Introduction to Prophecy Part 2

I will be talking to you about the office of the prophet as well as the prophet to the nations. This is actually part 2 from last week's livestream where I talked about the spirit of prophecy as well as the gift of prophecy. So I invite you to subscribe to our channel and click the notification bell so that you can be notified when we post any new content. Let's just jump right into this with a prayer. Father God, we come into your presence by the blood of your Son Jesus Christ. We thank you for this beautiful day, for allowing us to come here. We just pray that you can bless this livestream, that you can bless the person watching this. We pray that you can plant seeds today, that you can open the eyes and ears of whoever is watching this as well, and that whatever content is being poured out by you, that it can just resonate in their spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. So, first of all, we're going to talk about the office of the prophet. So, this is regarding the fivefold ministry. As said in the last livestream, this is different from the gift of prophecy and the spirit of prophecy. So, the office of the prophet, again, is in the fivefold ministry of the church. The fivefold ministry consists of the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers. So when someone is called to the office of the prophet, this is a higher level calling than just the gift of prophecy. The prophet or prophetess, their metron actually expands from the faith circle that they currently have in their local— to the local church. This actually happens when church leadership recognizes this gifting. On that person and gets an unction from the Holy Spirit, and they will call them into that ministry. After they are then commissioned into that church, they will start operating as the church's prophet. So the key part in operating in the church is the commissioning step. So prophets cannot appoint themselves to the office of the prophet, even if that's been spoken over to you in the past. You have to be— if you have the gift of prophecy, you are called a prophet, but you cannot commission yourself into the office of the prophet. So that's only done by the church. And some key verses that can tie into this, one of them is found in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 11. It's in the NLT version, and it says, now these are the gifts Christ gave the church: the apostles, The prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers. So this is just a verse kind of correlating back to what I talked about how those are just the the fivefold ministry, all the elements regarding the fivefold ministry. So prophets actually report to an apostle assigned to them in the church. There there should also be a council of prophets that would regularly meet to discuss. Holy Spirit utterances or prophecies or other information that would be shared with church leadership. And this will all be reported back to the apostle assigned to them from the church, and then that will be shared with whomever it needs to be when it should be released. Another verse that correlates back to this is also found in Ephesians chapter 4, but it's in verses 12 through 13. This is also the NLT version. And it says their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come in unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son, that we will mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. So this is— there's a lot to unpack in this verse because Um, the previous verse, which was actually literally just a verse before this, was talking about the gifts that God had given, that had appointed to the church, basically. And then the verses right after are then explaining their responsibility. So when you're commissioned into the office of the prophet, your responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and to build up the church. That's the key there. When you're assigned— when you're commissioned, I should say, into the office of the prophet, your focus is prophesying to that church. We will get to the prophet of the nations. Their job is different in regarding to prophecies and who they're for. But when you're commissioned into a church for that reason, you're going to be focusing on the church only because that's your— that's the whole point of it. And And as it says in the verse, you're supposed to build up the church. That's what prophecy does. And then it also says this will continue until we come into unity of faith and knowledge of God's Son, that we become mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. So this last half is saying a lot more than what's seen on the surface. We're going to keep building up his church literally until he comes back, until we Measure to the full and complete standard of Christ. Think about that. Like, we, we will keep doing it until we measure up to the whole— the full standard of Christ. God is perfect. Jesus is perfect. So we will continue doing that until that time. Prophets at this level are primarily inwardly focused. As I said before, you're focused on the church. You're going to get prophecies for that church. Your job is to pray into the things that God is laying on your heart for that church, where you'll be praying into things to get prophecies for certain leaders, and that will just be your main focus. There's another verse in Genesis chapter 2, verses 15 in the NLT version, and this says, God, or the Lord God, placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. So Adam was the shamar of the Garden of Eden. Shamar means caretaker or guard. Adam was supposed to sound the alarm when Satan tempted Eve. He was supposed to use his authority when he had the chance to. But that's the point of that word, is that we're— that goes back to the prophet, that we're meant to be the caretaker or the guard. As a prophet of the church, the Holy Spirit will partner with him or her on topics that the Holy Spirit wants the church to know. As I said before, it's inward focus. It's meant to build up the church. So, it's going to be focused on what that church needs to know specifically in order to build it up. Prophets are called to expose the enemy as he's working in the church. That is talked about in Ephesians 5:11. We're not only called to avoid Um, practicing evil, but actually expose it. So, um, that will be part of the prophet's job, is to expose the enemy as he's working in the church. Um, prophets will also help the church body, um, with certain— like certain people that are caught in sin or stuck in a season. Um, and the whole point of this is to be done in love. The prophets are supposed to edify the church and again build it up, and that is done in love. Um, and yeah, we're just supposed to— that's just kind of the whole point of the prophets being more inwardly focused, because you just have one church to focus on. Um, there's another verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verses 3, um, in the NLT version, and it says, but the one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them. So This goes back to what prophecy is. That's in itself what prophecy is. It's supposed to strengthen one another. It's supposed to encourage one another. And it's supposed to comfort them. That's the essence of prophecy in itself. In the next verse in 1 Corinthians 14, in the NLT version, it says, a person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally, but one who speaks a word of prophecy strengthens the entire church. So this goes back to what I said before. how prophecy is inwardly focused. It's meant to strengthen the whole church in itself. And I mean, the church that you're appointed to, not the church body, because that's a different role that will be talked about with the prophet to the nations. But this is inwardly focused to the church you're commissioned to. We have a couple more verses in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. One of them is in verse 22 in the NLT version. And it says, so you see that speaking in tongues is a sign, not for believers, but unbelievers. Now prophecy, however, is for the benefit of believers and not unbelievers. So majority of the time, you would most likely be giving prophecies to believers. So that's what that verse is talking about. It's mainly for the benefit of believers, not unbelievers. And a few verses down in verse 39 through 40 in that same chapter of NLT, it says, so my dear brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy and don't forbid speaking in tongues. Be sure that everything is done properly and in order. So when it comes to you being commissioned into a church as a prophet, you have to go under a certain order. You can't just prophesy whenever you want to. You can't Interrupt sermons. You have to follow a certain order that where God has appointed you to be. And actually, a few verses up in verse 33, it says that God is not a God of disorder, but a God of peace. So that goes back to why everything's done properly and in a certain order. So we, we have to make sure that we follow that order that God has appointed to us, because you have to It's all about timing. It's about God's timing, when things should be done, what should be done, and who it's spoken to. There's an order when it comes to being commissioned to a church. We'll just move on to the prophet to the nations. An opening verse that comes to mind when you're talking about a prophet to the nations is always Jeremiah 1:5. It says, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you before you were born. I sanctified you, and I ordained you as a prophet to the nations. So again, this is a very bold verse that always comes to mind when you're talking about a prophet to the nations. God will— God can appoint you to the nations, and that calling is only from God. Prophets are called to then prophesy to the nation, hence the name. Um, to bring messages to the world, um, as a whole. So this will be like the whole church body, not just limited to one, to 4 walls, basically. Um, it could be a revelation of what's to come or a simple encouragement for the body overall. Um, I mean, some prophecies that God can give you to prophesy to the nations could be like worldly events as they happen, or future events that will come. And when he gives you major prophecies, God will release it to the entire church body. This is generally done through social media because that's how you can obviously reach more people, reach the nations. He will give you prophecies on like cultural topics or like religious teaching topics. And as a prophet to the nations, Um, at certain points you can have— God can give you the authority to counsel famous people, world leaders, celebrities, um, all of these, um, higher people of higher authority, because you have— that's the point of the prophets of the nations, is you have the authority to do that when God calls you to do it. Um, so God, only God can call you to this level. The church can support one of their own commissioned to them as a prophet to the nations. That way a prophet has a prayer team coverage and support of the local council. But there's a difference between being called and being commissioned. If you are being— if you are already a prophet, or in the office of the prophet, I should say, you can actually be commissioned by that church to become a prophet to the nations. But you can only do that if God has already called you to be a prophet to the nations. So there's a difference between the two, but the calling itself only comes from God. People that elevate themselves to the prophet to the nations, even if has been spoken over to them, risk exposing themselves to premature attacks. They can prophesy out of an orphan spirit. The enemy will send their best troops— send his best troops, I should say— against these prophets because they are anointed to speak to the world. So you have to be careful when you have this calling because you can't Um, you can't go out into this calling before God is actually releasing you to do so. Um, and in regards to that, the higher the calling, the higher the spiritual warfare. So this, um, there, there's sacrifices involved when it comes to being called to that because you have to, you have to be more aware of what's around you. You have to be disciplined in your walk with Christ. And that's just kind of, that's just what comes with it is higher spiritual warfare because you have a higher calling. So The enemy just wants to break you down because of that high calling that gives you the authority to preach to the world, basically, and reveal things that God wants the whole body of Christ or even the whole world to know. One key aspect of the prophets of the nations is that God will ascend them to be seated with kings, presidents, prime ministers, and all forms of government, business, civil, even private leadership, um, that just comes with the authority, um, that a prophet to the nations has. Um, even leaders and prominent people will seek prophets of the nations out, um, for godly advice or prophecies regarding matters of their own business and people. Um, and there are actually quite a few examples of these in the Old Testament, one being in 2 Kings chapter 3, where Elisha is counseling King Joram of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and the king of Edom. There, specifically in verse 11, it actually says, but Jehoshaphat asked, is there no prophet of the Lord here through whom we may inquire of the Lord? An officer of the king of Israel answered, Elisha son of Shaphat is here. He used to pour water on the hands of Elijah. So this is a very powerful verse, but it just goes back to showing that Elisha came into the presence of kings. He came into the presence of people of higher authority. That that's in regards to a prophet to the nations. And along with that, as I said before, you can't promote yourself to a higher level. You can't. You shouldn't even spread the word about your calling because God God does that as you humble yourself, and He will open doors to leadership. So it's not about getting your calling out there and having the world know who you are because God through humility God will open those doors when it's time when it's necessary. Another example of this is in Isaiah chapter thirty-seven with King Hezekiah. Isaiah was giving messages back and forth to the king from the Lord regarding the Assyrians. Isaiah had the word from God that he was going to destroy the Assyrians by himself. The angel of the Lord actually takes out 185,000 people. But that, again, that's another example of the prophet Isaiah. He came into physical contact with the king. He came before the king. He had the authority to do that. Another example is in Daniel chapter 2 with King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel actually interprets the king's dreams. This is this actually is a really cool example because he Nebuchadnezzar had this dream and he actually wanted to test Daniel. He wanted to see if he was really a man of God because he was saying, "If you're truly a man of God, you can tell me my dream without me telling you." So not only Daniel heard from the Lord exactly what his dream was, but he interpreted it too. And a side note is that all this obviously only came from the Lord. Daniel didn't do any of this. He didn't hear revelation from the Lord of what the dream was and then interpreted it himself. All of it came from the Lord, and that's always what it's going to be when you get a dream for yourself or for someone else that brings revelation to something. The revelation will of that dream or prophecy, for example, will always come from the Lord because we can't interpret those things. We we can't humanly do that because we don't. Have the infinite knowledge that God does, because he can say one thing and we, we can, as fleshly beings, can interpret it in some way, um, but then it actually means something completely different. Or there can be a lot of symbolism and dreams, or dreams especially actually, or prophecies that, um, we ourselves can interpret wrong if we're not getting the revelation from the Lord. So that kind of shows in that example, um, that that only comes from the Lord. But it's about the, the fact that he heard from the Lord. He was able to, um, tell the king, um, what his dream was and interpret it. So this, um, allowed King Nebuchadnezzar to see that he was truly a man of God. Um, and just for pointers, the dream was actually about a massive statue And it was all different kinds of metals. The head was actually made of gold, and it symbolized symbolized the Babylonians. The chest was made of silver, and it symbolized the Persians. And the thighs were bronze, and it symbolized the Greek the Greeks. And then the iron part was the feet, which symbolized the Romans. So he was. I should say God was able to interpret all of that to Daniel because how would Daniel ever know what the king's dream was if he didn't get the intel from God? So I think that that's a really cool example to show like I mean all all all of those examples those three chapters that I talked about just show how when you're called to be prophets of the nations you have the authority when God allows you to come into the presence of kings queens all these highly decorated people with a lot of authority that we see, all these world leaders. Like, you, you have the authority to do that when God appoints you to. When he gives you prophecy, he will open those doors if necessary. It's not something that you just— as I said before— that you just spread the word about in hopes to get an audience with a king or an audience with the President of the United States. It's only when God opens those doors, and that's actually through humility, as I said before. There's another example in Genesis chapter 41 with Joseph and the Pharaoh. Joseph actually interpreted the Pharaoh's dreams, and then because of that, he was actually appointed as ruler of Egypt. He was—he went from—he came from prison. That's like a side note for that. He—he was thrown in prison, and. He actually interpreted two dreams of two other people that were in prison, and later on, one of the the people that was in jail with him actually revealed to the Pharaoh that Joseph was still down there in the cells. That he was the one that heard from the Lord revelation for his dream, and it actually came to pass. So it proved that it was from the Lord, and he the Pharaoh wanted him to interpret his dream. So he did, and because of that, he goes from being in prison to being the number two. 2 in the world. And he— that, that was in one day, fulfilling the prophecy that he received 13 years prior to that. So again, all these examples, it just goes back to, um, the kind of authority that you're given as a— when you're called to be a prophet to the nations. But again, with a higher authority comes higher warfare, higher spiritual warfare. So you have to be careful with that. Um, all these people have come before kings, come before rulers, and they've prophesied and interpreted dreams. And all of this stuff is just from God. Like, you're, you're appointed who you're supposed to be. You're called into that from God. He opens the doors for you. He gives you the opportunity to do that. He gives you the prophecies or dreams meant for that person. He gives you the interpretation for it. So notice how in all of those things, God did it all. That's kind of the point when it comes to this, is we're, we're servants of the Lord, um, and we're supposed to just be humble to him and serve him. Because through all of that, all those opportunities came to these people because they were surrendered to God. Um, I think one of the most important things regarding prophecy, if you're called to be a prophet in any way, whatever it is, Whether you just have the gift of prophecy or you're called to the office or called to be a prophet to the nations, the most important thing is hearing the voice of God. Obviously with prophecy, that's kind of a given, how you can actually hear God's voice clear, clearer than others per se because of the gift. But it's still, it's still, you still have to make sure that you know God's voice. Um, we talked about this in the last livestream too, how it's very important to get in your prayer closet. And when he gives you prophecies and revelation on something, you have to keep diving deep, and you have to, you have to be able to understand his voice. Because, um, when it comes to prophecies, it's very important, obviously, that you're speaking the correct things. So that comes by hearing the voice of God and knowing that it's him. Um, Again, as I said before, this is especially important for a prophet because you're going to be prophesying to people, giving people revelation on things, and it has to be accurate, obviously, because it's from the Lord. But that goes in regards to even visions that you get, revelations, all, all of these things tie into hearing the voice of God because even if you don't get the whole revelation right away, God will You'll still have to go back in your prayer closet and get more detail, get everything that you need to get in order to be fully released, to then release it to someone else. And to do that, you just, you have to quiet your soul. You have to just separate yourself, literally separate yourself from the world, from the crowd, wherever you are. You just have to go away and just sit in his presence. And when you actually listen, when you want to hear his voice, you will hear it. Amen. Because he it says in his word, my sheep know my voice, my sheep hear my voice. So you have to get in his presence first. That's the first step, and we just have to quiet our mind and just focus on his voice because that's how we can better hear, and it brings clarity and peace. So that's how you also know it's from God because it will come with peace. It won't be. I mean, I think very few times when he's given me prophecies, I felt. Like rushed about it. Not rushed in like a bad way, but like kind of there's just more like an urgency on it. Like it just needed to be released right then and there because it was like a warning for someone, for example, to avoid— to have them avoid making a mistake that could lead to other things. But through discernment, you can learn the difference between God's urgency and when the devil rushes you. So Um, that is just all important because overall you'll get clarity and you'll have peace with it too. Because that's the thing, when God puts urgency on something, you still have peace with it. That's, that's the difference, is when, when the devil rushes you, you, you feel stressed out. You feel like, like this is not ready, like I don't, I don't know what to do with this. Like you, you feel unprepared. But when, when God puts urgency on something, you can tell the difference because it still comes with peace. And something that goes along with the prophecies that he gives you is, like I said before, he won't give you all the details. So you have to make sure that you just keep going back until he fully releases you, because especially if it's a prophecy for the future, for future events, or for something that will happen for someone later down the line, you have to be patient. That's, that's the key, is you have to hold firm. To the words of the Lord. Something, um, that's something that I have been learning a lot, that I just need to be patient. Because a lot of the time he can, if you're sitting in his presence, he can just give you all the, all the details you need right then and there. And you just have to be patient until you're able to release it. But other times, as I said before, he will only have you like sit for 5 minutes and give you one part Because sometimes he's told me that obviously you need to go back for more. You need to go back and keep getting filled up. So I think a good verse that I always go back to when it comes to this stuff is in Habakkuk chapter 2, verses 2 through 3 in the NLT version. And there's 2 parts to this because there's verse 2 and verse 3. So I'll talk about each verse separately after I'm done reading. But it says, then the Lord said to me, write my answer plainly on tablets so that a runner can carry the correct message to each other. The vision is for future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place and it will not be delayed. So there's 2 parts to this that I grasped from this. So verse 2, when it's saying, write it, write the answer plainly on tablets. So when the runner can carry it to deliver the messages, it can actually be clear to people. So that goes back to waiting until you get the full prophecy, because if you're rushing to get a prophecy out because of excitement or just whatever it may be, people won't get like the full message as they're supposed to. So that's part of being patient with it. Um, And then the second part is obviously something I hold on to all the time is the last part which says, it will be fulfilled even though it seems slow incoming. Wait patiently for it surely take place. So this is something I always go back to is that when you have fully received something from the Lord and you actually got confirmation that it's from the Lord, you just wait patiently. You wait patiently. And you just, you just keep waiting until his timing is right and things are needed to be released. But you, you, you have to hear correctly from the Lord when it comes to prophecies and revelation, because obviously, especially not even just in regards to giving it to someone else, but even for yourself, where he'll give you prophecies for yourself, you have to If he is giving you advice, it has like you have to hear him correctly in order to receive the correct advice and then apply that to your life. But getting confirmation is very, very key because this again goes back to hearing his voice correctly. Is that when you receive something, you have to get confirmation for these things too? Because sometimes you can hear something that may actually not be part of the prophecy, and then you can release something that's not from God. So you just have to be careful with that, and that that's just discernment, and he can give that to anyone who asks. You know, he will he will bring that clarification to you. As I said before, it will come with clarity and peace. Sometimes when things can still seem fuzzy, it could mean that he hasn't given you all the detail yet, and that's. Also, the part about getting clarity, getting confirmation, is the enemy can hijack things. He can make it seem like it's from the Lord just to distract you. So this, um, this goes back to just being patient, just sitting in the presence of the Lord and just waiting on him. And just, um, because all these things will come to you, you won't have to pursue them. And that's just the key part about it. Um, And I just wanted to kind of go over like specific ways that God can speak to you, um, just to kind of help bring revelation. Um, the number one way he can speak to you is his word, is the Bible. You have to be reading his word. And a lot of the time when he wants to speak to you, he'll just bring you— he will bring you to a verse in the Bible. Um, and to also To know God's voice is to know the truth. This is what I have been learning very like not very recently, but up until this point I should say is that you in order to better understand which thoughts are from God, you have to understand what the truth is because God's character is never changing. As said in Hebrews 13 verse 8, He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He he doesn't change. So when it says that God is loving, or God is gentle, God is kind, all of these things, he's not going to just decide one day to not be that. And he is slow to anger. So a lot of the time, sometimes we can hear like condemning things in our head, and we're thinking that God is mad at us. But I just want to remind you that God's character is never changing. So God, God is kind, and God has mercy on us. He gives us grace. So that's part of it, and it's it's really relieving to go back to that to think about if he has given you if you're hearing something I should say whether it's in your head or someone is speaking something to you you can tell by the spirit behind it you can you can tell by basically the attitude of like was this done in love was this were these words of love same with the inner voice whenever you're hearing things is this something God would say. That's what I always ask myself is, is this something God would say, or is this something that like I randomly just thought of, or is this something that the enemy would say to throw me off? And that again goes into discernment. The second way God can speak is actually an audible voice. The way I'm speaking right now, how you can audibly hear me, God can actually speak in that way. But this is actually only for unbelievers. To grab their attention. Um, I personally don't know anyone who has heard the audible voice of God, but it is there and he does use it. Um, another one is the inner voice, as I said before, like the voice in your head. Um, again, discernment is very key to know the difference between the enemy, um, and between God's voice. Um, he can speak to you through physical or like emotional nudges. For example, like you can get like a feeling, just a feeling inside to do something. For example, like if someone were walking down the road and they're carrying a bunch of papers and they end up tripping and falling and like all the papers go everywhere, you get that that nudge to go help and pick it up. I've actually heard the Lord speak to people with like physical. Sensations in a sense, like itching. I've heard someone once before where like someone would be itching their arm like consistently, like just constantly for like, like one period of time throughout the day. It actually was the Holy Spirit trying to get that person's attention. So things like that, God can speak to you in so many different ways because he's infinite, so he can speak to you in infinite ways. These are just a few of them. Another one is other people talking. God can speak to you through other people. Again, you have to be careful with this because you have to use discernment when people are speaking over you because you have to be careful with what you come into agreement with. But God can send people to give you encouragement. God can send people to give you a prophecy. Again, you have to get confirmation with these things and you have to go use what people say and go back in prayer to make sure it was from the Lord. But he can use people to talk to you. He can use other people to communicate, especially if God is trying to tell you something and you're not paying attention, or you're just you're just not hearing his voice. He can use other people to bring that to your attention. He can also speak to you through life situations. So like if you're seeing common patterns a lot, like if you're seeing like. A symbol everywhere you go, like a certain symbol or something, that can be God trying to speak to you. You should go use that and go into prayer. Again, you have to be careful. All of this requires discernment because sometimes the enemy can use those things to throw you off, to make you think that, oh, this is something that's catching my eye, um, I need to go. And, you know, like, we, we need to make sure that our time is used well We can't be focusing on the wrong things, which is how important discernment really is, because we can't be wasting our time with things that aren't from God. And you can just do that by simply praying. God will confirm it to you right then and there. So God can also highlight things to you. He can— I've heard with some people, like, if he's highlighting a person, for example, like, people can actually see a literal highlight, like what you use with, like, the marker highlight. People can see a literal color around, like a border around someone. For me, for example, if someone— if God is highlighting someone to me, I don't really know how to explain it, but they just stick out. Like, they don't look out of the ordinary. It's not like they have like crazy hair or something. They just stick out to me. God just points them out, like, pray for this person, pray for that person, so he can Highlight people in that way too, and he can speak to you through that as well. Obviously, he can speak to you through visions as well. There they can be like kind of some of the visions that I get are like when I close my eyes, it's like an 8K movie playing. Like those are the kind of visions that I get, but I've seen people get visions where they're literally looking at something and they can see like an animal or an object. In front of them as if it were actually there. That's basically like seeing into the spiritual, um, but that can be a different type of vision as well. Um, he can speak to you through dreams as well, um, obviously when you're, when you're sleeping, um, and, um, that's also when you're, you're obviously because you're sleeping, you're not like thinking about all these things, so it can just be like this clear Clear vision that he can give you as well, and he will give you the revelation for that. And as I said before, God is infinite, so that, that list is not limited to that. He can speak in infinite ways, and he can speak to different people in different ways based on how things will resonate with them, how they will pick things up. But you have to take the time to listen to his voice. He has like a gentle and quiet voice, and you have to block everything else out. You have to just focus and just funnel your mind on him. Just when you keep your mind on him, that's when you have the peace and you can fully focus on his gentle, quiet voice. It's easier to understand his voice again when you know the truth of the word. And that's what I have been personally learning throughout the years is just getting into my word and just getting to know who God is. One time he made it, he made have me do a little study of like God's character. He would just say, write God is this, God is that, and find the verses that correlate with it so that I can always remember. Okay, God is kind. God is patient. God is compassionate. God is loving. All of these things pour into God's character. And verses that correlate with it. So I think that's a really good thing as well, to get to know God's character, because you can not only form a closer bond with him, but it will be easier to understand the revelations, the prophecies he's giving you. Um, for example, like if you're hearing something condemning, you know it's not from God, because as it says in Romans 8, chapter 8, verses 1, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So condemnation doesn't come from God. He will convict you, and he will gently, in a loving way, turn you back on the right path, and he will help you, and he will support you, but he won't condemn you. He's not going to say, like, you deserve this kind of punishment, or you deserve that, or you're not getting this because you made this mistake. And it's really nice to know that God, because God is faithful to his character, obviously he's never changing, so you can always rely on that. You can always rely that He is always the same kind God as he was in the Old Testament, as it spoke about. You know, he he's always going to be the same person. He's never going to change, and that's it's it can be it should be comforting honestly because that's where we can rely on him, and that's where we can put our trust in him because we don't have to think we don't have to be afraid to come to God because we know that. In times of need, He has open arms ready for ready just to give us a big hug. Like He He just is just so open, and He's not gonna deny you because you made a mistake. And sometimes that's hard to think about just because we we just are so used to feeling condemned ourselves and coming into agreement with condemnation that we think that that that God doesn't want to be with us. God doesn't want anything to do with us, but that's not true. And God, He just He just loves you so much, and that's that's the point that He wants to get across. That's the foundation of everything is just love, and He wants you to know that He is love. So He's not gonna all of a sudden just change His mind about the way He thinks about you. He calls you son or daughter, and that's that's who you are, and that's that comes first before anything. And I I know that I said before. Talking about hearing the voice of God, how it says in John chapter 10 verses 27, "My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me." And that's going back to the example that I gave before: how we have to we have to know the shepherd. We have to be familiar with his voice by getting in his word and understanding his character. In Malachi. Chapter 3, verses 6, in the NLT version, it says, I am the Lord and I do not change. That is why descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed. And then a New Testament version of this is in Hebrews chapter 13, verses 8, as I said before, in the NLT. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That is such a comforting feeling to know that we can just turn to the same God that's gonna forgive us and who, who will never turn his face from us. In 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 16 through 17, it says that all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, training in righteousness, so that the servants of God can be thoroughly equipped to do every good work. So, um, this is, this is definitely a good verse to go back to to understand that, um, scripture is God-breathed. It is, um, literally by God. Um, and throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament, God appointed people to, um, on, on his behalf to serve him and to bring revelation. But God was the one that brought the words. God is the one that got or brought the revelation. He's the one where all of this came from. So that's a good verse to rely on that, like, all scripture is true. It's literally from God. It's not opinionated. It's not based on what people think or what people want. It's just God, and those are his words. So that's also what we can trust because God also keeps his promises. He's not gonna— he's not a liar. He doesn't say something and then change his mind later. He If it if the word says all of it, all scripture is God-breathed, then you can you can assume that you can trust that. In Romans chapter ten verses seventeen in the NLT version, it says so faith comes by hearing that is hearing the good news about Christ. So this is a great verse because we can't have faith in God unless if we know God unless if we know who He is. In second Corinthians chapter five verses seven, it says. We believe not by seeing. So that's literally what faith is, and we can hear that from the Word of God. As it says, we hear by hearing the good news about Christ. In John chapter 8, verses 47, this is the TPT version. It says, "If you really knew God, you would listen, receive, and respond with faith to His words. But since you don't listen and respond to what He says," It proves you don't belong to Him and you have no room for Him in your hearts. So this is a very hard-hitting verse, but I like the TPT because it kind of—it just resonates better, at least for me personally. But it just shows us in the first part of this verse that when when we listen to the word, when we read it, we have to receive it too. We have to respond with faith to His words, and in Psalms. Chapter 85, verses 8. In the NLT, it says, I listen carefully to what God the Lord is saying, for he speaks peace to his faithful people, but let them not return to their foolish ways. Again, he is a God of peace. He's not a God of disorder. Um, as said in the above chapters in 1 Corinthians, um, he speaks with order. He speaks with peace. Whenever he speaks, you will get—you literally will get peace with it. That's how another confirmation that you know from God is you'll get peace from it. So we we talked about stewarding all of those things regarding prophecy, but it's important to understand stewarding the word of God specifically. Some key verses with this is found in Habakkuk verse. chapter 2, verses 2. We talked about this before, but I'll say it again. Then the Lord said to me, write my answer plainly on tablets so that a runner can carry the correct message to others. So this is in regards to stewarding the word of God, meaning receiving the word and then taking action on it, basically using it for the good. And going back to this verse in Habakkuk, it's saying that we need to be clear with what we're saying. We need to say the things of truth from the word so that the correct message can be brought to people. In James chapter 1, verses 22, in the NLT, it says, but don't just listen to God's word, but you must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. This is a ver— one of my favorite verses because, um, it convicts me a lot that like sometimes we just read and we don't Receive really. So I just think that that's a good verse to remember that we have to actually do what His Word says because that's part of stewarding the Word of God. There's another one in chapter eight of John and verse forty-seven, and this is actually the TPT version, and it says this is actually the verse that we read above. But if you really knew God, you would listen, receive, and respond to faith. To his words, so again we have to read it and then use it. We have to use it to serve others because it is the truth, and that's part of the armor of God is the belt of truth. We that the belt of truth holds everything up. It's the truth, and same with the sword of the Spirit. That is the word of God. That's truth. We fight back with truth. In James chapter four verses seventeen in the NLT version, it says. Remember, it is a sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. This is a really good verse as well because it kind of just reminds, reminds me at least that when I know to do something, that you just need to do it. And it helps me to just commit to something, to commit to responsibility. And yeah, I just think that's a really good verse to continue when in regards to stewarding the word. Because it's in the Word of God. In John 15:5, in the NLT version, it says, 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. I love this verse because literally it says in the verse, apart from him we can do nothing. He— if he's the vine and we're the branches, think of that in a literal perspective that like once if the vine is removed, then there's no branches either. And everything that we do is through him. It's from him. So we need to make sure that we remain in him because we're, as it says in the verse, we produce much fruit. And this is good fruit. And speaking of fruit, it says in Galatians 5:22, chapter 5, verses 22 through 23 in the NLT, and it says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So this is all the fruit of the Spirit, and we're called to bear these fruits. We're called to, as it says, love is first. So from love springs everything else in order to receive joy and to walk with peace, to be patient, to be kind with one another, to Receive goodness and faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, it all comes from love. And same goes for the rest of them. You can't regulate self-control if you don't have love first. So they all go hand in hand with each other. And I love referring back to this because this is the fruit of God's Spirit. So this is the fruit that we're called to bear. We're called to bear joy. And joy, remember, joy is a choice, not a feeling. We, we have to choose joy in all situations, choosing to love each other, choosing to have to remain in the peace of God. In Isaiah 26, verse 3, it says that all, all those who keep their mind on God remain in perfect peace. Perfect peace only comes from God, so in order to have it, we must remain in God. We must our mind on him. We must stay in his presence, and so on and so forth. For the rest of the fruit of the Spirit, we just—we must bear these things. In Matthew chapter seven verses sixteen through twenty, it says you can identify them by their fruit—that is, by the way they act. A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. So this again goes back to through the Spirit. When you're a branch of the vine, which is Jesus. You can bear the good fruit, and you can identify someone by their fruit. So as Christians, we want to identify with good fruit. Um, and then, yes, so that's all regarding the fruit of the Spirit. And we have to just make sure that we are connected to him because all that comes from him. Um, in regards to hearing God's voice, we— it must be the most important thing in our lives. We have to— It has to be more important than any, anyone or anything. Because, um, especially if we're busy, I can use that as an example. Especially when we're busy and God wants to pull us aside to talk to us, we have to be willing. That's part of being submitted, and that's something I'm still learning too. But for example, if you're, if you're just really busy, or if you're in the middle of a conversation and God wants to pull you aside to give you Revelation on something, or He wants you to write something down. We have to. He has to be priority. He always should be priority. And then we step aside and listen to His voice. We we have to become a student of God's word because we in all honesty we never stop learning. We're always going to learn from the Holy Spirit because again He has infinite knowledge. So as finite beings. We can't know it all. We can't know everything that God knows. So there's always room to grow. There's always space for us to be better. And that includes like seasonal-wise, how the seasons, the last season should, or I should say the next season should be better than the last season, because God will move you faith to faith and glory to glory, which means that it will always be better than the last. And we have to stand firm on that. Because that's one of his promises. We cannot— we also cannot be willfully sinning. We can't— if you, again, going back to the verses we talked about before, if you know something's wrong, don't do it. If you know you should do something, go do it. And that, that's just vice versa. It just correlates to both of them that we have to— we can't hesitate to do the right thing. We can't hesitate to avoid the wrong thing. We can't be willfully doing what's wrong. We have to be obedient to the Lord. And that, that's all in regards to stewarding his word. It's, it's a disciplined walk of faith. But in regards to stewarding prophecies, this would obviously be a step after stewarding God's word because we have to understand how to steward his word in order to then steward prophecies. When you're given a prophecy, you need to make sure that you stay in your prayer closet before God releases you. As we have been talking before, you have to be patient. It's all about patience. You have to keep going back into your prayer closet. You have to keep going back into his presence and just stay there until he releases you. And again, sometimes it can just be a couple minutes where he gives you one part And then he can give you the next part two weeks later or even two years later. But we have to be patient with his timing. And yeah, there will be times where God will give you some details and then again give you some later. But then sometimes he can just give it to you all right then and there. But something I've been learning is that even if God gives you the whole picture right then and there, that doesn't always mean that it needs to be released right then and there. So those are two different things. You have to get a download of everything that he wants you to receive and then wait on him again to then figure out when it's to be released to whoever it's for. And he will just keep pouring into you. And sometimes, majority of the time, he will just, he will just keep giving you things and giving you things. But again, you just have to be patient with all of that. You can take a Polaroid picture, for example. This is an example I've actually been hearing recently, is that like when you take a Polaroid picture, it prints, but it prints black because it has to— it's not ready. The picture isn't like fully ready, so you have to let it develop. And that normally takes a couple minutes. And then when it comes to prophecy, it may not be a couple minutes, but just take that example. Is that when we get a prophecy, you have to just wait until the full picture is revealed by God. And there will be different elements regarding that, and you have to— and that just comes with patience and practice of what the Lord reveals to you. But we have to wait till the full picture is revealed to us because we can't just get one part and reveal that to the person We're supposed to without the rest of the details because then it won't, it won't be complete. It's not going to make sense. Um, so yeah, that's just, that's an example to kind of look at prophecy because again, as I said before, it may not be a couple minutes, but it's just the idea that you have to let it develop. You have to get the full picture downloaded before you're able to release it. He won't even tell you to release something if he hasn't given you everything yet. Because it's incomplete. And again, sometimes a prophecy can just be so small. It can literally just be an encouragement where he just tells you to say something right then and there. And you don't have to, you don't have to go into prayer about it. You don't have to think about it. He just tells you to do it. But other times it can be this whole long thing where it's going to be something where you're going to have to keep going back to. You're going to have to keep going into your prayer closet and receiving more details. And you don't— the most important thing about that is you don't want to release something before he wants you to because it needs to be on his timing. A lot of the time, I personally, when I was first learning, I would get so excited about prophecies that I would get because I'm like, oh, I have, I have this encouragement to give someone and I'm ready to give it to them because I know they need to hear it. But we need to make sure that we're not We're doing it on his timing because obviously his timing is perfect and we have to trust that. That's part of trusting that too. So it will be brought to that person or the whole body of Christ in general when it's needed to be heard. That's the key part, is that his timing is perfect, ours is not. So, um, and that's— that goes back to when a lot of people say, your will, Father, not mine. It's just about what he wants and not what we want. It just has to be when God tells you it's the right time. So we have to, we have to, we actually have to trust him in that area. So overall, we're there's stewarding prophecy, but you have to get into a habit of stewarding the word of God. We talked about prophet to the nations, being called into the office of the prophet, all of those amazing verses in regards to the prophets we talked about in the Old Testament, how they were able to come before kings and leaders and all of this to give these important prophecies to them. So that's just like overall, like God just works in such amazing ways through different people, and especially through the gift of prophecy, however that may be released in your life, whether it is just the gift or whether it's you're being commissioned into the church or whether, um, whether you're being called to the nations overall. It all is just such a gift and it's, it's a blessing, and we're supposed to use it to serve the body of Christ. We're supposed to use it to serve him. It's all supposed to come back to him. We're supposed to steward the things that he gives us, but we can't forget who it all comes from. We can't forget, not even just in regards to prophecy, but everything that we have. We can't forget who that's from, and we we just can't forget him because he he's always at the center of it. He's the glue that ties everything together because without him, we just we don't have anything. We he's the one that created us. He's the one that breathed life into us, and he gave us breath today. That's something that we just, we just need to keep remembering is that it all, it all comes from him, especially when it comes to the beautiful gift of prophecy, is that like none of it is from us. It's just in submission to him, and he just brings it all to you. He just opens the doors when necessary. He brings you to the next step when you're ready. Um, it all just— it just comes from him, and I'm thankful for that. Um, but let's— as we're closing out, I just want to talk about the ministry. Um, as we are on here, we, we here at John Humenik Ministries have a bold, a very bold vision for 2024. We plan to reach all people with the gospel before the Rapture, as well as raising up 100— or 1,000, I should say— churches and ministries To preach the gospel online, you can partner with us by going to humenik.com/give. That is spelled H-U-M-E-N-I-K slash give or dot com slash give. I should say you can place a one-time donation or become a monthly partner, and all donations that are given go back to the ministry to then so that we can extend more. To the body of Christ. God bless. Amen.