 I want to just mention a few simple guidelines, a few simple steps for us. I like what Bill Johnson said. He said, I want to create a culture where, like when you were a child, learning how to ride a bicycle and your parents took you where the grass is. So in case you fall, you get scratched, but you don't bleed to death. We want to create a culture in the church where people are safe to learn to hear God's voice, without being labeled as false prophets, false teachers, or crazy. We want to create a culture where it's grass, where it's grace, where you learn to hear God's voice and you learn to practice hearing God's voice. I understand that some, maybe religious people, that throws you off. How can you practice to hear God's voice, whether he said it or not? It's, you know, whether, either God said it or not. There's no mistakes in that. I would agree with you. But I had an incident last Wednesday. I came to pray for this man. I asked him, what was his name? He said, my name is Mike. I said, great. Can I pray for you? I started praying for Mike. I said, Lord bless Mike. God heal Mike. I went, Mike, the service finished. People were coming by. I said, hey guys, come over here and meet Mike. People met Mike. We were talking, fellowshiping, and before he leaves, he said, well, I just want to let you know, my name is Marco. I heard Mike. He said, Marco. So the problem wasn't with his voice. The problem is with my hearing. Was I, should you stone me because I introduced him as Mike? Well, I hope not, because people say, well, if this guy said a prophecy and you know, and or he gave a word and that didn't happen, you know, in the Old Testament, you should stone. Well, in the Old Testament, if you curse your parents, you should also be stoned and curses disrespecting. I mean, half of us would have been dead before we reached teenage years. If that would have been the case, the Bible says we all can't prophesy. But many times, the way we hear God is just like, I heard word, word Mike, and I sincerely believed it was Mike. I genuinely, I wasn't on accident and on purpose, and it was maybe a little bit loud. But because I introduced him as Mike, he corrected me. Now, it was good that I afterwards apologized. And I said, I'm sorry, I misheard you. And since then, I introduced him as Marco. Now, with that said, I want to encourage every single person who is on their journey to discern the voice of God, not to go deep until you fill your pool with some water. Because it's good to dive in a pool that has depth. If you go diving in a pool that has a baby pool, you may end up in an emergency. Meaning, there has to be your experience with God and your history with God before you start giving words of knowledge like, you have seven husbands and the seventh one you're living with is not really your husband. You had an abortion and you had this. When I sometimes I watch over some of our even people, you know, sincere people, but they begin to give out words of knowledge, they are like, they're very so specific. And these people don't have a history with God yet. And then I would follow up and the people would come to me and say, I'm confused. I got this word of knowledge that I have this and this, and he says, Vlad, sincerely, this is the furthest thing from the truth. You know, and it's fine when you're beginning, that's why it's better when the pool is not deep, don't dive into it, walk into it. Means you start hearing God, you say, well, but stuff comes into my mind. Listen, you can control your mind. You take it slow. Do encouraging words, things, things that are more in general, build your history with God. Instead of you hear Shepard Bushiri or, you know, prophet T. B. Joshua, you hear some other prophet calls out, you know, social security. And so you're like, that's it. All the ghosts is on me. The same spirit is inside of me. Yes. But you don't have the same history with that spirit. Shepard Bushiri didn't start with calling out people's names. And prophet T. B. Joshua didn't start like that. And so take your journey with God and step by step. Otherwise, you're going to find yourself being in some shady waters. God is looking for spiritual fruit, not religious nuts. We want to be a church that loves the supernatural without being weird. We embrace the Holy Spirit without losing our purpose for the people who are dying. Amen. And I just have just few simple tips that are mainly applied for me. Maybe they'll apply to you. One is learn to talk less and listen more. When it comes to spiritual experiences, angelic visitations, prophetic dreams. When it comes to God using you in a very, very mighty way and you having this powerful anointing on your life. If that anointing causes you to talk twice as much as you listen, you're religious nut. Because God gave you only one mouth. Even if you are a prophet, a healer or a pastor or a teacher or a worship leader, every person on this earth, no matter their gift, only has one mouth. And most of us have two ears. Barely use them, but we have them. That means that no matter how great your spiritual experiences are, you have to be a person who learns to hear more than they speak. I love Mary. Mary has an angel come to her and when the angel visits her, I mean having an angel and not just in the dream, in a physical real angel comes in and she says angel, you know, says Holy Spirit will come upon you so the Holy Spirit then she probably felt the Holy Spirit come upon her. She gets pregnant. I mean great time to start a blog. How to get pregnant by the Holy Ghost? My experience with the ancestral world. I mean a great time to write a book, a great time to start a women conference telling all the women how they can contact the Holy Ghost. And Mary, she takes these things inside. God confirms her experience to Joseph. God confirms her experience through Elizabeth. God confirms the experience through the shepherds. God confirms the experience through the wise men. God confirms the experience through semen. God confirms the experience through all of these things. And you see this one phrase and Mary kept it in her heart and pondered. Joseph at 17 got a dream. He couldn't wait to tell everybody. And he got him in trouble. Mary didn't tell anybody. That's why till this day people preach about Mary and Catholics love her. Maybe a little bit too much but that's between them and her. It's interesting the people exalt Mary today. She didn't exalt herself because of the spiritual experience she had. Let me tell you something. If it's genuine you will never be able to hide it. It will come out. You don't have to pull yourself up by the strings from your boots. God can exalt you. That doesn't mean that we hide it. Jeremiah one of the prophets says God's word is like a fire shut up in my bones. We have to speak and preach but there is a sense of being a person that ponders learns. Being a person that learns to hear God. Learns even as you have more experience and let fruit speak for you. Let confirmation speak. Let things begin to speak instead of just you. One of the things the pastor always told me. When I was I remember I got really on fire to hear God's voice and every time I would get up and say God told me God told me and pastor said stop saying that. He says it's better to use word like you know an impression and this he said you got 30 kids in your youth group. God doesn't speak to you. I was like I rebuked the devil in Jesus name you know but he said Lord he says tibijashu doesn't say God told me that many times in seven hour service than you do. He says he can get up and say God told me for every single word. He doesn't say that. He says but people believe that God speaks to him because there's enough fruit. He selects the fruit speak that God told you. There's nothing wrong with saying that says the Lord when the Lord leads you to do that. But people many times begin to especially us youngsters begin to misuse the name of the Lord by putting a sticker on God said on everything that came into our head so that we can have validation with people because we know if we'll say it by ourselves nobody will believe it because they don't trust us. The second tip that I have for myself is learn and honor the culture where you get a chance to minister. Learn the culture. Learning the culture is very important the culture of the church. Jacob once came to this new culture the culture of the house he didn't know there was the culture that if you ever want to marry in the family you're always going to marry the first born girl. He fell in love with the second born Rachel because she was good looking so he works for seven years goes to sleep ends up wakes up and realizes that he is married to Leah. Now Jacob isn't the only one who loved Rachel and woke up with Leah. Every man loves one woman and wakes up with another one because the woman that you date and the woman that you marry are two different and the single man have no idea what I said just hang in there six months into marriage rewatch it and then you'll come back and say you are correct pastor but besides the point he comes to Laban and says Laban you tricked me Laban you deceived me and Laban says in our culture imagine being deceived because you're naive imagine being tricked seven years of work because you didn't learn the culture. Every time I travel to preach somewhere this for me is a lifesaver or is the biggest problem. When I travel every church has a different culture for example some churches when the person manifests people come and say more lord more in our church if somebody manifests spirit not spirit it's always out we have solution we have one medicine for every every problem in some cultures you know people people are modest during worship they don't lift their hands in other cultures they have flags in some cultures I remember once I came to a church and I'm preaching it was a Latino church in Florida and a lady gets up and slowly and me looking lady walks toward me and so I'm looking at the pastor you know signaling and she keeps like like storming at me and so I look at the I lose the train of thought I'm looking translated and she keeps going going going right at me no washer nobody gets up and as she's going close to other people getting up and going right at me I'm not gonna lie to you I panicked and they passed me by and so I'm looking at them like what are they doing and they were dropping offering on the front because the culture of the church if the preacher is good they bring offering for him Lord Jesus bring that culture I thought they were trying to kill me because because I remember I remember you know the story of John Hagee how a guy came right in front of me shot him so when he she's walking I'm thinking about the story of John Hagee being shot right at the pulpit and so but in reality that was the case I remember going to a one place that I will never get invited to because I didn't honor the culture I didn't learn the culture like in our church you know you can wear this typically whatever which I not too tight not too baggy not too long not too short that's our definition of modesty I guess I wore my pants and they were too tight so I wore my pants there and I came screaming and I brought my brother who shared a testimony in that church now I didn't know that this bishop he is a bishop of a of the whole state I won't mention which state and so he's the bishop of the whole state so I was preaching there and morning I screamed yell people got say that was awesome the evening Andre shared a testimony and then next day pastor calls him and says how's my youth pastor how did he do it and the bishop tells my pastor he said well he says we will never allow strippers on our stage again and we he said I don't know where he dig up Samson he says Samson was not ungodly character and we don't allow them on our stage that's exactly what the bishop told my pastor and so the pastor called me he said he said what pants did you wear and so I burned those pants you know and I realized you know I did not learn that in that church you know I didn't help that church because I didn't know the culture now in our culture you know you can wear whatever and it's fine but if I go somewhere else it's different honoring the culture is also very huge if you don't honor the culture of the church especially those of us in here a lot some of you are coming from other churches now maybe you grew up in a Catholic church or maybe you grew up in a in a different Christian church or a different Pentecostal church when you come in you have to learn to honor the culture why you earn your right to be heard you always have a right to speak if God speaks to you but having a right to speak is not the same as having the right to be heard when you honor not only you learn but you honor the culture there comes a point you have a right to be heard you have a right to speak but it doesn't mean that people will will embrace that I remember one time when our Sunday services they were not like these like now we have people coming and usually we have English sermon and everything our Sunday services they were struggling they were struggling for a while and they've always been struggling because they were not the main emphasis and they were with translation a lot of things were not going well and so we were blaming our pastor and the Sunday services for the lack of growth in our church pastor was asking you know why are things not moving and everything we're like well if we could only change the Sunday services everything will change in our church now this Wednesday services were ours meaning we had the full liberty to do what we want within the boundaries of the scriptures and so pastor would tell us he said isn't that interesting he says I gave you guys Wednesday service and that's not moving he said why are you sticking your nose into something else if your ideas don't even work for your own service I look since you put it like that and I learned that day because not only I wasn't just honoring our pastor and wasn't honoring the culture but I didn't earn the right to be heard now I said my opinion it fell in deaf ears and that day was that day I closed inside and I said from this day on I will never move a finger to change anything on Sunday service I will respect what's going on even if I don't like it even if nobody else like it and I'm going to focus only on what I'm responsible for which was Wednesday service when our Wednesday services they started to grow and there was no parking lot for Wednesday service people start getting saved I remember when pastor sat us down and he said hey guys how can we change when Sunday services and then he asked us to begin to implement the very ideas that three years before this we were trying to shove down his throat why because now we earn the right to be heard you don't earn the right right away it takes time and it takes certain honor and learning the culture and learning the house for those of you who are coming to our church I pray to God that you are not here to change our church you are here first to learn and then to honor and then you will be surprised how much influence you can influence the house after you go through that many people come and they get frustrated right there because you know if you come from a bigger church or a smaller church you know you either get impressed or you get depressed by it you come in you're like man but my pastor wasn't like this but the church I wanted they didn't have this they didn't have that and it's easy to get frustrated and it's easy to right away say I want to change this I want to change this and then you quickly find out people actually get provoked by you and you won't make any influence and then you will just leave relax you're not here to change anybody first we're not here to change you you're not here to change us learn how things work here get involved and slowly begin to influence effect and slowly begin to change God is taking 20 years to change you don't you not going to change the church in two days the next tip that I have and that's for myself work your way to the front Jesus said when you get invited to a party don't sit in the front why so they don't put you on the back he said sit on the back and get invited to the front that principle is gold any place you go in that is new whether a family whether a church whether organization always learn not I'm not speaking literally to take the back seat but always learn to start from the bottom and go up to the top even the problem that we have sometimes is that for example in this church I was on the top so when I come to a new church I immediately expect to be at least close to the top actually it's like AT&T rollover data it expires next month any new place you go in guess what happens with it actually your history expires you go to a bible college for four years you come in you think because you can wave a diploma that now you know people will make you an apostle well because you have a diploma you still have to work your way to the place where you can make a bigger influence in a local church and that work begins with simple things like ushering media ministry helping out with other things getting into prayer getting into home group and then comes the point where the Lord begins to pull you closer you don't want the pastor to promote you because he'll demote you if the Lord promotes you and the man demotes you listen it's a matter of time he'll promote you again I'm not proud but I am proud of one thing I've never asked to preach in any church in my life I will never ask to preach anywhere the only place I asked to preach was in homeless shelter and jail I begged to preach there I went to process to preach there and those are the two places I asked to preach when it comes to large conferences when it comes to churches when it comes to other venues when it comes to other countries I never once asked or even gave hints so I will get invited to preach I want the Lord to open the door and if he doesn't open it I want men not to open the door for me because I know how that feels and you always have to have that relationship with the Lord the gifts that you have the potential some of you you're called to preach some of you're called to lead a church some of you you're called to pastor you're called to mentor other people and it's very important to understand when you come in and you promote yourself to the front symbolically speaking you promote yourself to the place of control or even leadership you might find yourself quickly being replaced but when you let the Lord through you serving from the back forward earn the trust with people earn the influence with people slowly but surely something will begin to happen now this mainly doesn't apply to those who are maybe in our church temporarily but I'm talking about right now to those who you know that this is your house this is where you and your children are going to grow learn the principle or starting on the back and making your way to the front how did David become a king he first entertained the king with his musical instrument then he protected the king by being his armor bearer then he saved the nation by killing the Goliath and then he almost got killed by the king but see when God is promoting you the king can hate you you're still going to have a spot I know some of you calling and you're like pastor your job is my promise well it's gonna only God is going to make that happen not me don't expect a man to put you in the place that God promised well God promised me I'm the pastor of this church well God is going to make that happen because I didn't make the promise if God made the promise he will be trustworthy to God he'll make that happen because somebody say man gospel code your prophecy any word you get from the Lord has to be and I didn't want to use sugar coated gospel coated gospel coated what I mean by that is that it has to have grace in it any prophetic word prophetic dream that ends with people dying being killed assassinated murdered and you say well all Testament prophets they were the genuine prophets brimstone and fire you're serving New Testament Jesus when Jesus came to a woman at the well who was an adulterous woman she had more marriages and more breakups and more problems than you can imagine it's interesting and he gave her a prophetic word the prophetic word came in a form of Jesus knew how many husbands did she have if this would have been you and I you came as like you woman you were moral you are sinner like you see that little guy in the opera show who was screaming and yelling you know that scripture YouTube it anyway and so you would just scream scream and yell and yell all the bad things but Jesus doesn't necessarily come and attack her he says hey could you call your husband he knows where he's getting she says I don't have a husband this would have been a great moment to say you know why you don't have a husband you have a spiritual husband you're sleeping with every day in the night and that's why you have five marriages that failed and that's why and you need to come and I will pray for you and deliver you in Jesus name you know what Jesus says woman you are right honestly I applaud you on what being true you're immoral but I found one gold thing about you you're honest Jesus prophecy never diminished people even people who were at the bottom of the society every prophecy he did it lifted and exalted people even the negative words of knowledge they still Jesus with sugar coated he will gospel code that message and that's why she dropped the jar and didn't run from Jesus she ran to bring more men to Jesus and one time disciples they passed by city of Samaria and they said Jesus say city of Samaria doesn't want us could we do like Elijah a spirit of Elijah we know we want double portion Lord he brought the fire and people couldn't like him Jesus do we have the right the green light to bring the fire and burn them because Elijah did it in the Bible and Jesus says you have no idea which spirit you're under wow judgment the Old Testament stuff it's not yours Jesus says I didn't come to kill I came to save every prophetic word it's not to manipulate it's not to belittle it's not to hurt it's not to belittle people it's to lift them up if God show you in a dream that somebody is gonna die I'm gonna go tell them they're gonna die well statistically you are correct 10 out of 10 people will die that's not that's not new God didn't show you that so he can I just want to go warn that they're gonna die sugarcoat your message but sometimes I hate people comes and say you know I had a word of knowledge that that this person has a spirit of lust how do I present it you don't come to that you have spirit of lust because if it's a guy you're 99 point right it doesn't take a prophetic word you come and you don't say you have a spirit of lust but you say God is God is producing and bringing purity into your life and as you're praying for them you can slip a word lust there and there but our message always has to lift every prophetic word everything that God speaks to has to exalt people not bring him down because somebody say amen I remember when a young man that he came and he had this at the time I was single and I was in the middle of trying to decide if I should if I should marry Lana and we had this youth service where I did the topic on relationships and I was dropping this kid off who who was an amazing prophet he was only about 15 and a half years of age but he was strong and prophetic and so we're driving and he looks at me and he says of God revealed to me who my wife is gonna be I look at him like shut up I hear I'm 24 years old I'm a youth pastor like God doesn't speak about these things to me and God is telling you I'm like you're 15 you shouldn't be talking to God about this stuff but anyway I drop him off the next day he comes to service and he was one of the socially just little bit socially awkward kids he didn't connect with other people really well the only person he talked to was me which is fine and so he always came and talked to me and so this next youth service as I were continuing dating relationships I see this girl that she keeps talking to he keeps talking to her like in a lobby in a sanctuary and like keeps talking to her like four times this kid doesn't talk to anybody except me and he talks to the girl so I was like that's interesting and I remember his prophecy from the Wednesday before I come up to the girl afterwards and I said hey what did he talk to you about she starts crying and I was like whoa she says he told me that God told him that I'm gonna be his wife and I said so the tears are the tears of joy or what is where's the tears for she said he's a stalker he stalks me at work and when I came to the church he's been coming to the church and he stalks me everywhere on social media he says I am paranoid I'm scared when I see him prophetic when pathetic with him when the 15 year old comes to you and says who his wife is gonna be so I call him up and I say come over here bro we took him upstairs locked the doors and I said I asked him have you ever looked at your now again remember I was younger and I didn't have the wisdom of the Lord so whatever I'm gonna tell you don't practice this at home I didn't practice the gospel coding prophet I felt the shepherd's rod at that moment and I said I asked him have you ever looked on his face he said why and I say because you have the ugliest face in the world again I was mad I was angry anybody who touches girls in our church touches me where it hurts and I said and because you're so ugly you know that that girl will not even give you a shadow like even even one percent a chance to even go out with you and so what you did knowing that she fears God you use the name of God to manipulate her and you confused her and you confused her so much that now she's not sure and she's scared her and I said I don't know whether you're a prophet or not but one thing I do know you're pathetic and I say if you ever ever come and talk to the girl I'm like I have some guys who got saved but they're not fully sanctified I said they won't find your body that's all never see them again again that's an extreme story and I never did it again because I learned how that you need to be nice to people who get a little bit confused but don't use prophetic or words from God to hurt people they're always to build people up even if those words come true always and you recognize God is speaking to me like these dreams I get and it's always bad dreams and something always happens like that God you may say and I feel that in the Old Testament you're not in the Old Testament the spirit of Jesus is to lift and exalt and to encourage can somebody say amen amen amen