Prophetic Foundations Lesson One

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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Hey, I'm Dr. Ray Self, and this is Prophetic Foundations: Receiving and Activating the Prophetic Gift in You. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for today. I thank you, Father, for every person listening to my teaching today. Holy Spirit, have your way. I ask you to touch every heart, every mind, every spirit with this teaching. I ask you to speak through me. Speak to me and through me. Open up our hearts and our ears to receive what you have for us today. We do this for the glory and for the power of the kingdom of God. In the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen. And amen. 

 

Thank you for being a part of this course. I want to talk to you about our key verse. The key verse for this course is 1 Corinthians 14:1. “Pursue love, yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially that ye would prophesy.” Pay attention to that verse. It's not an optional verse. If we believe the Bible is the word of God, then His commandments desire and require a response. If the Bible's the word of God, and I ask this question a lot to my students, “How many here believe the Bible's the word of God? It's the absolute truth?” Everybody says, "Yeah, I believe that. I believe that." “How many believe that we should do what the Bible says?” “Oh, yeah. Ah, yeah.” And then you hit them with some scriptures, and they go, mm, they get a little quiet. But you see, the gift of prophecy is not optional. It's a commandment. It's a commandment for all of us. And I'm not getting out of context. Let's talk about this a little bit. 

 

Now, first thing I want you to understand that as a Christian, your life should be supernatural. Christians should be operating supernatural. You are born again supernaturally. You're filled with the Holy Spirit. It's a supernatural. The supernatural lives within you. Let's look at Acts 1:8. Acts 1:8. Jesus talking here. It's in red. Maybe, perhaps, we should pay attention. “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria, even to the remotest part of the earth.” You shall receive what? Power, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and then you shall be a witness. You see, so many people witness Christ, I, I hate to say it, but in their flesh. And then they tell people about Christ, and then they explain Christ and, and they argue Christ. But you see, a true witness of Christ does it with power. It's a– a Christian is a supernatural person. When we're born again, it's a supernatural act. Flowing in the supernatural is something we're all required to do. And Jesus wants us not only be His witness in word, but in deed. And the deed is supernatural. 

 

Who is a witness? A witness is someone who represents Christ. A faithful witness of Christ should demonstrate His power. Let me say that again. A faithful witness of Christ should demonstrate His power. Isn't that what Jesus did? Jesus told John's disciples, "If you don't believe the words I say, believe the works that I do." So, a Christian should have a, an ability– a, all Christians who have the Holy Spirit have the ability to move and flow supernaturally. Sadly, we don't see it enough, but it's there. And I want to help you in this teaching. What my goal is, I want you to be imparted and activated with the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. If you have the Holy Spirit in you and you're filled with the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit is inside your heart. It's inside your spirit, and you have this ability. But sadly, we're not taught this. We're not stirred in this. And so many churches are so programmed, they don't even allow room for this. But I want to tell you something. Moving supernaturally is a critical part of our life as Christians.

 

1 Corinthians 2:4, Paul was talking. Listen to Paul. Now Paul wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, right? Two-thirds of the New Testament. But he said something interesting in 1 Corinthians 2:4. He said, "My message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in a demonstration of the Spirit and power." Paul was an incredible preacher, an incredible teacher. I mean, two-thirds of the New Testament. We've been reading his writings for 2,000 years. And what did he say? He said, "My message was…” “My message was not just words of wisdom, but it was a demonstration of the Spirit and power." See, Paul didn't just tell people about Jesus. He did what Jesus did. And you see, we love to tell people about Jesus. You know, have you met the Lord Jesus Christ? Do, do you know that if– you'll go to heaven when you're saved, what are you going to– how, how are you going to get into heaven? What's your answer going to be when you stand before the, the throne of judgment? And that's all good stuff. But you see, as a Christian, our job, our requirement, our commandment is to move supernaturally. 

 

And I want to tell you something: One of the greatest ways to move supernaturally is to prophesy to someone. I love to move prophetically. I love, love, love to see how it changes people's lives, how it gives glory to the kingdom of God, how it, how it increases people's faith. It's just, it's an amazing gift. And to– in this course, I'm going to teach you about it. We're going to stir it. We're going to activate it. And perhaps you, you have the gift, but it's like you really haven't known what to do with it. Or maybe the gift is kind of driving you a little crazy. So many times, people who have the gift of prophecy don't really understand what it is or what's happening to them, but there's something different going on, but they're really undisciplined in it, unsure about it. And one thing that we can do, and I've done this for years, is I can take people with the gift of prophecy and let it make sense to them. Because when you, when you start to flow in it, it makes sense. And it's not hard. Jesus said, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Amen. 

 

You know, we as Christians have been born again supernaturally. The supernatural is part of our DNA. It's part of who we are. You know, um I can tell you story after story after story of how the supernatural brings glory to God. One story I like to tell is about um, sitting at the airport in Miami. Uh, I'm at the, I'm at a restaurant in the Miami airport and I'm sitting there with a couple of the pastors and the server comes up. It's a crowded, it's a crowded restaurant and the server comes up to our table and she looks at me, and for some reason the Holy Spirit began to speak and, and I looked at her and I, I began to speak to her. I said, "Do you have a…two daughters?" She goes, "Well, yeah. How'd you know that?" I said, "Well, I'm, I'm a pastor. And, and the Lord was speaking to me about you.” And I began to give her a prophetic word about her daughters and about her. And the Lord, we…call it reading her mail. And I was just speaking what the Holy Spirit was telling me to say to her. It was just flowing out of me. It wasn't something I was conscious of. I mean, I was conscious of it, but you see, the, the Spirit of God, the, prophecy is like a river. Sometimes it, it just flows. And so, these words began to flow out of me. Here we are in this crowded restaurant. And she looks at me wide-eyed and she begins to cry. And she's, her tears started flowing down her face. And then all of a sudden, here we are at this restaurant. And next thing I know, she's on her knees with her head laying on the table and she's crying. And then of course this, this lady, she had no shot because I was, I was with two other very powerful pastors. And make a long story short, they lifted her head up and she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior right there. You see, she saw the supernatural, and it was a witness of Christ and it was a, a method that Jesus uses to bring people to Him. 

 

Most Christians, we have no problem obeying easy commandments. But then when something comes to us that's entirely beyond our natural ability, many of us falter. Yeah. I mean, I can, you know, “Forgive, you shall be forgiven.” Okay. You know, I, I work on that pretty well. You know, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Yeah, I, I work on that. Do that. I think I do that pretty well, you know. And be kind, you know, give, as a, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” Uh, uh, give generously. So, sowing and reaping, all the, these kind of commandments we do. But then all of a sudden, we'll come to something like John 14:12 when Jesus said, "Those that believe in me will do the same works that I did and even greater works.” What? I'm supposed to do what Jesus did?" Yeah. Well, you remember the old bracelet, “What would Jesus do?” Yeah, what Jesus would do is heal the sick and raise the dead. Uh, cast out demons. That's what we're called to do. Christians are supernatural beings. We should be flowing supernatural, but I'm going to focus on the gift of prophecy. The Bible requires much that’s beyond our natural ability. Operating in the spiritual gifts is critical. You know, my seminary professor once told me, "You can always tell when it's God operating in your life because it's bigger than you.” It's more than you. It's greater than you. That's how you know when it's the Lord. And God wants to stre– He will stretch you. And moving in the prophetic gift and spiritual gifts, manifestation gifts, it is a stretch. It will make you uncomfortable. But isn't it worth it? Isn't it worth it to be uncomfortable? And sometimes you may even get embarrassed. You may miss it, you may, you may falter. You may blow it. But so many times, God gets glory. People get saved, people's faith rises. It's an amazing gift. It's great for the kingdom of God. It's won– and it's powerful. It is powerful. 

 

I want to read the scripture to you again. Think about this. John 14:12. “Truly, truly…” Jesus is talking here. “...I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also, and greater works than these, he will do because I go to the Father.” Do you believe in Jesus? Jesus said, If you believe in Him, you'll do the works that He did and even greater works. Now, Jesus was not talking about just being nice and being a teacher. He was talking about miracles. He was referring to miracles, doing greater miracles than Him. Listen, read it for yourself. Some people go, “Oh, that greater works means because there's so many Christians today, we're doing greater works, that means more works.” No. Jesus said, let the Bible speak of itself, you'll do the same works that He did and even greater works. And prophecy is a key part of that. So, let's look at the gift of prophecy. That's what this course is about. 

 

The following scripture is not a principle, but a commandment. 1 Corinthians 14:39, Paul wrote, "Wherefore, brethren…” this is probably King James. It is King James, “Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy. Forbid not to speak with tongues.” Covet to prophesy. Are you doing that? Do you covet to prophesy? Well, why not? There's a commandment. We have 1 Corinthians 14:1, earn– “Earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially that you would prophesy.” Those are commandments. Those are not options. Now, listen. I, I get a little passionate about this because churches don't teach this, but my belief is the Bible's the word of God. If the Bible's the word of God, we have a responsibility to do what it says. And it tells me I should desire the gift of prophecy. It tells me not only should I desire it, but I should covet that gift. And I love to ask this question: If God wants us to desire something and asks us to desire something and then God says to covet something, why would He withhold it from us? He doesn't withhold it. You see, as a father, God's not going to ask me to desire something, to covet something, to, to want something, to, to, to earnestly seek Him on something and then never give it to me. The gift of prophecy is all about hearing God. Jesus said, "My sheep know Me…” They, “...they hear My voice, and they know Me, and they follow Me." See, prophecy is simply about hearing our Savior talk to us. I'm a little bit radical on this. My belief is that every Christian has the ability to prophesy. And I know sometimes people get ostracized by that and say, "No, no, no. It's just for the people who have the gift." Well, I don't know. Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice. My sheep hear My voice, and they follow me.” I think we all have the gift of prophecy. Now, let me put it this way. We all have the ability to prophesy. Now, listen. I'm going to talk about a distinction between the office of the prophet and the gift of prophecy. I believe there is a distinction between the office of the prophet and the pastor and the evangelist, the five-fold ministry, and the gift of prophecy. We'll, we'll talk about that. All right. So, if we believe the word of God is true, we should obey what it says. Amen. God asked us to desire and covet the gift of prophecy. 

 

Now, according to the American Dictionary of English Language by Noah Webster, the word covet means to desire or wish for with eagerness, to desire earnestly, to obtain or possess. Do you desire earnestly to obtain or possess the gift of prophecy? You say, "Well, I've never really, really wanted that gift because, you know, I see people flow in it, but I've never really wanted that gift." Well, I get it. In your flesh, you've never really wanted that gift. However, the Bible says that we should desire that gift. The Bible tells all Christians to covet that gift. Wouldn't it be great if the whole body of Christ began to prophesy and begin to hear God's voice and begin to move like that? Now, maybe that's an extreme position, but I don't know. I just, I like what the Bible says. [laughter] I think it's important. Nothing is more important than hearing God speak. You know, Paul writes about the gifts, um, the gifts of the Spirit, the manif– we call them the manifestation gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. And he talks about - and we'll talk about the words of wisdom, words of knowledge, miracles, faith, tongues, discerning of spirits, interpretation of tongues, all these, uh, incredible gifts. But he says, "Of all the gifts, of all the gifts, the one gift I want you to desire the most is prophecy." One day in my, my uh, quiet time, I was uh, kind of, just kind of curious, “God, why? I mean, what about healing? I mean, healing cancer, you know, uh, deliverance, you know, casting out demons and tongues, interpretation of tongues and miracles. Those are so great. Why prophecy?” And then I really felt the Holy Spirit told me that nothing is more important, nothing is more important than hearing what God has to say. And I'll tell you this: when you hear what God has to say, then healing takes place. When you hear what God has to say, then deliverance takes place. When you're hearing what God has to say, then there's words of knowledge and words of wisdom. There, there's miracles. There's faith. See, with God's voice, starts it all. And that's why it's so important. God wants us to hear Him. “My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me.” Really interesting little side note here. 

 

In the old days, go back to Bethlehem, the shepherds, what they would do in a town like Bethlehem: The sheep, the shepherds at night would bring their sheep into town, and all the shepherds would take their flocks, and they put them in this one very large sheep pen. Okay? And it had a gate and a gatekeeper. So all the sheep would be put in this one pen. Now there may be 10 different shepherds who put all their sheep together at night in this one sheep pen with a gatekeeper. And Jesus talks a lot about the gatekeeper, you know, and the thief that comes in to steal the sheep. But then Jesus said one thing that kind of made this all clear to me. In the next morning, the shepherds would come to lead their sheep out to their pasture, okay? To their high places. And He would say, "My sheep know…” their– “My voice and they follow Me." So the shepherds would come to the gate. The gatekeeper would recognize that this is a real shepherd. This is a legitimate shepherd. He'd open up the gate, and the shepherd would make a call, and he would start to walk, and the sheep that belong to that particular shepherd would follow him out of the sheep pen. 

 

Only the sheep that belong to the shepherd making the call. So Jesus was saying, "I am a shepherd, and the sheep that belong to Me when I come to the sheep pen and the gatekeeper opens the gate. I'm going to make a call, and my sheep know My voice, and they follow Me." So the sheep learned how to recognize the voice of their individual shepherds, and they would follow their shepherd out to the pastures. That's the beautiful picture of Jesus calling us. But if you don't know His voice and don't recognize when He's talking to you, how will you follow Him? And the prophecy, moving prophetically, is simply hearing God say something and repeating it to an individual. Maybe it's for yourself, maybe it's to your spouse, to your children, to the community, to the nation. That's what prophecy is. Amen. So let's look at, uh, types of gifts. I like to divide the gifts, and I think scripture makes a beautiful case for dividing the gifts into three categories. Now this is not etched in stone in the Law of Moses so to speak, but it's also, but ,it's very, very clear, three types of gifting. The first type of gifting I want to talk about is what is commonly known as the five-fold ministry. Ephesians 4:11, “He gave some as apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.” This is known as a five-fold ministry. This represents- some studies have shown this represents about 5% of the body of Christ. About 5%. These are leadership positions. Some people call them offices, commonly known as offices. They're given by Jesus. They're not simply gifting, although they are gifts, but they are offices. They represent church leadership. Now, if you read this in context, it says right before that, a few verses before that in Ephesians, it said “He who,” uh, “descended is also He who ascended and He gave gifts to men.” Then it begins to mention these five gifts. So I ask my students many times, I'll ask you, “Well, who is He who descended and He who ascended? Jesus. Jesus is the one who descended and ascended far into the heavenlies. Well, Jesus gives us the five-fold ministry. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. That's a whole series right there just to talk about the five-fold ministry given by Jesus. 

 

Then a second category of gifts, I want to talk about three categories of gifting, is the manifestation gifts. 1 Corinthians 12:7-10. “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all:” This is out of King James. “for the one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.” Now, these are known as the manifestation gifts. Who are they given by? The Holy Spirit. It's the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. The word manifest means evidence of. So when you hear the term manifestation gifts, that means scripturally evidence of the Holy Spirit. They are good for the body of Christ. They are to be desired earnestly by all believers, and they're not to be neglected. 1 Timothy 4:14, "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of hands of the presbytery." Now it says in, I believe verse seven, it says, "The manifestation of the Spirit is for the common good." These gifts, these nine gifts, words of wisdom, words of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues, they're for the good of the body of Christ. They're for the good of everyone. That's why it's so important. Paul always wanted to see the body of Christ blessed. These gifts will manifest for the good of the group. And I often say this: not to desire spiritual gifts is selfish. It is selfish because when you do not desire a spiritual gift, since they're really not for you, the, for the good of the group, you're, you're depriving the group, your group, of a blessing. These gifts are to be earnestly desired. They're to be earnestly desired, especially the gift of prophecy because they're good for people around you. It is, and I wanna be blunt here, it is selfish. I wa– It is selfish not to desire a spiritual gift. 

 

Not to desire a spiritual gift. It is selfish because people need you. Your, your family needs you to move in the manifestation gifts of the Holy Spirit. Your church needs you to move in the manifestation gifts of the Holy Spirit. Your community, our nation, we need these gifts. They're for the good of all. Get it? That’s why, that's why Paul tells us, well, the Lord tells us through Paul to earnestly desire these gifts. [sighs] Let's look at the third category. The third category of gifts I want to talk about are the motivational gifts. Romans 12:4-8. Now, this is a whole nother series in itself, but I'm just going to touch on this. Romans 12:4-8. “For as in one body, we have many members and all members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, individually members of one another. Having gifts,” that's a key word, “having gifts that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with compassion.” These gifts are natural gifts. Actually interpreting this, the, the word prophecy in this particular context actually interprets as perceiving. Now there's the gift of teaching, the gift of serving, the gift of exhortation, the gift of compassion. These, this is not supernatural. These are natural gifts. Natural gifts. Serving, the hands of Christ; compassion, the heart of Christ; administration, the shoulders of Christ, okay. These are natural gifts. These are gifts you're born with. The teacher, the server, the exhorter, the perceiver. Now, I could do a lot of teaching on this, but these are natural gifts that are created within us. So, here's something very, very beautiful. When you look at these three gifts, you have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You have Jesus giving us the five-fold ministry. You have the Holy Spirit giving us the manifestation gifts of the Holy Spirit, the manifestation gifts. And you have God giving us, the Creator giving us the motivational gifts. What I see in here, three categories of gifting. Motivational gifts, manifestation gifts, five-fold ministry representing, representing the Trinity. Isn't that beautiful? 

 

It's so beautiful. Now, what I want you to get clear is do not confuse a natural gift with a supernatural gift. The gift of exhortation is a natural gift. The gift of serving is a natural gift. Now, it's created in you, and you, you have it your whole life. The gift of teaching is a natural gift. The gift of compassion is a natural gift created in you by God. Now, if you're interested, I have a testing on this. I believe what um, some years ago, there was a study done. Actually, it's kind of in the late 80s. A study was done by a couple called Don and Katie Fortune called Discover Your God-given Gift. And what they did was they interviewed over 10,000 Christians. 

 

10,000 Christians about this particular gifting. And what they determined was, and their study was, that these six gifts or seven gifts are actually personality types. And through their study, they determined that everybody has a particular blend of these motivational gifts. Some gifts they're strong in, some gifts they're not as strong in. But when you put these motivational gifts together in each one of us, it actually is a personality determiner. It actually shapes our personality. Uh, for instance, there's the perceiver who's black and white, blunt, outspoken, opinionated, John the Baptist. There's the server, can do anything with their hands. Great with fixing. Great, great with uh, uh, achieving things. Uh, creating things, making things happen with their hands. The exhorter, the counselor, always got a lot of words; can always encourage you, uh, just doing everything to make you feel good. The gift of compassion, the tender heart, the people with the tender heart who, uh, just feel what you feel, have this incredible capacity to love and show mercy and, and, and to give kindness to everybody and to forgive. The administrator who's the visionary who can create a vision and make it happen, can create a plan and make it come to pass. And you put all these gifts together, and it forms a picture of you. Um, you know, for instance, my primary gift, I have two primary giftings. My gift is compassion and the gift of perceiving, which means I'm kind of a Jeremiah prophet. I mean, I could, I can prophesy, and I'll probably cry with you. I have a very tender heart. Some prophetic people do not have a tender heart. The, the, the s– gift of serving, I know people with this gift of serving. The people with the gift of serving can do anything with their hands. They can fix your car. They can fix your washing machine. They can do, run your electrical wires. They can stack the chairs in the church. You name it, they can do it with their hands because they have this incredible gift. And real quickly, these gifts, the motivational gifts, represent different parts of the body. The motivational gift of perceiving is known as the eyes of Christ. The gift of compassion is known as the heart of Christ. The gift of exhortation is known as the mouth of Christ. The, the gift of giving is known as the arms of Christ. The gift of serving is known as the hands of Christ. You're getting the picture here. So what happens is when you put all the motivational gifts together, you have a picture of the body of Christ. Each one of us are a different part of the body of Christ. That's why there's, some people are servers, some people are exhorters, some people are givers, some people are administrators, some people are servers, and some people are perceivers. Now I know this is not our primary topic, but what I want to get you to understand is there are supernatural gifts, and there are natural gifts. The motivational gifts are natural, created gifts in you. Perceiving, compassion, exhortation, serving, teaching. These are natural gifts, and they're wonderful gifts. So again, what we have here is we have Jesus giving us the five-fold ministry, the Holy Spirit giving us the manifestation gifts, and God giving us what I call the motivational gifts. 

 

And again, the survey, and I, and I've, I have a testing. I want to give you an opportunity. There's a little bit of a sidetrack here. I know I'm sidetracking, but if you're interested in going further in this particular topic, like understanding your motivational gift, understanding who God created you to be, understanding your husband and your children, there– if you'll email me, drrayself@gmail.com, d r r a y s e l f@gmail.com, I'll send you the motivational gift test. You take it, you'll see this for yourself. It's a beautiful way of seeing your created personality. Now, so moving on, we have the manifestation gifts, the motivational gifts, and we have the five-fold ministry. All right. And, thank you. This concludes part one.

 

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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.