Prophetic Foundations Lesson Two

Hello, welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, me, Dr. Ray Self. Very glad you're listening today. Don't forget to subscribe, download, do all the cool stuff that makes us get very popular. I'm going to start a four-part, very important series called Foundations of the Prophetic. Stirring, activating, imparting the prophetic gift in you. How do you know if God's speaking to you? How do you know if you have the gift? How do you get the gift if you don't have the gift? This is going to be a very important four-part series. This show is brought to you as usual by the International College of Ministry. Enrolling now at icmcollege.org, a Holy Spirit-filled accredited online Bible college. God's called you. Enroll now.

 

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Hello, this is Ray Self. Prophetic Foundations Part Two. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this, this time together. Holy Spirit, have your way in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. So we we talked about three categories of gifting. We talked about the five-fold ministry, the manifestation gifts, and we talked about the motivational gifts. Now we're, we're emphasizing prophecy, but we're going to go back into the importance of the manifestation gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially prophecy. 

 

So again in 1 Corinthians 12:4-7, NASB, “There are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit.There are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one–” got any ones here? “...each one…” that means you “...is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” All right for what? The common good, the good of all. The common good. 

 

It's very interesting, uh, just kind of a little point here, historical point. Paul emphasized over and over the same Spirit, the same Spirit, the same Lord in context. And so you have to understand the culture of the day. This is written in uh, the Corinthian church; and the Corinthian church, their background, their history was very pagan and in the pagan religion, there were always multiple gods. So Paul was a little concerned learn that these different manifestations of the Holy Spirit will be confused as being different gods. So that's why He kept saying, “by the same Spirit…by the same Spirit and the same Lord.” It's only one God manifesting Himself in different ways and just kind of interesting point. So the evidence of the holy spirit is for the common good. Now the gifts of the Spirit you know prophecy, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, evidence of the Holy Spirit are for the good of other believers. We talked about that and each of us is responsible for earnestly desiring spiritual gifts, okay? 1 Corinthians again, 14:1, “Pursue love…” commandment number one, pursue love. God is love. Love is preeminent. Without love, Paul said, what's it, just a bunch of noise? It's a clanging symbol. Without love, none of this matters. So love is the most important thing for everything we do. God is love.

 

We're to love. “...yet desire spiritual gifts.” That's the second commandment. Love, desire spiritual gifts. “...especially that you would prophesy.” Okay? Three commandments, one scripture. Pursue love, desire spiritual gifts, especially to prophesy. Those are the three commandments. Now, I mean, everybody will tell you, "Yeah, we're supposed to do what God says." Well, desire the gift. 

 

Now, Jesus explained a principle about gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. I really like this. In John 14:29, Jesus said something interesting. He said, "Now, I've told you before it happens, so when it happens, you may believe." So many times, the prophetic gift will tell you something that's going to take place. And then you, you see it take place, and it's confirmed, and it happens, and your faith just rises. How many times did God tell us in the Old Testament about Jesus coming, where He'd be born, where He would live, what He would do, how He would die, how He'd be– rise from the dead over and over and over, so we would believe, we would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is the Savior. God will tell you things that are going to happen in your life to build your faith and to build your trust in Him. It's just such an amazing gift. Again, Jesus said, "I'll tell you before it happens so you may believe." The manifestation of the Holy Spirit ultimately builds our faith and the reality of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

 

Now, another thing the manifestation of the Holy Spirit does is it always brings glory to Jesus Christ. So when you're moving prophetically, and there's a gift operating, does it bring glory to Jesus? John 16:14-15. Now Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit, the coming of the Holy Spirit. And He said, "He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things the Father has are Mine. Therefore, I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you." 

 

So the ultimate test of a prophetic word or a gift of the Holy Spirit is:, does it bring glory to Jesus Christ? So I, I call this kind of a uh, a point of order. Jesus said all things the Father has are His. The Holy Spirit takes what Jesus has and gives it to us. In a really simple way of looking at this, you could say God downloads to Jesus what He has, Jesus downloads to the Holy Spirit what He has, and the Holy Spirit downloads to you. So you, you need…see, without the Holy Spirit you miss the download. I don't believe you truly know Jesus completely without the Holy Spirit. I think you, you have a head knowledge, but the revelation of Jesus Christ comes through the Holy Spirit. You know, it's, it's more than just being a, a knowledge of God, but it's, it's knowing God. It's– the revelation of, it's where the information God has for you becomes revelation and life-changing information in your heart. And that's what the Holy Spirit does. And it's a beautiful thing. So the ultimate test of a prophetic word or any gift of the Holy Spirit is: does it bring glory to Jesus Christ? Let's look at the importance of the prophetic gift.

 

Now, we know the prophetic gift is the most essential manifestation gift of the Holy Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. I'll prove this to you. Paul emphasized the prophetic gift above all spiritual gifts. The prophetic gift is mentioned 10 times in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and 14. 10 times this gift is mentioned. 1 Corinthians 13:9, “For we know in part and we prophesy in part…” 1 Corinthians 14:1, we talked about that, “Pursue love, desire spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.” 1 Corinthians 14:5, “I wish you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy. For greater is the one who prophesies than the one who speaks in a tongue, unless he interprets, so the church may receive edifying.” 1 Corinthians 14:24, “But if all prophesy, an unbeliever, ungifted man enters, he'll be convicted by all, and he's called to account by all.” 

 

1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 14:31, “For you can all prophesy one by one.” 1 Corinthians 14:39, just read this one, “Therefore, my brethren, desire to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues.” 1 Corinthians 14:3, “The one who prophesies speaks to men for edification, exhortation, and consolation.” 14:4, “For the one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself. The one who prophesies edifies the church.” 14:5 Well, we read that one, 14:39 “Wherefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy. Do not forbid to speak in tongues.” The point is, I don't know about you, but when, I think when God repeats Himself over and over again, maybe He's trying to make a point to us, get us to listen. My dad, when I was a kid, he used to say things like, "Son, don't make me repeat myself." And I knew if my dad had to repeat himself, like something he told me to do or something he said do not do. If he repeated himself, usually I was in trouble or it meant I really needed to listen. And I think when God repeats Himself over and over about a particular topic such as the gift of prophecy, we should pay attention. Amen. Amen. 

 

You see, prophecy edifies. Edifies. We have a commandment from God to edify. 1 Corinthians 14:4. So let's look at the word edify. So prophecy edifies. What does edification mean? According to Webster, edification means to build, to instruct, to improve the mind in knowledge generally and particularly in moral, religious knowledge and faith in holiness. So we have a commandment to edify the church and be good at it. And that's exactly what prophecy does. It edifies the church. It builds the church up. It instructs the church. It improves the church. Okay? Look at 1 Corinthians 14:12. “So also you, since you're zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church.” Edify the church. So gosh, folks, this, realistically, when a prophetic word is given in front of the church…I mean, it’s exciting. And so many times it builds the church. I know when, when I'm, when the Lord– when I move prophetically in front of the church, many times, I'm prophesying to an individual in front of the church, and I'll give them a prophetic word, and maybe it read, maybe God reads their mail or gives a confirmation, but the whole church gets excited. And sometimes a prophetic word I'm giving from one individual could actually be touching the hearts of many people. Or, perhaps a prophetic word is given to the church as a whole, to your, to your church specifically, what God's about to do, what God wants to do, or maybe what God wants to encourage us not to do. But a prophetic word is encouraging. You know, Paul loved the church. He loved us, and he wanted us to be encouraged. He wanted us to be lifted up. He wanted us to, to know the reality of God. And, and you know, the, prophecy edifies, it exhorts, it comforts. And so it's so important for us. It's so important. 

 

So, the commandment is to edify the church, and not only to edify the church but be good at edifying the church. I want to see, and I'm praying that the prophetic gift will be a part of every church. Every church. It's so, it's so important. Like I said in the previous lesson, nothing's more important than hearing what God has to say. And when the prophetic work is operating, operating correctly, it is God speaking to us. Now listen, I know you're thinking, "Well, how do we know if it's God speaking, and what if it's a word that's not good?" And yeah, we're, we're going to talk about that stuff, but what I want you to understand is how important the gift of prophecy is. And it's just, I mean, I need to hear from God. I need to– There's things in your life right now you need to hear God's voice. You need to hear God's voice about your marriage. You need to hear God's voice about your job. God's voice about your future. I, I, I want to go in the direction God is leading me. I need to hear God's voice. The church in America needs to hear the voice of God and follow its leading. You know, uh, I want to see the Holy Spirit move in all churches. I do. Now, listen, I'm not saying the churches don't do great things. You know, when you, when we talk about the church, we must always remember that Christ loved the church. He gave his life for the church. It says in Ephesians chapter 5. But prophetic gift, I believe, should be a part of every church in America. Sadly, there are those that believe the prophetic gift doesn't operate anymore. And you know, the cessationist doctrine, which is really a sad doctrine; won't get into that, but the prophetic gift, you can tell here by scripture, should be alive and well in every church, okay? And in your life. So again, we have a mandate to covet, to prophesy, desire spiritual gifts, right? It's a mandate. So how does God speak? Because the prophetic gift is is key in upon hearing God speak and that is critical. 

 

So, ways that God speaks because to move in the prophetic gift, we have to learn how to recognize God's voice. And I'll tell you something honestly, I mean, I've missed His voice many times. And I think hearing the voice of God is a skill that can be learned. It can be improved upon. You know, it's, it's, we, we can tune ourselves into that. Um, I like to use the example of a mother. I've watched, I've seen this before happen. Um, as a matter of fact, uh, I saw it at church not too long ago. My little grandson was in children's church. And there's probably maybe 80 kids in there just, just running around screaming and making all kinds of noise. And my daughter-in-law was, was walking away from children's church and all of a sudden she stopped and she said, "He's crying." And she goes back to the children's church area to to see what's going on with her son. I'm thinking, "How did she hear him? There's so many kids making noise in children's church. You know, when kids get together making all kinds of noise, you had a whole bunch of 5-year-olds in there. And she, out of all that noise going on in that children's church, she could have recognized the voice of her five-year-old son over all those voices because she had attuned herself. She knew the voice of her son. Do you know the voice of Jesus? Have you tuned into that? It's such a critical point. You know, you can actually train yourself. You can train yourself. I, I, I'll tell you some silly things, but believe it or not, it works. I uh, sometimes learning to hear God's voice may involve something simple. For me, getting a little bit older, so many times it's like, “God, please, where are my car keys this time? Where where did I settle this time?: You know, “What did I go into this room to do?” But you can ask God a simple question. He loves you. He'll answer even simple questions. And you'll get this impression, this thought that comes into your mind. And then you go and you find your car keys or whatever it is. And you're training yourself to recognize His voice among all other voices. I will tell you this: There's three voices that are talking to you. Three voices. There's your own mind, which my mind is all over the place all the time. My mind thinks of a lot. My mind is very noisy. There's also demonic spirits that try to talk to you. You know, “You're a failure. You you're full of shame. You're guilty. You shouldn't have done that. Shame on you,” blah blah blah. You know, the liar. He tries to talk to you. And then there's the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, talking to you with love and conviction. And it's the voice of God. And so, what are you going to listen to? We can train ourselves to hear the voice of God. Let's, let's look at some ways that God speaks. You know, He speaks through the Bible. I love the word of God. To flow prophetically, you need to know the word of God. Be– read the word of God. Study the word of God. Meditate on the word of God. Ask the Author of the word to, to teach you through His word. He speaks through the Bible. You're reading the Bible, and you're looking at– you just read a chapter. All of a sudden, this verse, like, it hits your heart. It jumps off the page at you. You're going, "Oh.” It’s God talking to you. He's giving you a message in His word. It's directly for you. You hear the preacher preaching, and he says something, and you say, “Oh, I think he's talking to me.” There may be 800 people in that church. And it's you directly. He talks when we pray. When we pray. You see, prayer is a conversation. 

 

So many times we pray, it's just a one-way talk. We do all the talking. We don't listen. But if you learn how to pray and get still, you'll be surprised how God will talk through your prayers if you just give Him room. And you don't do all the talking. Remember, prayer should be a conversation. He talks through the Holy Spirit. We've been talking about that. The Spirit of God talks to you, moves through you, and He talks through your circumstance. Do you know your circumstance can be a prophetic word? What you're experiencing in your life, what you experienced in your past, how things unfolded in your life so many times contain messages from God. The circumstance you're in now can contain a message from God. He'll speak through your circumstance. He'll speak through authorities. He'll speak through your elder, through your pastor. He'll speak through the preacher. Through those in authority over you. He'll speak through dreams. He'll speak through the preacher. He'll speak to you through ordinary people. I've had people come up to me. It may be Walmart or wherever I'm at. I really hate going to Walmart. Every time I go into Walmart, I say, "Christie,” my wife, “pray for me. I'm going in, but– if I'm not out in 20 minutes. Please send a search party." But anyway, but God will send an ordinary person up to you just to talk to you about something. You're having a conversation and all of a sudden you realize what they're saying is a message you need to pay attention to. God speaks to your mind. God speaks to your heart. He speaks a lot of different ways. It's up to us to train. We can ask the Lord, "Lord, help me to hear your voice. Father, please open up my ears and remove the confusion in my mind to hear your voice, Father.” Sometimes as human beings, we have filters over our ears that, that filter what we hear. You've heard of filtering, I'm a counselor, and filtering is, means where we, we uh, we hear something is, sound comes to us, but it's distorted by a filter from our past, a hurt or a wound. And instead of hearing what was said, we hear through the wound, and it's distorted. There's a spirit called Leviathan that loves to twist what is said. But I want to tell you something: We can pray and say, "God, I rebuke anything that's interfering with me, my hearing you. Lord, I want to hear your voice so clear. Lord, forgive me for not listening. Open up my ears to hear, Father. Help me, Father. Help me, Father. Speak to me, Father, now in the name of Jesus Christ." And then get still. Get still and listen and pay attention. Remember, His thoughts, not your thoughts; His ways are not your ways. So all of a sudden, something comes into your mind that you would never have thought of. And it's God speaking to you. And it is incredible. You can train yourself to hear God. Okay. Amen. So, how to determine if it is God speaking to you? I want to cover that more in our next part. Okay. Amen. Thank you for being a part.

 

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