 All right great so let's pray and we can begin our classes. I would like to request someone to please lead in prayer. Anyone? Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you Lord. Thank you for these classes that where we could come together and learn your word deeply Lord. We pray that as we spend this time together we invite your spirit to help us understand things, rather help us to be open and to receive the things that they are taught and that we get to use them to strengthen our spirits and to grow stronger in you in advancing your kingdom Lord. We thank you for this time and we ask this in Jesus name. Amen, thank you. Thank you Tarun. So this morning we will begin our course. I know that you're aware this particular course is about the prophetic as well as the apostolic. So what we're going to do is we will start with the prophetic first and then we will go on to studying about the apostolic. Now for our study we are going to use the APC publication called as understanding the prophetic which I have shared on your Classworks page. You can just go to the website and from the publication section the English resources you can download the publication which is titled understanding the prophetic and this will be the textbook that we will follow. So I'll try as much as possible to go in the order that the chapters are in this particular book. So we will first do the prophetic and then we will go on to the apostolic. Now the interesting thing is that you know the church as we see today the global church and you know the local churches across the globe many of them they are interested in the prophetic. We see more and more of the prophetic being released and also the knowledge about the prophetic increasing in our midst. So we will get a little more of a handle on these things as we go along but we can all see that there's more of hearing from God and more of walking according to what God is saying in our midst currently and there is an interest for that. So whenever we use the term prophetic we are simply saying that this is about hearing from God and doing what God wants us to do. So it's not just about hearing to say what God wants us to say but in addition to that it's also about doing what God wants us to do and this is but a believer's life isn't it to know what God wants for us and to actually walk in those things. So every believer needs to be prophetic. If we don't hear from God then you know how can we live a life that is pleasing to God. So we will understand more about what this really means hearing and the following what God wants for us. I think somebody's microphone is unmuted. If you don't mind if you can please check and mute yourselves I think that would be great so that there is no disturbance. Yeah okay thank you so much. All right so when we talk about the prophetic realm and I just said that the global church is growing in the understanding of the prophetic currently. You know one of the things that we all recognize is that communication. Communication it could be in whichever form but if you just want to think along with me about the words that people have spoken into our lives and then it could have been a very tough situation that you and I were going through and maybe a family member or a dear friend came to us and spoke some encouraging words who said something like don't worry it'll be okay or you'll be fine God is with you. You know can you connect with that you know we've all had situations where people have spoken in this manner into our lives and you know it brought so much of meaning it brought encouragement it brought a blessing it brought strength into us you know in those moments. So just a few words can make a world of a difference to us and when we speak words of encouragement into other people's lives that has a similar effect we find that people are encouraged to go on with their lives to you know rise up and do great things. So words are very powerful you know words can bring encouragement they could can also bring us counsel at a time when we really don't know what to do words can bring in that that enlightenment and from darkness suddenly we know how to go about doing things so they can bring counsel they can bring direction they can bring hope into our lives and so if the human words that we hear and the human words that we speak are so valuable you know how much more the life transforming word of God that is spoken into our being. Now when we talk about prophetic now sometimes we have this understanding that it's all about God saying something from heaven in the now and and that's about it however we will see as we study this subject on the prophetic that God's primary communication is through his word his revealed word or what we call as logos okay so from the written revealed word of God we receive God's communication now in addition to that we depend on the ministry of the Holy Spirit now the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit and brings God's word alive he directs us and he points out the the very specifics that God wants for us in a given time so we have the written word of God which forms our foundation but in addition to that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is is something that we also rely on for hearing from God and we can say that above this foundation or you know on this foundation comes in the now word of God or which we generally call as the prophetic word or the word that is spoken you know right now currently related to our situation or our circumstance now that comes in and it fits in actually with the logos or the revealed word of God the work of the Holy Spirit and then of course you know you have the prophetic word we will see later on as to how all this is so much in harmony and that you know we cannot have the prophetic word without having the basis or the foundation of you know these these these basics now when we look at what God is doing in the world and in the the church okay or his body we've studied about the moves of God the restorative moves of God okay just want to quickly ask if everyone's okay if you're able to hear me fine and understand what I'm saying yeah so far is everyone good okay great okay that's nice thank you so much yeah that's good okay let's continue so basically I am sharing from the APC publication understanding the prophetic so if you are wondering you know where we are we we've just started from our notes and I am on page 2 of the notes actually so yeah the introduction part so I was saying that the the church has seen the restorative moves of God we've seen how God has led the church through a journey of increase from the dark ages and we've seen that spiritual increase coming in in the form of revelation about various truths so we've seen the revelation about you know holiness we've seen the revelation about the work of the Holy Spirit and then in the most recent move of God that we've talked about the Pentecostal movement we've talked about you know the gifts of the Holy Spirit the baptism in the Holy Spirit and so God has been restored these these truths to the church and strengthening the church and from the year 2000 you could also say that there is a strong emphasis on the five-fold ministry offices and the functions right of the five-fold ministry offices but not just the ministry offices now talking about the prophetic office and the restoration of the office of the prophet so we also see that the prophetic as such right is is being restored and I've already told us that we are going to touch on the apostolic very soon okay so that will involve us understanding how God is restoring the apostolic to the entire church and the apostolic office as well okay and this is something we will study later on but you know overall the church body you could say that this importance that we have to hear from God that we are gaining perspective on that and we are learning how to do this better so when we talk about the prophetic you know sometimes we are very focused only on the office of the prophet or you know we we talk about somebody being a prophet however it's not limited only to the office of a prophet there is a progression that that will help us understand the prophetic uh prophetic ministry okay so this progression it's a beautifully depicted for us on page three there is a you know like a diagram there that you can look at and that gives us a clarity that gives us clarity on how the prophetic realm really works so what we see here is we see that the lowest rung of the ladder would be the gift of prophecy okay it is the gift of prophecy uh and when you know anyone is in Christ Jesus we see uh God promising every believer the work of the Holy Spirit the gifts of the Holy Spirit so the gifts of the Holy Spirit are released in the life of every believer it's available for every believer so all believers can actually access this basic or you would say the the you know most rudimentary or the lowest rung of the ladder the gift of prophecy so all believers can flow in the gift of prophecy we have several scriptures okay that back this up and we will talk more about it later also first Corinthians chapter 12 I'm just giving you the references verses 7 through 10 and again you know uh verse 31 that's another verse to look at that says that all believers can flow in prophecy and again the first Corinthians 14 1 and verse 31 so here Paul is uh instructing the Corinthian church on the right way in which the gifts of the spirit should be practiced and you know as he is uh talking to them he uh says that you know everyone you can you can prophesy one by one but this is how you must do it okay and then he has all these instructions so when you see the the way he speaks he says all of you can prophesy if you have a word you can prophesy but follow this order so even he is uh speaking to the Corinthian church and as he's speaking to the Corinthian church we realize that he's not pointing out that the gift of prophecy is only given to a certain select few and also again you know first Corinthians 14 1 where he says earnestly desire the gifts so God is a God who wants us to desire when he will give something to us you know God never really says okay you desire but i'm not going to give it to you okay it doesn't work in the kingdom of God when God calls us to something to desire something it means that there is a provision for that in the kingdom so the first Corinthians 14 1 and again first Corinthians uh uh verse 14 and verse 31 there we see Paul encouraging the believer to flow in the gift of prophecy so we understand that believers all believers can prophesy okay uh i i'm not going into the verses you could uh take time to read through the verses by yourself later on so the understanding is that all believers can flow in the gift of prophecy so when a believer begins to flow in the gift of prophecy we turn that believer as a prophesying believer okay and uh how can a believer do this not by uh on his own or it's not out of some inherent ability that you and i possess not at all this is only possible because of the Holy Spirit and prophecy is a gift of the Holy Spirit and so through the gift of the Holy Spirit any believer can be a prophesying believer when he learns to flow in this gift okay now we also see in scripture that one can not just be a prophesying believer but can also have a ministry a prophetic ministry you know when we read about the functions that are available in the body of Christ this is in the passage Romans chapter 12 you know verses 4 through 8 where we we read that believers have various responsibilities that have been entrusted to them some are good with the area of helps administration leadership you know encouragement giving but also prophesying or prophetic ministry so here we gain the understanding that there is a specific ministry as well which is given to believers and that can be a prophetic ministry okay so we are building on our understanding what we just said is that all believers can flow in the prophetic gift and that would be basic but over and above now there is something called as the prophetic ministry which is given to certain believers okay so that simply means that they are able to prophesy they are able to impart the prophetic you know out of their ministry a whole lot more compared to a regular believer so they carry a prophetic ministry okay so this would be you could also term it as a prophetic ministry or the grace gift we use the term grace gift of prophecy over somebody's life now beyond this there is what is known as the prophetic office and the diagram that I spoke about that gives you clarity if you're just if you're looking at it as I'm talking you would know what I'm trying to explain so some are chosen into the office of the prophet and you know all of us are familiar with Ephesians chapter four the passage from verse 11 through 13 which talks about the Lord Jesus giving gifts to the church you know and giving us the five-fold ministry offices out of which one is that of a prophet now who is a prophet you know a prophet is a person who has been called by God for this role of ministering the prophetic and the prophet is somebody who carries more than just you know like a grace gift of prophecy now somebody who has a grace gift of prophecy or in other words the prophetic ministry who has a prophetic ministry you would see that the prophetic is part of whatever they do now you know they could be called in a secular sort of a workspace or they could be in the church leading worship maybe I'm just giving you an example but as a leading worship they're very prophetic right so they hear from God they sing songs that are in the now they hear from heaven and they sing those songs or the music that they play is very it's not just you know you pick up a set of songs and you go ahead and sing them play that music no but they're really hearing from God and they're releasing what communication they're receiving from God so it's a prophetic ministry right which they're carrying it's more than just being a prophet sign believer now the prophetic ministry we understood that the office of a prophet the office of a prophet somebody who is functioning in that capacity no we generally use the term governmental responsibility and authority for the offices so whether you are an apostle a prophet a teacher an evangelist a pastor now God calls people in the office with governmental responsibility and authority so this means that their responsibility is greater than a prophesying believer a prophet's responsibility is greater than the one who carries a prophetic ministry and you know many of these prophets you would see that they are functioning more in the area of laying strong doctrinal foundations they are moving very powerfully in hearing from God and announcing new moves of God that can be directives you know from the Holy Spirit that which they could be releasing and this would have to do not just with a small group of believers but you know they might be prophesying to a region they might be prophesying to you know a good section of the body of Christ so they're carrying that responsibility on their lives and along with that comes the authority that God gives them you know to release words that affect you know the the body of Christ at large so the people who have been appointed as prophets okay they carry a huge responsibility you know they are also the the ones who can can bring in resolution right in in certain situations if there are problems let's say doctrinal problems or you know other issues in the church that need to be sought many a time God works through the prophets to bring in some settlement a good example is to go back to the book of Acts do you remember when there was this whole issue about the Gentiles and if they were required to be circumcised and follow some of the Jewish rituals the church leaders came together and obviously there were some prophets who were part of that leadership group who were helpful in resolving the matter and coming out with a decree that helped the Gentiles know exactly what they must be doing in order to follow God so this is the progression okay now not everyone will be a prophet okay not everyone has a prophetic ministry okay but all believers can prophesy to some extent you know every believer can hear from God say what God is saying and also do what God wants us to do so we can all pursue the gift of prophecy and as the Lord leads each one of us we can you know come up higher in the prophetic realm okay so you know we will we will also see that it we'll get into all these things later that just because someone's flowing in the prophetic we can't call them a prophet okay because all believers can actually prophesy so we'll touch on you know what what these different levels if you want to call or graces prophetic grace that God has given us how each one functions and you know how do we how do we understand if somebody is really in the prophetic office all right so that's a little bit about the profiting gift about how the prophetic gift really works in the kingdom of God and in the you know in the body of Christ and in our notes here this publication is written by Pastor Ashish he shares his own personal testimony he talks about how there was a time in his life where he was going through certain challenges and at that time he was invited to a skills workshop a Christian skills workshop where they were taught more about you know flowing in the gifts of the spirit and in that particular workshop you know how a man of God came up to him and began to prophesy over his life and you know pastor has recorded some of the utterances the exact prophetic utterances this this individual spoke over his life and how he till today you know he's seeing the fulfillment of many of these words and you know this is just in line with what Isaiah chapter 44 verse 26 it says God who confirms the word of his servant and performs the counsel of his messengers so you know the prophetic word released over someone's life it's amazing to to hear testimonies like this because we see that somebody who is completely unknown to us and in this case this minister of God and this time pastor was in the US and he has absolutely no connection to this man of God but this man of God came in and he was able to release words over pastor's life until today he passes seeing a fulfillment of these words that were spoken so basically it's it's a confirmation that these words were from God and you know when and when a man of God releases these words we also see here that God confirms God confirms the word and God performs what has been spoken so I'm sure you know many different ones of us have similar testimonies of the prophetic word and how it's so real okay in each of our lives okay all right I didn't notice a raised hand here so we will take that question and then we will continue uh yes mangi uh can you please go ahead can you unmute yourself and ask the question okay okay no worries no worries you can come back with it later okay thank you okay sure great wonderful all right I think Samuel has a comment here just a moment I hope I haven't study the comment okay yeah we have Samuel's comment here says could you spend a minute explaining what prophecy is and is not how is prophecy same different from preaching teaching edifying when we say prophecy are we limiting it to prophesying the future okay very good question Samuel okay we'll just go back to 1st Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 3 which is really an explanation of what prophecy is okay and so far I talked about the basic gift of prophecy in which all believers can flow and this basic gift of prophecy uh is meant to do 1st Corinthians 14 verse 3 which says that when we prophesy we edify exhort and comfort okay we edify exhort and comfort people all right so that is what prophecy is supposed to do the outcome of prophecy so edify exhort and comfort now I might have get a word from God okay uh which may have nothing to say about my future but when that word works in me to do one of these edify me edify simply means build up strengthen okay so edify it strengthens me exhort exhort is encourage I just got encouraged by that word comfort okay comfort we do understand that as well to console us console us and you know reveal to us that yeah God is still there God loves us he's with us the prophetic the intention of the prophetic word is achieved okay so it need not necessarily have an element of the future in it Samuel I hope I've answered your question so it's not limited to uh the future not at all uh and in fact uh many of the your question here you know how is prophecy same different from preaching teaching edifying okay I'll come to that but we will delve deep into the gift of prophecy it's function how to understand first understand interpret personal prophecy very soon it's in chapter nine and you know um I hope I'm right with the number there but yeah we're gonna uh study that thoroughly okay so you you will have a great understanding but I hope this much helps for now now coming to uh how how do we um understand preaching teaching edifying and prophecy okay so as we've been saying uh Samuel prophesying has to do with it if you want to term it the now word okay so what is God saying about me right now or what is God saying about this situation so basically it's about the timing okay uh hearing from God in the now that's what we call um that's how we understand prophecy now as a preacher I can still exhort edify teach preach from the word of God which is good right because the word of God at all times uh speaks God's heart so that that is a given you know God's word um it will it will do its work when we speak it so one can preach teach edify as uh usual but that need not be prophetic okay because uh God's word it's valuable at all times so if I if I take any particular subject for example if I take a subject on the kindness of God and I teach on it right now it will be useful to the listeners it will as long as I'm focusing you know on on the person of Christ and I'm bringing out the truth of God's word it will it will do its work however prophecy is about tuning into what the spirit of God wants said right now so you know as I pray as I wait on the Lord maybe God puts it on my heart and says okay I don't want you to be preaching about the kindness of God right now but I want you to be preaching on you know could be some other subject it could be a subject on ministry it could be a subject on okay you know step out and evangelize maybe the time is right uh for me to minister on certain topics and God wants me to do that so you know whenever I hear from God and I do in accordance to that I'm being prophetic so prophetic is the now word of God okay so as a preacher and a teacher I can be a prophetic teacher so I may not say thus says the Lord or I may not say you know God is saying not at all I might just be like okay good morning everyone today we will talk about how to share the gospel but I'm being prophetic and nobody even knows about it because I know that in this given time this is the word that God once spoken to his people okay so that's how we would we would see the the working of the prophetic uh in the teaching preaching ministry Samuel it doesn't make sense maybe I went all around the bush but does it give you an idea it it it does pastor it does um uh one clear differentiator is the now yeah exactly putting in my heart in the now but I'm also thinking like let's say you know um um so so as you were talking pastor I also kind of got a little bit of like how do differentiate prophecy from your calling like let's say you know you feel uh your calling or God is calling you to work with the women like young women in the city of Bangalore and you want to start a women's ministry so would that be again uh would it be a prophetic calling or it's just your general life's purpose and and I mean so I'm getting a little fuzzy there but I think in the now bit like explaining teaching the teaching versus a prophetic teaching I think that I get it but I know the difference it is how how to differentiate prophets I mean work I mean being a prophet versus um fulfilling your calling because fulfilling your calling also in some ways seems like you're walking in the prophecy so thank you thank you pastor yeah sure sure Sam thank you for that question yeah so uh you see that God has a call for each one of us I think it's it is like walking with God you like Abraham basically you it's a prophetic walk you keep hearing from him and God there is a life assignment that that God has for us but as we're hearing from him in each of those uh seasons of our of our you know ministry journey we know what we should be engaging in the example you gave was women's ministry so okay God has called me for women's ministry but when should I step into it how should I step into it you know am I supposed to uh uh launch an organization uh register an organization right away I'll have to be prophetic for me to uh know the progression okay so I have to hear from God and God will give the vision God will give the clarity short term long term what I need to do right and that's how I can progress into uh that calling of my life so there is a calling um in each one of us every believer needs to hear from God in order to fulfill it so I that's a simpler simple answer Samuel but I hope that makes sense it does it does it's helping me pass it thank you so much thank you okay great great yeah thank you thank you yeah so uh mangy you have a question I'll come to you I can see beth's question let me just uh quickly answer hers uh so beth asks can the prophetic be one of warning the prophets of old brought many warnings to these relics yes beth definitely the prophetic uh it can also bring warning okay and uh primarily we we see that in the old testament okay so uh I know maybe you ask this question because we just talked about the function of the prophetic okay where where we said that uh the the the basic gift of prophecy has to do with uh edify exhort and comfort okay so we're talking about the basic gift of prophecy okay remember that however when one is uh and we will talk about this later as well see it generally prophesying believers we function in that realm of edify exhort comfort but as one um uh is is called into let's say the office of the prophet okay so that's where this whole thing of warning all of that comes in so it's a little more um how do I say it's not everyone's thing God very specifically releases that through you know especially the prophets of God so for us prophesying believers you know generally our word comes under the whole encouragement sort of a um uh realm okay so I I hope that helps beth but definitely warning is a part of the prophetic okay so I okay sure great thank you beth thanks for that all right mangy please go ahead you can unmute and ask thank you faster um when you you you were teaching about uh gives the prophecy to be lower than prophetic uh office the verse in number number numbers 11 29 when Moses uh gave some of the spirit see to to the elders and two of them were left in the camp were prophesying and I think just Joshua or Caleb who wants to stop them from doing that and Moses said is will it not be good that every single person will be a prophet or prophesy so my question is if every single desire God's desire is for every single believer to prophesy so what's what's different it is uh what's the difference there between the office and the believer is prophesying because they're both both hearing God they're both saying words of God the only difference that's one has an office one has been given the responsibility of a large number of people and other one is just hearing God every day it's like it's something that every believer should be doing hearing God for themselves and if every believer is not a prophet how can they do the will of God since God commands us to do his will every day so that's that's my question thank you yeah sure sure thank you mangi thank you for that question so no we will see today's classes basically introduction but uh you know since we are inquisitive and uh some of these doubts if it is clarified it really helps us grasp more that's the reason you know I I'll touch on it but I won't go too deep look at it this way mangi see this this word prophet right that's where we get stuck the word prophet has to do with the office however every believer can prophesy we don't have to call them prophets okay um and you know what what you said is that yeah as we see God's desires very clear in the Old Testament also in the New Testament that God wants everyone to prophesy so you know we we can all just uh flow in it we can all just flow in it but when it comes to a prophet that person uh we use the term governmental responsibility authority so basically they are accountable you know for for bigger words from God being spoken over uh you know churches and nations and things like that okay so you can you can look at it this way also when you talk about the teaching ministry okay whatever I know I share with with the believers in church my life group people and all that whatever I know I teach but that doesn't make me a teacher isn't it uh we might look to our senior pastor in church and say hey this is a teacher and the Bible also says hey somebody who uh who teaches God's word they must rightly divide the word of God you know you you um uh you you do it so that you you're not ashamed and then your judgment will be greater so there are all those things that come into play when somebody is positioned in the office okay however a normal believer can still teach from God's word and it's fine so when it comes to prophecy it's like that everyone can prophesy because that's a simple thing and God wants everyone to prophesy but you know when we're talking about the all we don't have to be a a prophet to do that when you talk about a prophet a prophet is at another level and they are accountable to God for that responsibility which God has given them I hope this clarifies uh difference mangy yes first time thank you okay sure sure thank you okay so I'm just looking at the chat here uh in Kennedy uh says in line with Beth's question okay is it correct to assume that Jesus was prophet yes of course uh um Kennedy we we we do as I mean he is a prophet Jesus is a prophet okay we'll come to that also we'll be looking at uh all the different people who prophesied in scripture so we'll come to that yeah good questions everyone uh and this is how we you know get thinking and uh get uh warmed up for the sessions ahead okay uh great we have a question from Susan Susan how to recognize a true prophecy or false one can someone always prophesied negative things about others okay very good question Susan we will study uh more in depth of this one uh soon but in a short way no prophecy uh leads us towards God okay true prophecy will draw you to honor and worship God more okay that is the first test actually and of course there is the test of accuracy so we will come to that uh so that's how you recognize true prophecy and the true prophecy will not make you do something outside of what uh God's word is instructing us okay so that's how we will evaluate it now the the next part of your question was can someone always prophesy negative things about others it's possible Susan so it is possible but then you know we will also talk about prophesying is one thing but uh interpreting whether it is a true prophecy or not you know that that is another thing interpreting so we will talk about that again can God always say negative things about us no God doesn't do that so if somebody is doing that all the time obviously something is wrong okay so I'll leave it at that and I hope uh you know that helps you great okay so David we look at your question before we uh wrap we just have a minute to go David says uh the prophecy is meant for the body of Christ as it is the way that we hear from God and to be able to function in his body as his children to help each other and be an avenue where God can speak through through and for his children yeah that's true that's true so we we become a channel of you know uh his word to our brothers and sisters so uh yes everyone with that we will we will have a wrap for the session today and we'll continue further and if you have time it'll be good to just kind of go through scan through this book uh and get an idea of prophecy and we'll talk more about it I think we have a class tomorrow as well so let's pray and close let me pray Heavenly Father we thank you Lord for this beautiful time together thank you for bringing each one of us back Lord and thank you for the lives of Lord every student Lord who's enrolled in this course Lord we pray that Lord you will stir us up Lord you will give us a listening year and God that beyond just understanding uh Lord the theory of things that Lord each one will begin to hear from you Lord in in whatever ministry you've called us for Father God and I just pray Lord just pray for your hand of blessing to be upon every student Lord and their families Lord and Father especially in the season Lord we we speak and declare your protection over every life Father thank you Lord thank you once again for your goodness your faithfulness in our lives Lord we give you praise and honor in Jesus name we pray amen amen so thank you class God bless you we will connect again tomorrow have a blessed day thank you positive take care of your yeah thank you thank you so much everybody God bless thank you thank you God bless thank you ma'am thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you everyone