Gtcotr/ss080419
18 ¶ This charge I commit to you, son Timothy,
according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you
may wage the good warfare,
19 having faith and a good conscience, which
some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck,
20 of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I
delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
A
prophecy is a word from God … an announcement if you will. It’s God announcing
what He will do if you will only walk before Him and obey His Word. (Genesis
17:1-2 Abram – “Walk before Me and be blameless and I will make My covenant
with you and will multiply you exceedingly.”) If we allow ourselves to be blown
off course, we can all end up shipwrecked!
3 ways we receive prophecy and thereby
have direction from the Lord
1.
By the Word of God
a. When the logos
becomes rhema
·
We
are more fortunate than past generations who did not have the written Word of
God to read.
·
As
well, the Word of the Lord is now written on our hearts and in our minds … we
are the generation of Jesus Christ.
·
And
the Holy Spirit has been given to be our guard and our guide. He leads us and
teaches us the Truth.
b. At times you will
experience the explosion of a verse or passage in your spirit that makes it go
from the general good word of God to a living personal specific word for you.
c. The Holy Spirit will
confirm the Word in your spirit with that “amen” feeling. Prophecy and
direction come by the Word.
2.
By the Holy Spirit of God – At times you can be moved by the Holy
Spirit to speak the Word of the Lord in prophecy even to yourself.
a. This can be done in
the realm of divinely ordered thoughts that direct the soul and charge the
spirit to embrace and obey God.
b. When I become
spiritually aware that God is speaking to me I most often either write it down
or declare it out loud by speaking to myself in the spirit of prophecy.
c. Also, when I need a
word from God I will pray in the spirit and seek God for the interpretation.
When this is done in sincerity and by faith, I often, not always, but often
feel the Holy Spirit move on me to prophesy to myself.
d. Then I endeavor to
write down what the Lord has said to me whether one word of a whole chapter.
e. Through the years I
have been able to refer back to the things the Lord said through me to me and
base decisions or take a standby faith. Prophecy comes by the Word and the
Spirit.
3.
By Messenger with a message from God – This is when other people give you
a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom or speak to you prophetically by
announcing God’s will and intent for you.
a. This is something I
do. I am very aware when I speak to others in the spirit of prophecy under the
leadership of the Holy Spirit.
b. I also enjoy
receiving prophecy from proven men and women of God but as with any other
prophecy, it needs to be judged by the Word and, if possible, by other seasoned
servants of the Lord who know the Word, the way and the will of God.
As
well, it is important to note that most prophecies are conditional and depend
in part on you continuing to obey and serve the Lord.
Jeremiah 18 NLT
9 And if I announce that I
will plant and build up a certain nation or kingdom,
10 but then that nation turns
to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless it as I said I would.
God
is not obligated Himself to fulfill prophecy in the lives of the disobedient.
Over
a quarter century ago, about 1991, Pastor Kenneth Bent and I were in the city
of Metairie, Louisiana, about 250 miles east of here. We had driven down to
have lunch with another minister from that area. He chose Bennigans restaurant
and we sat at one of those higher than normal little round tables with
barstools for chairs. While we were eating lunch the Holy Spirit interrupted my
thoughts and spoke to me and told me to do something. I turned to Pastor Ken
and said, the Lord just spoke to me.
He
asked what God said and I told him that God just told me that our Church was
going to birth a new Church in Russia and that we were going to raise up and
train the whole team and fully fund it from our congregation and that the
pastor would come from our congregation as well. Pastor Ken got excited. The
minister we were eating with that day indicated that he thought that would be
nice if it were possible, but he didn’t imagine we could or would do it. I
remember Pastor Ken told him that he might not understand but that if God said
it, we would do it.
Over
the next several months so many obstacles presented themselves and several
times we had great opportunities to bow out and just imagine it was a good idea
but an impossible task for such a small congregation. However, each time we
encountered a hurdle too big for us to manage, I would go back to that barstool
moment and remind myself that almighty God had spoken and hell itself could not
stop us, let alone the government or money or logistics.
That
next summer we sent 36 people from our congregation under the leadership of
Pastor Ken to meet up with Pastor Robert Benlien and Charlotte along with their
two school aged children who had a month earlier transitioned to live in the
target city of Yosh kar Ola, Russia. After a week of daily street meetings and
nightly crusades Yosh kar Ola Christian Center
was birthed and the rest is history.
There
were plenty of chances to give up and lots of opportunities to quit without
shame and with good reason however, when hard times came and when there seemed
no way to continue, we would remember the Word of the Lord and God would give
us strength for the battle and we would see victory. Many
times we found victory in the situation before we found victory over the situation.
The
Word of the Lord is powerful. Prophecy has power!
Our
team came home from Russia after two weeks leaving behind Pastor Robert,
Charlotte, Ryan and Kristin Benlien with the newly birthed Russian speaking
congregation at YOCC. Just a year before, while I was receiving a Word from God
concerning what He wanted our Church to do, Pastor Robert was the owner of a
large construction company here in Southeast Texas with no thoughts of living
in a foreign country. For the next three years they give their lives to see the
work to which God had called them have a chance to succeed. And succeed it did.
Today
that congregation is still thriving and has been responsible for birthing
several other congregations in cities across Russia. We, as a congregation, are
now blessed with congregations who recognize us as their grandparents and join
with us doing mission work all over the world.
Had
it not been for the Word of the Lord which God spoke directly to Pastor Benlien,
they too would have had plenty of reason to quit. Just like Paul told Timothy …
use the words God has spoken over you to wage a good warfare, because the
enemies of the Lord would love to see you make shipwreck.
Any person armed with a Word from God cannot be defeated by
conquest, but only by consent. Refuse to consent to your defeat.
Paul
told Timothy to use the prophecies he had received to wage a good warfare,
which some have put away and as a result have made shipwreck.
We
do not have a record of the prophecies spoken over Timothy’s life but we
evidently Paul remembered what he and others had previously prophesied over him
and the potential Timothy had to become a great asset in the hand of God. Paul
also knew that the enemies of God wanted nothing more than to distract,
detour, derail and destroy Timothy’s potential in Christ.
Paul
was well aware of the wiles of the devil and how discouraging some moments of
life can be. Paul wanted Timothy to be strong in the Lord and in the power of
those prophecies which he had received.
1 Timothy 1 NKJV
18 ¶ This charge I commit to
you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you,
that by them you may wage the good warfare,
19 having faith and a good
conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered
shipwreck,
20 of whom are Hymenaeus and
Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
Blasphemy
in this sense is simply discrediting the Word and the Will of God either in
your own mind or in front of others. God went to great lengths to give His Word
and His Will. Believe, embrace and hold on to the prophecies He gives you which
will set and help you to maintain the course of your life.
·
From
the Word;
·
In
prayer;
·
Through
others?
Remember
those things God has spoken to you from His Word, by His Spirit, or by
messenger. Use them to wage a good warfare so that you don’t lose your
confidence and make shipwreck.
