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God’s Guidance

The Holy Spirit speaks to us in four areas:

The Word (Bible) - giving us understanding of how a scripture applies to us. Demons can also give understanding of scripture but do not tell us how to apply it correctly - usually taking scripture out of context, twisting it or quoting it incorrectly, trying to make us feel guilty or unacceptable to God through giving it a meaning it was not meant to have and by this perverting our knowledge of the Bible.

Through His personally teaching us and giving us understanding of things as we meditate on what He teaches us (Job 32:8).

Prophecy and Words of Knowledge.

The Word of Wisdom

Demons can also to give the prophecy, words of knowledge, and words of wisdom with the objective of misleading you will try to make you feel you have not pleased God. This usually happens because you are placing your trust in prophecy and not Jesus.

The Holy Spirit will tell you something that will require faith in your hearing Him correctly so you will go and obey it. Satan will stir up reason in you to question that what you heard was correct and through that try to talk you out of doing what the Holy spirit wanted you to do so you miss doing God’s Will for you.

You need to trust the gift God has given your or you will not be able to be ‘led by The Holy Spirit’ as you should be and so will miss out on doing God’s Will. Remember, God will never give you anything, that you are not able to use correctly.

A word of caution! Demons also speak in these last three ways but it causes fear or uncertainty when they do and cannot imitate the peace of God in you unless you have corrupted your conscience so that you can no longer tell the difference between their attempts to imitate God’s peace and God’s actual Peace, itself.

Also, if you desire something more than you should, demons can give you prophecy or similar for what you want, even though it is against God’s Will for you, and you will have peace because you have lusted after the object wrongly and are expecting a prophecy to confirm your wrong desires. Usually this occurs with things that are not wrong in themselves, and which usually are godly pursuits, but they are not what God wants you to do.

Emotion also can cloud your understanding of The Spirit’s leading, as our own desires can influence what we hear. Thus, it is needful to give all our problems and desires to Jesus so they do not influence us hearing the guidance of The Holy Spirit (the framework of The Five Steps).

Never react or assume anything but take all things to The Holy Ghost to advise you on them (when the Bible is not clear on them) so Satan cannot use his past conditioning of you to control you and The Holy Ghost can guide you to overcome them but to completely get rid of these wrong attitudes, habits and reactions you really needs deliverance.

You demonstrate that you are a child of God as you let The Holy Spirit guide you in your daily life. There are many areas in which God has plainly made His Will known, and these absolutes (things you must do) are known from studying The Bible. Then, there are the grey areas, and it is in these areas of uncertainty that The Holy Spirit must guide you to know God’s Will. When you do not know what to do about something ask him what to do. If you do not know how to pray about something or what to pray about something then ask Him to pray for you. (Romans 8:26,27)

Why do we not ask The Holy Spirit more things? Satan has conditioned the world to reason first and ask God second. Each day should be a continual dialogue between yourself and The Holy Spirit. Remember, Jesus said that The Holy Spirit will guide us into all Truth. So whenever we need His help we can just ask Him. If He does not answer, then you know it is not the time to know the information you sought or you have asked the wrong question or He may even are not the answering so Satan will not know. After all, only God needs to know things and all we are required to do is to obey.

Just in case a demon is blocking you hearing The Holy Spirit cast any out that are doing this and ask The Holy Spirit again what you want to know.

You are never alone because The Holy Spirit is in you. He is always there to talk with you and listen to you and you can hold a conversation with Him in your mind any time you want.

There are ten ways that God uses to guide you apart from the Holy Spirit and these are often confirmed by The Holy Spirit but not necessarily always.

How to Hear God and His Requirements:

Five Ways God Speaks:

Through what He says in His Bible (where possible, everything must be taken back to the principles in God’s Bible.

Godly counsel (which includes Holy Ghost-inspired prophecy.)

Current circumstances (if the door is not open to do the action, don’t push it open. Let God open it).

Answered prayer (but be careful as the devil also answers prayer and may provide his answer first in order to try to replace God’s.)

The witness of peace in your spirit over the decision.

The last is the most important for those who are citizens of The Kingdom. The Holy Spirit will contend with your spirit and will not give you peace while you are being disobedient or planning to be disobedient.

There are Five Other Ways God Speaks

Dreams and visions

Audible speech or personal visits by Jesus, The Father or the Holy Spirit

Thoughts, images, emotions placed in our mind

God-inspired prophecy

Visits by angels

All of the above ways are still subject to the witness of peace in your heart regarding what was advised or communicated to you. It is very important to discern the spirit behind these as Satan can appear as an angel of God and try to mislead you. When he tries to mislead you, there will be fear and not peace in what you see.

God is a original and is not limited to the above means. Remember, these are additional to prophecy, words of wisdom and words of knowledge but at times. One may confirm the other.

How does one handle these five guidelines? You place them in storage in a mental pigeonhole for future reference unless there is a warning, in which case, you act on the warning.

There is a warning about these guidelines - If you desire something excessively (lust after it), Satan can give you an answer in one of these ways. Because you desire it so much, you cannot hear God’s Spirit and you will have peace when you should not. To avoid this, you must not covet something so that it becomes an idol as then Satan can mislead you concerning it.

Guidelines for Prophecy

What is the purpose of Prophecy

The purpose of prophecy, as are all the gifts, is to prepare the citizens of The Kingdom of God to spend eternity with Jesus. Pastors do this as well as teachers and those who use words of Wisdom and Knowledge. Why then do we need prophets?

Pastors and teachers prepare people in their present situation. People with words of wisdom and knowledge give a precis of a situation and what to do in respect of current situations and then they deal with the spiritual side of things while pastors and teacher deal with the physical (reasoned) side of things. Pastors and teachers may will have gifts that allow them to minister spiritually but they are not called prophets even thought they enter into prophecy at times.

The prophet is used to foretell the future and what God requires of you in regard to the present to prepare you for it. There will be either:

A warning with a way to avoid the judgment

A reward with a condition for receiving it to encourage us to keep going

Sometimes both

Guidance

Promises for the future to encourage you to endure the trial you are in

Prophets are to call people to repentance and because prophets do not call people to repent the church is in the mess it is in.

Sometimes there will be judgment pronounced without a way out of it as their sins have placed them beyond redemption. This is rare though.

Guidelines for asking for prophecy for another or yourself:

Ask The Holy Spirit if you are to ask him if He has a prophecy for you or the person who is requesting one from God. If you expect one and there is not one Satan can give you one that suits his purposes, which will appear to be from God and correctly answer in some way the question you wanted to ask God.

If God says that there is a prophecy for the person then ask the following:

When are you to give it

How much of it are you to give of it

If there is no answer from The Holy Spirit command any demons blocking to leave then ask again why He did not answer.

He may not say anything in which case it is not time to give a prophecy or He may give an answer for the reason He does not want to give a prophecy.

Ask Him why he did not give one as that at times may provide more guidance than an actual prophecy.

Problems with hearing The Holy Ghost

To hear The Holy Ghost you need to remove that which hinders you from hearing Him. Usual hindrances and how to correct them are as follows:

You do not believe The Holy Ghost is a personal so that you do not believe He speaks to you.

You have no desire to hear Him or you are distracted from hearing Him

You do not know how to hear Him (training in this is required)

Demons are blocking you from hearing Him (tell them to go in Jesus Name to The Throne of Judgment and to stay there)

You hear Him but cant understand what He is saying (ask for gift to understand to interpret what He says)

Unrepented sin is blocking you hearing Him (repentance required)

Personal thoughts or external sounds are distracting you crowding out what He is saying (learn to block them out)

You doubt you can hear Him ( not trusting the gift He has given you). You may need to remove demons blocking you hearing also.

You are afraid that what you hear will be incorrect (Learn to tell Gods peace from the devil’s anxiety)

You will have peace prophesying if the prophecy is from The Lord. If it is not you will feel uneasy or sense a blockage.

Prophecy given to a non-Christian

This type of prophecy rarely gives a blessing from God to the person but is warning to repent and follow Jesus and to get their life in order and not to resist or reject Jesus. It should encourage the person to consider the claims of Jesus as well as show why the person needs Jesus.

Given to Christians.

If a person comes for a prophecy or word of knowledge’ from the Lord ask The Lord if you are to give them one (If there is no prophecy for them ask The Holy Spirit why).

If the Holy Spirit is silent then you are not to ask the Lord for a prophecy at that moment. It does not mean there is not one but that is may be to early to ask or you are asking the wrong thing or He does not want Satan to know what He is planning. Jesus may not give you one so Satan will not know what Jesus plans to do and try and stop it.

Then you should ask, if The Holy Spirit allows you too, if there is anything God wants to say to that person.

If you do get a prophecy or ‘word of knowledge’ for a person ask The Lord when you are to give it to that person and how much of it you are to give them at that time. It may be for a later time or only part of it is to be given. To give more than God wants too may warn Satan of things to come that he will try and prevent the event from happening.

When you give a prophecy you should stop when told to by The Holy Spirit. To not stop is disobedience and a misuse of your gift.

No matter how silly the prophecy or word is, give it. It may mean nothing to you but it may to them. You are there to give the prophecy, not necessarily to understand it. You are a transmitter of the prophecy not the originator. To evaluate it and give what you think you should to the person so you are not rejected in any way or thought to be wrong for what you said, is rebellion against God.

When warning someone, remember God always gives a way out, so every warning prophecy has a way to avoid the judgment or to minimize it, so you must give that way out. If it is only judgment, hold it until you get the way out or it will not be complete. The exception is when the person does not want to repent of sin and is not seeking a way out of it.

If prophesying only blessings or similar, you must also give the qualification that will allow the blessing to be received. If you do not have this then wait until you do or the prophecy is not complete.

A prophecy can be one word. Length does not mean quality. Say only what Jesus tells you to say. No more! No Less! You are only the transmitter, not the Author of the prophecy.

Given to churches

These usually bless or rebuke the church and are followed by a list of the things God is either pleased with or hates in that church. Remember, while it is given to a church it actually refers to the people in the church as a building has no life, only the people in it. The examples of this sort of prophecy are in the letters to the churches in the Book of Revelation and, apart from the listing of things the Lord hates or delights in, they follow the pattern for personal prophecy to Christians.

Timing issues

If you tell a prophecy too early, Satan will know what is to come and will try and stop it or the person will try to bring it to pass too early which allows Satan to work. You could upset their entire life. The timing issue makes prophecy a heavy responsibility.

In prophecy, timing is perhaps the most important thing. Anyone can give a prophecy, but few seem to be concerned about the timing of it or how much to give to the person.

You need to know how much of the prophecy to give and when to give it.

As for lifestyle of a prophet/prophetess

Walk continually as led by Holy Spirit.

As you meet people, listen in case The Holy Spirit has something for you to do for that person on behalf of Jesus.

When not to consult prophets and prophetesses

You do not need to consult at prophet or prophetess if:

The answer is plainly clear in The Bible.

You already know God’s Will in the matter and it has been confirmed by two witnesses.

The guidelines on “how to know the Will of God” have helped you reach a conclusion as to God’s Will in the matter. (These are listed later in this book)

When to consult a prophet or prophetess:

None of the above has helped you discover God’s Will in the matter.

You think you know His Will but are still unsure, as it is not clear and you need a prophet to witness to whether it is God’s Will or not.

You feel you need to know something but don’t know what it is.

Before consulting a prophet or prophetess you need to ask The Holy Spirit if you should. You may not need to know the answer yet or God may not want you to know the answer yet (Deuteronomy 29:29)

God may not want you to know the answer so that you do not “help Him” make it come to pass and wreck what He wanted to do. Another reason is for this hiding of prophecy is so that Satan cannot try and stop the plans, divert them or offer his answer before God’s. Remember, if Satan can, he will offer an answer that appears to be God’s and will try to get you to accept it before God can give you His answer to you.

A good prophet or prophetess will know if God has something to tell you and will do so as guided by The Holy Spirit. They will tell you what God wants to reveal to them, or that it is not the right time to reveal all or part of it, or that He is saying nothing.

Attitudes to living and prophecy

Mat 6:30-34 states:

30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

There are various principles these verses:

v30 God cares for inanimate things how much more will He take care of His Children

v31 So we should not worry about our provision for this life if you follow Him wholeheartedly and not ignore Him by trying to provide for your own needs

v32 People who do not know God seek for these things as they do not realise God will provide it to those who seek Him and His Kingdom

v33 As you seek God’s Kingdom (His will and purposes) He will give you all you need to do His work. You will never need to ask for ANYTHING YOU REALLY NEED!

v34 You have enough things to deal with today without looking for things in the future to deal with.

So the way to not worry and be anxious about the future is to do God’s will as He promises to provide all you need in this life if you do that. This provision includes preparation for the future as well as a future and a hope in heaven as promised by Him to you.

As you walk in the principles of Matt 6:33 all that has been prophesied or promised to you will occur as they are part of the path prepared by God from before the foundation of the world for you to walk in and so that all on that path will eventuate. This includes ministry and all the future promises He has for you. But you must stay obediently on that path walking one day at a time doing each moment what God wants for you and not worrying about the future in any way.

If a person is led by God’s Holy Spirit seeking The Kingdom of God and God’s Will, they do not need to know what God has for them in the future as they know whatever it is will be for their best. Prophecy is not necessary, as they will be content in whatever state they are in. They realise they only need to know what God has for them to do next. They trust God and are happy to accept whatever He does to them.

Prophecy may be given at times to encourage you but usually the faith walk only is given prophecy at crucial times as God was the person to rely on him alone and to trust regardless of what happens.

Prophecy for the future is normally only for those who cannot hear God’s Spirit or who do not have complete faith or trust in God and His Plan for their life. Prophecy is designed to correct, guide and encourage you in your Christian walk. It is also for those who have strayed, lost hope or need guidance and who cannot hear the Holy Spirit usually because of fear or sin.

Sometimes you will be given a prophecy to help you in something, especially when God is going to do something unusual and by this prophecy prepare and encourage you as you go through whatever is about to happen to you.

We are told to be content in all circumstances. The only way to do this is not to be anxious or worried about anything but to trust God completely in all things. His Love, His Plan for your life, His Purposes, His Control over all our circumstances, over every area of your life:

Ministry (Spiritual)

Physical need and possessions

Relationships to God, family, Christians and non-christians

Spiritual growth and rewards

Faith trusts in the promise giver Jesus and not in the prophecies you may get that are said to be from Him. At times Satan may be able to sneak a few in so you need to be careful.

Sometimes our path is clouded by prophetic promises. This is because we put faith in the promises and not the promise giver, Jesus. The seeking of Jesus and His Will is more important than any prophecy we are given so we need to leave the fulfilling of these prophecies to Him and continue in the walk of Mat 6:33 trusting in His Love for us, that what ever happens is for our best regardless of whether these prophecies come true or not.

Faith believes Jesus can do what He said and accepts the waiting period for the prophecy to be fulfilled and does not worry if things are not going the way they expect things to go for the prophecy to be fulfilled (Rom 8:28).

Remember the perspective of God in regard to Prophecy

God looks at things in seasons and not years so to divide up our life into years and relate prophecy to those years is incorrect. We also live in eternity and so we need to look at things from that eternal perspective and not from earth time. Perhaps that is why it is so hard to place a date or time on a prophecy as dates are not relevant to God’s seasons but only to man’s timing.

Warning

The most parodied gift of God that Satan uses to control people is to do with prophecy’ and ‘words of knowledge’ but perverted for his use. Examples are:

Astrology and fortune telling

Mediums and Psychics

Demonic prophecy and ‘words of knowledge’ through Satanists and carnal Christians

Demonic prophetic teaching imitating The Holy Spirit

A Christian should never be involved in these as it remove the Lordship of Jesus from their life and makes them vulnerable to demons. If a Christian has been involved in these then deliverance is needed and any prophetic words received should be taken to The Holy Spirit for confirmation.

Suffering

We need to trust God: Who he is as well as what He has done and all the promises we have through what Jesus has done.

It says in Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Prov 3:5-7 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

One of the problems of prophecy is that what is prophesied can become an idol so we hold onto and hope in it for our future happiness instead of the control Jesus has over circumstances. Instead of placing our hope in Jesus and being comforted by Him, we take our eyes off Him and look to the prophecy for comfort. As our current situation often bears no resemblance to the events necessary for the prophecy to be fulfilled we get anxious at the possibility of the prophecy not coming to pass and often we cannot see any humanly possible way of it ever occurring and may try and help it come to pass. We get stressed out and often become an emotional mess. We forget faith is usually crystallized in an instant. In an instant the promise has occurred, the trial is over and the season of promised blessings commences.

If this idolatry has occurred we need to repent of this idolatry we have indulged in and refocus back on Jesus.

All we need to really know is the next step God wants us to do, not the future as that is in His hands and is part of His Perfect Plan for our life. If we do His next step for us we will be in His perfect Plan and what He has promised in The Bible as well as prophesied for us, will occur. The promised future will take care of itself (Mat 6:33).

So how are we to approach prophecy? We accept a prophecy and wait for it to happen and do not try to find out more about it unless God tells us as Satan often will try to help us with a prophecy so we will be led astray and do not the Will of God. We take things a they come and not plan for the future unless told to prepare in some way By The Holy Spirit. Whatever Jesus asks us to do will contain what is necessary for us to do for the future He has prepared for each of us individually and at times has prophesied to us as well.

So we may get a prophecy but it is necessary to live moment by moment in God’s Will for it to come true. This stops us helping the prophecy to be fulfilled and by this hindering it. If we do what God wants us to do at that moment we are doing His the requirements for the prophecy to be fulfilled.

Not Knowing the future is normal for Christians (Is 50:10,11) which is why it is a walk of faith. Reasoning what it will be (even if only filling in the gaps left from prophecy) will only result in sorrow as you can reason yourself out of God’s Will for you into a comfort zone not of His Making and expose yourself to Satan and his attacks.

Prophecy will guide you but will only tell you what God wants you to know (Duet 29:29) so that you can do His Will. The danger is to try and fill the gaps in the prophecy by using reason and leading yourself astray from God and His Will for you.

The only prophecy you must act on immediately is a warning to correct something you are or are not doing or on that requires you to act immediately in some way.

Dealing Prophecy if it affects others adversely

No matter what a prophecy says you cannot desire its fulfilment if it means another is to suffer or you will:

Not show God’s Love to them

Be side tracked in your focus away from any tasks you are doing

Desire it more than Jesus

Try and help to bring it to pass and get in the road of God

Take you out of God’s perfect will for you

Allow Satan to offer an inferior answer

You must patiently wait and work at doing what He as asked you to do until you understand the prophecy so He can implement it in your life, trusting in Mat 6:33 and saying:

James 4:15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

The Holy Spirit will always prepare you for a prophecy so don’t try and reason how it will be implemented as often there is no understanding possible of this. As He matures you to be ready for the prophecy you will start to understand it and see things in a different spiritual light.

You may not desire the prophecy to occur but you must be willing to accept it if Jesus does bring it to pass.

Prophecy from The Holy Spirit is the Will of Jesus for His Kingdom, so you cannot criticise, reject, alter or grieve over it as that would be to say Jesus is asking you to prophesy something that is not the best for another and would imply He was not perfect and thus not God.

Dealing with desires resulting from Prophecy

No matter what a prophecy says you cannot desire its fulfilment in a way that it becomes a consuming thing in you or you will:

Be side tracked in your focus on it

Desire it more than Jesus

Try to help bring it to pass taking you out of God’s Perfect Timing

Allow Satan to influence it in some way with other prophecy

You are to patiently wait continually giving it to Jesus to be Lord of, doing what He asks you to do each day and trusting Him to bring it to fruition (Mat 6:33 applies), saying:

“If the Lord Wills we shall do this and that”.

In Conclusion

Everything that happens to you is ordained of God. He either allows it to happen or ordains it to happen.

His Love and Control is in all His Works.

Our role is to trust God’s Love, Control, Purposes and Plans for us and to obey Him in all things. Then we will be in a position to serve Him as He wants us too and to be rewarded as He wants to reward us.