Just a reminder, my name is Kevin Bailey, and I am your facilitator for this, our wonderful journey these next few weeks. Fun fact, we, my friends and I like to play weird games and ask crazy questions. And one of the questions we asked is if you could listen to any song again for the first time, what song would you like to listen to?
And I would love to hear that song, King of Kings, again for the first time. Just that buildup. When it talks about the stone being rolled away, just, oh man, I just get so physically excited about that stone rolling away, about the angels cheering the Lord as the souls just respond to the presence of the Lord. So I'm excited for today.
The prophetic is one of my favorite quarters. I'm excited for what the Lord's going to do and just the new graces that he has for you guys today. Let's start with prayer. So I'm gonna invite you guys all to unmute. And just join me as we worship the Lord, we praise the Lord, we give thanks.
Amen. Or you have it tonight. I'm kicking. I don't understand. I don't understand.
I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't understand.
I don't understand. I don't understand. and to the Lord our God this week.
Glory to you. Amen. Father, we thank you that you speak to us, your sheep, and that you speak to us, to your sheep.
Father, we want to raise more of you. Father, we want to see an increase, a breakthrough today. Father, I thank you in advance for the breakthrough.
that you have for everyone gathered here. Let's receive all that you have for us today. Let's come to you with open arms, with great expectation.
We ask all this in the most precious blood of Jesus. We would just be covered in your blood, covered in your mercy. We'd be covered in your power. Amen. In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
Amen. Well, so good to have you guys back with us today. Well, most of you, we're still missing a few people. Hopefully they're going to trickle here in the next few minutes.
We're excited to dive into the prophetic. There's a lot of exciting things happening here. And there's gonna be lots of activations.
So there's gonna be a little bit of talking, but a lot of fun. So get ready for those activations. Before we dive into activations, we're going to start by breaking into pairs.
So we're going to shoot you into random groups. And you're going to share your name. And then the thing that stood out to you most from the talks today. So you've got about five minutes in your groups.
And so you're sharing the thing that stood out to you the most from these sessions. And then we'll shoot back here and dive into the content and into the session for today. Does that sound good to you guys?
Awesome. Great. We'll see you back here in five minutes. Welcome back everyone.
So good to have you. You're still filing in here. There we go.
Up to 138. One more sneaking in there. Beautiful. Wonderful. One more.
They just keep popping up. So many rooms to close at once. I should open less rooms next time. Maybe put you guys in groups of three instead of groups of two. That'd probably save the problem.
That way there's no accidental... people by themselves. That's no fun when you end up in a room by yourself. Awesome. So we are talking about prophecy today.
And so we had our first session was on the intro and overview to our prophetic identity. So I just want to take like 10-15 minutes here and just talk about what stood out to you guys the most from here. And then if I need to, I'll hit some of those key ones before we dive into the activation. So is there anybody who would like to kick us off or multiple somebodies who would like to share what was most impactful from this talk, how this really changed the way you think or filled you with excitement for today's class? Yeah, Kelly, go ahead.
Yeah, I love how the talk really stressed identity, how we were baptized into priest, prophet and king. And obviously we really, really stressed prophet. And it talks about how hearing God's voice is part of your spiritual DNA as God's adopted children. It's something that we don't earn.
It's who we are, which blew me away. And then just how hearing his voice is the basis of faith and then how faith unlocks grace. Yeah. It's so powerful when we start thinking and operating like this is, this is part of who we are, right? It's not something we have to earn, not something we have to do, right?
But this is who we are in Christ Jesus. Yeah, that's beautiful. Thanks for kicking us off, Kelly. Who else wants to share? I know she's not the only one who was impacted by this talk.
Yeah, Carla, go ahead. Oh, Carla, unmute first. The very first thing, you know, that a prophet is one who hears God's voice and speaks his word.
I just feel like that simplified everything. You know, prophet sounds mysterious. Prophet sounds not very possible. Prophet sounds biblical. You know, everything that I'm not, but I can.
I can hear God's voice and I can speak his word. I know I can. Yeah, that's awesome. I love just breaking it down, just making it more accessible.
Right. Taking away the mystery. That's that's really powerful. You know, it can be it can be scary to say, like, oh, my gosh, I have to ask God for a prophetic word. Right.
But when when we when you make it nice and simple like that, then it's like, oh, this isn't this isn't crazy. Right. Thank you, Carla. Tom, go ahead.
I particularly enjoyed the comment that repetition is the key to anything, and especially in this case, prayer. I think prayer has to become a consistent, common thing for you every day. And if you don't repeat and repeat and repeat, it's not going to become an everyday thing for you.
And somebody once said it takes 15 consecutive days. to do that, I think, as I've read, some people say 20 days, but the point is, is that repetition is the key. Yeah, it's, and that's why we do the activations, and we'll get into them, but we really put you guys through the proverbial ringer, and what's amazing is, you know, people, they come back from the activations, like, you didn't give me enough time, right?
I needed more time to hear God's voice, and we have this expectation that, like, we need, you know, I need like 20, 30 minutes. I need an hour before I can hear God's voice. But so often, right, when we're moving around, we don't have an hour, right?
Sometimes you have an elevator. You have 10 seconds to hear what the Lord's saying and to share that word with the other person. And so we try and simulate some of those scenarios and really up the ante, right?
Because if we remember, the Lord is outside of time. And if he wants to download an entire novel into our head, he doesn't need an hour to do it. He can do it in seconds. We just have to have that expectation that comes from that repetition that the Lord can speak very quickly as long as we're listening. Thanks, Tom.
Pablo, go ahead. Yes, I was just asking in terms of discernment. I know Father Matthias wrote an article about this when he talks about charism and St. John of the Cross.
Sometimes, how can we discern? God is speaking. Sometimes, it's really obvious.
But sometimes, it seems like it's your own. uh thinking or perhaps like uh the devil is trying to you know set you in a way something that's apparently good and perhaps it's not like how can we just turn further into that i don't know if there's some videos or something we'll talk more about that or that was like more or less my we go into some of that in the school i think one of the most important things to remember when we're talking about john of the cross and his responses to the charisms is that he was writing specifically to individuals in his order right so He was primarily a cloistered monk. And so the gifts are going to manifest very differently if the charisms are for the upbuilding of the world, right? They're going to manifest very differently in a cloistered monastery that isn't interacting with the world on a regular basis. And those of us who are living in the world and seeking to build up the church in that place.
Now, that being said, you know, the simplest answer is we'll know these words by their fruit. So we take them, we nurture them and say, hey, are they bearing the fruit of the spirit? peace, love, joy, goodness, gentleness, kindness, self-control, or are they bringing anxiety, frustration, anger, you know, those things that aren't of the spirit.
And we can say, okay, this is from the Lord because the spirit of the Lord is literally on it by the manifestations of it in my life. Great question. Joan, go ahead.
Hi. So one of the things that stood out for me from the video is that hearing God's voice is the basis of faith. Faith unlocks grace and grace enables us to do things that we weren't able to do, which is so powerful for me.
Yeah. Yeah. When we especially when we start realizing that we can actually ask for that faith, we can ask for more faith from the Lord. It's not just dependent of, oh, like, I want to believe it. I'm going to grit my teeth and try really hard.
Jesus, I really believe that you can do this. We can say, Jesus, I need more faith. Give me the gift of faith.
Give me the grace. of faith in my life, right? Or as the, you know, the man of the Bible, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.
Give me more faith, more expectation that you want to move in this way. Beautiful, Joan. Ruth, go ahead.
Well, I was just struck by the confidence that the man in the first video had about being able to pray prophetically. is on demand, you know, for anyone who he was asked to pray for that just seemed very exciting and um well daunting as well but um but yeah just exciting i suppose i was just used to or had some notion that god had to move you at a particular time and it was very unpredictable and um it was not on demand but um i suppose that was just a lie although i mean i've also experienced where people in a prayer ministry just pray for a whole line of people one after another so obviously that is on demand but it's in a particular time and place and you know a prayer meeting or something but to imagine doing it randomly throughout the day or in different places that have nothing to do with um, church is exciting. For sure. This was one that I had to repent of.
I remember when my wife came home and told me about this and, uh, she's like, Hey, the, the, the teacher tonight actually stayed after, and he had a prophetic word for every one of us. So we had like a hundred people lined up around the room and he just went around and prophesied of every person. And I was like, that's not real.
That's not how prophecy works. You can't just, you can't just have a word for everyone else. And, uh, and I brought that to prayer and the Lord's like, Why can't I have something to say to every one of my children? If each of your children came up to you, would you not have something to say to them?
Would you not bestow your love upon them? And I was like, well, oh, oh. And then I had to when I taught in the school for the first time, Rachel was like, hey, so we're going to invite you to stay after class. And you're just going to anyone that wants to be prayed with, you're just going to pray over them and give a prophetic word to them.
And I was like, oh, no, this is the thing that I don't believe in. And. And so then I had to repent of it. Like I'm sitting on the floor, repenting on it.
And then, you know, people are lining up and I'm praying over and the Lord's just like, look how good I am. Look how good I am. Look how good I am.
Just fresh words, fresh revelation for each person, right? Because his heart never runs out. It was, it was so beautiful.
It was so humbling to watch him, to minister to his children like that. So I love that that stood out to you. I love that it filled you with faith. Therese, what's up?
Go ahead. I'm just wondering if you could. could explain the difference between someone who has a prophecy and what we're talking about yeah uh so that's a that's a fun distinction um so when we talk about like anointing or charism right when they're uh when someone has a oh man there is a a super abundant um test of uh grace there that like other people have testified to the efficacy of this.
This person regularly gets words that are incredibly accurate, right? So there's an anointing for the prophetic in their life. And I know that someone in the chat asked that same question, right? Now we all participate in the common prophetic, right?
So the easiest way for me to explain this, right, is to talk about healing, right? Because it's not an anointing that's on my life. I don't have people stopping me in the street, asking me to pray for healing.
I pray for healing occasionally, like whenever the opportunity arises, like I'll be like, Hey, can we pray for that? Um, sometimes I see healings. Sometimes I don't, I always press in. I always ask the Lord, like, Hey Lord, I really want to see this, this grace in your life. Right now, then you translate that to like father Matthias, right.
Who's, you know, right there next door to me. And, uh, everyone that that guy prays with is wild. Just boom, healed, right. There's a trail of like 15 women. in the past year who've come to him with major fertility issues and gotten pregnant within a month of him praying with them.
He was just talking at staff meeting today about some lady that was feeling really dizzy at mass, came and sat in the back of the church and approached him. And the moment he started praying her, all the dizziness and the vertigo lifted off of her, right? There is such an anointing, right? And it's in part because he's partnering in the faith of what he's seen. Now the challenge is, I could say, oh, hey, I don't have a charism.
I'm not going to pray for that. But that's not what the Lord says. No, we all are able to operate in the gifts and we all should have the expectation that the Lord wants to use us at every moment.
Can you add one more thing? Yeah. You talk about words, but can that come in pictures?
Oh, yeah. The prophet come in pictures? Oh, yeah. So it can come in. And we're like actual words.
It can come in images. It can come in knowledge. Just all of a sudden, you know, something, it can even come in.
I was praying to someone recently. And as we were praying and pressing in, all of a sudden my foot just started aching so bad. And I was like, oh man, what did I do?
Have I been standing for too long? And the Lord's like, um, excuse me. And I was like, oh, my mistake.
Uh, excuse me, ma'am. Do you have issues with your foot? Potentially plantar fasciitis.
And she's like, her eyes like flew up and she goes, yes, I have plantar fasciitis in my foot. It's awful. I hate walking. And I was like, awesome. Can we pray over that?
Um, this was about a month and a half ago. So we prayed over it and she goes, okay, cool. I'll get, I'll get back to you.
And I just saw her two weeks ago and she goes, hey, I've had no foot pain since you prayed with me. Right. And so we're celebrating that word of knowledge that came in through a feeling in my own foot. And then she experienced physical healing.
Right. Because she had the faith. I had the faith that the Lord was moving in that moment.
Janice, go ahead. Well, I'm going a little bit. I want to talk about the three elements of the parable. I thought that was incredible. Content, interpretation, application.
I'm a spiritual director and I've been trained in the Ignatian way, if you will. So this was very new. This was very exciting to me to break down the parable in these three elements.
I just find it to be different and new. And aren't we supposed to be looking for new too? Do you know what I mean? So yeah, I love that. So thank you.
Yeah. This is always a big one for people. Um, a lot of times when we start talking about the prophetic people stop short, they're like, Oh my gosh, I saw an image of a red truck. And you're like, that's so great.
What does it mean? They're like, I don't know. It's like, you got to press in like, Lord, what does it mean? What do I want to do with it? Right.
It's those next level of things. Not just the word of knowledge. Like, Oh my gosh, I had a word of knowledge that you had a bear named stuffies when you were a kid. And you're like, I did.
I'm like, that's so cool. I'm like, okay, what is that? I got so excited, I forgot to ask God what it meant.
No, we got to press in for everything that the Lord has. And sometimes we have to sit for a second. Yes, he is a God of detail, isn't he?
Yeah. Thank you, Kevin. Thank you, Janice. Joseph, go ahead. So I loved how on the prophetic identity session, how Jesus says that his sheep hear his voice.
And... So it's actually part of our identity of who we are in Christ as baptized Christians. And how it can be used also, the hearing guide voice for myself, not only for others as a gift, but for myself to grow in faith or to listen that I need this fresh...
uh revelation and to hear god's voice when he speaks to me personally and yeah and i also love the two questions like what does it mean and what should i do it's really i already used it in personal prayer and it's awesome yeah it's it's fun when you start doing it with the lord in your personal prayer time too and you start to see those breakthroughs you start to get familiar with what he's saying right and it builds your confidence to pray with others um but i can't stress enough and obviously we're gonna do this in the activation a little bit, but how much just practicing with others makes a difference and even how much getting it wrong, right? If we get it wrong, the amount of a difference that it makes, because right. We can say, Oh, Hey, I'm learning what the Lord's voice sounds like.
I'm learning when to discard things and when to receive and what to, to process with, um, how, how much grace and how much accuracy we can see. Uh, Shannon, go ahead. Thank you.
So the two questions stuck out with me as well a lot. Just what does this mean and what's happening? What does the Lord want me to do with it as well with the raw content, interpretation, application?
And so recently, I just about a month ago was at Heart of Christ Restoration School, and I was prayed over, received baptism in the spirit. And I've never experienced, I've never been at anything charismatic. I've never experienced anything like that before.
And in that time as well, I had a very, very powerful experience of the Holy Spirit that as I'm told, because I'm still trying to understand and interpret that I received the gift of healing and that I received the gift of maybe prophecy with my lips or something that was happening. So now this is where I'm at. Like, how do you walk in this forward?
I mean, I'm asking these questions, but at the same time, I'm like, maybe, you know, questioning and, and really add. going, okay, now, now what's the next step? Kind of what do I do? Do I just sit in it? Do I practice like you're saying, I am my spiritual director.
um, is kind of like, wait, don't do anything yet. Sit, you know? So that's really beautiful.
That's so exciting. I'm so excited for you. It's, it's very excited, but I'm also very, you know, just in, uh, I'm, I don't know who I am anymore. Right.
Like I feel so filled that I'm like possessed with something new with the Holy spirit in a beautiful way. But at the same time, like, how do I walk in this? Yeah.
Awesome. And that is why if there's anyone else who's experiencing those things, those same questions, that's why we have encounter ministries. That's why we have the school of supernatural ministry, because we know there's people out there who want to know how to walk in these things and what the Lord is doing.
You want to experience the more for themselves, but also for others in their life. So thank you for sharing that Shannon. And we will be praying for you as you begin to walk in these new things that the Lord has.
Janice and Stephanie, if you could drop in the chat. what you want to share. I do want to get the activation because I want to leave a little bit of time for testimonies.
It's a pretty jam-packed schedule in here, but I know how powerful it is to hear other people's stories on the way the Lord is moving. So for the activation for this talk, we have two parts. The first one is a series of declarations, and the second one is a little bit of a time of reflection.
For the second activation, it's really helpful. If you have an empty chair near you. So if it's easy to grab an empty chair, grab one and scoot it over to you. So you're just ready for that.
If it's not, you can just use your imagination. But I'm someone who's very visual and I love having that empty chair with me. So for the first activation, although we can receive impartation for prophetic ministry. We don't need impartation to hear God's voice for ourselves. Because we're sheep, we hear the Lord's voice.
And what we're going to do right now with these declarations is simply build our prophetic identity on the truth that we are made to hear the shepherd's voice. So we're going to take a minute and get in our prayer postures. And then I'm going to read a passage and then invite you to repeat after me.
In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. Holy Spirit, I thank you that you are present with us right now.
Father, I thank you for the truth that Paul reveals in Corinthians when he says that to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. now the lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the lord is there is freedom spirit lord i thank you that you are removing the veil right now that you are present I'm going to have you guys repeat after me.
I declare and believe that Jesus is my shepherd. I am his sheep. I can hear Jesus's voice. Today, I am turning to you as a child. And Jesus, you are removing any veils between us.
I know some of you are having a hard time hearing me right now, trying to troubleshoot at the same time, so I'm putting the declarations in the chat if you need to repeat them. From this posture of faith, we're going to invite the Holy Spirit to speak to us through a simple story about our relationship with God. For all of us, this is about rekindling our prayer life so that our prophetic ministry flows from a place of intimacy with God.
when we give him our time we hear his voice more clearly as i read this i want you to listen to me with one ear and to the spirit with the other a man's daughter had asked the local priest to come and pray with her father When the priest arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows. An empty chair sat beside his bed. The priest assumed that the old man had been informed of his impending visit.
I guess you were expecting me, he said. No, who are you? said the old man.
I'm the new priest at your church, he replied. When I saw the empty chair, I figured you knew I was going to show up. Oh yeah, the chair, said the man.
Would you mind closing the door? Puzzled, the priest shut the door. I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter, said the man. But all of my life, I have never known how to pray.
At church, I used to hear the priest talk about prayer. but it went right over my head. I abandoned any attempt at prayer, the old man continued, until one day about four years ago, my best friend said to me, Joe, prayer is a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here is what I suggest.
Sit down in a chair, place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith, see Jesus in the chair. It's not weird because he promised. I'll be with you always.
Then just speak to him and listen in the same way you're doing with me now. So I tried it and I liked it so much that I do it a couple hours every day. I'm real careful though.
If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she would either have a nervous breakdown or send me away to an insane asylum. The priest was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old man to continue on the journey. He prayed with him and returned to the church building. Two nights later, the daughter called to tell the priest that her father had passed away that afternoon.
Did he die in peace, he asked? Yes, she said. When I left the house around two o'clock, he called me to his bedside, and he told me that he loved me and kissed me on the cheek.
When I got back from the store an hour later, he was gone. But there was something strange about his death. Apparently, just before he died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed.
What do you make of that? The priest wiped a tear from his eye and said, I wish we could all go that way. Using your imagination, I want you to picture Jesus in the empty chair next to you.
I believe he wants to speak to each of us about our prayer life, to spend time with us in the secret place. We're going to spend the next six minutes just talking to the Lord. Don't forget to listen to him speak back to you. We're going to take about one more minute. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time of prayer.
Thank you for ministering to our hearts. Just let us always feel your nearness. Let us always speak to you as if you are sitting right next to us. Amen. In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
Amen. So I just want to get... two testimonies real quick. First two people to raise their hand about that activation.
And then I would love for like 10 people to just drop in the chat what that activation was like for you. More than 10, if there's more than 10, but I just, I would love to just see that. I know that, you know, reading through those last week was super impactful and powerful.
Lauren, go ahead, kick us off. Unmute first. When I, many years ago, when I asked God to show me, he showed me himself.
I found my, I was in a room made of like shears, sheer material. So like that floor, the ceiling, the wall, it was just all shears. It was all blowing. And it was just his way of showing I'm.
around you, above you, beneath you, below you. I'm all these things. And it's a memory I have gone back to for 25 years. And out of habit, I went to that place because when I want to be in God's presence, I can't help but go to that room. And instantly I was just carried up, like just out of that room into this expanse.
And that room looked so small. And all I felt was, there is so much more than that room. Like, there's so much more I want to show you.
There's so much more. And then he kept just saying, what you know is true. And so of course, I asked, what do I know that this is real, that I am?
And that you know that this is real and this is where we're going. So it was just so for so my whole adult life, really, that's been my where I go to. And it's always brought me comfort to go to that room.
And so to have it just I don't even know what the word is like. I get exploded like I just shot up out of it into this expanse of that that was so much brighter. And that room I could see it was small. in a different space. So that's really beautiful.
Thank you so much for sharing that Lauren. Um, Amber, go ahead. Okay. I'm here.
Um, nothing as beautiful as Lauren, a little bit more, uh, down to earth. Um, I work for a Catholic church. We played musical desks because of some organizational restructure. We all got new offices. And so I'm in this new office and there wasn't a chair next to my desk.
And I was, it bothered me and I didn't know why. Now I'm thinking back to the video where it was the lightning and everybody, the four people came up and they all gave their story. And he said, how many voices of God are there?
And I'm like, I'm thinking like infinite. And he's like, no, there's one. And I immediately thought of that when you said, now I want you to get an empty chair and I want you to put it near you. And I thought, I did that first thing when I came into work today.
I looked at my desk and said, I need to have an empty chair next to my desk. What if somebody wants to be here with me? What if somebody wants to talk with me?
And so as we're talking about this, it's kind of like the lightning storm. We're all hearing the same message, but at a different time, different place and in the way God speaks to us. So my empty chair was here for a purpose.
this defined that purpose and it's right behind me and I heard the Lord say I've got your back because he's right there just right up off my left shoulder so that empty chair was very significant and the fact that you brought that forward as something needed needed and I just felt so compelled this morning that I had to have that empty chair there so just an affirmation beautiful thank you so much for sharing that Amber and while you're here that's very convenient So one of the things we like to do is we like to stage prophecy, especially during the opening prayer. And so, Amber, you were actually highlighted to me in the opening prayer. And there wasn't a good moment for me to share a prophetic word, but the Lord just brought a moment right here. So I would love to share a word that I heard.
And you can tell me if it resonates with you at all. So I was praying. I actually saw you in a coffee shop that you love being in coffee shops.
And you were reading a book there. And you love to read fiction and drink coffee. but you always find yourself getting distracted and watching the people around you in the coffee shop.
And you're like, oh no, I need to focus on my book. I love reading coffee, reading the book, but I love being in the coffee shop, but I'm distracted by all the people. And the Lord was saying like, hey, he's drawing your attention to the people because he has words and ministry and healing that he wants to do through you to them.
So when you feel yourself getting distracted and noticing people, just ask the Lord what he wants to say to them or how he wants to minister to them. and you'll just start to experience a new flow of his power through you. Does that resonate with you at all? Another coincidence. I hung a note on my door today that said, I'm doing a live class and I have ADHD.
Please don't disturb me. Very easily distracted. Very first one to see how everybody here in the office is doing, chat with them, see where they're at. My job as ministry coordinator is just to kind of make sure everybody's where they need to be. So I haven't been paying attention to my emails today, but you've affirmed distractions.
That's the Lord working. Praise the Lord. Rosie, we need to get into this next section. So if you could drop yours in the chat, that'd be so great.
So one of the reasons I wanted to start, and I'm really glad that the Lord, you know, invited Amber to share first is because when we're sharing the prophetic, right? Like I said, we can learn as much from what we get right as what we get wrong. And we love to demonstrate this as facilitators because sometimes we get it right and we get to celebrate what the Lord is doing.
And sometimes we get it partially right. And sometimes we don't get it right at all. Right. And the most important thing to remember is it's the Lord who gives the word.
So if we don't get it right, that's OK, because it wasn't us in the first place. And if we get it wrong, it's OK, because it wasn't us in the first place. Right.
We can really partner with the Lord. And so we're going to dive into activations to really to see this come to fruition in our own lives. But before we do that, since you don't have the whole quarter of teaching, there's a couple things that I wanted to remind you of and review as we go into these activations. One, the prophetic is for the upbuilding, encouragement, and consolation of the body of Christ, right?
That comes from 1 Corinthians. So we are in upbuilding, encouraging, and consoling one another as we do these activations. Now, For many of us, this is the first time we've done anything like this. So we're going to forgive one another in advance. We're going to give our classmates permission to get it wrong, to make mistakes and to grow and to be bold in the midst of that.
Okay. So right now just say, I forgive my classmates for anything they get wrong or mistakes that they make because they're going to forgive me. Right.
Nice and simple, nice and easy. Now, the second thing is, is that all prophecy is partial. So we're going to do our best, right. To hear the Lord, to discern what he's saying and share it with our partner. Right.
So just like I shared that with Amber. Now Amber has, I have 50% responsibility. Amber has 50% responsibility.
Amber has to take that word and take it back to the Lord and say, Lord, you know, what are you trying to tell me here? Is this you, right? Just because someone says they have a prophetic word for, uh, for you doesn't mean it's from the Lord. Doesn't mean it's going to encourage upbuild or console you, right?
We always have a responsibility to take those words and bring them back to the Lord. And if we think there's something from the Lord there, then we want to, um, water that seed and allow it to bear fruit in our life. And if we feel like it's not from the Lord, it's okay to just cast it aside, right? There have been plenty of times where I've gotten prophetic words that made absolutely no sense. I just set them to the side, right?
And I focus in on the words that I feel the Lord's presence, his peace, his joy, his love, his goodness on. This is super important. We do have a few forbidden topics of prophecy. As students, we ask that you do not prophesy into... births, deaths, or permanent vocations, right?
Marriage or celibacy. Those are things that we want to see people who have grown in maturity and accountability in major ways before they speak into. Yes, there were plenty of saints who prophesied births. They prophesied deaths. They prophesied permanent vocations.
We are just beginning our journey in the prophetic, and it can be super damaging. to prophesy those things into people's lives. So we are not going to do that.
Does that make sense? Right. We all agree. We will not prophesy the birth of a child in anyone's life.
We will not prophesy the death date in anyone's life. And we will not tell someone what their permanent vocation is. Great. Wonderful. Beautiful.
With these, as we talked about earlier, the activations are getting us into the mode of repetition. doing that training and creating that risk to grow our prophetic muscles, right? Paul talks about this in Timothy, that he needs to train himself in godliness, right?
So we're training ourselves in the prophetic. Now the Lord often uses something natural to trigger the prophetic revelation. And so we're going to use a variety of triggers to move us from the natural into the supernatural. Some of these might sound silly, right?
And that's okay. The Lord loves to use mundane things to speak to us. Just last week with one of my coworkers, we asked the Lord what kind of chip the other person was and why, right? And it was amazing how much information the Lord packed into that and spoke very specifically into each of our hearts. So enter in fully to the activations.
We're going to go from basic to more advanced, from low risk to high risk. As we're doing this, I want you guys to make sure that you honor and discern these words, right? So what that means is either write them down or if you have an app on your phone and you want to record the word that your partner is sharing with you, you can do that.
Are you guys ready to activate the prophetic in your life? You guys excited? Awesome. So this is going to move a little bit quickly. You're going to have about six minutes with your partner.
That is six minutes for each of you to receive a word and share a word. Okay. So that's three minutes each. So the best way to do this is when you get in the group to take one minute and say, Lord, what do you want to say to this person using the prompt that we give you?
Then you will release the word. So say my partner. is father Jason right here.
So we both take a minute and I'd say, father Jason, I heard this. And he'd say, Kevin, I heard this. Right. And then we give each other feedback.
Okay. We want to make sure we release the words before we give feedback. Um, both people release the words before we give feedback, just so there's time. Um, when you're giving feedback, watch, there's a little timer there in your group, watch the timer.
So you know how much time you have. Um, and so that both people are getting to share. Okay.
Um, The first activation is prophesying from scripture, right? So like I said, we're going to start with low risk. All scripture is God-breathed.
So a phrase or a word from scripture can become the revelation trigger for a prophetic word for someone. And so one of the things we have there is we're going to do Psalm 23 first. So if you have access to a Bible, grab it. I just dropped a link to Psalm 23 in the chat if you just want to click that open.
But we are going to get into pairs, and each person is just going to read through Psalm 23 really quickly. and choose a verse or a phrase that stands out to him in the moment for the other person, right? The chosen verses will become the foundation for the prophetic process.
So Father, what do you want to say to this person from this passage? Okay. Now, again, we love to do stage demonstration. So I'm going to demonstrate this one as well. And since I already picked on Father Jason, I'm going to stay with Father Jason.
Okay. So I'm going to Grab Psalm 23 and say, Father, what do you want to say to Father from Psalm 23? I'm just going to look through it.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.
Awesome. So lie down, just jumped off the page at me right there. So I'm just going to press into that.
Lord, what are you trying to say here? Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. So Father Jason, the sense that I'm getting is that you haven't been sleeping well, that you've had some new responsibilities added to you, that you've been experiencing a lot of stress, maybe some anxieties as you're trying to manage those situations and it's been messing with your sleep.
And so you haven't been showing up as the best version of yourself. And the Lord wants to remind you that his burden is easy and his yoke and his light. And he gave you these responsibilities, not because you had the strength to do them, but because you knew how to allow.
his strength to move through you. And just an invitation for you to come back to him, to release the burden of responsibility back to him so that he can operate through you. Does that resonate with you? Yeah, certainly. It's something I've even checked in with my own doctor to see if it's something health-wise going on more than just the stress or whatever else.
But yeah, there's been some more things and certainly just that piece of being able to allow him to shoulder that burden is a piece that I can feel him calling me more into. Yeah. Praise the Lord. So Lord, I just thank you for speaking.
I ask that you would just bless that word for Father Jason and that every word that I've spoken that was from you would bear fruit 30, 60, and a hundredfold in Jesus name. Amen. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen. So brothers and sisters, it is as easy as that.
I already set you into groups. I'm just going to scroll through. Oh, we've lost some people. I'm going to move some people around really quick and make sure that everyone has a partner so that when I send you into your breakout rooms, everyone's got it there.
Give it a second before you raise your hand. Give your partner time to get there. We do have...
I think one group of three. And so what you guys will do there is just each person will pick another person and you'll have to go a little bit quicker. And if you have to give feedback in the chat to each other when you get back, that is okay. Room 40, yep.
Okay. Awesome. Okay.
So you'll have six minutes plus the bonus minute, and then it'll bring you all back here. So use all of those minutes. Okay. Okay.
Welcome back everyone. I know that six minutes goes fast, doesn't it? It felt like 30 seconds. It's amazing.
Okay. So real quick, one of the things we love to do is take feedback. Okay.
So we, we write the words on three levels, right? On level one is I need to pray about that more. There wasn't much there when I heard it the first time.
The second one was like, oh, okay. There's something there. I'm going to sit with that a little bit.
The third one is. who gave you a copy of my journal? I don't know why you have that. So one, two, or three, just go ahead and hold up your fingers really quick. Where are we at there? I see some threes.
Oh man, there's a lot of threes in there. Whoa, there's some twos. I have to scroll over to see all the faces on here.
Oh man, this is great. I love this. I love this celebration.
This is so beautiful. It's amazing what the Lord wants to do with something as simple as that. Okay, so what we're going to do next is we're going to do what's called, hold on, I'm looking at the time.
Okay, we're going to save testimonies for the last five minutes. We're going to do testimonies from all three of these. Okay, so the second one we're going to do is prophesying into identity.
So in the prophetic, God will give us insights into a person's particular identity. So. As an explanation of this, in Matthew 16, we see Jesus say, and I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
So Jesus calls Peter a rock, even though Peter later is rebuked, and he says, get behind me, Satan. But prophecy, right, is hearing what God says and calling what is not yet. as though it already is, right? So in this moment, Jesus is making a prophetic decree about Peter's identity. So an example of this is I had a time in my life where I had four people in the span of three days prophesy over me that I was a lion and that I was roaring the Lord's name and praise across.
And that I would be speaking in front of people. And they all declared this very powerfully. And although I was a youth minister, so I speak to youth groups, that wasn't something that was regularly happening in my life.
After that week of words that were released in January, I started getting calls. And I had nine speaking opportunities booked over the next 12 months as that word came to fruition. So it was something that wasn't yet happening. um, that then came to pass.
It was really powerful and beautiful thing. Um, and so what, what we're going to do here is we're going to pair up and we're going to ask the prompt, um, God, who is this person to you? Okay.
God, who is this person to you? I'm going to drop that in the chat just so that you have it. Um, and so that you can see it.
Oh, not to just Joanne, to the whole group. God, who is this person to you? You go through your prophetic process.
And then you're going to deliver the word in a very short and concise manner, right? We're not going to give a big, long explanation. It should either be a phrase or a sentence that the person then writes down and discerns with the Lord, okay?
So it's going to be very quick. And then you guys can talk about it after. So I'm only going to give you, I'm still only going to give you six minutes, but I'm actually going to make an adjustment here.
So because we had such an issue with. people ending up with partners who weren't there. I'm going to put three people in every room.
Okay. So this is supposed to be short. This is supposed to be concise.
It's supposed to be one phrase. So you're going to have three people in every room and you'll each take a person. So say that, you know, Stephanie and Joanne and I are in a room together. I was like, okay, I'm praying with a Stephanie. Stephanie's praying for Joanne and Joanne's praying for Kevin.
And we'll all take a minute, go after prophetic word. And then we will release it. Okay.
Does that make sense? Okay. Now, as always, we're going to do a stage demonstration. And so Kelly messaged me and volunteered to be the stage demo. Kelly, could you raise your hand just so that you're pinned?
Because I don't know which one of the four screens you're on right now. There she is. Awesome.
Kelly. Okay. Let's just pray really quick. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen. Lord, who is Kelly to you?
You disappeared, Kelly. Where did you go? There we go. Kelly, I heard the Lord say that you are a releaser. of prisoners.
You are a releaser of prisoners. Okay. I'll have to pray into that.
I don't know what that means. Sounds great. Okay. I mean, I just recently started. Yeah.
Okay. I guess I don't know. Go ahead.
Go ahead. I recently just got certified as a Catholic mindset coach and people have been released of thoughts of like lies that have been in their head so i don't know if that is maybe related um so they're releasing their prisoners of lies possibly yeah yeah potentially yeah i saw i mean like i can give the whole image i don't want to go into the whole image right because we told everyone to be um concise um but yeah there was there was definitely i saw a mouse like chewing through the cords that trapped the lion down um and setting him free from what had captured him um so that very could be very well could be people trapped by the thoughts, the lies that are pinning them down and preventing them from walking in their identity. So please pray into that and keep us posted. Sure. Yeah.
Thanks. Awesome. So it's as simple as that.
And then if there's time for feedback, make sure and take that time for feedback. And we will see you back here in six minutes. Let's take a quick one, two or three.
One being, I need some more time with that. Two being like, whoa, I was surprised. That was pretty awesome. And three being, again, they have a copy of your journal.
Oh man, seeing some great numbers in there. I love it. People dropping in the chat.
It's so amazing, right? Just think about these people from being all over the world, never talk to you. They don't know anything about you. And yet somehow the Lord is moving and speaking through them.
It's just really beautiful and amazing. uh stephanie if it's a testimony we're gonna wait until the end we have a question not a testimony i was just like um like i i don't know i was uh i like that we can um i felt it hard to say it that um while we're doing these um interactions and whatnot um i know it's like we're praying right before it but also um i think we should take into consideration or try some of us don't know it to you pray for that person that it'd be God to speak through them. I don't think we, um, everyone here connected is seeing it that way.
Um, but I don't know why God just gave me that word to, you know, to ask God to be the one that, um, speaks through that person that's praying for us or giving those words out. Yeah. So let's take a minute, Lord, we just thank you.
And we praise you, Lord. We ask that you would just speak through, uh, each of our classmates that they would reveal the secrets of your heart to our lives. Amen. So far it's been threes for me though.
Praise the Lord. So for the last one that we're going to do, this is going to be prophesying from animals, right? So I just shared a story in my own life about how someone prophesied animals in my life.
And it may sound crazy, but animals play a pretty significant role in scripture, right? Jesus is described as both the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God. They use animals in the book of Revelation to describe the angels who are in the presence of God.
And what's so amazing about animals is they communicate traits and characteristics very quickly and powerfully in ways that we might not otherwise see things. So what we're going to do is we're going to ask the Lord to reveal any, ask our partner, Lord, what animal would you like to show me for this person? And.
and why, right? So we're not just seeking a picture of an animal, right? Like I got an elephant for you. No, no, no. But why an elephant for you, right?
Or I got a donkey for you, but why a donkey for you, right? Because even what may seem like the most insulting of all the animals can be a very beautiful and powerful image. Like if I just would have said earlier to Kelly, I got an image of a mouse for you, right?
She would have been like, oh, cool. I'm mousy. That's super lame, right?
But I saw a mouse eating through the cords that trapped the lion down, right? So because she's willing to be small and nimble, she's able to set captives free. She's able to get to places that other people can't, right?
So there's much more to those that we want to unpack in that moment. So again, most of you have three people in there. I'm going to give you an extra minute, okay? You got a whole extra minute to do this because there's a little bit of an explanation. But again...
When you're in there, quickly assign each person, take one minute to listen, and then one minute to share and release the words that everyone has an opportunity to hear. Sound good? Awesome.
God bless. We'll see you back here in a second. Okay. Welcome back, everyone.
So good to see you. Again, let's just do real quick. Ones, twos, and threes.
How are we doing out there? Whoa, it's six. I don't even know what that means.
So many. Praise the Lord. Okay, so I want to give a few minutes, let's do like five minutes for testimonies, and then we'll do like 15 minutes for small groups. So who wants to give testimony on any one of those three? And what we're testifying here is to a word that impacted us, right?
Not a word. So we're not going to testify to a word we shared, we're going to testify to a word that impacted us from another person. So just a couple volunteers really quick. Michelle, kick us off.
So, um, I was from the second one, um, identity, um, Joan gave me this and I'm sharing it especially now because we got cut off, right. As I was explaining, she said that, um, God said she is my daughter. I love her.
She pictured me, can't say a small child carefree and trusting completely in her father. Um, and that really touched me. My, my own father left my family when I was very young. So I've always carried some trust issues. And last week during the activation with the prodigal son scripture, my picture, when we had to picture the robe and the sandals, I couldn't get that part as much as just that he hugged me.
Like I was in tears, like he just hugged me. And there was this overwhelming sense of I am the father that you always wanted. So like she had just it was so impactful and it was so like. from God's lips or from God through Joan's lips. It was amazing.
That's so beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Michelle. Yep.
Lauren, go ahead. Okay. This is actually two and three because it was the same message.
Donna had shared in the second that she saw me as that God saw me as a pillar of fire, that I had a message. I need to go before the people and share to lead them. And then Ladd shared, he thought it was a dolphin, but he realized it was a Norwalk, which I thought was just kind of fun.
I don't know how many people get to be a Norwalk. But because of that, I had a very pointed message. I had a very specific thing I needed to communicate. And both of these things, just last night while I was praying the rosary, I felt this need to...
compose a letter containing all this information that needs to go to certain people. And, um, so I have a lot to pray on, on that, but it was when, when last started talking and it was so similar to what Donna had shared. Um, it was pretty powerful.
That's amazing. Did anyone else have that experience of the words, multiple words, all lining up together? That's one of my favorite things that happens.
There's a few of you with your hands raised that you're, you've got three different people from three very different. places all saying the same thing you're like oh oh oh lord especially sometimes sometimes it's really exciting sometimes it's like oh boy i did not want to hear that message from jesus but he's shouting he's shouting from from all over uh stephanie go ahead so mine was with the first one with psalms 23 um and it says um psalms 23 verse 3 says he restores my soul he guides me through the right paths for his namesake which is my translation on my bible um for me it it hit me a lot because that was the number one number three that i got for the reason that last night that was like strongly my prayer at well this morning i was like two in the morning i was i hadn't been down on my knees for some time and last night i said today's the day i am going to get back on down on my knees because that's how we fight our wars you know so Mine specifically isn't a war. I think it's something that I want to do right.
And it brings me back to how you say that, you know, we should be okay or shouldn't worry about making mistakes. But that's one of my biggest scares, you know, to one day make a mistake and hurt someone's feelings. So I pray to God last night strongly that any word he gives me in prophetizing, that it be his word and not mine, that I may not hurt anyone's feelings. And if I do, that he gives me the understanding or the discernment to know that I shouldn't say I should keep it to myself if I don't know if it's hurtful or not. So to me, that really, the first one really stood out to me because I have been asking him to guide me through the correct path that, you know, for his sake and not for my own, that I want it to be his glory.
And I want him to be praised and whatever way he chooses to use me as his instrument, because I believe we are all instruments of God, that it be for his glory to bring more people to his life, to, you know, to their life, to know that. you know he does exist and he is with us at all times so that was mine that psalms 23 verse 3 really um really touched me and it really helped me a lot praise the lord uh and while drew is unmuting if anyone wants to share in their chat in the chat as well um please feel free to do that it's great to get those testimonies in the chat go ahead drew so for me the each encounter there's an abundance there so i'll just choose one uh the the second one with janice She spoke and said, like I said, I see you as gentle, as a gentle shepherd, and then brought a specific verse from Scripture from Song of Songs, you are precious to me, and Janice affirmed that the Lord deeply loves me. This was very providential. In the past, I prayed a lot with Song of Songs, which just meant a lot to me in formation for the priesthood, and I had kind of...
moved on from it, so to speak. And just in recent weeks, through these meetings, through the talks, the conferences here at Encounter, I had felt encouraged to go back to it. And then today, Janice, just bringing it up out of the blue, just deeply, deeply affirmed that that's how the Lord sees me.
That's where he wants me. And that's where I can thrive. So I give thanks to God.
This was affirmed in other ways too at the other two encounters. Praise the Lord. That's so beautiful.
I love that. Thanks for sharing, Drew. Lori, go ahead.
Yeah, I'm going to speak to the animal. The animal that came out was a white dove, but it really was a white wild horse. Very free-spirited.
She is powerful and beautiful. no chains holding her back from my love, metallic, majestic, literal, no chains, complete freedom. And when I looked at number two, it was holy, happy, lighthearted happiness to others, driving down the street, bringing bouquets of flowers to other people and showing that joy. Praise the Lord. That is beautiful.
I have to relate this really quick back to the encounter ministry that I went to in Toledo. And I had a monk that prayed over me to bring down the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And he brought down fortitude.
But he said that he really wanted to share with me the spirit of joy and to praise God through joy. And I did end up being slain. And I laughed just this beautiful laugh.
And since then, I felt a fulfillment of joy in my life of not holding back, but just being free and being joyful with others. Praise the Lord. That's so beautiful. Thank you for sharing that, Lori.
Kate, go ahead. Thanks. Yeah, I also want to share it because I was kicked out of the group and I couldn't really give feedback.
So I asked the Lord after our last session, how do you see me? And in the prayer session, he revealed how he sees me and it really much touched me. And it was amazing to see that in the second session, it was exactly the same picture that God has shown me in the prayer session, which is amazing. yeah and confirms what um yeah what he told me oh that's so awesome thank you joseph joseph and christina and linda we do need to send the small groups just for a few minutes um and so thank you for volunteering to share um you're gonna you get to share first when you get to small group so you're gonna be my first sharers when you get to your small groups um so we're gonna send you a small group for 15 minutes which is technically gonna go over class time by three minutes so if you need to leave promptly at three o'clock please feel free to leave. I'll do a little closing prayer right now.
So if you leave early, you won't miss the closing prayer. And then if you come back, I'll stick around for about five to 10 minutes, about five minutes. My wife's got an appointment that she has to get to.
So I'll have to get out of here by 315. If there's any questions, you can ask those. Otherwise, we will be back next week for diving into healing. Let's pray. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you. for speaking through us and speaking to us. Father, I pray that every single word that was spoken from your heart and spoken from your mouth would take root in our hearts and would bear fruit 30, 60, and a hundredfold.
Lord, if there are any words that were spoken today that were not from your heart, that were not from you, I ask they would be stricken from our memories, that they would be stricken from our notes now and forever. May only your word remain in Jesus name. Amen. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen.
Awesome. Send you to small groups and we'll see you back in a little while.