Prophetic Foundations Lesson 4

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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Okay, this is part four, Prophetic Foundations. Let's go. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this last session. Have your way, Holy Spirit. Just have your way in the name of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. I want to talk about receiving and activating the gift of prophecy. Did you think we're ever going to get here? We are here. We're to the meat of the matter. Let's get this gift. Let’s activate it in you. The key to unlocking all spiritual gifts is two steps. Receive and utilize. Get it and use it. Not just a hearer of the word, but a doer of the word. Amen. Key scripture: First Peter 4:10. 

 

“As each has received a gift, employ it for one another as good stewards of God's buried grace.” Two things in the scripture. “As each has received a gift,” receive. Employ. Catch it. I like to play football. I love my football. Catch it. Give it away. That's the two steps. As each has received a gift. That makes it very clearly there's a way to receive it, right? We can receive it. But not only are we to receive it, but we are to use it. It’s so critical that you stir the prophetic gift up in you. That you stir it. 1 Timothy 4:14. “Neglect not the gift which is in you which was given you by prophecy and the laying on of hands of the presbyter.” Neglect not means to use it. Use it because what? It was given to you by the laying of– on of hands. Now it can be given to you through the– it's given by the Holy Spirit. So the word neglect not is the call to activate, which was given you as the impartation. So I like to call it we get imparted, and then we activate. Activation is stirring it, using it, practicing it, doing it. Impartation is receiving it. Okay? 

 

Again, James 21:17, “Faith by itself that has no works is dead.” So you can have faith for the prophetic word, but if you don't use it, it's a dead faith. I want you to use it, to stir it up. So many times what happens to us is we become afraid. “Oh, what if I, what if I miss it? What, what if I say something that's not of God?” Well, yeah, I, I get it. I get it. But you got to remember there's a principle here. In the old covenant times, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the prophet, but He was not on the receivers of the prophecy. So, they had to completely trust the prophet as giving the word of God. There was a tremendous responsibility on the prophet to give the word of God correctly. And if he didn't, he was in big trouble because the people had no other way to know if it was God speaking other than what the prophet said. But in the new covenant, now the Spirit's been poured out on all of us. I have the Holy Spirit, and so do you. So you have a way to determine if it's God speaking or not. I do the best I can to give a prophetic word. But I want to tell you something. I have a responsibility to try to give the prophetic word to the best of my ability with what I believe God is saying. But you have a responsibility to know if it's God speaking or not. That's not my job. That's your job. My job, and your - if you're going to move prophetically - your job is to give the word, but the recipient must be able to judge the word. That's why when I do prophetic conferences, we talk a lot about how to judge a prophetic word. So, it's, it's important that you do the best you can to give a word that you believe is from God speaking. It's also equally important that the recipient knows how to judge that word. Two important things. But the reason I'm emphasizing that is people get frozen. They get frozen, and they won't give a word out of fear. “What if I miss it? What if I don't miss it?” You, you, you've got to step out sometimes. You say, "God, I'm trusting you that this is you. I'm going to step out. Lord, help me." And God is so faithful. And that's why when you give a word, you say something like, "Hey, this is what I believe I hear that God's saying, but you can pray about it. I believe I hear God saying to you…” And then you say it and let them judge it and say, and if you want to teach them, “Hey, please pray about it. Wait till you get some confirmation. If you're not sure, uh, talk to your elder about it.” But there's a lot of ways to do that. But don't get frozen in fear. Um, it was about three or four years ago, a friend of mine at church came up to me and said, "Dr. Ray, um, I, I need to repent." I said, "What's up?" “Well, I've got this word for you, but I've been afraid to give it for the last six months.” I said, "Why?" “Well, I was afraid it wasn't from God.” I said, "Oh my goodness." And I said, "Just give me the word, will you? Okay? I'll pray and I, I'll discern if it's from God or not. Okay, just give me the word.” He gave me the word, and it was a great word, but he had held on to it for six months out of fear. That's not the way; that's not the way God works. Okay. All right.

 

Practical tips for giving a prophetic word. Let's talk about that. I was just telling a, a story. Sometimes when you're moving prophetically, it's sometimes God will give you this long, eloquent word, and it's just this beautiful picture or a vision or whatever, and, you know, you just know it's from God, and you give it. It's wonderful. Sometimes God just gives you something really simple to say, and sometimes the simple things are the most powerful things. So, I was telling this story about some years ago. I was in the Philippines, and I was with a team of pastors doing a pastor's conference, uh, about 2,000 people at this conference. Incredible, uh, facility. All these pastors, they had come from many parts of the Philippines. Some had traveled a long way on those little motorcycles, which is a whole nother story. And the speaker before me was preaching, and bless his heart, he was just…nothing was happening. I mean, the conference was kind of dead. The guy ahead of me was giving his message, and uh, you could tell that it just really wasn't being received much. And I call it, you could hear the crickets chirping, and things are going, well, man, this is not, not really going so well. I was just sitting there kind of being quiet, and all of a sudden I heard the Lord say, “I have a prophetic word for the conference.” “Okay, God.” The Lord said, “Get up and tell them Jesus is Lord.” And I'm thinking, “Okay. And the rest of it is?” “Nothing.” A few minutes later, God said, "Get up and say Jesus is Lord of the Philippines." “Okay, Jesus is Lord of the Philippines. That's a little better.” Then I heard it again.

And I, I'm arguing with God. “God, there's got to be more than Jesus is Lord of the Philippines.” God said, "Say Jesus is Lord of the Philippines." So, “Okay. Okay. It doesn't sound– Gosh, God, I really thought you'd give me more than that.” So, I tapped the leader on the shoulder and said, "Hey, I've got a prophetic word for the conference. Is it okay if I give it?" And finally, the speaker finished, and nothing was happening. The place was deader than a doornail. Excuse me. I'm from Tennessee. I got up in front of the conference. I got up with the microphone. I just took the microphone, and I said, "The Lord says Jesus is Lord of the Philippines." 

 

The place erupted. It erupted. People are– their hands are in the air. They're shouting. They're praising. They're jumping for joy. I said it three times and the whole conference changed. It was just simple. But it was God's word for the moment. And you know, I argued with God. I didn't think it could be God's word because, see, God's ways are not our ways. Some– it doesn't make sense. Remember, when you're moving prophetically, it will not always make sense to you. But God, trust me, He, He knows what He's doing. Okay? Amen. Amen. Important. Stay humble. Give what you heard, you felt, or you saw, and stop. Don't add, like I talked about earlier, don't add, explain, preach, or teach your word. Um, just remember the word is not for you, but it was for the individual. So, how do you move prophetically? I'm going to give you some practical tips. I'll show you a practical tip. Um, now remember, when a prophetic word comes, it could be these particular words. Sometimes it's a picture. It's a picture that you can relate what you see in a picture. Sometimes, but beautifully– you remember prophetic flow is like rivers of living water. It's a flow. So what happens so many times is you'll start off and you feel like the Lord tells you something to say to an individual, and you say three or four words, and as you speak it, it begins to flow, and more comes out. So, you don't always get the entire prophecy before you are– before you deliver it. You may get a part of the prophecy, maybe more than the word yellow that my wife got. You'll get a part of the prophecy, and then you deliver that prophecy, and all of a sudden out of your mouth more begins to flow, and it is, it's beautiful. It's like it's that river, the rivers of living water begin to flow out of you. But you start with something simple. A practical way to do this is…you want to move prophetically. Pray for someone. Pray for them. Especially in person. You have a friend, maybe someone you don't know. Put your hand on them. Say, "Would you mind if I pray for you?" And I do this all the time. I do a natural prayer. People come up to me all the time. “Dr. Ray, you got a prophetic word for me?” “Dr. Ray, can I please get a prophetic word from you?” I mean, it's like, uh, sometimes it's like dial a prophet, you know, I'm not dial a prophet. But what I do is, and what you can do is pray a natural prayer. Start praying for the individual. Lord, I just ask you to bless my friend, John here, Father, just…Holy Spirit, just touch him right now. Just, just come upon him. Father, I thank you for John. I thank you for divine appointments; I thank you for bringing him in my path today. Lord, just bless John, touch John. Thank you, John.” And all of a sudden, as I'm praying, I get a divine intervention in my prayer. The Lord, all of a sudden, in the midst of my prayer, I hear some things. Some thoughts come into my mind out of nowhere. A picture comes out of my mind out of nowhere. His thoughts are not my thoughts. So, I get one of His thoughts that come into my mind. And I say, "John, John, I believe the Lord’s saying to you," and I repeat what I heard it say. All I did was I began a natural prayer, and I prayed in the natural until the supernatural kicks in. A natural prayer, waiting for the supernatural. And I want to tell you something: the more you practice this gift, the more you stir this gift, the more you will operate in this gift. The reason people don't do it so much is fear, uncertainty, or “this is not my gift.” And I hear that a lot. People say, "Well, God didn't give me that gift, Dr. Ray." I said, "Wait a second. Are you a Christian? Do you hear your Savior's voice? My sheep hear my voice? Have you ever heard God speak to you? Did, Did God tell you to desire the gift of prophecy? Covet the gift of prophecy? Earnestly desire the gift of prophecy? Have you ever asked God for the gift?” Uh, come on. Don't, don't tell me that it's not your gift. 

 

Now, listen. There are people that are five-fold prophets. Now, the difference is, I'm just going to interject this a little bit. When you're called as a five-fold prophet, like apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists, teachers, it’s a different deal. A five-fold prophet, they prophesy almost all the time because that's who they are. Have you ever met a five-fold evangelist? A five-fold evangelist, if you ever met one, they can evangelize anytime, anywhere, any place. They're an evangelist. It just happens. They don't have to even– they don't have to have a pulpit to evangelize. This is who they are. An apostle operates apostolically 24/7 because that's who they pastor shepherds sheep 24/7 because that's who they are. And a five-fold prophet can prophesy 24/7 because it's not just a gift; it's who they are. It's their office. But the gift of prophecy in 1 Corinthians 12 is for the whole body, and it's a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Yes, I, I, I love the gift of healing; I, I've, I've laid hands on the sick. I've seen broken legs healed, cancer healed, blind eyes healed. I've seen a dead person raised from the dead. That's true. I've been…through, all through the Holy Spirit, not through me. Um, you know, I've seen, you know, cast out demons, all that kind of stuff. And move prophetically. Of– all these gifts are great. Healing is fantastic. Words of knowledge are great. Words of wisdom are great. And, and, and the Lord thinks they're great, too. But He says the greatest gift is the gift of prophecy. And He wants you to desire it and be activated in it. And I'm going to pray in just a moment that you be stirred and activated in the gift of prophecy. 

 

It's so important. So, some tips on giving a prophetic word. Like I said, uh, pray your natural prayer. Pay attention to thoughts, impressions, feelings, or pictures. Uh, pay attention to something you would not normally think of. Um, and begin to speak– Again, speak something like this: “I believe I hear the Lord saying to you,” or “I believe the Lord has given me this picture.” Then share what you received and don't be surprised if more begins to flow. Amen. John 7:38 again, “He who believes in me as the scripture has said, ‘from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” Let me tell you something. Have you ever…I used to live out in the country, and maybe…if you’ve ever been out in the country, if you've ever seen a well pump, the way they used to get water out in the country was there was this well pump and there would be a little p– a piece of pipe sticking out of the ground and there was a handle on this pipe. And to get the water to flow out of this well, you had to take the handle, and you had to start pumping it like this. And as you started to pump it, and you started to pump it, eventually a little trickle of water would come out. And as you continued to pump it, more and more water would start coming out of that well. And eventually it would be a steady flow. And I think that's a picture of the prophetic gift. We, we, we, we speak it. We obey God. We do the best that we can. We, we speak out that impression. We speak out that picture. We speak it out. We practice it. We pray for God to help us. We pray for the Holy Spirit to guide us. And as we begin to prophesy and we begin to activate it, we begin to stir it. It begins to flow more and more and more and more and more. It's a beautiful, it's a beautiful thing. It's a gift that we're called to covet. It's a commandment from God. It'll change your life. It'll change the life of people around you. You can prophesy to your wife, to your children, to your neighbors. And what's really cool is prophesying to an unbeliever. That's the greatest thing of all. I'll close with a couple of quick stories. There was a…

 

I was in southern Spain in a church in a Muslim neighborhood. Uh, they tell me now southern Spain's about 90% Muslim. I was in this little Christian church, and I'm at the altar, and a, a Muslim young man came in off the street and came walking up to the front of the church. I'll never forget his face. He had a very evil, dark look on his face, and he walked right up to me from the street. I'm thinking this is not good. You– I'm thinking all kinds of stuff could be happening here. Picture was not good. He walked up to me, and as he got up to me all of a sudden the Lord started giving me prophetic words over him. First, He gave me a word of knowledge about his past, about his father. And I told him something had happened to him when he was 12 years old. God said, "Stop. When you were 12 years old, this is what happened to you through your dad." And I spoke that to him. And I began to– all of a sudden, the river began to flow. And I began to prophesy to him. And he looked at me, and he stopped. And all of a sudden, his eyes get really big. And he, like, froze. And all of a sudden, I see a tear coming out of his eye. And he fell to the ground, and he's shaking, and he's weeping. And we reached over to him, me and a couple of pastors I was with, and we took him by his hand and lifted him up, and he declared Jesus is Lord and he received Christ as his savior right there. The prophetic gift is an incredible gift. My encouragement is, ask God for it. The Holy Spirit– let me just pray this prayer with you. 

 

If you, if you're in agreement, just pray this prayer. Lord Jesus, I come to you now. Your word says that I should earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially prophecy. Father, in agreement with your word, I desire to be imparted with the gift of prophecy. Holy Spirit, fall on me now. Fall on me now. Stir up the gift of prophecy in me. Impart the gift of prophecy in me, Lord. I receive your gift. I have– whatever gifts you want to give me, Lord. But in agreement with your word, especially gift of prophecy. Holy Spirit, fall on me. And Lord, I promise you, to the best of my ability, as you give me the courage and the boldness, I will step out and use this gift. I receive the prophetic gift today. Holy Spirit, have your way. Holy Spirit, come. Holy Spirit, come. Fill me with your presence. Activate and impart this gift in me. I will use it. I will employ it, Lord. Stir me up with this gift, Father. Thank you, Jesus. Praise you, Father. Amen. Amen. If you agree with that prayer and you prayed that prayer with me, do not let doubt creep into your mind. Stay in the word of God. Be…find other people that flow prophetically who can, who can minister to you, can help you. Practice your gift. Pray for people. Give out those impressions, those words, those pictures, and, and don't add to it. Just wait to see what happens. And what happens is you'll give a prophetic word and all of a sudden somebody's life is changed. And then you, your faith is built, their faith is built. And it is an incredible, an incredible journey with God. This concludes our gift on the fundamentals of prophecy. I praise you, Lord Jesus. I thank you for everyone listening to this teaching. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen.

 

Thank you so much for listening to today's show. I appreciate you very, very much. Don't forget, go to our website for the show. The easiest way to get to it is at icmcollege.org/selftalk. There you can access any of our previous over 200 episodes. You can like, you can subscribe, you can get on our email list. Don't forget to share it with your friends. Again, thank you for being a part of Self Talk. God bless you.