[music playing] MARC DUPONT: You know, of
all the spiritual gifts Paul talked about
in 1 Corinthians 12:14-- gift of healing,
gift of miracles, gift of discernment-- of
all those great gifts, he said, prophecy's the one
that first and foremost should be sought after. But, like a camera or a lens,
if that lens is clouded, if it's dirty, you
get a false picture. And when the lens
of a prophet's heart is messed up, if there's
hurt, if there's rejection, if there's anger, if there's
anti-authority attitudes, that's going to pollute
the message that comes out. I've been involved in
international ministries since 1982, from Africa, to
Asia, extensively in Europe. And one thing I find is that
the prophetic ministry, while it can bring so much life,
so much encouragement, it can also do so much damage. There's been a
number of times where I've had the privilege of
going in and ministering to a church of many
different denominations and they'll say I'm the first
prophetic ministry they've had come in in 5, maybe 10 years. Because the last
prophetic ministry they had come in just
really wreaked havoc, did not represent
the heart of God, and was controlling and not
responsive to authority, but wanting to be overly
authoritative themselves. As Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:5,
the goal of our instruction is love from the pure heart. And that is the foundation for
any valid ministry, especially something like
the prophetic that carries so much weight
of carrying the inspired words of the Holy Spirit. [theme music] NARRATOR: This is
"Dreams and Mysteries." A lot of times when prophets,
or want-to-be prophets, or people growing in the gift
of prophecy look at prophecy, they mistakenly look at a lot
of Old Testament prophecy, which most of those, a lot
of them are sovereign words. Elijah, Jeremiah, Samuel
saying, this is going to happen. Get ready for it. Regardless of what you do,
this is going to happen. So it's up to you to
prepare yourself for it. But in contrast to that,
probably 90%, 95%, if not more, of all new covenant
words are what we would call
conditional words, which means you and I are responding
to the voice of the Lord, and the heart of the Lord,
and the purposes of the Lord as expressed in that word. In fact, I'd like to
say that sometimes New Testament prophecy is a diving
board into a pool of prayer. Because 1 Corinthians
2:9 says the Lord has more for those
who love him than eye has seen, ear has heard,
more than we can understand. And so how are we to
enter into the more that the Lord has for us? A lot of times, a word of
prophetic encouragement and exhortation
comes about something we've never heard before,
we begin to pray, Lord, what would you have us do? Prophecy in that sense,
is really like a seed. And it's interesting. The Bible, throughout
the whole Bible, talks about seeds and fruit. And when we look
in Genesis 1:2, it talks a lot about
seed-bearing plants and trees. But a prophetic
word is like a seed. It might not look
like very much. It might not sound
like very much. A seed itself is a
piece of dead wood. But as we take it and
put it into our hearts, even as Mary
treasured the things she saw happening with
the young boy Jesus, as we treasure what God
says to us, so to speak, we water that seed
through prayer. Lord, is this a word from You? And if it is a word from You,
would You bring conviction? Would You bring a green
light, so to speak? Would You give me wisdom
what to do with it? And then as the Lord
begins to open up doors-- and sometimes, small doors--
as one of the prophets said, do not despise the day
of small beginnings-- we give nutrition to that
seeds that's planting by walking in obedience. And so God sometimes does
give sovereign words. I remember one time
way back in mid-1994, the Lord gave me
a sovereign word that because he loved Japan,
but it was so hard for Japan to be open to the
gospel, he was going to shake the nation in
over a five months period. And he said he was going
to shake it culturally. He was going to shake the earth. He was going to shake
it through storms. He was going to shake the
finances, the economy of Japan. And he was going to
shake it politically. And within five months,
that all happened. There was a political scandal. At least one cabinet
member had to resign. There were major windstorms
that hit the South Island. And then as well, the yen,
quite unexpectedly-- it was one of the leading
economies in the world-- the yen collapsed and just
surprised people so greatly. And then about the five
month mark after that word, the last thing that happened was
the Kobe earthquake hit Japan. And I saw firsthand, the next
few years as I went to Japan, that a number of churches
had grown significantly because there had, in fact,
been more of an openness to the gospel. But that was not a
conditional word, the Lord saying, if you will
do this, I will do that. But it was the Lord saying,
I am going to do this. But that would be the exception. And I think this is important
to understand because 2 Corinthians chapter
9, verse 7, when it talks about giving
money, Paul said always give out of your heart. Never give out of
compulsion or manipulation. And that's a principle for all
of giving, all of sacrifice. We understand
biblically speaking that love denotes
sacrificial giving, serving of time, energy, money. But Paul's point was not to
give out of manipulation, but give out of
love and responding to what the Lord lays
upon your heart, what the Lord speaks to you. And the same is true
with a prophetic word. Sometimes, because people are
living and even ministering out of a lot of wounds and
rejections in their life, the idea of being a prophet or
prophetess with great authority or a leader with
authority, it really appeals for the wrong reasons. In fact, it always is appealing
for the wrong reasons. Because ministry is
a call to serve, not to control or manipulate. But when there's a lot of
wounding, a lot of rejection, sometimes people
gravitate towards that, to the more mystical gifts,
such as intercessory prayer or prophecy. And they think that that
revelation gives them control over people's lives. But as Paul said--
and I think this is such a key theologically--
in Romans 8:14, all those led by the
Spirit, these are the sons-- and I'll include the
daughters-- of God. And so God wants us to
be led by the Spirit to respond to the authority
of the written word of God and to respond to the
leading of the Holy Spirit in our own priesthood. As we draw near to God, we
pray and listen to the Lord. And so it is so
important that as we grow in giving words
of encouragement, and sometimes even not
direction whereas to control, but insight to someone's
future, that we always do it from the posture of
serving and then inviting the person to
respond to the voice and purposes of
the Father of life, and understanding we are not
giving words to control people. ANNOUNCER: Do you desire
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dreamsandmysteries.com. A second aspect that I really
believe is on God's heart is prophets realizing
it's not just the words we say, but it's who we are
that ultimately is going to have an impact upon people. There's a phrase that I use
quite often, and especially speaking to leaders
and potential leaders. And that phrase is, the
teacher is the teaching. The prophet is the prophecy. And the messenger
is the message. It's not just what
we say to people that has an impact upon
him, but it's who we are. Some of the hardest words
Jesus gave as far as rebukes go were not the people
that were out involved in quote, core sin, but
to leaders living in hypocrisy. They said one thing,
but they lived another. And what that means for us
that are growing in prophecy and want to have a valid
prophetic impact upon the world and the church, to draw
closer to the person of God and the ways of God, is we've
got to live the message. And so if we're prophesying the
will of God, the heart of God, the ways of God, the
end goal is always love. And that means we need
to be living out of love. So what is love? Sometimes we think
well, you know, there was somebody in real
dire need on the street. I stopped and I gave him $5
or $10, and I prayed for them. Or there was this group
in need over here. We lent practical assistance
or we did this or that. And obviously, those are
extensions and expressions of the love of God. But the reality is
that love consistently has to happen in the
context of relationship. And I know so many
prophets that have these amazing anointed
upon their life to quote, give forth revelation. But they have not had
revealed to their hearts the importance of living
in committed relationships of love. I want to speak specifically
about our relationship to our spouses, our relationship
to the body of Christ, the local congregation, and our
commitment to our friendships. When we look at God,
one of the number one attributes we see God saying
of himself is faithfulness. And for example, if I
look at the life of Peter, that Jesus after discipling
him for three years, walking with him, resting
near him, eating with him, sending him out, Peter
moving in an anointing of the Holy Spirit, Peter,
along with James and John being privy to some things
the rest of the disciples were not allowed to know
or see or experience, that Peter ended up denying
the Lord Jesus three times the night of Jesus' arrest. But, you know, Jesus
knew that going into that scene with Peter. It says in John
chapter 1 verse 41, 42 that when Jesus
first met Peter, he prophesied a new name over him. He said right now
your name is Simon, and Simon has the connotations
of something weak, easily swayed, easily broken. Then he was recognizing
that outwardly while Peter may have been a
tough, buff fisherman, inwardly Peter's life was gripped
by a fear of man. Jesus saw past that
because he was committed to the relationship with him,
and with all the disciples, for that matter. Except for Judas that made
such an obvious choice of walking away from God. That Jesus prayed to
the Father and said I have not lost any of
the ones you gave me. And so when Peter committed
that incredible sin of denying Jesus three times,
Jesus, a short time later, he has an incredible encounter
with Peter there on the beach. And he ministers
forgiveness to him. But in the omniscience of God,
prophesy is such a key part. Because going back to
John 1, verse 41, 42, when he said right now
your name is Simon. He said, you shall
be called Cephas. And Cephas we translate as
Peter which means a small rock. And he was prophesying that
when I'm done with you, you're going to be like
me, the rock of salvation. You're going to
reflect who I am. And we find it so easy
in this disposable age to blow off marriages,
to blow off churches, to blow off friendships
when there is disagreement. And that's really a response
of the orphan spirit, the fight-flight syndrome. Rather than working
through the issues and allowing love to prevail,
we just blow people off. But love calls for the
context of relationship. And the context of relationship
calls for commitment. And I want to challenge
you that if you feel called to grow
in prophetic gifting and anointing to be a valid
voice of serving people and sometimes serving the Church
and beyond that prophetically, be committed to relationships. Work through the issues. Even if that
relationship is sometimes it feels like a heavy weight
on your back, work through it. Because that's what
love is all about. [music playing] MAN: In my dream, I'm outside. It's cloudy, rainy, and I'm
looking at dead flowers. The landscape looks
pretty desolate. But you can see at one
time, it was very beautiful. I turn around and notice
a bunch of mailboxes. I start walking
towards a mailbox, and I notice the name of
the street, Hope Street. I look up and I see a rainbow. Now let's interpret this dream. I've come into a situation
where there was once life and good things happening. But my experience has
been dry and desolate. However, with this
dream God is showing me that He is going to
change my perspective, and I will turn around. A mailbox is a place where
you can receive messages. So in this case, God is going
to be using messages from Him, likely in the form
of prophetic words, that will start to bring hope. The promise of
God, a rainbow, is a sure sign the life that
used to be will return. ANNOUNCER: Decades of
study and thousands of dream interpretations
gave John Paul Jackson a unique perspective on
understanding dreams. God has concealed messages
in the dreams we dream, and as we search them out,
we learn more about His ways. With the Advanced
Dream Kit, you will begin to understand the
20 categories of dreams and what God accomplishes
through each of them. For your gift of
$95 or more, you will receive the
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journal, and three study cards to help you grow in your
interpretation ability. Order your Advanced
Dream Kit today. Visit dreamsandmysteries.com,
or call 1-800-538-5285. The word "covenant"
is a word that there is a lot of teaching. Some of it is maybe a
little bit above board on the authoritative side. But some of it is just too
loose to really understand what covenant is really about. Covenant essentially is
a blood relationship. And it goes all the way back
to the Old Testament times where it would be a sacrifice. And basically, two
people would say may it be done to me what
was done to these animals if I do not fulfill
my commitment to you. And our relationship
with God the Father is a blood covenant
relationship. Jesus, the Lamb of God,
his blood was shed for us. But marriage is also a
covenant relationship. It is sacred to God. And as I said earlier, we
live in this disposable age where we want everything
new and shiny. If there's the least
amount of problems, just throw it away and
get on down to the mall and buy a new one. But we see that kind
of attitude creeping in to our relationships with
our employers or employees, with friends, and even marriage. And marriage and
indeed, I think, some friendships
in the eyes of God, it's a covenant relationship. I'm not saying if the marriage
turns dangerous or abusive that there's never
grounds for divorce. There are obviously. But we give up far too easy. And when we made
that vow before God to take one another
for better and worse, then we find out things
about one another that we didn't always know
going into the marriage. But in the two
becoming one, it's like a relationship
with the person of God. God over time, He
exposes things within us, things like jealousy,
envy, ambition, and He loves us gracefully. And He loves us graciously,
and he loves us with mercy. And over a period of time,
He weeds those things out. He prunes those things out
because He's committed to us just as Jesus was committed
to the long-term relationship with Peter. Not just cutting
Peter off to the point where when Peter fell into sin. But he restored him and used him
powerfully in the years ahead. As a prophet or person
growing in the charismic gift of prophecy, or even if you were
called to a prophetic ministry or above that to be the
role of the prophet, I believe first and
foremost in our hearts, we have to be men and
women committed to marriage and committed to friendship. But also committed
to the local church. I think there's a great
problem with prophetic ministry in the body of Christ today that
many prophets, many itinerants, and many evangelists and so on
are not part of a local church. And to me, that
means they really have no business going around
preaching from a pulpit. Because again, the
goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart. And so how can it be that
we're representing Jesus, the Prince of Peace, but yet we
cannot bother to work through relationships of commitment
through the difficult times and stay committed
to one another? And prophets especially
seem to have this problem that they think "because
I have revelation, I know more than the pastor,
the elders and these leaders". But you know, Paul said we know
in part and we see in part, and it's in the coming
together that there's strength. The Bible says in
the New Testament that Satan goes about as a
lion seeking how he can devour. Do you know how a lion or a
pride of lions, how they hunt? They go after the stragglers. They go after the wounded ones. They get after the ones
that become isolated from the rest of the herd. And when a Christian is just out
there doing their thing apart from the body of Christ,
they're easily picked off. They're easily discouraged. God puts authority into our
lives, not to control us, but to encourage us
in what He has for us. There's a great
story in 2 Samuel about when David, when the
rebellion came against David, and finally Joab won the
key battle against Absalom and in effect, David
was restored as king, but he didn't know it. And Joab went to
a young man they called the Cushite who was an
official runner, and said, run. Run through the fields. Run through the mountains and
bring the message to David. And so he started off. But there was another young man,
Ahimaaz, who said, I will run. And Joab said to him you
shall run, but not today. The word was not never, but
now's not the right time. But Ahimaaz persisted, and
he said whatever happens, I'm going to run. But Joab said to him,
why would you run? You'll have no reward. And so he said whatever I'm
going to do, I'm going to run. So he said go ahead and run. And Ahimaaz actually
was such a gifted runner that even though the Cushite
had had a head start, he passed him up and
he came to David first. And when he came to David and
he said, King, the kingship is restored to you. Israel is restored to you today. And then David said, "how did it
go with the young man Absalom?" Because even though
he brought rebellion, he cared about his son. But you know what? Ahimaaz only had
part of the answer. And he said, "I don't know". And David said stand over here. And then the Cushite came
and he had the full answer. And sometimes, we just want to
run so quickly with the gifting and anointing that we see
or we sense in our lives. But sometimes, God puts
leadership not to sit upon us, but to help us sit down until
we can learn the full lesson and get the full revelation,
not only about what we're saying prophetically, but who God is. So we can really be effective. And it's not that
we will never run, but the message is
sometimes, not run today. And we all need leadership. We all need people who can
sit down with us at times. For over 25 years, in
the board of my ministry, we've had five
people on our board. And it's written in
our constitution, if they see a problem
with my ministry prophetically, if my preaching,
my teaching, my theology, if they see a problem with
my marriage, they can say, Marc, you need to
take some time off. We need to work on these issues. And that is a safeguard for me
because I know they love me. And so I want to
encourage you, if you're growing in prophetic gifting or
you have a prophetic ministry, don't see yourself
above the church but be integrated
into a local church. Because that's
where love is really exercised in committed
relationship. ANNOUNCER: Marc
DuPont is the founder of Mantle of Praise Ministries. The heart of the
ministry is revival and restoring a prophetic edge
to the whole body of Christ. In the Breakthrough
Package, you'll receive Marc's
book, "Breakthrough in a Time of
Breakdown," which deals with understanding both the
promises and the ways of God. So that when crisis and
breakdown comes our way, we might experience the
comfort, wisdom and power of God in order to break through into
God's redemptive purposes. You'll also receive
Marc's book "Becoming a Friend of God,"
where Marc writes that one of the great
invitations God gives us in the scriptures
is to know Him, not only as Lord, Savior and
Father, but as our best friend. For your gift of
$40 or more, you'll receive these two books
that will give you the tools to draw closer
to God in a practical way. To order your
Breakthrough Package, visit us at
dreamsandmysteries.com or call 1-800-538-5285. There's an old
saying about authority, whether it's authority on the
job, authority in ministry, that if you want
to have authority, you need to be under authority. And the word "authority" like
the word "accountability," it's been given kind of a real
bad rap the last 20, 30 years. Because essentially, we're in
an anti-authority Western world society today. We don't want anyone
telling us what's up. We don't want anyone
sitting on us. And we don't want
anyone restraining us. We want to do what
we want to do, and we want to do it
when we want to do it. And unfortunately, sometimes
that spirit of independence that really the
Bible really calls the spirit of lawlessness,
it gets confused in the mind of the Church. Because we maybe see an
anointing or see in a grace. But Jesus said that he's
going to say to some people on the day of the
Lord, I never knew you. And they're gonna
say, but Master, we cast out demons in your name. We prophesied in your name. We healed the sick in your name. And He's going to
say, I never knew you. Get away from me, those of
you who practice lawlessness. And so if love is the goal, as
we've been saying that Paul's instruction to Timothy with
love from a pure heart, then how does that
translate to authority? There's two sorts of authority
in the Kingdom of God. There is inherent authority
which is over every believer as we walk into
obedience to the Bible, and we walk into obedience to
what the Lord directs us to do. But there is also
delegated authority. For example, a
policeman has authority, not simply because he
carries a badge and a pistol, but because of what that
badge represents, that he himself has been released
from authority to the city. Jesus, we know that he
was the King of kings and Lord of lords,
but yet he honored the authority of a mere man. And that was John the Baptist. Before Jesus began his ministry,
he went out to the Jordan where John was
baptizing everybody. John was preaching
repentance of sins. And Jesus came out in the
water, and John recognized him. And John had previously
said, behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the
sin of the world. He knew Jesus was the King
of kings and Lord of lords. And he had trouble with
the idea of he, a mere man, baptizing Jesus. And he said to Jesus, you
come to me for baptism? I need to be baptized by you. But Jesus' answer is very
important to understand. He said nevertheless, let it be
done so that all righteousness may be fulfilled. What was he talking about? Well again, John was
preaching repentance of sins. Did Jesus have any
sins to repent of? No. If he'd sinned
even in the least, he would have been
disqualified from being the spotless,
blameless lamb of God. But yet, I believe
what he was speaking about he was recognizing that
John the Baptist was still the Father's chief kingdom
spokesman of the hour. And by honoring the Father's
authority upon John, he was honoring the Father. And that's why when he
submitted to John's baptism and came up out of the
waters, three things happened. One, the Spirit of
God came upon him as a dove, the gifts
and power were released. Two there were open heavens,
meaning a freedom for ministry. But thirdly and most
importantly, the Father spoke His approval. He said this is My son,
with whom I am well-pleased. And He said it not because he
cast a demon out of anybody, or preached a good
message, or healed anybody, but because he was reflecting
the Father's heart of humility. I believe that there are so
many prophetic ministries that we see gifting,
we see anointing, but never really reach
into the full level that the Father has
ordained for them, and never come in to the
effect of fruitfulness is because they insist on
just doing their thing, and do not want to honor
anybody else's authority. And when a prophetic
person ministers in a local church when
they're a guest there, although we have
authority to release what God calls us
to release, we need to understand that
that pastor or leader, they are God's gatekeeper that
God has put there in authority. And we need to be honoring
of that and cognizant of that authority. But, likewise we need to be
committed to relationships, even relationships that
sometimes we're not always comfortable with. Because God can use
those to shape us, to teach us His
heart, to serve us. Whether we serve
the body of Christ, whether we've got
the mic in our hands, or we don't have the mic, that
that is the heart of Jesus, the serving King that
pleased the Father. And that's what the Father
wants to rise up within us, not just revelation
coming forth, but revelation from the
foundation of being a living reflection of Jesus,
the serving King. And that is why there is
this incredible relationship between authority and love
that we dare not ignore. Again, of all the
spiritual gifts, Paul said to seek after
the gift of prophecy. Why? Because when we prophesy
a word of encouragement or give revelation
about the future, it can impart so
much faith and hope. It can take people around
corners in their lives. But yet, because God
ministers through our hearts and who we are, the
messenger is the message. If our hearts are
not right within us, if we're not living
for love and in love, the message become polluted,
convoluted, and can actually cause harm. I hope you understand that
there is a weight upon us as we serve God prophetically
to serve God out of wholeness and out of grace. God bless you as you grow
in the incredible knowledge of the wonder of
who Christ Jesus is in you and through you. Thank you for joining us
in this episode of Dreams and Mysteries. I'm Marc Dupont.
