False Prophets // Sermon on the Mount

Discover the critical teachings of Jesus on discerning true from false prophets with this insightful exploration of the Sermon on the Mount. This video delves into the characteristics of false prophets, their historical presence, and the impact they've had on believers. Learn how to apply a seven-step guide to test prophecies, ensuring they lead you to Jesus and align with the Gospel. This video is a valuable resource for anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of biblical prophecy, discernment, and spiritual growth. 

This sermon was recorded at a Sunday morning gathering at Church of the Lookout in Longmont, Colorado.

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast. Church of the Lookout is an older Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love. Visit us online at the lookout.church.

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Okay, are you guys ready to dig in? I am. I had my green smoothie this morning, so I'm like feeling energized and excited to dig into a fun topic this morning. So we're gonna actually uh keep going with the Sermon on the Mounts. Um, did you know in my count, Jesus only says beware five times? And this is in contrast to him giving instruction um over 50 times. So there's like 50 times, uh actually a little bit more than 50 times that Jesus gives some sort of command or instruction, and out of that 50, five of them he says beware. Now, where are my parents in the room? I'm a parent of five kids, and when I say beware, I really want my kids to listen, right? And it's because if they don't listen, what's gonna happen? Something bad, right? They're gonna get hurt, and in some cases, they could die. Okay, I gotta scoot this back because I like to get up in front and like pace and talk to you guys. So I I don't know if my I just messed up the lighting or something, but I want to be able to do this, okay? So all right, um, anyway. So when I'm warning my kids, right, I say, beware of cars when you cross a street. You need to look both ways, because if you just go for it, you're gonna get flattened like a pancake, right? I say, beware when you're approaching a wild animal or even a domesticated animal. You need to ask the owner, can I pet this dog that looks really cute? Because what? I don't want my kids to get bit, right? Electrical outlets, hot stoves, candle flame. Beware, it's hot, don't touch, right? Stranger danger. I don't care if they're passing out candy and free puppies. Don't go to that white van and talk to that person that you don't know, right? What else am I missing, parents? Can you think of something else? Water? Oh, yeah, like beware of water because you can drown. Yeah, we had a kid that went under the water once. That was terrifying. So Jesus is a good friend and he's representing a good father just like we sung about this morning. And so when he's saying beware, even if it's only five times, we need to pay attention to these, right? Because he is saying it to say, I don't want you to get hurt. So this morning we're actually gonna look at one of those beware things because it came up in our Sermon on the Mount. So if you've been following along, you might realize we're skipping a little bit of a section. Um, the ask, seek, knock Luke. Pastor Luke did kind of reference it last week, but he's gonna really spend a good portion of that in the weeks to come. So we're gonna jump down this morning to Matthew 7, verses 12 to 23. Can I ask you all to stand with me while I read the scripture this morning? So, whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. For this is the law and the prophets. Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbrushes, bushes, or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Not every one who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Okay, you can sit down. So yeah, it's just a light topic this morning. You know, predictions and um prophecies have been with us from the beginning of time as we know it. In fact, God was the very first one to prophesy. So there's this moment in the garden where Adam and Eve has have confessed to eating the fruit, right? And God turns to the serpent and he prophesies and says this in Genesis 3, verses 14 and 15. Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field, and on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Okay, we don't know if literally this serpent had legs, and then God was prophesying that there would be a day that he would not have legs and have to slither around on his belly, but we do know that he was speaking metaphorically and literally about what was coming in the future. A great humbling, right? A great stripping of the serpent's authority and his reign of the earth through Christ and what Christ did on the cross and through his resurrection. Even today we have the phrase that says, eat my dust, right? And what does that mean? We're saying it to an opponent in a competitive um nature and saying, I'm gonna, I'm gonna demolish you. And so God is essentially prophesying here in this moment and saying, Christ will win. You may cause a blow, but he's going to crush you. And God is really in this moment modeling as you would expect him to do, what prophecy is. And that is prophecy is meant to point to Jesus. So in the Old Testament, if you take every prophetic word that came out and you reduce it down to its basic of what is being said, it's pointing to the law, right? It's telling everybody, you need to follow the law, you need to uphold righteousness. We couldn't do that. Jesus then comes, New Testament fulfills the law, and every prophetic word in the New Testament essentially is pointing people to Jesus, who is the perfect law, and drawing us back in to remembrance or into that covenant relationship between God and his people. Yeah? Well, lots of people over the years since that moment in the garden have um tried to move in the prophetic gifting. People from all walks of life, all kinds of um fields of expertise. And so let's look at a few, shall we? Um scientists. In January of 1970, Life magazine reported this. Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support the following predictions. In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution. By 1985, air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching the earth by one half. Well, I'm looking around, I'm not seeing any gas masks this morning. So I'm guessing those scientists were wrong. Um, newspapers decided to throw their uh hat in the ring. Did you know that Haley's comet actually passes by the Earth every 76 years? So in 1910, though, it was it was causing quite a stir because people were convinced that um it was going to destroy the planet, and they were expecting either a celestial collision or poisonous gases to be um released over the earth. And so people were in great fear, and a lot of that worldwide panic ensued because of newspaper articles and headlines such as this one that said, Comets may kill all earth life. In fact, a group in Oklahoma tried, and I'm I'm happy to report it was just tried. They didn't succeed, but they tried to sacrifice a virgin to ward off this impending doom. And um bottled water became a hot commodity that people were making lots off of. Um, we do know that the Earth did probably pass through part of the comet's tail, but we were fine. So it wasn't just the scientists and newspapers, preachers and religious people have also tried to predict things and prophesy what they thought was something the Lord was saying. Um, one religious leader named William Miller began preaching in the year 1831 that the end of the world as they knew it was going to happen with the second coming of Jesus in 1843. So he had some time to prep, and kudos to this guy because he didn't have the internet and social media and an Instagram account. He actually got a hundred and thousand people uh that were ready and waiting for Jesus to return. When he didn't arrive in 1843, he said, I must have re-I need to recalculate. Oh, it's gonna be 1844. One follower, Henry Emmons, wrote in his journal, I waited all Tuesday, and dear Jesus did not come. I lay prostate prostrate for two days without any pain, yet sick with disappointment. Poor Henry. I think you know, there's some part of me that can relate to, you know, when I've gotten words that I've held on and I've thought something very specific was gonna happen in a very specific time frame, and then the time goes by and I can I can I feel them. I feel them. You can be sick with disappointment. All right, my favorite though is a chicken. Yes, the foul got in on the prophetic. In 1806, a domesticated hen in Leeds, England, appeared to lay eggs inscribed with the message, Christ is coming. Great numbers of people reportedly visited the hen and began to despair of the coming judgment day. It was soon discovered, however, that the eggs were not, in fact, prophetic message, but the work of the owner. Yeah, it's true. He was writing on the eggs in corrosive ink and then reinserting them into that poor little head. Yeah, I feel bad for that poor chicken. Okay. So Jesus knew, you know, that there were gonna be false prophecies and false prophets. And this is why he warns us like he does beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves, you will recognize them by their fruit. Okay, so what is the fruit of a false prophet? A lot of times when you ask people that, they're gonna say, Well, accuracy, right? I mean, that makes sense. If somebody's wrong, then they're wrong, and if they're right, then they were a true prophet. But then you've got the Bible always messing stuff up, right? You've got Isaiah, who is a prophet, and he goes in 2 Kings to Hezekiah, and he says, Get your house in order, you're gonna die. Like very soon. But Hezekiah then cries out to the Lord, Oh, please give me more time, and God changes his mind. And he gives him 15 more years of life. Now, if I'm observing or you're observing this whole thing, we see the prophet go in and give the news, you're gonna die. And then God doesn't do it. And so if I'm looking at the fruit, I'm like, oh, if if accuracy is the measurement, I'm saying, this guy's off. Time to stone him, right? Jonah, well, we won't talk about how reluctant he was, but he does go to Nineveh and brings the news, the word of the Lord, and says, you're gonna be destroyed. They repent. God changes his mind, doesn't destroy. If I'm in a neighboring town and I hear that this prophet came in and prophesied, y'all are gonna burn, and then nothing happens. I'm like, that guy was phony, right? Then, conversely, though, in the New Testament, you've got Paul being harassed and haggled by this slave girl who's saying, Everybody listen to him, he's gonna tell you about Jesus, which was true. But she's doing it and she's doing it for three days. Paul gets so annoyed, finally, he casts the demon out of this girl. So, if godly people can be wrong and ungodly people can be right, then accuracy cannot be the thing in which we measure to determine whether somebody's a false prophet. So let's turn to the scriptures some more and let's see what God says as far as characteristics go of um false prophets. So we're gonna look at the Old Testament first. First, we see that they operated under the influence of a demonic spirit or within a pagan, ancient, Near Eastern religious context. So think Pharaoh and and his um wise men that were helping him. Okay. Um they practiced within the faith of Israel, but who were captive to the kings or priests and prophesied with their agenda. So what happened was these kings in the nation of Israel would put prophets on their payroll to get wisdom on whether or not to go into battle or, you know, whatever. And these prophets, you know, didn't want to die. They didn't want the king getting mad and killing them, and they probably wanted to stay on the payroll because they were living a Christian life in the palace, right? And so when God was saying something that they knew that the king probably didn't want to hear, they would switch it up and be like, oh yeah, go into battle. God's with you. When God's like, I am not with them. So they were they were changing the prophecies, or or they weren't even going and asking God, they were just saying whatever they thought they wanted the king to say. Another thing that false prophets did in the Old Testament was mix prophecy, magic, godless lifestyle, and money making, and had an agenda against the plan of God. So some of them were deliberately twisting stuff, probably because of their own agendas. They also failed to stand in the presence and counsel of the Lord and so prophesied incorrectly. There's a lot of um mention in the Old Testament about the prophets going and standing in the counsel of God, putting themselves in an awareness of God's presence and inquiring of him. What are you saying? These prophets weren't even taking the time to do that, and so then they were prophesying from the delusions of their own minds and including false hopes. Okay, then when we turn to the New Testament, we see a denial of the lordship of Jesus, that they denied the full humanity of Jesus, they operated um through divination and the occult. They aligned themselves with another gospel. So one of the instances is like the Judaizers who were like adding extra hoops for people to run uh jump through in order to get saved. They subscribed to Gnostic beliefs around hidden knowledge and angel worship or preoccupation with the angelic above Christ. So, in summary, at least for the New Testament, their theological agenda, their character and emphasis was hostile to both the gospel of Jesus Christ and the early church itself. Okay. So truthfully, we don't see a ton of this. It's not rampant. With as much as people are being labeled as a false prophet when we look at this criteria, there's not a ton of false prophets. Labeling someone as a false prophet is a serious thing and should not be taken lightly. There's kind of two sides to the coin. If somebody is a legit false prophet, that means they're not pointing people towards Jesus like we said prophecy is supposed to do. They're either pointing them towards their self to build up their platform or some some other agenda that they have, right? And so if we listen to what they're saying and we follow it, then we're not being led to Jesus. And that is a very serious thing, right? But also like falsely accusing somebody of being a false prophet when they honestly aren't probably a false prophet, they just need some pastoring, that's a serious thing. It is a powerful gift, a prophecy, and it's meant for all of us to engage in. We can all hear God's voice for ourselves, and he wants us to be able to hear him for others. It's meant to be a gift. Um, but what happens is God's doing it through humans, and we have humanity, and he has put within all of us this desire for belonging, significance, and security. And that's a God-given thing. We're meant to get that fulfilled through God. Where prophecy gets really wonky and tricky is people are looking for that significance, belonging, and security in people more than they are God. And so when they're prophesying or they're using the gift and that's moving around, which we all have got it at different times, you know, uh that comes through. So, what I want to propose to us this morning is I don't know that we need to worry so much about calling out who is the false prophets among us. We just need to be empowered to know, to tell the difference of what's going on with what they're saying, right? We need to know do we need to be listening to what this person is saying and following or not? It doesn't matter, you know, like God's gonna deal with somebody that's a false prophet. We just need to figure out is this is this. Is God speaking? And if so, what is he asking us to do? Right? So that's what God has empowered us in. And so that's what we're going to really spend our time on. Because look, we've got verses like 1 John 4, 1, that says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. So do you catch that? He's saying there's false prophets, and because there are, you all need to be testing and weighing. That's where our power is. It's not in like determining who's the false prophet, it's testing and weighing and seeing what things are being said and what we need to follow. We're also told in 1 Corinthians 14, 29, wherever two or three prophets should speak and the others should weigh carefully what is said. So God is saying, yes, give room for the prophetic, give room for people that are operating in that gift to bring forward what they think I'm saying. But don't just run with it just because it's a church service or because they've got some platform and some friend, you know, emailed you or sent you a link to a video and they seem really like whatever, or because they've been accurate all of these years. Because guess what? They can be inaccurate. And I think sometimes God tells people things that He's not intending to do just to see if we're gonna listen or not. So He's saying, listen, give room for the prophetic, but you all need to be testing and weighing it. Okay. Every person has a mixture of opinions, agendas, cultural influences, their lens, revelation, a lot of times from the Lord, but also their understanding of what they think that revelation means and their own emotional responses. And it's not good or bad. This is just the reality. We're not this clean slate. I mean, sometimes people can, you know, it's like the word of the Lord, but most of the time, look, it's just a mixture. Like the word of the Lord is in there, but there's a whole lot of other stuff going on. And so we need to learn and be empowered on how to parse it all out and sift it and figure out what's going on. And honestly, it's like a big pile of laundry. And I'm not going to say whether the laundry is dirty or clean, but we need to sort it. Here's the darks, here's the lights. Okay? And that it's not that hard when you start looking at it with that lens. And so there's three piles or three categories that we're going to put any prophetic word or anything that someone is bringing to us, whether it's individually or whether it's corporately, we're going to put them in these three piles, okay, first, before we even measure. You're going to look for revelation, interpretation, and application. Okay? So revelation first. Revelation is the raw data. This is when you're listening to someone share what they think they need to bring. It's when they're saying, I saw a picture of, or I was hearing, or I'm sensing, okay? It's those moments. And it's not what they think about the picture or what they think about the phrase that they heard, or what they think anybody needs to do about what they think they heard. It is just the raw data. Okay? So we put the raw data in that pile. Then a lot of times, prophetic people or someone that's bringing some word of the Lord, they start, they they within it, jumbled in as they're telling that raw data. They're also giving their interpretation of what they think God is saying because of that, right? So let's say they have a picture, they're gonna start talking about what they think the picture means. That is their interpretation. And we're gonna talk in a minute. We're not meant to just interpret on our own. Interpretation should never be done by just one person, it's meant to be done in community. We're meant to test and weigh together. So a lot of times we put an onus on the prophetic person to like figure out what God is saying, and that's wrong. We shouldn't be doing that. I mean, they can offer it, but we need to we need to take whatever the raw data is of what God is saying and bring that into prayer. Every prophetic word is an invitation by God to talk to him more. It is not meant to be the period at the end of the sentence. It's supposed to be the dot dot dot. He's saying, come and talk to me about it. So we are meant to seek him in prayer. What are you saying because of this picture? What are you saying because you brought this scripture to mind? What are you saying because this person is feeling something? So, revelation, interpretation, application is okay, we've got the raw data. We think we understand what God is saying. Now what? What does that mean? We get really excited about the prophetic words and the woo, especially in like settings like this, you know, when God's speaking and you can feel the spirit is at work. Um, but that it's not supposed to just end there. It's not about us feeling really good that God showed up when we asked him to, right? There is an action, there is a do, there is something that he's calling us to. And so the application piece is okay, if that, then what? And that has to be discerned together. Okay. So I have a really great example of this whole thing of the importance of why we need to separate into categories. Back in the last election and when the pandemic was going on, you know, there was just, we all a lot of us had just a need to connect, right? Because we were, you know, we we all know how we were. So a lot more attention was being paid to the internet. And I think things were going viral that maybe wouldn't have in the in the past. But anyway, there was this pastor in Kentucky who was not, uh, admittedly, he said he was not really comfortable with the prophetic. That wasn't something that he had engaged in and the community that he was pastoring. They weren't uh largely prophetic people, but he has this dream, and it really riled him up. And he just felt compelled. I have to get this out. And so he records himself sharing this dream. And this thing goes viral. I mean, he's all the way in Kentucky, and it eventually makes its way to me in Colorado, and thankfully, I'm part of this group where of women where we all um are trying to learn about the prophetic, and we we talk to each other every week and we go on retreats together and study things and whatever. And during this time, when a lot of words were flying around specifically about the election, we were we were parsing them out together. We were looking at them and and and testing and weighing together to see what the Lord was saying. And so we happened to look at this particular word. And I have to admit, like when when I listened to it, I I recognized after I was feeling anxiety and fear based on what he was saying. And I was thinking, oh gosh, what is coming? Um so really thankful that I had what I'm talking about this morning with you all to be able to put things in categories and then test and weigh. Um because when I did, I was like, okay, let's look. What's the raw data? So the dream, much of it was just giving you context so that we knew that God was talking about um things happening within the United States around the election. Okay. The only piece of raw data was a phrase that God said, which was brace yourself. Okay. So I put that in the, that's going in the uh revelation. Brace yourself. Now, as this man was telling this dream, he's mixing in his own thoughts on what the dream means. And so to him, he said, brace yourself. And he wasn't making it really clear as he's telling, he's not like, and now I'm gonna tell you what my interpretation is. He's just talking and he's like, There's gonna be a fight. So when he hears God say, brace yourself in this dream, his interpretation, because of his own cultural lens and all the stuff that he's bringing to the table, he's thinking God's saying, We're gonna we need to get ready for a fight, right? And so then he goes into the application pile and he says, So y'all need to go out and buy food and stock up and get ready to protect your home and protect your family and go out and buy lots of guns. Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with buying guns. I mean, that that's I'm not going there, okay? Um but what I'm saying is he's mixing in his own stuff and his own feelings around this dream that he had. And so most people hearing him are just like, oh, this is what the Lord is saying. He's saying there's gonna be a fight, we need to go out and buy guns. And I'm like, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second, you know. So I say, okay, Lord, I'm just gonna take the raw data to you. You said brace yourself. What are you saying with that? And he gave me a picture of myself on the train that goes um in Denver International Airport that takes you from terminal to terminal underground. Have you ever been on that? With all my travels, I've done it a lot. Um, I don't travel that much. But there are times where it's like so crowded in there you can't hold on to anything. And so when that train stops at the next terminal, you're like, you know, and like falling and losing your balance. Um, but even there's times that I'm holding on and I'm still like, whoa, you know, and it lunges. So I have learned over time to like stand kind of wide, hold on to my luggage, hold on the thing, or if I can, um, and kind of bend my knees and really get down. So then when it stops, I'm like, I got it. I can stop, I can do whatever, you know, and I don't fall and look like an idiot. So the Lord showed me a picture of me in this stance on the train. I was like, oh, brace yourself. Get down, get grounded, right? So I'm like, what does that mean in the scriptures? Get grounded in God, who is our foundation. He's like, there's a lot of swirl happening right now, and we can all attest there was, right? There's just a lot of fear and anxiety. But, Jeanette, all you need to do is just ground yourself into me. And it'll be okay, whatever's going on, because I'm gonna be with you and I'm gonna prepare you. And so for me, the application was I'm gonna really make sure I'm digging into the scriptures, I'm spending time in God's presence, attuned to what he is saying to me, and so that I'm not getting caught up and carried away in all the fear and anxiety that's going around, you know? And when when I looked at this whole uh dream and prophetic dream with my friends, they were getting similar things. Like we just need to be grounded in the Lord. That's how we brace ourselves in this season. And thankfully, I'm glad that it didn't turn out that we needed guns and to protect our homes and be stocked up with lots of canned food. Um, but do you see why it's important to put things in those categories and be able to sort out? Um, because we all we all have our stuff, we all have our things. And um yeah, and it's again, it's not good or bad, but as people are sharing things, we need to be able to separate and and parse things out. Okay, so it's delicate, it's usually messy, but that's okay. God still uses the um prophecy, and it can be really powerful. So let's talk about the measuring stick. So after we've put things in those three categories, then there's seven things that we can um use to kind of measure. And I do want to say that um all of these are not equal in their weight. Um, so that's one thing. And then the other thing is um as you're answering yes or no with these, if you're coming to one and it's like whoo, red flag, that doesn't mean you just chuck the word, okay? We just need to make note, okay, there was a red flag under that measurement. And so then after you get through all seven measurements, you can kind of assess where are my green flags, where are my red flags? Because some of those red flags might not mean that the prophetic word is off, it might have to do with the person and their delivery. The delivery was off. Meaning, right word, just the way that they were sharing it was coming through their own stuff, right? Or um, yeah, right word, but like, yeah, they had judgment or something in their heart, and that's what you're sensing. You're not sensing an evil spirit, you're sensing something's off with person. So it could just be like, oh, this is an opportunity to minister to this person, or they need some pastoral care. Um, so the red light or you know, the red flag might not be like the word needs to be checked, it's just you need to be aware, and we'll talk about that a little bit more. All right, you ready? Number one is actually the weightiest of all the measurements, and it's Jesus. So when you have a word and you have parsed everything out and it's different categories, you've sorted the laundry, then you're gonna say, okay, do I see Jesus in this? Do I feel Jesus in this? The voice that I know of Jesus, am I hearing that in this? If I were to follow this prophetic word, where is it gonna lead me? So for me, with that Kentucky pastor's word, I'm like, if I follow what he is saying, I personally do not feel like I'm being led to Jesus. The everything that it was stirring in me was like anxiety and fear, you know. And maybe that was just me, but as I'm assessing the word, I gotta, I gotta realize, okay, there's a little bit of a red flag on this for me, because I don't feel like I hear Jesus. Here's the other thing that I want to say prophetic words should bring hope. Even if they're hard, even if it's a warning word, if it's the Lord, you're not gonna feel like, oh my gosh, I'm so undone, I don't know what to do. And you know, you're gonna, there's gonna be a way, and I mean, it might stir up your own soul-ish stuff, but there will be a pathway of hope. There will be a pathway of of yeah, just promise and then the goodness of the Lord in it. And if it feels like it's completely void of that, that should be a huge red flag for you. Jesus is the prophetic, he is the word made flesh. Revelation 19, 10, we are told that he is the spirit of prophecy. So if it doesn't smell, taste, sound, feel like Jesus, then it's probably not Jesus. Okay, measurement number two, the gospel. Does it uphold the gospel? Does it stand in agreement with the whole gospel message? There is good news in the gospel, and so every prophetic word should not not to say that every prophetic word has to be positive and like this sunny, you know, easy thing to swallow, but it should have, again, that hope, that good news in it. Number three, love. Does it uphold the call of love, the intent of love? If you take 1 Corinthians 13, which is the description of love is patient, love is kind, doesn't hold a record of wrong, and you take the prophetic word and you run it through that lens of that 1 Corinthians 13 description, does it hold up? Or does it start breaking down real fast? Number four, scripture. Is it healthy whole theological alignment from Genesis through Revelation? Are they really trying to manipulate one little scripture and get it to fit into this thing that it doesn't fit into? Or, you know, is it the God, is it Yahweh from beginning to end? Spirit. We are told to test the spirit behind every prophetic word. So practically speaking, does it make you leap? And by that I mean, do you remember that moment in the Bible where John the Baptist is in utero in his mama's womb, Elizabeth, and she comes into the presence of Mary who's carrying baby Jesus in her womb? And John, as his baby, leaps in her womb. He recognizes Jesus is here. There will be times when you have a prophetic word, or somebody gives you a prophetic word, or a prophetic word is released, and something in your spirit leaps. Jesus is here. Jesus is here. Pay attention to those moments. Now, it could be just your own enthusiasm and excitement. Yes, I will admit that, but you need to pay attention to how you are feeling as you're listening to this word. And if you feel that leap, it could be a real indicator that Jesus is here and he's speaking. On the other side, I don't know if you've experienced this, but I have, or you're like, you're in a uh, you know, someone's praying over you or whatever, and you're just like, I'm feeling a little slimed right now. This feels icky. And it might be because they're 100% out of a demonic spirit. More often, but the case for me has been there's something going on with them personally. I don't know what, you know, their motive is like they really want to seem powerful or whatever, and so they're trying really hard to prophesy and be fancy, you know, and so there's times where I'm like, when once I walk away and I test in weigh, I'm like, okay, I do think there were some things that the Lord was saying, and I just have to disregard how I was feeling because I don't know what was going on with that person, you know. So if I know them and I have a relationship to where I can go to them after, I'll talk to them and be like, I want you to understand what how I experienced you in that moment. And let's talk. Or maybe I've seen other people prophesying. It's like what you were saying resonated, but man, it felt really judgmental. What's going on with you? Do you have an offense or something at that person that you haven't dealt with? I mean, you know, there's just all kinds of things that could be going on with somebody, and we don't need to like condemn them or judge them, but I don't want us tossing out really good words just because the person is, you know, human and not perfect, right? So we really we do need to pay attention to how we're feeling and and let that um inform us. Number six, character. Again, this isn't to condemn a person, but we do have to be aware that people's personal lives, their personal walk, whether they know Jesus or not, oh, because God does not reserve speaking prophetically just through the people who love him. It's true. He can prophesy, he can speak to us through whoever he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants. He's prophesying through nature, he's prophesying through music and art. You can be in the movie theater, and the actor on the screen is saying something, and you just know, whoo, the Lord is speaking to me, right? It happens. But one thing that you can look at is Colossians 3:12 is great because we're told, put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another. So if somebody is giving a prophetic word and you don't feel like they're bearing with you very much, you know, that can be an indicator, like something's off. Again, it doesn't necessarily mean that the word itself is off, but they're off. So, but it also can mean the whole thing is off. Again, these are all just indicators. We're just like collecting information and assessing and trying to determine what's going on, what's happening with this word. Where is God? Where is He not? Okay. The last one, number seven, is next to Jesus. I think it is the next weightiest, and it's the most underrated, honestly, but it's so vital and important, and that's community. As I said earlier, we are not meant to individually try to figure out what God is saying. We are giving each other as a gift. And why is it important? Because whether it's a word that was given to you individually, or if it's one that is spoken out over a whole group of people, regardless, they all need to be discerned and test and weighed in community because the more eyes and ears you have on a word, the more perspectives you're gonna have, right? And the more gifting bents. So I tend to fall into the prophetic camp, right? So I'm gonna see things that way. But I need somebody who has a strong mercy gifting to look at that word because they're gonna hear and pick up stuff that I'm probably not gonna pick up. And I need to hear what they think God is saying. And the mercy person needs to hear what the evangelist is seeing and hearing from the word, right? So we all bring our strengths, we all bring our perspectives, good and bad. Also, I might be getting triggered, there might be some emotional response that's happening in me, and this has happened in our team. There's been words, and I'm like, woo! I'm having like all kinds of things and I'm feeling things, and I'm like, I don't like this, I don't like this, you know. And the rest of the team is like totally fine. And that's when I realize, okay, this is my stuff I gotta do with. And I gotta learn, you know, I gotta take it to the Lord, like, what's going on? Why am I freaking out about this? Why am I getting triggered in fear or whatever, you know, whatever's going on. So I, you know, we need other people's perspectives because they're in different places with the Lord, and so they're gonna feel things differently. I also, there's times where like people connect dots and they remember a scripture, you know. This even happened in the New Testament where they're like trying to figure out should we make the people that aren't Jewish like get circumcised or not? That's kind of a big deal, you know. And then somebody, I think it was John, is like, hey, I remember the scripture that God said he was going to um pour out his spirit on all flesh. So maybe that means they don't need to be circumcised. And all of the men were like, Thank the Lord, right? Thank you, God, for John remembering that scripture because things were gonna go really south really fast. So we need other people, and they're, you know, the things that God has deposited in them, because we might not remember a scripture. Um and then, you know, individually, if I have a word and I bring it to people that I trust, that love me, that I've been journeying with, they know my history. They know my obstacles, they know the roadblocks that I've faced, they know the victories that I've had, and they're gonna remind me of insecurities. And they're also gonna see blind spots that I can't see. I this has happened to me personally. I've been um with people where they've gotten a prophetic word and it's like something that God's talking about destiny thing. And the person is like, oh no, uh-uh, I can't do that. They can't see themselves doing that thing. They're like, no way. And God's like, yeah, yah way, yeah, way. And friends are hearing it and they're going, oh yeah, I see that. I see that God's doing that in the I know you're not ready yet, but I see that He's taking you there. And we need to hear those affirmations from the people around us that know us and love us, to be like, yeah, you're gonna do this thing with God. It's gonna be amazing, you know? So we need community. I want you to know that as leaders here at the church, you know, when when even on a Sunday morning like this, when somebody gets up during worship and has a word that they bring in a ministry moment, we sit and evaluate that after. We test in weigh. Lord, what were you doing? Did we follow what you were opening up in that moment? Did we did we care for the the prophetic word in that prophetic moment to its fullest? Is there anything else that we need to do to follow up? Was there any way that we got off and were a little wonky? Was there something, you know? And then if if so, we talk to the person and debrief. We care about God speaking and want to um stored the words that He's given us. Upstairs in our in our prayer room, we have a big binder with all the prophetic words that that have been collected over the years, and we're still praying into some. We see God answering many things, but we're not we're not chucking these words. And it's a community effort as we all take these words and test and weigh and figure out what the Lord is asking us to do. So this morning I just want to kind of land the plane with we don't need to despise or fear prophetic people, the prophetic gift and and how God is speaking. Um, because we are empowered by God to be investigators with him. And um these are gifts. This is a gift that God is giving us, and we are empowered by him to receive the gift. We don't have to be like, no, no, no, I don't want to touch that. I don't want to do it. We can. It's okay. We can receive this gift because then we are empowered to say, okay, what am I gonna do with this? Is this something I'm gonna keep? Is this something I'm gonna exchange? Because there's some stuff that needs changed out with it. It's a little broken. Um, or oop, giving that back where it came from, because that wasn't the Lord's, right? So a couple questions for you to ponder. Um number one, are there words that you dismissed that maybe need to be re-looked at again in community? So maybe you have a prophetic word that you were given individually and you've been holding on to it, and you think you know what it means, and you thought you knew what the application was, and but there's something just hasn't happened. I mean, sometimes we just have to wait. A lot of words are are meant to wait, they're not like immediate. Um, so it could just be you're in a waiting period, but maybe there's something that you you aren't realizing that the Lord was saying. I remember having this dream this one time, and I thought, I thought the dream was God correcting me, which he does, and I love that, and I feel so loved by him when he does correct me. But in this moment, the dream was actually about this deep wound that the Lord was wanting to heal. And I thought the whole thing was like the Lord was correcting me. And so I brought this dream to some friends, and we were looking at it, and they're like, Jeanette, this dream is God really being tender and caring for you in this really hurtful, vulnerable place that you've suffered a blow. And I was like, oh my gosh. And I thought he was like telling me that I needed to, you know. Um, so really thankful that I brought it into community and I got their perspective on it because I was blind to see what God was actually saying. So if you have a word um that you haven't brought into community, I would encourage you to do so. Is there a word that needs revisited because you felt a little weird or confused by it? So, I mean, I remember that time I was at a conference, so I didn't know the woman, um, but I went up to get prayer for healing, honestly, and she just was going on and on and on, which normally I'm like, you know, bring it, but I could tell like I don't think the Lord is in this anymore. Like in the beginning, I felt like there were some things, and I was like, yes, it's good, but it just kept and I was like so fatigued, and I'm like, just please stop and say amen, you know. Um, but it felt like she just really needed to, you know, feel important. Or so I mean, I don't know what was going on with her because it was a conference, so I didn't want to ask her, but um, but you know, I could have walked away from that thing and gone, you know what, that was just, you know, so I'm just forget that word, you know. And then I would have missed out what the Lord was telling us. Um, which was there was one piece that was really important, timely for that next season of my life. So I'm glad I didn't chuck it. But perhaps you had a moment like that where you're like, I feel icky, and so I'm just gonna leave that where it was delivered. Um and maybe you know, you just need to revisit it now having these seven measurements and run it through those seven measurements and see if it's still icky, fine, leave it. But I don't want you to miss what the Lord is saying just because the experience came through a broken vessel, which we're all broken vessels, but you know what I mean. Um, the third thing is you might be sitting here and going, I've never gotten a prophetic word. I've never been in an environment where people are getting prophetic words over the people, and so it doesn't apply to me. But maybe just the conversation has stirred up something in you. And if you're open and you're hungry for that, I want to tell you that the Lord wants to meet you there. He does want to talk to you. He's he actually is talking to you all all the time. We just don't always know it. So um we have a ministry team that's gonna come up in a minute after Graham closes us out. And I'm not saying come up and like expect to get a prophetic word. God's gonna speak when he wants to speak, how he wants to speak, where, and through who. But you can at least have somebody that stands with you as a witness as you pray and say to God, God, I'm open. This hasn't been my experience of you as hearing your voice or prophetic words, but I'm really open. I want that. And so help me to be attuned and aware to how you're speaking to me. Um and thankfully, now because of this message, you'll know how to test and weigh it uh when you do. Okay. All right.