comes to someone or you have some kind of, you're praying and all of a sudden the word comes and you're saying, I don't know what this means, but it feels like there's something here. Well, that doesn't mean it's not from God if you immediately don't know, but if you do feel like He's giving you that word, it also doesn't mean you immediately give an interpretation because it could be,

God just gave you a picture, vision, word, and we're not really for sure what it is yet. So let the Holy Spirit guide you and what does that mean. And then after that, and He shows you kind of what it means, you feel like He does interpretation of it, then how is it to be applied? You know, what is the way it's to be given? Because I've had a lot of times people have come with a word and they feel like God's giving them a word about something. And how I know most of the time, whenever they're really trying to follow the Lord is that many times they don't have the interpretation. But they said, I feel like this is from the Lord. And as they share it, man, we start asking, God, would you show us what it is? But if anybody comes and they have a word, they may even know what the interpretation of it is. [BLANK_AUDIO] what God's application is. Does that make sense? Let me give you an illustrate. So I want you to hold that in your heart. And I hope I'm not losing anybody, all right? Everybody with me? You're just kind of chewing on that for a while. I think that was a pretty thick piece of meat. I better chew on that a little. Well, let me try to give you an example out of the scriptures that may help you understand,

and this is something that's not new, but it's not bad. It's just how we're walking. So in Acts chapter 21, there's a story in Acts chapter 21 about some prophets. Paul is on his way to Jerusalem, and some prophets meet up with me. I want to read the passage so that we can look at this. And so as we look at it, let me just start with verse eight. Start there in verse eight, it says this. On the next day, we departed, it's talking about Luke is writing this. He's with Paul. We departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip, the evangelist. Now, you know, he was one of those first in Acts chapter six that was there, he says, who was one of the sevens? So that's one of those first, what we went and referred to as deacons. And stayed with him. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied. So these had that prophetic gifting. While we were staying for many days, a prophet, now here's another one named Agabus, came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took Paul's belt, bound his own feet and hands, and said thus says the Holy Spirit. This is how the Jews at Jerusalem

will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. So that's the prophecy, okay? That's a prophetic word from a prophet. He would be in what's called the office. And so as that word's given, how is that to be applied? Well, let's go on and read what it says after that. As we go on and read, it says, when we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem, so who were the people there? We just heard who they were. We know that, obviously it's Luke and those that traveled with Paul, it's one group. We also know that Philip was there and his four daughters and Agabus. So we know at least there are five people there that function in the prophetic, enough that it's, we're told they do. So that's the group that's there. Now let's go and see. So it says there, when we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go to Jerusalem. They're applying this, so they believe the prophecy. By the way, it was a true prophecy, but the application of it is to say, so don't go. They're saying, therefore don't go. That makes sense, that's what they're saying. Then Paul answered, what are you doing weeping and breaking my heart?

For I am ready not only to be imprisoned, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, let the will of the Lord be done. Now, I want you to hear, why would they say, oh, you don't need to go? And here's what they're applying. Obviously God is telling us this is going to happen before it happens, so don't go. But there's one little problem, Acts chapter 20. Because you see the Apostle Paul wasn't just going on a whim. He wasn't going to Jerusalem because, what do I want to do today? I think I'll just make a trip over there real quick. The Bible tells us that's not at all what was happening. Here's, it says in Acts chapter 20, listen to what it says, in verse 22. Paul is talking to the group in Ephesus that had come to meet him. And they're the elders from Ephes, he's talking to them. And as he's talking to them, listen to what he says, in verse 22 of Acts chapter 20, the previous chapter. And now behold, I am going to Jerusalem constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there. In other words, he's saying, the Holy Spirit has literally bound me, these words bound, bound me on a trip to Jerusalem. I don't know what's going to happen. And he goes on after that, it says at least,

except I know the Holy Spirit always tells me there's going to be beatings and imprisonment everywhere I go. Which boy does that not sound like a bad word that you have from the heavens. I'd like the Holy Spirit to tell you that. I'd have to definitely check that and see if it's a word from God. But what I'm saying to you is this, had he not gone to Jerusalem, he would have made those people happy, but he would have missed God. Does that make sense? Now what was great about their response was when they realized he's like, I'm going and probably even told them, I've been constrained, but I'm bound by the Spirit, I'm supposed to go. At least now he knows, well, I know what's going to happen now. And so as we look at it, we need to see that, yeah, it was a legitimate prophetic word, but the application of it was out of love and not out of a word from God. Does that make sense? They were applying it saying, "Therefore the Lord's saying don't go." That wasn't what was being said. It was their heart for him and their love for him. They didn't want him to go. So does that, and here's the great thing about that, is in this, we get to see a glimpse of how the church, the first century church functioned in handling prophecy

in a very practical, real application, is it was a word, God had given it. But whenever it came around to being applied, their love for him kind of got in the way, but not too much. In other words, they didn't cancel his trip. They didn't want him to go because they loved him, but they said, "Let the will of the Lord happen." And that's a great balance. So does that make sense? So whenever we think about revelation, interpretation, and application, we need to kind of keep that in mind is how we're functioning in that and need to see that that's what God wants to do. And so as we're walking in this, I just want us to see some of those things. Now, again, I've given you this several times over the years, but let me just kind of bring together a few things here. In first Thessalonians, when talk about discerning of prophecy, the discernment of prophecy, and you've heard me, I've quoted this many times, 'cause I think it's so critical to us in what we're wanting to find in the scriptures regarding these things. But as we're looking at it, what I want us to see here is, kind of put this together a little bit, says, "Do not quench the spirit, "do not despise prophecies, hold fast,

"but test everything, hold fast to that, which is good." The fact that we're told to not despise prophecy implies that people might be tempted to do just that. Prophecy for us in one side, it feels like it's subjective and not objective. I say that's not the truth. I say that working in that world, the spirit world, heaven speaking to us might feel subjective to us, but it's incredibly objective in the spirit world. And so I think about it in a similar way to art, to dance, I used to tell my boys when they played ball, I tell them that, I said, you know what the difference is between good players and great players? Good players know how to run the plays. Great players know when to make the plays. There's just that beauty, same way in art. Good artists know how to follow and do the drawings or paintings or great artists know when to make the marks that don't follow the rules but create the beauty. And in the spirit world, it's the same way that as God's leading us, that walking in the spirit, we're listening to him for him to bring that, if you know what you want to call it, that supernatural spirit filled dance in the spirit of walking with him, trusting his guidance as we're walking in it. So it's not that it's necessarily subjective, but it is something that we test. And so as we think about testing it, I always say that some things about it,

what does that mean for us? Well, I think it means this, first of all, that prophecy is subject and subject to and secondary to scripture. One of the things that the Bible's very clear to us about and we need to be very clear about is don't put it equal to scripture. And so we see that, we need to know, so I just think I've got this in your notes, is prophecy does not compete with but compliment scripture. but it does compliment Scripture. Now, whenever we think about it, I always think about what are the possible sources of prophecy or of what somebody may think is prophecy? Whenever they say, I think I've got a word from the Lord. What could be potential sources that may or may not be part of it being prophecy? And I just say these things. I say, these five different things. A word could be just from their human mind. You know, we can just, and we would know what that means. It just kind of, well, I really wasn't from God, but I just kind of made it up, you know, kind of thing. It just, you know, had this idea. It could also be from not just the human mind, but it could be from the human spirit. In other words, it's not necessarily from the Holy Spirit. It could also be from a demonic spirit. And then obviously it could be from the Holy Spirit.

Does that make sense? Those are just some ideas of what whenever you think about, when somebody comes, or even my own self, if I feel like God's giving me a word, you know, it could be just David. It could have been what I ate last night. Or it could be that I'm emotionally stirred up. And out of that, just, oh, we need to do, you know, and I'm not trying to blame it on prophecy. I'm just saying, it may not be from the Lord. It could be demonic. We talked about false prophets, that kind of stuff. Could come from an angel, you find that and act several times. Or it could be from the Holy Spirit. So that, because of all these, you know, potential options that can breed confusion, it can breed, you know, division. They can be all kind of issues that happen there. So again, let's say somebody has a word that they're giving you, not only does it not compete with, but compliment scripture, but another thing, I think it's something important to keep in mind. Prophecy will never contradict, but always confirms previous known words from God. When I feel like I'm, in fact, this is super important for me, is when I believe that God's given me a direction before he wants me to go. And I start out, one of the things is I'm walking by faith that I have found him to do over and over and over.

It's he'll bring a confirming word many times from another believer, sometimes from the word, even sometimes from dreams. I've even had times where I wake up singing a song and wind up, those words were exactly what I needed to hear. You know, I had a time many years ago, I've told you about this, had a time many years ago that I was just in one of those down dips moments and struggling and pastoring, like we all struggle, and I wake up one morning, just wake up with the words. They must turn to you, but you must not turn to them. I thought, I think that's in the Bible somewhere. Well, sure enough, it's Jeremiah 15. And it was a word from God that I needed to really see that, you know, you need to quit whining and you need to step back in. And it was a time whenever Jeremiah was saying, you know, have you been to me like a dried up brook? I mean, I feel like I've been following you and you hadn't done nothing. And as I said, what God said to me, and he said, "It's a Jeremiah." I'm not your cheerleader, Bubba. You gotta put on your big boy pants and get back out there and quit whining. And so it was an important word, but it was, you know, confirming word on the direction I needed to go.

So as we're looking at these things, so we need to see the first two, that prophecy does not compete with, but compliment scripture. Prophecy will never contradict, but always confirms previous known words from God. And then the last one that I have here, I think for you is this one. Prophecy does not confuse, but always clarifies God's will. It just has a way of doing that. So we're gonna apply that to the Apostle Paul. So when that word came to Paul, their application was don't go, which would have been confusing. So instead he interprets it. Yeah, this is gonna happen. So I know what I'm coming into. Does that help maybe a little bit? So as we're going on and looking at that, let me just kind of give you. Well, I'll wait on those. I'll do those another time that's extra stuff about that. Let me go into the next thing that I want to end with. Yeah, we got to. And I just call it the impact of prophecy. Now, I want to urge you. There's not many places in the Bible where we are urged. You do have things like Jesus says, a new commandment. I give you that you love one another and it's a commandment.

I mean, there are those kinds of things and there are those commands. Literally it's in the imperatives of do these things. And one of them that is so clear is in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse one. Pursue love and that's a command which he's referring to 1 Corinthians 13. And eagerly desire, that's the next command. A spiritual gifts, especially that you would prophesy. So it's a big deal to God. It's a big deal to the church. And it's something that is incredibly important for all of us. And so here's just kind of underneath that, the impact of prophecy number five. I just said this prophecy awakens hearts and empowers the church. There is something supernatural in the power of the prophetic that awakens the hearts of people. I cannot tell you how many times, how many times God has given me a word for somebody that they come back later and have said, God use that to change me. Now here's what I know, it wasn't me. It's just what I have found is that God loves people. He just likes to love on people. And what better way than to allow the Holy Spirit to release through us a word that we would never known otherwise, but God knew. And in releasing it, he changes their life. And I just encourage you that the Bible says,

all your sons and daughters will prophesy. So if you're sitting here saying, well, that's just an option for me, you are wrong. It's an urging, it is already there. You just say, God, I'm in, let's do this. And just start learning how to walk in it. Now I'm going to tell you. And many of you have had, I would say, how many of us remember, I can't remember when I first learned how to ride a bicycle. I can barely remember when my kids started learning about how to ride a bicycle. But I can remember watching my grandkids learning about how did you remember that? You remember how it starts out? Hopefully they start training wheels, you know? Now, I will say one of my boys, I let him have him training wheeled in work well. So I said, come on. And he did fall a few times. I just said, well, when you start falling, just go toward the grass. And he did, but he didn't take but a day and he knew how to ride a bike. And in a similar way, God wants to teach us how to hear his voice, how to open up, but there takes that humility that says, you know, I don't even know how to do this. God, I'm in full trust of you. But when he brings it, there has to be that boldness

to say, I think this is you, Father, would you give me what is the interpretation of what you're saying? And who do I need to share this with? And then you do it in a very humble way, use humility. You know, that's why I'm not, I don't say, thus says the Lord or anything like that. But you just go say, I feel like maybe God shared something with me and just see if it bears witness with your spirit. And those that do that, I promise you, you know what that's like because inside of here, you may say, I know it's from the Lord, but maybe it's not the right timing or maybe it's not exactly the way God wants to say it, or maybe you're only seeing a piece of it. You know, I've talked about that. I have not going to teach this, but I've taught on this before in some other areas, in some ways, I just call it the prophetic puzzle. I'll talk to you about it. I really think that what God wants to do is use the church to function together, to release within us a prophetic direction that he wants to take the church. I just think that's one of the ways he works. He loves the unity of the body. but he's not gonna give me the whole picture. He's not gonna let me see what the puzzle looks like on the box, you know, when you're putting a puzzle together,

you know, you get to at least see what the puzzle looks like. But what he does is he gives us pieces. And here's what can happen many times, and this is one of the dangers that happens with prophecy because a lot of people don't understand it, is one of the dangers that can happen is, is that you get a piece and maybe your piece looks like dark and looks almost like gloom and doom, that kind of thing. And so you're saying, oh my gosh, the house is falling. You know, all this kind of stuff. Oh man, this will be terrible. We're about to have the worst time in our nation ever and all this stuff. But in reality, what other people in the church may have gotten other words that were bright, and joyful, and like a puzzle, when you put those two pieces together, it makes the bright look brighter by having it surrounded by some dark things. And it doesn't mean that all together, it's not a beautiful picture. It just means we need each other to function in this, okay? That makes sense? But the impact is just amazing and supernatural. And here's one of the things to remember. Next week, we'll talk about tongues, but the Bible says this about the power of prophecy. First Corinthians 14, 24, 25 says, but if all prophesied and an unbeliever outside are inners, look at what happens to an unbeliever

when they're around the words of God, the prophetic word of God. He is convicted by all. He is called to account by all. The secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare, ago he declares, that God is really among you. Is that not the coolest? And also kind of for me, it kind of makes sense why Satan doesn't want us to really walk in the prophetic because he sees how incredibly dangerous it is to his kingdom that a lost person may, you might not be able to convince them of the gospel, but when prophetic words are being brought to the church, the conviction inside of them is overwhelming. And they say, God's in this place. Does that make sense? And so there's a powerful thing. And then just being me, a little goofy, is kind of think about the way God's made you and how God has filled you with his spirit, that you're a conduit of his grace. You know what I talked about? The gifts are grace manifested, and you're a conduit of that. And all around us, we've got people like that that are down, they're broken, they're hurting, maybe for them, they're trying to read the scripture,

but for them, the scripture does not make any sense. They're hurting too bad. And in that, maybe what God wants to do is have a word for them, a word that speaks into their spirit. It's confirmed through scripture, but it's a word that God has for them. And it doesn't have to be weird. It doesn't have to be strange. It can be, it will be different, I can tell you. It'll be a little bit different, but the way God brings it through you to their life can be something that winds up transforming them in a powerful, powerful way. I would just say this, that one of the dangers we have in the church is to avoid these type things and say we're okay with God. And I say we're not. And so I would just encourage all of us what it says in 1 Corinthians 14, the way it ends, it says this, "So my brothers are an isly desire to prophesy." There it is again. And do not forbid speaking in tongues. We'll look at that next week. But all things should be done decently and in order. Amen? I want to encourage you. Desire, eagerly desire.

The spiritual gifts, especially that you prophesy. And I know that if you're saying, "Oh, but God would never talk to me like that." Either you don't know Him, or you are probably the most That's what I have found. I have found that many, many times. I've walked in this for many years and helped disciple a lot of people along the way on how to hear God's voice and how to hear if it's from the Lord. And it's always fun to me to watch. I always know when it's going to happen. We'll be together. I've done this many times, and I've told you about it, that he'll give me words. And then maybe the next time we meet, he don't say nothing to me. And you used to when it first started, I thought, oh no. Maybe he's not saying it. And then I began to learn. He's not telling me because he's told somebody else. And my job is to encourage them. And I've done it so many times. All right, one of you got this. Somebody got a word. Tell what it is. And it's just like crickets for a minute or two. We're not going any farther till one of you say, you may say, well, I don't know if it's from the Lord or not. I don't care.

That's why we're here. Share it. Let's see what God's saying. And every time, God's got a word. And it's just an awesome thing to see because it's life transforming. For the person that has received it, they're learning how to maybe take the training wheels off. And eventually they're going to learn how to ride. So it's we're together. Let's just eagerly do that, OK? Because I believe that's critical for the church to go forward. Amen? Let's pray together. We're going to get-- hey, by the way, we're getting out early. Just want to throw that out to you. Next week's on tongues. I just add that extra in there, all right? Let's pray together. Father, I just thank you that you're a talker. I thank you, Lord, that no matter how many times Satan tries to put a muzzle on your voice. You still speak. And so Father, I pray that for us, that we would just ask you an eagerly desire that you would speak to us. I'm going to ask Father, even now, in fact, this is kind of-- let's make this a little bit of the invitation. Why don't you just open yourself to the Lord for just a minute?

Would you like for the Lord to give you words of prophecy? If you would, would you be willing right now to just say, Lord, speak to me? Would you want the Lord to give you a dream that's from him? I know many of you have had these many times. Some of you never have. Would you be willing to say, Lord, would you give me a dream? Let me have a vision. Show me in that revelation. Would you just also give me the interpretation of that? And then show me where to go that can help know how to apply it into maybe it's in somebody else's life. Maybe it's in my own life. So Father, I just ask you to do this. I pray that Father, that everyone here, Lord, I'm just going to ask him, I'm just going to be bold about this. Lord, that you would begin to give those words. From your word, those words through pictures, visions, dreams, or that you would just start speaking to the people. And as we unclog our ears and we tune in to the voice of the Spirit, Lord, I know how it has been for me and how especially how it was when I first started. I was just so clumsy. Lord, I pray for all of us here that we just throw that to the side, that you're the one that's going to teach us your voice. So I pray that we would watch as the church just rises up and we begin to get divine direction on where you're leading us. You begin opening doors that no man could shut. You begin shutting doors that no one could open. Pray that you begin giving us words for the people around us.

That would be to equip them, to encourage them, to edify them, to console them when they're wounded and broken. And God, that they would be words from you that we could release for your glory, that your kingdom would be blessed. Father, pray that you'd even give us words of encouragement consolation for Father, we just pray your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]