Introduction to Prophecy Part 1

Hello. So my name is Caitlin Humenik. I'm here today going to be teaching about the prophetic. So let's just dive into this together. Let's start off with a prayer. Dear Father God, we come into your presence by the blood of your Son Jesus Christ. We thank you for today. We thank you for waking us up today and breathing life into our lungs. We thank you for this live and everyone who's going to be on it. I just pray that you can bring blessings to the person watching this, that you can plant seeds today, that you can open the eyes and the ears of the viewers watching, and that we can just have a good time today. In Jesus' name, amen. So I want to give an overview first of all of what I'll be discussing, and then we'll get right into it. So I'll be talking about my personal testimony first about being called to be prophetess, and then I will dive deep into some details about prophecy specifically. And then what it means to be a prophet. So I was first called to be a prophetess in March of 2022. So in perspective of this, this had— this was actually a few months after we had moved across the country. So we had just, just started to get settled down. We had thankfully had already found a church that we liked, and we were just kind of scoping the area, just kind of getting used to everything. Um, and mind you, we, before we moved, we, my family and I, would be doing, um, I think every Friday nights we would be doing Bible studies, um, to kind of strengthen our faith and just, um, just help us with our walk with Christ. So I think we were doing that like a good year before we moved. So we continued that, um, moving down. And I think on this day in March of 2022, this was, I'm pretty sure, Friday night when we had a Bible study. And I think it was towards the end of the Bible study where God spoke to my dad, and he said that he saw the words prophet over over my head. So I wanted to talk about the fact that this might look different for everyone when God calls you to be a prophet or something else. He will either directly tell you or he will speak to. To you through someone else, basically. So the, the way it's spoken to you can look different for everyone, and that's just how I personally experienced it, with the word prophet over my head. Um, and something to note, when you're called to something such as a prophet or prophetess, it means that you were always a prophet or prophetess since birth, but it won't be activated until God releases you. So that gift has always been there, but you won't be able to actually operate in it until until God releases you to do so. Um, so in perspective, that means I have been a prophetess my whole life, but God didn't activate it until March of 2022. Um, to put this in perspective, things, things go pretty slowly. They're not— depending on your obedience to Christ as well, um, it's just the same thing as with your faith walk. God will level you up when you're ready to be leveled up. He won't push you to do things you're not ready to do. So it kind of— it's just a process of just taking the time to sit in God's presence and just pray about things and reading his word. That's especially important because being called to be a prophet, for example, you have to know the word of God. You have to know who God is in order to know who you are, where your identity lies. So this was, again, a slow process. Obviously it built up. to the point where I was fully called. And a prophet can see visions, they can dream dreams, get revelation for future events that no one else knows, that only God knows. But these things won't happen at once. For me, for example, I see visions now. I see very clear visions, almost like it's like an 8K movie almost playing in my head. Same with dreams. I've been dreaming dreams recently, but that didn't happen initially when I first got called. I think I remember when I first got called, God had me like ease into it where I would just be studying my Bible more. He had he gave me to start off words of encouragement to give people, and I would just sit at my desk and just keep writing. Part of my testimony, including that calling, is that that I love to tell a lot of people is that when He initially started having me write revelations and write words of encouragement for people, there would be times. Where it was really early in the morning, so I wasn't even like awake. He just told me to sit at my desk and grab some paper and just write things down. Sometimes it would just be a quick note to then get back to later, or sometimes it would be a whole like 3-page revelation or encouragement to give someone. So I just remember there was like, I think a couple times I was so tired and I was barely even awake, I think. He just told me to close my eyes And just write on the paper, and I I didn't even feel my hand moving. Like I wasn't, I was it felt like I wasn't physically in control of the pencil moving in a sense, and it was just a really cool experience because it kind of just shows how God takes over, and He just kind of whenever He gives me like a vision or a revelation, and sometimes I get kind of stuck because I'm like God, where do I start? What do I do? Um, but then he just tells me, just start writing something, because then he will speak through me. And that can work differently for other people. Sometimes he can just tell you to start speaking, and then he will just speak through you. But for me, he's always told me, just start writing. So, um, initially it started off with just pen and paper, and now I write— I just type in my phone when he gives me revelations. But the overall point is that everything that you're going to step into in other seasons, your seasons, you're not gonna have now because God is going to ease you into it. He's not going to have you start something that you're not ready for, um, because there's a lot that goes into the prophetic, and we will get into that. We will dive deep into that in this, um, live. Um, but there's just— you just gotta take your time. And just, I think the most important thing that I remember is he always told me, just stay in your prayer closet, just remain in his presence, and just keep praying, just keep reading the word. And not just to read it, but to— you have to study it too, because we have to understand what truth is. Because we won't end up understanding where God wants to operate, where God wants us to operate, if we don't know like, um, what his character is like, or what would his voice sound like, where he's calling us to go. You have to understand these things first. And that's what he had me do is just study a lot. I think the night that I was called, he actually had me just pull out my Bible and start reading a big section of the Old Testament. It was like the last, I think, last chunk of the Old Testament, last like 10 books or so. I'm not sure how many before the New Testament. I didn't realize until after the fact that those were actually all prophet books, and I thought that was really cool because the night Or like honestly an hour after I was called to be a prophetess, he just had me immediately start digging into what is a prophet? What does it mean to be called? What does it mean to give words of revelation? And you again, you will understand that over time because he will place people in your life to pour into you. He will pour into you, pour into you himself, and it will just it will just keep going, and he'll just keep leveling you up and getting. Getting you to the place that you need to be. Um, a lot of the knowledge I know now actually was poured into me through other prophets or other people that have been mentoring me. Um, and God's timing is obviously perfect. I met my best friend and brother in this time. I think it was only, um, maybe even like a month or two after I was called. And I just— I think at church, I just hung out with some friends, and there were some other people that came along with us that I didn't know. And one of those people was actually a prophet too, and he, he was very experienced in it at the time. Um, and again, God's timing is perfect, and that's when he, he just started pouring into me and just teaching me about the prophetic and like, what does this mean, what does that mean. He answered all the questions that I had because I didn't, I didn't even know where to start. I didn't know like What is this supposed to mean? What am I supposed to be seeing? What am I discerning? You know, so he just he just places people in your life perfectly the way it's supposed to be. And and I think that's a really important thing to note too because he he will always be there for you to pour into you. And especially when he's giving you a large calling like that to be a prophet. Um, there's so many things that come with it. There's so many things that he's going to want you to know. And that's the, the important thing is that that stuff takes time. I mean, I was called almost 2 years ago, I think 2 years ago this March. So I have been learning up until this point, and I will keep learning because we're always going to be students of the Holy Spirit. We're always going to be learning from God because God is all-knowing. So how could we possibly know everything in the lifetime that we live. So I think that's just a really important, important pointer. If you think you're being called to the prophetic, just pray into that and let God give you confirmation and reveal more to you, because you just have to take it step by step. And it's super exciting the more— the bigger steps that you take, because he reveals more things and you start realizing more things about yourself. I think that was the biggest thing about being called to the prophetic is that I was able to hear God's voice a lot clearer. So it really helped me to understand my purpose. And I know for a lot of people that struggle with like identity issues or who just don't know like what to do on a daily basis, they just don't know where they belong. And At least with this, this gifting has helped me to really just focus on looking forward and just over time just understanding who I'm supposed to be. And it— the knowledge and wisdom only increased as time went on. I know that my dad is very anointed. He has been walking with God for many years, half his life. More than that, maybe. So he's been poured into with so much wisdom and knowledge, and he has been pouring into us for multiple years, but especially since we made our big move, that we all have just been so much closer to God. We all have just been so much more concentrated on growing our faith and just being better in Christ and just working on the things we're supposed to, focusing on the things we're supposed to, being who we're supposed to be. So he's just been pouring into me as well. My spiritual— as my spiritual mentor. And it's just been such a blessing to have all these people in my life because I've started to meet more people at my church that are operating in the prophetic as well, that are pouring into me here and there, that just kind of give me little pointers here. Or, um, whenever they reveal visions that they've gotten or revelations, it kind of puts you in perspective of like The things that God can reveal to you. So I think that the most important thing that I can just look back at and just say is that you just need to take your time, but you do need to be obedient because God will move you when you're obedient. You're not gonna you're not gonna make steps forward when you're constantly in disobedience. So I think that's that was a really important thing that I had to learn is that you you have to stay obedient. You can't just do what you want. You can't. I mean, you don't even have to be called to the prophetic. That's just something in general that you just you just have to be obedient. That's the walk of faith. We got to pick up our cross daily, and that's part of it. It's not where you pick up your cross and then you're good for the rest of the month. You have to do it daily. You have to surrender your flesh because the more you pour into your flesh, the more the stronger it gets, and the same vice versa for your spirit. The more you pour into your spirit, the hungrier your spirit gets, and the more you're able to, the more you're wanting. To spend time with God. Um, and I think that's just an amazing thing, like amazing point to get to in your life, is where you just have such a passion for God and just such a passion to live for him that you can just keep striving for everything that he wants. That all you want to do is spend time with him, just worship him for who he is, praise the things that he's done in your life, and just have him pour into you because that's all he wants He just wants a relationship with you. He just wants to pour into you, and he wants you to get better. He wants you to be the person he called you to be, and we can't get there without him because our identity comes through him. So we have to work through all these things with him. We can't do any of this by ourselves, and I know I certainly didn't get to the point I am by myself because I had the help of God, and he anointed many people alongside of me to pour into me and continue to keep encouraging me and pushing me forward. I know something that helped a lot is we have a close friend. His name is Prophet Rob Sanchez. He created a book called Discovering and Releasing Your Prophetic Voice. And this book has— it's probably my favorite book besides the Bible because he just pours so much wisdom into that book. And it's just about kind of when he was called to be a prophet and the kinds of things that God called him to do. And I think that's really interesting, and it really put, put me in perspective to understand like, wow, these are, these are crazy things that God called him to do. So it kind of helped me to understand that like, if God is calling me to do that, I know, um, I can still trust his voice. Because some of the things that he talks about in the book were pretty crazy things that you wouldn't— that if you, if you just heard a voice that would tell you to do the things that God told him to do, you would immediately think like, this is not God. Um, he was even questioning that himself, like, is this even God? Because this is just such a weird request, you know. But I highly recommend you read that, um, because it just, again, it really puts you in perspective of like, okay, God can tell you to do this, God can tell you to do that, and no matter how crazy it is, you just gotta trust him. And that's— that goes back to understanding his voice, because you do have to know that it is his voice. Because there obviously is a difference between the voice of the enemy and the voice of God, and you have to use discernment to, um, to actually understand that. Um, so let's just dive deep into some verses that correlate to some of the spiritual gifts that he gives the body of Christ. There's a verse in 1 Peter 4:10 in the NLT, and it says, God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve each other. I really like this verse because at the end it says use them well to serve one another. So he, um, he gives the church many gifts, and the gifts are meant to serve one another. They're meant to bring honor to God's name. They're not meant to put yourself on a pedestal. They're not meant to, um, think of yourself as better than someone else and vice versa. If you have a gift that someone else doesn't, that doesn't make you better than them. Same vice versa if they have a gift you it doesn't make them better because our focus is about Christ. And we have to humble ourselves to see that these gifts are meant for us to serve one another, and they're not meant to make us think that we're— again, that we're better than someone, because that's not the whole point of the gift. You can't operate in the gifts that you're supposed to if you don't have the right mindset with it. We have to operate in humility and especially in love because You can't go and serve someone without knowing what love is, without understanding the purpose of love, because the foundation of that is love. There's another verse in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 in the NLT, and it says, there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are all kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it's the same God who does the same, who does the work in all of us. So this verse is great to represent how we're all going to be doing different things, but all of our gifts are from the Holy Spirit. They're all ordained by him. They're not— you can't give yourself a gift. You have to ask for it from the Lord. That's all from him. So I think that's really important to keep remembering because that's part of humility too, is we have to understand that all of our gifts come from him. Our gifts come from God. And that puts us in perspective of like, okay, if this gift is from God, we're supposed to use it for God. We're supposed to use it to serve God. And we can do that by serving other people in love because he calls us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. And there's another one in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 7 in the NLT. And it says, a spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. So this correlates back into the 1 Peter verse where it just, um, we're meant to help each other. These spiritual gifts, as you can clearly see, are meant to serve. You're meant to use it to serve. They're outward things where they're poured into you for you to then do an outward action with it. Um, so let's just dive right in. What is prophecy? So the gold standard of prophecy is actually explained in a verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verses 3 And it says, but the one who prophesies speaks to the people for their strengthening, encouraging, and comfort. So prophecy is strengthening, encouraging, and comforting people. And that goes for the whole church. It's meant to strengthen the whole church. There's also a very distinct difference between the spirit of prophecy, the gift of prophecy, the office of the prophet, and a prophet to the nations. These are 4 different things, and we will get into those later. But the most important thing is to prophesy means you need to have faith. It requires faith. You need to believe that God has given you revelation, or believe that God has given you a certain vision or encouragement to give someone. As said in the verse, we're meant to strengthen the church with these things. It's strengthening, encouraging, and comforting. And all of that comes from love. And being called to the prophetic is a role. It's not an identity. When God calls you to be a prophet or a prophetess, you're not now known as that. It's a role that you play. And again, this goes back to humility. We're using this to now serve God with visions that you may get or revelations or dreams, whatever, and whatever he wants you to see. Any, um, anything, um, anything along the lines of encouragement. Like I said, when he had me just write things down, just words of encouragement for people, um, and they may be long, but, um, it's just a role you play, and that's meant to serve others, which is why majority of the things he gives me is for other people. Now, there are a lot of things that he gives me that are meant for me, meant for me to grow, Um, but that's kind of the role of the prophet, is to be the spokesperson of God, basically. Um, and that goes for any other gift too. Um, any other gift, whether you're called to be an apostle, an evangelist, a teacher, a preacher, any of the other gifts listed in the Bible, it's, it's a role. You're not, um, you're not like— it's not about Putting yourself on a pedestal, as said before, because this is not something— because only God can define us. This is not about, um, that all of a sudden you're made better because of this gift. God is the only one who is good, and he's the only one who's righteous, and our righteousness only comes from him, not from the gifts that we get, because we cannot earn the gifts either. They're gifts for a reason. He gives them to us. Um, our identity only comes through God. And as believers, we're called to be set apart. We're called to be different than the world. And in these verses that I'm about to go into that tie into our identity, I want you to, to see how God is explaining why we need to be set apart. We need to understand as believers that when we go out into the world, there should be a distinction between a Christian and a non-Christian, and that should be seen By the way you act, by the way you talk, because we need to do everything in love. And only love is God. God is love. Only love only comes from him. So you need to embody everything that God is, every, every way that he speaks. And that's how we can be distinct. That's how we can be set apart from unbelievers, from other people. But our role is to then expand the kingdom and serve one another. and spread the gospel to those who don't know him. Um, but that's kind of the key thing, is that, um, to be set apart is to literally be different. We're called to be different, so we need to act like it. That's kind of the point. Um, and in 1 Peter chapter 9, verses— chapter 2, verses 9, I'm sorry— in the NLT version, it says, but you are not like that, for you are a chosen people, you are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into a wonderful light. This is such a beautiful verse because we, we think so less of ourselves, and God is calling us to be so much greater. He's calling us a royal priesthood, a holy nation. So we need to use that and go out and serve him with that mentality. Like, I'm, I'm called to be different. I'm called to be set apart, to be loving to one another, to represent God. That's, that's the whole point. We're, we're ambassadors of Christ. We need to embody who he is, because how is someone else supposed to know who God is if you're not representing him? Because, um, God will show himself to people in different ways. And that's, that's kind of the point, is we're all operating in different areas in our life, and we're not all going to be doing the same thing. The body of Christ plays different parts, um, and they're— each part is doing something different to then come Into a whole. We're all—we're supposed to be made with unity. We're supposed to be together, working with the same thing, with the same foundation of love. And that—that verse just kind of—it just puts you in perspective of like who you're supposed to be. It kind of just shows like we're not—we're not ordinary people. We're as he—as he said—we're holy. We're a royal priesthood. So this is— this God himself is saying this, so that, that must mean something. So we must act like it too. In 1st and 2nd Corinthians chapter 6, verses 17, in the NLT version, it says, therefore come out among unbelievers and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don't touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you. So this goes back into what I was saying before. We must Separate ourselves, and how do we do that? By literally acting different. We must be different. We must talk differently. We must represent ourselves differently. We must dress differently. Everything that we do before we are saved must be different. We have to represent who Christ is. That's the that's the whole point of being Christian. It's Christlike. We must represent Him in every way. Every way, shape, or form. Every way that we talk, everything that we do, we must do in love. And there's another verse in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 18 in the NLT, and it says, "I will be your father, and you will be my sons and daughters," says the Lord Almighty. So all of these correlate into our identity. God is calling us son and daughter. God is calling us a royal priesthood. God is calling us a holy nation. God is calling us His very own possession. So it shows how important we are to him, and we just need to actually go out in this world, as said in the previous verses, and separate ourselves. We must just be different, but in a good way, not not in a condemning way. We must love one another and treat everyone the way God is treating us, because that's how they can experience the love of God. That's how they can experience. God himself. Just having an experience with God is just by you representing him. So let's dive into the kinds of prophecy. There are four, as we talked about: the spirit of prophecy, the gift of prophecy, a prophet, a prophet to the nations, and then we will go into the other ones later. So the spirit of prophecy can actually rest on unbelievers and believers. Anyone can operate in the spirit of prophecy, but you can only operate, operate in it seasonally when God desires. And what this can look like, for example, is like if you go to a restaurant and after you're done eating, obviously you get a receipt. The spirit of prophecy is just simply writing down a Bible verse on the receipt and just giving it to the person it needs to go to. Um, or writing like a little note beside it too. Um, it can look like you wearing like a shirt or like a cap with like a Bible verse on it, or just some encouraging piece from the Bible. Um, it can look like as something as simple as sending a Bible verse to a friend. If you've ever done that, that's the spirit of prophecy. When someone simply quotes scripture, that's the spirit of prophecy. Anyone can operate in this, unbelievers and believers alike. And this does not mean you are a prophet. It's just the Spirit of Prophecy. Some key verses that correlate with this is in Revelation 19, in the second half of verse 10 in the Amplified Version. And it says, for the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy. So his life and teachings are the heart of prophecy. So that in itself is what the Spirit of Prophecy is. Now going to the gift of prophecy. This is separate from the spirit of prophecy. If you have the gift of prophecy, you are called to be a prophet. The gift of prophecy requires you to be saved, so unbelievers cannot receive the gift of prophecy. And only God can call you into ministry. Only God can call you to be a prophet. And this gift never turns off. As we said before, you're, you're always operating in it. You're always— if you're called to be a prophet, that means that you were always called from the time you were born. God just didn't activate it yet. And yeah, those are just the 2 key differences, the differences between those 2. And there's going into the role and standard of a prophet. There's a big role actually that the prophet plays. The prophet is a spokesperson or mediator for God. God is so merciful, and he always gives people the opportunity to repent before he releases judgment. We can see this very clear in the Old Testament when he would send many prophets out to speak any words of wisdom, or a simple having them pay attention to what's coming, or telling them to repent from their sins. All these things, like in Jeremiah, in Isaiah, like, all they would be doing is telling the people in all the cities, the nations, to just repent and turn to God. They would— it would just be like a warning, basically. Um, and I think that ties really well into that because it shows over and over again God's merciful acts, that he will send a prophet to give a warning to a city or a nation for that matter and give them time, because that is their opportunity to repent, is him sending a prophet to give a warning. That's their opportunity Because now they're made aware of their actions. Now they know that they should be doing this and shouldn't be doing that. He's pointing out the evil that they're doing, and that's their opportunity to repent. And God will be patient with that, and he has shown mercy over and over again. But eventually, if repentance isn't seen, he will release judgment. And we can see that very clearly, as said in the Old Testament, where he would give them space to repent, but they wouldn't, and they wouldn't turn to God, and they would end up getting judged. And they would either— they wouldn't feel sorry for it at all, or they would, and they would turn to God, and he would forgive them, and his anger would just, um, be released finally, and he would just restore them. But there were many cities that were actually just destroyed through his anger and just weren't, weren't built up again. It says in the Bible there are many cities actually that are still in ruins to this day. But I know at least for Jerusalem, for example, whenever he would judge Jerusalem, he would eventually be the— when the prophet would be the mediator for that, when the prophet would go and bring the warnings, he would release anger, but then he would come back with compassion and he would restore his people. Um, and as said before, prophets are prophets their entire life. They're— they interact and hear God differently than others. Um, we— the whole point is that we hear the mind, the mind of Christ, the mind of God, and we filter it through the heart of God. So we're hearing God's thoughts and we're— he's telling us what, what he wants us to say, but we have to filter it through what love is, with compassion and kindness and Um, with mercy, with all these things that love is. And, um, that just pours into everything that we just talked about, is that love is the foundation of it all. Um, and the whole point of the prophet is to bring edification, exhortation, and comfort. So edification is a form of encouragement. Exhortation is basically just correction done in love. But when it comes to correction, as the prophet matures, that's whenever God will give the authority for them to preach correction. Like, for example, for me, initially, like I said, I was only writing down things and just giving words of encouragement. And then over time, it just turned into some— there would be some where I'm just preaching correction to people. And that was done in love, obviously, because love is the foundation of it all. But there would be times where I would just be preaching correction, and I— or I would just bring edification where it's like a form of building up. And that's kind of like the whole base of it all. And as said before, prophecy should always be done in love. It always should be, because God will never tell you to say something that is not done in love. He will never tell you to condemn someone because that is against his character. So if you— this goes also goes back to understanding God's voice too, because you have to understand what God is saying. This is extremely important for a prophet because you have to know, is this word from God? Is this something— is this word that I'm giving to someone, is this directly from God or is this the enemy? Is this me? Am I writing some of this, or is this all from God? You have to get confirmation. You have to make sure that you are really focusing on God's voice. He says, my sheep hear my voice. So the more we're spending time with him, the more familiar his voice becomes. As in real time with sheep and a shepherd, the more time a shepherd is around the sheep, the sheep get used to the shepherd's voice. So whenever the shepherd is calling the sheep, they know to come. They know to listen because they're familiar with his voice, with the shepherd's voice. And that's the same thing with us. We have to spend time with God. We have to take the time to sit in his presence, just get downloads of revelation. And mind you, sometimes he will give you revelation that is only for you, that you just need to know, period. You don't need to release it to anyone or anything. You just need to hold on to it, and it's just for your information. There will be some where he will he will give you prophecies, and you won't even need to release it for ten years. Sometimes that's the case. Sometimes there have been words that I've been given where you he gives it to me, and I need to release it right then and there. But you have to the key thing with the prophetic is that you have to pray on it. There's when it comes to revelation or like visions or dreams or anything that he's giving you, whether it's for yourself or for someone else. That's the key, is despite whether it's for someone else or for you, you have to get in your prayer closet and you have to let God pour into you the full thing. You have to, um, allow him to give you every detail. There have been multiple times where he would give me revelations about things, whether in the spiritual or in the physical, and I would have to keep going back into my prayer closet and keep seeking him for more details. There would be times where I think even recently he gave me a— I think I don't even know if it was a dream or revelation, whatever, but he gave me like the tiniest bit and he was telling me, just write this down and we'll go back to it later. So I was like, okay. So I just wrote it down, and that's why it's important to write everything down because there are some things where I'm like, okay, I don't know. I just saw something here. I don't know if it's from God, but that's why you have to write it down anyway because there there was a time where he gave me a big revelation, a big vision, and two weeks prior of getting this vision, he told me to take a picture of something, just something so random. I didn't even know. He just said, take a picture of this. I'm like, okay. So it was just sitting in my camera roll. 2 weeks later, I go over the prophecy that he gave me, the vision, and I'm like, wow, this ties into the picture I took 2 weeks ago. Because I was, I was actually looking at the day too, and the dates matched up of whenever I took the picture and when I got the revelation. And that was just something that was really cool because um, all of those ties in, ties into it. Like, he gave me— the first thing he gave me was just a picture. He didn't even say anything. He just said, take a picture of this and leave it as that. And that's what I did. And 2 weeks later, he gave me more revelation. And then a week later, more revelation, more detail. And you just have to keep going in your prayer closet until every detail is released to you, because that's, that's the important thing when you get a word, is that you can't release it too early. You can't be eager to get it out because that was something that was so hard for me to learn for like the past 2 years basically was just keeping my mouth shut because I talk a lot and it was really hard for me to just not be eager to just release it because there would be a word of encouragement. I'm like, oh, this person really needs to hear this, and I would be so eager to say it and there would be times where I did release it too soon and I realized, well, I probably, I probably should have waited, but God still works everything for good, but for the most part, it was just kind of like the eagerness and wanting to release it anyway. Even with like visions and prophecies that I get, like even that, like I just want to release it to someone, like, and just like tell someone about this. Like this was super crazy. This was a crazy dream I had last night. But then I'm like, I can't, I can't tell anyone because I'm not supposed to. You're not supposed to release it before God wants you to. So that's a huge part of prophecy in itself is you have to wait on the Lord. You have to wait for the Lord to allow you to release it. Because, I mean, not only— even if he gave you every detail that you need to know, it's about the timing. If it's a word of encouragement, someone may not need it until a certain time where it will resonate better with them. So that's why we have to, we have to put more trust in God. We have to understand that God, if God has perfect timing, And he wants what's best for us. Don't don't you think that if he's telling us to wait, it means something? It means that we should wait because that ties into how the person will receive it too. And again, he works everything for good. We all make mistakes, and he has forgiveness for that. But the important thing is that we just learn from our mistakes because that that's just such a key thing about prophecy is that we have to wait on the Lord. We have to wait for all the details. We can't just be so eager to release something. We have to just wait. And sometimes he will give you everything right in the moment. You just have to take the time to pray and just sit in his presence. Other times he will just give you some kind of detail and then 2 years later give you the rest of it. I mean, it's— sometimes it's random. You just have to trust him with it because he knows what he's doing and he's not gonna forget about it. There are times where he even tells me, I'm gonna give you a revelation about something, about this. I'm gonna give you a prophecy about this. I'm gonna give you a word from me to this person, but I'm not gonna tell you what it is yet. So he would tell me eventually that he, he's gonna give me something, but he's not gonna— he didn't tell me what it is yet. And that's within time. He's told me multiple times before, like, I'll tell you this, but you need to know more information before I give it to you. Which means that that's just about timing, about me learning, and about me— him pouring in more knowledge until I can really— until I can receive it, I should say, and then release it later. So that is just such an important thing that I had to learn the hard way when it comes to prophecy, is you have to wait. That's the key thing. You have to be patient. And that was— patience for me was— is something I'm always working on and something I've always worked on in my life. And Um, and that includes self-control, but that's part of it, is just keeping your mouth shut and just waiting on the Lord because his timing is perfect. Um, and as I was saying before about the visions and dreams and stuff, prophets can get visions and dreams, um, and you won't always be doing all those in the same season. Because again, for me, I started off just writing things, just writing words of encouragement, and then it turned into me getting visions. That were meant for the body of Christ. I got visions that were also meant for me. Majority of them were actually in a spiritual concept of showing something in the spiritual rather than the physical because it's a spiritual link to something physical. Um, and yeah, so that's just— it just depends on what season he wants you operating in. Um, and that goes with like the discernment too. That comes along with prophecy. It's so heavy. The discernment is so heavy, but in a good way, because you see things so clearly. It's like, for me, for example, um, a beautiful thing through discernment that he's given me the ability to do is if I'm texting someone, for example, um, despite how someone says something in a text message, I can discern how they're feeling. I can discern the attitude behind And that's just something I actually experienced before he actually called me to be a prophet. And I was just always wondering, like, why, why can I, like, sense that someone is— or just, I should discern, I should say— that someone is just not feeling right, even though the, the sentence they just sent me, the text they just sent me, doesn't show that in any way, shape, or form. Um, but that, that's included with the discernment, is just something like that, for example. And that can get really heavy when it comes to prophecy. And honestly, I really enjoy it because I'm able to— the discernment is really nice because it makes you aware of a lot of things. It makes you— and I'm not talking about in a physical sense, I'm talking about in a spiritual sense of understanding like what's going on around you. Like there's a spirit here, or this person is being attacked with that, or this person is under the influence of that. Without even physically seeing it or having them tell you, because God just pours that into you. That's part of like, um, it's like prophetic discernment in a sense. I don't— because there's discernment, but I feel like when it comes to operating in the prophetic, it's a little different because that's part of the knowledge he pours into you, is that he will give you knowledge that other people don't have, which is kind of— it correlates with the discernment. So. I think that's really cool too, and that kind of— there's a verse that talks about that, that we get visions and dreams, and it's in Numbers chapter 12, verses 6 and 18. It says, if there were prophets among you, I the Lord would reveal myself in visions. I speak to them in dreams. So that just shows that we get visions. He reveals himself in visions. He reveals many different things in visions and in dreams. With the dreams, it's kind of complicated for me at least, because visions are like 8K for me. Like, they— it's like you're literally watching a movie almost. You're, you're basically— I close my eyes and I just see a movie. Just, I just see a movie playing in my head, and the detail is just outstanding, and it's just, it's crazy, honestly. Um, so I have to like— I'm literally writing books When I have to write down the visions I get, but it's honestly just—it's really cool. But that kind of—that's been tying into dreams too, because a lot of people say that you can dream very vivid dreams in the REM stage of sleep. But to be honest, whether that's true or not, I don't know. God will give you dreams, and He will. Sometimes you'll dream things that literally don't mean anything, and sometimes it will. So that's why every time I wake up and I remember what I dreamt about. I just write it down because if you remember it, I'm sure the Holy Spirit reminded you for a reason. Um, but that's the weird thing about dreams is that sometimes I can't find all the details. And in my dreams, it's not like a full story like my visions where I would just get like a little story here and then it would cut to something else immediately and it would just be something completely random and just not related to the last thing I just saw. So it's kind of hard to correlate the two and just figure out what God wants me to see. But that also goes back to the point of going into your prayer closet and diving deep into that, because there's so much meaning behind visions and dreams. Um, and going back into the prophetic itself, there's a verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verses, um, 1 in the NLT version, and it says, let love be your highest goal. But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives, especially the ability to prophesy, because prophecy brings comfort, encouragement, and strength. So that's why it's talking about prophecy specifically in that. But let's go back to the first part of that verse. It says, let love be your highest goal. That's what I've been saying this whole time, is that love is the foundation of everything. You can't operate in the things that God wants you to If you don't have love, and that requires you to know what love is. And there's there's so much that goes into that. I mean, going into like the the a prophet's metron, which is kind of like the covering that you have where you can your where your authority is, like where you can operate. A metron is a measure of faith and grace afforded to where the prophet is allowed to operate. Basically, God graces you to operate in certain areas, which is why you have to be careful where you operate because God. God will allow you to operate in certain areas, but you have to be graced to operate in it. So, um, because you don't want to be operating in ungraced territory, that's just not good. It will— you will get into things you don't want to. Um, but it's also important to pray when it comes to your metron. It's like under whoever's under your covering. When you have the gift of prophecy, you're called to be a prophet, but your metron is yourself. It's only you. He will give you words, but they're just for you, and you can pray those back to the Lord. But over time, with an increase of your faith and after being obedient in each step that he wants you to, he will level you up, and that can turn into you him calling you to a prophet to the nations or some of the other ones that we will get to. Obedience and discipline are just so key in allowing God to grow your metron. And who those who are under it, because when you were first called to be a prophet, your metron is yourself, and that's it. You can't; he will not give you words, which goes back to why I said initially when I was called to be prophet, he didn't give me words to give people initially until my faith grew, until he poured more knowledge and wisdom into me, until he trusted me enough to be graced into further territory and to be. Having authority over different, different people, basically. And he will increase that, but you have to allow your faith to grow. You have to allow him to— the time to pass for him to level you up. Some key verses that correlate to that are in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 13. It says, um, this is also in the NLT version, it says, we will boast about the things done outside our area We will not boast about the things done outside of our area of authority. We will boast only about what has happened within the boundaries of the work God has given us, which includes working with you. So this goes back to our metron. We have to just stay in the graced territory that we're allowed to be in, and he will extend that over time depending on your obedience and the increase in faith There's another verse in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 7, and it says, however, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. There's another verse in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 16, and he makes the whole body fit together perfectly as each part does its own special work. It helps the other parts grow so the whole body is healthy and growing and full in love. We have our own part to play. And these, these 2 verses I just read correlate to each other because he says he gives us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. So we have to understand that our gift, our gift is special, but it's meant to be outward. We're meant to pour into other people. We're blessed to be a blessing to others. And then the next verse when it talks about each part has its— each part does its own part. Each part has something that it's supposed to do, and it helps the rest of the body grow as well. This— look at the analogy of the human body, for example, is that the ear is not the eye, the eye is not the mouth, the nose isn't the leg. They all do different things and they work for different purposes, but just because they don't look the same or just because they don't work in the same way doesn't mean that they're unimportant. So that's important to note for the body of Christ is that you will have— you always have a part to play in the body of Christ. And just because it may not look like someone else's, or just because you're not operating in the same things as someone else, does not mean that your part is not important. God has placed you exactly where he wants you to be, and that's the point, is that he wants you to focus on where you're supposed to be and use those gifts to serve others. It's not meant to to be used as comparison almost, where you're looking at someone else and you're wanting their gifts because they, they get to do this, they get to do that. It's focused on being humble and focusing on Christ because that's, that's the important part, is just being humble towards him because everything flows through that. There is a verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 18, and then further down in the verses 25 through 26, and this correlates back into the body of Christ. It says, but our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. And if one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it. And if one part is honored, all the parts are glad. So this verse is again talking about the unity, the, the whole body of Christ being together, and that's the most important thing is just remaining in unity, because that's all, that's all the enemy wants to do is divide us. So our job is to stay in unity. Our job is to love one another, um, and we can do that by just playing our own part, um, and we just, we just have to continue to do that. He, it says in verse 18, he puts each part where he wants it. I said before, you're exactly where God needs you to be. And he will. There, there's a difference between you being where you're supposed to be and you needing to grow, because where you're supposed to be doesn't mean that you're completely perfected. You need growth. You need to step into new seasons. As for me, for example, when I was always called to be a prophet to the nations, but that I had to take that step by step. But just because two years ago I didn't know that, or I wasn't up. Upgraded in a sense at that point doesn't mean that I wasn't where I was supposed to be. You're always where if you're being obedient, you're always going to be on the path of the Lord. The Lord, the Lord's path for you is always going to be prosperous. It's always going to be filled with blessings because that's what He wants. He wants to bless His children, but you have to remain obedient. I just know when it comes to love, like I said this whole time, love is. The foundation of everything. And in the church right now— I'm not talking about an individual church building, the church, the body of Christ is the church— in the church, we are not loving each other. I see so much division right now in the, in the church and just what's happening in the world. And we, we just need to get better at loving each other. We just need to focus on God and humble ourselves As I said before, the verse where Jesus talks about that we need to love our neighbors as ourself. We need to focus on loving one another. And as if you didn't notice, Jesus says love your neighbor as yourself. He says your neighbor first. We're called to serve one another, and we, we just need to do better at serving with humility. We just need to do better doing it in love. That's the whole point of it. We need to understand what it means to love because we can't love if we don't know what love is. And that is, if you want to look this up after, it's in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and specifically verses 4 through 7. It talks about what love is because love is an action. Love is not a feeling. We need to serve each other in love. We need to make sure that we are focusing on, is this word gonna bring love? Is this word said in love? Is this action done in love? In 1 Corinthians chapter 13, it says love is patient, love is kind, love is not boastful, love does not demand its own way, love always remains hopeful, love is forgiving. All of those things tie into it. So that's saying to love someone is to be patient with them. To love someone is to be kind to them. You have to continue to apply these things because it wouldn't say love is patient, love is kind if it weren't an action. Because being patient with something— with someone, I should say— is an action. You have to show someone that you love them. And the greatest example of this is God himself. God loves us despite what we do, despite what you have done, despite what we will do. God's love is unconditional. As said in the Bible, it's unfading. Or it is, it's faithful, I should say. God's love is faithful. He will never, he will, if you make a mistake, he will never say that you're not loved. If you hear that, that's not from God, because God's love is unconditional, which means that despite what you do, he is going to love you. And as I said before, he is the greatest example of it because he is love. He showed us that when he sent his Son to die. As said in John 3:16, that's such a popular verse that so many people use, but we forget what it really means. We forget the most important part, that he shows us his love by sending his Son. He didn't just say that he loves us and then watch us suffer. And, you know, like, he, he gave us a way to be saved. He gave us a way to do better. He gave us a way to be reconciled with him. He showed us by sending his Son. And he is the greatest example of that. And that's the same thing when Jesus was on earth. He became human and lived as a human being to show us how to act, to be an example for us. So we need to start looking back at the Gospels and start reading back into what Jesus did, how he reacted. Even when the devil himself tempted Jesus, what did he do? He responded with the Word of God. He responded with love. He didn't, um, now he rebuked the devil, but he used the word of God. Um, and everything that he has done is just done in love because he is love. He doesn't know any other way because he is love. That's the definition of it. So we need to start focusing on who God is and how we can better reflect that in the body of Christ because we're We just need to do better, period. We just need to— and this goes for any gift whatsoever. It doesn't— you don't have to be called to be a prophet to be loving. You don't have to be called to be an evangelist to be loving. Any gift, no matter what, the foundation of it is love. So we must first, before we even realize what we're called to do, we must first learn what love is. We must understand who God is. Because that's where we can understand our identity. As I said in the beginning, is that that's how I was able to understand who I was in Christ, because I looked at who God was. And if God said these things about me, then I believe it. Um, and something interesting that I've learned from a preacher last summer is that when it comes to your identity, if God is not at the throne of your heart, on the throne of your heart, He— anything he says, you're not going to value. You're not going to value anything he says if he's not in the center of your life. So that put me in perspective of like, okay, God is telling me I'm his daughter. God is telling me I'm royal priesthood, that I'm in a holy nation, that I'm a holy nation, that I am, I am called daughter. He's calling me all these things. He's calling me beautiful, loved. But I just wasn't believing it. And I was so confused. I'm like, okay, God is saying these things. I know that these are true. Why am I not believing it? It's because God wasn't at the center of my life. When I put God first, everything else went underneath. That's the thing, is when you put God first, everything else goes to the order it needs to be in. That's how we can find our identity, is through Christ, because that's where identity is found. So we have to keep him at the center of our lives. He has to be on the throne of our hearts for us to even care what he says about us. Because he says so many beautiful things about you, but you won't care what he has to say. You won't value it if he is not first. He has to be first. And that's, that's where that value comes from. Because if he's first, that means that you value everything he says. That means you believe everything he says. And that was just— that's when I started noticing such a huge transformation in my faith, is when I just, I started to believe God. God. I was like, you know, you call me beautiful, I'm gonna believe that. You call me loved, I'm gonna believe that. You call me chosen, you call me daughter, I'm gonna believe that. So all, all of those lies that have been spoken over me my whole life, you just bind it, you know. I just, I finally was able to, um, just get over that and just focus on what God was saying about me. And that goes back to love, is Although I felt so lost up until this point in my life, he still loved me. He didn't say, oh well, I showed you love all of these years and you didn't see it, so I'm not gonna love you anymore. That's not how it works. His love is unconditional. He's gonna continue to love you despite what you do. And that's the most important thing with anything. That's how you start to develop a relationship with Christ, is understanding who he is. Because it's not about the things he does, it's about who he is. That's the point of worship, is we're, we're worshiping him. So that's, that's just something so important that we just need to all dive deep back into, is just going back to who God is. What does he say about you? That's the foundation of it all. That's what, that's what's gonna funnel everything else in your life, the calling he has for you, the giftings he has. That's gonna funnel everything. It will take care of itself when you put God first. That's, that's how it works. Everything falls underneath in the place it's supposed to be. Um, next week we will actually talk about the office of the prophet and dive deeper into the prophet to the nations, and we'll dive deeper into further details about visions and stuff and types of prophets. And yeah, so let's just let's just pray out for today, and we'll just call it a day. Father God, we come into your presence by the blood of your Son Jesus Christ. We thank you so much for this day, for this live stream. We thank you for the people that were on. I just pray, Father God, that you can open anyone's eyes, that you can open their ears to the things that were said, the wisdom that was poured out, Father God, the things that you need them to see. I pray that seeds can be planted. And that they can be harvested into something beautiful, Father God, for their whole— that can set up their whole life. I just pray, Father God, that they can find their identity in you, that they can seek you and you only for their identity, because it's only found in you. It's not found in the things of this world. It's not found in any object or person except you, Father God. And I just pray for anyone who is struggling with that, as I did, Father God, that you can reveal yourself to them in miraculous ways, Father God, that we can learn to just be more faithful and obedient to you, to then use the giftings that you have taught us to then serve your church, to serve the body of Christ, Father God. Um, we just thank you for this time, and we just pray blessings over the rest of the people watching this in Jesus' name. We are here at John Humenik Ministries, and we have a very, very bold vision For 2024, you can partner with us by going to humanik.com/give, and that is spelled H-U-M-E-N-I-K dot com slash give. Or you can become you can place one be a one-time donation or become a monthly partner. And yeah, God bless.