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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES
Author: Teresa Seputis ts@godspeak.net http://www.godspeak.net

FireSide Chat

Informal Prophetic MentoringWith Teresa Seputis

Week 11
Growing in Specific Details

Dear Teresa,

I am new-ish to the prophetic, and most of the prophecies the Lord releases through me are very general. I know that there are a lot of people who need to hear a message like "God wants you to know that you are special to Him and He really loves you." Some people start crying when I prophesy that sort of thing to them. But those are the type of prophecies that He has me give over and over again, and I am getting so tired of them.

I want more. I know that "I love you" is from God, but it feels like such a generic message. I long for the day when my prophecies will be much longer and more detailed. I believe this desire is from God, that He wants me to have details in my words, but I just can't seem to get there. Most of the time I don't hear more, so I can't say more. But on those times when I do hear something else, I am not sure it is really from God and I am afraid to say it.

I believe the hunger for increased details comes from God, but I don't have a clue in terms of how to start moving in it. Do you have any advice for me?

- Sincerely Wanting More
Dear Sincerely Wanting More
I do agree that your desire for more detail and more power in your words comes from God. I believe that He wants each of us to grow in our ability to speak for Him and act as His messenger.

In fact, one of the biggest complaints I get from prophetic "newbies" is that they really desire to give more detailed and accurate words, and words that carry more of the power of God; but they don't know how to get to that point.

Most people assume it is "all or not at all." They are looking for God to throw some sort of switch that moves them from generic beginner words to powerful detailed words. They think the transition from beginning words to advanced words is an event instead of a process. They look forward to a day when there will be a dramatic change in their ability to prophesy and speak for the Lord.

But it doesn't work that way. Growth is always a process. And growth in the prophetic always involves taking some level of risk. The bible tells us to grow in our gifts at the level that our faith can handle. Romans 12:6-7 put it this way: "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching."

If you are new to the prophetic, and used to dealing in generic words, you are not going to have a faith level that will allow you to give someone their address and mother's maiden name. That is going to be way too much of a stretch to you. But you might have enough faith to tell someone that they feel like a close friend has betrayed them, without mentioning the nature of the betrayal or the friend's name. It will be very scary to throw that detail out, but it is not totally out of reach for your level of faith.

When you do throw it out, then one of three things will happen.

  1. The person will confirm the detail and your faith will grow.
  2. The person will deny the detail, and it will leave you struggling with your faith because you got it wrong.
  3. The person will neither confirm nor deny the detail, offering no feedback on it at all. That is possibly the worst response, because it leaves you "not knowing" if you got it right or got it wrong.

Let me say a little about response #2, when it looks like you got the detail wrong. There are times when people deny the detail because it is wrong, but there is also times when they deny it when it is correct. Why would someone deny an accurate word of knowledge? They might be embarrassed about it, or they might be afraid admit that it is true.

We have an example of this when God told Abraham that Sarah was going to have a baby and she laughed in disbelief. God called her on laughing and she denied it. Look at Genesis 18:13-15: "13 And the Lord said to Abraham, 'Why did Sarah laugh, saying, "Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?" 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.' 15 But Sarah denied it, saying, 'I did not laugh,' for she was afraid. And He said, 'No, but you did laugh!'"

Denial is another reason that they might refute a true detail in a word. They might not be willing to admit the fact to themselves, so they deny it when you speak it out in your prophetic word.

We always want to assume the person is being truthful when we are interacting with that person. If they refute a specific detail in a prophetic word, we never want to argue with them about it. We don't want to debate the detail or make an issue out of it. It is better to take it with grace (even when you are positive you are right) and let it slip. Always minister God's word in His love, and be respectful and courteous of the one who you are ministering to.

But when the accuser of the brethren comes along and tells you that you shouldn't be giving words because you missed it on this detail, you don't have to be courteous to him. Remember two things when you deal with the devil.

First, his desire is to take you out, and he will not hesitate to lie to do so. Jesus called the devil, "a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44). We know that at times we step out in faith and miss it, just like a little child trips and falls down as it learns to walk. But there are times when we get the detail right, but the devil makes us think we missed. He will do his best to get us to disqualify ourselves from moving with God in the prophetic.

The second thing you need to know is that even when the devil speaks truth, he twists it around to try and get you to disqualify yourself. He did that with Jesus in the temptations. It was true that Jesus did have the power to turn stones into bread and eat it. But if Jesus listened to him, it would have been a perversion of God's power. Jesus knew He was only to use His power to do what His Father was doing, and He knew the Father was not turning rocks into bread to satisfy his physical hunger.

The devil will pervert things related to you as well; he will twist them around. Yes, it may be true that you got a specific detail wrong, but that is not an indication of a problem. God might be more excited about your willingness to step out in faith (even when you miss it) than He is upset that you got the detail wrong.

It is like when Peter saw Jesus walking on the water and coming to his boat. Peter was filled with faith and asked Jesus to let him walk on water with Him. I personally believe that Jesus was thrilled with Peter's faith and with Peter's request. Jesus granted the request. Let's look at the bible account of the passage from Matthew 14:29-31: "29 So He said, 'Come.' And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, 'Lord, save me!' 31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, 'O you of little faith, why did you doubt?'

People look at that and think Peter was a failure because he was not able to keep walking on the water. That is just what the devil wants you to think, but that is not how Jesus looked at it. Jesus was not rebuking Peter in verse 31. He was saying, "Hey Peter, you were doing it! You started out in faith but you took your eyes off of Me and began to doubt. If you had just keep moving in faith, you would have been able to keep doing it..

Jesus was not mad at Peter. He did not fire him or kick him out of the circle of disciples. Jesus also did not let Peter get in too much trouble when he stepped out in faith. The moment that Peter began to sink, Jesus reached out and pulled him back into the boat.

We have to understand that when we step out in faith, God is right there next to us, encouraging us to succeed and protecting us from being hurt by our failures. He does that in two ways. First, He gives us words of knowledge (specific details) that are in proportion to out faith. He won't give us details are that too much of a stretch for us to share. Second, providing we minister in humility, He won't let a "stretch" detail in a prophetic word be hurtful to the person who we minister to. God is a big God and He is able to cover our mistakes while we are learning.

But here is the "catch." You can't begin to grow in faith unless you take steps of faith. John Wimber used to say this: "Do you know how the word 'faith' is spelled? It is spelled 'R - I - S -K.'" There is truth to that. You can't begin to see growth in the prophetic if you don't step out and take risks in the prophetic. You need to make sure you take risks with wisdom...only stepping out as far as current level of faith can support you.


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-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

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