 How many of you have ever been a part of a prophetic presbytery weekend here at Radiant Church before? Raise your hand, okay. So a lot of you, I can't say portage, but I know a bunch of you over there. It's been, I think it's been three years since we've hosted it. So along the way, several of you, probably a lot of you have come into church and are like, what in the world is prophetic presbytery? Well, number one, it doesn't mean that we're becoming presbyterians. It does not mean that. Although we have some great friends in the presbyterian church, but the word presbytery, and that's how you say it, let's all practice it, say presbytery. I'm gonna say it one more time, one, two, three. Okay, some people say presbytery, but they're wrong. And so it's presbytery, and presbytery is a word that means a council of elders or spiritual leaders. So when you have a presbytery, you have a gathering of elders, leaders, prophets, apostles. That's what it is. And Paul uses this word in 1 Timothy chapter one when he tells Timothy to take the prophetic words that have been spoken over him. And in 1 Timothy chapter four, verse 14, he says, the prophetic words that have been spoken over you by the presbytery or by the council of elders. And between those two verses, he says, I want you to wage the good warfare. Go back and remember the prophetic words that have been spoken over you and wage warfare and fulfill your ministry. So prophetic presbytery is a weekend that we've set aside to invite several. In fact, we have four presbyters or prophetic ministers that we have a relationship with to come into the church and to pray and to prophesy over candidates that we have been praying and we have selected. Most of them are either emerging or key leaders or some of our new staff. And we wanna be able to allow the Holy Spirit to prophesy and to speak over their lives and then even beyond those candidates to open up environments and services where they can give spontaneous prophetic words to people. And so that is what prophetic presbytery is about. And that's this weekend. So if you're new to this, go ahead and buckle up a little bit because you've been driving a Ford Festiva, you just stepped into a Porsche. And I say that in a great way because it's gonna be a great weekend because when the prophetic spirit is present in a church and when we are in services like this where we're just really keying in on what God is saying, it's really, really powerful and it's transformational on an individual level and also in a corporate environment. How many know that God still speaks? God still speaks. That's what the whole book of Acts tells us. From Acts one to Acts 28, we see God speaking in powerful, powerful ways. Genesis chapter one, it says God created the heavens and the earth and he said, let there be light. Revelation 22 says in the spirit and the bride say, come. So the first verse and the last verse and all 66 books of the Bible are all about a God who speaks, not a God who is on mute. And so the gift of prophecy is one of the most powerful gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to the church. So I want you to look with me in your Bibles real quickly. At Acts chapter 10, this is where we land in our series and I'm gonna do like a 10 minute little mini teaching here about the power of the fact that God still speaks. And because we believe in miracles, they've trusted me to preach for 10 minutes. That would be a miracle, but I believe he's part of the Red Sea. He can part the clock as well, right? Amen. Acts chapter 10, verse number one. It says that Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion who was known or who led what was known as the Italian cohort, a devout man who feared God with all of his household. He gave alms generously to the people. That's the Jewish people. And he prayed continually to God about the ninth hour of the day. He saw clearly in a vision, an angel of God come in and say to him, Cornelius. And he stared at him in terror and he said, what is it, Lord? And he said to him, your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. Now, send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea. And when the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. So the rest of the chapter, if we had time to break it all down, is you will find that this encounter is more than just one example of how God spoke through an angelic emissary to one of the apostles. This is actually a dramatic turning point in both Simon Peter's life and in the church and in the mission of Jesus. Because what you'll find out is that shortly after this moment, imagine Cornelius is a Roman, he's not a Christian, he's not Jewish, but he's found himself living in Israel, probably raised as a pagan, but he comes to a belief in the God of the Jews, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so because of that, he's very generous, he's very kind to the Jewish people, he's given donations to the temple. And now, because there's a spiritual hunger in his heart where he's praying and he's crying out to God, I wanna know you, God sends an angelic ambassador to him to tell him to send for a man named Simon Peter who's over in Joppa. And shortly after this, this takes place on one day, the next day, Simon, who's one of the 12 apostles, we all know Simon Peter, he's up on the roof praying. And as he's praying, he has a vision, a trance, in which he's in the spirit and he sees kind of like a whiteboard drop down out of the sky and all kinds of unclean, uncoture animals on the screen and the Lord speaks to him, rise, kill, and eat. This is how we know that God is not a vegan because he's calling us to eat the meat, amen? Can I get an amen? Amen, all right, don't send me dietary books in the mail or emails, God did this, not me. But actually he tells him, rise, kill, and eat Peter. But what he was saying to Peter was much more than about the dietary issues because Peter said, no, Lord, I won't do that. Nothing unclean has ever entered my mouth. What he's saying is back to God is God, I've always obeyed you and I've avoided things that are unclean and that I should not touch, my heart is consecrated. But God is saying to Peter that everything has now changed in Jesus. And one of the things that has changed obviously is the dietary restrictions, but bigger than that is not just food that you've previously considered off limits or out of bounds, but it's people. And he was showing Peter this so that when these emissaries from Cornelius showed up at his house and knocked on the door in a few moments, he would not turn them away and say, I'm not supposed to have anything to do with Gentiles or Romans. I can't do that, I'm Jewish. But his heart was opened up and when they said we're from a man named Cornelius who's a military leader, he's a Roman. He called for us for you to come and tell him about how to be saved. Simon went and he went and when he shows up there in Caesarea at Cornelius's house, Cornelius has a small group of his friends and family and probably leaders and friends gathered in the house ready and hungry to hear how to be saved and to hear more about Jesus. And so Peter begins to preach to him. This is astounding, a Jewish young man in the home of a Roman military leader telling him about the Messiah named Jesus. And as Peter is preaching, he doesn't even get to get done with his sermon and the Holy Spirit is poured out on them in that room and they're all filled with the Holy Spirit. Just like the original 12 or the original 11 and the 120 in the upper room did on day one, they begin to speak in tongues and prophesy and Simon doesn't even get to give the altar call. He doesn't even get to the end of his message. God just moves sovereignly on them. And here's what this did. Not only did it impact Cornelius and Simon but it became a turning point for the church because now the doors of preaching and proclaiming the gospel to non-Jewish people was open for the very first time. This is several years after the resurrection. And up until this time, the gospel had only been preached to Jewish people but now God has said, not everyone is welcomed into the family of God. Go and proclaim and preach. And it was through God speaking. What we see is that here God speaks through an angel and God speaks through a trance and he puts people together and it becomes a turning point that brings great advancement to the kingdom of God. Can I tell you it's important that we understand this that God's voice is transformational and God's voice is so important and significant that it's not something that we can just relegate to. Oh, that happened in the book of Acts. No, this is for the church in every generation that God still speaks. And God speaks in a lot of different ways. God speaks through nature. Romans one says that his attributes are evident in all of creation. So I don't know about you but it's hard to stand out in the mountains and stare up at the stars and walk away going, this all happened by chance. Creation declares that there's a God. God speaks through creation. God speaks through his word Psalm 119. It says that your word, oh Lord, is a lamp into my feet and a light unto my path. It says that your law, oh Lord, is perfect to the converting of the souls. Oh, how I love your word. And so God speaks to us through his word. Every day when I wake up and I read the Bible, God is speaking to me because the Bible is the only book that when you're reading it, it's reading you. It's spirit and in truth. Jesus said that it's spirit and truth. Hebrews 412 says that the word of God is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword dividing between soul and spirit, bone and marrow. So God speaks through his word but God also speaks in other ways. He speaks through a still small voice. How many have ever had that before? That little nudge, that little prod, you shouldn't or you should. It's like, why is that person's face popping up in my heart? Then you call them and find out they needed a word of encouragement. You might just think, oh, that's coincidence. I believe in God incidences, not coincidences. But God speaks that way. And one of the other ways that God speaks that we just read is through dreams and visions and angels. Joel too, he said, I will pour out my spirit in the last days. Old men shall have visions and young men will dream dreams and upon your maid servant and your men servant, I will pour out my spirit. I mean, we're living in that day, the day after Pentecost where God has poured out his spirit and he says, I'm gonna speak. I'm gonna use dreams and visions and angels. How many of you have ever had a dream that you just suspect that God was speaking to you and trying to get your attention on something? Anybody ever had that? Well, if you've had that, you probably have all had that. You just don't even know it. You thought it was because you had too much pepperoni on your pizza but it may have been the Lord speaking to you. We just have to learn the language of the Lord and sometimes he send angels. I've not seen an angel that I'm aware of but I keep praying. I got about 50 years left on this planet, hopefully and in that 50 years I would love to see an angel but in this moment he sends an angelic minister. But one of the other ways that God speaks is he speaks through others. And it's one of the most profound and one of the most powerful gifts that God has given to his bride is that he would choose to use us to speak to each other. His word, words of encouragement. He speaks to us through wise counsel, he speaks to us through spiritual authority but he speaks to us through gifts and one of the gifts that he uses is prophecy. And prophecy is God speaking a now word in a now moment to a person who needs now direction. That's what prophecy is. It never violates the word of God. God isn't schizophrenic. He doesn't say one thing in the Bible and another thing through the gift of prophecy. The gift of prophecy is always in alignment with scripture but it's a now word spoken through a person in a now situation. That's what the gift of prophecy. This is what the Lord is saying to you and when he does it, he does it for three reasons. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 in verse number three that those who prophesy to people are doing it for three things. Number one, for up building. They're strengthening them. I think the new King James says edification. You're edifying, you're building something. So the gift of prophecy is to build up, not tear down. Sometimes people think that prophecy is gonna be a guy with a long beard coming in and pulling people out and calling out their sin and embarrassing them and pronouncing judgment on things. And that's really more of an Old Testament picture of the gift of prophecy. It's not even the office of the prophet but prophecy is primarily the Holy Spirit speaking through people to build them up number one and number two, to bring encouragement to our hearts. It's supposed to be encouraging. I can't tell you how many times where I've been in a place or in a season of my life that just was wondering, it's like Lord, are you ever gonna move? Are you ever gonna shift things? Are you ever gonna speak in the midst of those droughts to receive a word from somebody? The book of Proverbs says that word of encouragement from a friend is like, it's like cold water. It's like snow during the time of harvest. It's refreshing to us. And that's what prophecy is, is it brings encouragement. And the third thing, it brings is comfort. So once you think about this, upbuilding, encouragement, comfort. God comes to upbuild us in our present situation and encourage us about his future plans for us while at the same time bringing comfort to us of the pain of our past. Because sometimes there is pain that we're carrying and questions from our past that we've never resolved. And sometimes the fact that God speaks to us in a now moment lets us know we're not alone. He's with us, he sees us. And even though we may not get the answers, we know his presence is with us. And I'll tell you this, I would rather have his presence than answers any day of the week. I would rather have his nearness than any other thing in my life. Over the last couple of weeks, Jane and I have been standing with our son-in-law, Zach and our daughter, Ashley. And as many of you know, our daughter gave birth to two premature babies. One of them, Reese, passed away last Sunday. And the other one, Celia is doing very well and she's very preemie. And so your prayers and those of you who've encouraged us, we just can't thank you enough for that. But in the midst of that, we've just been so comforted by the Holy Spirit. It's hard, we won't stand up here and say that it's been easy. It has not been easy, but our faith is not shaken. We know that God is good. We don't know all the whys, but we know the who. And last night sitting at dinner with our presbyters, Wayne Drain, who's been here many times, pulled out a piece of paper and he said, I've been praying for you and God gave me a word for you and for your family for this season. And as he read it to us in the restaurant, it just brought hope to our hearts and it brought healing to our hearts. That's what the gift of prophecy does. God speaks through other people. You see, because when God speaks, his voice eclipses all other voices. And so today, we're going to see that gift in operation. Tonight at 6 p.m. here, we're gonna have another service. We have selected, hand selected, some candidates that are going to come up on stage in a moment. I'm gonna introduce our presbyters. They have been praying over the last few weeks about candidate couple number one, candidate couple number two. They don't know names, but they've just been leaning and praying, asking God to speak. And so we've asked them to come. They're trusted friends and ministers. When they see them up on the platform today, they got their names. It was the first time they ever had names. But how many know Jesus knows their names? And they're gonna speak and prophesy over their life and we're all gonna get to enjoy and sit back and encourage and see that take place. And then at the end of that, we're gonna release them to move throughout the room and share prophetic words to people spontaneously here. So when they, if they point you out, just stand up, tell them your name and receive the word. And listen, if you don't get a word today or tonight or tomorrow night, that's fine. If you hear something that sounds like it's God speaking to you, we allow ricochet words, which means it bounces off you and sticks to me. And go ahead and you just go ahead and claim that and say, I'm co-signing that word. And it's gonna be powerful, okay? So what I wanna do is I wanna invite everyone, if you would, to just portage in here, would you just pray with me? Father, we're so grateful that you're a good God and you speak to us. And we ask you today, Lord, would you strengthen us and allow the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the spirit of prophecy to come and manifest itself and Lord, speak over these individuals and speak over your people and speak over us as a church because Lord, we long for your voice. We long for your voice. Jesus, you said, I am the good shepherd and my sheep know my voice. Lord, we know your voice. Give us ears to hear your voice today and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.