GOD IS ALWAYS SPEAKING TO HIS CHILDREN
It would be unthinkable for me to go into my Father's living room, sit with him for four hours and never have him say anything to me. That just wouldn't happen.
Perhaps some of you had a real dysfunctional home where that kind of thing would happen. But really, whenever I go home to my wife or go over to visit my father, they always have something to say.
So why is it that some Christians believe God only talks once in a while when it's really important? Can you imagine having a Dad like that in the natural - one who only ever said anything to you when He needed to bring correction, direction or discipline?
I mean - the Father wants to talk to you all the time, not just once a year at a prophetic conference. God wants to speak to you in just about every situation, every moment of your life - you've just got to learn to position yourself to hear what God's saying.
Learn how to stir up the prophetic and learn how to be available to His Spirit. So there is a place for prophetic activation and practice within proper guidelines.
In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul brings correction and presents some guidelines to the Corinthians who were beginning to grow prideful about the visions and revelations they were receiving from God.
It seems that they were somehow competing with one another to see who had the most powerful prophetic word. So because of visions or angelic visitations, some of these people began to think too highly of themselves. Then Paul says to them, "What do you mean - you're not God's man of the hour. You can ALL prophesy one by one that you all may learn."
I can call anybody up, and if they're willing to step into the unknown, lay down their dignity and be available, they'll hear from God. Likewise, if you, my reader, will take the time to hear God, fulfill His requirements to live a prophetic lifestyle and stir up the prophetic, you will grow very quickly in this gift.
Scripture is clear that we can all prophesy one by one. And you know why? There is a place for activating and stirring up the prophetic. When we practice ministering in the prophetic, this is the level that we start at: "... you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn" (I Cor. 14:31).
You're not going to become a prophet after this activation. However, you're going to learn to prophesy so that you may learn and that you might be encouraged in the fact that you hear God and you don't just hear God once a year.
I'll tell you, if I was to stand up and talk about how many times God talks to me on a daily basis, you would lock me out of the church. Because you would be like, "What do you mean ‘God said, God said, God said.'" I run into people all the time who ask, "God said?"
To them, God is quiet and only talks when He is angry. "He only talks when He wants to reveal your sin," they say. "God only talks to you when you need a heavy revy," they say, "God doesn't just want to speak to you in intimacy. Forget about it - don't even expect to hear from God."
Well, I believe that God is far more personal than that. I expect that, every day when I wake up out of my bed, I'm going to hear a word from the Lord. You know, those words won't always be about direction and the future. As we minister over one another this afternoon, forget about stuff that involves direction and future.
Let's just keep the guidelines of the prophetic ministry to comfort, edification, exhortation and confirmation (1 Cor. 14:3). Stay away from dates and telling people about the one that they're going to marry. Stay in the place of prophesying one by one that you may learn.
When you speak God's mind and heart, you are prophesying. Really, it's so easy to hear God's voice.
Scripture tells you, in 1 Corinthians 2, that the Spirit that lives inside of you searches out the deep things of God. This passage shows you why you can expect to hear God for others and why you can expect to hear God any time you position yourself in prophetic ministry mode.
Here we read about why God wants to speak and why He wants to speak to you, not just the prophet and not just the church leadership. God wants you to be a prophetic person. Let's look at a passage from 1 Corinthians:
However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.
But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those that love Him." God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.
For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in Him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God." (1 Cor. 2:11)
The Holy Spirit knows right now everything that is in the heart of the Father about every person reading this. He knows right now every deep thought that God has for each and every person in this room. He knows what you need to hear.
The Spirit of God is searching out the deep things of God; He's searching out the heart; He's searching out the secrets of the Father. And He has these special thoughts for every individual that the Father has created. Verse 12 of this same chapter says, "Now we have received, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God."
GOD'S INNUMERABLE THOUGHTS TOWARD US
The Holy Spirit dwells inside of you, full of revelation. And the Holy Spirit dwells inside of you so that you are able to tap into the deep things of the Father for, not only your own lives, but for you, for me, for us as individuals.
And you know why you can prophesy - because you're going to be relying on that well of the Holy Ghost that's inside of you to reveal to you something about somebody you're going to have an opportunity to minister to.
You know David says, "How innumerable are the thoughts of God towards us."
Yes, He has an innumerable amount of thoughts toward you. So if I want to prophesy over someone, all I have to do is say, "Holy Spirit, give me revelation right now; allow me to tune into just one thought".
I'll tell you, you've ministered in the prophetic even when you speak to somebody one thought; when God gives you one mental picture and you don't even have an interpretation and you just speak that picture, you've prophesied.
Through the Holy Ghost, you've just tuned into the deep things of God and got one of those innumerable thoughts. That's all I'm going to ask you to do. I'm not going to ask you to tap into the multitude of the innumerable thoughts of God and prophesy for one hour over one individual.
We're just going to say, "Holy Spirit thanks that You know the deep things of God. You know the things of the Father. I want you to give me just one thought, one word, for that person. As you make yourself available, expect that you can prophesy. The prophetic anointing is for you. We're speaking about bubbling forth out of your spirit, past or present or future.
Now I want to talk here for a minute about how to recognize God's voice.
How do you know when God has spoken? How does He communicate with us?
In the book of Hebrews, it talks about God speaking to the prophets in various ways. God could also communicate to you the prophecy that He wants to give in a vision or in a dream.
I've been caught up into the third heaven; I've had angelic visitations. I've had open-eyed visions, closed-eye visions. The Holy Spirit has come and spoken to me right out of the word of God - a scripture jumped off of the page. I've been spoken to through some of the most natural donkeys of the world, including television.
Prophetic ministries have spoken God's words to me. Nobody taught me this but these are some of the ways God speaks to me.
So how do I get a word of knowledge? How do I know whose getting healed? In Prince George, the Holy Ghost gave me one word and He said somebody that's deaf is going to hear. So I said, "If you're deaf, come up here. You're going to hear."
Now I'll tell you something - you're stepping out on the water to say something like that. Not only was there a lady who was deaf, but she could hear nothing in either ear without hearing aids. By the end of the night, she testified, God had healed her deaf ears. I just had that one God thought; I saw one deaf person. But what if I never spoke that word because I was afraid that it wasn't going to be God?
That's one of the hurdles that you're got to get over in the prophetic - the possibility that you can miss God. It's all right when you're two years old not to be walking as well as you will when you're 10.
It's all right to talk babble sometimes - it's all right to not understand all the great mysteries of the prophetic and it's OK if you're not trained by the best. It's all right because "you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn" (1 Cor. 14:31).
ESTABLISHING A PROPHETIC LEARNING ATMOSPHERE
There has to be room for you to be able to learn and make a mistake. There has to be an atmosphere in which you can test all things, where you can speak and operate in the prophetic. Then you will be encouraged when that person says, "You heard God for me".
The next time you prophesy, you will feel a little more confident. That's why I want to activate you in the prophetic - to build a confidence in you that not only can you prophesy, but that when you do and the person receiving the word confirms it for you, your confidence level will begin to grow.
You've gotta begin to have that release. I came to a place, not just in the prophetic, but in the anointing, where it's OK if I missed it.
It's OK if I say what I think I'm seeing and nobody responds.
Michael Carter, Realtor
421 SE Main Street, Suite 201
Simpsonville, SC 29681
Comments(2)