 Okay, so the recording has started. Good morning and welcome once again. Let's pray and begin this morning's class as we learn more about the prophetic. So we can pray. Maybe Shri Radha, can you lead us in prayer please? Father God, we thank you for this day as we come before your throne. You give us the grace and when we will learn from your word, you reveal your word by your Holy Spirit and guide us, lead us and give us the wisdom and knowledge God so that we can understand your prophetic. And we surrender everything into your hand. We send a pastor Nance into your hand. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you for leading us. So the last class we touched upon the introductory part of the word of God. And we said that God speaks to us and his word carries whatever he wants to convey. His word reveals his heart to us and we talked about how God gives us this word. And we said that in the Old Testament there were prophets. And we looked at the word prophet in the Hebrew language and there were three words. So when we studied those three words, one is Nabi, one is Roy, one is Jose, we found out that there are two seemingly different processes through which one can receive a word from God. One is a visualization process, meaning that individual is actually able to see some pictures or you know anything. It could be a static image or a moving or a motion picture sort of a thing. But the way in which God conveys the messages through visual, the visual mode. Whereas the other one we said Nabi is through inspiration. And when we touched on inspiration there was another word called Nataf. One Nabi is when it bubbles up or when it sort of flows forth from us. And Nataf is when it oozes or little by little the word comes forth. So when a prophet begins to speak they may not really know what is coming next. But just because they stepped out you know one part of the puzzle and then another part of the puzzle. So they just keep releasing the word and it starts coming out of them. So that is the Nabi kind of a prophet. This much we understood. And we had just come to the passage where it says you know that when God speaks it's very certain and definite. And the prophets when they gave their experience like Amos he said when a lion roars you know it's like that. That the Lord has spoken to me and I feel like I need to release it. There's a compulsion that he felt and that's the manner in which the Lord speaks. Even Jeremiah says the same thing. He says in chapter 20 verse 7 he says, Oh Lord you induced me and I was persuaded. You are stronger than I and have prevailed. So in a way he's saying God I feel like you are strong and you're sort of compelling me to say something. So I have to give it to what you are doing. So that's the way they felt when they got a word from the Lord. Now we came to the passage where I said we'll talk a little bit more about the visualization process. So there are two key passages that we can look at. One is from Hosea chapter 12 and verse 10. And there is another passage, Numbers 12 verses 5 through 8. It'll be good for us to read it. So I'm going to leave it open and request anyone who can read. Hosea 12 10 and after that another person can read Numbers 12 5 to 8. Hosea chapter 12 verse 10. I have also spoken by the prophets and have multiplied visions. I have given symbols through the witness of the prophets. Okay. Numbers chapter 12 verse 5 and 8. Then the Lord came down in the pillar of cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle and called Aaron and Miriam and they both went forward. Then he said, Here now my words, if there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make myself known to him in a vision. I speak to him in a dream, not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all of my house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly and not in dark sayings. And he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? Okay. Thank you. So in both of these passages, if you observe Hosea 12, God is saying how he spoke. And he's telling, I have spoken by the prophets and have multiplied visions. I have given symbols through the witness of the prophets. So God spoke through the prophets. That's one. And then you have two explanations about the method. So visions, symbols. Okay. In Hosea 12, that's what we have noted. Now let's look at Numbers 12. In Numbers 12 also, he says that here now my words, if there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make myself known to him in a vision. I speak to him in a dream, not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly and not in dark sayings. And he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? So once again here, we have vision, dream, dark sayings enlisted earlier. What was it? Visions, symbols. Okay. Now visions, dreams, dark sayings. So we understand that the Lord had, maybe this was like a sort of a common way in which he spoke to the prophets through pictures. Now, that doesn't mean that God did not speak in any other way because when he talks about Moses, he says, I spoke to Moses face to face. So in the prophetic realm, even that is a possibility. Invariably, our experience is through dreams, visions and he also says symbols. Okay. Earlier, it was symbols in Hosea. Now in Numbers, it is dark sayings. They both are the same. So what is that? You know what are symbols or dark sayings? It might mean that God may use things like parables. So he might give us a picture. A seed is being sown. Now there needs to be an interpretation of what it means. So we, as we go by the Bible, we would recognize, oh, maybe it means the word, the word is the seed. That's what Jesus spoke. So God is sowing that seed in my heart, something like that. So it's a picture that would need interpretation. So a parable, something like a riddle. So something that actually needs an interpretation, that's a dark saying or a symbol. You can't go by what that symbol stands for. It would need an interpretation for us to actually get the meaning. Did you all understand what I'm trying to say? So that is a symbol and a dark saying. So this is the manner in which God commonly spoke to the prophets in the Old Testament. Now in the same chapter, we have the experience of a prophet by the name of Balaam. Some of you may have read about him that he was a prophet who went into error. He did not do what God wanted him to do. He was ready to curse God's people to get some reward. So of course, we don't want to follow his example or the kind of motivation that he had. But still when we consider his experience as a prophet, how God spoke to him, there are some lessons that we can learn. So we will look at Balaam's experience just to understand the prophetic process. How did Balaam receive a word from the Lord? So this is given for us in Numbers 24 verses 15 and 16. I would request any of our online students to read it please. Numbers 24, 15 and 16, it is in our notes as well. Anyone? Jack in. Numbers 24, 15 and 16. And now indeed I'm going to my people. I will advise you what these people will do to your people in the later days. So he took up his oracle and said the utterance of Balaam is a good word, the word of God. He said, what is the word of God? He said, the word of God is the word of God. He said, what is the word of God? He said, what is the word of God? and said, the utterance of Balaam, the Son of Biyar, and the utterance of the man whose eyes are opened. The utterance of him who hears the words of God and has the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls down with eyes wide open. Thank you, Jacken. So in this passage, we see exactly how Balaam heard from the Lord. So we start with him saying, you know, the utterance of Balaam, the Son of Biyar, I don't know how you pronounce that word, but the utterance meaning what he spoke, what he spoke, obviously he being a prophet is releasing a prophetic word, that much we can figure out, and the utterance of the man, now notice. Now there are some details which we are interested in because we are students of the prophetic. It says whose eyes are opened. Whose eyes are opened. So as a prophet, his eyes are opened. Second, utterance of him who hears the words of God, that's another way. Now third one, has the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls down with eyes wide open. So very interesting. So these are all ways in which Balaam has now received God's word. We can look at all these, you know, ways or methods. Firstly, whose eyes are opened. So Balaam as a prophet seems like he was able to view into the spirit realm or the spiritual realm. We live in the natural realm, when we did Kista supernatural ministry, we said that the spiritual realm overrides the natural realm. And when we walk by faith, that's a reality as a believer for each one of us. Now this spiritual realm, we can perceive it. We can sense it or we can see what is happening in the spiritual realm through our spiritual eyes. We will come to that later. So now our spirit man also has senses, one of which is the ability to see into the spirit realm. So Balaam is saying with eyes wide open, meaning we can not only see in the natural realm, that with the physical eyes we can do. In the spiritual realm, we can see. That's what he's telling us. So there is a possibility to look into the spiritual realm. Now there is an experience that we read about of the man of God, Elisha. When Elisha had the armies come against him, horses and chariots. He tells his servant, go ahead, he prays for him. This is in 2 Kings chapter 6. He prays for him that God would open his eyes. And when his servant goes and sees from the mountain, actually there are no human beings as army. But he can see like God's army, a support, like a spiritual support. But this was not visible in the natural. These are not natural beings that he's seeing. So suddenly God opens Elisha's servant's eyes and he is able to look into the spirit realm. So this is something we have to recognize. God can speak to us by allowing us to look into the spirit realm. Now there are questions people ask. People say, okay, is it through the spiritual eyes? Obviously through the spiritual eyes we can look into the spiritual realm. But it may also happen in such a way that through the natural eye, sometimes you can look into the spirit realm. So in both Balaam and Elisha's servant's example, it seems like that. Elisha's servant just went. He's looking through his natural eye but he's seeing spiritual things. So that is one of the ways in which we receive the message of the Lord or what God is really doing. We can look into the spiritual realm. Now let's go further. There are other examples in our passage. We won't be looking into every single example but you can always go back and study it further. Other examples would be things like God gives us a gift of the spirit which is discerning of spirits. You all know it's part of the nine gifts. So even when we carry that gift of the spirit, especially when we cast out demons, how can one tell there is a demon? You can't see a demon with your physical eyes. But with the spiritual eyes, we can look in and be able to discern. So that is one example that is given and even Stephen, when he was martyred, we see that he saw Jesus standing and welcoming him and applauding him. How did he see that? He was looking through his natural eyes but he saw heaven. So even through the natural eye, he was able to look into the spiritual realm. So we can have such experiences. Even Isaiah talks about how he saw heaven. In the year that King Isaiah died, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne. So I saw the Lord. So the experience of actually being able to look into the spirit realm is something that we can look forward to. And it can happen. That's one of the ways in which God communicates. Now in the experience of Balaam, he also said who hears the word of the Lord. So another sense that we are talking about which is to be able to hear. The ability to hear. Till now we said the ability to see. So when it comes to hearing the voice of God, what we know is that when God speaks, it's like a spiritual voice. Now it's nothing new because if you and I are a believer, it's common. God has been speaking to us. We made so many decisions on the basis of what we heard in our spirit. And the spiritual voice is not necessarily an audible voice. Audible meaning where our human hearing sense hears it. Rather it's a quiet voice in our spirit man. Where we hear, oh God is telling me don't do this, do that, go here, go there. So it's a spiritual voice and not necessarily audible voice. Now in the case of Samuel the Prophet, when he was so young and he was dedicated and given to God, left in the temple, there was an incident, right? Samuel chapter 3 where in the night, Samuel is hearing his name, Samuel, Samuel, and he runs to Eli each time. And he thinks, oh Eli is calling me. So initially Eli says, no, I didn't call you. Go back, sleep. But towards the end, Eli recognizes, oh I think God is speaking to Samuel. So he teaches him and he says, the next time you hear that voice, you say, here I am Lord. And so Samuel responds. When he hears the voice of the Lord, in first Samuel chapter 3 verse 9, he says, speak Lord for your servant hears. So is it possible for somebody to hear the voice of God as if it was, you know, audible to our human hearing sense? Yes, it's possible. See, here Samuel is saying that he's hearing God's voice, he's just a small boy. Okay? So literally it was real for him. He just woke up and went and checked, who's talking to me. So audible is also possible. But what we have to know is that usually when there's the audible voice of God, the message is carried to the person who is concerned. So others may not be able to hear it. So I may be hearing the audible voice of God, but others may not be able to hear it. Now we see examples of this in the book of John. There is a time when, you know, God is speaking, but his voice is thunderous. It's sounding like the voice of the angels for the people. But the people are not able to actually hear what God is speaking to them. Even in the book of Revelation, Apostle John, he writes the voice of the Lord is like the voice of many waters. Okay? The sound of many waters, like a loud thunder. So our understanding is, usually God speaks with a spiritual voice. There's no human, you know, sound in that or let's say natural sound. But sometimes even that is possible. But when that happens, generally the person who needs to hear the message hears the words, whereas the others may just hear a thunder or some other kind of a heavenly experience. So that's how the hearing happens. Now, you can definitely ask me questions, maybe towards the end. I'll just go on and finish what Balam explained. So one is seeing, one is hearing. Third one, he received the knowledge of the Lord. So what is the knowledge of the Lord? Knowledge of the Lord is like, you know, for us, who use computers, we are familiar with downloads. So when there's an attachment, sometimes it's just a very small, you know, a few MB word doc, you download it. There's a little bit of information in there, you use it. Sometimes we are downloading GB, you know, heavy files, high speed internet, quickly we download like huge pieces of data and we use it. Okay, in the click of a button, we know how to download. So this is very similar. Receiving the knowledge of the Lord means God releases his thoughts. In moments, we may get, like, downloads of, you know, small pieces of information, huge pieces of information. It really depends. God's thoughts, his words, his impressions, it comes into us. And you think, hey, till a moment ago, I didn't know what was going to happen or I didn't know what decision to make. You know, I didn't know what sermon to preach. I didn't know which song to sing. But all of a sudden, you know, how do you know something came into your spirit? Okay, so that is what receiving the knowledge of the Lord is. God just puts it into our spirit and we retrieve it from there. We use that if you may want to call it data. Okay, so that's an experience which Balaam had and he was able to hear from the Lord. It came into his spirit and he picked it up and he says, you know, he saw the vision of the Almighty. Now, earlier, we talked about being able to look into the spirit realm. Now, he more specifically says the vision of the Almighty. So generally, when we say vision, vision has to do with something like a motion picture. We are so familiar with movies and you know, like pictures, stories that are recorded. So we understand what that means. So God gives visions to convey what he's saying. There are many visions in the Bible. Some of them have been enlisted here. Visions could be just a message that comes or you know, a vision can be so much more than a message. So some examples of visions if you study the book of Ezekiel, full of visions, he kept having visions as a prophet of God, Daniel. Today, we are looking into many of the prophecies of Daniel. The visions that he had, they are reality now and many things are unfolding, many things will unfold. Look at the book of Revelation. Those were the visions that John the Apostle had on the island of Patmos. So, visions are a way in which God speaks. Again, in the vision itself, there can be things that are literal. Meaning, the meaning is what you see. But then there are things which are figurative. The meaning is something completely different. If you look at the visions that Daniel had, you see an image a little bit is made of bronze, a little bit is made of some metal, another part is made of clay. This is figurative. We have to sit and interpret what does that clay stand for? What does that bronze stand for? What does that other metal stand for? Isn't it? So, in this way God can reveal in visions to us. Now again, when it comes to visions, people ask questions. Vision, okay when does God give you a vision? At any time the truth is, yeah, any time God can give a vision. So maybe we are awake, we are praying, we are worshipping, we get a vision. Or we are in the Lord, we are ready to hear from the Lord at any time. Maybe we are just going about our daily tasks. We get a vision. It can happen. Anytime you get a vision. So, you get a vision when you are awake. Now, when we are sleeping, can we get a vision? Yes. So, many a time dreams are nothing but some people say like shatai vision. You are actually sleeping. But in the sleep, how God said earlier right, I speak I release my word. So, when we are sleeping we get a vision and you term it as a dream. Right, so there are many, many variations of how God can speak. But these are some basics that we are understanding. So, God can help us look into the spirit realm. We can hear the voice of God. We can get a download of information from God which we are calling knowledge, receiving the knowledge of the Lord. Then we can also have a vision from the Lord. Then, here in Balaam's experience he says, he fell down with eyes wide open. This is referring to what we call as a trance. So, what is a trance? Trance is an experience where a person while hearing from the Lord or while receiving God's message is experiencing physical weakness. They are not functioning, they just freeze. And in those moments God is speaking. A good example would be that of Peter. You remember Peter, at chapter 11 he is so hungry and he is praying to God and God suddenly shows him a vision. But that vision happened when Peter was in a trance. He was not doing anything. He was physically weak and sort of not moving. He was just hearing from the Lord. It's as if he is asleep. So, trances also where the experiences of prophets. So, we are not saying that all of this can happen to all of us. Bits and pieces of different kinds of experiences can happen to all of us. But it's good to know what are the possibilities. Balaam says, these are all his experiences. These are ways in which he actually heard from the Lord. So, God can use a combination of methods to communicate his message and one must be open to it. Now, God's message can come in the simplest ways. Simplest ways. Sometimes just your the primary way in which of course is the Bible. We should not neglect that. That has to be the primary way that God speaks to us. Now, over and above very simple things like even your daily activities for Jeremiah God speaks to him. He speaks to Jeremiah through pottery and the wheel. Oh, great profound message coming through just that. So, we may be going about our daily activities but through something so simple God can speak something so profound. Okay, so it can happen in that manner and of course you know God can reveal in all the ways that we spoke about. Now, Daniel in Daniel chapter 2 and verse 22 says something so very beautiful. He says God reveals deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness and light dwells with him. See, our God we say is omniscient all knowing. We know in a limited way but God who knows everything can release to us what he thinks is important. That's what is secret. Secret is what he knows what we don't know but maybe we need to know it and then he reveals that to us. So, this is the God we serve who reveals deep and secret things so we can desire to know what are deep and secret things may be solution to some problems may be like we want to know about our future so that we can prepare ourselves isn't it or wisdom, God's wisdom in different circumstances situations. If God speaks it would be so nice. Things will work out so much better or interpretation when you look at people like Daniel look at people like Joseph how did he interpret dreams how did he get so effective in interpreting dreams because he depended on God even Daniel I love that passage where it says the king had a dream and he wanted somebody he was so disturbed by it he wanted somebody to interpret it and then finally you know they found Daniel but the beautiful thing is he never even told the dream to Daniel so Daniel went figured out the dream figured out the interpretation came and told the accurate version to the king now do you like this the person didn't even tell the dream but Daniel came back with the dream and accurate interpretation because God is the source he knows everything nothing is hidden from God so he reveals the deep and secret things so that's the key to depend on the Lord and of course understand all these methods but ultimately when you're depending on the Lord who knows everything he's there to guide us and to direct us to help us and show us what he really wants us to know okay Daniel 2 28 when Daniel speaks regarding this matter he says there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets so yes this is about the experience of Balaam at this point if there are any questions any thoughts please feel free we can discuss and then we will proceed to the next chapter Ma'am in the first thing we are saying about like what it means like eyes open so like like we can see with our spiritual eyes and also we can see with our natural eyes we can see and also with spiritual eyes so natural eyes means like we have discussed like how Stephens are and how Elisha are so and we have seen this like so I want to ask like the seeing through spiritual eyes means dreams and visions or is it something different seeing through spiritual eyes is that dreams and visions see it can be with both right with my natural eye also I can see something that God is doing I can see it with both so dreams and visions are not limited only to spiritual eyes even through natural eye maybe we will be able to see certain things yeah see seeing with your natural eyes means maybe I will put it this way then you will understand you see when you close your eyes meaning you are not using your natural eye and then you are seeing something okay so that is looking into the spiritual realm without your natural eye but if you are looking into the spiritual realm with your eyes opened then you are using your natural eye to look into the spiritual correct but you can even see visions and dreams with your natural eye you can see like especially in a trance maybe I am just giving an example your eyes are open or maybe you know you are falling down and you are not moving and you are seeing all these things your eyes may be closed or your eyes may be open but the main part is that God is speaking to me through visions so I understand where you are coming from but these technicalities may not really matter at the end of the day when God is speaking through this eye or through closed eye or whichever way but did I answer your question but yeah you can have dreams and visions see dreams as I said it's in the night when somebody is sleeping so okay fine so not through the natural eye so for dreams we could say it's not through the natural eye because person is actually sleeping but visions we can see through the natural eye also yeah no if you desire it's important to desire it can happen it should happen God should speak to us that's why we are learning about all this yeah yes jack in you have a point here I'll just quickly look into it a pastor when God reveals to us certain things it is not necessary at all times for us to reveal or speak to others it's for our own eyes to open and see the things of God right yes jack in it's most of the time that's what it is for in an instance where God tells you or impresses on your heart that that message is for somebody else and you're supposed to communicate it then you communicate it so a good example would be Joseph he saw all these amazing dreams about his future and we know if he would have just kept quiet he may have escaped being sold to Egypt into Egypt but he went and he just went ahead by sharing his dream at the wrong time and it created so much trouble in his life so everything we see everything we hear is not for us to tell okay so you're right jacket you're right about that I hope you're fine with it okay great yes thank you mom when we are speaking about dreams and visions interpretation so when we are speaking about prophecy in the interpretation so the first thing we have to say is it should align with the word of God when we are interpreting dreams and visions is there anything like that yeah so when we when we say prophecy you are saying it should be aligned with the word of God right similarly interpretation definitely it has to be aligned to the word of God dreams and visions when we interpret if it doesn't fall in line with the word then we can't accept it what about when Daniel when they interpreted it they didn't have the word of God right then but they had the Holy Spirit no we also had the Holy Spirit correct so that's what the Holy Spirit now you're right we have the advantage of having the word with us but one scripture I think it's 1 John 5 7 let me yeah for there are 3 that bear oh this is the NKJV version let me read NKJV version for there are 3 that bear witness in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Spirit and these 3 are one so it's telling us the Father the Word and the Holy Spirit these 3 are one now if you want to read further also you can read that also kind of similarly talks about agreement but even with this one scripture what do we recognize the Father the Word and the Holy Spirit are one so that means the Word will the Holy Spirit will not say something which the Word is not saying you understood so the Holy Spirit has to be in agreement with the Word only then we can accept it so when we say things like prophecy, dreams, visions these are the works of the Holy Spirit how can the Holy Spirit work against the Word right so when it comes to interpretation of dreams people may come up with all kinds of interpretations and say Spirit of God is leading me to say this say that we can check it with the Word okay if Spirit is saying it's one with the Word so it has to be as the Word says now if it is going opposite then you can just reject what they said because the Spirit and the Word have to agree if Spirit and Word are not agreeing we cannot accept it okay so yeah we have the advantage of the Word of God so whatever we sense the Spirit speaking we can check it with the Word of God now going back to people like Daniel I think they were just so strong in the Lord so connected to the Lord that they were led accurately by the Spirit so that is amazing without the Word also like now it's before also before in days of Old Testament when you say the work of Holy Spirit is same like how Holy Spirit is working within us yeah so I think you mean in terms of communicating to the people right so yeah correct yes he worked the same way in the past he is working the same way right now with us the only difference is we will see later in the Old Testament the prophets heard from God now we all hear from God because we all have the Holy Spirit living inside us so that's that's the beauty of the new covenant so earlier they used to go looking like when we will come to all this when Saul lost his donkeys they wanted to find a prophet I mean imagine today you lose your keys and you need a prophet to help you find your keys but we don't have to do that anymore in those days they did it because that was the only way you have to go find a seer and then seer will tell you go here this is what God is telling me today you don't have to run behind any seer we all have the Holy Spirit he can speak to all of us so that's the difference in Old Testament he used Holy Spirit there because now we can only see like the Spirit of God used to come for something and then leave for something but is it not like well in them correct so the question Prince is asking is in the Old Testament was the Holy Spirit there with people so the presence of the Holy Spirit was there we can say that but what we are talking about is the anointing so to minister the anointing would come and go the prophet anointing it won't live inside a prophet so that is the difference Chirah has a question can Satan come with a dream yes he can he can come with a dream so we must discern which dream is really from God and which dream is from Satan and if something is from Satan it will instill fear intimidation so when all that happens we know it's not from God what must we do reject it in the name of Jesus so there can be dreams which are not from God reject it in the name of Jesus so with that we will stop Chirah I hope you got your answer we will pray and close for today we have run out of time wonderful thank you let's pray Father God we thank you Lord we thank you for everything we heard from you Lord help us Lord help us to hear from you and be a blessing Lord in Jesus name we pray Amen thank you Nina thank you everyone God bless meet you in the next class