David Ravenhill discusses the importance of understanding the prophetic word, emphasizing the need for a balance between the Word of God and the Spirit of God. He highlights the complexity of prophetic ministry, explaining that revelation, interpretation, and application are crucial components of a prophetic word. Ravenhill warns against the extremes of gullibility and skepticism, urging believers to examine prophetic utterances carefully. He also stresses the significance of motivation and the conditions that can affect the fulfillment of prophetic words, encouraging the church to embrace the prophetic as a vital tool for edification and guidance.

And Lord I just thank you in advance for the word that's going to be delivered through your servant David Lord I thank you for melting hearts. I thank you for stirring us. I thank you for being sweet To our mouth Lord and Lord and perhaps even sour to our stomach Lord. Have your word have effect in our lives We just bless him now in Jesus's Holy Name Amen David Ravenhill I Could be with you this morning appreciate that time of wonderful worship and almost feel guilty about teaching it's one of those times when you'd rather preach and just Open the word in a in a different sense, but I Must confess I've babbled over this particular Session this morning and I've actually end up changing what I was going to say. I'd spend hours and hours and hours preparing a Particular message. It's all here if you want to I'll sell you a copy of it On the the spirit and the word and I was wanting just through the Word of God to bring that that balanced and balanced between the two and I've really had sort of mixed emotions ever since I got word about the conference and the title of the conference somebody said mixed emotions or the feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when your mother-in-law drives over the cliff in your new Cadillac and And I've sort of had mixed emotions first of all that such a conference was necessary that's the The bad feeling the good feeling was the fact that we're beginning to understand our need of the spirit and the word together and What God has joined in together? Let no man put asunder and basically the bottom line of all that I had to say in all of those notes Dealt with that that the reconciliation of again of the word and the spirit Jesus said to the Pharisees you do Not knowing the scriptures or the power of God and you can be an error either way And I would think the evangelicals would be horrified to say that they were in error Simply because they neglected the Word of God But on the other hand all the things of the Spirit on the other hand Pentecostals would be equally horrified if they was told that they were in error Because they neglected the Word of God and Jesus said error is to go to either one extreme And we've had the Word of God and the Spirit of God almost like two fighters in a ring each You know the crowd divided each year backing its favorite Sort of a corner and rah rah rah, you know were men of the word No were men of the spirit and sort of having these two fight it out And that was never God's intention God's intention was that the two were never to be divided after all he is the spirit of truth and if you take away the Word of God then the Spirit of God becomes nothing if you Take away the Spirit of God then the Word of God becomes nothing and you need both them in the tabernacle in the Old Testament You recall that the lampstand? When Moses was told to build it and place it in the holy place there He said you to place a lampstand so that it will give light on that which is opposite it and the thing that was opposite The lampstand was a table of showbread Which was the Word of God and the lampstand representing the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit's ministry again of enlightening us and guiding us and bringing illumination on the Word of God and Again, it's just a very basic teaching in one sense that God has never ever intended the two to be separated at all and we need to get back to a fresh appreciation of the Word of God a fresh Appreciation of the Spirit of God and depending on what sort of corner of the ring you used to be backing You need to recognize that both of them are absolutely essential I think it was a it was a Spurgeon that somebody asked many many years ago about to what they considered diametrically opposed doctrines and Spurgeon said there's no need to reconcile friends and the Word and the Spirit of friends There are the two wings of a bird you take one wing off It won't fly and we need again the Spirit of the Word. So anyway, there's a little bit of what it was What I want to do though is shift gears and I want to give a teaching I may have given it at the North Bay I can't remember If it was it was in a workshop, but dealing with the anatomy of a prophetic word We have two wonderful men of God with us that move in the Prophetic we had a wonderful flow of the Spirit of God last night. I've said I Deeply deeply appreciate the prophetic ministry. My own life has been profoundly impacted through the prophetic word many many many times and I think I've learned some lessons as a result of that and so want to share that with you so that it will gain Or allow you to gain a fresh appreciation and understanding of the prophetic the prophetic May seem very simple in some ways And yet there's a complexity to it And I think if we understand that complexity that it will it will help us and so we'll be looking at a number of scriptures but first of all, I'm going to be using the word prophet prophecy and prophesying sort of in a Broad sense as we normally do the prophetic dealing with not just strictly a word of prophecy but dreams visions and and so on that sort of whole prophetic realm and The word prophecy is used over 600 times in the Word of God 600 times in the Word of God an old wise Expositor told me many years ago He said David the best rule of interpretation of the Word of God is that when when God shouts you shout When God whispers you whisper That's always a good rule of thumb. If you hear people shouting about what God is whispering about chances are it's not that important For instance, the Word of God doesn't shout about women having head coverings and Everybody would be in agreement here this morning. Yeah You know, there's just one verse and that's it So God doesn't exactly shout about that, but he does shout about certain things. He shouts about holiness. He shouts about salvation He shouts certainly about prophecy 600 times. He shouts about it in the Word of God So if God shouts about it, we need to shout about it If God whispers about something we need to learn to whisper about it it's a lot of people shouting about what God whispers about a lot of people whispering about what God shouts about and So, you know turn that around and you have a good Balance here, but from Genesis to Revelation the Bible talks about prophecy all the way back into Genesis chapter 5 According to Jude it says Enoch prophesied right in the fifth chapter now You can go back further than that Of course because God prophesied about the seed of the woman and so on you can even go back further than that to Genesis 1 where God says that he Put lights in the the heavens he says for signs and for seasons I have a Jewish friend of mine that I grew up with in Bible College We've been friends over the years and he said the first Messianic promise in the Word of God was not the seed of the woman first Messianic promise in the Word of God was in Genesis 1 Where God says he put the lights in the skies for signs We've seen his star in the east and come to worship him. I sort of like that little Interpretation but anyway So from Genesis 1 if you like all the way through to Revelation the Bible talks about prophesying Enoch prophesied you end up in the book of Revelation That it talks about the fact there are two witnesses and they prophesy right in the last days if you don't believe prophets are for The last days then you've got problems with the book of Revelation Because the Bible says that God pronounces judgment on Babylon and it says rejoice over her my people and you prophets So there are still prophets alive when God pronounces judgment on Babylon so he hasn't revoked them. He hasn't removed them They're alive and well in the book of Revelation just as they were in the book of Genesis So we have that all the way through the Word of God and God Foretold a day through Isaiah or through sorry through Joel when he would pour out his spirit on all flesh sons and daughters would prophesy old man and see Dream dreams young men that have visions and and so on servants hands maids and I believe we're living in the fulfillment of that day We're going to see an increase of it. I remember even not that many years ago I think where it was almost a rarity to hear People talking about the fact that God spoke to them or dream or a vision and so on and now we see it Mushrooming all over the place I mean I could count on just one hand the number of people I knew that moved in sort of the prophetic realm and now It's widespread. God is fulfilling that and yet we need an understanding about it And the gift of prophecy obviously was given by God to the church for the edification for the building up for the establishing of the body of Christ and what better strategy on the part of the enemy than to try and undermine the prophetic gift knowing that if he can undermine it he can ruin if you like what God is seeking to do in the building process the equipping process of establishing God's purposes and so there is if you like a Strategy on the part of the enemy to downplay the prophetic because it is such a wonderful and powerful Tool in the hand of God. It does edify. It does build up. It doesn't establish and so the Prophetic ministry in the prophet in particular is God's voice. He's God's spokesman the one that declares and Announces the word of the Lord in the book of Exodus, and I'm not going to have you turn to all these but it says They're concerning Moses that Aaron was given by God to Moses as a spokesperson And then it goes on to say in the exodus 7 that was exodus 4 and verse 10 Exodus 7 and verse 1 that Aaron shall be your prophet and so a prophet is simply the voice It's a spokesperson that speaks on behalf of God now the thing that we need to understand Or ask ourselves is God's voice silent today or has it been silenced? There's a difference is God's silent today meaning is this a dispensation when God is not speaking or has his voice been silenced I'm here to tell you I believe his voice has been silenced. It's been silenced by wrong teaching. It's been silenced by Dispensationalism which really you find way back in the Old Testament dispensational started with the ten spies And That's where it had its origin And they took the Word of God that God gave very clearly very precisely and says, you know You can go in and possess this land and so on they came back and said that word is not valid for today Don't act on it. Don't move on it. If you do you'll be you know, you'll have all sorts of problems and You'll lose your children and so on there are giants in the land and so on that was the origin of dispensationalism God gave a very clear word what he wanted to do and they said no don't buy that it's not for you and unfortunately that has grown in Popularity and we need to understand that God has not had a bad case of laryngitis for the last 200 years or 2,000 years that he wants to speak and longs to speak to us Let me just read a verse of Scripture in 1 Corinthians 12 And this is just a sort of a preamble to getting to the anatomy of a prophetic word. We'll get there a little while But 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 1 now concerning spiritual gifts brethren I do not want you to be unaware, you know that when you were pagans in other words when you were unsaved You were led astray to dumb idols. However, you were led. It's always interested me that as Paul commences this teaching on the gifts of the Spirit 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 that he begins with contrasting the present Spiritual condition with their previous spiritual condition He says there was a time addressing the Corinthians when you were unsaved you were pagans And he said you were led astray by dumb idols now We use the word dumb today in a wrong sense We talked about somebody being dumb kids, you know, make fun of somebody by saying oh, he's a real dummy Meaning he's not, you know quite that bright But obviously the word dumb is not used in that way Paul is not saying you were led astray by stupid idols obviously idolatry is stupid in that sense, but what he was saying is that you were led astray by a Religion that could not speak in other words You were led astray by gods that could not communicate gods that could not express their love. They could not express their compassion They could not express their will they could not express their wisdom They could not express their knowledge and so on but I'm here to tell you he says that this God speaks he's a living God and all the way through the Word of God the the prophets repeatedly would come back to the To the idols of the nations. Let me just give you a few verses there Isaiah 46 and You'll notice one thing that they all had in common As we just look at a few of these Isaiah 46 and verse 7 To Whom would you liken me verse 5 and make me equal and compare me that we should be alike Those that lavish gold from the purse weigh silver on the scale higher a goldsmith and make it into a god they bow down Indeed they worship it. They lift it on its shoulder and carry it They set it in its place and it stands there. It does not move from its place though One may cry to it. It cannot answer it cannot deliver him from his distress And so the prophet says, you know the the thing about an idol is that doesn't matter how lavish it may be you can make it out of gold in this case and go to the Goldsmith and set it down in your house and bow down to it and cry out to it, but it will not answer you That is the tragedy again of so many religions they have a God that does not communicate a God that has no voice and We have nations again bound in various realms of idolatry that have never heard the voice of their God Expressing the wisdom of that God and and the love of that God compassion of that God and so on Psalm 115 and verse 3 But our God is in the heavens he does whatever he pleases Their idols are silver and gold the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak They have eyes, but they cannot see they have ears, but they cannot hear noses But they cannot smell hands, but they cannot feel they have feet but they cannot walk. They cannot make a sound with their throat and so again, they have mouths they cannot speak they have throats, but they can't make a sound and then finally in Jeremiah 10 and Verse 3 for the custom of the people are delusions Because it is wood cut from the forest the work of the hands of a craftsman and a cutting tool And it says verse 5 like a scarecrow in a cucumber field a day They cannot speak they must be carried because they cannot walk and so on notice the first thing he says about them is They cannot speak and so Paul then having that sort of understanding of the gods of the nations he begins his teaching on the Prophetic if you like the nine gifts of the Spirit here by saying you were led astray by Idols that were unable to communicate to you But the God who is the living God the true God wants to communicate he is a God that is unlike The nation's he is a God that can speak and does speak and he speaks today He speaks through a prophetic word. He speaks through a word of wisdom. He speaks through a word of knowledge he speaks his compassion through a word of healing and so on and so forth and Thank God that we have a God that wants to speak and yet we count it strange Don't we because even within the church, unfortunately, we still have in vast sections of the Church of Jesus Christ a God that is a dumb God and And God is wanting to have his tongue Loosened if you like and we need to do that through an understanding of the Word of God All right Let me drop down here to just say something Distinguishing the difference between the gift of prophecy and the office of a prophet I think we need to understand that there is a difference between the gift of prophecy and the office of a prophet The gift of prophecy is one of the nine gifts of spirit that is given to the body of Christ for the purpose of edification and all of you I'm sure are familiar 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 3 verse 3 where it says that Prophecy has to be for edification exhortation and comfort in other words God sort of puts a restriction on the The gift of prophecy. It's for edification. It means to build up now There's a little bit of flexibility there. Let me just say something about edification the word edification again literally, it comes from a year the word to construct something and How many are in the construction business here anybody? imagine being a imagine being a piece of wood and The contractor comes along or the builder comes along there's a there's a measure of pain isn't there as the nails are driven in You know, in other words the building process Does have you know a cutting and so on and so forth Paul uses the same word at the end of The book of Hebrews where he says bear with me in this word of exhortation The book of Hebrews was a word of exhortation. That's it's pretty firm Now, I think the thing that we need to understand is it is the motivation behind it We speak the truth, but we do it in love and that is the key That is the thing that governs that is the key that monitors everything My father used to say before you whip you've got a weep before Jesus. So went into the temple with the the cord and drove out the money changers and so on he wept over Jerusalem and He used to say to people you have no right to whip until first of all you've wept and I think that's a good rule of thumb. I remember many many years ago The Keith Green coming to my father he just lived down the road and I was living right opposite my father at that particular time and Keith Green came to See my my dad and he'd been to a certain place. I won't mention it well-known ministry and he had come back and felt that the whole thing was just basically a monument to this man's ego if you like and Wanted to go back there He was invited back the following week and he wanted to go back and literally sort of pronounce judgment on this huge ministry and My father basically says, you know, you're you're not old enough yet to sort of do that You haven't earned your stripes and basically said to him. Listen, you've got to learn to weep before you whip in other words, he sort of delighted one of the last messages if you recall that Keith Green wrote Was just because you're obnoxious doesn't make you a prophet and And a lot of people think you know because they don't fit into any particular mold You know, they've got this sort of anti church thing We heard last night very beautiful expression of having to love the body if you're gonna minister to it And there's a lot of people, you know that they've they've just got something in the spirit against the church and it comes out it comes out again with the whip and We've got to a God against that I worked had the privilege of working with an older man for 15 years in New Zealand and I Appreciate so much being yoked with him for those 15 years. It was a large church. In fact for a while it was the largest church in New Zealand and He he said to me one day. He said David he said let me tell you something about the prophetic and he took me to the woman with the alabaster box that came and knelt down at the feet of Jesus broke that alabaster box and Lavishly love upon him and so on and Simon who was horrified to think that the party had been crashed He'd spent all the money getting this thing organized after all his guest was the Lord Jesus Christ himself and so on and then this woman who was of ill repute to say the least made her way in and breaks alabaster box and so on and he says to himself if this man were really a prophet he would know what sort of woman this is and My old mentor said to me he said David, you know, the prophets ministry is not always judged by exposing sin and His concept to the prophetic was if this man were really a prophet Read about it there in Luke if he was really a prophet he would expose this woman You know, he wouldn't allow such trash to come in here and do what she's doing and so therefore, you know, he's not really a prophet, but the prophet doesn't always do that and we need to realize that that Again it's for exhortation and there is Again, there has to be that tenderness of first love if the word is firm as the book of Hebrews is So edification to build up exhortation Again to stir up and then comfort to bind up and then there's one other that Paul deals with in 1 Corinthians 14 verse 25 Where he talks about conviction they'll be convicted by all and the word there to break up if you like the conviction that breaks up the hardness of sin, but That's the the prophetic gift and then there's the prophetic office, which is more of a sovereign thing. It's an office Of the prophet that is given by God to the church The the gift of prophecy is something that we need to seek after the Bible says earnestly desire Spiritual gifts one of my old professors in Bible school says that's as much a command as thou shalt not commit adultery And we say that again earnestly desire spiritual gifts is as much a command as thou shalt not commit adultery They say thou shalt not commit adultery is a negative sort of thing The other is a positive thing, but earnestly desire spiritual gifts. We should earnestly desire I find in my own devotional time day after day after day crying out to God as much for the supernatural as anything else and We need to we need to ask God God open the eyes of my understanding Let me taste that realm and especially Paul says with all of the gifts, especially that you may prophesy because the whole body can be built up the whole body can be encouraged by it and And yet again, there is the office of the prophet which is given for the equipping of the Saints and in one sense That's one is sought the other is more sovereign if I can just put it very simply One is sought were to seek after it earnestly desire spiritual gifts The other is more of a sovereign call of God God is appointed in the church Apostles prophets evangelists pastors and teachers and and so on and I believe we're going to see again as brother Phil was sharing last night a restoration not only of the prophetic but of the apostolic and We're going to enter into a whole new realm. I believe of understanding when that gift is fully Made available to the church with the revelation understanding. Let me quickly give you the five-fold ministry As far as what they do the Apostle governs the prophet guides the evangelist gathers The pastor guards and the teacher grounds that's real succinct But that's what the five-fold ministry in a sense the essence of the five-fold ministry very quickly again the Apostle governs The prophet guides the evangelist gathers the pastor guards and the teacher grounds Let me also say that all five of those ministries have the heart of a shepherd or should have the heart of a shepherd as the as the controlling factor the the heart of the bridegroom again that said that then Becomes the motivator the love for the body the the shepherd who has a love for the sheep the bridegroom who has a love for the for the bride and If we have the life of Christ within us, even though we may be an apostle prophet evangelist pastor teacher We have the heart of a shepherd. He's the great shepherd of the sheep. He's the bridegroom and We need to make sure that we allow that expression to come through those giftings. If not, then there's something very seriously wrong All right, well, I'm going to deal then a little bit now with the what I'm going to call the anatomy of a prophetic word and Talk about sort of prophetic administration. And first of all two things two Extremes if you like or two tensions when it comes to the prophetic one is the word inclusive The other is the word exclusive and you'll find them both in 1 Thessalonians 5 Verse 21 and 2nd Thessalonians 2 and verse 2. Let me deal with the first one inclusiveness, which means Embracing everything Paul writing to the Thessalonians a says that you may not be quickly shaken or Disturbed by a spirit or a letter or a message as though the day of the Lord had already come in other words there was a message going around the Thessalon the Thessalonians or the Thessalonican Church as to the Fact that the day of the Lord had already arrived and it was disturbing a lot of people and the problem was That many of them had embraced it as the Word of the Lord. They do listen to this spirit this letter this voice and There was an all inclusiveness about it They just simply included it in with all the other prophecies and so on but it began to shake their faith now we need to be careful about embracing everything the word gullible is The word we need to avoid on the other hand we have the exclusive and not not being Meaning that we exclude certain things 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 21 do not be despised prophetic utterance But examine everything carefully hold that whole fast to that which is good So there's a certain sense in which we need to be exclusive not just inclusive We don't we're not gullible. But on the other hand, we're not skeptical All right, it's it's terrible to be skeptical well, we are just constantly critical of everything that is going on and So those are the two tensions one is that we believe everything the other is that we don't believe anything Paul says There's a balance between the two we need to examine everything hold fast to that which is good All right let's look then at the anatomy of a prophetic word and The reason I'm sharing this is because I've been around the prophetic for many many years Like I said, I've been impacted greatly in my own life by the prophetic in fact The very first prophecy I ever received back in Bible College when I was maybe in 18 19 years of age Was your carnal mind is enmity against God? I've never ever forgotten it You see I was always one I like to have everything sort of figured out and you know Everything had to be logical and so on and so I didn't have too much room for the sort of the spiritual Dimension in that sense and that was the very first prophetic word never ever have I forgotten it? your carnal mind is enmity against God, but thank God that he was redemptive and I've had a number of wonderful words since then and one of those words came when my wife and I were first married in 1964 we started working with David Wilkerson in New York City and There was a gentleman that came at my father's invitation who was moving in those days in full gospel businessmen circles I think he's possibly dead by now wonderful brother who moved in the in the supernatural realm had visions that God would give him and We were in a small meeting I imagine there was maybe 15 18 workers at teen challenge that were in my father's living room We were in a circle this man got through Sharing the Word of God and then he was going to minister and we were all for whatever reason having a time of prayer We're all down on our knees Sort of facing the inside of the chair just sort of praying very very quiet And he was moving around Some people were getting filled with a spirit others were getting prophetic words and I was on one side of the room he was on The other side of the room and I was crying out Internally not a word coming out of my mouth, but I was internally crying out for wisdom I said God if there's one longing that I have it's for wisdom I have two brothers that are both brilliant and I was the dummy in the family. And so I Always recognized my need and I was literally just crying out. It was I mean, it was a genuine cry my spirit to God now again Not moving my lips and within about five seconds of me praying that he came from one side room to the other He put his hands on my head. The very first thing he said to me. He said David God senior desire for wisdom He's given it to you Well, of course my you know, the fountains of the deep opened and I started to weep and I thought God, you know This is a you know, I mean, I just graduated from Bible school. You would have thought I knew that you know There was a real God, but there's something about There's something about the prophetic that just adds to the theology of a Bible school and sort of validates it all all it just like that, you know and Then he went on to say he said God's gonna take you before kings and rulers And here I was in New York City freshly married hardly ever. I mean, I was literally terrified of a microphone I was very very Self-conscious in those days and sort of nervous that never did anything publicly and for God to get me in the ministry it was a major major battle that I went through which is another story, but Anyway, you know, I was just weeping and everything he was telling me was the very thing that I hated or could not do in the natural He talked about writing. I have a book available back there. Incidentally that Has been 30 years at least from the fulfillment of that bill of fulfilling that prophetic word But he said God will take you before kings and rulers and he says now he said I'm seeing a picture of you and He said I see literally hundreds and hundreds of people sitting in front of you. He said with brown skin He said they're not black. He said they're not so white He said they've got brown skin and he said they're sitting cross-legged on this huge grassy area and God is going to take you Before kings and rulers. My mind was reeling at that time. I thought kings and rulers kings and rulers. I was born in England I knew there was a Queen I was in the middle of middle of New York City And I thought there's no King here and and you know, I was just I know, you know as Paul Cain would say, you know I thought by this time there was a little bit of a hamburger helper that had been added to the prophetic word and It was about two years after that maybe three years after that and my wife and I sailed down to New Zealand by ship and freighter and We took a team out into the South Pacific Islands in fact the second team that we took from New Zealand and we went to the island of Tonga and we were there at the time of the coronation if you know where Tonga is just a little dot in the middle of the South Pacific and Different ones on the team were asked to minister we're working with a Methodist Church and I was asked if would speak the following week and the following week was the about two days before The coronation and the venue had been changed and if you've ever been there to Tonga the Nuka Lofa It's just a little tiny town really and the King's Palace is right on the side of the town and in front of it There's a sort of a park area big huge field and they'd moved the venue to outside the King's Palace and when I stood up To speak I was handed a microphone and there were literally thousands I suppose of people sitting cross-legged on the ground Polynesians and I got through speaking that the kids on the team said to me afterwards David guess what I said what they said the king stood there on the veranda of the King's Palace and listened as you were preaching and suddenly that prophetic word came back to me And I thought my goodness, you know, God really does exist sort of thing To two years later. And so and there's been many many others that have been very Very very clear prophetic words. That's the beauty of the prophetic is the clarity that comes many times and I knew Beyond a shadow of doubt that I was in the right place at the right time and so on and so forth Only God could have orchestrated. I had absolutely no idea about Tonga two years prior to that or three years, whatever it was You know didn't have the faintest idea that I would ever go there and so on but all of the details that worked out leaving, going down to New Zealand, going from New Zealand again to Tonga and And then even the the fact that even though I was one of the leaders at that time I wasn't asked until I think it was the third week that we were there that I spoke and just the timing of God to bring all that into being is Incredible when I when I look back again, my carnal mind really is enmity against God, isn't it? So we need to Understand something. Let me just give you a scripture here. I had it somewhere Numbers chapter 16 And I think this will sort of set the pace for what I want to do now Verse 12. It's speaking about Moses here who sends a summons to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab and They refused to come and meet with him and one of the reasons they refused to come is first of all Accusing him of lording it over them But verse 14 indeed you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey Nor have you given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards One of the complaints against the Prophet and Moses was a prophet the Word of God says was your prophetic word has not come to pass Moses you told us that you would take us in and give us an inheritance of Fields and vineyards you said we were going to a land flowing with milk and honey and it has not happened Now why and what we want to do now is look at the what I'm going to call again the Anatomy of a prophetic word the components that make up a prophetic word The first one is the word revelation Revelation we need to understand the source of a prophetic word. There are obviously three sources Of revelation one is God. That's the one to aim at The second one is self Jeremiah 23 verse 21. I did not speak to them yet. They prophesied how many of you know that you can prophesy? Just simply out of your own desire out of your own sincere Desire to see somebody Ministered to and many times we do that, you know when somebody's facing a crisis even in the past or Sense and you know, they maybe there's been a car accident You're in the hospital and there's a life-and-death situation there and you you want to encourage and so you said, you know I just I just believe that God's gonna bring you through this Yeah, and yet You go back home and you get a call two hours later say that the person has died You know, but your intention is you really want to you know, it's just that heart of compassion that whelms up and so on But in a way you prophesy out of your own spirit. You don't have the mind of God. It's just natural compassion You don't want to see that person die. What a tragedy and so on you value life and so on and so, you know It doesn't always mean that they were, you know, just purposely prophesying, you know wrongly because They got some sort of kick out of it. I think many times it's you know They really didn't want to see something happen. And so they prophesied it and so the self and then of course, there's a satanic Sources the Bible speaks, of course Matthew 24 in the last days there'll be false prophets signs wonders miracles and so on and so forth all dealing with the supernatural one of the Major things that Jesus gave as a sign prior to his coming His second coming was the fact that there'll be all sorts of spiritual activity All you've got to do now is turn on the television and see all the psychic hotlines and so on I mean, this is a day when there's just a deluge of the whole Realm of the prophetic if you like and I'm using that again in a broad sense I forget what the last count was of so-called Messiahs in America. There was something like 4,000 Messiahs I mean literally people that have got their little group, you know in the mountains of Colorado and New Mexico or whatever And you know, we just had one there in Dallas that you know, we're excellent They expect the Lord to return one was a few weeks ago You know, I mean there's groups all over I mean, there's literally thousands of groups like that when the the cult What was that cult that committed suicide? California but Heaven's gate hell's get heaven's gate. Yeah, that's a that's a play. Yeah Heaven's gate, you know on Good Morning America. They brought up on the website Just hundreds of websites dealing with a whole sort of supernatural world. I mean, it's amazing what is out there We don't understand it because most of the time we're in cloistered within the you know The confines of the church and relating one to another and so on but out there. There is a major resurgence again of the supernatural and that's one of the signs that Jesus said would precede his coming not just wars rumors of wars and earthquakes and so on but signs wonders miracles false prophets false teachers And so on and so those are the the three sources. We need to determine first of all, is this from God? That's the the first thing and there are various ways in which God can speak Let me just give you some of the various ways there in Numbers 12 and verse 6 It says here now my words is there a prophet among you? I the Lord will make myself known to him in visions in dreams Mouth-to-mouth in dark sayings and then Hosea talks about in parables As well and then you can add to that natural ways in which God speaks Jeremiah 18 verse 1 It talks about go down to the potter's house and there I'll speak to you and God spoke through the natural course of the potter making a vessel and as Jeremiah looked at the Vessel being made the Spirit of God began to relate again the comparison between the natural and the spiritual and just as he saw that clay pot being smashed and he says You know, I can do that, but I can make another vessel I can speak concerning nations just that same way to build them up or to destroy them and so on So there's a variety of ways in which God speaks again through visions through dreams mouth-to-mouth Dark sayings parables or through natural means now I don't understand why God chooses some of these sort of dark sayings Why doesn't he just you know, why doesn't just come out and just say it clearly again that those are mysteries concerning the prophetic You know, I would love it if God, you know didn't do what we call prophetic symbolism and so on He just you know said one is one and two is two and three is three red is red and yellow is yellow and so on But he doesn't he's and you know, God does that and there so he's got I'm not going to question All right. So the first one is revelation. The second one is interpretation Interpretation there's nine of these or ten of these we'll get to them all but You see revelation alone is meaningless without correct Interpretation you can have a revelation and not have an interpretation and I think there's been numerous prophetic words that have gone Have been judged as false because of a wrong Interpretation they've heard something and they've interpreted it wrongly Let me give you now some scriptures that I think will help acts 10 9 to 17 and this is where Peter you recall is waiting for lunch and he's up on the house decides to have a time of prayer falls asleep God redeems the time and Gives him a vision and in that vision He sees a sheep coming down with all sorts of unclean animals in it and Peter of course again is smart and he thinks this is a test God seeing if I'm a real Jew enough, you know, no way Lord, you know rise and eat Peter and Peter's interpretation is high This is a God's just testing me to see if I'm gonna be loyal to the you know Old Testament covenant and so on the whole dietary law of the Old Testament and so on no way Lord I've never ever, you know had bacon and eggs for breakfast or at least the bacon and you know I'm not gonna do this and that and and so he says no way and Finally, he gets the message that maybe something else is in the mind of God that and it says Peter was greatly perplexed in his mind As to what the vision which he has seen revelation might be interpretation Now, let me read that again. So you understand it Peter was greatly perplexed in his mind as to what the vision which he had seen He definitely seen something in fact three times It had come but he says what the vision which he has seen might be he had a vision but he didn't understand it What does this mean? I don't get it. You see so there was a lack of interpretation 1 Peter chapter 1 10 and 11 and it says there as concerning the prophets who prophesied Concerning Christ it says seeking to know Which is the interpretation what this what the person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating revelation In other words, they knew that the Spirit of God was indicating something but they wanted to know who it spoke about What person or time the Spirit with cry of Christ within them was indicating so they wanted to know Interpretation what the Spirit was indicating revelation Zechariah 1 8 through 9 Where he says I saw Revelation at night and then I said what are these? This is where a Zechariah sees the men riding on red horses and or a red horse and the various colored horses and so on He sees something. He says I saw in the night vision and so he had a revelation But then he says but what are these in other words? He saw horses, you know He didn't know if God was saying, you know, this is a trifecta and you know, if you bet on these, you know I mean he no idea He He had just simply Seen a revelation. He didn't know if God was saying listen go buy yourself a horse You know that donkey of yours isn't gonna get too much farther. I mean, you know, what what does it mean? I mean you have a vision in the middle of night and you see a horse. What does what does that mean? You know, so rightly he knew that God was saying something at least, you know He said this isn't the result of Pete's of the night before this is this is a this is God trying to tell me something But he says what are these things the interpretation? Daniel 8 and verse 15 I Daniel had seen the vision revelation and I sought to understand it Interpretation you see I'd seen a vision But now I want to know What does it mean? What does this vision mean? How many of you I had a dream and I think this afternoon There's a workshop on you know, interpreting I guess of dreams and so on you can have a dream but that doesn't get you very far unless you understand what God is trying to convey to you through that dream and And Let's move on another one acts 16 and verse 10 This is Paul the vision of the Macedonian Call and it says when he had seen again the revelation When he had seen the vision revelation, he concluded interpretation that God had called us and so Paul again had a understanding an interpretation of what he had seen Genesis 40 verse 5 and 10. These are the dreams of the cupbearer and the baker when Joseph is in prison and it says this is the interpretation of it They came and they said listen, we've had a dream. The other guy said boy. I had a dream last night, too and So they had a dream but they had no idea what the dream represented They come to Joseph and Joseph said this is what the dream means And so there's a interpretation the same thing in Genesis 41 and verse 25 where God told Pharaoh What he is about to do Pharaoh had had the dream you recall about the seven Cows the skinny ones and the fat ones and so on but he didn't understand. What does this mean? You know, I saw these big sleek beautiful cattle and then the next day he says I had another dream and I saw all these skinny ones and You know, what does that mean? Go on a diet, you know, I mean so he comes to Joseph and Joseph said this is what God is about to do There's gonna be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine You see now, how would you get that out of that? Well, you know once you know, it's it makes sense. But apart from that it doesn't you know, you you don't know Alright, the third thing then is not only that we determine the revelation and the interpretation but now the application the application remember Mike Bickle many times sharing that you know, somebody would come up to him maybe at the end of a meeting and or in the middle of a meeting and Say, you know I've just had this tremendous burden for the youth And I believe God has just laid on my heart the fact that we're supposed to do something for the youth of this church, we're supposed to open a coffee shop say or something like that and Mike would say, you know, they may genuinely have heard from God. It may have been a revelation from God. They may have the right Interpretation that God is wanting to minister to youth but the wrong application their application was Mike You need to do something about it and Mike's application of it was no God gave you the burden they say Now many times we have a wrong application and we need to understand what is the application? Is it for the pastor to go and open a coffee shop and add to his already heavy schedule? Or is it the fact that God is giving you a burden or is it the fact that that burden has nothing to do with a Coffee shop. It's just the fact that it's an intercessory Burden that God has given you to pray and intercede for the youth of this area. And so application is important let's look in Acts 21 and verse 10 and This is where Paul Agabus meets up with With Paul and he has a word for him Let me read it to you verse 9. Now. This man had four virgin daughters who were prophets or prophetesses and Well verse 10 and as they were staying there for some days a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea and Coming to us. He took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said this is what the Holy Spirit says in this way The Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles now there we've got a prophetic man who obviously is of Good reputation because they accept him they embrace him Into their particular group and he takes the belt of Paul You know this prophetic word is don't go and what does Paul do and Paul answered? What are you doing weeping and breaking my heart for I'm ready not only to be bound But even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus and since he would not be persuaded We fell silent remarking the will of the Lord be done. So at least they were wise enough to say, okay We'll yield this thing up But Paul said listen, I am going to Jerusalem. Now. Why did he say that go back into the previous chapter and And In verse 20 and chapter 20 verse 20 I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you publicly from house to house No, that's not Verse 22 and now behold bound in spirit. I am on my way to Jerusalem not knowing what will happen to me there Except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city saying the bonds and afflictions await me As he Paul had already had confirmation after confirmation he says every city I don't know how many cities that was but let's be conservative at least and just say two It's got to be more than one because it's cities So in at least two other occasions prior to this the Spirit of God has indicated to Paul that when he gets to Jerusalem Again, there are bonds and afflictions that wait him now He comes here to this place and another prophet comes to him and he does the same thing And he says the person who owns this belt when he gets to Jerusalem He's gonna be bound and Paul's mind says boy. That's at least the third time. I've heard that message Yeah, I've got to prepare myself that there's trouble ahead Everybody else looks on us says listen, please Paul, whatever you do don't go and we all began begging him I mean, you know, it wasn't just Paul. I don't think you should go. I mean, they were literally begging the guy Don't go don't go. Don't go Finally Paul says hey quit it. Stop breaking my heart. Yeah, I'm going to Jerusalem. I know what's ahead of me It's so application is absolutely important that we make sure we have the right application All right One Peter one again because this verse contains with three other things that I want to deal with Let me just turn to it here I've got my notes Verse 10 as to this salvation the prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to come made careful search and inquiry seeking to know What person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the suffering of Christ and the glories to follow? All right seeking to know is Interpretation what person or time is application the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating is revelation See all three things are in that verse. Let me read again seeking to know what is the interpretation? The Spirit of God was doing something so seeking to know interpretation what person or time they wanted the application Who is this that were were prophesying about there's something stirring in me about something gonna happen and so on What when's it gonna happen number one who's gonna be the one that it's gonna happen to? So there's the application the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating there was a revelation Can you imagine Isaiah unto us a child is born unto us a son is given yeah, I mean hundreds of years before the Lord Jesus came and he knows that the Spirit of God within him is Prophesying but he's no idea, you know the fulfillment of that Lord when I mean is this gonna happen next week You know seeking know what time and what person who's it gonna be? Yeah, who is this virgin gonna be? You know that you're gonna entrust to carry The Son of God, you see and so even though he's prophesying he doesn't have all the pieces in place here And so again seeking to know interpretation what personal time application Spirit of Christ within them was indicating number four the word appropriation Or if you like invitation or application or but appropriation Hebrews 4 and verse 2 the word did not profit them because it was not united with faith The word did not profit them because it was not united with faith now the reason that the Man came to Moses and said Moses you promised That we would go in to our own inheritance vineyards and lands Milk and honey and it has not happened Moses you're a false prophet No, that was not the case Hebrews tells us the word did not profit them not being mixed with faith Why didn't that million people up to three million people never inherit the prophetic word that God gave remember? It was not a written word. It was a spoken word to Moses saying I will give you your own land houses land vineyards olive groves and so on and so forth that's what I want you to have and Moses then conveyed that word Through Aaron his prophet if you like the voice to the nation says God is going to give us our own land one day It's going to be an incredible land Houses and lands and vineyards and olive trees and so on and so forth and God wants us to go in He really did want them to go in and possess it But what happened they sent the spies into the land They were in the land for 40 days 10 out of the 12 came back with an evil report and God says because of your Unbelief, I will penalize you one year For every day of unbelief, I'll penalize you a year and you're gonna wander now in the wilderness another 40 years That's why the children of Israel were 40 years in the wilderness because God penalized them a day for every day of unbelief That should speak to us what unbelief can do to set back the purpose of God in your life Unbelief a day of unbelief can set you back a year In what God wants to do in your life. The word did not profit them not being mixed with faith There was nothing wrong with the word. There was nothing wrong with the prophetic message They did not appropriate it. I Had the privilege of taking over a church for a little while in New Zealand while the pastor traveled to the States on an extended actually around the world it was about six months and Over 20 years ago now and I remember being in his office. We took over his home and in his office He had all sorts of prophecies and what he would do as a pastor he would Take the tapes when prophetic people came through he would type them out He would give a copy to the individual that was prophesied over He would keep a copy and then every once in a while like every three months every six months Maybe every other year whatever it was whenever he felt he would pull that prophetic word out and he would call the person in and He would sit them down in his office and he'd say listen my responsibility as the pastor is that I have I'm to keep watch over your soul. I Will be accountable to God for my Shepherding of your soul and I want you to know Fred That I've been praying for you And what are you doing about this prophetic word that so-and-so gave six months ago saying that if you will seek my face and blah Blah blah, you know I will raise you up as a servant in this house or whatever it may be and He would hold him to that making sure again that that word was being united by faith or with faith You see but it wasn't just going dormant See, we need to understand the prophetic word has got to be united with faith in the parable of the sower and I think this is a very clear teaching on the prophetic word in Luke 8 and Verse 4 the intention of the sower being the Lord Jesus Christ was that he was sowing if you like prophetic seed about the kingdom of God He was speaking. It wasn't written. He didn't say now all of you open your Bibles You know He was speaking and it was the voice of God obviously because it was the Son of God and it says he was casting seed out into the crowd and that seed was the word of the kingdom and Yet that seed fell in some cases on stony ground in other cases on shallow ground and other cases where there was thorns and thistles In other places in good ground but there was nothing wrong with the seed every single one of those seeds that was cast out that day had the potential a 30-60 and a hundredfold See in other words It wasn't the fact that it was defective seed that fell by the roadside and but the best seed fell into the good ground It had nothing to do with the condition of the seed it had to do with the condition of the heart that received the seed That's important see there can be a prophetic word given that is a general prophetic word, let's say and There's nothing wrong with the seed But it may be that it doesn't fall into ground that receives it birds of the air come and take away the seed You know pressures and all sorts of other things come in doubts and insecurities and so on the enemy comes away He takes away the seed that way or the riches and the worries of life choke the seed And so it doesn't produce anything and you get a prophetic word about you know If you will spend time alone with me and seek my face and wait upon me I will raise you up as a man of God and then you get involved in business and you desire, you know Decide that you want that new car and and then you decide that you want that lady over there as your wife And then you decide that you want kids and you decide this and and the riches and the worries and the cares of this life Sap you of spending time with God spending time in the Word of God and so on and so forth It does not negate the fact that there was nothing wrong with the seed The seed is good. They have discovered in National Geographic maybe 20 years ago now when they did a story on the the tomb of one of the pyramids Tutankhamen whatever his name was that in between the the toes of the one of those mummies they found grains of seed and they estimated that they were at least two to three thousand years of age and they planted that seed and it germinated and The only thing that was wrong with that said there was nothing wrong with the seed the problem was it was not in an environment that was conducive for that seed to germinate and The the prophetic word really is a seed it is a seed that has the potential of Fulfilling all that God wants you to to have but it has to fall into good soil you see and many times we think well, you know, I had this wonderful word from John Paul Jackson or this wonderful word from Phil and You know, the weeks have gone by and nothing's happened, you know, and we need to ask ourselves. Listen if I really United that word in faith and say God I believe it now. I'm gonna pray that thing into being so to speak I'm gonna water that thing Lord. I thank you. I'm looking forward a day when that's gonna come I'm going to begin to study like I've never studied before I'm gonna spend time along with you now I'm gonna wait on you. I'm gonna begin to develop that gift and and so on and so forth, you see and So appropriation I think you know many times these men, you know get a bad rap as being false prophets because it's really something that we have not done to fulfill what God told us to do and There's nothing wrong with the seed. The seed is good. It's again. There's been a lack of a appropriation And so I study the parable of the son Even in Daniel Daniel chapter 9 what Daniel had a revelation of the desolation of Jerusalem It was going to be 70 years and he says he gave himself to seek the Lord You see now you would have thought that here was the fulfillment. He saw that they all these events were being We're culminating and coming together and so on and yet Daniel still gives himself to praying that prophetic word into being you see Matthew 23 verse 37 Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem How often I would have gathered you as a hen gathers the chickens and you were unwilling now There is the expression again of the heart of God. I wanted to gather you I long to gather you and he's expressing again his desire There is a prophetic word for the city of Jerusalem that God would have gathered them as a hen gathers the chickens But you would not you see and so they refused Again, two Chronicles 714 you're familiar with that if my people were called by my name humble yourselves pray and so on the next one is conditions obviously and that Deals with it these two sort of flow together Jeremiah 18 and verse 4 where God again speaks to Jeremiah about the potter's house and It talks about you know I'm able to speak concerning nations to build that nation up or to destroy that nation But if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its wicked way I will relent concerning the evil that I said I would bring about it so God says even the prophetic word of judgment can be thwarted if Those conditions are met where they repent you see and of course we have that very clearly in the story of Jonah and Nineveh Where Jonah says 40 days and this city is going to be overthrown and he goes throughout the whole land Proclaiming 40 days 40 days 40 days and nothing happens at the end of 40 days. Why because they repented Now somebody could have written a book about the false prophecy of Jonah that Jonah gave a prophetic word. It did not come to pass I was there. I've got it on tape and I heard him listen to it, you know 40 days and Nineveh will be overflowed That's Jonah's voice. Right, right, and it didn't happen So therefore he is a false prophet But no there were conditions in that prophetic word if you repent I will relent concerning the judgment visit and so again, there are conditions many times that God gives and we we need to Understand that I remember one of the men in my church in Gig Harbor And he was given a wonderful prophetic word and I was thinking to myself man. This is This is the wrong guy for this word you know and then finally the prophetic word sort of turn and he said in order for this word to come to pass and then there were the conditions and Many times God will do that. It's a word of encouragement to build us up, you know and so on But then there are conditions that apply Second Kings 20 verses 1 to 6 set your house in order Isaiah speaking to Hezekiah For you shall die and not live Again, I heard it on tape. I was there the prophet Isaiah gave a prophetic word over Hezekiah. You're about to die What does Hezekiah do the prophet leaves Hezekiah turns the wall faces the wall cries out to God and he gets 15 years extension he didn't die you see there's a period of time why because of conditions that were met and So we don't have to Necessarily see the fulfillment of those good or bad depending on our faith Alright the the sixth one the word dispensation need to hurry here and by dispensation. I'm just using the the matter of timing timing many times we get frustrated because we don't see the fulfillment of something when we think we should and the days go on the weeks go on and and so on and I think it was John Paul somebody last night saying that nobody is born mature. You know, there is always a process Involved Joseph had a dream prophetic word from God that all his brothers would bow down his father would bow down He knew that his brothers despised him, you know So on and I'm sure he came down to breakfast that morning and after giving the prophetic word Expecting them to all fall down and sort of fulfill the you know, after all he was excited You know, finally God's on my side and you know, he's seeing my dilemma here They're always poking fun at me saying your daddy's boy and so on and so forth a mummy's boy You're always in the kitchen. We're out there. We get to do all the you know, all the work and so on and all this Despising and ridiculing that went on because they really didn't like him and and so on and finally he's vindicated You know God himself gives him a message. It's all gonna change Joseph. They're gonna bow down They're gonna acknowledge you're the greatest and he comes flying down to breakfast that morning. I'm sure his chest puffed out, you know So listen guys, I have I've got something to say, you know Let's say grace first and now before you eat and you know 13 years later 13 years in which the Word of the Lord tried him He was afflicted in irons and chains and so on all the rejection that he went through You see many times the prophetic word does not include the fine print How many of you know that there was nothing negative in the prophetic word that God gave to him All it was was talking about the one day He's gonna know what it is to be in place of superiority over all of his brothers and so on and so forth There was nothing about what was gonna happen a few days later When he's gonna be grabbed from behind thrown into a pit and they talked about killing him and then one of his brothers pleaded that No, don't do that. We can make some money out of this thing and so on so forth and eventually, you know, he's all that whole process none of that was originally contained in the prophetic word at all and He could have very easily. I'm sure thought God this is not what you promised Yeah All right Habakkuk Chapter 2 in verse 3 though. The vision is for the vision is yet for an appointed time though it tarry wait for it Though it tarry wait for it. I am just now beginning to Experience prophetic words that were given over me 33 years ago That I've held on to all of those years like I said One of the prophetic words I received was about writing and that was in 1964 I had two or three other prophetic words in New Zealand where people would pull me out of a crowd and say one day You're gonna write again My carnal mind says your father wrote and they know that you know that you're Leonard Ravenhill son And so therefore and I would sort of dismiss these words. It'd be sort of like oh, you're George Beverly Shea's daughter sister I believe God's gonna give you a wonderful ministry music, you know, that's the way my mind works, you know It's like, you know, just dismiss it This is just you know, they they know and you know, it's all it's all in the mind Well after about five or six of those words Clear words about writing, you know, I finally decided to do something and in 1988 I sort of put pen to paper and started, you know Writing down some of the messages that God has given me sort of life messages and so on but it was a 10-year process from 88 to last year in which that book had been completed John Paul No that when I was in Kansas City when we were together in Kansas City that book was finished one of the brothers there sort of did the fine-tuning on it as far as the doing all the grammatical Work and the editing and then after that I had a lady Do some work on it and it sat there for five years And I knew beyond a shadow of doubt that with the release of that book God would release me from pastoral ministry and into a traveling ministry And finally I got to the place where I just put it on the shelf. I said God in your timing You've got a timing for this and last June the phone rang publisher called me said we want to publish your book And I knew right then right after that. I had numerous a number of prophetic words Somebody called me and said, you know, I believe you know You're gonna be moving as somebody else called me from Brownsville said would you come down here and do some teaching? Paul Cain gave me a word just sovereignly in a meeting in Kansas City 4,000 people there He said God's gonna bless your traveling itinerant ministry I've been pastoring for all those years and all of a sudden everything fell into place and And so there are timings many times dispensations if you like in the fullness of time God sent forth his son and God wasn't in any hurry. He prophesied from Genesis 1 and all the other subsequent Generations through all the prophets that the day was coming when the seed of the woman would come and yet, you know thousands of years went by But in the fullness of time God sent forth his His son and in the fullness of time God is able to bring the completion That which he has given you and many times that prophetic word again It's outside of the scope of our understanding our ability and so on God has got a mature us brings that place where we can handle these things and and there's a timing that is involved in it so Galatians 4 and verse 4 when the fullness of time had come So anyway, we've we've got this whole thing then of dispensation number six the word motivation of seven seven now, this is a Be careful with this one. I'm sharing it with you because I do think there is truth in it and I would appreciate these other men of God if necessary tweaking this because it's a It's a dangerous one in a sense, but let me share it with you anyway, because it does I believe fit in here Motivation Is equal 14 verse 1 then some elders of Israel came to me and sat down before me now notice the men of God at least They've got a spiritual position Some elders of Israel came sat down before me This is Ezekiel and the word of the Lord came to me saying so he gives a prophetic word son a man these men I've set up in there I've set up idols in their heart and I've put right before their faces the stumbling block of their idolatry Should I be consulted by them at all? So the prophets sit there these elders have obviously come for a word And the word of the Lord comes to the prophet and he says these guys are full of idolatry You know should I be consulted by them at all? And then he says therefore speak to them and tell them thus saith the Lord God any man of the house of Israel who sets up An idol in his heart and puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity and then comes to the prophet I the Lord will be brought to give him an answer in the matter in view of the multitude of his idols In other words, I will answer him according to the idolatry of his heart So motivation becomes a very important part in the prophetic realm See this guy has got idolatry in his heart. He wants sort of confirmation or he's wanting a word from God I'm gonna answer him according to the idolatry that is in his heart now, let me give you some other verses because I realize this is a sort of a Dangerous area in one sense, but Psalm 106 and verse 15 It says he gave them the desires of the heart But he sent leanness to the souls The nation of Israel asked God for something. They crave something. What was it a King we want a king like the nation's God give us a king like the nation's or at least to Moses give us a sorry Samuel the prophet We want a king like the nation Samuel Samuel give us a king like the nation's and God says Samuel don't weep They're not rejecting you. They've rejected me as being king over them And so God gives them a king but he sends leanness, oh no, sorry I'm getting this mixed up this is one where they're desiring The desiring meat instead of a manna better correct that otherwise, I'll end up in somebody else's book. But um, he said This is where this is where they're tired of the manna day after day after day after day after day and They finally they come to Moses. I was right see initially they they come to Moses and they said listen We want a change of menu, you know, we are tired of grits morning noon and night you know and God says, okay he calls the heavens and he says meet Change the menu and it says he gave them the desires of the heart, but he sent leanness to the soul In other words, he satisfied the craving that they had But as a result there was spiritual famine that resulted so we need to make sure our motivation is right Why do I want the gift that I want? Say to glorify God or to make a name for myself Big difference, isn't it? I was sharing yesterday. One of the things that Winky Pratt And he talked to me about many many years ago. We were in conversation. We've been friends and Way way back long before he was married. I was best man in his wedding Winky said to me he said David he said when we stand before God he won't ask us what we did He'll ask us why we did it That's scary, isn't it? He won't ask us What we did he'll ask us why we did it. See God's more interested in motive than he is in Accomplishing something you say I've got reasonably good string of things. I could say I've done Traveled here and there and everything else. But why did I do it? You see? What is the motivation? Was it the glory of God? Whatever you do, where did he do all to the glory of God? Somebody was telling me just the other day and I assume this is right. I believe it is that brother that works with Rick Joyner who is Becoming quite famous now in the worship realm. Is it Don Potter? Don Potter that for a period of time God says I don't want you leading worship anymore And I think it was for a year if I understood the story correctly He said I want you to take a chair I want you to get in your room face the wall and play and learn to worship me And all I want you to do. I want you to worship me and then after a year he released him That deals with motives if you can honestly if you're a worship leader and you can be satisfied Worshiping God alone Then chances are your motive is good Otherwise, it's my ability to play the guitar You know and I want to impress people as to how much I can you know Sort of let fly and so on and so forth you say And one of the laws of the altar, I guess I'm digressing a little bit one of one of the laws In fact the very first time that God ever mentioned an altar in the Bible It says when you make an altar see to it. He says that you don't make it of cut stone and the one thing about an altar is if you put anything of your own ability into it in that sense embellish it with anything of your Ability the Bible says that's altar then becomes an abomination and we've got a lot of cut stone Performing you say and we've got to be very very careful because when we stand before God one day He's gonna say like he did with the scribes and Pharisees. You already have your reward That's scary, isn't it? I don't want that See they stood on the street corner they prayed all right, but it was to be seen of men the motive was not prayer the motive was People are gonna think I'm really spiritual So anyway, so motivation is a matter again the other one that I was mentioning in Psalms He gave them a king in his anger. He took it took him away in his wrath God did give them a king But he did it because they demanded a king. It was not God's intention. He says they've not rejected you Samuel They've rejected me from being a king over them. All right number seven eight I guess contradictions Many times a prophetic word will seem to have contradictions in it Because you are calling into being the prophetic as we heard yesterday Has got that creative power behind it that can call into being the thing that is not and and it seems to contradict It's like when I got a word about speaking and so on in the natural. I didn't want to speak. I didn't Relish speaking. I was shy. I was nervous. It had it was full of contradictions at least in my mind God I can't do that This guy said I see you speaking into microphone I hated public speaking literally in homiletics class in Bible school. We were divided into two groups It wasn't a big class, but we're divided into two groups We had a five-minute message to prepare and the gentleman that was teaching the class would listen for two and a half minutes in one make some notes about you know content and Style and so on and then go into the other room and get in on the last two and a half minutes of the other Person they made the mistake of going in the other room for two and a half minutes by the time he got back I was all through my first message I had exhausted my knowledge of the Word of God in two and a half minutes, and I was through and you know It wasn't that my knees not together my voice just literally well first of all my mouth would dry out and my head used to shake like this long before Toronto, you know and And it would draw attention to myself. I mean I was I was literally terrified to speak It took me four years to overcome the fear of speaking Long before the days of name it and claim it so thing I would sit on the front row confessing every scripture I could Lord, you know your strength is made perfect in weakness. Let the weak say I am strong and so on I mean Meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting I battled and battled and battled for years To overcome that I mean I literally and it was such a contradiction to have a prophetic word that talked about doing this and doing that and so on it was everything I couldn't do and And so many times there appears to be contradictions Isaiah 9 again verse 6 unto us a child is born unto us a son is given Okay, Isaiah, where is he? You said he's born. He's given not will be Not sometime down in the line Someplace, but unto us a child is born unto us a son is given the government Okay were show me you prophesied I was in the meeting got it on tape, you know See and there are contradictions seemingly in the prophetic why because they're calling them being the things that are not as though they were and Same thing in 1 Kings 18 41. It says allow Elijah speaking to Ahab He says there's a sound of a heavy shower the roar of a heavy shower Nobody heard it, but he was calling it to being the things that are not you could have been there and says That's not true. There's nothing going on Yeah, you just told this guy there's a there's a sound of a roar of a heavy shower coming I mean been years anyway since it rained See, but what does he do? He goes up he gets down on his face before God and he begins to pray says to his servant anything happening. Nope Sends him out again anything happening? No, what was it three times or something? Finally comes back Well, he said there's a cloud the size of a man's hand I mean, he just I mean, I'm not even sure just maybe a speck on my glasses, but you know But He'd already said there's a you know a shower on the way All right, two others quickly a confirmation 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 1 in the multitude of counselors or at least in the mouth of two or three witnesses There is safety or the multitude of counselors of safety The prophetic word and there are exceptions as we heard last night prophetic word really should confirm like Paul The Spirit signifying in every city that I've gone to the bonds and afflictions await me. This is confirmation confirmation confirmation and I personally look at the prophetic word far more in a confirming manner Although there are times again when God will give us something in a seed form to jump-start us or whatever and then after that there Will be confirmations, but one way or the other we need confirmations Concerned the Word of God And then limitations finally, let me just close with that And by that 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 9 it says that I think that's right Make sure that's right reference. Anyway, we prophecy we we prophesy in part. Yeah, that's right I'll say 13 We know in part and we prophesy in part Again, the prophetic does not always give you all the details Just like again Joseph It it just gives you the big picture Many times to give you an understanding of the direction God wants you to go and so on then there's details that need to be Worked out and so there are limitations concerning that All right, I've got more here, but our time is through and that really pretty well sort of brings it to an end I think Let's just close in with prayer. But let me just Share that with you today so that you do have an understanding that the the prophetic Does have a complexity to it in that sense that we need to understand that You know just because somebody gives a prophetic word it may be profound and so on that There's other components that make up the fulfillment of that and I think there's been many many accurate Godly prophetic words that have been given that have been rejected Because of a lack of understanding of the sort of the various components and We've expected it for instance to be fulfilled next week or we've expected this or that or just because somebody gave it to us we Expected God to do it and so on and there are times Sovereignly when God will do things without us ever praying and seeking him and so on so I'm just sharing these things and not You know, they're not in a hard fast way, but at least to give you some some principles Father we thank you again for your word. We thank you Lord just for the richness Lord of your word, we thank you for the prophetic Realm Lord father. What a blessing Lord to hear you for your voice to hear you speak Lord Father to hear the desire of your heart for each one of us Well, you said the thoughts I have concerning you and not thoughts of evil, but thoughts of good Father the voice that you speak is a voice that Lord longs to bring us higher longs to bring us deeper Father we ask Lord even in our times together Lord Throughout the rest of this day father speak Lord We want to hear your voice Lord like Samuel. We say speak Lord for thy servant heareth in Jesus name. Amen