 Okay, good morning and welcome. We are back to our session on prophetic ministry. So let's begin with the word of prayer. I want to see if any of our online students can please lead in prayer. Let's start. And after which we will get into our study. Anybody from the online match. Father God, thank you Lord. Thank you for this wonderful time that you've given us. Pastor, shall I continue? Yes, Jackie, you can go. Father God, thank you Lord. Thank you for this time that you've given us Lord God to study from your word Lord God. Thank you for teaching us Lord God Father we commit this time into your hands. Pastor Nancy and all that she's going to teach us Father God help us to hear from you Lord God Father help us to put it into practice Lord whatever that you have taught us Lord Father we commit each of us into your hands whether we are studying online or even in the physical class Lord God Father maybe be governed by your spirit Lord God in Jesus name we pray. Okay. And thank you, Jackie. Thank you for leading us. We'll just do a quick recap of what we were talking about in the last class. We said that we could learn from the experience of Bala the prophet and we saw that he explained exactly how he was able to pick up God's communication. We said that he was able to see with his eyes and then we discussed how seeing with the eyes may mean seeing from the spiritual through the spiritual eyes. But at the same time it is possible that the natural eyes can be those tools through which we can look in inside the spirit realm. That's also a possibility. Then we talked about hearing from God and we said that we hear from God not necessarily with sound but minus the sound God's communication comes into our spirit. So we pick up words we may pick up sentences much more than that. Then the knowledge of the Lord is another way in which Bala said that he received God's communication. So we explained that something like a download coming into our spirit is one way in which God communicates. We looked at how he fell to the ground and he was in a trance. We discussed about trance. We also discussed about dreams and visions and we said that these are all visual communication. We could either have a picture or we could have many pictures like a motion picture and vision. Visions of the night or some people call it shakti visions are what are known as dreams in the night when we are seeing visions. That's called as a dream. So we've understood all these ways but today we are going to go further and look at what the Old Testament carries with regard to hearing from God. So what were some of the methods or the usual practices by which people heard from God. The good thing for us to recognize is that God has always chosen to speak. So for us to think that God is somewhere high up there and he does not want to communicate with us that would be false. Because we see that God was speaking, guiding and leading the people even under the Old Covenant. So it excites us because under the New Covenant and with the Holy Spirit being given to every believer the way we can hear from God actually multiplies, the capacity multiplies. So that is the encouragement that we have from God's word. So let's quickly look at how God spoke in the Old Testament. We'll go to chapter 2 here so you can all shift to chapter 2 in our notes. One of the primary ways in which God spoke to the children of Israel was through the priests. So in the Old Testament we have to recognize that not everybody could hear from God or the Holy Spirit did not come upon everybody. It only came upon priests, kings, prophets. So the priests were in that position where they could hear from the Spirit of God. And for them God had given certain instructions. So one was to wear an ephod. Ephod was a piece of their garment which carried stones on it. So they would have all the tribes of Israel on that ephod and they would go into God's presence. It's like the priest is carrying all the tribes of Israel and go meet the Lord, pray for them and all of that. Now when it came to receiving God's communication, there were also some other gemstones that were a part of what a high priest carried. And these gemstones were known as Urim and Tumim. I don't know how many of you have paid attention to this when you read the Old Testament but there were certain gemstones. Why did God give them these gemstones? Because through these gemstones, God would speak to them. And it is called when you interpret what Urim and Tumim stand for, it stands for lights and perfections. Lights and perfections. So when God wanted to speak to the children of Israel, He would direct them through the Urim and Tumim. So the high priest would have them and God would communicate through those gemstones. Now exactly how God gave them the information they needed, we are not very clear on that. What some people suggest is that maybe God would put some light on the Urim and Tumim. Like if it's a yes, then maybe light will fall on this or if it's a no, light will fall on that. If it's a big yes from God, then the light will shine brightly on some of the gemstones. So something like that, through that way the priest would know what God is trying to tell them. Should we go for war or should we move out of this place? That's how God would communicate through that Urim and Tumim. Now some people say that maybe they put it in a pouch and then they kind of picked a gemstone and whichever came based on that, they knew what God was trying to tell them. So there are many speculations on how exactly this was used. But for us to understand that this was the mode that the high priest used must be sufficient. How exactly God spoke? We are not very clear about it. So gemstones were used. Imagine today also if we want to hear from the Lord and we depend on gemstones or something where God says yes, no. It would be quite challenging. Thank God under the new covenant we don't have to do these things. Now moving on, after Urim and Tumim, the next way in which people heard in the Old Testament was through a prophet. Remember I told us if people wanted to know anything, they would search for a seer. In that Samuel's case we said that they would search for a seer. The seer will ask God, God will speak to the seer and then the communication, you know, the decision would be made. So that was the way. And here we have that passage. First Samuel chapter 9 and verse 9, it's on page 29 if you are following the e-copy. The scripture says, formally in Israel when a man went to inquire of God, he spoke thus, come let us go to the seer. For he who is now called a prophet was formally called a seer. So this is the customary practice which people followed. And we know people like Samuel, he was a seer. People like Elijah, Elisha, they were seers. So people would kind of go to them and then hear from the Lord as to what God was saying. Now under the new covenant we know that Holy Spirit lives inside each one of us. So this practice of the Old Testament, even today many believers they ask that I want to go to a prophet. And you know sometimes you have all these advertisements on TV about some conference that is taking place and all. What people tend to do is they feel that they have to go there, they have to meet that prophet because maybe they are at crossroads in their lives and they need to know, God do you want me to do ministry? Do you want me to take up this job? It's better to go to a prophet because I can hear from God. But you see this is, this happened a lot in the Old Testament. But it need not be like that now which sometimes people don't understand. That's why running behind prophets, conference to conference, you know, they don't mind paying a big amount of money going to another nation and attending one conference because there is a prophet. But remember that now with the Holy Spirit inside every believer that is not necessary, not necessary. But was it necessary for the Old Testament believers? Yes. Because there was no other way, no other way. You got to go to the priest or you got to run behind the prophet. Okay, so it's an Old Testament concept. It's not at all a New Testament concept. So a good passage of scripture for us regarding this is from Romans chapter 8. Verses 14 and 16. Could somebody please turn to this passage and read it. Romans 8 verse 14 and verse 16. Romans chapter 8 verse 14 to 16. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Okay, just go back to 14, Arvind. Okay, great. So led by the spirit of God. Okay, led by the spirit of God. So it's a privilege that we have today as children of God, we can be led by the spirit of God directly. We don't have to depend on any prophet. Second verse 16 says the spirit bears witness with our spirit. Always remember that. So the spirit can bear witness with my spirit, which means whatever God wants to communicate or he's sensing, he can let me know in my spirit. So in my spirit, I can know what God wants me to do. Again, I don't have to run behind any prophet. So always remember, so Old Testament way of doing things was running behind prophets. It's not the New Testament way of doing things because now we are led by the spirit of God. Now the spirit bears witness with my spirit. Okay, and that is what I need to develop myself in. How to hear what the Holy Spirit is doing. He is leading me and what witness he is bearing. So moving on to the next section. We always ask the question, you know, what is a good prophecy? Recently also I was hearing a teaching on the prophetic and then they were saying, is it accurate? If somebody said something, is it accurate? And then accuracy seems to be the, like, how do you say, based on that, you can verify if a prophecy is correct. Okay, so accuracy seems to be at the center of what what one needs to decide regarding the authenticity of a prophecy. But what does the Old Testament say? There's an entire passage that talks about good prophecy. What is a good prophecy? Let's look at Deuteronomy chapter 13 verses 1 through 5. It's not a very long passage, so maybe I'll quickly read it for us. Here's what it says. If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and he gives you a sign or a wonder. And the sign or the wonder comes to pass of which he spoke to you saying, let us go after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them. You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice. You shall serve him and hold fast to him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from amidst you. I read it because we can see exactly what God is saying. What God is saying is if there is a prophecy in this case it comes to pass. Okay, it comes to pass. But what that prophecy is doing is it is taking our hearts away from God. Got it? And what does God say? If that happens don't listen to that prophet even put that prophet to death. But the prophecy came true. That means according to us he's a good prophet whatever he said happened but God is saying that's not the key thing that decides. Accuracy is not the key thing that decides whether a prophecy is from God. What is the key thing? Whether the prophecy is taking you closer to God or is it taking you away from God. That is the deciding factor. Understood? Not accuracy. We can prophesy many things and it can happen. But just because it's happening to say that yes that is from God. That's not what the Bible says. It's not about fulfillment of what a prophet said. Got it? Instead the real test is is it drawing me closer to God or is it taking me away from God? If the prophetic word is taking me away from God Bible say discard it. Don't have anything to do. In this case the prophet quite severely dealing with the prophet. So that's a very important point for us as believers today. Otherwise we run behind anything that is spoken and it seems to be getting fulfilled. So look at the integrity of the message. Whether it is pure. Is it establishing people in God or taking people away from God? That decides what a good prophecy is all about. Now coming to the expression of prophecy. When we think of prophecy it's always about speaking what God is saying. That's the way we express it. That says the Lord. That's the common usage in the Old Testament. And then they'll say God's message. But in the Old Testament there are other forms of expression of the prophetic word. Take for example the Psalms. Some of the Psalms that David wrote or even the others wrote Psalmist it seems to be speaking about the Messiah. So then what does it become? It's a prophetic Psalm. So in the form of song or Psalms the prophetic word has been released. So it's possible that the prophetic word can come as song. It can come as poetry. It can come as a parable. Even like in the form of drama and different expressions. So when we look at the prophetic word in the Old Testament people shared it in different ways. Moses wrote a song of blessing in Deuteronomy 33. When Nathan brought correction to David how did he do? He shared a story. So that's prophetic. He did it in a creative way. Jeremiah's message of the broken pot. That's also a different way of expressing what is in the heart of God. So when you look at things like this we see that the expression of the prophetic can be in different ways. So in the Old Testament similar things have happened. For example when Agabus he wants to tell Paul that Paul you are going to be caught very soon they will seize you take your way. You know what he does? He takes Paul's belt and he binds himself and he says the person to whom this belt belongs will be bound. He could have just said Paul you will be imprisoned but that's not how he said it. He did it in a creative way. So creative expressions are something that we can embrace even today. You just mentioned this Deuteronomy chapter 13 verse 12. So here it was actually talking about the punishment of apostates. Talking about? Punishment of apostates. Okay. So we also have to consider all this like what you have said. It's not the accuracy is not important. Correct. But it had to take us closer to God. Yeah. So is this for us also for the New Testament people? Yes it is. Yeah. Is it taking us closer to God or not? It's the biggest test. So then it was here it was written like we have to like we have to in the sixth verse we should so in the fifth verse but the prophet or the dreamer of dream shall be put to death because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord. Yeah God. So if he says something wrong that which that which won't happen that is clearly that it was telling like he was just trying to take you away from God. So we have to put him. Correct. That doesn't mean he's an actual prophet he's speaking from the Holy Spirit. He was speaking by his own. If we have to take this as a as a test from God. Yeah. Then only if he's a prophet to prophet when he is trying to take us away from God he is not a prophet. Right. Then the commandment also won't be for us. Yeah. So you're saying you're talking about the part where it says put to death is it? Okay. So you're saying yeah context is that. So you're asking now how does it apply? See right now we are under grace. So in the important thing is accuracy. So you okay. This accuracy also that accuracy plays a major role in prophecies and prophetic ministry. That's correct. That doesn't mean like if someone if someone says something. If it won't happen how we have to take is it like what you said that God is testing us the accuracy is not important. Yeah. Or we have to consider what he actually told us is by his own spirit he told. Okay. So then discussing regarding the accuracy part of prophecy. See we'll come to this later. All prophecy is conditional. All let me put it this way. All personal prophecy is conditional. Meaning there are conditions. Even if God doesn't state it. Got it. Let's just look at Saul and David. Their example. I know I'm taking an Old Testament example because it will be very clear what I'm trying to say. See when God chose Saul God may have known what Saul is going to do. But what was God's heart for Saul? That okay. He will do well asking. You know. And definitely God doesn't intend for any of us to fail. That's not God's dream for any of us. But when we look at the life of Saul we look at his rebellion. We look at his jealousy. There came a point. Even scriptures tell us that God was so sad. You know that he had appointed Saul. And then he had to bring in another man. That's when David comes into the picture. Okay. Now is it that God chose I mean God knows everything. And then why did he choose Saul? Did God not want a good destiny for him? Whether or not you know prophetic words over his life Samuel anointed him asking over the people. See prophecy is what. Prophecy is what is in God's heart. So what was in God's heart for Saul? Good. That he will rule and reign. But all prophecy is conditional. Even though Samuel the prophet anointed Saul you see that the way Saul went about his life. He was disobedient. He was rebellious. So when you don't meet certain conditions he didn't fulfill God's dream for his life Saul. Is it God's fault? No. Saul did not do the right things. And so he missed it. He missed the target. He missed the destiny. That is what I mean when I say all personal prophecy is conditional. When it comes to accuracy of a prophecy of a prophetic word most of the time right personal prophecy we have to cooperate. I mean all the time we have to cooperate with God. If we don't do that then we may miss out and then we can't blame the prophet saying you said this but I didn't happen in my life. There are thousand reasons why it didn't happen. Did you get what I am trying to tell you? So it's not just the the prophet's responsibility to see that come to pass. The person is as much responsible as the prophet who spoke those things. Maybe what the prophet said is accurate. But it didn't happen because this person did not fulfill the conditions. Sorry. See. Okay. Okay. Successful and God have actually decided for us. And then he also knows it after after he want to speak with me to a prophet if I disobey also he already knew it. He already know that I disobey and I will go away. Then what is the use of this prophecy? See God is all knowing. Okay. I am not able to think of anything specific from the New Testament to tell you but I think you are getting what I am trying to say because even if you go back to Genesis, God created man Adam and Eve. Okay. They committed sin. They didn't fulfill God's dream. But thank God, you know, he had alternate plans and then Jesus came, the old redemption thing, everything happened. So it's God's dream, God's word over our lives. Even man has to cooperate. If the man does not cooperate it cannot happen. So beautiful that prophetic word is. Okay. So that is one thing. Second is when God already knows why does he why does he, you know, dream. See that's God's goodness. He still believes that you can do based on your choices. Free will is a big thing. Right. And God will not control. Now, knowing Judas, we can ask that question also. Twelve disciples. God would have already known Judas will betray. And why did God choose Judas? See, God is not insecure that way. He has a dream for everyone, their destinies. He brings in everyone, gives an option to do well. But because God is all knowing, he can get to know what decisions people would be making. But even then it doesn't stop him from choosing them. He gives them a chance. Right. I know it's difficult for us to understand, but okay. When we are speaking about this prophecy and prophetic ministry, when something went wrong, something didn't work. Yeah. Everyone, all the people will blame only the prophet. Because what we'll think is, so the person who is prophesying is prophesying by his own. And it's also, the people who do that also. But we have to justify our answer. So, is there any differences in New Testament or scripture proof that all the personal prophecies are conditioned? Yeah. See, based on some of these instances that I shared, it's already understood that God has given us free will and when we don't make the choices, right, things don't happen in our lives. Okay. So that in itself kind of proves that man is able to choose and prophecy may or may not be fulfilled. Now, God may have a certain thought for someone, but if they don't go along with it, then it doesn't get fulfilled. Okay. So anyway, I've stated this much. I think if we go further, you'll get more explanation because we're kind of building up from here. So, is that okay? We'll continue and then you should be able to see the answer to your question. Okay. So, so far we've seen that yes, accuracy is something that we look for but at the same time a greater thing to look at is whether the prophecy is taking us closer to God and prophecy can be expressed in various ways through art, through music and that also gives us the understanding that today when we want to release a word of prophecy, sometimes we'll come to all those things like prophetic worship or prophetic music prophetic art which can actually be from straight from the heart of God and it can touch somebody. Okay. Now, moving on to music. Music and the release of prophetic anointing. Now, in the Old Testament we find that music was very closely related to the prophetic anointing. One scripture that we can see is 1 Samuel chapter 10 versus 5, the second part of it. So, this is where there is a company of prophets and on one occasion this company of prophets is carrying a lot of instruments okay and that makes us think so the scripture says with a stringed instrument a tambourine, a flute and a harp before them and they will be prophesying. So, the prophets who were part of Samuel's team they were said to be prophesying together with all these instruments. So, then you wonder prophesying, okay, why all these instruments? So, it seems like they were taught to have music and there was something with some association of music with prophecy. Whenever they played music they were able to prophesy. Even when you go to another story in 2 Kings chapter 3 where Elisha has to prophesy he calls a musician first the musician plays and then Elisha starts thus says the Lord and he goes ahead and he prophesies. So, what does this tell us about music? Music has a property to, if you want to say create an atmosphere for the prophetic anointing. So, we can use this for our advantage. So, today if there is the right music when I say right music again we've got to be hearing from God you know as to what it is that we should play or sing and when we do that right there can be a manifestation of greater prophetic anointing. So, it's a reality because the prophets of the Old Testament used this as part of their prophesying. So, we too can do that. Now just because we've seen this it doesn't mean that if there is no music let's take for example you know Jesus is walking on the streets street Jericho, Galilee somewhere and all he's just walking and all the people are coming and rushing to him. So, if you imagine Middle Eastern Sun, dust you know he's walking on the rocks there's nothing serene about that scenery and obviously Jesus would not have had some nice music playing in the background when he goes and he starts prophesying or healing people. So, even minus the music the prophetic anointing can work. You understood? So, just because there's no proper music we can't say that I'm not able to prophesy because I don't have good music. So, that is not correct. But when there is good music can the prophetic anointing increase that is correct. And that's why sometimes for worship leaders to be very sensitive which song should I sing right now you know what should I play right now it can make a difference in what God is doing in that place. If we just without thinking without being sensitive to the Holy Spirit we just jump in with some song, some music it can actually hinder the flow of the anointing. Okay, but with a little bit of practice we'll come to this. We'll go later on to worship prophetic worship. There are some practical keys that we can talk about which will help us to flow in this prophetic anointing. So, in the Old Testament definitely we see an association of music with the prophetic anointing. Okay? Are you all with me? Can I go forward or how is it? Okay, fine. Great. Let's move ahead. Spiritual demonstrations so the prophetic anointing was also connected to the supernatural miracles when we think about Moses. Moses had a leadership anointing but he's also called as a prophet. Through Moses God did so many miracles and we read about his rod. He went with his rod to Pharaoh's courts and he performed certain miracles. He went and stood before the red sea the red sea parted when he lifted that rod. So you see the power of God manifest through the prophetic anointing that Moses carried. If you consider other prophets people like Elijah, Elisha full of miracles. It's so nice to read. It's thrilling. It's better than watching a thriller movie or anything because God is doing this and God is doing that and it's unbelievable. How can all these things happen? How can an axe float? How can a dead man come back to life? Many wonderful things take place because you see as prophets there was the working of the prophetic anointing through their lives and it manifested in the form of miracles. So there are many miracles. I'm not going to go through it. They've listed everything out here in our notes. The widow of Zarathath received divine provision from God in 1 Kings chapter 17. Naaman got healed this is in 2 Kings chapter 5 and so in this manner there were miracles that also accompanied the prophetic ministry. So I'll quickly talk about one more thing and then stop for today. In the Old Testament there is a concept of the schools of the prophets. So maybe you've heard this earlier that when Samuel was called by God he did not have good mentors. Because Eli though he was experienced he didn't seem to have taken you know done a good job with the temple at that time. So yes he shared a few things with Samuel but it's literally like Samuel had to learn everything by himself and maybe because of that situation he felt that it's important for him to teach other prophets. And so we read in 1 Samuel chapter 1 1 second 1 Samuel chapter 3 Williams chapter Shiloh came to and the word of Samuel came to all Israel just a moment I'm missing that scripture. Okay I think 1 Samuel chapter 10 where you see this group of prophets coming how could they even how could the prophets have even come together like that. It's because Samuel was running a school where young prophets would come and they would learn from the senior prophet how to actually flow in the prophetic anointing. So maybe that's why he taught all these things association of music and observing the senior prophet from that school it is said that that same culture carried on up until the time of Elijah Elisha Elisha Gehazi Okay so these concepts carried on and many many prophets were trained up. So what does this tell us today? There are people who say don't talk about teaching the prophetic to others because prophecy comes from God prophetic anointing comes from God how can you teach people how to prophesy but if you go back to the Old Testament Samuel taught people anointing we cannot give anointing to each other but how to flow in the anointing that can be taught. So no wonder Samuel was able to equip all those trainees they were called as the sons of the prophets or basically they were trainees. That's how Elijah trained Elisha when you say Gehazi the servant he was actually student trainee under Elisha but unfortunately Gehazi didn't have the right heart okay who knew if Gehazi had the right heart Elisha got double portion Gehazi may have got you know four times but you see that it was possible to train up young prophets so even today for someone to teach others about how to flow in the prophetic how to minister the prophetic is very much possible. There's nothing wrong with trying to equip others in the prophetic okay so I know there's a lot for you all to think about so just think about it and we will stop right now we'll come back and we'll go deeper if you want you can go through the content and come that will make things much more easier for all of us okay so great so let's stop right here and pray and close let's pray. Heavenly Father we thank you for this time we thank you Lord for the truth of your word and Lord we believe that even as we are learning from your word Lord about the prophetic anointing that it will be activated in each of our lives let there be a flow of God Lord a powerful stream flowing through all of our lives Father Lord and God help us O God to to minister to weary hearts and Lord be a blessing in the name of Jesus. Thank you Father thank you that you're equipping all of us you're strengthening all of us in the prophetic and Lord we give you glory we give you thanks in Jesus name we pray amen okay so alright everyone take care thank you we'll connect in the next class