 morning and welcome to this course on understanding the prophetic let's continue with our classes in the last class we were learning about receiving from the Lord being sensitive to what the Lord is communicating to us and the various you know senses that the spirit man carries so we will continue from there but before that just a word of prayer so alright let me just pray and then we go forward let's pray together how about father we thank you for this day we thank you Lord for the very breath that you have given us father we are grateful that Lord we can experience the blessings of the cross and Lord for the truth of your word Lord even as we sit Lord under the teaching of your word we pray may our hearts be changed and strengthen us more and more father Lord we commit ourselves Lord all the all the faculty students their families Lord we just pray that you will bless us and a lot continue to guide us as per your purposes in Jesus name we pray amen so just in continuation to our discussion of the last class a few things first of all I said if there are any questions we will take it up we talked about the sense of seeing hearing touch taste and what else what was the other one feel no touch already we've done smell yeah smell so any questions regarding these he also did the same thing okay okay fine so we're quite clear on it but I think the area where we may struggle is we ask a question whether what we are hearing is from the Lord I think that's where we all struggle isn't it we do see pictures we do have images coming to our mind but then we wonder is it me maybe I had exposure to this kind of an image at some point now I'm thinking it again in my mind so this is the concern how do we differentiate and how do we ensure that the communication that we are picking up is from the Lord so how do we do that any thoughts on that whatever we receive like to discern it came from the spirit or from the soul yes so whatever we get we should be confirmed or it should align with the word of God and it should not I mean when we receive prophecy also it should comfort them like it should build them right so it should not be in our own way of telling something that's the first thing is aligned with the words word okay align with God's word to some extent that helps us before we share the prophetic word but I think for the most part we will apply that during interpretation okay now the thing is how do you know yeah like the moment you get it is it from God or not first thing is to be true to ourselves like we should have to be genuine like we have to check it with ourselves like yeah am I thinking of it or is it from the Lord it's like this word pastor ashesha yes first to be true with ourselves and another thing is like we should ask God Holy Spirit God to bear a witness okay good yeah so these these aspects really help one of course is the sincerity excuse me of our hearts when we are asking ourselves a question whether really is this from God or am I sure so if I'm feeling very sure only then I should share it if I'm not feeling sure then don't share it okay so that is one thing the second is inner witness of the Holy Spirit like you sense that yeah Holy Spirit is speaking to your spirit and saying yeah it is me go ahead don't worry so if you have that witness of the spirit also we can go ahead right and the other part which is given in our notes Hebrews 5 verses 13 and 14 if someone has the mic can you read it please it's there in the notes also Hebrews 5 13 14 Hebrews chapter 15 verse 13 and 14 yes anyone who lives on milk being still an infant is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness but solid food is further mature who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good and good from even okay so a few things that we notice here scripture says that those who are unskilled they partake of milk because milk is simpler than meat isn't it so like babies they are fed milk because the capacity to digest is very small compared to an adult who is able to digest meat so he's talking about maturity and maturing and in the following scripture again he says solid food belongs to those who are a full-aged that means those who are mature can digest better more complex foods and those who by reason of use have their senses exercised so that means that the capacity of our you could say spirit but also the soul when we say the soul it includes all mind will emotions all the capacities one has practiced or exercised it over and over again when we play a sport it's only the people who have played it a lot that they are so quick isn't it like we are so even if you take a game like badminton it's amazing how the people who are playing regularly they quickly get the like you know they just hit the cock quickly how is it that they get it so fast whereas someone who is just starting the reflexes are there but not as good as the person who is probably playing very often it's very similar even in the spiritual as far as spiritual senses are concerned the more we are exercising it again and again and again and again you can just pick it up the inner witness of the spirit do I have it or not is it aligned to the word do I have it or not is it me is it God quite quickly you can tell okay but for that it's about practice it's about maturing in that so what is the application of this the application is to keep doing it see sometimes we look for big only like somebody calls us they tell us okay you lead worship or you know you pray minister to the people that time we say okay God speak to me give me a word but then you're doing it one off so then where is the exercise of the senses but when we're doing it in our like in our daily lives you can be more assured that your you have more accuracy okay and more often maybe prayer times are here in the Bible college we have such a good time like especially supernatural hour and we keep saying right like just step out don't be afraid go ahead release that word that God is speaking to you so these are the opportunities and it's a safe place even if like let's say we make little bit of a mistake in the interpretation there are others who can guide us help us so practice the senses that's the way to get better at the prophetic okay and that's what this passage teaches us and here in our notes pastor has shared about a dream that he had which he journaled and in that dream it was as if God was sharing what the hindrances are for someone who is hearing from the Lord so basically the dream was something like it early in the morning he saw as if you know earbuds are going into the years you know how it happens in the dream right like everything is larger than life and you so he saw one big year and then he saw one big year but go inside and clean the year and all that then he prayed he said okay Lord I got this dream what is the interpretation so God gave the interpretation and the lessons that God was trying to communicate through this dream are from like Mark chapter 4 where we read about the seed being the word of God and you saw the seed right and then what happens the seed which is sown on good ground it thrives but that which is sown on a stones or that which is sown among thorns or the one that the birds take away right so there are there other places where the seeds are sown that it doesn't grow so then God kind of revealed that there can be certain distractions which will not allow the word to grow similarly when we hear from the Lord that communication or our hearing can be hindered by some of these things so weeds what are weeds we know that in that parable of the sower of the sea see the sower parable of the sower thorn weeds refer to the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the lust for other things so we can check our own lives sometimes when we get caught up in these things does do we have responsibilities we do we have personal responsibilities family responsibilities but also God calls us and says okay ministry I want you to serve there is a call of God on all our lives now if you become too preoccupied the cares of this world right or the deceitfulness of riches scriptures quite clearly tell us those things will be there always be there or the lust for other things but they should not become a distraction as far as the call of God is concerned we can learn to follow the call of God while balancing you know every other aspect of our lives it's possible so that's the way we focus and we hear what God is saying stones what are stones stones have to do with afflictions and persecutions for the word sake and now we know that when we receive a word from the Lord it's not like things will be smooth because scriptures teach us when the word comes to us Satan will try to come to take that word away from us that's always the case so when that happens we should not be surprised saying oh why am I going through difficulty and trouble because scriptures already say there will be persecution for the word sake so when we receive the word there will be persecution but somebody who does not allow the persecution or the affliction to stop them that kind of a person will hear clearly that kind of a person will grow in the Lord and he says passes also written a dirt some forms of dirt dirt is the filthiness that comes from the world outside okay when we get affected or tainted by the things of the world so that affects our holiness then also our sensitivity can come down so these are all aspects that we have to be careful about and you know as long as we are maintaining these things we will be able to hear well from the Lord now what are a couple of other things that we have to be careful about you see the way God speaks to us for a lot of us we may have had encounters with God where it was very dramatic very powerful yes those kind of things do happen when somebody just calls you out in the crowd and says okay you come here I want to talk to you this is what the Lord is saying to you so that seems like wow that is God speaking but sometimes we may get a word from the Lord which is so it comes in a very simple way like you might just be going about doing your daily stuff and you get a word in your heart like okay you know this is what the Lord is going to do but we hesitate to receive the word that came in a simple way we question that a lot we're like no but if God is saying something so powerful how come it came so in such a simple way but we want to hear it from a prophet or you know we want to hear it from an angel we want Gabriel to come and tell us okay but here's the reality not always will the word come with you know thunder and lightning most of the words that we receive come in the simple promptings inner promptings inner witness of the Holy Spirit so there's a really beautiful statement that pastor made over here he says in the last statement of that chapter do not miss the supernatural while looking for the spectacular okay we like we like action yeah we like little bit of you know little some noise some excitement then we are ready to receive our that word is from the Lord but if it comes in a simple way there's an example also given here in our notes which is from Elijah's experience first Kings 19 verses 11 and 12 where the Lord is speaking and Elijah is looking for it he's standing on the mountain and he's looking for it and he thinks the voice of the Lord will come in the wind it will come in the earthquake right it will come in the fire but where did the voice of the Lord come from still small voice so it's the same thing as far as the prophet is concerned most of the time it will be still small voice but then there are sometimes when it may come in a dramatic way so we just be ready for receiving the word so then two main points practice that was one second is be ready to receive whichever way the word comes you know it might even come from some simple person in our congregation we don't think that oh they are so godly or anything but they come and they pray for you they say something and that is profound now we may reject the word thinking ah this person is coming in Delhi I don't want to listen right so these are the mindsets of the attitudes that actually will hinder us from hearing from the Lord it can come from anyone right so be open now the next very important subject to think about is it yes one last one last thing is not like like sensing and all these things we will when we are when you are telling it's like we have to be sensitive with Holy Spirit and we we usually point out this experience thing like if we have experience we can easily so sometimes it may happen like this also right like out of experience we may interpret wrong and we may sense whatever it comes to our mind like it it happened with so many people like see if they were so experienced at some point they'll do mistake and then it comes completely opposite the word it or something whatever it is so like if we are fully of emotional first is fully emotional like because of our own things what we are going through or what someone is going through if I want to pray for you I may know about you yes and the second thing out of experience we have that confidence in our heart the first thing is emotionally very we are connected to the things what had happened yes and the second thing is the confidence in us which I know I can I am capable of sensing very easily okay so by these two things we may interpret wrong I mean we may sense in a wrong way like yeah it can happen yeah what we have to I mean there are so many I mean big big pastors or some prophets fall in this place yeah correct how we can yeah so take it up as every every time we prophesy take it as a unique case isn't it so even if I've had multiple experiences and I may see a similar picture but each time I have to think okay Lord so basically like full dependence on God at all times is required I may say this see the same picture but I have to think okay but God what are you saying instead of jumping in and saying oh yeah I know what this is you know so I think dependence yeah I saw before one so I think that dependence on God is so very necessary and second is allow a place for judgment okay it's somewhat scary but always that's nice like if people can all come back to you and they can say hey you said it but you know it didn't happen no we should all love that because sometimes when we don't give place for it people go through a lot of pain and they don't know how to tell also because oh this is a prophet of God man of God we can't go and tell so we should not make it like that give some space like here you know some simple mechanisms we have in the administrative like people write feedback people can just directly come all the email IDs are there of pastors if we make a mistake people just write to us they say hey you said like this you did like this it was not good that's actually helpful not just for the people but it's also helpful for the minister because it keeps us in check oh yeah I should not have done that you know so I think give opportunity for people to judge you I'm saying it in a nice way you know so it's helpful for our growth these two will help like we should not like use of our experiences in interpretation yeah can I do this like can I do the statement like we we should not yes use our experiences for interpreting the visions or anything yes you're right upon the time and the people and if it is for me also if I if I see something uh uh a pizian if God says if God want to say something in in one time yes after years if he if he show the same thing maybe I should not depend upon the older experience yeah you're right yeah so meaning you're basically what you're saying is there is a bias right we become biased based on our experience you that should not affect today's prophetic word so yeah that's something we have to train ourselves right so this is a little bit about sensitivity now we will come to testing and interpreting personal prophecies okay so as far as the speaking of the prophetic word is concerned or receiving of the prophetic word is concerned there is a process before you know it can be applied and we need to understand that process so that we are clear on you know how exactly the uh word can be applied so there are a couple of elements that are mentioned we are in chapter 10 and you can refer to your notes in the prophetic process it's listed revelation presentation interpretation application timing and confirmation so we will look at each one of these one by one first is revelation okay uh how to receive how to receive the word from the Lord and we have learned a lot about this okay so we we receive it from our spirit senses but you see when it comes to the revelation aspect one thing we have to be clear is that there is a word from the Lord that much of a guarantee or confidence we we need that okay this what i'm hearing is from the Lord because it is possible as we said earlier right word can be from us also let's say you know i'm praying for a brother and he's from my church and we are helping a lot we are guiding that person and he's going through he doesn't have a job he's going through a very tough time as a pastor or as a human being who cares i might come up with my own prophecies you know like god is giving you a job god is doing this god it's all from my psychological you know my my care for that person so here's the first thing we have to distinguish between a word from the Lord and a word from the person or worse still we know that the bible talks about spirits lying spirits okay now that's another danger uh but for this we need the witness of the holy spirit the discerning of spirits within us when we can identify somebody could be prophesying and it could sound very much like it's from the Lord but we may sense in our spirit that something is off so the origin of the prophecy where is it from if it is from people that's so sad because we know we saw right earlier god said to the people don't listen to these prophets they prophesy to you false vision divination worthless thing and the deceit of their heart okay so god doesn't like that when people prophesy lies Jeremiah 14 14 as i kill 13 again two three it says when when prophets do that what are they actually doing uh you know they are kind of treating you poorly the people are being treated poorly when a word from their own hearts is being spoken now if at all there is a false spirit which can also happen we have to stop it we have to say hey come on stop you can't prophesy like this now how do we know there'll be many features by which we can identify right it won't be edifying it won't be exhorting uh it will be more more condemning bringing more fear uh and all that so that's a false spirit that's a false spirit and as ministers of god we have to be alert just because everyone is prophesying you know we can't just by default say yeah it's from the spirit of god so revelation where what is the origin of the revelation so the way to go about the prophetic process first is identify that it is from god okay great so now that we've identified that this is from the lord what else is important second is presentation presentation so uh i don't know how many of you have um seen the purification of gold have you ever seen like when they first collect gold i saw one video of a person he takes it from a place uh where there's a river flowing also so there's you know water and sand and some specks of gold in it and then he starts to purify it they filter filter filter filter and then they identify those specks of gold right so it's somewhat like that when it comes to the presentation we have to think what is of the lord and leave behind the human element human element will be there some part is from the lord that's pure gold but then there is all these extra parts which have to be removed right which is from the human heart um and also we have to recognize that in that prophetic word as i said some specks of gold not everything is revealed isn't it remember we said earlier we prophesy in part only some part will be there so it's okay don't worry that everything we are not able to share we want to present the genuine so that is about the presentation present the genuine word of the lord remove it from all other impurities and when we present it remember we also said the spirit of a prophet is subject to the prophet so which means we can share however we like we can share right then or we can share later we can share it with a lot of expression or loudly or you can even share it in any other way simple way or um you know depending on where which scene you are in somebody may make a picture or somebody may write a song somebody may make a power point presentation so how you present it is also in your hands right yeah some question to ask like uh in the previous point like uh revelation as we're talking about this uh false people who do false spirit and you said like how we can identify it's it won't be edifying it will be condemning yeah but will it be always the same because if we see in this book of germa all the false prophets were they are giving good words for the king they are telling like don't worry god will deliver you but germa is telling the opposite he was prophesying that judgment will come so but if we see here that how we can take it yeah so see by the holy spirit that's why i use the um i used two um you know like phrases one is witness of the spirit thank god now we have the witness of the holy spirit will feel in the spirit that something is not correct he may say very good things like god is going to lift you up and this and that but inside you you're like something is not correct that that uh motivation is not correct like you can feel it okay so that is one way second way but this is little more long term is to look at the fruit of that person's ministry or prophetic word i remember long ago the story was like way back this is one of our extended family members who were not believers in the lord but they shared that they met one couple who were doing ministry and they were prophetic and now they are believing in god something like that but there were a lot of other things which they were sharing which was not very good like um like they were interfering a lot in the families um they they were not very um positive with the prophetic words like apparently that person he will prophesy in public and condemn like god knows what you did so repent before the lord like that and a lot of condemnation so all that was going on and uh see you should see the fruit of the ministry right and it's so sad that actually that ministry didn't last and the people who are part of that ministry all of them left and so many were hurt families were very badly hurt and um this our person we know they're no longer in the lord their family is not in the lord so the more we try to talk to them about god they say what god we went through a lot we don't want to follow this god so are you seeing the result prophesy okay moving in the gifts of the spirit okay what is the fruit is it leading people to god or away from god so in the long run that way we can recognize where is the fruit if fruit has led you closer to god then okay but if fruit is not there then we understood right so that's a little more long-term kind of a test but for the immediate uh i think holy spirit will bear witness correct yeah yeah yeah see uh so you're you're saying even to discern should we have some experience right but it's actually like you know what like john 10 27 i always consider that scripture it says my sheep hear my voice so if you're the sheep of the lord jesus practice no practice sheep will know where what where what the master is saying it's it's like that uh prince so you don't really need yeah i mean in this situation even if you're so fresh even if you've never heard about the prophetic you'll know because you know your lord jesus and as a sheep of the lord your senses are tuned to that you can make out it's not see back in those days i was a kid okay but even i could tell something is not correct yeah i mean it it works god will be there i mean holy spirit will give that sense to interpret but how come uh like i got a thing okay then we think in this way i mean in this perspective if god wanted to speak with me he'll make me understand right like because see i i've experienced few things like when something is happening like if someone got something there are many people who interpreted but it won't uh what it won't i mean align like the connection there won't be any connection but i believe god speaks out of nothing i know but the thing is uh how come it is uh it is okay with the person if i got something then god will make me understand right why the need to summon to interpret like i am just think it's my own no only yeah my perspective right see that is the ideal situation when we receive a word if we ourselves can interpret uh we'll come to it when we study dreams because the person saw the dream and though they are telling us uh in my dream i saw a beautiful flower and the flower bloomed a lot of parts of that dream we are not able to see because the feeling that the person had when they saw the flower you know the colors uh there is so much that we cannot receive from that small description so it is best that the person who has the word interprets however that's not always the case so those who receive are not able to interpret which is why god has given provision through other people to interpret it for example you see joseph right interpreter of dreams because the people who got the word could not interpret so uh yeah ananda because the situation is like that a lot of people are not able to interpret it has to be done by the spirit of god so then it's okay to accept uh is it because of my disability or you told like god provided people to do that work yeah is it because of my disability i i couldn't interpret or or god want uh someone to tell me yeah so i believe it's both in some situations we are not able to interpret it so we need help secondly we are a body isn't it see i can also read and i can learn everything why do i need a teacher there are so many teachers in the body of christ that's the way god has made us interdependent so there are profits can the teacher not do the profits work he can the spirit of god is same right but the spirit of god gives those abilities in a varying way so that we can depend on each other every part can depend on each other so i think god does that so that we need each other also yeah so we can't say that uh i you know i'll do it on my own we need each other yeah and uh also it gets the attention it gets our attention sometimes see that same word if it comes to me i uh correct but if today just i'm giving one example let's say if pastor jakes comes anand i was yesterday i just thought and i felt like god told you like what yes tell me more because you have more attention like if it's come to somebody else whom you know and respect you pay more attention so god knows how to grab our attention that way too yeah yeah yes yes yeah so that way god works okay so we'll look at this one more section here and then we can stop we said revelation presentation now coming to interpretation we've seen earlier that god speaks um through symbols you remember all that we discussed earlier from hosea 12 numbers 12 and those symbols need interpretation symbols or the other term was dark sayings so then when god speaks why does he do that sometimes you wonder it it is a puzzle it is a proverb you know it is a riddle and it's not straightforward few things are straightforward but most things are not why does god do it you know god wants us to depend on him to also get the meaning of what all these things are so interpretation is also by the spirit of god we have to depend on god one nice example is there in our notes let's say we see a car we're praying for somebody right we see a car interpretation can be so many like what is this here god wants to give this person a car or the person has a car business or he could be a car mechanic or he just lost the car you know or you know he has a friend who likes cars or his son has a toy car that he really likes it can be so many things now what are we going to tell that person okay we'll come to this also later on while interpreting sometimes we say I see a car right and then the person like okay then what but you see there are so many interpretations so we really have to depend on the spirit of god otherwise what god is trying to communicate it will never reach that person correctly accuracy will be lacking so that's where the interpretation comes in when god says god speaks to us in symbols dark sayings okay and especially when it comes to interpreting of dreams it's so interesting you'll suddenly see there'll be a tongue the tongue will become long the tongue will go it'll do this it'll do like how can a tongue grow and you know go here and then but there is a meaning god is trying to say something okay so we'll come and expound on that a little later but while we are at these things just want to remind us that revelation when it is by the spirit of the Lord interpretation can also be by the spirit of God so we keep saying right interpret you try to interpret what does it mean what does it mean we have to depend on the Holy Spirit logically we cannot okay to some extent we can say that oh yeah in the Bible maybe this image is here and there but we really have to depend on the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit will then give confirmation yeah correct okay keep moving keep moving and then we'll come to the conclusion of what the interpretation is okay so interpretation is also a very big deal when it comes to prophesying okay so we'll stop at that great so we can stop here and we'll continue the prophetic process I want to request one of us to please pray before we can close today Father God we thank you thank you for this time Lord Lord help us to really hear from you and be a blessing to others Lord help us to be very consciously hearing and be very truthful about what we are hearing and sharing with others Lord teach us Lord in Jesus name we pray amen amen thank you thank you Nina thank you everyone God bless you have a good weekend