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-- © GodSpeak International 2002 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES
Author: Elvi Glass yael062005@yahoo.com
Guest Teacher (lessons 1 and 12):
Teresa Seputis ts@godspeak.net http://www.godspeak.net
Editors: Teresa Seputis & Bob Hawley

Prophetic Resources Review

Lesson 1
Introduction

By Guest Instructor Teresa Seputis

Have you noticed that the prophetic is one of those areas where it is hard to know everything about it? There are many different aspects to the prophetic. For instance, there are different types of prophetic anointings and giftings that people move in. Pretty much everyone who is knowledgeable about the prophetic agrees that there are differing levels of the prophetic, but they don't always agree precisely on what those levels are. One view breaks the prophetic anointing into three levels: spirit of prophecy, gift of prophecy, office of prophet. They explain it this way. Sometimes God releases a spirit of prophecy over a meeting and pretty much anyone who desires can prophesy in that atmosphere, because they are simply doing what the Father is doing. There is a gift of prophecy, given by the Holy Spirit to certain people, but not to everyone. And there is also a five-fold office of prophet, where certain people are given the mantle of Christ with leadership and governmental authority.

And there are different types of prophetic words. Some words are given personally to people. Others are given specifically to small groups (such as a local church or a midweek home fellowship), and others are given to the Body of Christ at large. Some words are conditional, e.g., God says, "I will do this IF you do that." Other words are unconditional, such as when Jesus told His disciples that He was ascending to the Father, but one day He will come back to the earth again. Jesus is coming back because it is God's plan, and that plan is not dependent on what specific people do or fail to do.

There is also variety in how a prophet gets a word. Some prophets hear God speak to them in a still small voice that sounds very much like their own thoughts. Some see a picture. Others receive a deposit of supernatural revelation directly into their spirits, where they "just know" certain things and share what they know. Some receive their revelation in dreams or in open visions. Some see/hear angels and get specific and detailed words of knowledge from the angel. Some always receive their words from God the same way, while others receive words from God in a variety of ways.

I haven't covered all of the aspects of the prophetic here, but I think you will agree that there are a lot of them. And it is hard for any one person to have a complete understanding about all of them.

That is why it is helpful to have "resources" to help us understand the prophetic. There are resources on the Internet, such as the series of teachings that GodSpeak International offers free of charge on its website. The URL, if you are interested, is:

http://www.godspeak.net/goto_classes.html

There are resources in the form of gifted people traveling to teach about the prophetic and minister prophetically. This can range from a guest speaker at a church to a prophetic conference or seminar. There are also "schools of prophecy." These are usually a biweekly or monthly citywide interdenominational meeting where Christians get together to learn how to move in the prophetic. These are all great resources, and I recommend that you take advantage of them if they are available to you.

Books are another excellent resource. They are readily available, fairly inexpensive, and they can easily fit into your schedule because you decide when to read them. There are many excellent books that have been written on the prophetic. This series is going to summarize seven of them for you. The series will contain helpful and valuable information, but it is not intended as a substitute for reading the books yourself. Think of it as an appetizer to "whet your appetite" to go read the books for yourself.

Before we talk about the specific books, I would like to spend a little time discussing how to get the most out of whatever book you are studying. You don't have to be a scholar to study effectively. Some of you are products of the computer age, and are used to doing most of your reading and studying online. I am pretty much a product of the computer age myself, and I do a lot of my research and studying via computer. But there are times when nothing is as effective as curling up on a cool night with a good paperback or hardback book with a cup of decaf cappuccino (or whatever your favorite warm drink may be).

If I'm studying, I like to have a highlighter handy and underline as I go. I bend the top corner of the page if I want to find something I underlined quickly. Later on, after I've read the book long ago, I like to pick it up and skim it by reading the parts I've highlighted. That serves to refresh my memory and bring back the important stuff from the book without having to spend a long time reading it again. The techniques I described are basic study habits and there are many other excellent ones as well. Perhaps you have your own study habits that work well for you, if so, please use them!

Did you know that the Holy Spirit enjoys being involved when you read a book, just the same as He likes being involved when you read the Bible? Once, I did not know that. I was trying to read a book on some spiritual subject. I think it was a book on healing. The Holy Spirit made a comment to me about the book and I was so surprised that I asked Him to please be quiet because I was trying to read. (At the time, reading and listening to God speak to me seemed like mutually exclusive activities.) As it turned out, the Holy Spirit honored my request. He was quiet while I read. In fact, He was too quiet. He did not speak to me again that day! But He certainly spoke to me the next morning. He asked me why I refused to listen to Him when He tried to talk to me about what I was reading. Ouch!

I found out that God wanted to be involved in my reading and I have since learned to invite Him to join me in reading whatever book I happen to be working on.

This was a bit problematic at first, because the Holy Spirit did not approve of everything I was reading. It is disconcerting to read a "juicy novel" and have the Holy Spirit making comments like, "That does not honor Me. Why are you putting that garbage into yourself by reading that book?" I found that if I wanted to put my reading under His Lordship, I had to allow Him to have His say into what I could and could not read. I used to read a lot of science fiction books, and some of them got rather explicit on ungodly things (sexual, brutal or hedonistic, etc). I am not suggesting that all Christians should throw away their science fiction books, but the particular ones I selected were displeasing to God. I had to change my reading behavior for Him to begin speaking to me and bring His Lordship into my reading. Once we got past His censorship of certain books, our reading began to take on a whole new dimension. God would frequently talk to me while I read. There would be times where He would let me read quite a bit and make only occasional comments. There were other times where He would have a great deal to say. Sometimes I would read one or two sentences and suddenly we were into an extended dialog. Then our reading took on another new dimension when I discovered that I could ask His opinion about what I was reading. I did not have to wait for Him to comment on it. It began one time when I read a paragraph I disagreed with violently. However, I respected the author immensely. So it created a dilemma for me and I felt frustrated. If I had a Christian friend in the room, I would probably have read them the paragraph and asked for their opinion. But no one else was in the room. So I found myself saying, "I don't know about this God. What do you think?" To my surprise, He answered me in great detail!

There are some of you who have not discovered the joy of inviting the Lord into your reading. God wants to become more involved in your reading - to quicken things to you, to discuss the material with you, to use it as a point from which to challenge you to launch into a deeper dimension of Him in some area of your life. Give it a try, it will open a whole new dimension in your relationship with Him.

In fact, you might want to consider reading some of the books we summarize in this teaching series and asking God to enter into your reading and speak to you about the books as you read them.

This series will cover the following books:

You might want to visit your local Christian bookstore to stock up on them. These are all good books on the subject of the prophetic.


-- © GodSpeak International 2002 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

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