Hey guys and welcome back to the salt not sweetener
podcast. I am your host Danielle Townsend and
Today we are going to be discussing prophets
Prophetic words. What does it look like? To be
used by God What does it look like To be used
by God to speak things to people What does it
look like? when God uses someone else to speak
something into your life. What does it look like
to move by faith after you've received a prophetic
word? What does it look like to be used by God
to give a prophetic word? How do you discern
what is from God and what isn't from God? This
is the topic I feel God leading me to touch on
today. And I just want to stop for a moment and
pray that the Holy Spirit speaks through me to
you. And that God's will is done. through this
podcast episode today, and that this blesses
you, guides you, convicts you, reveals something
to you in whatever way God has intended it to.
Amen. Now, I want to start with the very basic
definition I could come up with for a prophet.
What is a prophet? And that is a messenger of
God. You know, God has a message to get out.
He has something he wants to speak. And he uses
someone else to be the mouthpiece here on earth.
A prophet of God is someone speaking God's message.
Now I want to be very clear that that doesn't
mean that the thing that the prophet speaks,
the person that God is using to speak. is gonna
feel all warm and fuzzy every single time. I
think modern day we have like a misconception
that every time someone speaks a word from God,
it's gonna be something that's about how you're
gonna be financially blessed or your enemies
are gonna be conquered or all these things. When
we think of prophetic words, or just words from
God, we think about things that are gonna make
us feel good and encouraged and hyped up and
warm and fuzzy. And that's just not true. We
see many times in the Bible where God is using
prophets to rebuke, to warn, to speak about God's
wrath when the warnings are not heeded, when
the warnings are not listened to. But we also
see how God will use prophets, amen, to speak
about blessing, to speak about hope. We see that
with Hannah and Panina, right? Hannah's emotionally
going through it. She spent years of being infertile.
She spent years of feeling like crap by her husband's
second wife because she's not able to have kids
and she runs into the temple and she lays it
all out before the Lord. And Eli is in the temple
and he hears and at first he thinks she's drunk
and he calls her out and he's like, girl, why
are you in here all drunk? How much longer are
you gonna be drunk for? And when she speaks to
him, no, like... I'm just so heavily emotional.
And this is right after she makes a commitment
to God of saying, God, if you give me a son,
I will give him back to you like his life will
be dedicated to you. He'll never cut his hair.
And Eli looks at her and says, may God grant
your request. And in that moment, God was speaking
through him and confirming to her that he had
heard her. and that in his timing, her prayer
would be answered. And we see that later on,
God did do it. God did bless her with a son,
and she did keep her word and dedicate that son
to the Lord. And we also see how she moved by
faith, right? When she left that temple because
she believed that God was gonna do it, she had
a peace. And she moved by faith, meaning she
wasn't expecting God to do all the heavy lifting.
She wasn't sitting at home for months expecting
just like a miraculous birth. She wasn't expecting
like a merry moment. She did her part of having
intimate time with her husband and trusting that
in God's timing he was going to bless that. We
see with Moses, where God speaks to Moses, we
have the burning bush situation, when God speaks
about the deliverance of the Israelites. and
calls Moses to go and speak to Pharaoh, to rebuke
Pharaoh, to warn Pharaoh. And we see how God
moves off of that and delivers the people. And
we also see how Moses is later on used to rebuke
the Israelites when they start acting a fool,
when they start acting a bit messy. Look at Noah.
who received a word directly from the Lord about
a flood that was going to come way later on.
And Noah had faith in what he heard from God.
He believed that God's word was true. And that
didn't feel warm and fuzzy, hearing that God
was going to flood the earth and that he had
to build a giant boat. He had to build a giant
ark. I'm sure that didn't make him feel all warm
and fuzzy inside, but he believed it. he had
a desire to obey God and he feared the Lord so
he listened to the moves of faith God was calling
him to make which was building the ark and his
life and his family's was saved in the process
God is known to speak through people and to speak
to people we were given the Holy Spirit when
Jesus Christ died resurrected And when he came
back and left, he left us the helpmate. He left
us the helper, just the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit
dwelling within each and every one of us. And
the Holy Spirit's job, y 'all, is actually to
guide us, to convict us, to raise that little
red flag inside of us of when something isn't
right and we're not supposed to do that thing.
The Holy Spirit is actually what reveals things
in the Spirit to us, things that we can't see.
When a situation looks fine on the surface level,
but the Holy Spirit is revealing to us, no, there's
something off with us or something not right.
And you listen to the Holy Spirit and later on
you see that that prompting, that guidance was
correct. The Holy Spirit reveals, the Holy Spirit
convicts, the Holy Spirit helps us discern. God
speaks to us today through the Holy Spirit. It's
not absurd or unheard of for people to hear from
God today. That's why we were given the Holy
Spirit. That's why we were made a dwelling place
for the Holy Spirit and God is still speaking
through people today. God speaks to us when we
read scripture. God speaks to us in our prayer
time with him. God speaks through dreams. God
still speaks. And God will speak through other
people to you, especially when you're having
a hard time listening. the Holy Spirit or you're
outright rejecting the Holy Spirit speaking from
experience and also Seeing a lot of other people
experience it So we're going to step into an
example of that in the book of Jeremiah Jeremiah
was a prophet who was sent to warn a group of
people who were really racking up God's wrath
God was giving them a lot of chances. A lot of
opportunities to turn from their sin. A lot of
opportunities to flee. But these people were
unrepentant. And these people had hardened hearts.
And Jeremiah wasn't the first. Fun fact, before
God sent Jeremiah, God had sent other People
to convict and to reveal Jeremiah wasn't the
first God had other people and He would send
these people to them and What they would do is
they would rebuke They would correct they would
say hey you're doing this and this goes against
God's Word. This is angering God This is going
against God But these people were also listening
to false prophets who said things that were sweet
to their ears So they were also entertaining
voices that said God can't be mad at you. God's
grace is, you know, endless. God's actually angry
at everybody else. You're not the problem. What
you're doing is defensible. What you're doing
is fine. And they chose to listen to those voices.
And they would actually take out the people that
God was sending. Kick them to the curb. Take
them down. Whatever. They were offended. And
in their anger, in their fear, in their intense
emotions, they would strike them down. And in
that moment, they were rejecting God's conviction.
They were rejecting God. When you reject a prophet
from God, you're rejecting God. So by the time
Jeremiah was sent, there was already a track
record. There was already a history of hardened
hearts and rejecting. But God still sent Jeremiah
to them. And they also chose not to listen to
Jeremiah. So we see at first Jeremiah is used
to rebuke, right? He's used to go in and say,
hey, this is a sin. You're doing this. You're
doing that. You're doing this. And all of these
things are displeasing the God. You need to stop.
He's pointing out to him, you have a pattern.
And this needs to stop. You're unrepentant. But
they chose not to listen to that they chose to
listen to and we see a lot of people modern -day
say this all the time Saying only God can judge
me God loves me God this God that you know what
God is gonna judge you It's being covered in
the blood of Jesus is the only thing that's gonna
protect you on that day and Those who believe
in him will do the works that he does His sheep
know his voice God does love you, but he does
not love the sin God did create you But he expects
you to deny your flesh to take up your cross
Jesus doesn't call you to clean yourself up before
you come to him but once you come to him you're
supposed to allow him to clean you up and to
clean up your life you should be different after
coming to Jesus you should be changed you should
be developing groups of the spirit these things
should be happening and see Jeremiah was calling
that out Jeremiah was calling that out where
y 'all y 'all clearly don't fear the lord if
you did you wouldn't be doing these things And
because they didn't listen to that, God started
using him to prophesy about the wrath that was
coming. At first he was a warning, and then he
was prophesying the wrath, and he started telling
them about how y 'all are gonna be, your enemies
are gonna overtake you, and you're gonna be dispersed
from your land, you're gonna have this loss,
you're gonna have this hardship. They still didn't
want to listen. And then when that was going
down, he started telling them, now y 'all are
gonna have to serve your enemies. for years like
this isn't an easy immediate deliverance now
y 'all are going to have to serve your enemies
for years and you're going to have to be in that
position so jeremiah was also being used to prophesy
about god's wrath and the consequences they were
going to face for their hardened hearts and their
refusal to repent but we also see That there
wasn't an absolute condemnation in this right
because there was still a bit of hope Because
we see up near the end where Jeremiah is starting
to prophesy that there will be a time when these
people will come to repentance and see that they
need God and Submit to God and fear God and when
that happens God will flip the situation. He
will he will bring them back to the land that
they were dispersed from. They will be able to
conquer over their enemies that they were made
to serve. We see how God declares a restoration
in lieu of their repentance. Repentance was key
here, that that wasn't going to happen until
they truly feared God and submitted to God. Remember
y 'all that God knows your heart, He knows your
mind, He knows your intentions, which means He
knows when you're faking it. He knows when your
faith isn't legit. He knows when you're just,
you're trying to fake the fruits. He knows when
you're just doing something for like an end goal
of something that isn't Christ -like. He knows.
But I want to be so clear with this y 'all of
God uses, God will use prophets to declare blessing.
to bring about confirmation, but he also uses
prophets. He speaks through people to bring about
conviction and rebukes. And when those are unheard,
to reveal what the wrath, what the consequences
look like. And he also uses them to speak about
hope and restoration. You know, I can't tell
you how many conversations I've had with people
when people are being corrected by their brothers
and sisters in Christ. And there's an offense.
and they're like you can't tell me anything you're
not perfect like who are you to say something
to me you know make sure that you take that log
out of your own eye before you point out my splinter
which that is scriptural you know before you
sit there and consistently pick at a brother
and sister make sure you're not living in that
same sin make sure that you're not also being
lukewarm make sure that you're not also living
that same type of lifestyle because yeah how
are how are you about to go and convict and correct
when you are also living that kind of lifestyle.
And I'll let you in on something, y 'all. That
being used by God usually comes along with walking
in obedience and submitting to Him. Because in
order to be used by God, in order to be used
as a mouthpiece by God, you have to fear God
more than you fear Him. You have to fear God
more than you desire to please other people because
the things that God is going to call you to speak
The things that God is gonna call you to rebuke
the things that God is gonna call you to say
isn't gonna make everybody happy It's actually
gonna make some people angry. It's actually gonna
make some people uncomfortable. It's gonna make
some people feel called out And if you have a
fear for how people are going to respond or react
If you have more of a desire to be liked and
to be well received, more than you fear God,
you'll find yourself stopping. You'll find yourself
watering down God's messages. You'll find yourself
saying no to God. Because what if these people
get mad? What if these people take this from
me? What if I lose this? What if I lose that?
God has already planned for it. If you lose that
thing, if Whatever you're worried about happens
as a result of you obeying God. Trust that if
you need it, who replace it, and it'll be a lot
better. God has already planned for whatever
you'll lose or gain according to your obedience.
But someone needs to hear this today, is being
used by God to declare something, to rebuke,
to warn. Being used by God as a mouthpiece doesn't
mean you're going to be well -liked or well -received.
Some of the things you say may be liked or well
received but there's gonna be a lot of things
that also will not be Because you're kind of
like a walking correction And not many people
like that not many people feel good when they're
confronted with the truth Demon squirm They get
angry at the truth And you know, there are lots
of people I hear say, well, if God has a problem
with it, then He'll just have to say something
to me directly. And I want to ask you this question,
what if He is and you are not listening? We see
how He speaks to people. We see in the Bible
how God will use prophets. God will use other
people. He will use those conversations. Have
you found that multiple people keep kind of pointing
out the sin or correcting you. Is that God trying
to get through to you? Fellow Christians, people
who know scripture, people who live by the word
telling you, hey, you can't keep doing that.
Hey, this is a sin. Hey, this goes against God's
word. Hey, maybe you keep running into this problem
because you're willfully living in this. Is that
God speaking to you? Do you have the conviction?
Do you have that knowing that feeling of like
this isn't right and you do it anyway? You know
at first the conviction is really loud But when
you get used to ignoring the conviction long
enough or defending your sin long enough that
voice starts to get a lot more quiet And before
you know it you're comfortable and said is God
speaking through other people to you Because
you refuse to listen to the conviction. Because
you defend it away. Because you're not accepting
the guidance from the Holy Spirit. Are you even
opening yourself up to hear from God? Are you
asking and truly receiving and truly being open
to hearing God to say no? And I say this from
a loving place, a lot of people have a humility
issue. I did for the longest time and I'm not
perfect in this. But there was a long time running
when I was living in willful sin and I refused
to listen to the correction from the Lord because
I was not in a humble enough space. I felt like
I could defend what I was doing. I felt like
my sin was helpful and justifiable. And because
I felt like it was justifiable, because I felt
like I wasn't a bad person, I ignored the conviction.
I ignored the people God was sending I ignored
like literally I was ignoring the people God
was sending and then next thing you know I was
seeing different the same scripture was hunting
me down on social media or I kept running into
the same messages or I felt like I kept running
into the same life lesson and I didn't realize
that God was even trying to speak to me in those
ways and I was still ignoring it that was a hardened
heart and eventually he had to get through to
me through pain and suffering So I wanted to
clarify to y 'all that a prophet and prophetic
words don't always sound good or feel good. Truth
doesn't always sound good and feel good. So if
you're someone who's being used as a mouthpiece
by the Lord, I want to say this to you, that
you have to fear God more than you fear man.
You have to have a desire to please God more
than you do to please others. You have to be
prepared to deny yourself and take up your cross
because obeying God is sometimes going to put
you in some pretty uncomfortable situations.
And you also have to trust in His ability to
provide for you. Because if you fear, oh no,
if I do this, I might lose this, I might lose
that, that'll stop you right then and there.
You can't fear that. But I also want to tell
you that there is a reason why we are called
to correct people gently. You can speak with
an authority and also not be hateful and angry
A kind word turns away wrath You can speak with
an authority you can speak in truth and not be
hateful How many times when Jesus was being called
a false this, a blasphemer, he was being slandered,
all of these things, and he wasn't calling names
back. He wasn't like threatening back. He wasn't
going out of his way to like gaslight and do
all these crazy things. He was speaking the truth
with an authority. He wasn't backing down on
the truth, but he still spoke with love. And
this is kind of leading into my next point. I
know someone needs to hear this. You will not
have to force a prophetic word from God into
happening. If God has spoken it, you do not have
to force it. I will say this though. A prophetic
word from the Lord is an invitation into prayer
and moving by faith. When God gives you a word
that is an invitation to start praying to Him,
To guide you to guide your steps to protect the
promise. It's an invitation to prayer And also
is an invitation to move by faith like for example
Hannah and Panina Hannah was given That prophetic
word from Eli and what did she do when she went
home? She had intimate time with her husband
and moved by faith Noah he believed God's Word
when God said that he was gonna He was going
to flood the earth, so what know I do? He built
the ark like God told him to. Moses believed
that God was going to deliver the Israelites,
so he had the courage to go to Pharaoh. Joseph
received word from God not to go back. That,
you know, the king was about to start killing
babies right after baby Jesus was born. So by
faith, he moved away. The wise men who had just
left the King to go in search of Jesus had made
a promise to yeah We'll come back to you King
and tell you about the baby and everything believing
that the King wanted to worship Jesus But when
they received word from the Lord don't trust
that King. He's a liar Do not go back They moved
by faith knowing that maybe the King could have
taken them out the King could have gotten angry
All these other things could happen. They trusted
in God's guidance not to go back Receiving a
word from the Lord doesn't mean you do absolutely
nothing and sit on your hands. God expects us
to move by faith. But that is where prayer comes
in, is praying to God of God, what steps do you
want me to take? It's not about what steps we
think we should take, what steps we want to take.
I know I made this mistake a lot when I first
started recognizing I was receiving prophetic
words from the Lord I took that as an invitation
for me to like force it or that God was giving
me this word and he was expecting me to just
like strong arm it and like force my way through
it so like when I would feel he was giving me
a word I'd be like okay what are the active steps
I can take to get toward to this position What
are the active steps I could take to achieve
this thing and start taking them? And I would
see pretty quick it honestly kind of like backfire
on me or like not seeing any fruit. And those
were learning lessons for me of that was me executing
my own will. A prophetic word from the Lord isn't
something that we're meant to be able to do or
create on our own. It's something that we can
do with God. by listening to his prompting and
his guiding. So if God gives you, for example,
a promise of marriage, that's not him saying,
okay, now I want you to go out and date every
single person you can find and try to get married
as quickly as possible and all these things.
And God reveals that to you. That is now your
invitation to start praying to God of God. How
can I prepare for this? What do you need to do
in me? What steps do I need to take? Like do
you want me to be open to dating? Do you want
me and if God wants you to go out on a date or
to do something and his timing he will guide
you he will reveal that to you but I'll tell
you that the the best way to see God's words
come to pass is seeking first God and his kingdom.
When you focus in on your relationship with Christ
When you focus in on just spending time with
the Lord and being in His presence, you're going
to be listening to His guidance and His nudges
more. You're going to see a lot more work towards
the promise, towards the prophetic word. You're
going to see a lot more progress when you are
just focusing on submitting to God and your relationship
with Him instead of trying to pursue that promise
or that prophetic word. I can speak from true
experience that I never saw the fulfillment of
those words when I was purposely trying to achieve
it, meaning like when I was going out of my way
to take all these steps and I was constantly
fixing and focusing on it. Actually, when I look
back, the fulfillment and seeing the fruit of
these prophetic words was a lot of little steps
that added up together. And when God was calling
me to take these little steps, these moves of
faith, I wasn't even thinking of how it was going
to contribute to that promise. Honestly, most
of the time when I was taking those steps, I
didn't know why God was calling me to take those
steps or do those things. I just knew he was
telling me to do it. And it wasn't until I really
saw the fulfillment where I would look back and
see, oh, this is how all these things work together
for my good. Want to give you an example of someone
who tried to force the promise someone who tried
to force the prophecy Abraham He wanted a son
He received the promise that he was gonna be
the father of nations. He already had a wife
And it was decades and he had yet to see that
promise be filled And when him and his wife were
talking they started To think well, you know,
God only said Abraham was gonna be the father
of nations. He never said he had to have those
kids with Sarah So, why don't we why don't we
just hook him up with the handmade Hagar? We're
not technically going you know, because it's
still Abraham being the father I Want to be so
clear with y 'all one way that you'll know a
word isn't from the Lord Even if it sounds good
to your ears, even if it sounds like everything
you want A word from the Lord is not going to
go against Scripture. Is not going to go against
Scripture. There are a lot of people who are
unfortunately believing false words, believing
false prophets, when if you held that prophetic
word up to Scripture, it goes against God's Word.
It goes against what we see in the Bible. God
will not go against His Word. And what's one
thing God doesn't approve of? adultery. And what
did Adam end up doing? Committing adultery. He
ended up having intimacy with a woman that was
not his wife and expecting God to bless that.
And we can see that sure he had a child, but
that wasn't the child that God was speaking of.
He actually picked up a lot more unnecessary
suffering in that period. Because now he had
to deal with hey Hagar and Sarah had the worst
drama And now he was having to deal with all
their drama and all their problems. We see Hagar
She is unfortunately like being damaged in this
situation She's being abused and mistreated by
Sarah and she runs away with the child and then
there are arguments over the inheritance like
it's Because Abraham He received the word from
God and he got tired of waiting. He started looking
for repulse. And because he did that, he picked
up things that were not intended for the promise,
for the prophetic word, and he endured unnecessary
suffering, unnecessary problems. And we do see
that when he repented and got back on track,
God did bless him. But someone needs to hear
that today. A word from the Lord is not going
to contradict Scripture. God isn't going to tell
you to slander, to lie, to deceive, to manipulate.
He's not going to tell you to fornicate, to be
an adulterer, to covet, to give in to greed and
envy. He's not going to tell you to do witchcraft.
He's not going to tell you to take revenge into
your own hands. If you're receiving a prophetic
word and it's telling you to do these different
things, it's not from God. And here's the next
step to how to know if something is from God
is take it to God. You receive a word pray about
it. Take it to God. Say, God, is this from you?
Please confirm to me if this is from you and
be open to hearing and receiving and be open
to hearing from God. No, this isn't from me.
Take it to God. Hold it up to scripture. And
y 'all know, I'm sure you've heard the scripture
quote multiple times, I believe it's Isaiah,
which is like, God's word will not return void.
Sometimes when someone receives a word and they
don't see it happen, like that day or that month,
or even that year, they believe it was false,
it was a lie. Sometimes God's word takes years.
long time. We see that with Abraham in his decades.
Look at Joseph. When Joseph was young, God gave
him a vision of his brothers bowing down to him
and that he was going to be in a position of
power. But then soon after that, Joseph was in
jail and sold to slavery and all these things.
It was decades before he was in that prominent
place and the vision from the Lord was fulfilled.
It is true that God's Word will not return void,
but some people are very quick to close the door.
There are some things that God will show you
years before, way before, to get you rooted in
that promise, to get you to start moving by faith.
God isn't a God to lie, and He is never. He's
never going to ask you to do things that go against
his word y 'all when I was in new age I listened
to a lot of false prophecies and a lot of false
words there were people who are claiming that
they were Christian and They were saying things
that I was totally believing but it was it was
crazy once I started reading my Bible every day
and once I started having a Christian worldview
and I started getting having like my theology
was sound I started realizing a lot of things
these people are saying go against God's word
or go against God's character like I remember
and this one was crazy that there was this prophetic
word that this guy kept speaking over prophetic
in quotation marks that claimed to be a follower
of Christ that was speaking multiple times over
again years ago that I was listening to and he
kept saying a thing of you know God gave them
a lot of chances and they refused to repent.
So God's taking all their spiritual gifts and
giving them to these people and Things like that
because I wasn't theologically sound I believe
those things it was later on when I was reading
the Bible where I was like The gifts can't be
taken Like these are gifts. These are spiritual
gifts that you are born with God doesn't take
spiritual gifts from somebody and throw them
on to someone else as a punishment. Will God
stop speaking to people in seasons? Like if someone's
a prophet and they're displeasing to God, God
will stop giving them prophecy. God will stop
blessing things like 100%. But when I when I
started really having a sound theology, I started
seeing, wow, if I really compared these things
to scripture, I would start seeing that this
doesn't align with God's character. This doesn't
align with God's word. Interesting enough, it
ended up coming out. That person ended up marrying
a witch and came out that they actually did a
lot of witchcraft and things like that. And God's
timing, the false words from that person were
even exposed to the public. Trust in God's ability.
To move things around trusting God's ability
to expose Trusting God's ability to shuffle things
around this leads me into speaking about David
because look at David David was anointed to be
king when he was still a young shepherd boy Just
because God has anointed you with something doesn't
mean it's your time to step into that thing And
I know some people may hate to hear that because
when God anoints you and reveals something to
you It's like you want to jump in right then
and there But David had to go through a lot of
seasons before he became king. And we see that
he had to deal with Saul a lot. A lot. And at
first, you know, at first, at first, when David
was brand new on the saying, taking out Goliath,
Saul wasn't too much of a hater, right? But it
was once Saul started to recognize it, because
Saul had... it was very clear to Saul that he
had lost the favor of the Lord and disobeying
God partial disobedience is still disobedience
and he partially obeyed God he people he desired
to people please more than he desired to obey
God and it was clear that God's favor God's anointing
had left him and when he started seeing David
securing these victories and winning it was clear
that God's hand was over David's life. Saul started
getting really skeptical thinking, I think this
is my replacement. I think this is the one to
take me out. And we see that David didn't have
to do anything to expose Saul. Saul exposed his
own intentions. When David was just there kindly
playing the harp to bring peace, he was actually
because of those spirits that were tormenting
Saul. You know, when David would play that instrument,
Saul would have peace. Even though David knew,
Saul didn't care for him very much. David was
still being kind to him. That's another thing,
y 'all. Our generation says, well, if you know
someone doesn't like you, or you know someone's
a bad person, like is making bad decisions, you
know that someone's doing this. If you're kind
to them, you're fake. David was obeying God.
We are still supposed to love our enemies, to
show kindness. Now you should be having boundaries
But even though Saul hated David and David knew
Saul had a problem with them David was still
playing that harp. He was still obeying the Lord
He was still bringing a bit of peace and a sense
to Saul's life because when he would play that
instrument the spirits would leave him And even
though David wasn't doing anything to Saul Trying
to take him out or hurt him or harm him Saul
was paranoid and in Saul's paranoia and in Saul's
own Fear His own color started coming out Where
he was trying to shoot the he was shooting arrows
and stuff at David trying to take David out Well,
David was just being kind David was just doing
his thing obeying God and Saul was trying to
take him out It was clear who was the antagonizer
here, and David didn't have to expose who the
antagonizer was. We see David didn't go and try
to gaslight Saul and dance around and try to
get Saul to hit him, try to get Saul to attack
him. Saul did it on his own. Out of fear, out
of envy, out of paranoia. I imagine that evil
spirit torturing him probably created some paranoia.
We know how much demons and the devil love to
whisper in our ears and make us think it's our
own voice. I can't imagine what Saul was hearing.
And then Saul's tactics picked up to the point
where David had to flee, but we see that that
time when David was in the cave, and Saul came
in that cave to go potty, to take a pee, David
had the opportunity to take out Saul right then
and there. His crew was hyping him up, saying,
do it, do it, do it, take him out. And what David
did, he cut off just a little edge of his garment
to show how close he got. And he still decided
not to, because he said, I'm not going to be
taking out one of God's. God anointed him. He
will be removed in God's appointed time. I know
it's not my job to take him down. Just because
you are presented with an opportunity doesn't
mean the opportunity is from God. That was a
mistake I made a lot before I came to Christ
is when I had an opportunity to do something
I would assume well, God wouldn't allow me to
have the opportunity if he didn't want me to
take it. Where is that in the Bible? nowhere
That's why we're supposed to test the spirit
and be discerning Just because you have the opportunity
to seek revenge just because you have the opportunity
to say a mean word Just because you have the
opportunity to do these things doesn't mean that's
what you're being called to do So it's so important
to be discerning and to take it to God But we
see here that David recognized that he did not
have to force the word from God David had been
anointed king and he knew in God's timing he
would become king Which also meant he would listen
to God's nudges when God told him to go to battle
When God told him to go to a place he would obey
But he recognized the difference of obeying God
and trying to do it himself And he knew that
killing Saul in that cave would be doing it himself.
And in God's timing, because Saul refused to
try to force it himself, Saul fell on his own
sword. David's hands were clean and he was appointed
king. I want to be so clear with this y 'all.
A prophetic word from God does not require you
to force. You are not going to have to force
it if it is from God. Now you will have to obey
the steps that he is calling you to take But
you're not gonna have to do it on your own strength
and force it and this leads into the next step
this leads into the next topic but prophetic
words from God do come with opposition a Promise
from God comes with opposition Okay. So like
I said before, you are not going to have to on
your own strength, on your own thoughts, your
own understanding, try to create and force the
promise to happen. But when you are truly walking
in a promise from God and walking by faith, there's
going to be some kind of opposition. Okay. Some
people have a misconception that if it's going
to be from God, it's going to be easy, which
isn't true. And we see that in the book of Nehemiah,
right? He has this call. There's this call to
rebuild the temple, to rebuild for God. He gets
the confirmation from God. He knows that this
is what God is calling him to do. He even gets
the permission from the King. He gets everything
he needs. But when he starts actually moving
by faith and when the promise is actually starting
to be built is when the opposition comes in.
is when people are mocking and making fun of
him is when people are slandering him is when
people are trying to stop the building progress
is when people are trying to take him out and
take him down and the spirit behind that is the
devil trying to stop God's will trying to stop
God's promise from coming into fruition trying
to get you to doubt God's word a promise doesn't
mean no opposition if you're walking in a promise
from God you can actually expect there to be
a decent amount of opposition You can expect
there to be, you know, the whispers in your ear
from the enemy of the negative thoughts. You
can expect your faith to be tested. You can expect
people who are being used by the enemy to try
to stop you and block you and delay you and do
whatever they can to stop it from happening.
But that is also the opportunity for you to lean
on God and watch what he can do in his strength.
His grace is sufficient. Again, prophetic words
are not meant to be our own strength, our own
understanding, our own control, our own whatever,
which is why when we are met with opposition,
we're able to go to God, and God has already
planned accordingly for it. There are some people
who think, well, it must not be from God because
it's hard, or because there's opposition, or
because there's this, and where is that said
in the Bible? Where is it said that if you are
obeying God and you follow Jesus, everything
is going to be easy? Jesus actually says in scripture
if they hated me they're gonna hate you. If they
tried to stop Jesus, if they tried to block him,
if they lied and called him a false prophet,
if they slandered him, of course they're gonna
do it to you because Jesus was literally perfect.
He was literally beyond reproach. A student is
not more beloved than their master. than their
teacher. I want to share with y 'all one more
prophetic story that's now coming to mind, which
is Jonah. I love Jonah. It's one of my favorite
books in the Bible. And Jonah is sent to warn
the people of Nineveh. And at first he actually
disobeys God. And then his disobedience, he gets
swallowed up by a big fish. And when he repents
and says, God, I should have listened to you.
I submit to your will. The fish spits them out
and he gets told by God again. Go to Nineveh
and tell them that I plan on destroying them.
Like they have triggered my wrath. Jonah goes
and he tells them he's like, hey, X amount of
days and y 'all are going to be destroyed. Jonah
is not even saying anything about repentance.
He's not even saying if y 'all repent, God will
spare you. He's just saying, hey, God has decided
y 'all are going to be taken out. And in that
time period, the people of Nineveh hear that
word. They receive it and they believe it. And
what do they do? They repent. They put on sackcloth
like they tear their clothes. They have outward
signs of repentance. God sees their repentance
and spares them for a while. For a while they're
spared and they don't see destruction. Now it's
later on when the people of Nineveh go back.
to their wicked ways and they do eventually see
the wrath of god and i feel led to connect this
with god knows when your repentance is legit
he knows when your heart position has really
changed or when you're stopping just because
you don't want to face wrath when you're truly
repentant for something when you truly recognize
it's wrong and it's a sin and it's indefensible
and your heart position changes I'm not saying
you'll never be tempted to go back to that but
you're not going to be able to defend going back
to that. And it reminds me of how Jesus called
out the Pharisees who said like on the outside
you're holy like he called them whitewashed tombs
with inside you have all these dry bones saying
on the outside you present yourselves as the
perfect You do everything correct, you're beyond
reproach, you're all these things, but inside
there's greed and there's all these things that
are un -Christ -like. And the people of Nineveh
is a wonderful example of like, in that moment,
they were repentant, they felt guilt and they
recognized what they did was wrong. And God gave
them an opportunity. Okay, I'm pulling my wrath
back and I'm gonna see what y 'all do with this.
But eventually they go back. To their ways And
in doing that is when When they see the destruction
from God God gives us chances and I want to loop
that around to that. That's what prophets People
that God is speaking through are used for a lot
is to warn Right and God's end goal with sending
those is repentance he wants us to repent and
to turn from our ways He wants to see us put
our faith in Jesus Christ. Even in the book of
Jeremiah, God was showing them wrath, but it
was in hopes that they would repent, that they
would see that they need God, and that they would
have a fear of God developed. So if you're someone
who's listening today that you've been receiving
words, but you I haven't allowed them to take
root. What I'm encouraging you to do today is
to take them back to God. Pray and say, God,
is this from you? Is this something that I need
to hear? And I want you to look at, hold it up
to scripture. Does it align with scripture? If
it aligns with scripture, if it goes with God's
Word, you take it back to God I also encourage
you to pray this that God allows you to be humbled
but he softens your heart because I remember
praying this prayer so many times over that God
I love you and I don't want to be disobedient
to you and I want to look like Jesus in every
way I can so if there's a part of me that is
rejecting you is rejecting your word strip that
out of me break that down in me And if you were
refusing to pray that prayer, if you were refusing
to say, God, I submit my entire self to you,
if there's a part of you that is just refusing
to pray that anything un -Christ -like is removed,
that anything opposing God is removed, there
is a pride that needs addressed there. Because
we are to be completely submitted to God. These
bodies aren't our own. These bodies were paid
for by Christ. These bodies that we are living
in are temporary but are to be used to glorify
God. The gifts that are given to us aren't to
be used for ourselves but to be used to glorify
God. And if there's a part of you that is opposing
or resentful to denying yourself and to submitting
yourself to God, there is a pride there. There
is some kind of ego there is some kind of hardness
and it is dangerous to operate Speaking from
experience God is a heavenly father who loves
you and you need to trust that he will take care
of you when you pray that prayer Pray that your
heart is softened. Pray that you're able to humbly
receive His Word. Pray that you have fresh conviction,
okay? If you haven't felt conviction for some
of the things you're doing that you know God's
Word say not to do, pray for fresh conviction.
Truly pray and pray that you receive and take
conviction in the way God desires you to. Pray
that you have a fresh desire to read Scripture
and to obey God. Pray that He removes the parts
from you that are in opposition to Him. Pray
that He removes and replaces desires from your
heart that are not from Him and replaces them
with desires that are. Pray that you have more
of a desire to serve Him and more fear for Him
than you do man. Pray that someone needs to hear
this today. Pray that God takes away from you
your desire for revenge and a look back. Pray
that he helps you to forgive and pray that he
strips the anger out of you. I know there are
a lot of people in this world and I was one of
them for a long time that hold on, that don't
want to pray that prayer because they're afraid
that that means that the people who did them
wrong will get off the hook or that justice won't
be seen. God is the God of divine justice. Vengeance
was never yours to hold on to in the first place.
Vengeance is God's. And when you look at that's
holding on to something that isn't your right
to hold on to in the first place, that is meant
to be given to God. And I ask you today, how
do you expect God to bless disobedience? How
do you expect to walk into a promise or expect
all of these things from God? When you wouldn't
be stewarding over them in Christlike ways When
your testimony wouldn't be I sought the Lord
he heard he answered, you know I did my best
to pursue Christ and to be in closeness and I
saw his glory through that That that's the testimony
God builds it's not the testimony of I was living
in wickedness and I did all these things that
went against Scripture and God blessed it anyway
That was a tough pill I had to swallow. When
I was a new agent, I was a tarot card reader.
I was wondering why I wasn't being absolutely
blessed because I felt like I was using my gifts
and being a good person. When I held it to Scripture,
I was like, well, I'm using my gifts to glorify
myself and bring in my own desires. I'm not pointing
people closer to Christ. I'm actually leading
people away or astray at that time period. I
was like, so what I'm doing actually contradicts
God's Word. What I'm doing actually goes against
God's Word. I started realizing I was ignoring
conviction and all these things, and I had that
reality moment of, oh my gosh, how can I expect
God to bless this? This isn't a testimony that
glorifies Him. This actually actively contradicts
His Word. In what world do I expect Him to build
this up? So it's a little bit more of a heavier
message today, but there are people out there
today who need to hear this, especially if you
have been spending a large portion of your life
living in deceit, living in illusion, living
contently in your sin, living in disobedience.
I did it for like 25 years. And when I felt the
conviction, the weight was so heavy, but like
I, The way that I'm speaking to y 'all today.
This was the way that the word spoke to me in
all honesty I remember writing down in my journal.
How can I expect God to bless my disobedience?
How can I expect him to make a testimony out
of divination and sin and idolatry? Someone needs
to hear this day. How can you expect God to make
a testimony? built off of unforgiveness and anger
and control and pursuing the flesh and witchcraft
and slander and drunkenness like how whatever
it is you're dealing with what where is your
theology going a little sideways right now that
you expect god to bless them where is your theology
a little sideways right now where you're calling
back goodness And when you're calling it good
enough or when you're saying well God loves me
more than this other person or God shows me more
grace than this person or God knows my heart
He does know your heart and he knows what you're
refusing to release and he knows where your loyalties
really lie He knows what you would do with that
blessing if you got it right now He knows that
you would use it to hurt other people. He knows
that you would use it to rub other people's nose
in it He knows that you would use it to shame
to slander He knows that you would be used for
the enemy So he so lovingly has yet to give it
to you because you haven't gotten straightened
out yet Speaking from experience because that
was me too y 'all I'm glad God didn't bless me
with some of the things then that he's blessed
me with now Because I wouldn't have used those
correctly May have received the building blocks
for the promise, but it wouldn't have looked
like the promise And I'm and I'm sure I know
this may feel a little harsh the words I'm saying
to you today But these are the words that the
Lord had to speak to me to get through to me,
and I know That these are planning a seed for
somebody today for God to move off of And I pray
that there's fresh conviction I pray that this
rush revelation if you're one of my brothers
and sisters in Christ that you're you're You
know that God is preparing you to be a mouthpiece.
You know that God is preparing to use you to
warn, to guide, to convict to these things. God
speaking through you, not you doing it yourself.
You know that God is preparing you. I gave some
advice earlier that I want to reiterate again.
You have to fear the Lord and have a desire to
please Him. And this is the next piece of advice
I am going to give you. Have a Biblical worldview.
Meaning what you read in the Bible, what you
read in scripture is 100 % true. And that you
base your morals and your values and your life
decisions not off of what you want or what your
flesh says, but off of what God says. And to
really, really work on knowing his voice. His
sheep hear his voice. They know his voice. They
recognize his voice. And that comes through private
alone time with the Lord. Be rooted in God's
Word. Know what God's Word says. Have a sound
theology. You cannot spend enough time with Jesus.
And this is another piece of advice you have
to release. the anger and the unforgiveness.
You have to be in prayer with the Lord consistently
of putting the pride and the ego aside because
you can't be easily offended. In the most loving
way I can say that. You can't be easily triggered
and easily offended. And those are hard seasons
to go through, to get to, speaking from experience.
But you can't be used by the Lord in that way
and be holding on to anger and resentment and
wanting to see people in pain and wanting to
see people suffer and wanting you to be put on
a pedestal and wanting you to be proven right.
Because again speaking from experience, the words
that you deliver are going to end up being skewed.
You're going to be speaking things from a place
of anger and hatred and you'll end up saying
words that God didn't tell you to say. You'll
end up speaking death in ways that God didn't
call you to speak death You'll end up skipping
over the repentance and the redemption and going
straight to condemnation You'll skip over the
mercy you'll skip over the grace you'll find
yourself moving earlier than God told you to
You'll find yourself doing things not because
it's what God said in glorifying God, but because
you feel like it glorifies you, because you feel
like it elevates you, because it feels like it
proves you. You cannot be holding on to those
things. You gotta let them go. You gotta give
them to God. I've said this so many times, giving
justice, giving revenge to God doesn't mean someone
is let off the hook. God is still going to deal
with them justly. Giving it to God is literally
letting go of something you were never meant
to hold on to in the first place. And I pray
that this episode has been freeing for you in
some way, revealing for you in some way, convicting
for you in some way. However God intends to use
this episode for you. And I know it's not going
to make everybody happy to hear. I know the things
I'm saying, not everybody is going to be pleased
to hear. But I pray that God, however you feel
hearing this, that God moves in your life through
it. And I want to thank you all so much for taking
the time to listen to this episode today. And
I pray that God meets you where you are. that
you feel His love and whatever you're led to
repent for. That you repent and that you receive
a peace that surpasses all understanding from
the love of Jesus Christ. I pray for a restoration
of your faith and fresh revelation be poured
out on your life. I want to thank you all so
much for listening to today's episode and I do
ask that you subscribe wherever it is you're
listening to this podcast and Be ready to listen
to the next episode whenever it drops Have a
wonderful day. God bless