1 Corinthians 14:3 “He who prophesies speaks to men for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.” Today's episode explains why someone would share a word of prophecy. This verse explains why God would even give us a word of prophecy. The episode explains how you can use this verse to see if the word you received is from the Lord or not. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Why Share Words Of Prophecy?
1 Corinthians 14:3 “He who prophesies speaks to men for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.”
I have been talking more lately about hearing the Lord’s voice and how if we keep giving the Lord a chance to talk to us, then He will. Last night was a really exciting class at Encounter School of Ministry Boston Campus. Both year one and year two students were practicing receiving and sharing words of prophecy. It is always a lot of fun and also a bit intimidating because we always think when it is our turn to get a word, we won’t hear anything. As year two students, we have been learning to listen to the Lord’s voice for a year and a half now, and yet we still get nervous when it is time for us to get a word and share it.
I say this to encourage you. If you have started making time to listen to the Lord and yet you feel you are not hearing anything, I want you to know you are in good company. If you have not started making time to listen to the Lord because you know you won’t hear anything, you are also in good company. Many of us think we won’t hear anything. I mean, who are we anyway? Why would the Lord our God want to talk to us when He has more important things to do and more important people to talk to? I get why you would feel this way. We all kinda feel this way at first. As I said, my classmates and I have been doing this for a year and a half at least, some of us for a lot longer than that, and we can still feel that way at times.
However, God wants to talk to you. Yes, you! He is actually already talking to you. You just can’t hear Him because the noises of the world are so loud, and you probably aren’t spending the time to sit and listen. To answer the question, “Who am I that the Lord our God would want to talk to me?” You are a son or daughter of the one true king. You are His beloved child whom He made in His image and likeness. Yes, God is busy, and yet He is never too busy to sit and talk with you. God is not human. He does not have the same constraints we have. We each have his full attention at all times. He can be fully with us and whatever we are going through at the same time as He can be with everyone else.
When we ask the Lord for something, we are not taking anything away from anyone else. I think this is a really hard concept to understand. We tend to shy away from asking God for things because we know He is busy, and we don’t want to bother Him with our problems. This is limiting God, it is putting Him in a box. God is bigger than this idea that He can only help so many people, so we better not burden Him with our problems. God wants us to come to Him with everything. Not just the really big stuff we can’t handle on our own but the little things too. The bad stuff and the good stuff. He wants us to bring it all to Him and invite Him into it. Ask Him to help us with the things we need help with, ask Him for advice on the things we can do ourselves, and share with Him the good things that are happening. Yes, of course, He already knows, but it is not the same as when you tell Him about it.
God is our heavenly Father. Although He is not limited by our human constraints, such as time and our ability to be in only one place at one time, He does have feelings like we do. After all, we were made in His likeness and image, and Jesus was fully human. The difference between our emotions and the Lord’s emotions is that His emotions were not affected by the fall. God’s emotions are perfect. His love for us is a perfect love. He truly loves us unconditionally, which is a hard concept for us to understand as our love usually comes with conditions.
The verse above talks about words or prophecy. I have talked a bit lately about how God is talking to each one of us, and if we listen, we will hear what He is saying. I have also talked about how important it is to not only listen to when God is talking to us but also to get familiar with what He is saying to us in the scriptures. I mentioned how important it is to be familiar with God and how He talks with us because then, when the enemy tries to whisper his stupid lies in our ears, we will know it is not the Lord. I gave the story of the bank teller and how if they want to spot a fake bill, they have to be intimately familiar with what the real thing looks like. The same is true with God. If we want to be able to spot a fake, we have to be intimately familiar with the One true God and the way that He talks to us. This is why I have started to end each episode with a word of prophecy from our prayer group. If you are hearing a word from the Lord each day, then you will start to get intimately familiar with how He talks to us. Then when you hear the enemy's lies, you will know it is not from the Lord because He never talks to us like that.
The verse above explains why God shares words of prophecy with us. The verse says, “He who prophesies speaks to men for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.” This verse tells us why someone would share words of prophecy. If someone is sharing a word they received from the Lord, it is meant to be upbuilding, encouraging, and consoling. The reason I thought this was an important verse for you to hear today is because it can help you discern if what you are hearing is from the Lord. This verse gives you a measure to hold the word up against. When you receive a word, either from the Lord or from someone else, you can ask yourself these questions. Does it build me up? Does this word encourage me? Does this word provide me with consolation? If the answer is no to all three of these questions, then the word is probably not from the Lord. If you receive a word from someone and it leaves you feeling uneasy, anxious, or ashamed, that is not from the Lord. Shame is not from the Lord.
This is not to say that the Lord won’t ever convict us or let us know when we are doing something wrong. He definitely will, especially if we are asking Him to help purify us. He is a loving parent, and He will correct His children. However, the Lord always does it in a loving way. He never comes at us with condemnation. He convicts us of our wrongdoings in a gentle and loving way. We are not left with any shame, we are just left with a deep desire to change.
I pray this episode has helped you understand a bit more about hearing the Lord’s voice and what the purpose is for words of prophecy. I hope the verse will help you to be able to discern if you should share a word that you have received and also if a word someone else has shared with you could be from the Lord or not. The gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as receiving words of prophecy, are open to all of us. The more you try and use that gift, the more you will receive that gift. Set aside 5 minutes today and see what the Lord has to say to you. I promise you will not be sorry you did!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those who listen to this episode today. Lord, we want to hear you talking to us. Please help us set aside the time to sit and listen. Lord, we want to share your words with others. Please give us the courage and boldness to do so. We want to know you, Lord. We want to know you so well that we recognize when the enemy is telling us lies. Please help us. Give us a desire to read your word and spend more time with you. Help us to give up less important things so we can put you first in our lives. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If you are still looking for Christmas presents for your loved ones, Click Here to check out my book. I will even autograph it and write them a special message before sending it out. I look forward to bringing you another witness tomorrow. I would like to urge all of you to consider giving a witness. It doesn’t really take a lot of time and yet could change someone’s life. Email me at catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com if you would be willing to share your story. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
Today’s word of prophecy from my prayer group is, “My children, I am giving you new eyes, but just like your human eyes need time to adjust to the light or the darkness, your new spiritual eyes that I bestow upon you need to adjust to the light of My Glory. You will grow in this ability to see the glory around you. To see glory, even in pain. Be patient but keep looking.”