Prophetic Spark of Life (Jan 31, 1996)

Somehow my email had gotten delayed and a one morning I logged in to check my email and there were 60 new messages. One of the first I read was Les's post talking about Don Pirozok, who appeared to have a very powerful prophetic ministry. I guess this was maybe the 3rd or 4th post I'd seen about Don. Les's post included a telephone number of how to reach Don. I remember thinking "That's nice. I hope God blesses his ministry," and was about to delete the message.

Suddenly God spoke to me and said, "Teresa, I want you to call him and to encourage him that his ministry is well known and that many are being blessed by it. Tell him that folks are speaking well of him on new-wine."

"Lord," I replied, "You wouldn't believe what I thought I just heard You say. I'm still learning to sort out Your voice from not Your voice. It sounded like You told me to call a total stranger -- something I would simply NOT do on my own. I'm going to assume this is NOT Your voice unless you confirm it to me" (because I really DONT want to do this). "But instead of deleting this email" (with the phone number) "right now, I'll wait until I get through the rest of my email. If that was really you telling me to phone Him, please let me know clearly."

I totally forgot about it as I read the rest of my email. About an hour and a half later I was done and was about to log off. I had totally forgotten that I was saving the email to delete at the end if God did not speak to me about it.

"Teresa, call Don now."

Oh yea, that email with the phone number. I had a brief discussion with God about this explaining how I don't call total strangers and suggesting that perhaps He should have Les or someone who knows Don call him. Well, agruing with God is generally unfruitful -- He always seems to win.

So I picked up the phone and dialed. "Lord," I prayed, "if they don't answer by the end of the third ring, I'm hanging up and not calling back. If Don is not available to to come to the phone, I will not leave a message or call back."

"Hello." A woman's voice answered the phone on the second ring. I felt a surge of releaf. Probably a secretary wanting me to leave a message. Maybe I would not have to talk to this total stranger after all...

"Hi. May I speak to Don Piorzek, please?" I got the name wrong and she seemed puzzeled for a mmoment, then transfered me.

"Hello, this is Don." A man's voice.

Well, I was stuck. I was going to have to talk to this person and I did not have a clue what I was going to say. So I sort of blurted out, "Hi. My name is Teresa Seputis and there is no reason that you should know who I am. I never do things like this, but I felt strongly impressed to call you and encourage you..." I went on to explain a bit about the new-wine email list, an international list with over 600 subscribers, many of whom are pastors and leaders. I told Don how he is being well spoken of on the list and how powerfully the Lord seemed to be using him to minister to folks.

When I finished I expected him to stiffly thank me and then get off the phone very fast. But he was warm and friendly and very easy to talk to. He started asking me some questions about the email list and how to subscribe to it. Then he asked me where I was from and mentioned that he had ministered in San Francisco before. From there the conversation somehow turned to the prophetic. He sort of gave an informal teaching on it and managed to hit on some of my pressing questions without me even having to ask. This lead to a brief discussion over some of the issues I was "struggling with" relating to performing prophetic ministry.

The thing that had been really stumping me lately was that sometimes I heard God wrong in my own walk. How could I trust that I was not hearing wrong or making a mistake as I spoke into someone's life? I did not want to misrepresent God or to put any trips on anyone. But over and over folks would strongly confirm my "words" to them, often being amazed that I "knew" to pray/say such-and-such. Don explained that the prophetic ministry is a gift we operate in and it is NOT tied to our own hearing for our personal direction. He said that infact many prophets find it easier to hear God's voice for another individual than to hear His direction in their own lives.

What a release that little piece of information was for me! I was started to get really blessed by this conversation and I remembered thinking to myself -- "Maybe God wanted to have me call him to encourage/instruct me in prophetic things more than for me to encourage Don."

We must have been talking atleast half an hour when Don unexpectedly said, "While we have been chatting, the Lord has been show speaking to me about you. Would you like to hear what He is saying?"

From there he launched into an incredibly powerful personal prophesy. (It is fairly rare for someone to have a prophetic word for me. So I always pay close attention. But this was different than anything I'd expereinced before.) Don appeared to read me like a book -- uncanny accuracy of my key issues, etc. The whole time that Don was speaking to me, the Holy Spirit was also speaking to me, confirming that this was Him and that He loved me. The message was very encouraging and held some promises that I had heard God speak to me before, but was never quite postivite that I'd heard His voice correctly on these things. God even addressed a deep question that I'd only begun asking Him two days earlier.

Oh I felt so loved by the Lord during this prophetic ministry. I could feel something inside coming to life as He spoke to me. There was an incredible sense of His presense and it felt so safe and secure for His loving attention to be focused on me. It was such an encouraging and life-giving experience.

As the prophesy continued, I felt impressed to take notes so that I would be able to review what the Lord was speaking to me. I sort of wished I had a tape recorder or something. I jotted down as much as I could, but from time to time I'd get so overwhelmed that I would not be able to write. One of the big themes of this prophesy was that "now" was my time -- that God was activating and releasing me now.

After the prophesy, we chatted some more. God used me to confirm a few things to Don via casual conversation. Eventually Don started discussing the prophesy with me, teaching on some parts of what God had said. The whole encournter was very encouraging and lifegiving for me.

When I got off the phone, I tried to get back to work. But I kept breaking into worship or prayer and found it very difficult to concentrate on my job. I felt so alive and so close to Him. How could I not be passionatley in love with my God after He had come and spoken so powerfully into my life? God is awesome beyond words! I simply could not find the words to express to Him how greatful I was for His touch/lordship in my life. It felt as though He had breathed life into me.

At one point, I remember discussing this with Him, that I felt so alive because of the way He had ministered to me through Don. God sort of grinned at me and said, "that is the way it is supposed to be -- my prophetic ministry is supposed to breath life into people."

"Gee, Lord," I responded. "I wish you would use me to breathe life into people the way you used Don to breathe Your life into me. I want my ministry to have that effect on people -- that they feel so alive and cannot stop worshipping you and praying and rejoicing."