Activate The Prophetic
BY Todd Bentley
The purpose of this teaching is to get you prophesying. For some of you, it will just be a matter of you stirring up the gifting that’s already within you. Others may have functioned in a level of the prophetic before and will be stretched to prophesy more than they have before. On the other hand, some of you haven’t prophesied yet and will prophesy for the first time before we’re done. We could call this a prophetic party. I believe that you’re going to be so edified, encouraged, comforted and built up with what the Holy Spirit is going to speak to you; you’re going to float into a prophetic season of your life. The Spirit of prophecy is going to come on your life.
Before I activate you in the prophetic, I’m going to talk about how to test a prophetic word, how to receive it and how to stir up the anointing in your life so that you can prophesy and speak the words of God. God is raising up prophetic people and He’s releasing prophetic oil. He doesn’t want us just to get knowledge of the prophetic. So by the time we leave this session, you are going to be prophesying. I’m excited about what’s going to happen in your life.
I’m going to lay out some guidelines here about how you’re going to be released into prophetic activation. God wants you to prophesy and He also wants your prophetic gifting to go beyond just ministering in the prophetic anointing in a church setting. I believe that if we are God’s prophetic people, we are prophetic in our homes, in the work place and just about anywhere we are. You can stir up the prophetic gift anywhere and use it even among unbelievers. In 1 Corinthians 14 we see that if an unbeliever comes into one of our meetings and people are prophesying, then that person will be convicted, fall on his face and say, “God is really among you!” That kind of response, I believe, doesn’t just happen because of the word—there’s something about the prophetic anointing that goes with evangelism.
TAKE THE PROPHETIC TO THE MARKETPLACE
So take what you receive in this teaching and expect that next time you’re in a public place and you make yourself available to wait on the Holy Spirit that He’ll give you a word of knowledge for someone. I believe that God wants His prophetic people to be prophetic not just when they’re in the anointed atmosphere of a meeting. Why don’t you create a prophetic atmosphere in the restaurant? Why don’t you create a prophetic atmosphere in your home? Do you ever minister to your children or others in your home with a word of knowledge or with revelation? I find that sometimes the word of knowledge will come out of me in the most natural circumstances—I’ll have a vision or receive a supernatural insight from God and deliver it out in the marketplace.
God wants us to have that word right in your workplace, right when you’re sitting at the lunch table. Look at the guy next to you, pray in the Spirit and say: “Tell me something about Him Lord”. Then you may be led to ask something like, “Are you having a problem with your blood pressure lately? Have you got high blood pressure?” Then all of a sudden, you’re ministering. He’ll likely ask, “How did you know about that?” Then you can say, “I was just listening for God’s voice because I believe He wanted to talk to you. I believe He showed me you had high blood pressure. Can I pray for that?” Its time that, if you want to function in the prophetic, you’re going to have to be willing to get out of the boat and onto the water and into the unknown. The anointing is the unknown, but the prophetic is the unknown as well.
Jesus also liked to take the prophetic anointing outside the church. Remember the time Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. It was there that Jesus had a powerful word of knowledge. A word of knowledge is the prophetic—it’s just a different expression of prophecy. One of my favourite ways that the Holy Spirit will use me in the prophetic is in the word of knowledge. I’ll know things about people – past, present, future. When Jesus ministered in that level of the prophetic anointing with the woman in John 14 He told her about events in her life. Not only did she get saved, she told the people of the city what had happened and they came out to listen to Jesus for themselves. Then there was a revival in the city because of one prophetic word.
PROPHETIC ENCOUNTER IN THE RESTAURANT
Once after a meeting in Abbotsford, I was in a restaurant looking for a woman-at-the-well experience. I challenged the rest of the people at my table by asking, “Is the prophetic anointing just for the church? Is prophecy only to be used within the structure of the local church or is the prophetic anointing to be used beyond the church, even for the lost?” When the waitress came over, we were making ourselves available for a word from the Lord for this unbeliever. Then God gave us some precise insights. I said, “You grew up as a Catholic and when you were 12 years old you were sexually abused at a Catholic camp.” Then my friend said, “I see your apartment and on the balcony of your apartment are bird cages.” After that I told her that she didn’t want to get saved because of her non-Christian boyfriend. The Holy Spirit gave us these powerful prophetic words to minister to our waitress simply because we waited on the Him while we were having supper.
So I want to challenge you to be prophetic people beyond just prophesying over one another today—take the prophetic to the unbeliever. Take it into your home and get words of knowledge about your kids. Get words of knowledge about why they’re in the bondage they’re in and get the key that’s going to unlock the doors in their lives that will bring positive change. You need God’s spoken rhema word, not just human wisdom. I find that it’s easy to get into ministry mode at church but what about getting into ministry mode in your home? Why don’t you get into ministry mode in the workplace? Sometimes I’ll line unbelievers up at the restaurant and prophesy over them all… or I’ll just give a word of knowledge to the lady at the Wendy’s drive through. Let’s just give the word of the Lord in some of the most natural places. The bible talks a lot about the supernatural. However, let’s think about that word supernatural. The first part is the ‘super’—I know you all like the super! But the second part tells us that the super is natural. I want to bring the super into the natural. God really does wants to release the prophetic through us in the most natural places and ways.
We also need to be ready to prophesy at any time. In the beginning, God would move me to give somebody a word without even having the word first. I know that many Christians have been trained to hear the voice of God by waiting until they get a thought or a picture. They believe that only then can they give the word and it will grow as they deliver it. However, I want you to know, there are times when I’ll be ministering in a meeting and God will tell me He wants me to prophesy. I may say, “Lord I don’t have anything for anyone.” In spite of my protests, He’ll say, “You see that whole row over there? Call them up and prophesy over every one of them right now in the service.” I can remember other times when I’ve worked with fellow prophetic ministers who really challenged me. I’ll tell you, it was a stretch when they said, “Alright Todd, you’re going to prophesy over everybody in the building.” Nowadays there are times in a meeting when God will just say, “There’s a grace Todd, there’s a spirit of prophecy. I’ll give you a release if you want it. Together we can prophesy over everybody in the church.” Then we’ll just line up everybody and minister for hours. Today I love these times! That’s why I’m free now; that’s why I like to activate people in the prophetic. But whether I’m in a meeting or not, I’m always seeking to walk in the prophetic. I will often sit down and say, “Lord, give me a word. Tell me something about that person.”
THE LAST DAY’S PROPHETIC SPIRIT POURED OUT
These truly are the days that God is pouring out His prophetic Spirit on His people. This passage is quite familiar but let’s consider Acts 2:17 again: “It shall come to pass in the last days, says God, I will pour my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Young men shall see visions; your old men shall dream dreams. On my men servants and on my maid servants I will pour out my Spirit in those days and they shall prophesy.” In these verses God is talking about pouring His Spirit out on every single believer because He wants all His sons and daughters to prophesy. This outpouring is not just for the prophet or the prophetic ministry. He wants us all to have visions and dreams.
You may be thinking, “I don’t know how to prophesy. What am I going to say?” The Father says, “I will pour out my Spirit”. It’s when the Holy Spirit comes upon you that the word of the Lord begins to flow. You know how easy it is to prophesy? It’s just a matter of opening your mouth by faith and He will fill it. You can be confident that you can prophesy because the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. God talks to you all the time—you just have to be able to hear God. Maybe you just don’t have your spiritual ears tuned to His voice. However, if you are listening, it’s impossible not to hear God because the Spirit has been poured out on you, according to His promise.
The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of you and it’s the presence of the Holy Spirit that comes and releases the prophetic word. “I will pour out my Spirit and you shall prophesy.” When the Holy Spirit is poured out, the first thing that happens isn’t tongues, its prophecy. We can find examples of this in 1 Samuel 10:6 and 19:20… with accounts of Samuel and the prophets (people in the office of the prophet) who were prophesying. They were prophesying over the nation of Israel and one another— it was a prophetic conference.
COMING UNDER THE MANTLE OF PROPHECY
In most cases in the Old Testament, you can see the diversity of gifts far more distinctly than you can see them in the body of Christ today. You knew Saul was king—that was it. David was king. Prophets were prophets. Aaron was priest. Moses was a prophet. Solomon was a king. In one scriptural account, the people of Israel are completely amazed when the king (Saul) prophesies. At the direction of the prophet Samuel, God sends King Saul to stand where these prophets are prophesying. When Saul comes under the same prophetic mantle, the Spirit of God came on him and he prophesied. He was king so he had never prophesied before. (Maybe that’s like you—you’ve never prophesied before.) But the Holy Ghost came on Saul and he didn’t just give a little prophetic word, he prophesied all day and all night. There was such accuracy to that prophetic word that the rest of the people asked, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”
Do you know why you’re going to prophesy? Because the same Spirit that fell on Saul and was poured out at Pentecost has now been poured out on all God’s sons and daughters, according to scripture. The Holy Spirit is going to enable you to have the word of the Lord when you minister over others. The Holy Spirit is with you at home, at work and in the restaurant—in the most natural, common places. You look at that passage in 1 Samuel 19—it talks about common folks coming under the anointing of Samuel and the prophets. They weren’t prophets or even recognized leaders in the church—they were just messengers of Saul. Yet the Spirit of the Lord came on them and they prophesied. In the same way, I’m believing that you’re going to come under a prophetic anointing, the mantle of prophesy, so you’ll are able to prophesy words of edification, comfort and exhortation over one another.
Now does God want you to minister in the prophetic? Is there even a place in the bible where you can just prophesy over others at will? You may be thinking, “What are you talking about Todd? How can you turn prophesy on and off? You can’t turn on the prophetic—it’s either going to come in God’s sovereignty or it’s not going to come. You can’t just turn it on and off as you want.” Well, I don’t believe that. I believe that Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice.” And I’ll tell you something--all you have to do is be in a place of listening. Remember, God is our Abba, Father in heaven.
GOD IS ALWAYS SPEAKING TO HIS CHILDREN
It would be unthinkable for me to go into my Father’s living room, sit with him for four hours and never have him say anything to me. That just wouldn’t happen. Perhaps some of you had a real dysfunctional home where that kind of thing would happen. But really, whenever I go home to my wife or go over to visit my father, they always have something to say. So why is it that some Christians believe God only talks once in a while when it’s really important? Can you imagine having a Dad like that in the natural—one who only ever said anything to you when He needed to bring correction, direction or discipline? I mean—the Father wants to talk to you all the time, not just once a year at a prophetic conference. God wants to speak to you in just about every situation, every moment of your life—you’ve just got to learn to position yourself to hear what God’s saying. Learn how to stir up the prophetic and learn how to be available to His Spirit.
So there is a place for prophetic activation and practice within proper guidelines. In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul brings correction and presents some guidelines to the Corinthians who were beginning to grow prideful about the visions and revelations they were receiving from God. It seems that they were somehow competing with one another to see who had the most powerful prophetic word. So because of visions or angelic visitations, some of these people began to think too highly of themselves. Then Paul says to them, “What do you mean—you’re not God’s man of the hour. You can all prophesy one by one that you all may learn.” I can call anybody up, and if they’re willing to step into the unknown, lay down their dignity and be available, they’ll hear from God. Likewise, if you, my reader, will take the time to hear God, fulfill His requirements to live a prophetic lifestyle and stir up the prophetic, you will grow very quickly in this gift. Scripture is clear that we can all prophesy one by one. And you know why? There is a place for activating and stirring up the prophetic. When we practice ministering in the prophetic, this is the level that we start at: “… you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn” (I Cor. 14:31).
You’re not going to become a prophet after this activation. However, you’re going to learn to prophesy so that you may learn and that you might be encouraged in the fact that you hear God and you don’t just hear God once a year. I’ll tell you, if I was to stand up and talk about how many times God talks to me on a daily basis, you would lock me out of the church. Because you would be like, “What do you mean ‘God said, God said, God said.’” I run into people all the time who ask, “God said?” To them, God is quiet and only talks when He is angry. “He only talks when He wants to reveal your sin,” they say. “God only talks to you when you need a heavy revy,” they say, “God doesn’t just want to speak to you in intimacy. Forget about it—don’t even expect to hear from God.”
SOME PROPHETIC GUIDELINES
Well, I believe that God is far more personal than that. I expect that, every day when I wake up out of my bed, I’m going to hear a word from the Lord. You know, those words won’t always be about direction and the future. As we minister over one another this afternoon, forget about stuff that involves direction and future. Let’s just keep the guidelines of the prophetic ministry to comfort, edification, exhortation and confirmation (1 Cor. 14:3). Stay away from dates and telling people about the one that they’re going to marry. Stay in the place of prophesying one by one that you may learn.
When you speak God’s mind and heart, you are prophesying. Really, it’s so easy to hear God’s voice. Scripture tells you, in 1 Corinthians 2, that the Spirit that lives inside of you searches out the deep things of God. This passage shows you why you can expect to hear God for others and why you can expect to hear God any time you position yourself in prophetic ministry mode. Here we read about why God wants to speak and why He wants to speak to you, not just the prophet and not just the church leadership. God wants you to be a prophetic person. Let’s look at a passage from 1 Corinthians:
However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those that love Him.” God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in Him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” (1 Cor. 2:11)
The Holy Spirit knows right now everything that is in the heart of the Father about every person reading this. He knows right now every deep thought that God has for each and every person in this room. He knows what you need to hear. The Spirit of God is searching out the deep things of God; He’s searching out the heart; He’s searching out the secrets of the Father. And He has these special thoughts for every individual that the Father has created. Verse 12 of this same chapter says, “Now we have received, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”
GOD’S INNUMERABLE THOUGHTS TOWARD US
The Holy Spirit dwells inside of you, full of revelation. And the Holy Spirit dwells inside of you so that you are able to tap into the deep things of the Father for, not only your own lives, but for you, for me, for us as individuals. And you know why you can prophesy—because you’re going to be relying on that well of the Holy Ghost that’s inside of you to reveal to you something about somebody you’re going to have an opportunity to minister to. You know David says, “How innumerable are the thoughts of God towards us.” Yes, He has an innumerable amount of thoughts toward you. So if I want to prophesy over someone, all I have to do is say, “Holy Spirit, give me revelation right now; allow me to tune into just one thought”.
I’ll tell you, you’ve ministered in the prophetic even when you speak to somebody one thought; when God gives you one mental picture and you don’t even have an interpretation and you just speak that picture, you’ve prophesied. Through the Holy Ghost, you’ve just tuned into the deep things of God and got one of those innumerable thoughts. That’s all I’m going to ask you to do. I’m not going to ask you to tap into the multitude of the innumerable thoughts of God and prophesy for one hour over one individual. We’re just going to say, “Holy Spirit thanks that You know the deep things of God. You know the things of the Father. I want you to give me just one thought, one word, for that person. As you make yourself available, expect that you can prophesy. The prophetic anointing is for you. We’re speaking about bubbling forth out of your spirit, past or present or future.
Now I want to talk here for a minute about how to recognize God’s voice. How do you know when God has spoken? How does He communicate with us? In the book of Hebrews, it talks about God speaking to the prophets in various ways. God could also communicate to you the prophecy that He wants to give in a vision or in a dream. I’ve been caught up into the third heaven; I’ve had angelic visitations. I’ve had open-eyed visions, closed-eye visions. The Holy Spirit has come and spoken to me right out of the word of God—a scripture jumped off of the page. I’ve been spoken to through some of the most natural donkeys of the world, including television. Prophetic ministries have spoken God’s words to me. Nobody taught me this but these are some of the ways God speaks to me.
So how do I get a word of knowledge? How do I know whose getting healed? In Prince George, the Holy Ghost gave me one word and He said somebody that’s deaf is going to hear. So I said, “If you’re deaf, come up here. You’re going to hear.” Now I’ll tell you something—you’re stepping out on the water to say something like that. Not only was there a lady who was deaf, but she could hear nothing in either ear without hearing aids. By the end of the night, she testified, God had healed her deaf ears. I just had that one God thought; I saw one deaf person. But what if I never spoke that word because I was afraid that it wasn’t going to be God? That’s one of the hurdles that you’re got to get over in the prophetic—the possibility that you can miss God. It’s all right when you’re two years old not to be walking as well as you will when you’re 10. It’s all right to talk babble sometimes—it’s all right to not understand all the great mysteries of the prophetic and it’s OK if you’re not trained by the best. It’s all right because “you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn” (1 Cor. 14:31).
ESTABLISHING A PROPHETIC LEARNING ATMOSPHERE
There has to be room for you to be able to learn and make a mistake. There has to be an atmosphere in which you can test all things, where you can speak and operate in the prophetic. Then you will be encouraged when that person says, “You heard God for me”. The next time you prophesy, you will feel a little more confident. That’s why I want to activate you in the prophetic—to build a confidence in you that not only can you prophesy, but that when you do and the person receiving the word confirms it for you, your confidence level will begin to grow. You’ve gotta begin to have that release. I came to a place, not just in the prophetic, but in the anointing, where it’s OK if I missed it. It’s OK if I say what I think I’m seeing and nobody responds.
So let’s just talk about some of the ways that God speaks. You know God will speak to you where you are. He’ll speak in various ways, different for every person. One of the first ways that God will speak is in smells. God spoke to me when I was first saved about a spirit of death that was on somebody. I was sitting in a trailer with a guy who we had won to Christ. He had been an alcoholic bum in the town, and we had got him all cleaned up. When he sat in that trailer with me and my friend, one of the things the Holy Spirit said to me (I was only a couple of months old in the Lord) was that there was a spirit of death on this guy. You know how he spoke to me? I smelt this raunchy, swampy, mud-like, rancid odour. Next, I had a vision of his face becoming a scull and then a face again. Through those experiences, I felt the Holy Spirit say this guy was going to die. He died within a week. That was one of the first experiences I had with the reality of God talking to me. I was just saved from drug addiction, prison, the occult and the ungodly lifestyle that I had before I knew Jesus. A couple months later God was talking to me in my former drug dealer’s trailer. It was incredible.
Today, God speaks to me in aromas all the time. The fragrance of the Lord once visited me in Prince George. I’ve also experienced those fragrances at times when I’ve been in my room alone. God will come with the smell of vanilla, roses, cinnamon and burning incense. He’ll sometimes even give me a revelation of the direction and the change of the flow of the meeting by allowing me one whiff of His fragrance. That’s how God will get my attention and I’ll just know we’re changing gears.
Another way that God speaks is in body impressions. I get a lot of these things especially when I’m ministering in the word of knowledge. In fact, I felt these kinds of words for a couple of people this morning—I kept just getting this impression of pain in my side. Then I saw somebody going, “aaaah” and wincing in pain. I just knew this was something that God wanted to touch. Sometimes when I get impressions, I’ll feel a pain in my chest going right down my side or I’ll have a ringing in my ears or a feeling in my eyes. Then I’ll just know that the Holy Spirit is going to heal somebody’s heart or vision or hearing. God will also speak through mental pictures. I’ll be preaching in a meeting when suddenly I’ll start to see pictures of miracles right in the middle of my sermon—then I’ll just stop and switch gears and let the healing anointing fall. You know, some of you have heard God and just didn’t realize it was God.
LISTENING TO GOD’S STILL SMALL VOICE
God will often also speak through the small voice. The small voice is usually a thought that interrupts your thought pattern. If I’m preaching and concentrating on what I’m saying and suddenly I start thinking of a guy with cancer at MacDonald’s then I’ll know God’s trying to get my attention. In response, I may say something like, “I heard God whispering to me about somebody with cancer in the meeting. Maybe you work at MacDonald’s.” So, how do you know that you’ve heard the still small voice of God? If all of a sudden a thought pops into your mind that is totally out of the context with what you happen to be thinking and speaking about at that moment, it’s God. You may be talking, thinking or daydreaming about something when an idea comes to you absolutely out of nowhere.
Sometimes I’ll be sitting in a service when someone else is ministering, listening intently to the word when, all of a sudden, I’ll start thinking about somebody coming out of a wheelchair. I may even start to feel guilty about thinking this way—“God, what am I doing thinking about glory falling, bodies on the floor and lining everybody up in the building and then going under the anointing while this guy is talking about teaching anointing?” I’ve learned to be able to discern the still voice of God because usually, when it comes, it doesn’t relate to anything I’m thinking or doing at that moment—it just seems like one of those abstract thoughts.
God also speaks through visions. Now you can have an open-eyed vision, which means you have an outward vision, or you can have visions where you’re not sure whether it’s outward or inward. And really it doesn’t matter because the message is the same. You know, some people measure and categorize their prophetic word and they want to know the details of how you got what you got rather. Why don’t we just give what we got and not even be concerned too much about how we got it.
One of the most practical things about the prophetic is this: after you get the revelation you need to have the interpretation (what’s God saying with the revelation) and then you need to deliver it correctly. You can have the revelation and interpretation and blow it on the delivery. You can have the revelation and delivery and blow it on your interpretation (which involves correct timing). Let me tell you something. If God takes me into heaven tonight—which He sometimes does in meetings—its not necessary for me to yell out, “I’m in heaven right now and I’m seeing an angel pouring out healing anointing and its coming down like golden honey.” All I have to do is say, “Healing anointing is coming down.” I don’t have to spiritualise it, dramatize what I’m getting and spook people. I don’t have to tell you how I got what I got—I just have to give you what I got. So many people constantly wonder: “Was it an open vision? Were your eyes open or were your eyes closed? Were you sleeping or were you awake? What do you mean you had a trance?”
DRIFTING INTO THE DREAM STATE WORLD OF TRANCES
Don’t worry about it! I tell you what a trance is like—you know that place when you’re in the dream state world and then you have a dream and you wake up and you know you just drifted off for that second? Well, I’ll be standing or sitting up, then go into that state and come out without going to sleep—my eyes are still open. When God gives me a trance, its like going into that dream-like state while you’re still awake. But when I have a trance experience, it’s not necessary for me to talk about the details.
God may put me into a trance and show me details of somebody that was sexually abused and has 18 years of depression. Then I see her walking out of her prison. I had this type of trance a couple of months ago; God even showed me who that person was and told me when the breakthrough was going to happen. In the trance, I was trying to cast the devil out of her. With her head down to the ground with depression on her, she looked up at me and described to me her problem. Then she put her head back down and I came out of the trance. When I went to the meeting, she was there. I ministered to her, cast out the demon and she got healed. But I didn’t have to tell her that I had her visit me in a trance. I just said, “God’s going to set you free of that depression” and then I minister the way that God showed me to.
We’ve also got to learn about how to deliver what God gives to us. If God gives me a word about how he’s going to heal you and pour His love into you, I won’t come and deliver that word by screaming over you with a hard tone in my voice. There are times I get so carried away by the excitement of the word that I forget to be sensitive. God wants us to have an appropriate delivery for the words He gives us. The spirit in which we give the word is important.
Today, I’m just giving you shotgun prophetic insights– shooting out little nuggets about a bunch of stuff. Another way God speaks to me is through mental pictures. For instance, He may give me a picture of somebody healed of asthma. It could be a picture, a memory, of somebody who got healed three months ago in a meeting I was in—he came off his breathing machine and ran around the church building. So God shows me a picture reminding me of that past incident and I’ll know that somebody in the meeting has asthma. I don’t always have the understanding of the picture either. So sometimes I just give the revelation and let the person interpret it.
Another way God speaks to us is through the audible voice—it’s as if someone was talking to you and you heard it with your natural ears. I’ve experienced the inner audible voice of God that sounds just like someone was talking to me out loud. I’ve also heard the audible voice of God like the time God came to me before I was in ministry. Actually, God and I had a conversation and He said to me, “Todd, tonight Pat Cocking is going to take up an offering in the middle of the service. She’s going to stop the meeting, you’re going to be released into the ministry and you’re going to become international.” And right before that I was working in the mill. Then His audible voice came and changed everything for me. Yes, I’ve had God speak to me in a very real audible way that sounded like many waters. There was a rumbling inside of my Spirit. But it doesn’t really matter if it’s the inner or the outer voice. The important question is: “Are you hearing God?” You know, God can come on you and do to you what He did to the donkey—He’ll cause you to prophesy and you won’t be able to help but speak. That’s called inspired utterance.
PAY ATTENTION TO HOLY GHOST FLASHBACKS
Another way that God speaks is through flashbacks. I call them Holy Ghost flashbacks. What He’ll do, as I mentioned a little earlier, I’ll remember an incident, a word, a devil I cast out or something that happened in a meeting. Sometimes I’ll be ministering over someone and I’ll sense a wall and I’ll be waiting on the Holy Ghost and He’ll just bring me back to this devil that I cast out of somebody last year and then I’ll cast it out of the person. A lot of times the Holy Spirit will bring a past situation to your remembrance in the midst of you ministering to somebody because He wants you to minister in the same way this time.
Now let me talk a little about stirring up the prophetic. Here are a few keys to develop a prophetic lifestyle. The first thing about the prophetic is this: if you want to hear God’s voice, you’ve got to have water in the well. The water is the word or God. If you don’t have a base of the word of God in your life, you don’t have anything to draw on. You may want the spoken word of the Lord but you haven’t even read your bible for a week. It doesn’t happen that way too often. Everybody wants the “woosh” of the prophetic. But whatever happened to meditating on God’s word day and night; whatever happened to digging nuggets of truth out of the bible; whatever happened to seeking God’s face with the bible, the concordance, the Greek/Hebrew books and the cross-reference tools? Yes, many Christians have an empty well but they want to prophesy. You need to have something for God to blow on to make it alive. When you’re full of the word of the Lord, then you have something to bubble out of your spirit.
Another way to stir up the prophetic is through tongues. Tongues and the prophetic are so closely linked. In fact, lets look at 1 Corinthians 14: “Let him who prays in an unknown tongue, pray that He might interpret.” Now you may think about that verse in the context of messages of tongues and interpretation in the congregation. But I believe that scripture can also be speaking of pray that you can interpret your own message in tongues. Why can’t I pray in tongues over someone right now and then get the interpretation over them too. If you watch me, I’m in listening mode when I’m in a meeting. I’m expecting to hear—I’m making myself available. I may be walking or someone could be leading worship when God keeps drawing my attention to somebody. Then I’ll know God wants to speak to that person. Sometimes I’ll pick out 10 people that I know I’m going to have a word for but I won’t have anything yet—I’ll just see the Spirit on them during the worship. And I’ll know when I call them out the word is going to be there. But I make myself available and I expect to hear. That’s what you’re going to be release into today.
WORKING OUT YOUR PERSONAL PROPHECY
We also need to know what we do when somebody gives us a personal prophecy. First, you test the word. As scripture says, we must test all things and hold fast to what’s good. Even though God wants prophetic people to have character, I’m still open to hear if God wants to talk to me through a donkey. I’m still open to hear when God wants to speak to me through somebody that’s living the life of a jackass. The word of the Lord can be there for me, often even in imperfect situations. But God wants us to test all prophetic words. Whenever you receive a prophetic word, make sure it lines up with scripture. When you receive a prophetic word, make sure you also judge it with God’s character. We need to ask, “Does it line up with God’s ways? Does it have the spirit of who God is and what God would do?” If that word doesn’t line up with the ways and the character of God then you shouldn’t receive it.
One more thing that you want to do when God gives you a prophetic word: take the word you get and bring it to somebody that you trust as a leader in your life. If you’re in a conference like this and you have a word to give, don’t just take somebody and run into the parking lot and give it. Why don’t you just grab two or three other people and then ask permission of the person, “I feel like I have a word. Is it alright if I prophesy over you?” Try to have somebody present who can witness and hear that word even if it’s just to protect yourself. Try not to judge the person’s character. Even if the word seems totally strange to your mind, take note of whether it witnesses with your spirit or not. Weighing a word in your spirit is importance because sometimes God will speak about something to come.
People sometimes want prophetic words to line up with everything in their circumstances—well; they won’t always, because the Holy Spirit still reveals things that are yet to come. However, your spirit is the measuring stick—you’ll have a peace inside if the word is from God. If somebody gives me a word and I don’t have a peace after it’s given, I throw it out right away. I don’t even test it. If I feel defilement and a check in my spirit, it’s out the window. Even though my flesh and my mind may not be sure, usually my spirit will know if it’s true or not. So make sure you measure prophetic words against God’s word, His ways, views of leaders and witnesses as well as your inner sense of peace or lack thereof.
NOW LET’S ACTIVATE YOU IN THE PROPHETIC!
Now it’s time to activate the prophetic in your life. Find someone to prophesy over, believing God to give you something for that person. Step out in faith. If you don’t get anything right away then lay hands on them and pray because God can even give you prophetic prayer. I want everybody to make that prophetic stretch and reach down into their well. Believe for one thought or one scripture. Ask the Holy Spirit for a passage of scripture or a vision. Stir up the prophetic—pray in the Spirit. Now let’s pray together:
Father, let the Spirit of prophesy come down on me. Father, let the prophetic oil be poured out so that I can prophesy that I can learn. Come Holy Spirit. Father release words of edification, comfort and exhortation—give me scripture, visions and mental pictures. Father come and speak to me in all the different ways that you speak. The bible says to desire prophecy. God, You wouldn’t want me to desire something You didn’t want to give me. You want me to desire to prophesy because You want me to prophesy. So here I go Lord—its time to prophesy!
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The purpose of this teaching is to get you prophesying. For some of you, it will just be a matter of you stirring up the gifting that’s already within you. Others may have functioned in a level of the prophetic before and will be stretched to prophesy more than they have before. On the other hand, some of you haven’t prophesied yet and will prophesy for the first time before we’re done. We could call this a prophetic party. I believe that you’re going to be so edified, encouraged, comforted and built up with what the Holy Spirit is going to speak to you; you’re going to float into a prophetic season of your life. The Spirit of prophecy is going to come on your life.
Before I activate you in the prophetic, I’m going to talk about how to test a prophetic word, how to receive it and how to stir up the anointing in your life so that you can prophesy and speak the words of God. God is raising up prophetic people and He’s releasing prophetic oil. He doesn’t want us just to get knowledge of the prophetic. So by the time we leave this session, you are going to be prophesying. I’m excited about what’s going to happen in your life.
I’m going to lay out some guidelines here about how you’re going to be released into prophetic activation. God wants you to prophesy and He also wants your prophetic gifting to go beyond just ministering in the prophetic anointing in a church setting. I believe that if we are God’s prophetic people, we are prophetic in our homes, in the work place and just about anywhere we are. You can stir up the prophetic gift anywhere and use it even among unbelievers. In 1 Corinthians 14 we see that if an unbeliever comes into one of our meetings and people are prophesying, then that person will be convicted, fall on his face and say, “God is really among you!” That kind of response, I believe, doesn’t just happen because of the word—there’s something about the prophetic anointing that goes with evangelism.
TAKE THE PROPHETIC TO THE MARKETPLACE
So take what you receive in this teaching and expect that next time you’re in a public place and you make yourself available to wait on the Holy Spirit that He’ll give you a word of knowledge for someone. I believe that God wants His prophetic people to be prophetic not just when they’re in the anointed atmosphere of a meeting. Why don’t you create a prophetic atmosphere in the restaurant? Why don’t you create a prophetic atmosphere in your home? Do you ever minister to your children or others in your home with a word of knowledge or with revelation? I find that sometimes the word of knowledge will come out of me in the most natural circumstances—I’ll have a vision or receive a supernatural insight from God and deliver it out in the marketplace.
God wants us to have that word right in your workplace, right when you’re sitting at the lunch table. Look at the guy next to you, pray in the Spirit and say: “Tell me something about Him Lord”. Then you may be led to ask something like, “Are you having a problem with your blood pressure lately? Have you got high blood pressure?” Then all of a sudden, you’re ministering. He’ll likely ask, “How did you know about that?” Then you can say, “I was just listening for God’s voice because I believe He wanted to talk to you. I believe He showed me you had high blood pressure. Can I pray for that?” Its time that, if you want to function in the prophetic, you’re going to have to be willing to get out of the boat and onto the water and into the unknown. The anointing is the unknown, but the prophetic is the unknown as well.
Jesus also liked to take the prophetic anointing outside the church. Remember the time Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. It was there that Jesus had a powerful word of knowledge. A word of knowledge is the prophetic—it’s just a different expression of prophecy. One of my favourite ways that the Holy Spirit will use me in the prophetic is in the word of knowledge. I’ll know things about people – past, present, future. When Jesus ministered in that level of the prophetic anointing with the woman in John 14 He told her about events in her life. Not only did she get saved, she told the people of the city what had happened and they came out to listen to Jesus for themselves. Then there was a revival in the city because of one prophetic word.
PROPHETIC ENCOUNTER IN THE RESTAURANT
Once after a meeting in Abbotsford, I was in a restaurant looking for a woman-at-the-well experience. I challenged the rest of the people at my table by asking, “Is the prophetic anointing just for the church? Is prophecy only to be used within the structure of the local church or is the prophetic anointing to be used beyond the church, even for the lost?” When the waitress came over, we were making ourselves available for a word from the Lord for this unbeliever. Then God gave us some precise insights. I said, “You grew up as a Catholic and when you were 12 years old you were sexually abused at a Catholic camp.” Then my friend said, “I see your apartment and on the balcony of your apartment are bird cages.” After that I told her that she didn’t want to get saved because of her non-Christian boyfriend. The Holy Spirit gave us these powerful prophetic words to minister to our waitress simply because we waited on the Him while we were having supper.
So I want to challenge you to be prophetic people beyond just prophesying over one another today—take the prophetic to the unbeliever. Take it into your home and get words of knowledge about your kids. Get words of knowledge about why they’re in the bondage they’re in and get the key that’s going to unlock the doors in their lives that will bring positive change. You need God’s spoken rhema word, not just human wisdom. I find that it’s easy to get into ministry mode at church but what about getting into ministry mode in your home? Why don’t you get into ministry mode in the workplace? Sometimes I’ll line unbelievers up at the restaurant and prophesy over them all… or I’ll just give a word of knowledge to the lady at the Wendy’s drive through. Let’s just give the word of the Lord in some of the most natural places. The bible talks a lot about the supernatural. However, let’s think about that word supernatural. The first part is the ‘super’—I know you all like the super! But the second part tells us that the super is natural. I want to bring the super into the natural. God really does wants to release the prophetic through us in the most natural places and ways.
We also need to be ready to prophesy at any time. In the beginning, God would move me to give somebody a word without even having the word first. I know that many Christians have been trained to hear the voice of God by waiting until they get a thought or a picture. They believe that only then can they give the word and it will grow as they deliver it. However, I want you to know, there are times when I’ll be ministering in a meeting and God will tell me He wants me to prophesy. I may say, “Lord I don’t have anything for anyone.” In spite of my protests, He’ll say, “You see that whole row over there? Call them up and prophesy over every one of them right now in the service.” I can remember other times when I’ve worked with fellow prophetic ministers who really challenged me. I’ll tell you, it was a stretch when they said, “Alright Todd, you’re going to prophesy over everybody in the building.” Nowadays there are times in a meeting when God will just say, “There’s a grace Todd, there’s a spirit of prophecy. I’ll give you a release if you want it. Together we can prophesy over everybody in the church.” Then we’ll just line up everybody and minister for hours. Today I love these times! That’s why I’m free now; that’s why I like to activate people in the prophetic. But whether I’m in a meeting or not, I’m always seeking to walk in the prophetic. I will often sit down and say, “Lord, give me a word. Tell me something about that person.”
THE LAST DAY’S PROPHETIC SPIRIT POURED OUT
These truly are the days that God is pouring out His prophetic Spirit on His people. This passage is quite familiar but let’s consider Acts 2:17 again: “It shall come to pass in the last days, says God, I will pour my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Young men shall see visions; your old men shall dream dreams. On my men servants and on my maid servants I will pour out my Spirit in those days and they shall prophesy.” In these verses God is talking about pouring His Spirit out on every single believer because He wants all His sons and daughters to prophesy. This outpouring is not just for the prophet or the prophetic ministry. He wants us all to have visions and dreams.
You may be thinking, “I don’t know how to prophesy. What am I going to say?” The Father says, “I will pour out my Spirit”. It’s when the Holy Spirit comes upon you that the word of the Lord begins to flow. You know how easy it is to prophesy? It’s just a matter of opening your mouth by faith and He will fill it. You can be confident that you can prophesy because the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. God talks to you all the time—you just have to be able to hear God. Maybe you just don’t have your spiritual ears tuned to His voice. However, if you are listening, it’s impossible not to hear God because the Spirit has been poured out on you, according to His promise.
The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of you and it’s the presence of the Holy Spirit that comes and releases the prophetic word. “I will pour out my Spirit and you shall prophesy.” When the Holy Spirit is poured out, the first thing that happens isn’t tongues, its prophecy. We can find examples of this in 1 Samuel 10:6 and 19:20… with accounts of Samuel and the prophets (people in the office of the prophet) who were prophesying. They were prophesying over the nation of Israel and one another— it was a prophetic conference.
COMING UNDER THE MANTLE OF PROPHECY
In most cases in the Old Testament, you can see the diversity of gifts far more distinctly than you can see them in the body of Christ today. You knew Saul was king—that was it. David was king. Prophets were prophets. Aaron was priest. Moses was a prophet. Solomon was a king. In one scriptural account, the people of Israel are completely amazed when the king (Saul) prophesies. At the direction of the prophet Samuel, God sends King Saul to stand where these prophets are prophesying. When Saul comes under the same prophetic mantle, the Spirit of God came on him and he prophesied. He was king so he had never prophesied before. (Maybe that’s like you—you’ve never prophesied before.) But the Holy Ghost came on Saul and he didn’t just give a little prophetic word, he prophesied all day and all night. There was such accuracy to that prophetic word that the rest of the people asked, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”
Do you know why you’re going to prophesy? Because the same Spirit that fell on Saul and was poured out at Pentecost has now been poured out on all God’s sons and daughters, according to scripture. The Holy Spirit is going to enable you to have the word of the Lord when you minister over others. The Holy Spirit is with you at home, at work and in the restaurant—in the most natural, common places. You look at that passage in 1 Samuel 19—it talks about common folks coming under the anointing of Samuel and the prophets. They weren’t prophets or even recognized leaders in the church—they were just messengers of Saul. Yet the Spirit of the Lord came on them and they prophesied. In the same way, I’m believing that you’re going to come under a prophetic anointing, the mantle of prophesy, so you’ll are able to prophesy words of edification, comfort and exhortation over one another.
Now does God want you to minister in the prophetic? Is there even a place in the bible where you can just prophesy over others at will? You may be thinking, “What are you talking about Todd? How can you turn prophesy on and off? You can’t turn on the prophetic—it’s either going to come in God’s sovereignty or it’s not going to come. You can’t just turn it on and off as you want.” Well, I don’t believe that. I believe that Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice.” And I’ll tell you something--all you have to do is be in a place of listening. Remember, God is our Abba, Father in heaven.
GOD IS ALWAYS SPEAKING TO HIS CHILDREN
It would be unthinkable for me to go into my Father’s living room, sit with him for four hours and never have him say anything to me. That just wouldn’t happen. Perhaps some of you had a real dysfunctional home where that kind of thing would happen. But really, whenever I go home to my wife or go over to visit my father, they always have something to say. So why is it that some Christians believe God only talks once in a while when it’s really important? Can you imagine having a Dad like that in the natural—one who only ever said anything to you when He needed to bring correction, direction or discipline? I mean—the Father wants to talk to you all the time, not just once a year at a prophetic conference. God wants to speak to you in just about every situation, every moment of your life—you’ve just got to learn to position yourself to hear what God’s saying. Learn how to stir up the prophetic and learn how to be available to His Spirit.
So there is a place for prophetic activation and practice within proper guidelines. In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul brings correction and presents some guidelines to the Corinthians who were beginning to grow prideful about the visions and revelations they were receiving from God. It seems that they were somehow competing with one another to see who had the most powerful prophetic word. So because of visions or angelic visitations, some of these people began to think too highly of themselves. Then Paul says to them, “What do you mean—you’re not God’s man of the hour. You can all prophesy one by one that you all may learn.” I can call anybody up, and if they’re willing to step into the unknown, lay down their dignity and be available, they’ll hear from God. Likewise, if you, my reader, will take the time to hear God, fulfill His requirements to live a prophetic lifestyle and stir up the prophetic, you will grow very quickly in this gift. Scripture is clear that we can all prophesy one by one. And you know why? There is a place for activating and stirring up the prophetic. When we practice ministering in the prophetic, this is the level that we start at: “… you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn” (I Cor. 14:31).
You’re not going to become a prophet after this activation. However, you’re going to learn to prophesy so that you may learn and that you might be encouraged in the fact that you hear God and you don’t just hear God once a year. I’ll tell you, if I was to stand up and talk about how many times God talks to me on a daily basis, you would lock me out of the church. Because you would be like, “What do you mean ‘God said, God said, God said.’” I run into people all the time who ask, “God said?” To them, God is quiet and only talks when He is angry. “He only talks when He wants to reveal your sin,” they say. “God only talks to you when you need a heavy revy,” they say, “God doesn’t just want to speak to you in intimacy. Forget about it—don’t even expect to hear from God.”
SOME PROPHETIC GUIDELINES
Well, I believe that God is far more personal than that. I expect that, every day when I wake up out of my bed, I’m going to hear a word from the Lord. You know, those words won’t always be about direction and the future. As we minister over one another this afternoon, forget about stuff that involves direction and future. Let’s just keep the guidelines of the prophetic ministry to comfort, edification, exhortation and confirmation (1 Cor. 14:3). Stay away from dates and telling people about the one that they’re going to marry. Stay in the place of prophesying one by one that you may learn.
When you speak God’s mind and heart, you are prophesying. Really, it’s so easy to hear God’s voice. Scripture tells you, in 1 Corinthians 2, that the Spirit that lives inside of you searches out the deep things of God. This passage shows you why you can expect to hear God for others and why you can expect to hear God any time you position yourself in prophetic ministry mode. Here we read about why God wants to speak and why He wants to speak to you, not just the prophet and not just the church leadership. God wants you to be a prophetic person. Let’s look at a passage from 1 Corinthians:
However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those that love Him.” God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in Him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” (1 Cor. 2:11)
The Holy Spirit knows right now everything that is in the heart of the Father about every person reading this. He knows right now every deep thought that God has for each and every person in this room. He knows what you need to hear. The Spirit of God is searching out the deep things of God; He’s searching out the heart; He’s searching out the secrets of the Father. And He has these special thoughts for every individual that the Father has created. Verse 12 of this same chapter says, “Now we have received, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”
GOD’S INNUMERABLE THOUGHTS TOWARD US
The Holy Spirit dwells inside of you, full of revelation. And the Holy Spirit dwells inside of you so that you are able to tap into the deep things of the Father for, not only your own lives, but for you, for me, for us as individuals. And you know why you can prophesy—because you’re going to be relying on that well of the Holy Ghost that’s inside of you to reveal to you something about somebody you’re going to have an opportunity to minister to. You know David says, “How innumerable are the thoughts of God towards us.” Yes, He has an innumerable amount of thoughts toward you. So if I want to prophesy over someone, all I have to do is say, “Holy Spirit, give me revelation right now; allow me to tune into just one thought”.
I’ll tell you, you’ve ministered in the prophetic even when you speak to somebody one thought; when God gives you one mental picture and you don’t even have an interpretation and you just speak that picture, you’ve prophesied. Through the Holy Ghost, you’ve just tuned into the deep things of God and got one of those innumerable thoughts. That’s all I’m going to ask you to do. I’m not going to ask you to tap into the multitude of the innumerable thoughts of God and prophesy for one hour over one individual. We’re just going to say, “Holy Spirit thanks that You know the deep things of God. You know the things of the Father. I want you to give me just one thought, one word, for that person. As you make yourself available, expect that you can prophesy. The prophetic anointing is for you. We’re speaking about bubbling forth out of your spirit, past or present or future.
Now I want to talk here for a minute about how to recognize God’s voice. How do you know when God has spoken? How does He communicate with us? In the book of Hebrews, it talks about God speaking to the prophets in various ways. God could also communicate to you the prophecy that He wants to give in a vision or in a dream. I’ve been caught up into the third heaven; I’ve had angelic visitations. I’ve had open-eyed visions, closed-eye visions. The Holy Spirit has come and spoken to me right out of the word of God—a scripture jumped off of the page. I’ve been spoken to through some of the most natural donkeys of the world, including television. Prophetic ministries have spoken God’s words to me. Nobody taught me this but these are some of the ways God speaks to me.
So how do I get a word of knowledge? How do I know whose getting healed? In Prince George, the Holy Ghost gave me one word and He said somebody that’s deaf is going to hear. So I said, “If you’re deaf, come up here. You’re going to hear.” Now I’ll tell you something—you’re stepping out on the water to say something like that. Not only was there a lady who was deaf, but she could hear nothing in either ear without hearing aids. By the end of the night, she testified, God had healed her deaf ears. I just had that one God thought; I saw one deaf person. But what if I never spoke that word because I was afraid that it wasn’t going to be God? That’s one of the hurdles that you’re got to get over in the prophetic—the possibility that you can miss God. It’s all right when you’re two years old not to be walking as well as you will when you’re 10. It’s all right to talk babble sometimes—it’s all right to not understand all the great mysteries of the prophetic and it’s OK if you’re not trained by the best. It’s all right because “you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn” (1 Cor. 14:31).
ESTABLISHING A PROPHETIC LEARNING ATMOSPHERE
There has to be room for you to be able to learn and make a mistake. There has to be an atmosphere in which you can test all things, where you can speak and operate in the prophetic. Then you will be encouraged when that person says, “You heard God for me”. The next time you prophesy, you will feel a little more confident. That’s why I want to activate you in the prophetic—to build a confidence in you that not only can you prophesy, but that when you do and the person receiving the word confirms it for you, your confidence level will begin to grow. You’ve gotta begin to have that release. I came to a place, not just in the prophetic, but in the anointing, where it’s OK if I missed it. It’s OK if I say what I think I’m seeing and nobody responds.
So let’s just talk about some of the ways that God speaks. You know God will speak to you where you are. He’ll speak in various ways, different for every person. One of the first ways that God will speak is in smells. God spoke to me when I was first saved about a spirit of death that was on somebody. I was sitting in a trailer with a guy who we had won to Christ. He had been an alcoholic bum in the town, and we had got him all cleaned up. When he sat in that trailer with me and my friend, one of the things the Holy Spirit said to me (I was only a couple of months old in the Lord) was that there was a spirit of death on this guy. You know how he spoke to me? I smelt this raunchy, swampy, mud-like, rancid odour. Next, I had a vision of his face becoming a scull and then a face again. Through those experiences, I felt the Holy Spirit say this guy was going to die. He died within a week. That was one of the first experiences I had with the reality of God talking to me. I was just saved from drug addiction, prison, the occult and the ungodly lifestyle that I had before I knew Jesus. A couple months later God was talking to me in my former drug dealer’s trailer. It was incredible.
Today, God speaks to me in aromas all the time. The fragrance of the Lord once visited me in Prince George. I’ve also experienced those fragrances at times when I’ve been in my room alone. God will come with the smell of vanilla, roses, cinnamon and burning incense. He’ll sometimes even give me a revelation of the direction and the change of the flow of the meeting by allowing me one whiff of His fragrance. That’s how God will get my attention and I’ll just know we’re changing gears.
Another way that God speaks is in body impressions. I get a lot of these things especially when I’m ministering in the word of knowledge. In fact, I felt these kinds of words for a couple of people this morning—I kept just getting this impression of pain in my side. Then I saw somebody going, “aaaah” and wincing in pain. I just knew this was something that God wanted to touch. Sometimes when I get impressions, I’ll feel a pain in my chest going right down my side or I’ll have a ringing in my ears or a feeling in my eyes. Then I’ll just know that the Holy Spirit is going to heal somebody’s heart or vision or hearing. God will also speak through mental pictures. I’ll be preaching in a meeting when suddenly I’ll start to see pictures of miracles right in the middle of my sermon—then I’ll just stop and switch gears and let the healing anointing fall. You know, some of you have heard God and just didn’t realize it was God.
LISTENING TO GOD’S STILL SMALL VOICE
God will often also speak through the small voice. The small voice is usually a thought that interrupts your thought pattern. If I’m preaching and concentrating on what I’m saying and suddenly I start thinking of a guy with cancer at MacDonald’s then I’ll know God’s trying to get my attention. In response, I may say something like, “I heard God whispering to me about somebody with cancer in the meeting. Maybe you work at MacDonald’s.” So, how do you know that you’ve heard the still small voice of God? If all of a sudden a thought pops into your mind that is totally out of the context with what you happen to be thinking and speaking about at that moment, it’s God. You may be talking, thinking or daydreaming about something when an idea comes to you absolutely out of nowhere.
Sometimes I’ll be sitting in a service when someone else is ministering, listening intently to the word when, all of a sudden, I’ll start thinking about somebody coming out of a wheelchair. I may even start to feel guilty about thinking this way—“God, what am I doing thinking about glory falling, bodies on the floor and lining everybody up in the building and then going under the anointing while this guy is talking about teaching anointing?” I’ve learned to be able to discern the still voice of God because usually, when it comes, it doesn’t relate to anything I’m thinking or doing at that moment—it just seems like one of those abstract thoughts.
God also speaks through visions. Now you can have an open-eyed vision, which means you have an outward vision, or you can have visions where you’re not sure whether it’s outward or inward. And really it doesn’t matter because the message is the same. You know, some people measure and categorize their prophetic word and they want to know the details of how you got what you got rather. Why don’t we just give what we got and not even be concerned too much about how we got it.
One of the most practical things about the prophetic is this: after you get the revelation you need to have the interpretation (what’s God saying with the revelation) and then you need to deliver it correctly. You can have the revelation and interpretation and blow it on the delivery. You can have the revelation and delivery and blow it on your interpretation (which involves correct timing). Let me tell you something. If God takes me into heaven tonight—which He sometimes does in meetings—its not necessary for me to yell out, “I’m in heaven right now and I’m seeing an angel pouring out healing anointing and its coming down like golden honey.” All I have to do is say, “Healing anointing is coming down.” I don’t have to spiritualise it, dramatize what I’m getting and spook people. I don’t have to tell you how I got what I got—I just have to give you what I got. So many people constantly wonder: “Was it an open vision? Were your eyes open or were your eyes closed? Were you sleeping or were you awake? What do you mean you had a trance?”
DRIFTING INTO THE DREAM STATE WORLD OF TRANCES
Don’t worry about it! I tell you what a trance is like—you know that place when you’re in the dream state world and then you have a dream and you wake up and you know you just drifted off for that second? Well, I’ll be standing or sitting up, then go into that state and come out without going to sleep—my eyes are still open. When God gives me a trance, its like going into that dream-like state while you’re still awake. But when I have a trance experience, it’s not necessary for me to talk about the details.
God may put me into a trance and show me details of somebody that was sexually abused and has 18 years of depression. Then I see her walking out of her prison. I had this type of trance a couple of months ago; God even showed me who that person was and told me when the breakthrough was going to happen. In the trance, I was trying to cast the devil out of her. With her head down to the ground with depression on her, she looked up at me and described to me her problem. Then she put her head back down and I came out of the trance. When I went to the meeting, she was there. I ministered to her, cast out the demon and she got healed. But I didn’t have to tell her that I had her visit me in a trance. I just said, “God’s going to set you free of that depression” and then I minister the way that God showed me to.
We’ve also got to learn about how to deliver what God gives to us. If God gives me a word about how he’s going to heal you and pour His love into you, I won’t come and deliver that word by screaming over you with a hard tone in my voice. There are times I get so carried away by the excitement of the word that I forget to be sensitive. God wants us to have an appropriate delivery for the words He gives us. The spirit in which we give the word is important.
Today, I’m just giving you shotgun prophetic insights– shooting out little nuggets about a bunch of stuff. Another way God speaks to me is through mental pictures. For instance, He may give me a picture of somebody healed of asthma. It could be a picture, a memory, of somebody who got healed three months ago in a meeting I was in—he came off his breathing machine and ran around the church building. So God shows me a picture reminding me of that past incident and I’ll know that somebody in the meeting has asthma. I don’t always have the understanding of the picture either. So sometimes I just give the revelation and let the person interpret it.
Another way God speaks to us is through the audible voice—it’s as if someone was talking to you and you heard it with your natural ears. I’ve experienced the inner audible voice of God that sounds just like someone was talking to me out loud. I’ve also heard the audible voice of God like the time God came to me before I was in ministry. Actually, God and I had a conversation and He said to me, “Todd, tonight Pat Cocking is going to take up an offering in the middle of the service. She’s going to stop the meeting, you’re going to be released into the ministry and you’re going to become international.” And right before that I was working in the mill. Then His audible voice came and changed everything for me. Yes, I’ve had God speak to me in a very real audible way that sounded like many waters. There was a rumbling inside of my Spirit. But it doesn’t really matter if it’s the inner or the outer voice. The important question is: “Are you hearing God?” You know, God can come on you and do to you what He did to the donkey—He’ll cause you to prophesy and you won’t be able to help but speak. That’s called inspired utterance.
PAY ATTENTION TO HOLY GHOST FLASHBACKS
Another way that God speaks is through flashbacks. I call them Holy Ghost flashbacks. What He’ll do, as I mentioned a little earlier, I’ll remember an incident, a word, a devil I cast out or something that happened in a meeting. Sometimes I’ll be ministering over someone and I’ll sense a wall and I’ll be waiting on the Holy Ghost and He’ll just bring me back to this devil that I cast out of somebody last year and then I’ll cast it out of the person. A lot of times the Holy Spirit will bring a past situation to your remembrance in the midst of you ministering to somebody because He wants you to minister in the same way this time.
Now let me talk a little about stirring up the prophetic. Here are a few keys to develop a prophetic lifestyle. The first thing about the prophetic is this: if you want to hear God’s voice, you’ve got to have water in the well. The water is the word or God. If you don’t have a base of the word of God in your life, you don’t have anything to draw on. You may want the spoken word of the Lord but you haven’t even read your bible for a week. It doesn’t happen that way too often. Everybody wants the “woosh” of the prophetic. But whatever happened to meditating on God’s word day and night; whatever happened to digging nuggets of truth out of the bible; whatever happened to seeking God’s face with the bible, the concordance, the Greek/Hebrew books and the cross-reference tools? Yes, many Christians have an empty well but they want to prophesy. You need to have something for God to blow on to make it alive. When you’re full of the word of the Lord, then you have something to bubble out of your spirit.
Another way to stir up the prophetic is through tongues. Tongues and the prophetic are so closely linked. In fact, lets look at 1 Corinthians 14: “Let him who prays in an unknown tongue, pray that He might interpret.” Now you may think about that verse in the context of messages of tongues and interpretation in the congregation. But I believe that scripture can also be speaking of pray that you can interpret your own message in tongues. Why can’t I pray in tongues over someone right now and then get the interpretation over them too. If you watch me, I’m in listening mode when I’m in a meeting. I’m expecting to hear—I’m making myself available. I may be walking or someone could be leading worship when God keeps drawing my attention to somebody. Then I’ll know God wants to speak to that person. Sometimes I’ll pick out 10 people that I know I’m going to have a word for but I won’t have anything yet—I’ll just see the Spirit on them during the worship. And I’ll know when I call them out the word is going to be there. But I make myself available and I expect to hear. That’s what you’re going to be release into today.
WORKING OUT YOUR PERSONAL PROPHECY
We also need to know what we do when somebody gives us a personal prophecy. First, you test the word. As scripture says, we must test all things and hold fast to what’s good. Even though God wants prophetic people to have character, I’m still open to hear if God wants to talk to me through a donkey. I’m still open to hear when God wants to speak to me through somebody that’s living the life of a jackass. The word of the Lord can be there for me, often even in imperfect situations. But God wants us to test all prophetic words. Whenever you receive a prophetic word, make sure it lines up with scripture. When you receive a prophetic word, make sure you also judge it with God’s character. We need to ask, “Does it line up with God’s ways? Does it have the spirit of who God is and what God would do?” If that word doesn’t line up with the ways and the character of God then you shouldn’t receive it.
One more thing that you want to do when God gives you a prophetic word: take the word you get and bring it to somebody that you trust as a leader in your life. If you’re in a conference like this and you have a word to give, don’t just take somebody and run into the parking lot and give it. Why don’t you just grab two or three other people and then ask permission of the person, “I feel like I have a word. Is it alright if I prophesy over you?” Try to have somebody present who can witness and hear that word even if it’s just to protect yourself. Try not to judge the person’s character. Even if the word seems totally strange to your mind, take note of whether it witnesses with your spirit or not. Weighing a word in your spirit is importance because sometimes God will speak about something to come.
People sometimes want prophetic words to line up with everything in their circumstances—well; they won’t always, because the Holy Spirit still reveals things that are yet to come. However, your spirit is the measuring stick—you’ll have a peace inside if the word is from God. If somebody gives me a word and I don’t have a peace after it’s given, I throw it out right away. I don’t even test it. If I feel defilement and a check in my spirit, it’s out the window. Even though my flesh and my mind may not be sure, usually my spirit will know if it’s true or not. So make sure you measure prophetic words against God’s word, His ways, views of leaders and witnesses as well as your inner sense of peace or lack thereof.
NOW LET’S ACTIVATE YOU IN THE PROPHETIC!
Now it’s time to activate the prophetic in your life. Find someone to prophesy over, believing God to give you something for that person. Step out in faith. If you don’t get anything right away then lay hands on them and pray because God can even give you prophetic prayer. I want everybody to make that prophetic stretch and reach down into their well. Believe for one thought or one scripture. Ask the Holy Spirit for a passage of scripture or a vision. Stir up the prophetic—pray in the Spirit. Now let’s pray together:
Father, let the Spirit of prophesy come down on me. Father, let the prophetic oil be poured out so that I can prophesy that I can learn. Come Holy Spirit. Father release words of edification, comfort and exhortation—give me scripture, visions and mental pictures. Father come and speak to me in all the different ways that you speak. The bible says to desire prophecy. God, You wouldn’t want me to desire something You didn’t want to give me. You want me to desire to prophesy because You want me to prophesy. So here I go Lord—its time to prophesy!
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posted by KFF at 1:33 AM
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