 In a world where opinions and philosophies and ideas are flying at us from all different directions through all different means, from all different people, God sends the prophetic to come as a loud, clear, direct disruption to the noise, and it stands above it all. It's like that light, like the scripture is like a light shining in the dark place. That's the power of the prophetic. 1 Corinthians 13-9, now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture. Sometimes people will use that verse to justify incoherent nonsensical or illogical prophetic words, but the prophetic will always be clear, and though we prophesy in part, at least that part we prophesy will be clear. So yeah, you may not give the whole picture, but the piece of the picture that you do give is not going to be blurry. That picture will be clear, though it may not be complete. So again, let's not get so far into justifying these types of prophecies. Just because the Bible says we prophesy in part, doesn't mean we should prophesy incoherently. The word tells us that the prophecy is clear. The Word of God is always clear. Hebrews 4-12, and I'm not comparing, don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying prophecy is equal to the more sure word of prophecy, which is the Word, but here's how God speaks. Hebrews 4-12 for the Word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than any two-edged sword. Cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow, it exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. There's a lot to unpack there, but I love this. The Word of God cuts between soul and spirit. What does that mean? It means it helps you distinguish between what is actually of the Holy Spirit and your connection with God, and what is of your mind, what is of your emotions, what is of your own thoughts, what is of your own paradigms, what is of your own influence from the exterior. It separates spirit and soul. It separates the voice of the Holy Spirit from your emotions. It separates the voice of the Holy Spirit from your cluttered thought life. It separates the voice of the Holy Spirit from worldly philosophies that have influenced you from the outside in. The Word of God is clear. It's specific. It doesn't cause confusion. It brings forth a clear message. This is why we must remember that clarity in the prophetic is so key when it comes to prophetic ministry. Maybe you feel called to the prophetic gift, maybe you feel called to the office of the prophet, or maybe you just want to really honor and experience prophetic ministry in your life from those around you. I'm going to show you how to activate the prophetic right now. Number one, exercise the gift. I wrote this, expressing your gift is important so that you can learn to discern between what is and what is not the voice of God. The person who just imagines they know what everyone is thinking or going through will never be corrected when wrong, and will therefore continue to imagine that they are accurate. So there are some people who they don't want to prophesy because they don't want to find out that they've been inaccurate all the time, right? They just want to live in that imaginative world. I know what people are thinking. Oh, I know people's motives. Oh, I have discernment. And they never want to speak these things aloud specifically and clearly for fear that they would be corrected. But we have to get over that pride and ego if we're ever going to learn how to truly prophesy. Exercise that gift. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 5 verses 11 to 14, of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, sing ye our doll of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach. In other words, you should be teaching, but you have to have others teach you and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age. Watch this now. Even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. How do you exercise? How do you put into practice? How do you strengthen those spiritual senses? It says right here, by reason of use. So using that gift actually helps you to calibrate that gift. So that's number one exercise to give. Look, you're going to have to do it. We're so afraid of the rejection. We're so afraid of missing it. We're so afraid of mistakes that we just never jump out in faith and use the gifts. You're going to just have to do it. There's never going to be a day where you wake up and you go, you know what? I don't have any fear today. I feel 100% bold. I have no doubts. I'm just going to go out and prophesy. That's not going to happen. It's never going to happen that someone lays hands on you and suddenly all the fear is gone. It's never going to happen that someone gives you, oh, well, if you apply this one secret trick that was never mentioned in the Bible that I learned over my years of prophecy, you apply this trick. Suddenly all the fear is going to go away. You're going to start prophesying with perfect accuracy and everyone's going to love the spiritual gift on your life. No, it's not going to happen. You have to just start where you are. Begin. In order to start, you have to start. In order to begin, you have to begin. In order to use the prophetic gift, you have to use the prophetic gift. That fear is going to be there until you act. Don't wait for it to be gone so that you can act. So that's number one, exercise the gift. Number two, believe it or not, speaking in tongues. 1 Corinthians 14-2-4, for anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them. They utter mysteries by the Spirit. For the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comforting. Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. So here, Paul the apostle is not condemning the gift of tongues. He's comparing the gift of tongues to the gift of prophecy. He's not saying praying in tongues is bad. He's saying prophesying is better. But here we see that when you do pray in tongues, your spirit is being strengthened. Your spirit is being edified. When you begin to pray in that heavenly language, when you begin to speak out in tongues, something is happening in your spirit that is strengthening you, calibrating that gift, sharpening that gift on your life, and in so doing, indirectly sharpening the gift of prophecies. That's number two, speaking in tongues. Number three, study the Word of God. You want to know what God sounds like? Get to know His voice. How do you get to know His voice? Study the Word. The more familiar you become with the written Word of God, the clearer the spoken Word of God to your heart becomes. The written Word clarifies the spoken Word. The written Word clarifies that understanding in the spirit. Know the Word. The Word is not a blockage to the gift of prophecy. The Word does not prevent prophecy. The Word is not dry and dull and lifeless. The Word is alive and refreshes and strengthens and refines that spiritual gift on your life. That's number three, studying the Word. Study it. Number four, meditate on the Word. No, meditate is not an ugly Word. It was hijacked by the New Age movement, but meditate is a godly Word. The world says empty your mind, empty your mind, empty your mind. That's how they meditate. They say empty your mind because they want you to fill it with demonic things. But the Word of God teaches you to meditate by filling your mind, filling your mind, filling your mind with what? The Word. What is meditation? Meditation is quite simply repetition in thought. You do those four things. You're going to see a calibration, a sharpening of that prophetic gift on you. Number one, exercise the gift. Number two, speak in tongues. Number three, study the Word. Number four, meditate on the Word. And finally, I want to give you this encouragement. Maintain purity in the prophetic please because so many people veer off and pervert that gift. You want to keep it pure. Once the prophetic has been activated, it must be maintained. I want to say that again. Once the prophetic has been activated, it must be maintained. How do you maintain the purity? Number one, though it's not the most important, I have it listed as number one. Number two is actually the most important. Number one, stay connected to the body of Christ. Brother, I am the body of Christ. No, you are not. That's not what the scripture teaches. It is only when we are connected that we become the body. If you were to suffer in some tragic accident and they had to amputate your leg, would your leg still be your body? No, you wouldn't refer to it as your body anymore. That would be your leg over there. Sorry to be so graphic or just an analogy. So when we disconnect from the local body of believers, we are no longer a part of that body. We are a part of it when we connect. The body of Christ is the unity of believers. That is the body. It is in our gathering that we become the body. So this whole idea of, oh, I don't want to be under a system. Well, Jesus wants you under a system. Oh, I don't want to be under organized religion. Well, God wants you under organized religion. Well, doesn't James say that there's good religion? Not everything religious is bad. Read the book of James. We must submit ourselves to the authority of Christ by submitting ourselves to each other. We are the body of Christ. We are the bride together. And in that, we find that power, that purity in the prophetic. No spiritual gift. Hear me now. No spiritual gift was given to be used in isolation. I just think of 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7 that says that each one of us were given the spiritual gift, why? So that we may profit all. Not profit just those that we got bitter with and isolated with and left the church with, but that we may profit the body of Christ, that local body of believers. That is where these gifts ought to be exercised. And if you want to keep that purity in the prophetic, stay connected because otherwise you're going to get really weird. You're going to get into weird conspiracy theories and strange doctrines. And you're going to stay up to three or four in the morning watching all these YouTube videos of people telling you all these weird things. And you're going to get your mind twisted. Don't do that. God cannot anoint who you pretend to be. You can only anoint you. And so we must be among a local body of believers to stay connected. There is no such thing as a rogue prophet. Every true prophet of God is going to be connected to the body, submit it under authority. And whether we like it or not, that is Bible, guys. So that's number one, stay connected to the body. Wow. I really sense the strong flow on that. The Holy Spirit speaking to someone right now. It's important that we stick to the word. Again, guys, if I was being selfish, I would say, oh, we don't need them. We just need this. No, get plugged into a local church. Number two, stay connected to Christ. Now, though I listed this as number two, it doesn't mean it's not the most important. It is the most important. Stay connected to Christ. John 15.5. Yes, I am the vine. You are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. You have to abide in him his presence sometimes. And here's the danger you read of things that like in Matthew chapter seven, I think around verse 21 to 23, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, we'll enter the kingdom of heaven. The Bible says, look in the Greek, it literally means they come strutting up to God with confidence, fully expecting for God to say, well done, my good and faithful servant. Think about that. They come strutting up, fully expecting God to say welcome in and they are shocked. Guys, they are shocked when they find out that he never knew them. Well, we prophesied in your name. We cast out devils in your name. This doesn't mean if you prophesy or cast out devils, God's going to reject you. The reason they were rejected wasn't because they were prophesying and casting out devils. They were rejected because they never knew him. And here's the problem with some people. They go into the presence of God, receive his power and then leave the presence but keep the power and the power that was supposed to be a blessing through them ends up destroying them because they weren't grounded in Christ. What a danger that is. And I pray that never be me. I pray that never be you. A terrifying reality that they were confident walking up to him, fully expecting to be welcomed into the kingdom of heaven. What a terrifying portion of scripture. Don't let that be you. People who knew the Lord connected to the Lord prophesied, received a gift. God started using them and somewhere along the line something got perverted. Somewhere along the line they stopped seeking him. Somewhere along the line they stopped studying the word. Somewhere along the line they stopped knowing the presence of the Lord only to walk in his power and it becomes a show. That's what Jesus said, wasn't it? You hypocrites? That's what that word means. Hypocrite. You actor. Terrifying reality. Number three, stay connected to reality. Number one, stay connected to the body. Number two, stay connected to Christ. Number three, stay connected to reality. Please don't get all loony. This is to be real. We as Christians are weird enough. I mean what a strange thing to the world, right? Doesn't the Bible say that the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing? Like what a strange thing you believe. Look what we believe is already strange to the world. We don't need to add unnecessary strangeness to it. Some people just get so weird and it's like they're not even real people anymore because they think that they have to act a certain way in order to be perceived as spiritual and people can see right through that. No need for it. Stay connected to reality guys. It's important. Help us spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Make a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter by clicking on the donate link now.