 Good morning and welcome everyone. We will begin with the word of prayer. I just want to encourage anyone to volunteer please. Father Almighty God, we give you thanks, we give you praise. We adore you and I lift your name so high. We thank you for the gift of life today. We thank you for the class today. We commit the class into your hand. We commit the pastor into your hand. We pray a lot for effective network, let your network be stable. Father, for you say we are two or three, I gathered in your name, you are there with us, so we recognize your presence at this time. Holy Spirit of God, come and take us through. Give us wisdom, give us knowledge, give us understanding, and let these words that we are going to learn bear fruits in our life and in the life of the people that we are going to minister to. We pray and declare this in Jesus Christ's name, Son of the Living Good. Amen. Amen. Thank you brother Paul. We have seen the distinction between the Old Testament prophetic ministry and the New Testament prophetic ministry. We saw that God has given his Holy Spirit to live inside every believer now and therefore, you know, we can walk with the leading of the Holy Spirit but then with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, even the gift of prophecy is operational in the life of, it can be operational in the life of every believer and every believer can prophesy. So, we talked a little bit about the progression where prophesying believers are the common or the basic, basic level that we look at and later would be the grace gift of prophecy that is the prophetic ministry in which people flow. And of course, the highest level which would be the prophetic office, which are the gifts that Christ has given to the church for the equipping of the body. And we talked about the Book of Acts and how over there we see people functioning in various capacities and all these capacities, we observe them functioning. So, now we will talk a little bit about the gifts of the spirit and the prophetic. So, I have already shared this that when we use the term the prophetic, it's more of an umbrella term. So, when I say umbrella term, it means that it has within itself a few other components. So, when we look at the gifts of the spirit, what happens is, there are nine gifts that we can enlist and in those nine gifts, we would generally say that prophecy, word of knowledge, word of wisdom and even discerning of spirits typically comes under the umbrella of what we call as the prophetic. So, when I say prophecy, generally I'm referring to the gift of prophecy, but when I say the prophetic, then even other gifts such as what I've already shared, the gift of word of wisdom, word of knowledge and discerning of spirits is also a part of it. So, when we practically move in the gifts of the spirit, we mustn't get too hung up on the technicalities of which gift is operating, because our intention is to bless the person that we are ministering to. So, when we are serving them, when we are praying for them, maybe we begin with a word of prophecy, like we're just saying, God is showing me that he will be taking you to such and such a place and that these things are going to happen in your life. But as we are flowing, as the work of the spirit is flowing out of us, suddenly we might switch to saying something like you have been through many challenges in your life or in the past, this has happened. So, what is that? That is actually word of knowledge because otherwise we wouldn't know what exactly happened in that person's life. So, that is the word of knowledge. Word of knowledge is a little bit of information. So, the way the term is word is, it's not a full sentence or it's not a full paragraph. So, it's a little bit, a word of knowledge. Knowledge is information. So, some information that has been given to us, we call that as the word of knowledge and this information is obviously supernatural. It's not something that we learned because we know the person or we could get that from somebody who knows them. So, absolutely no connection with the individual but supernaturally we received a word of information or word of knowledge. So, word of wisdom is solution when God gives some solution to what's going on in people's lives. I think we've talked about this earlier. So, we are praying for them and in continuation to what I was praying for that person, maybe suddenly I say something like you will have two options of some assignments but God is showing that this particular assignment will lead to blessing in your life. So, what is that? It's like a word of wisdom. Wisdom is like telling people how to resolve a matter or how to apply some truth. So, that is word of wisdom. So, you notice when we are flowing in the prophetic, that's the umbrella term, we could be switching between all these gifts but ultimately it doesn't matter. Okay, the important thing is to minister to the person. So, while we are ministering, just go ahead, go with the flow. Don't worry too much and let the streams of living water flow. We generally say that gifts flow in a package. Okay, now this is not just true for these prophetic gifts but even some of the gifts could be operational. Like as you are prophesying or as I am prophesying, maybe the person receives healing, supernatural healing. So, gifts of healing, gift of healings is operational in their life. So, any gift can operate and gifts generally operate in a package. Okay, so that we must remember. Now moving on to the next subject here which is about the prophetic presbytery. So, presbytery is a company of elders and in the New Testament we see a presbytery or eldership, eldership in the local church. So, eventually there were apostles in the church but then we know that a need arose in Acts chapter 6 of distributing food. So, then they assigned volunteers in the church. So, there were all these improvements or developments that were taking place in the structure of the church, the leadership of the church. So, eventually we see that around the time when Paul was ministering and many other office mentees were overseeing churches, there were elders, elders, presbyter in the church. So, that is what is presbytery. Now, one thing that we notice Paul say is he tells Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 14, do not neglect the gift that is in you which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. So, this is aligned to what happened in Acts chapter 13 over there the Holy Spirit told the elders set aside for us Paul and Barnabas and so they were commissioned, they were commissioned for this new ministry which started off. So, this is very similar where the eldership is commissioning or the eldership is prayerfully leading, imparting into the lives of those who are under them. So, what does Paul tell Timothy he says look when the eldership or the presbytery group of leaders laid hands on you, they prayed what happened there is a gift that is imparted to you through prophecy and the laying on of hands. So, what do we understand here? The concept is that gifts can be I use the term imparted. So, let's say you know the leader is flowing in the prophetic and as he lays hands on the mentee the gift that the leader has can be put upon or put into the mentee. So, these things are biblical it's already there in the Bible and so even today we practice this laying on of hands by a group of elders and we can trust that the gifts will be imparted. Now talking about impartation you know we've said it time and again impartation does not mean that everything which is in a person will be transferred in the same way and the other person will function and flow in the exact same way impartation will happen but what does it depend on? It depends on the faith of the person who's praying the elder it depends on the faith of the person who's receiving the desire of the person who's receiving it depends on the grace which is you know in the life of the person who's being prayed for. So, only those gifts will get imparted and they will function in the very unique way that God has called that particular person. So, these are some things we understand about eldership laying on of hands and impartation of gifts. So, when can a practice like this be used in the church? A practice like this can be used to confirm that you know God has called someone to a certain ministry. These practices can be used to ordain people, ordain or commission is the other word. We would generally use the term commission in most of our Christian circles where I have been commissioned to be an evangelist, commissioned to be a pastor so ordain. So, presbytery can lay hands and release gifts and the people who are going into the ministry or other things are receiving the gifts or even simply impartation where one prays for the other to get the gifts. So, during impartation we can do activation. Activation is what? Activation is any believer, any believer, any man or woman of God. There are certain graces and gifts in their lives. So, as an elder prays for them by laying on of hands what happens? We are calling forth, we can say something like recall forth the gifts, the graces which are in this person and those gifts get activated. So, these are some things that we observe in the New Testament. So, if there are any questions we could take that up before we go forward with chapter 4 in our publication here, Understanding the Prophetic. Yes, yes, Sivya. Yeah. Thank you, Pastor. I was just thinking about this impartation aspect. So, I'm always very, like not skeptical, but yes, as you said, like it is mentioned in the word, but we see in some circles it's too much projected in such a way that, you know, as if that person is kind of a godly figure, like a god kind of figure, you know, for after which people are, you know, drawing into so that they can get the impartation. I don't know if I make sense when I say this, but sometimes I feel why is that? Because God is no respecter of people and if we really desire, God will surely give us, you know, so why there is a person in between? That's my question. Yeah, it is biblical, but it's a very difficult thing for me to grasp, because God does not want a mediator, right? We can directly go to him. So, why the need of, you know, this impartation? Yeah, thank you. Yes, thank you. So the way our understanding is that every gift comes from God. When we talked about Elijah and Elisha also, we clarified that. We saw how when Elisha desired, excuse me, when Elisha desired a gift, Elijah did not immediately lay hands on him and say, okay, you know, you take it. Did Elisha to wait upon the Lord and follow some instructions? And when Elisha finally did it, Elisha finally did it, we know that the anointing came upon Elisha. So the bottom line that I'm trying to emphasize the view is, gifts come from God. Even when impartation happens, it's coming from God. Okay, it's not coming from that person, which is why faith is essential. Okay, faith, expectation, desire, all those key things which we need in our intimacy with the Lord, that is required even during an impartation. So it's something like, I want a certain gift to be operational in my life. I am trusting God for it. Okay, and I want that gift to whatever activated, get activated, stirred up. Now, God will release it, God will definitely release it. But there are environments or, you know, through people, association, where he may want to use these circumstances or people to actually release or activate it. Okay, so ultimately, it's coming from God only. But in the process, God does use people. So we need to look at it that way. Okay, not so much as, you know, the person is a mediator. Does this make sense, Divya or? Yes, yes, it does make sense. I'm not against it or anything. I'm just against the hype sometimes that is given to a person, because it makes that person kind of God kind of, you know, people are misled sometimes. If at all the testimony or the witness of that person goes in a different direction, you know, so people can get misled, their faith can get shattered. So, yeah, it's just that this provision in the scripture sometimes can be, you know, perverted, can be, you know, taken into a wrong level. So yeah, that's what I was trying to understand. It's not, yeah, that I'm against it. But yeah. Yes, yes. So, Divya, I understand your concern. We would term it as an excess. Okay, so there are excesses in the Christian circle when it comes to many things, not just the operation of the gifts of the spirit, we've seen in church history, even, you know, the words speak the word, claim the promises. It's, there are excesses. People have used it and unfortunately abused it. And that creates a panic that creates, you know, like, like a discomfort for the believers to continue to flow in it. So, you know, we keep saying this, whatever good has come out of, you know, certain movements of the kind of the ministry that people have done. Let's appreciate it. Let's desire for more of it. But, you know, there, there are excesses in many instances. But we need that discerning spirit to say that we know this is of God. But what is of the flesh, we will discard. Okay. And if we keep an eye like that, I'm sure we can work on the right track. Yeah, sure, Pastor. That clears it a lot. Yeah, thank you. Yes. Thank you, Divya. And I saw Jeffyna's hand go up. Do you have anything to say or if not, I'll go to Brother Paul. I have something to ask about. So, impartation, I mean, even I'm not against it. But is it something that people should seek for? I mean, ultimately, we are connected with God. You can ask him. But there are people who just go like, hey, this pastor, we can get this impartation. And just for the sake of that, people will just stand in line. And I've seen, I think in my childhood, there was one pastor and he was helping people to speak in tongues. So that was a big line of people standing so that the tongues can, they can receive it or something. But is it something that we need to seek for? Or I wonder whether the pastor should have said, like, you have your personal time with God, ask God for the gifts so that you can start speaking. Or is it something that we can seek for? Like, when a problem arises, people are suddenly like, okay, let's go to that pastor to go here for the impartation of the steps. Is it something that we can seek for? Is it a right way? It's that my question. Yeah, so Jeff, you know what I would say is, yes, the same thing that I told you, yeah, gifts come from God. So we must seek God for the gift, like, for example, prophecy. I want to be a prophetic person. I want to prophesy. So I seek after God all the time saying God, let that gift operate, let that gift operate. Now, it is God who creates opportunities, like there's a weekend school, or there's this understanding the prophetic book lying in front of me. And we've already said that, you know, God uses human channels, God uses many of these things to help nurture the gift. Okay, so they would not negate all that. So desire the gift. If there is, you know, no way of meeting a person and then I continue to practice the gift, I develop the gift and, you know, it gets better in that manner, wonderful. You know, you really never had anyone, you do not go after anyone also, the gift is developing on its own. But if there is some such situation, let's say, you know, there is a particular pastor, there is a particular individual, I'm not saying run after people, but I'm saying if you are in a situation where it is in your heart, okay, that you're looking at a person ministering in the prophetic and within you, you go, wow, I love the way this person is flowing in the prophetic. Okay, I'm not saying run after the pastors and say, oh, I want what they have, but it's a wonderful thing to desire, you know, desire to grow in the Lord, desire to grow in the gift. So in that sense, what I'm saying is there's nothing wrong. Unfortunately, because what people have done is they've tried to, they've tried to elevate a person above God, which is why we are all discussing it here and saying, you know, is it okay? Is it okay for somebody to pray and impart the gift to us? Actually, it's okay. But because people have been elevated so much and, you know, Christian people don't have the foundation where they understand the gifts and they know it has to anyway directly come from God. But sometimes if God has created an opportunity for us to be prayed for by someone, there's no harm in that. Okay. But yeah, be discerning. So what I'm saying is there's nothing wrong even to desire an impartation from someone or somebody's ministry, and there's absolutely nothing wrong. But just we need to be clear of our motives. Am I depending on the person in their ministry or am I really depending on God? So if there is some option where you are able to visit a certain ministry, okay, or have be prayed for by someone, okay, don't run after it. Okay, so that's how I look at it. But we should not negate, don't neglect the fact that this is a possibility. Yeah. Okay. All right. Yes, Brother Paul, please go ahead. Yes, I just wanted to add something small. I think it is in the book of Amos chapter 3 verse 6 there. I'm not very sure where the Bible says God will do nothing except He reveals Himself to His servants, those are the prophets. So actually there is no way we may run away from the people of God, but as you said, some people begin to abuse the gift that God has given them. But God uses, He reveals His things in most cases to His servants, the prophets, the people He has appointed. And then also if you look at the gifts, the gifts are really very different. The Bible even say not others are given the gifts of prophecy, others of tongue. So they are really, really, very, very different. They cannot give all of them to you. Some you have to get from us to be imparted from you from the others. So that is how I look at it. Thank you. Okay. Brother, could you please come again? And that scripture that you mentioned is Amos 3 7. I just checked it. So what would be the point that you're making? Yeah, the point I'm making is that as God has said that He will do nothing but He read His secrets to the prophets. So in such a situation, we may not avoid the servants of God. We may not avoid them because God has only revealed it to them. So God may reveal something to His servants. So how do we get that thing? Unless that servant impart it on us, we may not. So that is the point I'm trying to put across. Thank you. Thank you for sharing again. Okay. So that scripture that you said, God does nothing. Say we reveal that to His prophets. But also, you see, there are many scriptures like Psalm 25 verse 14, where we read that God confides or God, in other words, reveals His secret or the secret things to those who fear Him. So, I mean, I understand where you're coming from and what you're saying. Yes, there are prophets of God and God does reveal many things to them. So we would receive it from them. But then to think that God only confides in the prophets and without a prophet in my life, I will not be able to hear from God. That may not be correct. If, for example, let's take this scenario that I'm an individual and I'm living in a city where there are not many and there are not many prophets of God and I have now been born again and I'm growing in God and many things are happening in my life. And for the longest period of lifespan, you know, I'm not really interacting with any prophets or nothing major like that. And then I don't, you know, watch some online resources and learn from it. So just because I don't have a prophet in my life, it doesn't mean that I will not know the heart of God. Okay, so if a prophet comes by and I have a chance to, you know, meet the prophet well and good, but the converse of that will be me assuming that every individual needs a prophet because God does nothing, say we reveal it to his prophets. Okay, so if I believe in the converse of that, that yes, I need a prophet, everybody needs a prophet, what will happen as a result? Every believer will run after prophets. We need enough prophets, the believers. But then the Bible doesn't really, you know, make that a necessity. So I understand what you're sharing, but I differ in that one thought where, you know, the secrets are only revealed to the prophets and that we need to get it from them. If there is no prophet around, it's okay. God can still reveal it to me directly. So is that fine, Brother Paul, or do you, you know, are you thinking differently? No, I totally agree with you, but even as the way I stated it, I say in some cases, not absolutely, so you are correct, you are right. We are together with you. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. The reason why I wanted to clarify is it's very unfortunate that there are many, you know, many believers and ministries these days where it is thought that everyone needs a prophet. Okay, and that's creating a lot of havoc in the kingdom of God, in the body of Christ, where, you know, well-meaning believers who want to grow in the Lord, they're running behind prophets, they're running behind, you know, conference after conference, prophetic word after prophetic word, prophet after prophet, impartation after impartation, but God doesn't want us to live like that. So the prophetic doesn't mean that our dependence is created in that manner, that would be absolutely wrong. So God can directly minister to us, speak to us if required, He will confirm it through a prophetic word or a prophet or, you know, something else. So that we have to be very clear about, otherwise we'll create an unnecessary dependence on people and run after them. That is not correct. Okay, so useful discussion there, very helpful for us to, you know, make good choices. So let's move ahead then with chapter four in our notes, where we will talk about the prophetic word. God's, you know, prophecy as a gift can be released in several ways. There are, there are, you know, certain categories that we will look at. So the prophetic, the prophetic can come forth as a message, which we can understand as a prophetic word. So if there's a message which is spoken, we will call that as a prophetic word. Now prophecy, like I could have a thought and wonder why is God showing me that, but that could also be so that I can pray. So there is the prophetic at work or prophecy at work, but that needs to be channeled into intercession. So you understand, you know, the prophetic is flowing, but there are different ways of releasing it and, you know, different ways of seeing the power of God come forth. So one is releasing that as a message, which we call as a prophetic word. The second is when we receive revelation from God, we pray about it and that is prophetic intercession. And prophetic intercession is we pray on the basis of what is revealed. Next is prophetic power. Prophetic power is when there is a demonstration of power at the release of the prophetic word. So that's the third one, prophetic power. The fourth is prophetic song. So prophetic song is when there is a release of praise, worship or even music. So sometimes without the words when people are playing their instruments and certain sounds are released, they could be prophetic. That is, remember the case of Elisha when he called for a musician and he began to play. And so you see, there's something about music, even without words, it can be prophetic. It can carry the prophetic flow in it. So prophetic song, which includes worship, praise, but also just music, then prophetic action. Prophetic action is, it's a message from God, but then it is released in the form of an action. If you recall, we talked about Agabus in the book of Acts, when he had a word that Paul is going to be imprisoned. What did he do? He took Paul's belt and he bound himself and he said, the man whose belt this is, he will be bound. So he is doing an action there instead of releasing the word such as thus says the Lord, Paul will be bound, Paul will be. So the release comes in the form of an action. So these are all some of the primary categories in which the prophetic or prophecy can be released. Now again, though we are classifying for the sake of deeper understanding, there is no need to compartmentalize. By that, we simply mean that when one is ministering, maybe the pastor is also a worship leader and he says something to the congregation, normal general instruction, and then he begins to pray. Then comes the prophetic word. So he's saying thus says the Lord, this and that. And so he releases the prophetic word. But maybe he's playing on his keys. And for a moment, there is the prophetic music going on right there. And then some words are released to him where the church congregation begins to sing the prophetic song. So now they are flowing in prophetic song. So what's happening? The flow of the prophetic can be any which way. And there's really no need to stop and try and discern. Hey, what was this? What's this prophetic song or prophetic word or prophetic? It's just for our sake. So it can God's work can go on anyway. So that is the point that I want to make them. Now that we have an idea of these expressions, let's talk a little bit about the prophetic word. So that would be a message that comes from God. And we've been saying that the prophetic word, its intention is to build up God's people and as per first Corinthians 14-3, it edifies, it exalts and it comforts. So edification, what is edification? Edification means building up, exhortation means comfort. So the Greek words are given here in our notes. If you are interested, you could go over that. And comfort, comfort is speaking in a closed way or in a sort of a tender way to someone that is comfort. So what God is really doing for his people is he's building them up, he's encouraging them and he is speaking tenderly to the people. Now talking about encouragement, what we could say is it can be prospective or which is talking about the future. But then when we look at something like comfort, so exhortation, generally it has to do with what lies ahead that don't marry God is with you or God is doing this in your life or God will cause this change to come through. But the comfort aspect, comfort aspect that we said, speaking tenderly to someone, speaking in a closed way to someone, that is more to do with the retrospective way, where something that people have experienced, let's say a trial or some difficulty, the prophetic word, what will it do? It will heal their hearts as you speak it over them. So the comfort falls under mostly in the retrospective part of things. And as this is done, as we release the gift of prophecy over people, what can we expect? We can expect that people will begin to grow spiritually that they will experience God very close to them because God is speaking to them in various ways and addressing parts of their life. So we've understood now the primary motivation of the prophetic word, what it does, what it means to be releasing edification, exhortation and comfort. Now the prophetic word can also reveal one's true character and potential. The good example of this would be Nathaniel. So Nathaniel, we know that Jesus saw him under the fig tree and without even knowing this person, he made a statement that behold, here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. So he knew the nature or the character of an individual without having you know knowledge as an in a logical way. This is supernatural without having a relationship with sin through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is saying you are a man on, this is a man without any deceit. So is it possible for the prophetic word to come forth in such a way that it shows somebody's character? Yes. So we could see words released in that manner. I have heard prophetic words where I remember once a prophet had come to Acha many years ago and one of my friends, I know how to be a very, very compassionate person. She is like extremely compassionate and the the prophet started calling different people out in the congregation and saying stuff about them. So he suddenly picked my friend and then he doesn't know her. He's from another country and we're only seeing him in that conference in person and he calls her out and he starts talking about her and saying okay God has given you gifts, God has given you, you are a very compassionate person and you know he started talking about that nature of hers, that character of hers and for me it was almost shocking. I'm like actually yes you know but how do you know, how did you know that? So God can reveal the character of people and it's in a way, it's very helpful in leadership. I'm not saying that you know you can judge or prejudge people without giving them an opportunity. Let's not do that, that's not a right thing to do but sometimes, sometimes rarely we may meet somebody and though we don't have a relationship with them we are in that place of you know understanding oh this person, they are a faithful person or this person, they are a generous person you know so it's possible to actually discern the character and the prophetic word. We have seen that it can do that and the prophetic word can also reveal one's capacity or potential. Now they may not have done much for the kingdom of God but just having met that person, the prophetic word can come to say that hey this is your destiny. Now the classic example is when Jesus was talking to Simon, he was talking to Simon and he says you are Simon the son of Jonah, you shall be called Cephas. So what is he doing? He is he is speaking over him to tell him that the potential that he carries, Cephas is a stone. So that potential is to be a rock for the church, the early church and we know that when Peter was with Jesus and you know before Jesus was crucified, his personality was not that firm and clear but then we know that at some point after Jesus was you know resurrected and they started gathering in groups, he was the first one to get up and speak, he was the first one to to you know make that sermon in Acts 2 and 3000 people got saved on that day. Now just imagine this man is not at all stable right now and based on that Jesus is not Jesus is able to see further into his life and into his destiny and he doesn't negate him from the ministry or you know from from any assignment based on his current situation but instead he speaks over Peter and he says you are Peter you are you shall be called Cephas or rock and then what has happened because of that prophetic word which is released over him we see that he turned out to be quite solid firm unshakable you know like a rock and we know that steadfastness and commitment became a part of his personality and much later it emerged during his leadership. So gifts and abilities of a person character of a person these are things that we can discern through the prophetic and it's very helpful because what we can do is it's like you know you encourage you activate people around you especially when we are leaders we can pray and say God just show us show us how how people are gifted and we should use it to use it in a constructive way where you know when we begin to identify oh this brother he's he's God is calling him to teach that brother God is calling him in worship then we begin to activate those things maybe those individuals don't even know it right now they don't know their character they don't know their potential but we can slowly say hey see as as I'm talking to you this is what God is saying and Paul did that a lot to Timothy you know he said he encouraged him he knew and and one of the things about Timothy was it seems like he was very fearful he was intimidated by by the learned people around him by the older people around him so you know Paul uses all all this information and the spiritual discernment to tell him hey you have not received the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind so Timothy now don't don't let people tell you that you are young you can set an example even though you are young in word indeed so we can use this we can use the prophetic word to continue to know people's character and potential so that we can help them not to cut them off because of our ability to discern but it's more to encourage them it's more to counsel them and to help them get on the right track okay so what we will do is let's take a break at this point it's 9 50 already we will come back if you have any questions we can take it up and then proceed from there so have a good break we shall meet in 10 minutes thank you thank you pastor thank you thank you brother