 I'm going to make a bold claim, but it's true. I'm going to show you how you can prophesy in a surefire way. You'll learn how to prophesy. If you just type in prophetic training, how to be a prophet, train your prophecy, how to know if you're a prophet, how to know if you have to get the prophecy, how to grow in the gift of prophecy, just go to YouTube or any other platform, but we'll go to YouTube and you'll see that there are numerous videos just about how to be a prophet. Signs you're a prophet, growing prophetic gifts. Can you train to be a prophet? All these different things how to activate the prophetic. All of these different videos, let me just say this by the way, let me just say this by the way, every last one of these videos are false. All the information that's contained in it is just false. Do they have some truths? Sure, but the point that they're trying to get to is just false. It is misleading and I would just say to you, do not listen to it. Now I can make that statement because we're going to go to the scriptures and I'm going to prove a point. Now we are told in the Bible not to despise prophets. As a matter of fact, we're told in 1 Thessalonians 5 20, do not despise prophetic utterances or do not despise prophecy. Some verses may say, well, what is prophecy? Prophecy or prophet, prophecy is simply given an utterance, giving a revelation. That's all it is. A prophet reveals or informs or utters what God says. From the old to the new, the old testament to the new testament, we see that there are people that will give what thus saith the Lord. And there are different ways that it comes about. Some it comes where, like Moses and others, where they are actually having a conversation with God in the presence of the Lord, either with his glory or with the pre-incarnate Christ who might be the age of the Lord. Or we hear them having a revelation in a dream of vision or just a word from heaven. And so what would they do? They might in turn turn around and tell the people or they might use it for themselves. And so we see that in the old testament. We see in the new testament simply just stating what the Lord has said. And conveniently for us, we have his word nicely bound in one spot where we got all 66 books of what he said. Now, some will say, well, there's more to his word than just that. There's more to what he would want to reveal than just that. We'll leave that alone for the time being. But the point is, God is simply wanting to reveal something to us and then we in turn reveal it to others. Or to whom it's for. And so when the Bible says, do not despise prophecy, to go along with that, you want to make sure that not only do you not despise prophecy, you want to also make sure that you don't cause people to despise prophecy. Remember, prophecy, the bulk of prophecy, the majority of prophecy that we see in the Bible is not foretelling, meaning that it's not predictive prophecy of what's going to happen in the future. But most prophecy is just simply saying what the Lord is saying right now. For us, that can be the scriptures. If you feel like the God has given you a word or leading you somewhere and you take that as prophecy, fine, we'll deal with that in just a second. That can be very dangerous. And there are those that will say that God didn't speak that way. We'll make it so that I think that even they will agree with this, with this statement that I want to say just a little bit. But remember, we ought to not despise prophecy. However, there's something that people say often and it just bothers me. I hear it from scholars. I hear it from novices. I hear it from people that should know better. The thing is, every time I hear it, I hear it from someone who actually has a Bible who can turn to the passage and read it. It doesn't have to necessarily even be in Greek. You can just read it in English. This is in 1 Corinthians, chapter 14. We are told we are being taught that we should pursue spiritual gifts or we should pursue prophecy. That's not what the text says at all. Let's go to the passage. 1 Corinthians 14, chapter 1, chapter 14 verse 1, I'm sorry, says, Pursue love yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. Let's stop for a second and look at what the text actually says. Pursue love. It doesn't say pursue gifts. It doesn't say pursue prophecy. That's not what it says. Pursue. The Greek word that's used here is doketech, which is to pursue. Go after. That's what this is. Now, then he says yet or zealute, which is desire day, a zealute day, time numitika, which is now desire, earnestly desire, want the things of the spirit. The word that's used here is not spiritual gift. It's the numitikon. Or as he said also in 1 Corinthians 12, and Paul says, I don't want you to be ignorant concerning the numitikon, the spiritual things. That's literally what it means, things of the spirit. We'll cover this more in depth at another time, but desire that desire, the things of the spirit. Why? And we know this is a why because we have what's called a henna cause, a henna, which means in order or so that, in order that you would prophesy. So desire the spiritual things in order that you will prophesy. Well, what is prophecy? Not to be a prophet or to have that get the prophecy, but that you would give a revelation. The whole point of all the spiritual gifts of all the spiritual things, the whole point of the spirit is to bring about a revelation of the Lord, walk in that, so that the whole body would do the same thing. The whole point of every numitikon or how the numitikon works or how the spiritual gifts in people work, how the spirit moves in people is for the building up of the body, the edification of the body so that the entirety of the body would grow, which is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, and he reiterates it all throughout chapter 14 several times. Peter does the same thing as well. Now, what should we do? How was the safest way to give a prophecy? How should we give a prophecy? Well, let me just say this. Let me just go ahead and lift the cat out of the bag. Let me just go ahead and give you the answer right now. I don't want you to have to labor too far to find the answer to the test question. Question, how can I prophesy better? How can I be a better prophet? How can I train my gift of prophecy? Can you train and give a prophecy? I don't think you can, but what's a step, two steps, three steps to become a better prophet, to unleash my prophetic? Well, it's simple, really, really simple that anyone can get. Simple. Here it is. Say what God says. Whatever God says, you say it. Notice you don't even have to feel good about it. You don't have to feel confident about it. You don't have to feel comfortable about it. Prophecy, the effectiveness of it, the legitimacy of it, is not dependent upon you. How you feel, no, it's just dependent upon what the said the Lord, if he says it to you in a vision or a dream. Fine, fine. I won't argue with you on that point right now. If he says it in some sort of, you felt like he came to you in your bedroom and told you something, fine. Or like most of us, we got it from the scripture, we simply say what he says. Now, we can know for a fact if it's true, we can know for a fact if it's true because it is going to be, well, as far as I'm concerned, most of how I'm going to look at it is going to be according to the scripture. Notice what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 when he speaks about a different gospel, a different Jesus, a different spirit. He says, for I deliver to you as of first and foremost what I also receive that Christ died. How, how does he know so? According to the scriptures. He was buried and raised on the third day. How, how does he know so? According to the scriptures. So that is one surefire way of revelation. One surefire way of prophecy. This prophecy is not the foretelling prophecy. The Lord is going to touch someone, the Lord, someone that has a bad back. God wants to heal you. The Lord wants you to reconcile with your family. Vague things that comply almost anybody if you've got a room full of people. No, not those kind of prophecies, but I mean the kind of prophecies where you're saying what the said the Lord is, just stick to what the word is, the scripture. That's a surefire way of not one to make someone despise prophecy and you don't cause it. And so they will appreciate the scriptures. But wait a minute, Cory, what if someone says they have a vision from the Lord? Well, fine, fine. Then whatever the Lord says, say it. In the Old Testament and in the New, we'll see people that will have something that said to them by the Lord, whether they were sure of it or not. That didn't mean that there was not a word from the Lord. There was not a revelation. When Ananias is hearing from the Lord about Paul, he's a little hesitant about Paul because Paul is killing people. Paul is causing believers to be killed. And so he's a little bit hesitant. But what does he do? He simply says what God says. What do we see in the Old Testament? Whether they were sure of it or not. They simply say what God said. That's what you're supposed to do. And if you say what God says or you tell us is what God says, and it doesn't happen, well, we've got a problem. We have, Houston, we have a problem. In more of the case, you have a problem. Why? Well, let's go back to the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 18, he says, But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other guys, that prophet shall die. Now, thankfully for some of these people, because we've got a bunch of them, we're not in this dispensation. But still, it's not until that the Lord is not going to deal with that person. You may say in your heart, how we know the word which the Lord has not spoken. Well, that's a good thing. Good question. We want to know too, how do we know if this person speaks a word and it's not tied to the scriptures? We can't go back and test it with the scriptures. Well, he says, When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him. Now, but wait a second, Cory. What about the person who speaks about a prophet is going to happen in five years? Well, fine. Wait five years. Wait five years. Now, I will say this. We don't really see the Bible using untrustworthy people who tend to get, especially those who tend to get doctrine wrong, using the matter of fact, what prophet did God use to give a distance, a prophecy in the distant future that this person was also wrong about the scripture that didn't understand what God was doing. He typically uses, matter of fact, he always uses someone trustworthy. Wait a minute, Cory. There are people in the Bible who we know are false prophets or lying prophets. Well, yeah, let's exclude the prophets of Baal because even Baal can have prophets. Now, they're lying, they're off. What about the person who speaks to the man of God who lies? Well, that person indicates that he lied. That person is going to be punished by God, but then the Lord puts in his mouth to speak to him. Why? Well, who else is he going to use? There's no one else around. And so the Lord is going to use this lying prophet, this person who just told a lie, who claimed it was a Lord. But guess what? The Lord never told him that. The Lord never told the lying prophet to make this lie. He did it on his own, but he did so. He allowed us to happen to test him. And so all we have to do is wait to see if something's going to come and pass. But in this case, he used, he did use an untrustworthy person. Why? To test you. If you listen to these people, you are going to suffer the consequences. But back to the point, all we have to do according to this passage is just to wait. When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Presumptuously, you shall not be afraid of him. So if what he says doesn't happen, well, then don't listen to him. Yeah, but it's five years off in the future. Well, then fine, wait five years. Many of these people though, however, when they give these prophecies of what's going to happen five years or 40s or three years, they've probably more likely given other prophecies as well and they haven't come true. So even if they give a vague prophecy, even if they say something that we can test and know the fourth fact that it's not true, don't listen to that person again. That's what the Bible says. I don't care if it's 2023 and he gave a sort of false prophecy in 2021 and he's got another one. We don't listen to him again. Do not let someone fool you again. All we've got to do is just say what God said. If you said God said it, fine. It didn't happen that way. Then God didn't say it and there's no reason for us to listen to you again. Cory, what if that person, what if the Lord wants to use that person again? Why would he? Do we see that in scriptures? No, by the way, if God has the word to give to everyone, he doesn't need that person. There are a billion of people on the planet that he could use and so it doesn't need to use go to some false prophet because he's got a good follower or anything like that. No, again, let's go with the text. And remember, our passage that we're going to always hold to is 2 Corinthians 4-6. Do not, do not, at all possible, exceed what the text says. And for some reason I have on 2 Corinthians, put the right passage up. It's 1 Corinthians 4-6. He says so that you, so that you will learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant. We have that happening a lot. People becoming arrogant who will exceed what the text says. Again, say what the text says. There are going to be people that are going to come and be false prophets. Jesus even says, He says, For false Christ and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders. So as if to, or to mislead, if possible, the very like, the goal is to mislead. Now I don't care if they're doing so intentionally or unintentionally. A false prophet, ultimately behind a false prophet, there's someone who wants to thwart or cause us to deceive true prophecy. That would be the enemy. And so whether it's intentional or unintentionally, that person does not get a chance to receive us our hearing again. If you're going to say the Lord said, well then fine, you're the one that invoked his name. And then, and then if you suffer the consequences, which is that we never listened to you or you and your prophetic words ever again, well then so be it. The best thing you can hope for is not to go to hell. But what we don't want to do is, because we're seeing this happening a lot, these false prophets who are coming in, what are they going to do? They are going to come among us and secretly introduce destructive heresies. As he says secretly, they're going to do so not openly. It doesn't look like what he said, what she said, what they said seems to be the scriptures, seems that they gave the gospel, they mentioned Jesus. That's why it says secretly introduce destructive heresies. And some of them will even deny the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon them. Some of them are going to even deny Jesus himself. We see that now. So again, to make it easy, and I thought I made it pretty easy. If you want to know how to prophesy, and oh, by the way, any of us can prophesy, any of us can bring a revelation. That doesn't mean that any of us can be a prophet, that any of us have the gift of prophecy. No, this is just the generic sense, if you're going to tell what I'm saying. I'm not saying how you can know that you have the gift. Oh, by the way, how do you know you have the gift? Well, then if the word of the Lord comes to you, if you feel like you have that gift where he's supernaturally gives you information, well, again, at the same point, whether it's for the heretic, whether it's for the person that's deceived, whether it's for the person that truly is receiving revelation and the rest of us don't agree with it, or whether someone who believes that the revelation is coming from the scriptures, whether you are a continuationist, whether you are cessationist, whether you're Pentecostal, charismatic, whether you are reformed, whether you're dispensational, whatever you are, the rule is the same. All across the board, say what he says, and if it comes to pass, or if it's true, then amen. But if it doesn't, because we can go back and check, we can test these things, do like Marines did, even with Paul. Paul, you said what? Okay, let's go back and check. Doesn't matter who you are, we simply will say what God says. And if what God says is not what you said, or what you said is not what God says, even if it's a foretelling future prophecy, even still, fine, we'll give it time. All of those Trump prophets and so forth, we don't ever, nor should you ever listen to them again. Why? Because don't think that he's not only going to deal with the person who gave the false prophecy, as we see in the Old Testament, he's going to deal with the people who listened to the false prophecy and gave credence to what he says, as he says, the Lord is testing you to see. So again, in summary, think it's pretty easy. We could probably put on a t-shirt, put on a billboard, put on a bumper sticker, just say what God says. Amen.