 The prophetic is for today. Prophets are for today. The Bible gives us a wealth of revelation concerning this topic and we are going to go in depth as we discover the exciting world of the prophetic. So if you feel called to the prophetic ministry, if you're interested in the prophetic ministry or you're a believer who understands that you should understand the prophetic ministry, this message is for you. We're going to cover quite a bit. Make sure you're taking notes. I'm going to cover what is a prophet, prophetic pitfalls. In other words, we're covering dangers of prophetic ministry that you need to be aware of. Then we're going to go into signs that you are prophetic, discerning false prophets, five types of the prophetic, ministries of the prophetic. In other words, the difference between the gift of prophecy and the office of the prophet. What's the difference? Levels of the prophetic. I'm going to touch on that a little bit. The purpose of the prophetic, three expressions of the prophetic. In other words, how the prophetic ministry is delivered, how to find clarity in the prophetic and the importance of clarity in the prophetic, how to activate the prophetic and then maintaining purity in the prophetic. As I said, it's extensive. Let's get into the message right now. First, I want to show you what the Bible reveals as a prophet. What is a prophet? Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 and 12. Now, these are the gifts Christ gave to the church, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. Simply put, a prophet is one who is called by God to deliver a message or messages on his behalf for a specific time, typically for a specific people or person or nation or people group. Examples of prophets in the scripture are people like Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Jonah. God gives to them prophetic messages. God gives to them words from heaven. The prophetic ministry communicates the heart of God to people. Revelation chapter 19 verse 10 says, And I fell down at his feet to worship him. But he said, No, don't worship me. I am a servant of God, just like you and your brothers and sisters who testify about their faith in Jesus, worship only God. For the essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus. In other words, the message of Christ is the foundation of prophetic ministry. All true prophetic ministry will not glorify a man or a woman. All true prophetic ministry will not glorify a nation or a church. All true prophetic ministry will not point ultimately to the things of this world. All true prophetic ministry ultimately points to Jesus. Jesus is the centerpiece of prophecy. Jesus is the focus of prophecy. Jesus is the purpose of prophecy. Who he is, his glory, his nature, his character, his power, his authority, his dominion, all of that is the focus of prophecy. So anything that doesn't ultimately point to Jesus is not prophetic, it's psychic. It's not spiritual as in of the Holy Spirit. It's sorcery. It's demonic. We have to make sure, and I'll touch on this a little more later, that we are discerning between the truly prophetic and the psychic or that which is born of sorcery. Now, biblically speaking, all of us in essence as believers are prophetic, maybe not specifically a prophet, maybe not specifically flowing in the gift of prophecy, which I'll talk about the difference in a moment. But every believer has the responsibility to declare the truths of God's Word, to share their testimony, to share about what Jesus has done for them. And in essence, since the testimony of Jesus is the spirit or the essence of prophecy, when you share your testimony, when you share what Jesus has done for you, when you share how he saved you, how he delivered you, how he healed you, how he set you free, you are in essence prophesying, you are declaring truth, spiritual realities that point people to Jesus, that turn their focus to him. Now, a prophet is one with a message. The gift of prophecy is to be given messages from God. God speaks to his servants and his servants speak on his behalf in many cases. Now, of course, we understand that the Word is ultimately the foundation for understanding prophecy. The Word is ultimately our source of truth. But this doesn't mean that God hasn't also given to us the prophetic ministry. Now, if one is going to be called as a prophet or to the prophetic ministry, God must call them. I think of Simon the Sorcerer in Acts chapter 8, who saw that when the apostles laid hands on people, the Holy Spirit entered them or touched them. He saw the power of the Holy Spirit and he desired that. Now, what he desired was a good thing. He desired that amazing power of the Holy Spirit. He desired that he might flow in the same way. But the reason he wanted it wasn't with the right motive. This is why he was rebuked and they told him, you are filled with bitterness and jealousy and you'll have no part in this. So, when you desire the prophetic, it's important that you check your motives. It's important that you keep it focused and centered on Jesus. You can't buy the anointing. You can't pay for an e-course and walk out with the prophetic gift. You can't pay a conference registration fee and be given a prophetic mantle. The anointing is not for sale. Prophetic gifts are not for sale. When you are called to prophetic ministry, God must call you. Now, I don't know about you, but I truly believe that the prophetic is for today. I truly believe that in this day and age, now more than ever, we need true prophets of God. We need the true gift of prophecy in operation and we need prophetic expression, pure and holy and powerful and genuine prophetic ministry. We need it now more than ever in the church and I don't know if you agree with that, but I sure believe that. Let me know in the comments section what you think about that. Now, I want to talk to you about prophetic pitfalls. I want to equip you with truth that will protect you from the dangers of your own gifting. Now, you're watching this. I believe that the fact that you're drawn to this message, the fact that you were drawn to click on this video, the fact that you're listening to what I'm teaching right now, is somewhat in and of itself proof that God too has drawn you to the prophetic. Now, I'm going to touch more on that a little bit later, but since you are hearing this, I believe it's God and I want to show you certain prophetic pitfalls, certain traps that people who operate in prophetic ministry or in the office of a prophet typically fall into. The prophetic, remember this, is divine power. Now, anything that's powerful needs to be grounded. Think about the electricity that powers the devices I'm looking at. Think about the electricity that powers the camera or these lights or the device that you're watching me on. I mean, you had to plug your device using a cable into an outlet. That outlet is connected to amazing power sources that I can't even figure out how they work to this day. But you know, that power doesn't compare to the power of the Holy Spirit. Think about the fact that if you were to touch that power without wiring, without being grounded, that that power would fry you. You would be no more. You would be destroyed or you would be seriously injured and possibly killed. So in the same way, we must learn to have this power grounded. Prophetic gifting is divine power. Prophetic gifting is enormously intense power. And this is why we have to be grounded. So watch out for these prophetic pitfalls. The first I want to look at is being ignorant of the word. Now, really, this is a pitfall that could apply to any believer. And I think in this day and age, we need to challenge ourselves to know the word better than we've ever known it. I mean, really, to get to know the word of God. Alignment with the word may sound basic. We say things like, I want to be aligned with the word. I want to be aligned with truth. I want to walk according to God's will, God's ways. I want to walk according to what the Bible teaches. And that's well and good. And we all believe that we should be doing these things. But it's actually something that most believers miss. Now, of course, no one ever thinks they're contradicting the word, do they? I mean, no sincere believer who knows that they've contradicted the word ever goes, well, I don't want to believe that anyway. Well, I'm just going to reject that because I'm just choosing to reject the word. No, anyone who's a true believer that's ever contradicted the word or walked out of alignment with the word or walked in ignorance of the word did so without knowing it. That's the definition of ignorance. They did not know that they weren't walking according to the word. And so if we're apathetic toward the word of God, if we treat it like just a few memory verses will do, if we treat the word of God like a fortune cookie, what am I going to get today? Or we treat the word of God as if we can just take it in little bits and not understand it as a whole. Well, that's not reverence for the word. That in fact is dishonor toward the word to just treat it like it's so common, like it's just something that can be, you know, I'll pull the verse of the day out and that'll sustain me for the week. No, no, believer, to avoid speaking against the truth of the word, you have to actually know the word. The better you know it, the safer you are. Now, here's what the Bible says in 2 Peter chapter one, verses 16 through 21. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But were I witnesses of his majesty, for he received from God the Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved son and whom I am well pleased. And this voice, which came from heaven, we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. Verse 19 of 2 Peter 1, we have also a more sure word of prophecy, where unto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star rise in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God's spake as they were moved by the holy ghost. That's so powerful. So here the Bible tells us very clearly that the word of God is that more sure word of prophecy. That the scripture is that safety net. The scripture is that solid foundation. Now some might ask, well, if it's not in the Bible, why would you need to prophesy it? If it's not in the Bible, and if it isn't the Bible, why would you need to prophesy it if it's not in the Bible? Well, here's the thing. The Bible guides our lives. The Bible tells us what believers ought to do, how we ought to live in terms of holiness and worship and evangelism and lifestyle and family and theology and so forth. But the Bible doesn't necessarily speak to ultra specific situations in our lives. We all must hear the guiding voice of the Holy Spirit for our own lives for very specific things. For example, who should you marry? Well, you're not going to find that in chapter and verse. I didn't read the book of Genesis chapter four and David D. Hernandez married Jessica Hernandez. It's not what I read. The Holy Spirit spoke to me. This is a good woman. She'll be a good wife. Where should you work? Where should you live? Should you go for that degree? Should you make that connection? Should you make that move in business? These are very specific things that the Bible does not address. But remember, though the Bible does not address these ultra specific things, the Bible can still act as a foundation that will guide your life. The Holy Spirit will never speak against himself. He'll never tell you anything through a prophet that will contradict what is very clear in his word. And so we see that the Scripture becomes this guiding light, this light shining in a dark place, this very clear standard that's just before us in a chaotic world. When everything seems to be shifting around you, when you feel like you're being tossed back and forth by the wind and the waves, you can hold to that solid foundation, which is the Word. You can trust in that anchor for your soul. The Word, the truth of God brings peace of mind, brings joy unspeakable, brings consistency to your spiritual life. The Word of God is the foundation for the gift of prophecy. A true prophet will never contradict the Word. And this is so key. Again, no true believer will knowingly contradict the Word. We all contradict the Word only out of ignorance if we're truly believers. And so therein lies the danger, wherein none of us think, well, I'm doing anything wrong. In fact, sometimes we are doing things and living in ways and thinking mindsets that actually contradict the Word. And we don't even realize it. This is why we have to get to know this book. We have to get to know this Word. And this is something I've seen in the prophetic ministry that really has become a danger, where people begin to prophesy things that contradict the Word, and because the people don't know the Word, and because the person prophesying doesn't know the Word, they just kind of go for it out of emotionalism and hype, sensationalism, and out of this deep-rooted need for a supernatural experience. Look, some people are so desperate for a supernatural experience that they'll settle for it even if it's demonic, even if it's false, even if it's not of God's spirit. And that's not a good place to be. This is why we ought not to chase experiences. Rather, we are to seek the Lord. But again, prophecy still is something God has given to us. We must ground it in the Word. So we must avoid this pitfall of being ignorant of the Word. I saw a prophet one time who literally tossed his Bible to the side. This was years ago. Literally tossed the Bible to the side, like through the book, and he says, I don't really read that. It just confuses me. Let's just prophesy. I'm thinking, confuses you? The Word of God is the only thing in this world that brings actual clarity. And we kind of celebrate it, right? It's become almost a church culture thing. Oh my goodness. The service was so powerful. He didn't even preach. She didn't even preach. He preached maybe for 10 minutes. She preached maybe for 10 minutes. Oh, and then the Holy Ghost took over. We have to stop acting like the Word of God is a barrier to the Holy Spirit moving. The Word of God is not a barrier to the Holy Spirit moving. The Word of God is a springboard to the Holy Spirit moving. The Word of God lays the foundation. It sets the pace. It prepares the room. It prepares your heart for the Holy Spirit to move. So let's stop acting like the more of the word we have, the more spiritually dry we are. Now in some cases, some people only have the word. So they've become dry in their spirit. There's nothing more to them than the intellectual knowledge that they gather from study. And it doesn't become revelation, which brings transformation. It's just information that just lays dormant in their mind that they can show off that they have. But all the while it produces no transformation. Who cares how many verses you've memorized if there are no verses that you apply? So there's a balance to this. But concerning this very specific danger I'm discussing as it pertains to the prophetic, we must remember that the Word of God is that safety net. That we mustn't just toss it aside and say, well, now we're going to let the spirit move. It's not like that. Well, they have too much of the Word. I've heard people, believers actually say things like that. Well, they have too much of the Word. They're too reliant on the Word. Or they lean too much of the Word. There's too much of the Word knowledge. How can you have too much knowledge of the Word? That's ignorance. That's immaturity. And this is where we need to correct it if we are to see the true prophetic growing our lives. And if we are to avoid chaos and destruction down the road. Anytime someone who's prophetic doesn't ground themselves in the Word. Remember, they're dealing with that awesome power. And if they're not grounded, it can destroy them. The next pitfall, I'm going to spoil some fun here. Sometimes I feel like an old cremation, like just some old grumpy guy. And you know, I just kind of spoil the fun. But this is something I need to tell you this because I love you. And some of you are not going to like this, but I'm telling you this because I love you. And I honor what God is doing in your life. And I honor the Word. But number two, the next pitfall we have to watch for is mistaking superstition for spirituality. Oh, you know, I saw a leaf fall the other day. And I believe that it was God speaking to me that though the dead thing shall fall, the spring shall arise and the green shall come. And I'm thinking, I think the leaf just fell, man. Or I was driving down the road and I saw billboards. And I kept seeing the same billboard. And the Lord showed me this because of the billboards and thinking, well, or a company was just really smart. And they paid for multiple billboards to promote that one thing. And I think we sometimes mistake coincidences or certain things with numerology or certain observations for the prophetic when in fact it's superstition. Now, if you offer encouragement daily, that's different. It's different if you said, hey, I saw a leaf fall and it reminded me of how seasons change. Someone offer this encouragement. Or, hey, I saw the number 1111 five times in a row and it reminded me of, you know, a certain chapter in verse in the Bible 1111. And here's the encouragement I want to give to you. That's different than saying, God told me through the falling leaf, this is what the word is. Or God told me, here's the daily word. Here's, here's, now some people, maybe they are getting daily words. I'm not going to speak, I'm not going to get religious on you and say, here's the frequency that you can hear God. And if you hear many more than that frequency, you're in danger. No, you mean, if that's how God uses you, wonderful. I have many anointed friends who are prophetic and they have a word every day from the Lord. And I don't think the frequency in and of itself is any reason to be dismissive of what they're saying. But you have to be careful, at least for yourself, that you know, because we can't judge others necessarily 100% accurately all the time, but we can make sure to check ourselves. Am I really hearing from the Holy Spirit? Or am I just being superstitious about this? Let me show you a portion of Scripture here. Ezekiel chapter 13, I'm going to read verses one through seven. Then this message came to me from the Lord. Son of man, prophesy against the false prophets of Israel, who are inventing their own prophecies. Say to them, listen to the word of the Lord. This is what the sovereign Lord says. What sorrow awaits the false prophets who are following their own imaginations and have seen nothing at all. Wow. Oh, people of Israel, these prophets of yours are like jackals digging in the ruins. They have done nothing to repair the breaks in the walls around the nation. They have not helped it to stand firm in battle on the day of the Lord. Instead, they have told lies and made false predictions. They said, this message is from the Lord, even though the Lord never sent them. And yet they expect him to fulfill their prophecies. Can your visions be anything but false if you claim this message is from the Lord when I have not even spoken to you? Whoa, that's heavy. I pray that we have reverence for it. Now let's balance this because some believers are fearful of using the prophetic gift on their life because they're afraid they might not get it right. Now that's a healthy reverence because when you're prophesying, when you're using the gift of prophecy, there is a great responsibility on you and you should reverence the word of God in the way that you do. But make sure that doesn't become an unhealthy fear that produces a dormant gift. So we have to make sure we're balancing this biblically. On one end, we need to make sure that we're not so afraid that we never say anything, according to the word of God. On the other hand, we mustn't just go out saying whatever's in our mind and prophesying out of our imaginations. The next pitfall I want to look at is some developed spiritual pride. Now I use that term ironically because the term spiritual pride is a self-contradicting term, much like the term married bachelor. If you say someone's a married bachelor, that just can't be. It's just a contradiction in terms or a square circle. It's a contradiction in terms. So spiritual pride is a contradiction in terms because the spirit man, who you really are, the nature which is connected to the Holy Spirit, he that is joined to the Lord as one spirit with him, is not prideful. The spirit man is humble. No, when I say spiritual pride, I'm talking about people who find pride in their supernatural ability. And that's very dangerous because it's self-validating. And no one can ever correct you. No one can ever tell you you're off. No one can ever call you anything because, oh, well, I hear from the Lord and I know it. And I talked about this somewhat last week. This is why many believers follow false teachers or reject true teachers because we kind of get stuck in this cycle. Here's how it works. I'm filled with the Holy Spirit and I know the Lord. Therefore, he speaks to me. And then we conclude, therefore, I will always know if someone is of God or not. That's not exactly how that works because though the Holy Spirit speaks clearly, we're not always in a position to hear clearly. Sometimes we clutter what he's saying with our own thoughts, our own emotions, our own preferences. So if the Holy Spirit says, this person is false and you thought they were true, well, you're going to say, well, no, that can't be. If somebody warns you that person's false, but you thought they were true, you're going to say, no, no, no, I know they're true because I have the Holy Spirit and I have the Sermon. Therefore, I have 100% accuracy in knowing whether someone's true or false. Not exactly how that works. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit may say, hey, you said they're false but actually they're true. You say, no, no, no, no, I knew, I know, I just, and this is what they say. I just sensed it myself. Something just didn't sit right in my spirit and that's emotionalism because the Sermon is never vague like that. Something didn't sit right. No, the Holy Spirit would give you a very clear reason as to why they're false. So spiritual pride can trap us in this way because as it applies to your own gift, if you're not careful, you may say, well, I'm a prophet, I hear from God and therefore everything I speak must be from God. And some people get to this point where they're never filtering their thoughts and emotions because they are so confident that God is always speaking to them that they never leave any room for doubt. They never leave any room for weighing or balancing the gift. Now, the Bible does teach to not despise prophecies. 1 Thessalonians 5, 20-21, do not despise prophecies but test everything, hold fast to what is good. So here the Bible gives us a very balanced approach to prophetic ministry. Don't despise it but at the same time, you have to test it and this applies not just to others. I would say this applies more so to ourselves. Now, we have to be careful that we do not fall into this trap of spiritual pride and it's kind of, as I said, just this self-validation and you get stuck in that cycle. Well, I have the Holy Spirit. I know His voice, therefore everything I hear must be Him and then if someone corrects you, well, no, I have the Holy Spirit. That works for prophecy, that works for discernment, that works for all sorts of things, that works for your opinions on others, your opinions about yourself, your opinions about life. We have to be willing to admit that we are flawed and that we don't 100% of the time get it right. The next spiritual or prophetic pitfall is when people start using their gift for financial gain. Now this is dangerous. Healing is not for sale. I tell people all the time to come to our services, yes, we're going to believe for your healing but even if you only have a penny to your name, you can keep that penny and I believe Jesus will heal you too. I don't believe that you can give money and receive a miracle. This is not in the Bible. Now, as it pertains to finances, that's different because the Bible does give us very clear principles of sowing and reaping but to say to someone, well, you're sick because you didn't give enough money, well, that's just manipulation. Think about how everything produces after its own kind. If you plant apple seeds, you're going to get apples, strawberry seeds, you're going to get strawberries, right? You're not going to plant apple seeds and get bananas. It just doesn't work that way. In the same way, you can't sow money and reap healing because you didn't sow healing. You sowed money, healing, deliverance, salvation, freedom, spiritual breakthrough. Those things come because of what Christ purchased in the Spirit but as it pertains to the laws of stewardship, sowing and reaping does work in the sense that if I sow finances, I reap finances. However, some have twisted these doctrines, these perfectly biblical, legitimate, wonderful, inspiring doctrines of sowing and reaping and they've intertwined them and manipulated them to say, if you want a prophecy, you got to pay me money. What kind of heresy is that? That's dangerous. Now you've entered not into prophecy but sorcery because sorcery by definition is the exchange of the supernatural for the monetary. Well, some people do this with healing, some people do this with deliverance, some people do this with prophecy and this is a dangerous pitfall and maybe you're not that straight up about it but you can be manipulative prophesying only over the rich people. Maybe God will bless them after I prophesy over them and they'll write a nice check to my ministry. That's the kind of thinking that can get you in trouble with God. Sowing your gift for money. That's not prophecy that's fortune telling. Telling people what they want to hear instead of confronting them. Why is it that prophets mostly prophesy to rich people that they're going to get more rich? They're going to get more blessed? That it's coming? Why? Because they see it possibly as a future investment. Now I'm not saying you can never tell a rich person that God didn't say he's going to bless them financially. That could very well be the case but sometimes prophets, they start to veer off like Balaam. Seeking man's approval, seeking things of this earth, they begin to pollute and pervert their gift by mixing fleshly motives instead of just wanting to hear from God. This is dangerous. You cannot exchange. I don't care how anyone twists it. There's nothing in Scripture that says that if you give, you get a healing. If you give, you get delivered. If you give, you get a prophecy. Nothing in Scripture. Nothing that says this is the way it works in the New Testament. You won't find that. That's not a teaching of Scripture. Anyone who does that is operating in false teaching. Now they may sincerely be operating in false teaching. They may think that's actually how it works but that's not how it works. So make sure you don't fall into that pitfall using your gift for financial gain. These are some of them. I mean, I just listed a few being ignorant of the word, mistaking superstition for spirituality, developing spiritual pride, using the gift for financial gain. I may have missed a few. Let me know, chat on live or replay whether you're watching live or replay. What other prophetic pitfalls aren't there? What other dangers are there as it pertains to this specific gift? Now I want to show you some signs that you are prophetic. I'm going to go over these real briefly because I've covered these in depth on how to know you have a certain spiritual gifts. I've done teachings on this before. But I'm going to give you three very clear signs that are biblically based that demonstrate to you that you could possibly have a certain gift. Now remember there is a difference between a prophet and having the gift of prophecy and then operating in the prophetic. I'm going to show you that in just a few minutes. But first let's look at these signs. Signs number one. Sign number one is desire. Now look at what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse 1. Let love be your highest goal, but you should also desire the special abilities the spirit gives. So here the scripture is encouraging you to desire not just one gift, but multiple. Look at that again. Also desire the special abilities that's plural meaning more than one. Some people ask that well can you have more than one gift? What the Bible says to desire more than one? Desire the spiritual gifts. Now why is this a sign for having a gift? Well this is a sign for having a gift because if the scripture instructs you to desire a spiritual gift it's for reason. Why would God say I want you to desire the spiritual gifts, but I don't want to give them to you? Doesn't make any sense. So the very fact that we are commanded in scripture to desire a spiritual gift is proof that God wants to give it to us. Therefore the desire for a spiritual gift could very well be a sign that God has given it to you. I'll use myself as an example. I was always drawn to evangelists, even in school when I read in the history books of the many great evangelists who God used to impact America and different nations of the world. I longed for that. Everything in me said I want to be used as an evangelist in that capacity. It was like a fire was lit in me. Maybe that's how it is for you. Whenever you see the word prophecy, whenever you hear the word prophetic, maybe you saw this video and you were drawn to it, you clicked on it. Why? Because that is a desire for the prophetic in you. You desire that gift. It wasn't the devil that put it there. Sure, the devil may give you a desire for the gift or the flesh may desire a gift for the trappings of the gift. What do I mean by that? Well, the devil wouldn't have you desire a gift for the gift itself because the gift itself helps others. So that's not coming from the devil. Your flesh wouldn't desire the gift itself. Yes, the flesh may desire maybe the praise that it imagines it will get from using the gift, but it would never desire the gift itself. Only the spirit would desire that ability itself, so desire is a sign that you could potentially have that spiritual gift. So desire number one. Another sign that you may be prophetic is recognition. Proverbs 1816 says, A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men. Now Proverbs here is talking about a material gift and about how generosity can open doors and opportunities and connections for you. But the spiritual takeaway is that the gift will do what it's supposed to do. The gift will open doors. The gift itself will bring recognition, and that recognition comes as God raises you. So if you have a prophetic gift, others are going to begin to notice it. Now notice I did not say that if others don't notice the gift, you don't have it because sometimes our gifts go unnoticed for a season, and that's okay. But others may be drawn to that gift on your life. Others may start to recognize it because they recognize what God is doing in you. Now, if you have a spiritual gift, you don't have to go announcing it. I've seen it far too many times. Oh, I have the gift of discernment. Really? Why do you have to announce it? Oh, I'm a prophet. God called me as a prophet. Like, hi, we just met. Can you tell me your name, at least? And if you really were called as a prophet, I think that would become evident in time. You don't need to go announcing that. The gift makes room for you. So that recognition is another sign that the gift may be functioning in your life. Number three is function. Is it actually operating? Now, this may seem obvious, but I'm going to tell you why it's important to note this in a moment. 1 Corinthians 12.4 says there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same spirit is the source of them all. So the Holy Spirit sources these gifts out. In other words, if he's decided to give you a spiritual gift, it will start to function in your life. Now, you may say, well, I don't see the prophetic functioning in my life. Wait a minute. You don't see it in an obvious way, but that doesn't mean it's not happening. You would be amazed at how many people overlook a gift of the prophetic ministry on them because they dismiss it as other things. I'll give you an example. Maybe you have dreams that constantly find fulfillment in real life and you go, hmm, I just had a dream that was very similar to this and now it's happening. Well, there you go. That could be a sign that it's functioning and you dismiss it as, oh, I just have accurate dreams, but that could be a prophetic gift. You may say, well, I'm just really good at reading people. Are you really good at reading people or is that a gift of discernment? You may say things that happen as you predict them and you just kind of go, well, maybe just a coincidence. Maybe I'm just really good at predicting these things or maybe it's a prophetic gift. So some of these things are very subtle and sometimes we overlook them because we've grown up with them for so long. Maybe this has been with you since you were a child, at least the inclination of sensitivity in the spirit, not necessarily the gift itself because we know the gift comes after you're saved, but that spiritual inclination towards sensitivity to the spirit realm could be something that's been with you since you were a child and you've always just kind of accepted it as a part of your personality. Well, I'm just like that. I just see things. I just know things. I just predict things. Wait a minute. Is that just some part of your personality or is that potentially a prophetic gift? So those are three signs that you may be prophetic, number one, desire for the prophetic, number two, recognition of the prophetic on your life and number three, subtle function of the prophetic that may be your dismissive of at times. Now I'm going to show you real briefly how to discern false prophets. Now, again, I touched on this last week when I taught how to know you are following a false teacher. Nine important signs that was a very, very in-depth lesson on how to know you're following false teachers. That's something I think that maybe you should watch after this, but it was an important one, but I'm going to touch on it a little bit here. First John chapter four, verses one through three. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this, you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. First Corinthians chapter one versus, first Corinthians chapter 12, verses one through three tells us something similar, but I'm going to, I'm going to give you a little bit of context here for first Corinthians chapter 12. Paul was writing to the Corinthian church and the Corinthian church had a history of sorcery. So now Paul is writing to these former pagans about the spiritual gifts, and he's going, look guys, I don't want you to confuse the spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit for the pagan operations that you're used to. So he makes this distinction. Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the spirit gives us, I don't want you to misunderstand this. You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols. So he's saying, look, that was your former life paganism, but the power I'm talking about is different. So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Holy Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Notice something here. There's a theme that's threaded throughout the New Testament concerning false prophets. 1 John 4 is an example. 1 Corinthians 12 is another example, though 1 Corinthians 12 doesn't specifically address false prophets. It tells you how to discern between true power and demonic power. But you'll notice the theme is this. What do they do with Jesus? What do they do with Jesus? The definition of a false prophet is not someone who disagrees with you. The definition of a false prophet is not someone who offended you. My goodness, we've all met professional victims. People who know how to twist to every situation and make themselves the victim of something that was just something that they could have just gotten over if they weren't so easily offended. And I've seen it done in ministries, pastors to pastors, prophets to prophets. Well, I didn't like this or I didn't like the way he preached that or I didn't like the way he does this with his ministry and method. They take offense and then there's discord. So the scripture doesn't give us a license to just go labeling our brothers and sisters. False prophet, false prophet, false prophet. It gives us a very clear standard here. And that clear standard is what do you do with Jesus? Notice the standard is not what do you believe about speaking in tongues. What do you believe about healing? What do you believe about the spiritual gifts? When should we attend church Saturday or Sunday? Notice all of these things are not mentioned here. Rather, we know the false prophets. We know the false spirits. We know the false ministries and teachers by one question. What do they do with Jesus? Now, those who speak things that do not lead to Christ or those who speak things that are contrary to the fundamental truths about Christ are to be dismissed as false prophets. But just because you have a disagreement with a brother or a sister in Christ, just because a brother or a sister in Christ may have offended you or hurt your feelings or didn't shake your hand when you walked into the church or they took your seat and that was your seat and now they took it and oh my goodness, I'm offended. That's not how you discern false prophets. Or I went to the church and they didn't acknowledge my spiritual gifts so that pastor is false. I went to the church and they weren't doing all the ministry programs that I wanted done. That pastor is false. That's how we act sometimes like little children and we need to stop that because the Bible gives us a clear standard. What do you do with Jesus? That's it. Now, this doesn't mean that we should just unite with anybody and everybody who teaches heresy. Of course, there's a standard. But remember that there are foundational primary doctrines around salvation, around Christ, around fundamentals of the faith, and then there are side issues that are not issues that we should be dividing over. What you do with Jesus is an important issue. Some say, well, he was a great teacher but not really Lord. He was sent by God but he wasn't God. Or yeah, he came but not in bodily form. It was an example or an analogy, I should say, that when they talked about the Son of God coming to the earth, it didn't literally happen. It figuratively happened. These are things that we must reject, things that contradict the fundamentals of the faith. That's how you discern a false prophet. Not, oh, I was watching them and something just didn't. Can I just be honest with you? Sometimes people's personalities are just weird. Like sometimes I'm watching people and I'm like, that person's really weird. But they love Jesus. They're sincere. They're grounded in the word. Maybe they come off a little bit loony but they're different and that's okay. That doesn't make them a false prophet because, oh, I was watching. There are just personalities, guys, that you're not going to like. Do you realize that in life, there will always be personalities that clash with yours? I find that interesting. Well, that person's arrogant. Well, you know, confidence looks like arrogance to the insecure. And often the people who accuse others of arrogance themselves have an issue with arrogance. So it's their personalities having friction with that person and then they want to blame the Holy Spirit for their discomfort and try to get the Holy Spirit to side with them and then they spiritualize their dislike of their brothers and sisters in Christ by saying, well, something just didn't sit right in my spirit. And all the while they didn't show any scripture. They didn't prove that the person wasn't centered on Christ. They didn't show where the person veered off on one of the fundamentals of the faith. They just didn't like their style. They didn't like the way they talked. They didn't like the way they came across. And so immature Christians do that. We do that. We label people based on these exterior things when the Bible gives us a very clear standard. So discerning false prophets is quite simple. What did they do with Jesus? What did they do with the message of the gospel? What did they do with the fundamentals, the core messages of our faith? That's how you discern a false prophet. Do me a favor. If this teaching is helping you out, you like the material that's coming across, you're learning something, you believe this is revelation that the body of Christ needs, just go ahead and leave a like on the video whether you're watching live or on the replay. Now, I know you may not understand it. I don't even completely understand how all that works. It's a lot of information concerning the technology of YouTube out there. All I know is that if you leave a like, it helps us reach more people. So if you can go ahead and do that, that would be great. Take a moment to do that right now. Now, I want to show you the five types of the prophetic. These are five types of prophetic giftings. I'm going to list them for you and then I'm going to explain each one. Number one, the word of knowledge. Number two, the word of wisdom. Number three, discernment. Number four, insight and number five, prophecy. Now, all of these gifts fall under the umbrella of prophetic ministry because they are communications from God to man, from God to man or from God about man. When God communicates a message that affects or interprets the world around us, that's prophetic. When God communicates a message to us in our spirits that affects or interprets the world around us, that is prophetic in nature. Now, each one of these gifts has a slightly different function, but overall, they are prophetic in nature. So somebody asked earlier in the comments section, what is the prophetic? Well, prophetic is the adjective describing the noun prophet or prophecy. Prophecy and prophet is the person who speaks prophecy. Prophecy is what is spoken or communicated, messages from God. And the prophetic is anything having to do with prophet or prophecy. So let's take a look at number one, word of knowledge. And I'll read 1 Corinthians 12 verses seven and eight, and this will be our scripture reference for the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom. So write it down if you're taking the notes. Verse seven, but the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit with all. Four, to one is given the spirit by the spirit, the word of wisdom to another word of knowledge by the same spirit. So the word of knowledge quite simply is the supernatural acquisition of information. You see, I can know in the natural certain things about our world, like I can know in the natural that I'm wearing a blue jacket. I can know in the natural that there's an iPad in front of me. You can know in the natural that you're watching David. You can also know in the natural the things around you, right? We gather information through our senses. That's how we know the world around us. Like to you, you know your address, you know what car you drive, you know the names of your family members, you know these bits of information. These are bits of knowledge. So the word of knowledge quite simply is not necessarily supernatural knowledge, but natural knowledge that comes about through supernatural means. We see an example of this in John chapter four where the woman at the well tells Jesus, I perceive you are a prophet because he told her of all the relationships that she had, and he very specifically said, and the one you're now with is not your husband. Well, that's a very specific bit of information about her current circumstance, but she already knew that. Everyone in the city knew that, but why was it prophetic when Jesus said it? It was prophetic when Jesus said it because Jesus didn't know it through natural means, rather he knew it by the Holy Spirit. So that is an example of the word of knowledge. I remember one time I was teaching at a small Bible study. I was praying for a pastor and I said, pastor, I have a word for someone. I don't know who this is, but someone who drives a silver car that was just in a car accident. And it just kind of flowed out. I can't explain you how I knew that. So people say, well, what was it like? For me, it's not like in the movies where I go into a whole different vision and it's just information that pops in my head that I just know. Just like you know the color of the clothes you're wearing, just like you know your own name, knowledge just pops into my mind. And that's the word of knowledge. It's natural information or the supernatural acquisition of natural information. So I said to him, I said, there's someone I'm supposed to pray for. They drive a silver car. They were in a car accident. His jaw dropped. He goes, oh my goodness. It was my sister drives a silver car and she was in a car accident last week. I said, I'm supposed to pray for her. So he gets on the phone. I give her a word, pray for her. She got a spiritual breakthrough. So there was a purpose in the prophecy. I was not giving words of knowledge just so people go, wow, that's amazing. How did he know that? Let's not make it into a show. It's not for show. It's for service. So the word of knowledge is not just saying all these things. It's giving that information unto a purpose that God might be glorified. So that's number one, the word of knowledge. Number two, we see the word of wisdom. Again, I referenced 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses seven and eight, which I gave you just a few minutes ago. Now the word of knowledge, you see the situation. Word of wisdom, you see the solution in the same way that knowledge comes about to the word of knowledge through supernatural means. So wisdom comes about by the word of wisdom through supernatural means. It's the supernatural acquisition of wisdom. The way this might work, in fact, I believe some of the leaders in my life have this. The way this might work is others look at a situation and they can't see a way out. It's a lose, lose, something's not quite working. But the one with the word of wisdom, well, that person is going to come and look at the situation and the Holy Spirit is going to ignite a fire in their mind. He's going to enlighten their understanding and they're going to see what others could not see. They're going to be able to navigate that solution in a way that others could not navigate it. And that is the word of wisdom. So let's not overcomplicate these things. Word of knowledge is the supernatural acquisition of knowledge. Word of wisdom is the supernatural acquisition of wisdom. A little bit of a tongue twister there, but I think I made my point. Number three on the five types of prophetic gifting, discernment. So word of knowledge, you see the situation. Word of wisdom, you see the solution. Discernment, you see the spirit. The gift of discernment, I'm going to say it a thousand times if I have to, is not the gift of criticism. I think that people who think they have the gift of discernment think that if they dislike someone that something's wrong in their life, that they can't be right with God. And that is a very immature and frankly, a very narcissistic way of seeing the world. If I have a discomfort about them, then surely I must warn everyone about them. That's dangerous. So let's not get into that, okay? First Corinthians 12, 10, to another, the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues. Being judgmental, suspicious or negative is not the same as being prophetic. Do not mistake cynicism for discernment. Do not mistake an untrusting nature for discernment. Do not mistake an inclination for criticism as discernment. If what you mostly point out is negative, you are likely operating in suspicion, not prophetic discernment. Let me say that again. If what you mostly point out typically is negative, you are likely not certainly, but likely not operating in the prophetic discernment that God has given you, but rather in suspicion. Sometimes we confuse our own emotions for the voice of the Holy Spirit. I've seen it a thousand times. Someone goes to a church, goes to an event, watches a live stream, calls in a prayer call, whatever it may be, a Zoom meeting, they're connecting with the minister. And if that minister does something that they don't like or that offends them, or if that minister comes across in a way where their personality just rubs them wrong, they activate this superstitious immaturity, this religious spirit that says, well, because something I was offended or I didn't like it, they spin their webs of deception. Again, professional victims spin their webs of deception and warp the whole situation to make it look like they were wrong or to make it look like they have a message from the Lord for these people when they're just operating in offense and most of the time in jealousy. Now I speak real strongly on this because I think it's important that we as a community don't fall into this trap. Look, you guys are mostly very kind to me. 99% of you are very kind to me. My concern is what I see going out to other ministries in this day and age. The internet can become a toxic place. And I pray that that toxicity does not affect this community of believers. So I say this not so much for myself. I say this for the ministries around me that you might be able to receive from if you can get past certain things about your own dislikes and personality or methods or styles and all that. I want you to be able to respect and honor all men and women of God while also keeping healthy barriers so that you're not just receiving everything that comes your way. But I want us, spirit family, I want us more than anything to be a community that truly moves into sermon, not criticism, but with grace and love and compassion carefully and reverently ways things by the scripture. And if someone gets off a little that we don't go on the attack, if someone does something that offends us, we don't go on the attack. If we perceive that we were wronged again, sometimes we do that. We have these victim mindsets that we can make any situation look bad against us. That's not a healthy way to live. And I want to avoid that. Let this online community, let this audience, let the spirit family be a people of encouragement, a people of true discernment, a people of peace and joy, not toxicity, not dealing with that heaviness of drama and clashing and name calling and calling people out and debating and arguing, let's not do that here. Let this be a place online that honors the Holy Spirit. If you're willing to make that commitment to me and to the community, let's make that commitment out publicly in the comment section. Those of you watching live are on the replay. This isn't to say that we're just going to accept any teaching that comes our way, but this is to say that we are going to do it with love. And if there is something that's off, we're going to approach that with love and just allow the Lord to guide us in everything that we do. So that's number three discernment, you see the spirit. Number four insight, this is where you see the soul. Now Matthew chapter 12 verse, and I should clarify, jumping back to point number three real quick on discernment, I should clarify that the gift of discernment quite simply discerns between whether a spirit is of God, of the world, or of the satanic, or whether a teaching is of God, of the world, or of the satanic, or whether is an action is of God, or of the world, or of the satanic. So it discerns actions, movements, teachings, behavior patterns, thought patterns, and so forth. It discerns between, distinguishes between God, the world, and the satanic. Number four, insight, see the soul. Matthew 12, 25 says, Jesus knew their thoughts and replied. Any kingdom divided by civil wars doomed, a town or family splintered by feuding will fall apart. Focus in here on portion A of verse 25, Jesus knew their thoughts. He knew what they were thinking. The mind is of the realm of the soul. This is to see the soul. Another example of this in the New Testament is found in 1 Corinthians 14 verses 24 and 25. But if all of you are prophesying and unbelievers are people who don't understand these things comes into your meeting, they will be convicted of sin and judged by what you say. And as they listen, watch this, their secret thoughts will be exposed. Wow. And they will fall to their knees and worship God declaring, God is truly here among you. So this isn't to say that we become mind readers. So don't say, David Diger, Hernandez said we can read minds. That's not it at all. It's not that we're necessarily seeing their thoughts. It's that we're seeing into the spirit and God sees their thoughts. God is communicating what he sees in their thoughts. But this is insight. This is to have information revealed about the soul. And this is different from the word of knowledge. You say, how is that different from the word of knowledge? Because it sounds very similar. Well, remember that the word of knowledge has to do with natural information coming about by supernatural means. Insight is supernatural information. There's no way in the natural that you can know someone's thoughts are intense. That comes by the spiritual insight that God gives you. And that's how it's distinguished from the word of knowledge. Remember word of knowledge, natural insight, supernatural, both come about by supernatural means. And then finally, number five is prophecy. So word of knowledge, see the situation, word of wisdom, see the solution, discernment, see the spirit, insight, see the soul, prophecy, see the future. Mark chapter eight, verse 31. He then began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law. And that he must be killed and after three days rise again, hear Jesus is prophesying the future. He's speaking of things that will come to pass and this is to see ahead of time. This is to see further along that timeline to declare that which will happen in the future. And I think that's simple enough of an explanation. I don't think that needs to have any more detail on it. God does reveal the future. Well, how do you know it's truly God? Because it happens. If it truly is God showing the future, it happens. Now there are some cases, like for example, in the book of Jeremiah, we read what some would consider to be a prophetic clause where God says, if I believe it's Jeremiah, where God says, if a nation is declared blessed, but they disobey, I'm gonna curse them. And if a nation is declared cursed, but they obey, I'm gonna bless them. So that prophetic clause dependent upon how the person responds to the prophetic word, a perfect example of this, is found in the book of Jonah, yet 30 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And this is God intervening, the grace of God. Jonah declares that word. They repent, they turn from their wicked ways, and then that prophetic word does not come to pass because of how the people responded to it. So there is that prophetic clause that's to be noted for sure. Okay, now I'm gonna talk about the different ministries of the prophetic, but I wanna check in with the chat, Steve, how we doing? Hey, chat's doing amazing. Throughout the stream, I was asking some questions here, and I have some answers here. I asked the question, have you ever had a prophetic dream? And there's been a lot of people that said yes as well. And over here, there's some questions here I have, just a few of them. I just wanted to give a highlight real quick to Devon. Devon said, thank you so much for giving insight on the world of the prophetic. I feel many ministers have confused what it truly means to be prophetic. Also, one more, Jerry wrote, thank you Pastor David, you really are an inspiration to this younger generation. Well, you guys are a blessing for sure, and I am reading the comments that come in, so continue to post those live. Okay, ministries of the prophetic. There is the gift of prophecy, and then there is the prophet. Let me show you the scripture references, and then I'm gonna show you how to distinguish between the two. First Corinthians chapter 12 verse 10 to another working of miracles to another prophecy. Here we see a gift, not an office, but in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 and 12, we see the office of the prophet. I read this verse at the beginning of the stream. I'll read it again. Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. You've heard it said, well, I don't want to be a part of organized religion, to which I often respond, would you rather be a part of disorganized religion? Do you want to be a part of chaotic religion? Do you want to be a part of religion that's aimless? No, everything that God does is done with intention, structure, and organization. Now, those structures and those organizations can be abused by people in power, but structure and organization itself is something that's of God. So keeping that in mind, it's important to remember that in the church system, and it is a system, a system that Jesus himself founded, in the church system, God has appointed key figures to lead the body of Christ, to guide the church, to edify the church, to watch over their souls as spiritual spiritual leaders. The Bible teaches that very clearly. Now, the office of the prophet is someone who functions as one of the five fold. The major difference between the gift of prophecy and the office of the prophet can be summarized in two simple words, influence and authority, influence and authority. Someone who has the gift of prophecy does not need to be necessarily commissioned as a prophet to prophesy. Their gift can be acknowledged in a local body of believers and that gift can function from individual to individual, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the person with the gift of prophecy has an office in church leadership. Now, the prophet has an office in church leadership and comes with authority to govern and guide the church, the one with the gift of prophecy does not. So it really has to do with their position in church authority. Now, they both function in similar ways. The gift of prophecy, you receive a message from God and you speak it. The prophet receives a message from God and speaks it, but that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone who speaks with the gift of prophecy should be given a leadership position in the church. And that's an important distinction to make because I think we make the mistake of making someone who has the gift of prophecy a church leader just because of that gift. But the Bible gives us a very clear standard on who should be a bishop or a deacon or a pastor or a leader within the church, someone who's an elder, someone who's looked to with authority and influence. There's a whole list of criteria that we're given that one must meet in order to function in that role. Things like, must not be a heavy drinker, must be the husband of but one wife and so forth. There's a list of things that have to take place before that person has given a leadership position. And according to the New Testament structure, we ought to appoint these people by leadership, by leadership. So there's no such thing as a rogue prophet. Well, I'm not connected to the body. I kind of just wander around like a hippie from church to church declaring myself a prophet and hopefully they give me some platform. Really, that's a person who wants all of the accolades and praise and acknowledgement of the gift without any of the responsibility because responsibility is found when you're connected to a local church with accountability. Now, a prophet again is a leader. The gift of prophecy is a function. One is an office, one is a function. Just because someone has the gift of prophecy doesn't mean they're prepared to be a spiritual leader in the local body of believers. And just because someone operates in that capacity doesn't mean they meet all the criteria. So that's the major difference, authority and influence. Now I want to show you the different levels of the prophetic. And these are just things I've made an observation. I'm not necessarily going to give you scriptural references for these, but I think in principle, you can find examples of how these different gifts function. You'll see some in the New Testament, prophesying to individuals, others in the New Testament prophesying to leaders, others prophesying to cities, others to nations and so forth. And others, like the major prophets of the Old Testament, they prophesied to the world. Though it was given to the Jewish people, it was a prophecy that could be that affected the whole world, namely the prophecies about the Messiah and what Christ would do within the earth. So we see levels of the prophetic quite simply. There's the personal influence, corporate influence, regional influence, national influence, and global influence. I find that the person with the gift of prophecy usually only functions in the personal and the corporate. Personal is one-on-one. Corporate is to the local body of believers. Maybe sometimes they say, hey, brother so-and-so or sister so-and-so has a prophetic word they want to share, come share that word, they share it. But again, they're not necessarily a church leader or elder or someone with authority and influence, but they can function in the personal and the corporate. Now, usually I will see, and there are some instances where God will work outside of these bounds. I buy no means I'm trying to box God in. Usually I'll see that someone who is a prophet, someone who actually holds that office, prophesies personally, corporately, but then they cross the line that the one with the gift of prophecy usually doesn't cross, and now they begin to prophesy regionally, nationally, and globally. Now again, to clarify, someone with the gift of prophecy may be given a word that God through the internet takes globally, and that would be an example of someone with just the gift having global influence. But for the most part, you'll see that the person who only functions in the gift usually just touches on personal and corporate within the local body, and the person who has the office of the prophet prophesies regionally, nationally, globally, in addition to corporately and personally. But these are different levels that come as God uses you as your faithful to that gift, and again, just to clarify, I don't want to give you too much information that becomes confusing, but just to clarify, the difference between the gift and the office is the gift is a function, and the office comes with authority and influence that is not given to the person with the gift necessarily. Now I want to show you the purpose of the prophetic. If you are receiving from this message, let me know in the comment section right now. I just saw a question, does a leader have to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Absolutely. A leader has to be spirit filled. In fact, Stephen the martyr wasn't even allowed to handle the food distribution without being filled with the Holy Spirit. So if you're going to be flowing in the Holy Spirit as a leader, absolutely you should be filled with the Spirit. And by that we mean surrendered to the Holy Spirit. We know that according to the book of Ephesians in Romans 8 verse 9 that every believer has the Holy Spirit, but again, not everyone is surrendered to that capacity where they can be considered spirit filled. Okay, the purpose of the prophetic, three very simple things. Number one, encouragement and comfort. 1 Corinthians 14 verse 3 says, but one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them and comforts them. Now, you've often probably seen people criticize prophets who give encouraging words. They say, oh, the church is going to make it. The church is going to be strong. God's going to use you. And people go, that's false. There's the discerners again, right? False, no. They think that because it's not negative that it's not true. But we can't pretend like God never says anything positive. There are times God says some very positive encouraging things. And that is in fact a part of the prophetic gift. So we can't criticize someone for being fake just because they're being positive. The Bible very clearly says it's for encouragement and comfort. Well, you're just tickling ears and you want to comfort them. The Bible says that sometimes prophetic words will be comforting. I think we have to watch these toxic things that get in our hearts where we just become so cynical and so critical and so puffed up in our own ways. And again, we start to think that just because something is positive that it couldn't possibly be true. For example, when I was growing up in church, I was often looked at by some of the other kids as being somewhat different because I grew up in a godly home. My parents were not divorced. They still are not divorced. I grew up in a healthy, godly family. I grew up memorizing scriptures. We weren't hurting for money. There was never drama or chaos. And I had a lot of friends who had divorced parents, struggled financially. There was chaos and violence in their home. And they would often tell me something like this. And I always thought it was odd. They would say, well, you don't understand things because you're not living in the real world. I thought, how odd? What am I in a matrix or something? You mean I'm in a simulation? They said, no, no, no, you're not living in the real world. I said, what do you mean by that? Well, you didn't grow up like I did. But the way I grew up was real to me. You see, there's something that we do in human nature. And I don't know why we do it, but we equate the positive with the fake and the negative with the real. I'm just being real. Like, no, you're just being negative. You ever see those comments just saying, like, well, maybe you shouldn't just say because you're just being negative. Well, I just speak truth. Not always. Sometimes you just speak negativity. And the problem is that we equate, again, the positive with the fake and the negative with the real. Both the negative and the positive can be true. And the Bible very clearly tells us that encouragement and comfort are legitimate purposes of the prophetic. Number two, the like this one warning, Jonah one, one, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me. Here we see an example of someone prophesying warning. Negativity is coming. I'm going to destroy you. God says such things and that warning is given for purpose. God gives warnings with purpose. Why would God warn someone if they weren't being given an opportunity for repentance? What a gracious God we serve. Oh, here's that prophetic. I forgot I put the reference in here. So this is a good thing. The prophetic clause in Jeremiah, here it is. Jeremiah 18, 7 to 10. If I announced that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned. And if I announced that I will plant and build up a certain nation or kingdom, but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless it. As I said I would. So there is that prophetic clause. I think of Ananias and Sapphira. Yes, God still brings judgment in the New Testament. Just ask Ananias and Sapphira if you can. I don't know where they went, but it's possible that one day you'll be able to ask them, hey, what happened there? Well, we got judged. Judgment still happens in the New Testament. Warnings still happens in the New Testament just because we're under grace doesn't mean God is not holy. It doesn't mean he still doesn't pour out wrath. God absolutely does that. I mean Paul the apostle wrote to the church that some of you are sick and have even died because you've taken the communion unworthily. That's judgment right there. So we have to acknowledge that yes, judgment is a part of the prophetic. If all someone ever prophesies is super positive things, it's only one of two things. Either God just selected them to relay his positive messages, in which case that's great favor, or they're leaving certain things out that God is not saying. We cannot be afraid to warn people. People will think you're crazy. People will think you're weird, but let's not be twisted and enjoy warning. Some people enjoy like, oh, they're going to hell. I want to tell them, oh, they're going to be judged. I want to tell them. And we almost like get a kick out of people's coming calamity, but that's not at all the spirit of prophecy. The Holy Spirit warns people with love and a hope that there will be repentance. So if you just enjoy warning people and calling people out and bashing people, that is not the Holy Spirit in you. That's something you really got to get checked in your flesh because that's coming from a heart that's been wounded. So that's warning. Warning is a part of the prophetic purpose. So number one, encouragement and comfort. Number two, warning and the number three, guidance and confirmation. Amos chapter three, verse seven says, indeed the sovereign Lord never does anything until he reveals his plans to his servants, the prophets. God does guide and confirm. God does give direction for the future. And when a prophet speaks something to you, don't let it torment you. I mean, sometimes that happens. I mean, when I was first saved and I received prophetic words that just didn't make any sense. Like I remember one time this guy gave me a prophetic word. He said, someone's coming against you out of jealousy. And I said, they are. And at that time of my life, look, nobody knew who I was back then. And I hadn't even really got any traction in ministry. And I was just super paranoid. I'm like, who is it? And I started, I literally started looking at my family members like, are they jealous? Are they coming against me? Until I realized, okay, he just probably spoke out of emotion. I mean, I can dismiss that. It's okay. And then there was peace. Now, let me on a side note correct a common misconception, this idea that when God speaks, there will always be perfect peace. No, that's not true. Just ask Abraham when God told them about the 400 years of slavery that was coming to his offspring. There was a great darkness that fell in that moment. And there was anguish in that moment. When God instructed Jesus to go to the cross, when he was in the garden, was he not anguished? Now, I understand that some people, when they say peace, they talk about a grounding in who God is. And if that's what you mean by peace, then yes, we will always have perfect peace when God speaks. But this doesn't mean that we will never have negative emotions when God speaks something to us. Sometimes you will feel conviction. Sometimes you will feel nervousness about the step of faith that he's telling you to take. Sometimes you will feel that hit to your ego when the Holy Spirit says, go apologize to them for carrying bitterness and jealousy against them. Wow, I don't like that. It doesn't feel good. But that doesn't mean it's not the Lord. Oh, I didn't have peace. So I knew it wasn't God. No, that was you just avoiding what the Holy Spirit was saying because you didn't feel good about what he was saying. And that is a great distinction that we must make. Yes, you will always have peace in the sense that you'll always be grounded and you'll always be able to trust in and rely upon God and his nature, his word and his goodness. But on the other hand, that doesn't mean that negative emotions will never be wrapped up in what God says to you because sometimes when he guides you, it's not what you want to hear. Sometimes when he corrects you or confirms something, it's not what you want to hear. But God will do it. On the other hand, let's not lose our peace about everything that prophets tell us. I've had people tormented for years. They messaged me. Brother David, years ago the prophet told me this, this and this, and they're pulling their hair out going, I don't know what it means. You have to help me. Oh my goodness, what am I going to do? I'm going to miss God. And they're terrified when maybe the prophet just didn't get it right. Don't base your whole life on some word of prophet it gives you. Don't do it. Base your life on the word of God. Base your life on the confirmation that the Holy Spirit brings sometimes through his prophets. But that doesn't mean that everything every prophet says that should be taken as the absolute word of God and you have to run with it. Again, we have the more short word of prophecy. So don't obsess about it, but don't be dismissive of it. Find that balance. So the three purposes of the prophetic, encouragement and comfort, warning, and number three, guidance and confirmation. Now I want to talk to you. I told you this would be extensive. Now I want to talk to you about the three expressions of the prophetic, the three different ways that the prophetic is expressed. Number one, dreams, Job 33, 14 through 15. For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it. He speaks in dreams and visions of the night when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds. So God speaks again and again and again and sometimes we don't perceive it in dreams. Matthew 2 12 is a perfect New Testament example of this. When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route. For God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod. So here we can start to kind of mix and match the purposes of the prophetic with the expressions of the prophetic. So number one is dreams. Number two is visions. Acts 18 9, one night. The Lord spoke to Paul in a vision, do not be afraid, keep on speaking, do not be silent. So there's a vision. What's the difference in a dream and a vision whether you're awake or asleep? Number three, declarations. These are verbal expressions of the prophetic. Jeremiah 29, but if I say I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name, his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I love that. I am weary of holding it in. Indeed, I cannot. So here's, here we see the prophetic expression in word. You speak it out. So these are how God speaks to his prophets. Now again, dreams, visions, declarations, you can mix and match the purposes and the expressions. Watch this. Sometimes God will bring encouragement in a dream, in a vision or in a declaration. Sometimes he'll be a warning in a dream, a vision or a declaration. Sometimes he'll bring guidance and confirmation in a dream, in a vision or in declaration. And let's not pretend that God has not speaking in this way anymore. The Bible makes it clear dreams and visions are still perfectly legitimate, but please don't be like those people who base everything on them. Sometimes it really was just something you ate at two o'clock in the morning that will give you a crazy dream. You can't put too much emphasis on your dreams. Was God, did I miss God? Did I miss God? Did I miss God? Yeah, Job makes a reference to that, but at least in the New Testament, we know that we have a special guidance from the Holy Spirit. If God wants to get through to you, he's going to make it absolutely clear. I mean, I heard of a woman who woke up at 747. She saw the clock 747 and she thought, aha, I'm going to get in a Boeing 747, fly across the country or to another country and become a missionary. And that was probably not what God was saying when she woke up at 747. So we can't be superstitious about it, but at the same time, we have to be aware that God speaks in dreams, visions and declarations. I'm going to talk to you about three more things. Activating the prophetic, the importance of clarity in the prophetic, and maintaining purity in the prophetic. Once again, if you're watching this live run replay, you enjoy this, help me reach more people, just leave a like, gently click the like button, don't smash it, we need it, don't break it, others want to make use of it, but gently click it so we can reach more people. Okay, clarity in the prophetic, true prophets bring clarity, not confusion. Now, sometimes the prophet may be learning to exercise their gift, they may say something that just makes you scratch your head, you go home, you're driving in your car after the service going, what on earth was that guy talking about? But a true prophet who's honed in that gift is going to speak things that bring clarity and not confusion. That's why God sends them. They come with a direct disruption to noise and chaos. So, 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. And it, it's like that light, like the scripture is like a light shining in the dark place. That's the power of the prophetic. Now, some use this verse I'm about to use in an abusive way. 1 Corinthians 13.9, now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture. So, 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. Just because the Bible says we prophesy in part doesn't mean we should prophesy nonsensically, or apathetically, or superstitiously, or just throw things out imaginatively, just throwing things out. I'm just kind of hearing things, well, I don't know. I prophesy in part. Well, there it is. I just prophesy in part. No, take responsibility for what God has given you as a ministry. Speak with clarity. The Bible is very clear that prophets speak with clarity. What does the Word say? 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. I'm debating on whether or not I want to touch on the next sub-point. No, I won't, because then we're going to get into a whole different thing. I want to talk to you now about how to activate the prophetic in your life. Maybe you feel called to the prophetic gift, maybe you feel called to the office of the prophet, or maybe you just want to 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. But before I give you these keys, the four simple ones here on how to activate the prophetic, and these are keys, by the way, that you can apply immediately to begin seeing the prophetic flow in your life, before I give you those, I want to encourage you to subscribe to Encounter TV. Maybe this is your first time watching some of our content. Maybe you've watched this for a while, and you've kind of debated subscribing. Maybe you haven't subscribed because you come back to the content every now and then. Look, if you subscribe, we are going to welcome you in to what we call our spirit family. And this is an online community of believers. You get the notifications from the channel. It's a wonderful time that we have in the Lord. I release teachings and sermons on the Holy Spirit, prayer, spiritual warfare, topics such as those. Also, we do live streams like this. We even live stream our events that we hold around the world with the power of the Holy Spirit moves. So, it's the word and demonstrations of the Holy Spirit's power. This ministry is spirit-filled, bible-based, Jesus-centered, a balance that brings forth the true power. Encounter TV, encounter the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Subscribe right now. Look, we look at the data. I think it's like 60% of the people who watch Encounter TV are not subscribed. So, go ahead, subscribe right now. Stop putting it off. Just click subscribe and click that notification bell when you do. And those of you who watch Encounter TV regularly, do me a little favor, tell them in the comment sections why they should subscribe to Encounter TV. Okay, let's talk about activating the prophetic. 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 through 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. Verse 14, but strong meat belongs to them that are of full age. Even those who by reason of use, 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. At some point you're just going to have to do it. We just kind of go, well, one day maybe. I don't know. And 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. You're not going to find it. There's never going to be a day. I'm just going to be real with you, okay? 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. Now I have a whole teaching on the three expressions of the gift of tongues. This particular portion of Scripture is talking about a personal prayer language. 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. Now these next two points, I won't give you Scripture references for because I established these points very clearly throughout the lesson. I think it should go without saying that we ought to 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. And then 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 Word 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. Exercise the gift. Stop doubting. Stop second-guessing. Stop questioning. Just do it. 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 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. 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. He 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. I know it's trendy right now. I know it's trendy right now to say, oh, later with it, we say things like, I'm the remnant. I don't need to be a part of the local body. And here's the problem. There's people who have you convinced that you're the remnant when you're actually the rebellious. In my isolation, I find I'm pure. We treat the rest of the body of Christ as if there's somehow contaminating our spiritual lives. When you isolate from the body of Christ, you are not the remnant. You are the rebellious. Period. No if ands are buts. No, but Brother David, I went to a church and they offended me. Or Brother David, you can't say that. You don't know my situation. I've had bad experiences with church. Look, I want to be sensitive to all those things, but no bad experience justifies ignoring the word of God, which clearly teaches us that we ought to gather. That's a fact. If we don't like that, we have to correct our beliefs according to the word of God, not according to our preferences. Like I said, it's real trendy right now. People think they're in some movement because they're leaving churches. My goodness, that is not. Look, if anything, I should be telling you the opposite. No one can ever accuse me of being some old school guy who's just afraid of losing members. We are primarily an online ministry. If anything, people leaving their churches benefits me. During the pandemic, when everyone was on lockdown, we saw more financial support, more viewership than we had ever seen before. And if I wanted to be selfish, I would say you don't need them. Oh, they don't have, they would say, I would say things like they don't got the power. We got the power. They don't understand it. We understand it. How manipulative, how arrogant, how prideful, how religious, how horrible to do that to God's people. No, I'm going to tell you this because I love you, even if it's against my self-interest. I am not helping my ministry by telling you to get plugged into a local church. It would help our ministry in all ways by saying, no, just calm, let us be your only source. That's just not the way it is, guys. And I know these things are hard to hear. And I know we have excuses flying through our heads. And if you're angry with me for saying this, you're bitter. I'm sorry to say it so bluntly, but you need to hear this. If you're angry with what I'm saying right now, you're bitter or immature because the word of God is clear. And that's a religious spirit. That's a religious spirit to attempt to connect with God outside of how God has ordained it. Now, I'm not saying that there's no such thing as abusive churches. Let's balance this. There are abusive churches. There are controlling leaders. There are ugly situations. Okay, so leave the abusive church, leave the controlling leader, move past that ugly situation as best you can. I know it takes time to heal, but do get plugged into a local church. Prophetic people get plugged in or you're going to get weird and loony, and your mind's going to go crazy and you're not, you're not going to be the real you anymore. You're going to be a shell of who you were struggling with all of the chaos in your mind, moving from conspiracy theory to conspiracy theory, strange doctrine, a strange doctrine. And it's just not a good place to be offended by everyone and everyone, any situation. It's just going to, I'm telling you, it's not a good place to be. 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 wanted to, 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 like in Matthew chapter seven, I think around verse 21 through 23, where the Bible says, 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, 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, you actor. Terrifying reality. Number three, stay connected to reality. So 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. Look, we, 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. Now I want to pray. I'll just say this. You don't have to be weird to be effective. That's the last little thing I wrote. Now I'm going to pray for you. Don't go anywhere because I'm going to pray for you and then I'm going to show you a portion of scripture that I believe applies to us in this day and age. Okay. I want to pray for you and then I'm going to show you another scripture here and I want you right now to begin to write your prayer requests in the comments section. I may not be able to see all the prayer requests, but there's an online community and I encourage you all to pray for each other. And yes, Hebrews 10, 24 and 25, it's here in my notes. I should have read it out loud and 1 Corinthians 14 for that first point I made when I was talking about maintaining purity. But let's pray whatever it is that you need to repent of, whatever it is that you want to seal in the spirit, let's pray it right now. Father, in the name of your precious son Jesus, I lift every one of these to you who desire earnestly that gift. Lord, I thank you that you've called them as prophets. I thank you that you've called some to that office. I thank you that you've called some to flow in that gift, but thank you, Lord, that you've allowed us all to hear your voice. What a privilege, Lord. What a privilege. And so, Father, I pray in the name of Jesus that you would begin to stir your people. Even now, some of you, as we pray right now, you're going to sense something on your body. Some might feel like heat. Some might feel like electricity. I don't want you to be afraid. That's the power of the Holy Ghost. Father, let that anointing flow. Just lift your hands, receive right now. Come on, that's the power of the Holy Ghost. We thank you, Father, for your presence. Stir up that gift I pray. Let us be people who are inclined to your voice, people who respond and tremble at your word. Lord, we repent of our wrongdoing, our sin, our mindsets that are not of you. Anoint us and use us, we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, say it out loud, write it in the comments, say amen. I want to read scripture 2, Proverbs 3, Proverbs 3, 25-28. You need not be afraid of sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked. For the Lord is your security. Say that right now. Say, the Lord is my security. He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap. Then the Bible says, do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it's in your power to help them. If you can help your neighbor now, don't say come back tomorrow and then I'll help you. There's something to be said of acting when there's a need. That's what the Bible teaches. I think we try to spiritualize sometimes our decision making in order to avoid responsibility. I'm serious. We do this a lot. People try to avoid their responsibilities as Christians by spiritualizing their excuses. When someone needs help, if it's going to inconvenience us, rather than just coming to the aid, rather than just acting, we say things like, well, I need to pray about it. And it's amazing to me that we don't pray about so many things, but we seem to always pray about things that challenge us, things that might inconvenience us. And this especially applies to finances. Now, the Bible clearly teaches that the generous soul shall prosper. The Proverbs says, the generous soul shall prosper. He who refreshes others shall himself be refreshed. Trust in your money and down you go, the Bible says. There's something to be said of coming to the aid of others helping. Now here we just read it. Do not withhold good from those who deserve it. Now it's usually at this point, sadly, that people click out of the video. Why is that? It's because people will stay for when they're receiving and then when it's time to help many people leave. Don't let that be you. Let's be people. This is what I want for a spirit family. I want us to be a people who are generous. I want us to be a people who understand the principles of giving. We must understand that as believers, when it's in our ability to do something, we must not withhold. Who would withhold from Jesus? Say, I'm not withholding from Jesus. Some will say that. I'm not withholding. I would never withhold from the Lord. Well, when the Holy Spirit prompts us to help his ministry, and by the way, this is not my ministry. This is his ministry. This ministry is the Lord's, not mine. When the Holy Spirit prompts us and we withhold because we're afraid, well, doesn't the Bible say don't be afraid of sudden disaster? When we withhold because we're being stingy or greedy, we do that. That's in human nature, guys. We have to be real about this. We have to confront the selfishness in us. Sometimes we withhold because we're afraid. Sometimes we withhold because we're being greedy. Sometimes we withhold because we're unsure about the future. And we've got to learn to confront that side of ourselves. God helps me with this. He is still helping me with this. Sometimes He challenges me to give things. I'm like, Lord, are you sure? God, are you sure? This is, you know, we do that there. Lord, are you sure? The Holy Spirit says, yes, do it. Well, let me pray about it, Holy Spirit. He says, no, no, no, do it. Well, let me pray about it, Holy Spirit. No, do it. Okay, Holy Spirit, you win. Right? There's that back and forth inside of us. Don't do the back and forth. Don't withhold when it's in your power to give. Give to the Lord's work. Take care of God's house that He might take care of yours. Now, I believe God's going to provide for you whether you give to this ministry or not. That's a fact. The Bible teaches that. But provision is different than prosperity. And I believe that God's people should have resources. I believe that God's people should have finances that we might impact the world with the gospel. That's what it takes. Our ministry right now is in the middle of fundraising for a project that's coming up. I mean, Tim, you can go ahead and throw in the lower third right now. You know, our ministry has a need right now and God is going to meet the need. He, I mean, it's a miracle how far we've gotten and the money's still coming in, guys. We are going to see this need met. I'm excited about it because I was watching the progress the other day and I told the team, I go, guys, this is going to happen. This is actually going to happen. We're going to meet the goal. But God is going to use you to do it. Right now, as of today, Tuesday, March 8th, we began construction on the new studio. What you're looking at there on the screen is actually a photo of the actual studio space. That's, that's about, I think about a third of the actual space that we own. Obviously, there's some offices, there's a lobby, there's other rooms that we use for different ministry, things like the director's room and so forth. But these pictures are of the actual studio that as of yesterday, if you're watching this on Tuesday, March 8th of 2022, as of yesterday has just gone under construction. Now, we need your help to finish this project. We have a goal of raising the two and two, it's 2.75 million by May 15th, 2022. And as of right now, we are on track to meet that need. But I need you to go right now to DavidHernandezMinistries.com slash expand and make a donation for this project. Now, maybe years from now, you're watching this, the project is complete and we've already met the need, we're in the new studio, maybe by the time you see this, it'll be a year from now, two years from now, three years from now. You can still give to the ministry. But for those of you watching this in 2022, the early part of 2022, right now the need for the ministry is this studio. In the future, you can give toward other things, check the website, see what else is going on. And I want to leave this up because our live stream is going to be up forever. But those of you who want to give toward this project, go to DavidHernandezMinistries.com slash expand. Do not withhold. Release it. Just step out in faith and say, okay, Lord, I'm going to do it. Okay, God, I know I'm fighting a little bit, but I'm going to do it. And God's going to meet your needs. God's going to meet this ministry's needs. That's not why we do this. This is to participate in the blessing that is ministry. This is to participate in the blessing that is soul winning. Jesus has never held back from you. Don't hold back from him. I want to challenge you now. These aren't special amounts or magic numbers. These are just amounts we want to challenge God's people with because these are the average gifts that we're receiving. I want to challenge you right now to give a gift toward this project of $25, $50 or $100. Many of you can do that. If that is in your power to do, as the scripture says, don't withhold. If that's in your ability to do it, do it. That's for the sake of the gospel. Look, the way things function is not even monetary per se. This is all faith. Faith. You think I look at our budgets? No, I look at what God says. God brings the provision for the vision. The currency of heaven is faith. And that's what we're stepping out on and God is supplying the need. So I'm asking you right now, go to davidhernandezministries.com.com. expand and give a one-time gift toward this project. You can also check our website for other ways to give. Maybe you want to make a general gift or maybe you want to become a partner. There's other places in the website for that. But as I said, while this project is going on, this is the need, davidhernandezministries.com. expand. If you're watching this and the project is over, go to the website. You can give a general gift to the ministry. And if you give toward this project in the future when the project is done, it will go toward the general account. Now, I'm challenging God's people to do this. Here's another challenge for you. Okay? I know this is sometimes we fight, right? The flesh gets angry. The flesh holds the flesh. So there's a little bit of a struggle sometimes internally. So I want to challenge you a little bit further here. And I'm not doing anything that I wouldn't want to be challenged with. I'm not preaching anything that I don't practice. There are a few of you watching who can make a significant impact through your giving. There are maybe a dozen of you watching right now. You could sew a gift into this ministry. You could make a donation to this ministry that would move our progress up by 5%, 10%. There are those of you who can take out chunks out of this people. I'm telling you, I've given to our ministry 30,000, 50,000, 200,000. That's how this project advances. So if you're one of those people who wants to give a gift and you say, you know what, I think I can make a dent. I think I can really do something significant. I want to challenge you too. Most of the givers, most of us are going to do 25, 50, 100. That's about the average gift. But there are a few of you watching who God has given you the resources and the responsibility of making that heavier impact. I'm asking because it's for souls. I'm asking because it's for the gospel. I'm asking because it's for the most important message that the world will ever hear, that Jesus saves, heals, and delivers. We need to tell the world. Help us do it. DavidHernandezMinistries.com slash expand. You guys can continually go there as well to see the progress on the event. Now, if you enjoyed this teaching, make sure you also check out the teaching, everything you need to know about the anointing of the Holy Spirit. In that message, I talk about all the things, all the truths concerning the power of the Holy Spirit.