[0:00] Good morning. Good morning. Today is just a very exciting day. We're going to be doing a tag team preaching today as we've done before.
[0:10] So Vijay is going to be joining me later and sharing God's Word. One of the reasons why we do a tag team is because we really want to raise up people in the different gifts within the congregation and give opportunities to really grow in that.
[0:23] So I'm just excited to be able to do this and Vijay is just going to be sharing a little bit later with us. Let me just pray for us and then we'll get going.
[0:39] Father, your Word is powerful. I pray this morning that you would speak to us. I pray, Lord, even as we're looking at this topic, which I know is just a controversial topic, but it's one that we need to hear, Lord, because you speak it in your Word.
[1:01] So I pray, open our ears, open our hearts to just be sensitive to what you want to say to us this morning. In Jesus' name. Amen. Great. Great. Welcome.
[1:14] If you don't know me, my name's Chris. I'm a teaching pastor here at Watermark. It's just great. Great to see you. And if you've been here for a few, a couple of weeks, we've been looking at a new series going through talking about the Holy Spirit.
[1:28] And we've said that the Holy Spirit is the creator spirit, the one who creates the whole world. And as he's part of that creation, he also recreates us as Christians and brings us new life and new birth.
[1:43] And he's changing us. And we saw last week how the Spirit kind of gives us a new operating system. And so we have a new way where we don't have to rely on our own strength, our own power to try and change ourselves.
[1:59] But he gives us his Spirit to change us to be the people that he's making us to be. And so today we're going to look at a controversial topic of prophecy, okay, and how the Spirit works in prophecy.
[2:14] And this is one of those topics which raises a lot of questions and a lot of issues. And we're not going to be able to deal with all of them today. But one of the things we are going to be doing is, if you see in your bulletin, there's going to be a Q&A on the Holy Spirit and gifts and things.
[2:32] And we just want you to kind of come up with questions and email me in questions. I want it to be a great kind of beginning of discussion and dialogue as we really talk in getting God's Word about what it means to talk about spiritual gifts together.
[2:49] So I don't know what comes to your mind when you think of the word prophecy. I grew up in what is called a cessationist church, which means they didn't believe that gifts like tongues and prophecy continued.
[3:05] And we had a kind of a great, it was a great congregation, but there was just, it was very kind of intellectual all the time. A little bit dead spiritually. Then I went to what is called a charismatic Anglican church.
[3:18] And some of you wonder whether those two things go together. But, and through my childhood and then I actually went for a few months to a Pentecostal Bible college. And when I was there, you know, I had some great experiences, but I also had some very negative experiences.
[3:35] I had some experiences of being pushed over, like by people trying to pray for me. I had experiences of false prophecies where people prophesied that my allergies would be healed.
[3:45] And they weren't. And after that, that really messed me up. And then I had, you know, I started to hear different people preaching. And they would just take kind of verses from the Bible to just say whatever they thought it meant to say.
[3:59] And eventually, I got very disillusioned with all of it. In fact, you know, I got to the point, you know, I had some people who kind of say, Oh, I saw a cloud in the sky and it looked like a chicken.
[4:10] So that means like I should have chicken for dinner tonight. And all these kind of strange things. And I just became very cynical, very cynical of all of it. I went there to a church where they taught Scripture well.
[4:23] They had a great community together. And they didn't talk about the Holy Spirit at all. And so I just kind of lived with that. You know, I became what I would call a I smoke but I don't inhale kind of Christian when it talks about the Holy Spirit.
[4:38] I believe in the Spirit, but I don't kind of do the kind of some parts of the Spirit. I don't practice. I'm very cynical. And so as being a watermark as well, I think one of the things that I've realized, I think we can have been a little bit of a kind of I smoke but I don't inhale kind of church.
[4:57] We haven't talked about spiritual gifts really or prophecy or any of those things at all in the congregation. And many of us, I know, prefer to stick with just kind of what intellectually we feel comfortable with.
[5:12] If you're like me, that's what I'm like. And if you have negative experiences, like I've had some negative experiences, we don't even necessarily want to think about this. And it's very interesting because if you look at the different ways people's personalities work as well, some of us are very rational kind of people.
[5:30] Some of us are kind of very feely, intuitive people. And we all kind of tend to look down on each other. Okay? And that's even in churches that's often the way. Okay? But what you see in Scripture is God has made both us to have truth and experience.
[5:47] He's made heat and light. He wants us to really grasp both of these things together. And as we as the elders have been looking at Scripture together, we just prayed, we felt God really convicting us that we need to kind of rethink about where we stand as a church in terms of thinking about spiritual gifts.
[6:08] It's not tenable when you read Scripture to say we smoke but we don't inhale. And so when God's Word says to us, earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy, if I'm just all the time cynical about what prophecy means, then actually I've been living in disobedience to what God is saying.
[6:35] And we, as elders and as a church, we need to repent of that and actually begin to understand what does it really mean when the Scripture calls us to these things. So we don't want to let tradition, we don't want to let our experiences shape the way we view this.
[6:51] We want to get back to Scripture and what it teaches us so that we can be obedient to that. And so I know some of us are going to kind of have, we disagree with different things that we'll say, and that's okay.
[7:03] We want to have a conversation and we want to start this conversation, but we want it to be one where we're getting back into what God's Word tells us, not just what my experience has said.
[7:15] So what we're going to look at today is, I'm going to start sharing a little bit about what prophecy isn't, and maybe what it is, and then Vijay's going to come and talk a little bit about attitude to it, and our response to it.
[7:30] Okay? So that's where we're going to go. Okay. One of the things that Scripture is absolutely clear about is, and it's unique in Christianity, is that we have a God who not only speaks to us, he also speaks through us.
[7:53] Okay? I mean, just stop and think about that for a minute. The God of the whole universe, the God of the whole universe, you know, he could be kind of like a distant boss who occasionally kind of throws out orders to us and then goes back into his office, but he's not.
[8:12] In fact, every religion, whether it's Hinduism, whether it's Islam, whether it's Buddhism, whether it's Judaism, God is not personally wanting to reveal himself to you.
[8:22] But in Christianity, it says God wants to speak to you because he desires a relationship with you. I don't know if you get that.
[8:34] Jesus says it like this. He says, My sheep hear my voice. My sheep hear my voice. I don't know. Have you heard Jesus' voice? Okay.
[8:46] Are you a Christian? If you're a Christian, you've heard Jesus' voice. If you've read the scriptures, you've heard Jesus' voice. Jesus wants to speak to you.
[8:58] And I don't know if you, some of you maybe are agnostic. Some of you are maybe not sure whether it's God. And you may find this difficult to believe. And some of us, even as Christians, we kind of have this idea that God's this kind of floaty thing out in the sky, you know, a little bit kind of distant from my real life, not really interested in me.
[9:17] And we say things like, you know, if there was a God, why doesn't he kind of hold a press conference for me and just kind of tell me what he wants me to do? You know, perform a few miracles.
[9:30] Just let me know he's there. And the Bible says, well, what more do you want? If I wrote in the sky, in big letters with your name, you'd still find a way to explain it away.
[9:45] But he sent Jesus, who spoke for God, performed miracles, who rose from the dead. He started a movement which spread out of peaceful means, taking over the whole of the Roman Empire because of a radical love.
[9:59] And he left his word to us as a demonstration of an unmatchable love that he both calls us to and reveals to us. And we can keep trying to explain this kind of God away in our lives, but he says, in the gift of prophecy, I want to give you another sign that I desire to be in relationship with you.
[10:20] So he says, so the question is, what if you asked him today to speak to you? Are you willing to listen? Are you willing to listen?
[10:31] So we're going to look at this passage in 1 Corinthians 14. Just have it in your bulletin. Just going to pick through a few little parts of it. But the context of this passage is the Apostle Paul, he's writing to a church which is kind of wild about spiritual gifts.
[10:52] They're kind of completely out of control. I mean, you think of the most excessive, charismatic church, if you've ever been in one, that you can think of, Corinth is like off the scale.
[11:05] Off the scale. It's just a free-for-all. Everyone's just speaking in tongues, prophesying all over each other. Everyone's trying to get a word in. Everyone's trying to get themselves promoted as better than everyone else.
[11:15] The gifts are being abused. Everyone's all about themselves. And in that environment, do you know what? I think many of us would say, yeah, I don't want anything to do with spiritual gifts like that.
[11:28] I don't want anything to do with that. And yet, Paul doesn't say that. He doesn't say, hey, just stop prophesying, guys. Quit the tongues. He doesn't say that. He says, I want you to excel in gifts, but gifts which build other people up.
[11:45] And just do it in good order. That's what he says. Do it in good order. So, here's just a few things to think about what prophecy isn't, and then we'll talk about what prophecy is.
[11:56] Okay? With me? Good. Okay. Just before this passage in chapter 13, it says, as for prophecies, they will pass away.
[12:13] As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. The first thing, the prophecy isn't, it says prophecy isn't finished.
[12:29] Okay? Some people think prophecy died out in the first century when the Bible was written. What Paul says is that spiritual gifts, including prophecy in tongues, they have a time limit.
[12:40] They have a time limit on it. But that time limit is the return of Jesus. When the perfect comes, not the first century. Until that time, prophecy, though it's not perfect, it continues.
[12:52] Okay? It continues. So we should expect it in the life of the church. First thing, it isn't finished. Secondly, it isn't just for spiritual kind of elite people.
[13:04] Verse one says, pursue love, earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy.
[13:16] Now, who's Paul talking to? He's talking to the whole church. And I don't know, in the Old Testament, if you were, God raised up particular people at particular times, you know, Isaiah, Ezekiel, all these kind of guys, the Spirit came on them, they heard revelation from God.
[13:35] And it was so pure that they wrote it down in Scripture, and that's what we have in the Bible. But you know, in the Old Testament, if you're a prophet and you got it wrong, do you know what would happen to you?
[13:50] You get stoned. Okay? So if you said, I think your mom is going to come to visit you on Friday and they came on Thursday, that was it. Okay? That was the end of the game. Why?
[14:01] Because the idea was if you got it wrong, you could lead people away from God. And there were only a few people who could speak on God's behalf. But now, the Bible says, in Acts 2, when Pentecost come, when the Spirit comes on everyone, it says, everyone, all your sons and daughters shall prophesy.
[14:24] It says, no one in the New Testament gets stoned for getting it wrong. Doesn't matter if you're a CEO, if you're a cleaner, if you're educated, if you're uneducated. Doesn't matter if you've been a Christian for two weeks or 20 years, every Christian can hear from God and every believer should desire and ask to be able to prophesy.
[14:45] So don't, do you? Do you? Okay? Prophecy isn't finished. Prophecy isn't for spiritual elites. Prophecy isn't astrology. Okay?
[14:56] Some people think that prophecy is kind of getting your fortune read. Okay? Like kind of something about the future, something kind of a little mysterious, a little kind of, ooh, that's exciting. Get some inside knowledge.
[15:09] That's not what prophecy is about. It's not about satisfying your curiosity to find out what you're going to be doing in two years' time. Prophecy is about loving others. That's why it says pursue love and pointing others to Jesus.
[15:23] That's the key thing. God's providing ways for you to love other people better. Okay? So, let me ask you. Would you like to be able to have the right words at the right time for the right situation to just speak into somebody's life so their life, they will be built up, they'll be encouraged, they would grow in faith?
[15:43] Would you want that gift? Two people would. You know? That's what he says.
[15:53] Desire it. He says, it's God's discretion what he gives and when he gives it, but it's our responsibility to desire and to pray for it. So, it's not finished.
[16:05] It's not just for spiritual elite people. It's not astrology and it's not authoritative like scripture. 1 Corinthians tells us in verse 29, let two or three prophets speak.
[16:20] Let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent for you can all prophesy one by one so that all may learn and all be encouraged.
[16:33] Some people get nervous about talking about prophecy in church because the Bible can easily get pushed aside in favor of like emotional, subjective experiences. But prophecy, what he's talking about here, he says it's fallible.
[16:46] It can be wrong. That's why you need to test it. That's why you need to weigh it. That's an important part of it. If someone comes to me as they have in the past and says, you know, the 24th of December is going to be the end of the world.
[16:58] I'm going to look in scripture and say no one knows the day so I'm going to just tune out of that. Right? If somebody comes to me though and says, okay, the Bible says to me don't commit adultery, I don't sit back and say, well, let me just test that.
[17:16] Right? It's authoritative word. Do you see the difference? So prophecy's not finished, it's not for elites, it's not astrology, it's not authoritative like scripture, what is it?
[17:28] Okay? What is it? I said what it isn't. What is it? Verse three, it says, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding, encouragement, and consolation.
[17:41] Prophecy is a spontaneous thought that is given by God to an individual for strengthening you. That's what the word upbuilding means. For challenging, that's what the word comfort, encouragement means.
[17:53] And for comforting you in your trials and difficulties. You know, it's about, it can be about predicting the future, that's foretelling. You know, in Acts 11, there's this guy, Agabus, he predicts a famine.
[18:08] You know, it leads to the church donating money for victims. But in this passage, it's more about foretelling, which is about strengthening your faith, challenging you, how are you walking with Jesus?
[18:20] And encouragement in your life. You know, I had a, when I was growing up, I remember I used to kind of preach sermons in my head a little bit.
[18:30] I don't know why, it was just weird. And I remember though, once at a week, I'd never preached before in my life. I went to a camp and at the end of it, a random lady came up to me and said, I think you're going to preach to many people in your life.
[18:48] And something in my heart just said, yeah, that's right. Like, I'd never preached before. And, first sermon I ever preached, the pastor said to me afterwards, you are never meant to preach again in your life.
[19:07] Yeah, I hope they deleted the recording. But, I knew, like, something in my heart said, no, that's not right. because the word that had been given to me confirmed something that God had already placed in my heart and just strengthened me through that situation.
[19:27] That's what prophecy is about, strengthening you through your life. And by the way, if someone gives you a directional word, like, you should do this or do this, it should affirm something which God is, you personally should affirm that in your own heart.
[19:43] Don't just make a decision because I tell you to do it. It should be something God's already affirming to you, working in your heart already. Okay? That's what prophecy is about. I'm going to hand over to Vijay to talk a little bit more about our attitude to it.
[19:59] So, good morning. Hi. So, my name is Vijay. So, I think we are all glad that Chris actually tested the prophecy he got, right?
[20:11] So, that he continued preaching. So, thanks Chris. So, today I'll just take where Chris left. So, we'll be looking into what is the right attitude?
[20:24] What does Bible say? How should we come towards this concept of prophecy or this spirit, gift of spirit prophecy? And then we look into a life application and there's Esther today who also shares something what has recently happened in our life to really learn something from that for us as a church and then finally we'll work on the response.
[20:49] How should we respond to this whole thing? So, that's what we'll be doing. So, before I start, I heard a funny account in the past. So, there's this guy, a young guy who wants to get married and so he's been praying and he said, he comes to the pastor and says, you know, I've been praying about getting married and God gave me this verse, Hebrew 416, where it says, receive mercy and get grace in time of help or time of troubles.
[21:22] And so he says, oh, and then, since then I've met these two ladies named Mercy and Grace and I think God is telling me to marry them both. Yeah? And this pastor is a quick-witted pastor and he said, okay, alright, so let's pray about it and let's talk about it tomorrow again.
[21:40] So the pastor comes next day and he says, alright, so I've been also praying and really, I got this verse from 2 Corinthians 12, 9, where it says, my grace is sufficient for you.
[21:56] So I think you should not marry both, just one. So I think that's not the attitude we'll be talking about today, but it just shows it's one of the concepts where people have misused in church pretty much.
[22:11] And really, if we look into what is the right attitude towards prophecy, and in 1 Corinthians and also in Thessalonians, it gives you a very clear account of what Bible says prophecy or what's the right attitude towards prophecy.
[22:28] prophecy. So I think Chris already mentioned about be eager to prophecy in Corinthians 14, 39 and 40, and it says, do not forbid the work of spirit and do it in a fitting and orderly way.
[22:44] So, let's talk about eagerness, yeah? What does it mean, eager? And in another version, it says desire, desire to prophecy.
[22:56] So, prophesy. Can you go to the next slide? So I think the desire by nature of it, it's something you want, desire. And actually, if you, I think we all desire different things, materialistic things, right from chocolates to a most expensive property in Hong Kong right now.
[23:19] So, there's a range of things we desire, and in the secular world, everybody will agree achievement, the origin of an achievement is somewhere in somebody's desire.
[23:32] So, it's the origin of something. It's a start. And actually, it's a very misused thing, I would say, if you read in the news and internet, I think desire is often time used in a very sexual context.
[23:48] And actually, it is skewed in a lot of ways how God has actually designed desire to be. And I think Bible tells you to desire a lot of good things.
[23:59] Actually, there is, let's say, a lot of philosophy around this. And I think one of the things in Buddhism is to completely make you void of desire, this nirvana, the state you will reach.
[24:11] So, actually, Bible actually says desire good things. And actually, I think it was Chris who mentioned a desire can be replaced only with another desire.
[24:23] And I think that's a very important thing. I think God wants us to desire good things and have passion for it. And if you want to be, I mean, it's something you want to have more and more and more of.
[24:37] So, that's the kind of spirit what Bible talks about when it says desire eagerly the prophecy. prophecy. So, with that, if you can go to the next slide, please.
[24:50] So, again, coming to the right attitude towards prophecy, 1 Thessalonians now in chapter 5, it clearly says do not quench the spirit.
[25:02] So, what does that mean? So, don't have, don't dismiss it. So, if something, if there is a prophetic word comes to anybody in church or anybody, don't have this resisting attitude towards it, yeah?
[25:19] Or dismiss it right away saying that it's so much out there it cannot be true. I think we cannot have that dismissive attitude or even an indifferent attitude towards it to say, oh, prophecy is not for me.
[25:35] That's not the attitude what Bible tells us to have. And also it says do not treat prophecies with contempt. Yeah, I think often time there is an inclination for us to ridicule it because it's so much sometimes feels like we are not in control of it.
[25:55] So, that's also not what Bible tells us to do. So, don't have an attitude of ridiculing but test them all. It says you can test them.
[26:06] It's not something you say, because if it's a truth, it will stand the test. So, I think you can test them with biblical teachings and also people in the church who are living in the spirit by talking to them.
[26:21] We'll look into that aspect a bit later, more in detail. And after you have tested them, hold on to it. And if it's a truth, it has to be also held on to in your life for that to come to fruition.
[26:35] So, sometimes we receive in a weekend, in an experience, some nice verse, and then we tend to forget sometimes. I think it also needs some kind of holding on to it for it to be realized.
[26:49] So, in summary, what are the do's and don'ts, right? So, I think we looked at indifferent attitude, this cold attitude towards it. That's a clear no-go.
[27:02] And it says, do not dismiss or resist that in your spirit, and do not ridicule. So, that's what I wouldn't do when I get a prophecy or you are in a setting where prophecies are being proclaimed, but rather be eager.
[27:20] So, this engaging attitude, how can I engage with it? And test it. I would not take anything without testing at the end. Of course, it has to be personally affirmed and tested with respect to biblical teachings and hold on to it, as I said.
[27:40] And that also takes some effort. It's not something automatically happens. So, next slide, please. So, I just wanted to quickly talk about this part as well.
[27:53] So, testing it and Corinthians chapter 4, 1 Corinthians chapter 14 says, do it in a fitting and orderly way? And what is it? And I think it has to be fitting to biblical teachings.
[28:08] And it cannot contradict. That's the thing Chris also mentioned. It cannot be, has a super authority over biblical teaching.
[28:21] And that's a good test for us, how we can say whether this is the word from God or not. And if unsure, and I would approach elders and spiritual leaders in the church and talk about it.
[28:36] And I think that is also in that process it would also get cleared and affirmed in your life. And everything must be done so that the church is built up.
[28:48] And here again, there could be that prophecy comes into a church and there are divisions in the church sometimes because some people believe this or that and that. but I think in overall, it has to be building the church in the right direction.
[29:05] What the Bible says and what God wants the church to be developed in that direction. So it has to be building church in the way God wants us and really to strengthen, encourage, and comforting people.
[29:19] And so that's kind of the framework. What God gives us could be the right attitude towards prophecy and how it works in our lives. With that, I'll now move on to what is the relevance for us here?
[29:34] So what should we do about it? And I think if you really go one step into 1 Corinthians chapter 14, it talks about what happens when unbelievers come and you're prophesizing.
[29:50] And what happens if you read that account, you can read it in your house. I think the person who comes, the unbeliever, he really gets convicted and he's laid bare before God, it says.
[30:09] And finally, his conclusion is God is really among you. So prophecy is one way where God really shows his powerful presence in our life. And that's the thing.
[30:22] So presence and power of God. God's real presence and power of God. And it's oftentimes a life-changing experience. And in my life, actually, I could say, I spent 20 years of my life in India, in a city south of India, and I've never taken a flight in 20 years of my life.
[30:47] And, I mean, I would only travel through trains and things, but I received once a prophecy with Isaiah 55, and God clearly affirmed in my spirit that I'll be going to different nations.
[31:06] And it was a prophecy which was kind of too big for me to handle, so I talked to my mother, prayed with my friends, and, but I was personally very affirmed, so I had no doubt, but it was just too big for me to, and since then, in the last 17 years, I've been in different nations, so I've been traveling all the while to U.S., France, Germany, so I either studied or worked in Shanghai and now in Hong Kong, and my job pretty much is about going to different countries and doing things, and, and, I would never have dreamt something like this my life would be, and God is not done yet as well, so it just has changed my life experience and what God has shown me and how this story has blessed my family and my friends has been also amazing, so it could be a very life changing experience, and really to strengthen, encourage, and comforting people, and it's the way to show and follow the way of
[32:14] God's love. What it means is probably you could be skeptical when you receive a word for somebody else, but that would really build that person up, so I think it's also you're blocking God's love sometimes because you don't feel it's logical or sometimes even you're not in control, and oftentimes it's bigger than yourself, these kind of words, and so I think there is an aspect of really also loving others in this, and so that's something we have to be open to as well as church.
[32:50] So with that I would like to invite Esther, who is going to share with us some of the recent experience she has had with prophecy, so, yeah, Esther, hi.
[33:14] Good morning. Good morning. So, yeah, Esther, tell us a little bit about yourself first. Yeah, my husband and I started coming to Watermark when it first started, and my husband Pat, and I have two boys, so I'm a full-time mother, and in my free time, I help out at school, at different volunteer work and ministries.
[33:41] Cool. So, tell us about this experience you had two weeks ago, I guess. Yeah, two weeks. So, I was invited to serve at this Christian retreat, and it was a three-days retreat at Taofeng Shan, and my role was to be in the chapel, there was a small chapel, and I was serving as an intercessor there, so basically I'm spending three days inside that small chapel praying for the team, the speakers, and the people who were attending.
[34:17] Yeah, yeah. So, you had a prophetic experience, can you? Basically, because we were inside the chapel all the time, we didn't get a lot of information about the people coming, and they were very, the organizer was very careful not to release much information to us, it was not a purpose, you know, to gossip and guess, so we were to pray by what the Holy Spirit was showing us for the three days, and I was a little bit, I felt inadequate, of course, at the beginning, but by faith, I served with two other friends and fellow sisters in Christ, and it was just quite amazing that in a lot of ways, we prayed and felt the Holy Spirit guidance in leading us to certain types of prayers, or to pray certain verses for certain people, we didn't know them, and many of the team members I didn't know, so we would look at their photo, and if we sent something, we would just pray, and God used dreams, so there was one night when
[35:26] I felt like it was a nightmare, because I had all sorts of dreams, and it was about marriage, about adultery, about really ugly things, so I woke up, I told my roommate, who was also serving with me in the chapel, she immediately picked up something about marriage, she herself repented about her own marriage first, and so we did together, I think that was God's prompting for us to also be cleansed in the journey of this, and so we just felt that God was telling us that he was going to speak into, because it was a women's retreat, and just speak into the women's lives about marriage, and little did we know that, so my other sister who was serving in the chapel, she didn't stay with us in the same room, she came over, and she shared a room with the speaker that morning, and she said, oh, this morning Dada is going to share on, actually the topic was to study God's word, but she was going to share a personal testimony on her own marriage, how it was broken and that
[36:27] God healed her marriage, and so we were so encouraged that the three of us actually got the same message to pray for marriage, and then we got words about unforgiveness, bitterness, so we were just praying along in that direction while the speaker was doing that that morning, and afterwards I heard some team members came back with feedback that indeed there were some people attending and they were recovering from divorces, and a lot of, so God did bring comfort and strengthen the team as well.
[37:03] Amen, amen, so just, what was your initial thoughts when you received something like this, like your dream and things, you said you were kind of nightmarish, right, but you took the courage to talk to your roommate, right?
[37:22] Yeah, I think I just felt that if it is from the Lord, he would confirm it, and the Bible does say that, you know, two or three prophesy and test the others, and for the others to also test it out, and so we had spiritual directors, pastors in the team as well, so they did come in in the morning and brought the speaker, and the speaker did confirm that she felt the same message should go out, so it was a confirmation, so the Holy Spirit doesn't just talk, you know, if it is something, I felt that if God was really going to do something like this, he would, you know, give us scriptures to back up, and also, so he did bring us to the scriptures on forgiveness, on bitterness, and we just had so many confirmations, actually.
[38:09] Right, right, so you kind of tested it out. Yes, we did. Cool. So, yeah, what was the impact on your life when you went through this experience, and also you shared something, what happened to the others, they really got healing in their marriages and things, so what was your impact in your life?
[38:29] I was just completely in awe of how the Holy Spirit speak so clearly to us, and we were kind of sometimes battling in that room for certain members of the team, and he would just give us the so-called strategy to how to pray.
[38:51] We had no idea how to pray, I mean, we were just three little people in there, but God just carried us the whole way, so we were really encouraged, our faith is strengthened, and especially at the end when they did a sharing from the ladies, so the ladies that we've been praying for, so after three days we were allowed out to meet them, we just sometimes hugged them and cried when we heard their testimony because we knew exactly we had been battling and praying for them for those things, they had no idea why we were crying and hugging them, but we knew exactly.
[39:28] Wow, cool, that's very powerful. Thank you, Esther, for sharing that. Thank you, Vijay. So, isn't it amazing?
[39:45] It's so powerful and it could really change people's life and I think it's also, as Esther said, it was just love was overflowing in that atmosphere.
[39:59] So, I think, and that's the experience we as Watermark also want to go through with this whole prophecy. So, I guess, after hearing that, what would be our response, right?
[40:12] Let's take a minute or two to look into it and I think after this, Chris will just close us in prayer and take us through.
[40:23] So, what would be our response, basically? I think the first thing is eagerly desire, right? This whole thing of eagerly desire to prophesy.
[40:39] And I think we really need to, it's kind of a commitment to as well. if it is what it is, what God says, and the relevance to our life, I think we have to show this eagerness to prophecy.
[41:00] So, how do we do this? I think we have to intentionally pray and practice as well. And here, I think a CG group is a perfect setting, and to really practice.
[41:18] I would say we should just use some time to listen to God if there is a word which God wants to speak for people around you in CG and really start practicing that culture.
[41:32] And really, you can make mistakes. It's all right to make mistakes in that environment and trusting. And there are people who are there where you can test it as well.
[41:44] But I think we have to start practicing it. If it is important as what God's told us, prophecy, desire eagerly prophecy.
[41:58] And the other thing we felt, I think we all at some point have shown some indifference towards prophecy in our life. And I think we have to repent as personally and as corporately as church.
[42:14] Really having this cold attitude towards prophecy or indifference and whatever it is, or the dismissive attitude, resisting attitude, whatever it is for you in your life today.
[42:29] If you feel you want to repent, we'll also have some prayer time later. We'll have the prayer leaders here who would be happy to pray for you at that time.
[42:39] time. And of course, the contrary is also true. If you have accepted prophecy without testing in the past, I think that's something we need to repent as well.
[42:50] Because this can be also very misleading in life. And what Chris shared, it could be really detrimental.
[43:01] So I think we as a church also need to repent of this part. Yeah, so with that, I think I'd like to pass it to Chris, and I think let's all grow in this aspect to really feel the powerful presence of our God in our lives.
[43:25] Close us with, in Revelation 19, it says this, it says, the testimony about Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Ultimately, everything we're talking about is about actually the glory of Jesus in our lives, that he would be honored.
[43:46] And I know some of us will have a lot of questions at the moment. Okay, what about this? What about that? We want to have an avenue for asking those questions. That's why I want you to email me.
[43:58] We're going to have a couple of sessions at the community center where we can really actually talk through these things. Because for some of you it would be new. For some of you it would be scary. For some of you it would be exciting. But we have a God who is a glorious God and Jesus is the one who is to get all the glory.
[44:18] So what I want us to do is I want us just to stand up and I want us to just close our eyes. And I want us to pray. God to pray.
[44:31] I'd like to invite the prayer team to come down as well. But I want you just to in your heart right now to respond to God.
[44:42] Jesus says my sheep hear my voice. Some of us have gone a long time without really being able to recognize what Jesus voice sounds like. For some of you it may be you just need to repent that you've been so wrapped up in so many other things.
[45:01] That actually even the desire to hear from God and to love people by speaking to them what he's saying is just absent from your heart. Some of us we just need to actually pray.
[45:14] Father give me. I want that gift of prophecy. I don't want to just be weird. I don't want to just be but I want to be able to bless people. Drawing them closer to you.
[45:27] So if you are maybe you are saying okay I want to repent of either an attitude where you've just accepted some things in your life where you've just been naive or you've just in your heart you just dismissed all of those things.
[45:48] Just take a moment now just to come before God and just to speak to him. some of you may just actually want to pray for that gift of prophecy and I'd invite you just to come forward with the prayer team here for them just to pray for you.
[46:06] Pray that God would work that in your life. So let's just do business with God for a minute. Just speak to him.
[46:19] Give him what's on your heart. God.