How do I know if I'm a Prophet? | Prophecy 101 - Part 4 | Dr. Clem Ferris

so this word profit Wow we use it in business we use it in the secular world someone's a prophet of sports they're trying to prophesy and predict so there's these a lot of terms that flow around this word profit we're looking today at the New Testament the New Testament church profits for the church as we've been exploring in Ephesians chapter 4 one of the five what we call ascension gift ministries of Christ given to build up the body equip the Saints and bring the church to maturity and to faith he'll actually help us to get ready for the return of Christ help the church mature by speaking words so how do I know if I'm a prophet that's a great question a lot of people ask that I just prophesied for my first time does that mean I'm a prophet now hmm since we looked at the differentiation between just the spirit of prophecy where anybody could yield to a prophetic function or the gift of prophecy that builds in edify someone with an encouragement comfort I just sensed brother I just sense this dry sense that you just need an encouragement today and I got this scripture for you that could be a prophecy where God uses a scripture God uses a thought a picture you know I was praying for you and I just had this picture of a blooming flower and I just feel like God's saying you know that you're in a time of blooming and growing you know that's a word of encouragement that picture brings vision it brings insight revelation edification comfort build somebody up those are beautiful well my a prophet now hmm not necessarily just because you prophesied doesn't make you a prophet just because you evangelize someone and lead them to Christ doesn't necessarily make you an equip evangelist that builds and equips the body so we have to understand against this difference between the gift of prophecy in the office of a prophet how do I know if I'm a prophet then what's the sequence what's the developmental plan you're going to begin with hearing for yourself that's a good place to start it's not enough to say I can hear for someone else I got a word for you are you hearing God for yourself so it starts with this personal development starts with this journey where God develops you and then out of that comes your progression and how you speak when you speak again being authorized and then having others observe your growth others observe the gift that's in you Paul use this phrase in acts he says when the other brothers Peter and the others and the other apostles when they saw the grace of God that was on me they extended me the right hand of fellowship others will see the grace that's on you they'll see it when you take opportunity to grow when you study and grow theologically and create opportunities and see where you can be used by God to bring edification and exhortation to others you know what your gift will make room that's translated wrong sometimes about bribery and it can be used as bribery I think the Proverbs was you know a man's gift will make room for him yeah in other words yeah if you bring a gift to somebody I'll make room but there's also this idea that you know God gives you a gift he intends you to use it he will make a way but what we often miss is the developmental process it's a long process of developing a profit there's like any Minister of God God always makes the man before he makes the ministry and so we see a long developmental process in the making of a New Testament prophet first of all he would have to come under the the direction of other authority I think that's one of the biggest tests for a prophetic ministry is will you submit to spiritual authority in your own life because see to be a prophet you're having to submit to the voice of God yourself and then you have to bring the voice of God to others and behind that is this spirit that you're delivering that prophetic word into it is that a submissive spirit is that a humble spirit is it teachable so there's a spirit that drives the prophetic there's a spirit that drives spiritual ministry and that has to be developed when you are growing as a human you develop your physical senses the sense of hearing sight taste smell feeling I feel we develop our biological carnal census and then we get born again our spirit comes alive now we've got these spiritual senses we have spiritual ears we have spiritual sight spiritual taste and feel and these have to be developed just like our natural ones from a child you had to learn how to talk and walk in here and develop a language in the natural well the same in the spiritual we have to develop our spiritual senses how do I hear from God how do I see in the spirit realm how do I sense God's voice is mood what is it God's saying what's what's what's God's attitude in this moment and then how we deliver that in a language called prophecy where you have to build a vocabulary just like a baby has to build a human vocabulary to live in its culture we have to build a spiritual vocabulary to walk with God and talk with God in his domain the kingdom so we have to learn the words of the kingdom now that's in very simple form the Bible so you say how do I know if I'm a prophet well how is your journey in theology how are you studying God first of all to be trained as a prophet to to develop your prophetic gifting and your acumen you have to learn words if the learn theology you have to learn doctrine and put it together with your life so it's a long process but the most important thing is others will see the flow in you they'll see the gift in you in my own personal life I began just like I was sharing got filled with the Holy Spirit and then began to be coached and encouraged and taught how to deliver a prophetic sense a prophetic word that started in just baby steps started very small little sentences just general encouragement and that grew as my theology grew as my opportunities increased I got more familiar a little more comfortable but it was always a step of faith you know Romans 12 verse 6 says to he that prophesize prophesy according to the proportion of your faith it's all by faith all the speaking of God has done by faith faith is such a huge topic but you know without faith it's impossible to please God so you do it by faith in soul you will increase according to the proportion of your faith the word purport as a mathematical term in the Greek it's where we also get the word percentage so when you get born again you come to Kingdom and everything's new you're maybe at a half a percent of faith God gives faith you're growing in your faith that's why we have to grow in faith because you grow in a percentage correlation to how you can then manifest the things of God where you have the faith to prophesy you have the faith to witness share Christ you have the faith to follow the commands of God you have the faith on to give financially have the faith to serve to sacrifice all these things take faith so getting back to the prophetic and how this works the developmental process is much like some use the illustration of an iceberg we call the iceberg principle an iceberg if this is the water level has a little tip sticking above the water and it's about 10% of the whole iceberg 90% of an iceberg is below the surface it wasn't that tip sticking out of the water that sank the Titanic it's when the Titanic hit that mass of ice below the surface that split the hall and caused it to sink and it's likened unto our development in God or the speaking of God is that 10% above the surface we see we hear we hear a professed prophetic word we have gifting and all this stuff sits above the surface this is what we see but it's what's below that counts it's that 90 percent of development 90 percent of it that internal mass that God is developing in us that's what your gift sits on it's not enough to have a gift prophecies not just a gift that manifests itself prophecy is a system by which God communicates it's an operating system between God and man it's very complex and it's so complex that God puts all of his greatest effort and weight on developing that internal mass that 90% below the surface so you say what's it take to be a prophet massive internal development big three big words but that's what it takes developing your character developing your theology developing your relationships prophesy can only operate in a relational orbit it's not a standalone independent operator that self authorizes it is something that is for the body with the body by the body to the body in collegiate community and this is why this is a process of development bottom line what's the training round if I could just say how the profits get developed in the local church yeah in the local church yeah we have seminaries you know you can go I highly recommend if you feel you have the call to a prophet I highly recommend some kind of theological training you got to get it first of all in your local church but then you can study on your own now you can do online courses I highly recommend at least a basic theological degree you've got to get solid systematic theology flowing in you so you have a platform in which to prophesy off of so you have doctrine flowing in you and truth and this is what really is the making of a prophet so how do I know if I'm a prophet there's a lot of factors that go into that but your safety is the local church stay under authority let others define you let others release you and then let others be the ones that validate that ministry by saying that man that woman they have a good developing prophetic gift and then be content with what level God calls you to operate in some have a very mature gift of prophecy they'll very mature in the way that they edify and build up and comfort one another in any setting it doesn't mean they get to move into governmental and development and equipping and training that's a whole other dimension that God will recognize and let me just say this it's usually usually produced out of a functionality of local church eldership because in the Bible first Timothy 3 Titus 1 are the only two chunks of scripture we have that define the character qualifications for a minister of God and that would be elder a mature one an elder must be and then it never talks about his ministry function it talks about his character husband one wife keeper at home of good report all these are character qualities that emanate out of an eldership role that puts him in a position to love the flock of God to love sheep love people and so if you don't love sheep and you don't love people and you don't love church and you don't love all this you know what that's probably not you're not called to be a prophet because prophets have to love the church they have to love the people Jesus died for they have to love the bride and be partnering with God on how to equip it grow it love it mature bring it to a place of great function and influence in our world so these are some big picture items that deal with the gift of prophecy spirit of prophecy the making of a prophet what is a prophet and we're gonna explore a little bit about old New Testament functionality and in a future study and a little bit [Music]

Channel: Clem Ferris Ministries

Views: 14,239

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Keywords: prophet, office of prophet, new testament prophet, prophecy, gift of prophecy, hearing god's voice, christianity, bible, old testament, new testament, prophetic word, spiritual gifts

Id: h6HM-jNA-mQ

Length: 11min 33sec (693 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 13 2019