Types of Revelation and the Correct Response

[Music] well hello everyone john thomas here and i am going to be talking a little bit about different types of revelation and how to respond to the different types of revelation and i'm hoping that this is going to be a little bit more of a conversation so as you're hopping on if you have questions for something that i'm talking about make sure to put it in the comments i'm going to periodically be looking at the comments trying to interact with your questions with your comments so that we can make this into a little bit more of a conversation than just me uh talking so i'm hoping that this is going to be helpful these are some things that i have learned over decades of working with different people that are trying to figure out what god is saying and what they're supposed to do with it and i've got story after story of people that have responded well and astounding testimonies of what god has done and i also have plenty of stories of talking to people that have made some mistakes and trying to to follow god trying to do what they thought that he was saying and where that can end up going so hopefully we'll have some wisdom that we can share and it's going to be a a helpful kind of conversation so i'm going to start out with this and as i said as you kind of get on um go ahead and put in your comments and your questions and we'll interact with those as we go but i want to start out with the the first part which is you know understanding what is from god and what's not from god and we've talked about this in different videos so i'm not going to spend a bunch of time we actually have a whole online class on discerning and responding to prophecies that that goes in depth uh it's a little e-course that we have that that'll help you a little bit more if you want to go deeper into this but you have to settle that something is actually from god so you you have prophetic or if you will god speaking revelation that can come from multiple sources now prophetic is when god is speaking through a person to a person so when you're talking about something that is god's speaking directly to you that that's more revelation but our way of responding is going to be the same one you have to discern if it's really from god now when it comes directly to you there's a few different things that that you're looking at one how important of a revelation is this if this is encouragement if this is you know something saying that that you've done well on something you don't need a lot of discernment on that be encouraged allow that encouragement to come you know obviously if you really think that it's not from god you're going to throw that out but if you believe that that's god and it's encouragement that's a good thing just go with it just run with it but if it is something that is directive maybe it's telling you to do something now you're going to need a little bit more discernment uh if it is a one-off thing you don't need a bunch of discernment you know you're you're in the grocery store and you feel like you're supposed to pay for the groceries the person in front of you or behind you um all you got to do is say hey i want to pay for your groceries or you you can you know find a way of doing that in some way you know going through a drive-through and and giving the the people a hundred dollars and just saying hey pay for however many orders that this is going to pay for list something like that even if you're wrong what's it going to hurt you you're not going to be paying a high cost for that just go with it you you feel like god's prompting you to go talk to somebody or maybe pray for somebody that you notice is having a physical issue don't go up and say well god told me i needed to pray for you or god told me that if i said this that everything was going to change you just go up and you just offer it and release it but if it's going to cost you a little bit more maybe moving to another state or moving to another country um or or something that would be a high cost maybe you you feel like god is calling you to go to tehran and stand on a street corner and preach the gospel with a bullhorn you better make sure that it's god because if it's not god you're most definitely going to be killed for doing that most likely right you're at least going to prison but most likely executed i mean that that is a a crime a capital crime that in that particular area so you're not going to be able to get away with that even if it is god you might still be martyred but at least you have the benefit of having a martyr's crown because you're doing it obedience to the lord you want to use a little bit more discernment make sure that it's god so the cost is going to tell you how much discernment that's going to be in it now let's say that the revelation is coming from another person maybe it's a prophetic word somebody has a prophetic word for you there's a few things you're going to want to pay attention to one how well do you know the person not just necessarily have you heard their name before but do you know anything about their character do you know anything about their track record in the prophetic if you're going to listen to somebody you want to make sure that they're credible they actually have a track record of hearing from god and being accurate if there's not a track record you don't want to to let that person speak into your life you're going to need a lot of other things and and hear enough to make a decision without that before you think that they've actually heard from god because you don't know whether or not they're hearing from god or not because they have a track if they have a track record of being wrong but let's say they've got a track record of being right they're consistently right now what do you know about their character what kind of person are they are they faithful are they integris how do they treat their family how do they treat their wife their their husband their children how do they treat others around them do they have relationships are they known for outbursts of anger or are are they known for being loving and humble are they known for serving are they proud and boastful or are they are they quiet and peaceable these kinds of issues are key in trying to discern whether something is there because somebody that god's going to use that actually has a relationship with god if they have a relationship with god they're going to start to bear the fruit of the spirit so the the amount of spiritual activity in their life as far as revelations quote unquote is not necessarily a way to know if they're hearing from god but if they smell like jesus if they sound like jesus if they look like jesus now that's probably god and you can trust that so you want to look at their character how well do you personally know them if they're on a from a distance and maybe they're a public figure what's their reputation for character uh if they're close to you what do you know these are going to be keys before you put influence in your life but also whether or not god has called you to listen to this person and if somebody else gives you a word you need god to speak to you to tell you that this is a word that you should be listening to so you you're going to want to look for that witness of the spirit and you're going to want to discern that for yourself now once you've discerned that something really is from god then you go to the next step how do you respond and i'm going to look at three broad categories of revelation there's there's lots of different ways that god speaks and i'm not talking about the ways that he speaks but what he's accomplishing with his voice so one what what we call a an identity revelation what what do you do when you get an identity revelation this is when god is telling you who you are um when you have something that's like that one you you want to believe it you want to set your faith on it and there are things that are true and they're true for for everybody to some extent but there are some things that are unique to individuals or maybe emphasizing individuals and when god begins to speak your identity you want to set your heart in the place where you believe it that there's warfare that happens in our minds often when god is speaking our identity it's because something has tried to tell us that we're something else that there is a misconception that we have maybe there's warfare against that maybe we've had circumstances in our life maybe other people have said things about us that are untrue and so god is speaking well this is who you are in my eyes this is what i see when i look at you and those things are really really key so pay attention to the way that you think about yourself when god said that you are something believe it realign your thinking with the truth that he's spoken over you pray it begin to pray that back to god when god gave um david this promise he said you know you've pleased me you've done well you've you've got a good heart i'm not going to let you build the temple like you wanted to i'm going to give it to your son but you you've done this well david goes in before the presence of the lord and he's like wow god is this the way that you talk to people you've just given me a word over my identity that that i am now a king and that i am the father of kings and many people are going to be standing in this line of kingship this this is amazing thank you so much for saying this about me i mean you're thinking about me why would anybody even think about people and and god you you're up in the heavens why would you think about man on the earth and yet you set your affection upon me like he begins to pray that word he begins to thank god for that word you take these identity words you make them part of your prayer if you're not seeing the manifestation of it maybe god's spoken over you that you have a healing gift but you keep on praying for people and you haven't yet seen consistent breakthrough in healing maybe it's still sporadic you continue to pray god you said that you've given me the gift of healing lord i'm trusting as i lay my hands on people i'm trusting that you're going to release healing into their lives whatever that identity thing that god has spoken over you begin to believe it begin to pray it and then number three declare it over yourself speak it over yourself there's a a particular picture that god has used to encourage me for a little over 25 years i can't even count how many prophetic words have been in this uh that have been given to me that has this picture but it's something god originally spoke to me and it was actually part of a prayer that i was praying to him about the oaks of righteousness out of isaiah but then also out of psalm chapter 1 that righteous is like a tree planted by the waters and and i am often given prophetic words about being an oak about being a tree about being planted about bearing fruit in various seasons and that is actually something that i declare over myself i i see myself in that i believe that it's true about me i've thanked god for i've asked him to to to hold that truth and not let me fall from that place but then i've also declared that over myself um i've had another one that that i am a son that i have an inheritance i declare that over myself regularly especially when i need encouragement especially when i'm being called to do something that's beyond my ability i begin to declare the promises of god in what he said over me over my own heart and over my own mind and it begins to reorient my thinking in accordance with his word so that that that's that's an identity word i'm going to hit a couple of these questions i'm seeing some comments and then we're going to talk about the next kind of word um let's see here we've got diane many times i receive a word from god to encourage me that was time i'm fighting my depression i also receive impressions that lead me to pray for others true enough god speaks this exactly there these kinds of things when we're dealing with issues and he begins to give us what we need you you're talking about like dealing with depression but then he begins to speak he begins to give us courage he begins to uh speak that life into us that's exactly what we're what we're looking at so sonja asks well what does an identity revelation look like it can actually look like any of the ways that god speaks you can get that by being pulled up and standing in front of the throne of god by having a vision having an angel speak like daniel has an angel that comes to him and says um you're highly favored by god right this is an identity word there were other things that were also spoken but he gets this identity thing that's given to him in an angel it can come in a dream it can come from a prophetic word somebody speaks over you it could be an impression it could be a thought you could be reading scripture and it just gets highlighted to you it could be a daydream that you have and god speaks that it's more than a daydream it can come in any way that any revelation comes and so the the kind of categories or types of revelation are different than the ways revelation comes revelation can come in a bunch of different ways in any of these categories god can speak um in this so that's a great question thank you thank you somebody's asking about a vision that they had and i'm not going to go into interpretation today just because of timing if i start doing that that'll be the rest of our time so maybe you can hold on to that the next time we do some interpretation uh we'll be able to get into those but let's look at the next type of revelations you've got identity identity revelation you believe it you pray it you declare it when you have corrective revelation god telling you to stop doing something or to start doing something different than what you've been doing it um you you want to listen to this now you want to discern that it's really from the lord because there's a difference between conviction and condemnation conviction you're doing this stop it condemnation you're a bad person two very different things one is about action one is about identity conviction comes from god it's very clear that the holy spirit is going to be convicting people that god speaks of conviction jesus when he's giving the the prophecies to the seven churches in revelation he convicts them of their sin and he calls them he gives them an answer to it there's hope for restoration there's even promise for what would come if they overcome the issues that they were facing so when god gives correction and it's about conviction we receive it if it's condemnation we realize it's not from god so we throw that away we don't listen to condemnation oh you've messed up you'll never get it right oh the reason this bad thing is happening is because you've done something wrong i don't even know what i did wrong i know but you did something bad that's condemnation that's from the enemy you fight it like you would any other temptation you refuse to give it room in your head or in your heart you replace the room that it's trying to take by by making you mull it over replace it with whatever is true whatever is lovely whatever is good so replacing the negative with a positive but when it's conviction you don't want to ignore conviction is it true yes i did that then just receive the correction and then repent god i'm sorry i don't want to do that i don't want to do that anymore i've hurt your heart i've hurt this person i've hurt these people i've hurt myself whatever that is god i'm sorry and then you begin to turn you begin to change the direction that you're going to agree with truth agree with righteousness and so you want to receive it you want to repent but if it's something that maybe it's an ongoing thing and you've been dealing it with it the same thing for a period of time and you do well and then you fall and you do well and then you fall and you're genuinely trying there is a possibility that there's a need for something more possibly inner healing sometimes those are related to vows maybe to judgments that we have and it might be a real good opportunity to to find somebody that can do some inner healing and deal with that issue so that you can take care of that and and it can pull some of that weight off of the temptation that's pointing us in that direction now the bible is very clear you're not going to have a temptation that you can't overcome whenever you get tempted god has already provided a way out so these are not excuses to fall into these things but there is a reality of wounds that cause it to be easier for us to be tempted in certain ways and when we deal with those things and we get those out we find that it we have more strength to deal with that temptation and it becomes less of a battle there are sometimes that that we're fighting particular areas and it just it feels like that temptation just never stops we we get rid of it we push it away we say no and then it comes back we push it away we say no and then it comes back and there's usually a reason for that and inner healing is one of the ways to get through that and and find some freedom sometimes there's no reason sometimes it's just an ongoing onslaught of the enemy and then you know resisting fighting against the enemy like james says draw near to god and resist the enemy and the enemy will flee from you that that is is key so if it's identity you believe it you pray it you declare it over yourself if it's correction you receive it repent and then look for healing is there an area of healing that needs to happen start moving in the other direction but then what about the other type of revelation which is what we call direction direction now again you have momentary things versus a seasonal direction a momentary thing means it's something that you can respond to and fulfill right then right there immediately those things it's going to be less of a need for the the process um again if it's encouraging if it's good now you've already discerned that it's from the lord so if if you don't know if it's the lord then you take a look like is it biblical well no the bible says not to do it but i kind of felt like god was telling me to do it well that's clearly not god throw that away that's never god easy to answer but if it's a good thing well i feel like i'm supposed to um i'm supposed to to share jesus with this person i'm not really sure if that's god that's prompting me just go with it it's not gonna hurt just go with it share that because that's a positive thing even if it's not god it's not going to hurt anything just go for it but there are some things that are more of a seasonal type of a thing maybe you're you're being called to start a new business or start a new ministry or maybe being called to move to another place or another location you you start taking a look at this if this is about a life course you want to prepare but you don't want to try to make it happen i i've i've seen again and again people that have messed up revelation trying to make it happen because they they didn't want to wait on god or maybe they thought that they'd waited on god or maybe there was an opportunity they thought was god i mean abraham made this mistake right he has this promise from god you're going to have a child and he waits and he is at the end of time for him to have a child for his wife to have a child and his wife comes up with this idea well obviously i'm not having a child but hey i've got this serving girl hagar why don't you have a child with her and it'll be my child and this will be the promise and well i don't see any other way so i guess i'm gonna have to help god out because it's not really happening i know he promised that this was going to happen let me help him a little bit and he birthed ishmael and then 13 years later he burst isaac which is actually the son of promise so it's it's it's it's been an issue from the beginning of time of people trying to follow god that we will be tempted to make something happen that god has promised to happen if god has promised it god's going to make it happen but we do want to make sure that we're not resisting it that we're not stopping it that if god says now that we're not the one we're not going to be the reason why it wouldn't happen let me give you an example let's say you're called to be a missionary in another country or you you've been told that you're going to be traveling to other places do you have a passport if you don't have a passport well i don't know when i'll be going well get a passport now it's not going to hurt to have a passport and not use it but if you don't have a passport and god says this is the trip that i want you to go on and it's happening soon it may take too long to get a passport and you may miss the opportunity so get your passport now if god said that doesn't mean you're going to buy the plane ticket until god has said this is it this is the one do this he will clarify your timing he will clarify that but until then you start to prepare maybe god has called you to open up a business maybe he's told you that he's going to give you a a a new business and you're going to have to start it well what do you know about management what do you know about hiring and firing what do you know about um the basic laws to open up a business what do you know about making a business plan um what kind of business is it going to be in the food industry is it going to be in retail is it going to be in tech what what kind of business what do you need to know about that industry so that you can be successful in that business it's not again you're not trying to make it happen but you want to make sure that you've got the basic things that would hinder you from stepping forward at the right time you you can start to develop those skills and get ready think of it like a surfer trying to go surfing i i don't know how many of you have ever been surfing i personally haven't been surfing but i've heard enough about it that i know this basic concept that when when somebody is surfing and they're out there they're waiting for the right wave they've got to be looking and they see or sense that wave coming and they've got to start swimming and preparing start moving before the wave comes so that when the wave comes that they are able to catch it and the wave is able to propel them forward if they don't start they're going to miss the momentum they'll never be able to get that wave if they wait until the wave is on top of them they won't actually get on the on the part of the wave that will push them forward they'll just go up and then right back down and so they miss the opportunity so paying attention to that time you want to prepare and when the time is right you want to start swimming forward so that you don't miss it when god starts to call you into it so here's a couple things in this preparing process when when you've got a destiny word a direction word and there's something big that god has called you to talk about it start talking about what god has called you to do how many people did abraham tell that he was going to be the father i mean his family his community those that were around him he spoke about this everybody that asked him well why did you leave well god told me i was going to leave when he changed his name from abram to abraham like not just the father of many but the father of many nations like it begins to shift his identity and so he he he was communicating he was talking about you know you have different times we talk about what god has said in communicating that to ourselves to those that are around us especially those that we're in community with because there's an aspect of accountability we talk about accountability so many times it becomes a negative and and there's times when we need some accountability to help us not do the wrong thing but more often we need the accountability to do the right thing when we tell people god has told me this god's told me that this is going to happen god told me that i'm going to be a part of this we have people that are around us that are praying with us that are encouraging us that are reminding us so talk about it review the revelation especially if it seems delayed when it seems delayed we want to go back through all the different times that god spoke the dreams that we had the the feelings that we had the the the prophetic words that we received the the visions that we had all the different things that tied together the circumstances that opened up and start reviewing that revelation but this is what god said this is what god did and and holding that in our heart holding space for that around us and and sometimes we actually have to wage warfare with those words this paul told timothy in first timothy chapter 1 verse 19 that that we wage the good warfare with the prophetic words spoken over us and when we get prophetic words of things that we're going to do things that are going to happen in our lives that declaring that revelation saying it out loud is one of the ways that we did that we wage warfare holding our hearts into a place of trust and belief holding our lives on the path so that we're ready and prepared for the moment when god says now that we go immediately that is a is a form of warfare because a lot of times warfare has to do with the mind has to do with the emotions has to do with the will and when we start wanting something else maybe that it's a distraction or something that we shouldn't have we're able to hold ourselves because we're holding on to that revelation or maybe our thoughts start questioning or or doubting and we can bring ourselves back when we get disappointed or saddened because of of things that are happening around us we come back to the revelation and we deal with it because one of the things that will happen is when we have these promises that that we can end up missing out on the promise because of delays and allowing ourselves to not actually wage warfare with the words that we've spoken it is a verse in proverbs it says that hope deferred makes the heart sick but desire fulfilled as a tree of life hope deferred makes the heart sick you know i found a way to guarantee that hope gets deferred decide when and how god's going to fulfill his promise if you've decided when and how god's going to do what he said he's going to do you can almost guarantee that hope will get deferred so one of the things in reviewing revelation is reviewing what actual what god actually said versus how you want it to happen and what you think it meant and holding on to the actual words of god and putting our trust in god not in our understanding and the things that we said and then as we move forward and especially as we begin to see our destiny starting to come forward as what god promised begins to be fulfilled or doors start open we start celebrating every step along the way and we share testimonies we we celebrate when god does something in somebody else's life and their words start to get fulfilled we begin to to to share those stories we celebrate that and then we do it for every little thing along the path for our own and in so doing we actually create this place of thankfulness that smooths out our path as we move forward so there there's some keys like when we we hear from god different types of revelation and how we respond to different things um different ways of doing it so let's take a look at a couple of these comments and let's see where we're at um i said chandry uh i have dreams casting spirits out of people myself is god calling me to a ministry of deliverance how could i walk in that word well that's one of the ways that god speaks is by giving us what we call calling dreams which just seems like a promise and so start studying deliverance start start to pay attention to that yeah i was working for the bank a number of years ago and i had gotten prophetic words and i i'd known god had spoken to me other people had spoken it to me that i was going to be preaching and so in the bank we had this back room it was kind of uh like a conference room and there was a podium at the front of it with a big open table and it was in the back where i didn't bother anybody and so i would go back into this room during my lunch break on a regular basis and i would preach sermons to that empty room and prepare for what god had said was going to happen i began to set up i began to practice thinking through what i was going to say but not just thinking about it actually practicing delivering the words and how it was going to come across and i began to to develop skills then that i was going to need i wasn't going to need for for a few years i actually didn't start preaching on a regular basis until almost 10 years after that but i had practiced it i had settled that thing in and it becomes something that i did and so starting to to do that practice is um is is important let's see tanya in canada this is the last thing i think i would do i always felt as though it was too precious to share and to keep it sacred until it comes to pass i think that was when i was talking about sharing the the prophetic word and the the things that that god spoke to us yeah you know i i've actually i've heard some people say um i have actually i've heard a couple people that that said you know when i get a promise from god i don't want to tell anybody because i don't want the devil to hear because then he'll stop it and i'm not sure how big their devil is compared to how small their god is but that seems really backwards to me it seems like god is really big and the devil is really small in comparison to him now not in comparison to me but in comparison to him i mean to the point where god prophesied everything that jesus was going to do uh all of it and put it right into scripture and the thing is is it was there and it was available but he he was able to make it so the devil couldn't even understand what was clearly written in scripture i think that's backwards when we think that we can't share it because the devil might stop it sometimes we don't want to share it because we don't want to sound prideful and in that that's important we actually we should have that concern but not as a reason not to share it but as a way to temper the way that we share it we need to you know god god told me that this was going to happen um not like oh do you know how important i'm going to be wait until i'm i'm going to tell you what god's going to use me to do you see it's just in how we share it that that's a very different process and so that's an issue sometimes we don't want to share it because we're afraid that we won't actually fulfill it and we're scared of of not looking good in front of others and that again that that's an issue and and sometimes it's that that private thing that there there are times when god speaks something and then he tells us not to tell it now if he's made it clear to you not to tell it that there are times when he when he just speaks these precious things but there it's often that sharing it actually frames something in our life that that that allows us to start believing it giving words to it putting it out loud it actually strengthens our faith in what's being said and it takes a measure of faith just to say god told me and that faith when you use your faith it increases your faith so when you use that little bit of faith to say god told me it actually increases your faith for the fulfillment of the word tim said i think sometimes we hear from god about his calling but we think god is going to drop the answer from heaven right away but we forget that many times our calling is the step-by-step process over time exactly one of the things that it is a major misunderstanding for a lot of people is is how revelation works uh we kind of have this magic formula idea about revelation like i'm going to get one prophetic word or i'm going to get one dream and that's going to be my whole destiny but usually when god speaks it's layering of this upon this upon this upon this upon this i mean we would just come back to abraham because he's such a beautiful picture of how this works if you go from the beginning of the story of abraham all the way until the birth of isaac and start counting all the different ways that god said the same thing to abraham over that period of time he spoke it and then he spoke it and then he spoke it and then he confirmed it then he spoke it then he confirmed it then he clarified it it's just again and again over a period of 25 years abraham was given more pieces and and more understanding of that prophetic call that was on his life and individual revelations are often just one part of an ongoing conversation and when we take a look at that ongoing conversation that includes revelations that includes prophetic words and our dreams and our visions and our visitations but also includes our scripture reading and those things that really stick out to us and the opportunities that we have and the passions that we have and the training that we have all of these things our natural talents when they come together we start to have this overwhelming weight of revelation that pushes us forward into our destiny and if we start paying attention to all the ways that god speaks we'll find ourselves getting to a place uh often not not like every day but we'll find multiple times in our lives where major decisions we're making because we know that we know that we know if we don't do this that we're in rebellion to god because there's this overwhelming weight of revelation that has moved us towards something it is a beautiful process and he is so good to do that um sin asks how do you know what your purpose is well that is um all the things that i said right education experiences passions prophetic words revelations opportunities um you know when i talk about passions not necessarily not always just the things that we're really excited about but sometimes the thing that bugs us uh many times people will find what they're called to fix by what by recognizing what really bothers them and being a solution when we find things that bother us usually it's because we're supposed to have a solution for us for them um diane just a couple more questions we're going to wrap up how would we know if that is a calling dream a calling dream or any type of calling revelation is when the revelation is either showing you do something that you're not currently doing um or saying that you're going to do something that you're not currently doing so in a calling dream when you have doing ministry of some kind and it's not necessarily with a specific person in a specific moment and that you wake up and think oh i need to go pray for this person talk to this person etc but it's like oh that was interesting i was i keep on having dreams where i'm praying for people and they get healed i keep on praying for having dreams where i'm preaching in front of crowds i keep on having dreams where i'm in on tv or i keep on having dreams where whatever it is those kinds of things those become clues that you're having a calling dream okay and i think that that is the the end of our question so guys i i hope you found this helpful some of the comments it seems like like many of you did um these are the kinds of things that we like to teach i was taking some of the concepts that we have and some of our resources that are available so uh if you want to learn more always follow us we've got lots of these videos right here on our youtube channel uh make sure that you look through we've got a lot of videos on our youtube channel some from john paul some from myself and some others so scroll through those you're going to find some resources we've got a free blog that's on our website we've got online courses all the courses that john paul wrote and taught they're available as a subscription and then including some that i've written and taught and some of our friends like ken fish and charity bowman webb and elijah house that are all on there that are available so we've got lots of things that are going to help you grow and hearing god better and responding to his voice because that's that's why we're here is to help you hear god better and respond to his voice and as always if you found this helpful if you would support us financially that would be a blessing just go to streamsministries.com there's a donate button makes it nice and easy and we would be honored to partner with you as we get this word out there and make sure that people know so may you guys be blessed may his voice continue to increase in your life may you recognize it and respond to it more than ever in the name of jesus christ bless you guys

Channel: Streams Ministries

Views: 1,914

Keywords:

Id: RmopQHt07jA

Length: 42min 7sec (2527 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 10 2022