Stephanie Okafor - Understanding Dreams & Discerning God's Voice

When we talk about spiritual side, this is where we talk about dreams and visions. Now, I recently taught I taught on you know, activating your spiritual senses, and we talked about how visions are when there is visual imagery that is used to reveal mysteries while you're awake. While dreams is the same thing, but that happens while you're asleep. Now, the book I wrote on the power of your dreams, the reason that the Lord began to show me to emphasize on the dream realm. There are many things that I talk about in the book, but there are three key reasons that I want to share with you today. And number one is because your spirit never sleeps. You see, your body needs rest, but your spirit is always awake and your spirit always has the ability to commune with God. And so even when your body is resting, the Holy Spirit can continue to commune with you and you receive it as dreams. That is why in the Word of God, you know, let's look at soul. For example, when God encounters Solomon in a dream, he's encountering Solomon's spirit because he's having a real conversation with Solomon. He meets Solomon. Solomon is king, and he says, you know what, Solomon, what is it that you would want me to do for you? And Solomon says, give me a wise and understanding heart that I may know how to govern this people so great that was his real response. His body is asleep, but his spirit is not. And so in the dream now he's having this conversation with God, and God says, you know what, because this is what you ask for. You didn't ask for your enemies, You didn't ask for any of this. I will give you that and so much more and everything else you did not ask for. Solomon wakes up. Because this is the kind of dream you call an importation dream. It has already been imparted. It is done. Solomon wakes up, and all of a sudden his understanding changes when matters are brought before him. He has a different wisdom, and in tell about it because the Lord has imparted wisdom. And then all of a sudden things are happening. His wisdom is causing increase in his life and people. He just he became so wealthy. Why a word has gone forth? The word was released in a dream, but it was in the spirit realm and because that word was released, increase was attracted to Solomon. There was a favor on his life that drew in abundance. The same thing. God can give you a warning dream. There are things where it could feel like a parable of a kind, you know, where they're like you're looking at images and you're like, God, this doesn't make sense. But it is a spirit encountering your spirit. And it's the same with how Jesus was sometimes speaking parables, but then in the place of intimacy he would explain the parable. That's why the Word of God says it is a glory of the Lord to hide a thing, and it is a glory of kings to search it out. Sometimes it is the pleasure of God to give you a message that is coded in something else, because as you search it out in the place of intimacy, not only do you understand the message, but you grow in your walk with God. So he's not hiding it to confuse you. He's not hiding it to play, you know, hide and seek. He's hiding it for your good and for your growth. That as you come in his presence, the revealing of the message also brings out of you. It builds you up in him. And so dreams are powerful because one, your spirit never sleeps. Number two, you get to redeem time. Something that shocked me was the average amount of time that a person sleeps. Research actually says you sleep. The average person sleeps for twenty six years of their life. Some of you right here are not even up to twenty six. Can you imagine, for twenty six years of your life outside of the world of God, what kind of life would you be living? Because His word is your manual, his word is your guide. So twenty six years outside of his word. So this is what allows you to redeem time. That even as I'm a sleep lord, commune with me, reveal things to me. It is a path that I'm walking that you did not send me on. Expose it. You see, Abraham Lincoln when he was president, before he was assassinated, he had a dream of being told that he was assassinated. But if he had a Daniel in his camp, if he had someone that understood the power of dreams, they would have told him, mister president, cancel everything you have going on this week. But he has the dream. He talks about the dream. He's like literally in the dream, he's walking he's hearing people mourning and he's like, why are they mourning? And then when he goes and he's like, hey, what's going And now they tell him the president has been assassinated. There was a warning dream from God, because could it be that the Lord in the Lord's in the perfect will of God, he desired for him to stay longer in that seat. But then there was a threat against his life, and the Lord is trying to bring a warning to him, but there was no reverence for it. So he continued his activities as usual, and that week he was assassinated. You see, there are things that when you start to take it serious dreams and not just this random thing in your dreams, The Lord is communion with you. It's communication. Sometimes it's God starting the conversation or continuing one with you. And the third thing, family, is that dreams and visions are a language of the Last Days Acts two seventeen says in the Last Days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will profits, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Now what is so fascinating about this? Now? The Last Days was marked by the outpour and the release of the Holy Spirit. But it says, because of the release of the Holy Spirit, now you'll be able to prophesied. To prophesy is to speak forth the mind of God. But then the two key streams it follows up with is dreams and visions. Because when it says your young men shall have visions, that your old men shall dream dreams, this was not about age. There was a mystery in this that I believe that we would even be able to unpack, maybe for the sake of time at the Second Service. But there was a mystery in this that through dreams and visions there is a prophetic stream that allows the mind of God to be revealed to you, and that this would be heightened through the power of the Holy Spirit. Do you know that you know the Book of Revelation is not actually called It's called the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and that is a book that was revealed through a vision. That the Revelation of Jesus Christ was given to an apostle name John through a vision. And so this is why there is such a I recognize the emphasis that God places on the sea in realm, but here is the key thing that the Lord wanted me to touch on. And the problem is, but how do I discern his voice? Because God speaks. You will be shocked how much God is speaking to you. But that the problem is you don't discern when He speaks. And this is what the Lord showed me that oftentimes people are practicing intimacy as a formula and not a lifestyle. Intimacy is not every third week or every you know, third week of the month, I'm gonna fast, but then the rest of the month, I just do life. How I choose intimacy is not this formula. Intimacy is a life separated onto God. It is your life. It is not the things I do to hear from God. Because there are some of you and you're like, God, I've been praying, I've been fasting. I can't seem to hear your word because you're treating it like a formula. But it is a life separated onto God. You see. One of the things that marked the life of Noah was that Noah walked with God. So when the word of God came to him, it was so fluid. God sees, He's like, you know what, there's violence and corruption on the earth, boom, the scripture goes, and God said to Noah. Noah walked with God. One of the biggest problems that we're seeing today in the life of Christians is that they are treating their relationship with God through the perspective of a formula. You see Second Corinthian six seventeen says, therefore, come out from them and be separate, says the Lord, touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. Where there is separation, there is restraint. I remember always wondering, you know, God, why would you put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden as a kid. I'll be honest with you, I said God. I think I should blame you, because if that tree was never there, we will not be in this problem. I think you're playing with us. When the Lord began to show me that there is no true intimacy without restrain, and so even in the garden of Eden, that tree was symbolic to restrain that if I am going to be separated onto God, there must be something that, even when my flesh desires it, I can yield to the restrain of the Holy Spirit. It's not everything that seems good is something that you should just do and let's not even go to the things that we know are bad, the things that we know that, Lord, I need to walk away, I need to repent from this. But your lifestyle is their restraint in how you live. Does your life represent that you know what, that there is something that governs how I walk, how I live, how I talk, the decisions I make. There is something beyond me that governs it, and that is my relationship with God. That you don't just make decisions because you can, but that you seek first the counsel of God, that before you make a move about your life, you're seeking his counsel. That even though you are tempted to do something that it feels good in your flesh, you're like, you know what, Lord, I belong to you, So I'm gonna yield because there are moments where the Holy Spirit is literally restraining you and it's telling you don't do that, don't go there, don't get involved with this. But then because we're just like, you know what, we have this formula mindset. We don't call it that, but that is what the fruit is. We're like, you know what, I'm just gonna dabble and then I'm gonna come to God and I'm like, God, this is the last time. I'm sorry. But you don't realize that you're not fooling the Lord. God cannot be mocked. Oftentimes the people, the person we're deceiving is ourselves. Because if and that's why Jesus would even say, if you love me, keep my commandments. Jesus did not say, if you love me, shouted to the world, if you love me, let everybody in your neighborhood know. He said, no, no, no, no no, because you can give lip service, and then if they copy your lifestyle, it will not lead them to where you think you're going. So Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments. To keep his commandments means there are other things that you may desire to do, but you are restrained. You see, what God began to show me is that we have to be people that yield to the restrain of the Holy Spirit. There were times that even the apostles want to preach somewhere and the Holy Spirit will restrain them. The Holy Spirit will tell them, no, you cannot go there. Preaching is a good thing, it's a beautiful thing. But the Bible says you know spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth. And here we are trying to go preach the gospel, and the Holy Spirit says no, But you yield to it, because Lord, my life is not my own. I belong to you. When you begin to see intimacy as separation unto God, that I cannot live a life that everybody else is living if the counsel of God is not for me to do those things. When you begin to see that, that's when the script this scripture becomes your reality. When it says that the secret things belong to those who fear God. There are things that God wants to show you, but you have no reverence for Him, and so you have not arrived at the place where secret things are revealed. Secret things are not just revealed because we have we pray, we do things, and then we're like, God, please show me, show me, show me. Secret things are revealed because there is a reverence we have for God. And it is from that reverence we know how to yield to his restrain. When you have respect to fear the Lord is not like this. You know, fear that brings anxiety. No, no, no, it's a fear that Lord I respect you. I see you. You you are the priority of my life. And because I see you in that manner, Lord God, yes there are things that I would like to do. But because your word says no, I will yield to the restrain of the Holy Spirit. I'm not called to just do anything. I am not called to just be everywhere, and I'm not the one. I'm not called to just live in my flesh because the flesh there was. You know, there's a scripture this blew my mind when when the Lord said to Adam about eating the fruits of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he says, in the day you eat it, you shall surely die. And I was like, man, but God didn't die. But when you study that word, it says in dying you shall die. What was God speaking about that the flesh that the day you eat it, that is when you become flesh, and flesh is the lowest level of man. To live in your flesh is already one layer of death. That is why the word of God was said, the flesh profits you nothing. So you cannot say that, man, I'm a child of God. But you have no restraint. You give into every temptation every appetite you give into it. That is not how we walk as Kingdom people. When the Holy Spirit is tugging at your heart, you yield. Because here is the thing I'm learning about obedience to God. Obedience is a step when there is an area of your life that you're playing with, when there's an area of your life that you're just like God, I could do it later, I could do it here, I could do it there. No matter what progress looks like in the natural, in the spiritual realm, you're stagnant because obedience is a step when you do what the Lord says you should do. That is when you have movement the spirit. And that is why because you see family. This is so critical because your life the Bible talks about you know, for everything there is a time and a season. Your life is locked up in times and seasons. It's not just through the things you do day by day. No, there is a season that is marked concerning your life. There are seasons marked, and there are things that you should step into in different seasons of your life. But obedience is what opens the door from season to season and when you are dancing around and doing things your way because you're just like, well, God, I'm just gonna come back and say Lord, I'm sorry, and then you do the same cycle over and over again. That is not repentance, because repentance it's a mind shift. Is that in your heart, in your mind, you're like, God, I'm dropping this that even if you do it, you're shocked at yourself. But then we find ourselves doing things and we're not. We're not We don't even feel victim. Were like, man, God, trust me, it's my last time. There's no care because it's just a habit. But when you truly repent, you come before God and you're like, you know what, I'm done, because I want to be really serious about this walk with you. You see, it is to those people that secret things would be revealed. They would become the light of the world that Jesus calls you to be. You are called to be separated. You're not called to be of the world, but to be separated. I want to encourage everyone to study the life the lineage of Cain and study the story of Cain. It would really open your eyes to realize that from the very beginning, this was always about representing an image that sometimes what you think is just casual fun and doing you that it's under a kingdom and not the kingdom of God. King, literally the Bible says, and king came left the presence of God, and he went and built a city, and that city began to expand expand, and the whole civilization was born. And that civilization is what we know as the world be separate from the world. There are things God wants to show you. There are things that God wants to tell you. God speaks to you, but you have to discern his voice. And so family, I want us to pray. But even as you stand with me, I want this to be a very sober and honest moment for you. You see, there are many things that while I was in the place of prayer, the Lord began to show me. And my prayer, one of my primary prayers when it comes to our community is that God show them who they are in you, open their eyes to see, to see themselves like you do, that they would not fall into deception. I pray that for myself too. You see, I'm telling you things that I'm also learning to walk in. These things don't come easy. It's not like, oh my gosh, it's easy for some know. It's about dependency. It's about knowing that Lord, even when it feels hard to say no. What gives me the power to walk away is that my eyes around Jesus. And so you cannot look at intimacy as this formula you create when you need a word and then you get frustrated when the word doesn't come. It is your life separated onto God. Your life, everything about you should be separated onto God, the decisions you make, how you live your life, the things you do, seeking the counsel of God before you take a step God, are you in this with me? The place is the areas of your life that you struggle with temptation. That's why some things that I've said this before, some things is not that it's an irresistible impulse. It's an impulse. It's just not resisted. The moment the impulse comes, you give in. But there is the power to resist. But you don't want to yield to that power because you are more. You have more, you know, experience with the taste of that thing. You're like, just this one more time, not realizing you're shutting off your ability to discern his voice. You're disconnecting yourself to the source of life, because every time you live according to the flesh, the spirit takes a back seat. God wants you to live separate onto Him. And what I want to pray for in this moment is true repentance if you realize that you are one who. It's like when you do the thing that you told the Lord you wouldn't do again, the next time you did it, you had no shock. You were just like, ah, man, here we go, Lord, forgive me. That's not you. There was never repentance in the first place. It was lip service. It was religious activity. True repentance is winning your heart. You're like, God, this is it. I don't want to live a life of deception. I don't want to live a life of death. Living according to the appetites of your flesh is death. There is nothing that profits you there. You don't represent you don't You're not represented as the light of the world that you should be. That is why God would say, men, my people, because there are people who have said yes to Jesus, yet they're living in ignorance of what it means to walk with Jesus. So God is like, my people perish. That is that is a dangerous word. Perish, and why for lack of knowledge? Because they started and they stopped. All right, I have my salvation badge, but they don't know what it is to walk with God. To walk with God is a life separated onto God. That's why Noah, in the time the Bible, literally he talks about the whole world was filled with violence, the whole earth. But in the midst of that, Noah was a blameless man. How is the whole earth filled with violence? But Noah was blameless? Why he was separated? He knew, I'm in this world, but I'm not of y'all. I'm of the Kingdom. He knew what it meant to live a life separate unto God. That regardless of the influence and the temptation in the air, he was living separate. You see, in every territory there is something that rules over that territory that wants to get you to live according to the world. But if you don't have the consciousness of separation, you wouldn't even know when you gave in. I was in New York yesterday and I remember we were talking to, you know, the people we were with, and it was this this gentleman who literally, you know, he left New York and he moved to Dallas, and he was like, man, this is the best decision I've made. And I asked him a question because people in New York are telling me. They were like, man, in New York, everybody has like at least two jobs because they're trying to keep up with the cost of living, and because they're working so much, they don't have enough time to spend with the lord. I said, no, this is a problem. And I remember when we talked to the guy. We were like, yo, how was it when you lived out here? He was like, man, I had two jobs just to keep up, and my relationship with God suffered. And I'm like, wow, because what was over the territories everybody? It was work work. That's why New York everybody's going, going going. I mean sometimes you're like, where are we going? You know, we're all gonna meet the same train. But there is this hustle mentality. But it's what it's ruling in the air. If you don't have the mindset of separation, you will fall into it without knowing, and then you start making excuses. But then he moves to a different city and he says, then he realized that what he was doing he didn't have to do it that way, but when he was in it, he couldn't see himself because you fall under the ambience of that spirit. In LA, for example, there is this there is this thing with spiritual fluidity. I love Jesus, but I also do X, Y and Z. It's everywhere you go to a bookstore they're selling sage. You say, what a sage have to do with bucks? I'm not your I saw it. I said, Wow, this is different. If you don't have a consciousness of separation, you wouldn't realize when you'd start to dabble in. You're like, you know, let me try this other little bit. If you don't have a car, it's just of separation. You don't realize when you start to lose your integrity for a stage, because there is something ruling in the air that says, by all means necessary, pursue your dream. LA is where dreams come true. So whatever it takes for your dream to come true, get a girl. Then you don't realize where you stop living according to the will of God. Because you are pursuing a dream, and you were after that dream coming true, you started to sell yourself while giving glory to God. Because you didn't have the mindset of separation, you're in called to separate yourself from the world and live a life that is under the government of God's counsel fe