Stephanie Ike Okafor - What You Need to Know About the Prophetic

When you miss direct worship that is allocated for God to a person, it invites operation of demonic spirits. Hey, y'all, is Stephanie A Ko Kaffer here. And recently there was a teaching I did about discerning how to discern false prophets. And then you know, from that teaching, I opened up for people to be able to just ask some questions. And so we're going to go over just a few questions that came about that were very frequent, and so I was able to just kind of put four together when it comes to understanding the prophetic. In light of that conversation, Now you can listen to this even if you haven't watched that message, but I encourage you to watch the full length of it because it's going to add more context. And so one of the things I talked about was, you know, if you have been to like an African church or like not. It doesn't have to be an African church, but a church where the leader is you know, maybe from within the continent of Africa and it's a prophetic church, or maybe the leader is under submitted to someone who might be African. There is something you might see that where they have this prophesy culture right where you know, when they want to prophesy to someone, they're like, PROPHESI, PROPHESI prophesy and that let me just anyway, we talked about how that in itself has is demonic and I explained why. But someone had a question and they talked about how could it be that when profits encourage people to say prophesy, it is more of a cultural practice, particularly among Africans, rather than so thing inherently demonic. Now Here is how we're going to respond to this. First of all, there's this powerful woman of God that goes by the name apostle Issy, and she said something I love. She says, culture is what carries captivity through generations. When one generation agrees with a mindset of captivity, they pass it on to the next and by the forth generation. It becomes on question because it is now culture. Now Here's the thing, anything, any practice that is normalized under the guise of culture, has a spiritual origin because culture has the power to influence many. Right, the idea of it being culture is because of the influence it has on the life on the lives of a people. Right. But anything that has that much power to influence is not in the gray area. It was not just manufactured overnight by some random teenager in their bedroom. Right, this has spiritual origin, and just because something is cultural does not mean it is innocent. In the spiritual realm, the idea of culture can either be a vessel that carries bondage or truth. So let's start there now when we examine this whole prophesied culture, if you're familiar with it, if it's something that you might be exposed to in the future, you have to understand that the source. You have to discern the source of the activity, because if it is the Holy Spirit at work, one of the primary functions of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus. It is the primary role of the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus. Let's look at John sixteen, verse fourteen. He says he shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mind and shall sow it onto you. Right. But the prophesi culture places the emphasis, the focus, and the glory on the prophet. It's not focused on Jesus. It is focused the worship in that moment is going towards the minister. Now, let's talk about why this is more than it's not just about ego or pride. Right, people can say, okay, maybe the prophet is just prideful or it has been some ego. No, it is actually spiritual because when you look at the biblical pardon of prophetic worship, one of the things you will notice is that in some cases, before a prophet would prophesy, he would ask for his minstrel. Right, this is a minister of music to lead worship, to bring an atmosphere that creates worship onto God. Now look at this. In second Kings three, from verse fifteen to sixteen, it says, but now this was a prophet speaking, but now bring me a minstrel. Because he was getting ready to speak the word of the Lord to the people, he says, bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass when the minstrel played that the hand of the Lord came upon him, and he said, thus said the Lord. And he starts to speak what the Lord is saying to the people. So before he tapped into the prophetic stream, he said, let us create an atmosphere of worship. Sound is very key in the spirit realm, and who that sound is glorifying matters. Now, look at first Samuel ten. Verse five. He says, after that, and I want you to study this scriptures. Study the chapters. Read not just you know chapter ten, go to chapter nine. Really get the context of this. It would bless you. But first someone ten verse five, it says, after that, you will go to Gibea of God, where there is a Philistine outpost. And as you approach the town, you would meet a procession of prophets coming down from the high place. And then it mentions all these musical instruments that they would have layers, timbrels, pipes, harps being played before them, and they will be prophesying. You see, they were prophesying with musical instruments. That was bringing worship onto God. Now you see when these prophets begin to prophesy in such an atmosphere, the worship was not onto them, It was dedicated to God. This is very critical because you have to understand that worship brings access. When you worship the Lord, you have access to the mind and the presence of God. That is why there are times that even if a person is not does not have a prophetic word, it did not come with You know, the Lord has shown me this to say to you. But when they get in an atmosphere of worship onto God, then all of a sudden they start tapping into because that is prophecy. Prophecy is declaring the mind of God. And so you tap into the mind of God and you begin to hear, you begin to see, and all of a sudden things become clear to you. You know, the atmosphere begins to shift. Why because it is worship onto God. Now why this can be can flip to the demonic side when you look at this prophesy culture that you know certain ministers do. It cultivates worship onto man and this opens the door for great manipulation and deception. And why is that? Because if worship grants access when you are worshiping the person, when before they can prophesy to you, you start screaming prophesied, prophesia, prophesy, and you are speaking to the person who is getting access to what this is the question because in worship to God, remember again, you're in the presence of God. It brings you access into revelation. Let me just read one more scripture and then we're going to see the danger of this when it's pointed towards man. Second Chronicles five, verse thirteen to fourteen. It talks about and it came to pass as the trump as the trumpeters and singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord. And when they lifted up their voice with their trumpets and symbols and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying for he is good, for his mercy and or forever, then the house of the Then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord. So the priest could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud. For the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. How did the glory of the Lord feel the house of God? There was pure, genuine worship onto God. So what happened It brought the presence, the tangible presence of God was in their mist that even the priests could not minister. Now here's the flip side of that. When you misdirect worship that is allocated for God to a person, it invites operation of demonic spirits. One of the things you would observe in such ministries is that if a person is not saying prophesy PROPHESI, there will skip you. When they come to prophesy to you, they have a hype man or a hype woman to hype you up for you to say prophesy. Then when they're asking, you know, can I prophesy? And then the hype person is like, prophesy, prophesy, so you can say prophesy, prophesy. What is the need for hype men and hype women? This is not a concert. The Holy Spirit has never needed hype man or hype women to help him do his job. Why do we need hype men and hype women in these kinds of environments? Because the demonic spirits that are operating within that false prophet needs to gain access into you. How they see many things concerning you, apart from some of the rituals and demonic things they do. Is that you give them access. Then I need you to say prophesied, prophesy because when you're saying it, you are coming under their under their leadership, you are coming into agreements with who they are, with the spirit at work behind them. Just if you ever doubt this and you go to such a church, let them try to prophesy to you and don't say prophesied. They will skip you. They'll say things like you're not ready. You know this one is not ready. Why does the spirit of the Lord need a hype man? And here is the deception. Some of these false prophets will tell you that you are helping them create an atmosphere for the prophetic to flow. Do you know how the prophetic flowed biblically worship but unto God when they were plain instruments in worship to God, not to man, not telling a man, and that a man will tell you cannot prophesy, and then you say prophesied prophesia and you just keep saying every word they say. After they say one sentence prophesy, go deeper. You know what, They're going deeper in you. The demons are having deeper access to you. That is the culture. That is what the culture has given the legal rights to do. And they make they pretend that, oh, this is just the African way. No it is not. It is the demonic way. It has nothing to do with this is what we do in Africa. This is what demonic teachers do. And you need to run. You need to run. I heard somebody say something has run and ask questions later to you need to do that? You need to put us some running shoes, because you have no clue what spirit you're under. You have to think about it, you see, Biblically, obviously, you know, Jesus embodied the fullness of every office, an apostle, a prophet, evangelist, a teacher, a shepherd. He embodied the fullness of it all. And so when I'm saying this, I'm not putting Jesus in the same category with just mayor prophets, but one is. It can be argued that one of the most powerful prophets in the Scriptures was a man named Moses. Moses. The type of intimacy Moses had with the Father before the dispensation of us having the Holy Spirit within us is remarkable. But do you know what was said of Moses that he was the meekest man to walk the earth? Do you know the weight of that statement, Because here is the truth. Anyone who has really encountered God, one who the Lord has his hand on, do you know what it means to speak on behalf of God? Do you know what it means to be called? You know? And there's a difference between the office of a prophet and being prophetic. The office of a prophet deals with territory beyond you is when the Lord is calling you to a people, to a nation, to governments, to leaders. Right, do you know what it means When you're entrusted with such information, It humbles you. It doesn't make you this show man or show woman. It's humbling because you know who you are. And then when you see the hand of God, it brings you to your needs. When it starts to puff you up and create pride and ego and all of that, it's a different spirit because what God puts his hand on also reveals his nature. God will take time with you, He will take you through process, he will prune you, he will discipline you so that you do not get puffed up. So when you see these kinds of things and you make excuses for it, you know what it really reveals the idols in your heart. It reveals what you have chosen to be willfully blind. And it is true sometimes you might be under a ministry and you know, you might just be bewitched, but something still gave it access. And so if you have been making excuses for such ministries, repent, test the spirit, because that is not how the spirit of God functions. The Holy Spirit has never and will never need hype men or women order for for him to do his thing. The Holy spirit primary role is to glorify Jesus. How is that glorifying Jesus that puts the attention on man and then the man has false humility afterwards to say it's it's all, It's all about Jesus. Then why what is this charade? Right? Now? Another another thing, another question that came up was why would a pastor or a prophet knowingly teach false doctrine? Now, I thought this was a really, really good question because something I just want to speak on is that there is a difference right between a teacher who lacks depth in biblical understanding versus a false prophet who deliberately deceives you, right, who deliberately is literally spreading deception through their teaching. So let's talk about the first one. When a minister lacks proper study of the Word. Now, there are some ministers. They're not false, but they're not accurate. And what I mean by that is their teaching of the Word. It is not biblically accurate, but they have a genuineness for you to encounter Jesus and so because that minister might be consumed with the busyness of life, or they have poor delegation, or they fail to devote themselves to you know, prayer and the study of the Word. You know, if you read six verse four, there were some apostles that understood the importance of prioritizing their spiritual responsibility and things that need to be delegated to other people. They said, look y'all handle this, but for us, we are going to give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the Word. And so, because of all the activities that some ministers are plugged into, they don't set the time to have a balanced teaching. It's not because they want to lead people to hell. They have a true heart posture for people to know Jesus. They're not trying to deliberately twist the Word of God. They're just in balance with their teaching, which does lead to error. But I'm saying this because we have to know the difference between when someone just lacks, you know, the structure needed in their life to really go deeper into the world of God and to devote themselves to the Word of God so that they are ever growing. Because there's some things you might read today if you only focus on one verse, the next time you read the whole chapter, you're like, wow, I see that a whole lot differently, right, So to really devote themselves because remember, you know, Romans tend to says for I bear them witness that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. So there are some people they get into ministry, maybe too early, or they get into ministry and they get lost in the activities of ministry and they're not devoting themselves to the knowledge of the world. They have a zeal for God, but their Bible is just you know, dusty, right. And then when you look at two Timothy two fifteen, it says study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Right. So they are ministers who just lack knowledge, but their goal is to truly glorify Jesus. So their error is not that they are in an agreement with you know, demonic teachings or things like that, but it just comes from immaturity, lack of preparation, and misunderstanding of the text because they take it out you know outside of the true context of it. And here is the truth. Man. To any minister, at some point in your ministry, the Lord will convict you of getting caught up in the busyness of life, because that is the one area of like you. It's it's such an area that many of us fall into the temptation of because you know, we live in a time where things are not as communal. If you have a large family, you're trying to navigate that, you're trying to navigate business, you're trying to navigate this, all this stuff, and you get caught up in the busyness of life and not focusing on the main things. You see when the Bible talks about seek first the kingdom and it's right and his righteousness and all other things will be added to you. So the enemy against the kingdom is things. Because we're seeking the things, we put more priority on things that we abandon our kingdom assignment. Now, for ministers, it looks like being caught up with the busyness of life to acquire things, and those things are things that are necessary. It's not even just once. It's needs right, but we have to know how to balance things properly, especially when you're called by God into a place of leadership, and so we should not be quick to call such people, you know, false teacher and things like that. And later on I'll talk about, you know, how do we respond to such people. They're just immature. And you know, if when you recognize that, hey, this person is taking a lot of things out of context, yes you can refrain from listening to them. You can send a message out of love. Maybe when they see a couple messages, they start looking back on their sermons and they're like, wait, what am I even talking about. Maybe I need to I need to sit down, I need to get discipleship, I need to get in the word and all of that. But now here's the difference between that and a false prophet. A false prophet is not just imbalanced. No, they are teaching a doctrine that fundamentally opposes the standards of the kingdom. It opposes the principles and the will of God. False doctrine is not just about human error. It is demonic deception, and the goal of it is to lead people away from righteousness and into sin, rebellion, and perversion. You see one Timothy four, Verse one says, now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith given heed to deceiving spirit and doctrines of demons. Now, false doctrines are dangerous because number one, they produce intelligent sinners. These are people who know how to justify their sin through you know, misinterpreted theology. They have a reason to tell you why they're cheating. They have a reason to tell you why they're being manipulative. They have a reason to tell you all of the things that take you away from the fruits of the Holy Spirit and into the works of flesh. Right, it redefines a false doctrine, redefines morality. It calls evil good and good evil. Isaiah five, verse twenty says, woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. This is what false doctrines do. They redefine morality. It diminishes repentance. Right, it convinces people that their sin has no consequences. That's why in a false ministry. One of the things that is so prevalent in there is immorality. Sexual immorality. Everybody's sleeping with everybody. It's a mess. Why, because a false doctrine diminishes repentance. You could just smell the sin. You walk in there, You're like, wait, what is happening here? You know all kinds of things happening in the news, all kinds of things coming out because you know, the Lord is so gracious and patient, he gives you time. But after a while, you know when the Lord, when it gets to the place of exposure, it's not that God is just trying to expose a person for the sake of it. It's actually his mercy for them to become back to the place of repentance. But you see all kinds of activity happening. You are like, am I in the church or in the club, like where are we at? You know that might start coming to the light. And it's because a false doctrine would diminish repentance. You would rarely hear repentance even talked about. You will rarely hear it, and sometimes you may never even hear holiness talked about because the false doctrine has an agenda. You see, false prophets do not just teach error, They intentionally manipulate scripture for things that would please your flesh and oppose the leading of the Lord. You see, when you talk about false doctrine, you know, we talked about how the Scripture talks, you know, mentions doctrines of demons. When these false prophets are submitted to literally submitted to the enemy, they have demonic spirits that are influencing them. Now, when the Bible says that there is such a thing called the doctrine of demons, you have to know that a demon's assignment is not just to torment you or make you suffer and things like that. Something else they love to do is to teach. They are looking for vessels of influence. They're looking for vessels that they can promote, to use them to bring forth the teachings of the kingdom of darkness, the lifestyle of the kingdom of darkness, to make the kingdom of darkness wys be called light. A doctrine of a demon means the teachings that come from demonic spirits. Demons want access to your mind. They want to influence how you think, how you live. And so this is not just about you know all it was an error. No no, no, no no. If you pay attention to the difference. A false prophet would start creating doctrines that they would say, you know, perhaps it came from an angel, or it came from somewhere right, there's no biblical grounds for it, and even when they use scripture they take it out of context. But the goal is to bring you out of the place of God's will. It is to justify sin in your life. It is to literally make you an intelligent sinner. You're like, oh no, there's a reason for this. Oh no, there's a reason for that, And that's not the ways of God. You see demons desire to teach because Proverbs twenty three, verse seven says, as a man thinks, so is he. If the enemy has your mind, he has your life, and he's looking for different ways to reprogram how you think. When it comes to the Kingdom of heaven, the Lord wants to transform your life by transforming your mind. When the enemy wants to take authority over your life life, he wants to affect how you think. That's why there's doctrines of demons. And you will see this in false ministries. You will see this in media. You will see this in anything that has access and influence. You will see this through culture, anything that has access to influence. How you think demons want a place there because they love to teach. They have a doctrine that comes from their master, and they want they're looking for a pulpit to express it through right now when a demon desires to teach. Also, because they can control your belief system right based on what you believe controls your actions, they can reshape how people define righteousness and sin and what happens it leads them to serve the kingdom of darkness. I remember there's a time I was just binge watching different people who had testimonies of you know, visiting hell and being able to come back. And one of the things, one of like the common threads that were mentioned, these were people who they literally like died and went to Hell, right and by the mercy of God, you know, they called on the Lord Jesus. People were praying for them. You know, they literally resurrected and the Lord said was able to send them out of there. But they all had this common saying of how Satan mocked them say and will say to them, I got you, Look at you. I've been waiting for you. Oh I got you. He mocked them. He mocked them for the things they believed, the lies they believed. He mocked them for the things they did. He was excited. You would think that even witches. That's why you know, I always encourage people like hey, even if you know someone is a witch, even for the false prophet, pray for the false prophet, because they are in darkness. You would think that, say, in what you know in hell, he would have like a throne room for you know how in the throne of heaven their elders surrounded, you know, just casting their crowns. You will think Satan would have a throne room where all the witches in the world and the false prophets would reign with him. No, he torments them. He mocks them because he knows you were supposed to belong to Jesus. But I got you, I got you in your own territory. It's torment. There's nothing fun there, right, And so false doctrine literally wants to redefine your morality. It wants to redefine what you call righteous and what you call sin right. And so when a false prophet is teaching, a false minister is teaching, he is teaching the message of their mass. The Satan is also trying to create disciples. He's also trying to find people that would represent his nature on the earth, and he also knows how to creep in to the church. And so something that will just encourage is that, you know what, and here's the thing, here's the truth. Regardless if you are in a church and the teaching is just imbalanced, maybe it's like hyper grace, you know, things like that, you want to go to you want to be under a minister that is really leading you in truth and leading you in the things of God. But I'm just saying this so that we're not also so quick to just call everybody a false teacher. You know, there's some people who it's not their heart posture, it's not their intention. And sometimes this is hard to discern because even the ones who are intentionally doing it, they're the ones that just by their appearance you might not discern. Because again, Satan will send out wolves in sheep clothing, so they will come, you know, in a way that will seem so innocent, so gentle, but when you listen to their doctrine, because Satan cannot hide himself, he would reveal himself in the teachings. When you really pay attention to it, you know that it's pulling a person away from the Lord. And so so a few things to just pay attention to is does it glorify Christ or the minister. Does it lead people to repentance or does it justify sin? Is it rooted in scripture or does it claim new revelation? Right? Does it bring clarity and righteousness or does it create confusion? Right? God is not the author of confusion. And so I just want to encourage you again. A minister who lacks knowledge, who needs you know, a mister who really just in balance. They need correction, they need discipleship. And so this is also a message that for every minister you should have, there should be someone that you know and not talking about submit submission in the sense of you know, oh, just for the religious aspect of it, it's accountability. You need someone that you answer to. You need someone that can keep you in check. You need someone that can say, hey, this thing you're talking about is wrong. You know this way you're teaching it is wrong. You need people around you that can give you a perspective, not just yes men. You need people that can say, hey, when you were talking about that scripture. It's not really about that. It's about this. I remember, you know, whatever it looks like, it could be your spouse, it could be a spiritual you know, a physical spiritual covering, like how people have a spiritual father, a spiritual mother or things like that. But in a healthy way. I'm not talking about this toxic submission that people do and it's just weird. I'm talking about healthy submission to people that can keep you accountable. People that you only follow as they fallow Jesus right, Not that you just follow them blindly. No, you follow them as they follow Jesus right. They represent the nature, the principles of the Lord. Because I remember I was going to speak at a funeral, and you know the scripture that is so popular. You know, in my father's house there are many mansions if it were not so, you know, the whole thing. And I was talking to my husband. I was like, yeah, man, I'm gonna I think I should use the scripture. My husband said, did you pray? And I'm like, what do you mean? And I pray? He said, because that is not what the scripture is about. He said, Now, if you prayed, the Holy Spirit would have told you go read that verse again and you need that right. And I'm like, what do you mean? And when we literally we sat together and we opened the Bible, and I was just blown away. I said, I have heard the scripture at so many funerals, and it has nothing to do with mansions in heaven. Jesus was speaking of himself, you know. But that's beside the point. The reason I'm sharing that is you need people around you, right. You cannot just be out there, you know, imbalancing your teaching and there's nobody that can speak to you or anything like that. But a false prophet, a false minister must be exposed. And you know, you have to separate yourself from such people because Romans sixteenth, verse seventeen to eighteen says, Now, I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offense contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. He says, note them and avoid them, right, for those are for those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech, deceived eve the hearts of the simple. He says, what, note them and avoid them, No, the ones that are false and avoid them. Right. Question number three, what is the purpose of the prophetic? Now, this is a really good question because you know, to simplify this, there's so much depth of how we can go into this. But there were just a few key things I wanted to share, and it's definitely not limited to this, But the prophetic it's really about revealing the will, the mind, and the heart of God concerning a matter concerning a people, concerning a nation, concerning the territory. But it's about the mind of God concerning that thing. Now, you have to understand that the Lord is not limited to time. He is in the beginning, he is in the present, he is in the end. And so when it deals with the prophetic, you can go into the past, you can speak into the now, and you can call things into the future, and you can and give clear direction of what is to come because you're having access to the mind of the one who is outside of time, right, who sees all, who knows all, who has been in all things. And so the prophetic gives you that. And so when you look at how it flows, it edifies, it directs, it brings warnings, but ultimately it is going to align a believer with the truth of God's worth, with the ways of God. And so number one, there are five things that put together here. So number one, it reveals and glorifies Jesus. Right. Revelation nineteen ten says, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Prophecy will point people to Christ and glorify him. Now, someone may say, well, how is it glorifying Jesus when you know it's about me getting this? Then I right, First of all, how the prophetic flows will point you to Jesus, and the fruit of the prophetic word in you would produce the fruits of the spirit. Right, everything is glorifying Christ in a practical way. If you got a prophetic word that you were about to get an increase, right, you about to have this financial breakthrough. When it's something that is coming from the Lord, what it produces in you, for example, could be kindness. Kindness is the fruit of the spirit, because all of a sudden, you're now thinking, Wow, I'm gonna have increase. This increase will not give me the ability to perhaps fund this project or do this thing that is going to empower other people's lives. This increase would give me the opportunity to help this family member who is going through something. Why, Because it's creating out of you the fruits of the Holy Spirit. When it is not something that comes from the Lord, what it produces is the works of the flesh. So you realize someone gives you a word and says, oh, there's gonna be great financial breakthrough in your life. When it is not the spirit of God, what it could produce is idolatry. So then all of a sudden, now you start you're obsessing about the things you could do with that money. You're like, Oh, man, i could finally buy that purse. Wow, I'm gonna buy this. I'm gonna buy that car that I wanted to have, and then I'm gonna renovate my kitchen, and you're obsessing about it. It now becomes an idol in your heart. That tells you, first of all, the spirit speaking is not the spirit of God, because God will not give you something that will cause you to act in a way that is outside of Him. Rather, he would just not tell you. He would just allow it to happen. Right, And so the prophecy, the primary purpose of prophecy is to point people to Jesus. Right. Number two, prophecy builds up. Right. You get the word build up from the word edification. It encourages. You get that from the word exhortation, and it brings comfort. Right. You can see this in one Corinthians fourteen, verse three. But he who prophesies speaks edification, exhortation and comfort to men. Write in Acts fifteen, verse thirty two. Now Judas and Silas themselves, being prophets, also exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words. Right. And so prophecy can uplift and strengthen the faith of the followers of Jesus Christ. Right. It aligns them with the will of God. Sometimes you might having a word of encouragement is the mind of God towards you because you might be in a path. You might be you know God has spoken to you about something and you start facing difficulty, you start facing challenges and someone just comes and ministers a word to you, or you tap into the prophetic stream in your own life. You might be in worship, you might be in prayer and the Holy Spirit just puts an impression on your heart that you know what it is. Well, I am with you. Everything is going to be fine. Right. The Holy Spirit can just make you understand that, be encouraged in this season. Sometimes prophecy can come to encourage you. There was someone very dear to me had this dream where literally it was like the Lord gave her a blank check, but connected to that blank check where prayer request about things concerning marriage and family and different things like that. And it was just for her to write it according to her faith. And it was the Lord's way of encouraging her. What you desire, I want to give it to you. My eyes are not far from you. There were concerns that she was having about how old she is, and you know, the time is going by, is she going to get married? All these things? When it happened, and the Lord was just showing her in that dream, look, just just believe me, right, just have faith for this. I will make it happen in its time. It was to encourage her to not give up on believing what God had shown her about her family. God had given her visions of what her home would be, what her marriage would be, what her kids would look like. And it was to encourage her, I have not given up on this vision that I gave you. I am not like you know, humanity that could fail you. Promise you one thing today, fail you tomorrow, and no, no, no, no. He is God. So there are times that even you may have dreams and their prophetic dreams when you feel like giving up on something, when you feel as though, man, God, am I doing something wrong? Like what is going on in this area? And God gives you a dream about what your life would look like when you step into it. That dream is to encourage you. Hey, I see you. I know you don't understand what's happening in your life right now. I know you have many questions. But even in this place of suffering, you are learning obedience to me. Just keep pushing a little longer, Just keep going a little longer, be confident in my word to you, and it will not fail you. Right. So, prophecy can encourage, it can comfort right Number three, It brings correction and it calls people to repentance. Right because again, you're accessing the mind of God. You see you when you are maybe having issues with someone you know oftentimes like let me even use the concept of marriage when you reach a point in a marriage where you saying, you know what, the Lord told me to just walk out of this. That's all the Lord told you. The Lord didn't show you any role you played. The Lord didn't show you you know what you can do to make things work. The Lord didn't show you any of that. The Lord you showed you exit Nah prophecy brings correction. You're tapping into the mind of the one that does not think like you. The scripture says, his thoughts are higher than your thoughts, His ways are higher than your ways. That kind of behavior is normal to us. It's called avoidance. We have an issue, we say, you know what, I'm out of here, check out. That is our nature. That is how we think, that is how we process. When God is involved, he gets to the root of things. When you tap into the prophetic flow concerning an issue in your life, God is not there pointing the finger at what other people are doing. No, he shows you yourself, will bring a mirror in front of you. That is when you know you're connected to the voice of God. When you are having conflicts with people and God is not there to justify their wrong he is also there to show you your role. He is there to bring you, He's there to call you higher. I've had moments where I'm just like and I will feel justified, you know, in a conflict, I will feel justified with man, this happened with a friend of mine and I can't believe this person did this. And da da da da da da. And you know what, God who God ends up showing their self me And so prophecy would bring correction, It would call people to repentance. That is why even when maybe you have you know, you're someone who whether you're called as a prophet or you you have a strong prophetic grace, and their times that people would reach out to you to say, hey, man, I don't understand what's happening in this season of my life. Could you pray for me. Do not fall for the temptation to just declare any word just to make them happy, because what that could do is bring you out of the true prophetic stream and you start tapping into something else. But you have to take a moment and really seek the Lord, because sometimes what God wants to speak to that person might be a word of correction. And when the Lord is speaking through you to correct people, he's also going to correct you about things in your personal life. He's also going to check you about areas where you need to repent, because we are not like listen, without Jesus, we are an absolute mess, and even when we are submitted to the Lord, we still have desire in the flesh that are against the desires of the spirit. And so their moments in your life where the Lord who will constantly have to prune you, where the Lord is gonna have to show you yourself so that you will be called into a place of repentance. It is normal in every season of life. And if it is not, if you feel like your life is just different, then you have fallen into the category of self righteousness. Because how the Lord matures you is by pruning you. So there's always going to be some moment in your life where you would realize, like, man, the way I handle that situation was not the way the Lord wanted me to handle it. That's a beautiful thing, because he's calling you to correction. That's what a good father does to their child. They correct them till today. My mom will still correct me, and I feel grown right. They correct them. Look at Jeremiah twenty three, verse twenty two. It says but if they had stood in my counsel and had caused my people to hear my words, then they would have heard. They would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings. It brings correction, It calls people to repentance. Right. Prophecy is not just about telling people good things. It corrects, It convicts right, It calls people to repentance. Amen number four. That was such an African thing to do. You know. After they say, somebody say Amen number four. To give divine direction and strategy right the prophetic stream again, Remember you're tapping into the mind of the Lord. Sometimes this can show up in many ways. You could have strategy dreams. The Lord can be speaking to you about something that he gives you a strategy for it, you know. Second Chronicles twenty twenty. This scripture is very key because many have taken this scripture and it has created a lot of abuse in prophetic ministries. Second Chronicles, twenty twenty. It says, believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established. Believe his prophets and you shall prosper. Many false prophets have taken this scripture and made it about them. If you do not have them in your life. If you are not submitted to them, then you will not prosper. Believe in in his prophets. It's not about it's not about a person. It's not just about people. It's about the prophetic stream. It's about the prophetic word. When the Lord speaks a thing, if you believe it, you will prosper because when you believe it, you act on it. Right when the Lord spoke to Noah to build the ark, that was a prophetic word. He gave him a divine direction and a strategy on how to build the ark. When Noah believed the word of the Lord and he did what the Lord said, it protected his family. When the Lord gives you a word, it's not about you need to find a prophet and believe every word that they say. It is not a thing of abuse, it is not a thing of blind loyalty. It's about believing the prophetic word. And we live in a time that Jesus has been You know, he was crucified, he has resurrected, and he released his Holy Spirit to abide in those that are submitted under his lordship. That means the spirit of prophecy is in you. Prophecy flows from the Holy Spirit, and so you the Lord can reveal to you divine direction and strategy for your life. And yes, people can also come and give you prophetic words, and you know they would be a sense of confirmation even within your spirit about that word, even when it's something that seems completely foreign to you. But this is not to be put you know, it's not to put people in the box. It's not to say, oh, if you don't have a profit in your life, you will not prosper. That's not it. Believe in the prophetic word and you will prosper. So you can even ask yourself, what are some of the things that the Lord has told you to do that you have not yet done. Because where there is obedience, there is favor. Right, if you don't obey your disobedience, no matter how much you pray and fast with disobedience, it's not going to produce favor because favor has an assignment. It is to fulfill, to bring to manifestation the will and purpose of God. That is where there is that prosperity. Right. And so believe the word of God concerning your life. Believe his written word. When you read a thing, let it. Have conviction in your spirit, pray on that, pray into the world. Pray with that conviction, and you would see things begin to change in your life. Now, the prophetic also reveals future events and the plans of God. And why is this again, God is outside of time. So when you can have access to the mind of God, there are things about your future, he can begin to show you. He can speak that to you, he can reveal it in dreams and visions in so many ways, right Amous three seven. Surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his secrets to his servants the prophets. Now that we have the Holy Spirit, this has been expanded. We have access to that prophetic stream. We have access to the ability to prophesi, especially things concerning our lives. Right, and so true prophecy can also reveal just the time and the divine time and of the Lord and prepare his people for what to come. We were living in a time right now that you need to tap into the prophetic stream. You know, it is there already shaking happening in the world, but there's going to be even more shakings to come. And so the prophetic now becomes it starts to protect you, It anchors you. That is why your relationship with Jesus is everything, because the true prophetic does not flow outside of intimacy with the Holy Spirit. I'm not talking about divination and people who want to just kind of give you this. In the teaching, I talked about the difference between prophecy and oh, the world will come back to me, but when it does, but it's you know how people are can predict your prediction. Prophecy and people predicting the future. But relationship with the Holy Spirit is everything because even when you the Old Testament, the Old Testament is really a foreshadowing to Jesus. And so even when you see the story of how Noah built an arc and that arc provided safety in our times today, the ark is Christ. When we are in Him, there is safety. He is our ark. And so when you are in Christ, there is safety. Why because now there's going to be a prophetic stream that you're tapped into for him to give you direction, to give you strategy, to tell you about the things to come. It may not make any sense to you. You might be trying to build, you know, purchase your first home, and the Lord is telling you to build a property in another country because he has already seen what is to come, and he is trying to prepare you for your future. And so you want to have an intimate relationship with the Lord because all of the these things really brings you to a place where you are encouraged, you are built up, and you are comforted even in the midst of chaos. Now, lastly, someone said, how do I know if I am a prophet? And what I would just say to this person and to those who commonly have that question. I know many times people are looking for signs, you know, signs that you're a prophet, signs that you're signs that you're that. And here's the truth, right, there are certain offices in God that He will reveal to you himself that you hold that office. Because even when it comes to a prophet, someone who has a prophetic office, now there is a prophetic grace. Having the grace does not mean you're a profit because the office of a prophet is when you are assigned to territories, have a responsibility to speak to territories, maybe a nation or nations. You have a responsibility to speak and influence and shape leadership, to shape government. Right, So God puts that authority on you. The reality is just like the Lord said to Jeremiah, before I formed you, I knew you, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations. Jeremiah was always ordained as a prophet, but the time it was revealed to him was the time he was now called and given the authority to step into it. Right. It was the timing that now the Lord is saying, you are ready to step into it, whether you believe it or not. But when the Lord reveals it to you, it is now the time he is commissioning you. It is not something for you to be obsessed about. I think I'm a prophet because I have these signs, because if you were going to speak, it is it's this simple. If I am going to speak to nation, speak to government, speak to leadership on behalf of God, can't I hear the fact that he called me to do this as well? I should also have the knowing that I am called to do this. It should not just be what someone tells me. Now. The truth is, people can tell you, hey, the Lord, I see the Lord is calling you and raising you up as a prophet, because in that moment they have the spiritual eyes to see your ordination. Who God has ordained you, what God has ordained you to be before time, but until you have to be wake before the Lord, until the Lord commissions you. Don't start putting titles on your name, don't start doing extra stuff. Don't start stressing out about God. Am I a prophet or am I not a prophet? Because it's not about you. It's about the will and purpose of God. It's about his assignment. It's about advancing His kingdom. And when you are obsessing about it, it is a sign that you are not ready because you're making it about you. You're making it about your purpose. Who am I? This my vision, my this my that. No, it's about God. Right, be in the place. Be with him. Before Jesus sent out the disciples, they were first with him. Be with him before Jesus. You see, there were many disciples that follow Jesus, but not all of them were called to be apostles. I'm sure there were more than the twelve who felt like they should have also been apostles. But before Jesus appointed apostles, he went into the place of prayer. He sought the Father. The Father revealed who the people would be Jesus goes and announces them right. And so if you don't know, if you have not gotten that clarity from the Lord Jesus, then don't obsess about it. Be faithful where you are. If there are things the Holy Spirit puts has burdens in your heart, pray into them right, seek the Lord about them. You're having prophetic dreams, prophetic insights. Be faithful to what the Lord shows you to do, but do not obsess about these things. Now, also understand that you don't have to be a prophet, have the office of a prophet to prophesy, right to have prophetic words concerning the territory you're naturally assigned to, which is yourself, your family, right sometimes your community, the people connected to you, your loved ones. First Corinthians fourteen, verse one says, pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. Because you have the Holy Spirit. You have access to the gift the prophecy, because he is the gift. Every gift of the Holy Spirit is only called a gift because of the true gift, which is the Holy Spirit. So when you have the Holy Spirit, you have access to everything that he flows through you can prophesy. Don't be obsessed about am I a prophet? Am I not a prophet? Am I a prophet? No? No, no, no no. Just be faithful where you are when it is time for the Lord to commission you, because you cannot do your assignment without God's authority. Jeremiah could have been told by many people the Lord, I see a prophet on you. If he started going to challenge kings, he would have been killed. But when the Lord commissioned him, there was an authority on him that the Lord even tells him, do not be afraid of men and their faces. Why, because Jeremiah, I have placed you in a I have positioned you a place of spiritual authority. These people I have now put you in charge of. Speak what I say, do what I'm telling you to do. You're gonna approve, You're gonna build all these things. You need authority to function in your office, and that authority only comes when there is a clear commission from the Lord. When that commission has not come, just stay with Jesus, continue to grow in his word, continue to be built up in the place of prayer, because all that stuff will continue even afterwards. So just stay in the place where he is preparing you to announce you, because listen, when the Lord announces you, it comes with a lot of warfare. So if he is preparing you, enjoy the preparation because there are more levels of preparation to come. But you need to be at least ready for what comes with the announcement of an office. And it's gonna be such a blessing. But that's all I could cover for now, and we'll just see where this goes next time. But God bless you all. Two