Hello friends. I pray that you are doing well and that these good resources will challenge and inspire you too.
Remember I told you about the Bethel ministry-trained guest speaker who spoke at my friend’s church conference? Here is the YouTube recording of that session.
Before she shared her message on being “unoffendable”, you will hear her speak to three ladies in the audience. She used the Holy Spirit’s gift of prophecy to speak directly into them. The lead pastor and his wife were there to hear these words being spoken. I don’t know anything about these three young ladies but I could see that whatever was shared deeply affected them. I was also ministered by seeing how much they were touched.
Having done research on Christian cults, I know how bad and immature characters can abuse the flashier gifts of the Holy Spirit. But it’s my opinion that if we don’t learn the fundamentals and guardrails of these gifts then we and our church people can be easier targets for deception by charismatic leaders.
If you aren’t comfortable or interested in learning about the gift of prophecy that’s okay too. God speaks to me every day because I read and study my Bible every day. However, I can see that receiving a special word from the Lord can turbo-speed a new believer into getting plugged into a Christian community which is for their good, safety and protection. Or give a very discouraged believer a divine encouragement to keep going, have faith and not give up.
There was a time when I was young and I didn’t read the Bible much at all. And I was easily distracted by the things of the world. The gift of prophecy would have helped me to stay focused, faithful and not give up. That’s why I am open to learning more about this gift and even being used by the Holy Spirit with the gift of prophecy to bless others. It was fascinating to watch this gift being used in-person.
However, I do understand your concerns and hesitation. It appears like psychic abilities, fortune telling, mediums, etc. But remember that Satan always counterfeits God’s ways and gifts. I’m going to do more research on the differences between God’s gifts and Satan’s counterfeits. Once I have something more clear and concrete I’ll share that with you. Since I have so much of God’s word in my head I am secure enough in recognizing a counterfeit. I read that is how banks train their tellers in recognizing fake money. Tellers study only real authentic money. When a fake money comes in, they get suspicious that something is off and raise the alarm that it’s a fake. So if you are like me – cautious about the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit, then study your Bible daily and diligently. You can be like the “bank teller” and raise the alarm when the fakes come into your church.
Here’s a good commentary about the gift of prophecy by John Piper, a well respected theologian and Bible scholar.
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-authority-and-nature-of-the-gift-of-prophecy
Here is a short summary about the gift of prophecy:
I am currently watching a Korean drama called “Bon Appetite, Your Majesty.” It’s a really cute show and if you enjoy Asian foods then I think you’ll like it too. On one episode that I watched, the royal prince was poisoned. It made me remember a dream that I had many years ago. Fall semester of 2016 was the first year of our women’s prayer group. I remember receiving a lot of hand-holding by the Holy Spirit in the first year. Here were two of my dreams in November 2016.
11/22/2016 – Yesterday I had this dream where the enemy was throwing rocks at me. From the way he was throwing he only cared about hitting my head. He was very intent on aiming my head. As I successfully ducked many attempts, after a while one rock finally hit me on my head. Then just like the cartoons, I was stunned and blacked out seeing stars around me. This is when I woke up and heard immediately within me – “helmet of salvation”.
I’ve read about the armor of God in Ephesians 6 many times but for the first time I knew I had to delve deeper into understanding more about the ‘helmet of salvation’. I’ve assumed this helmet is about being sure of your eternal salvation no matter what. This is true but there’s more than this obvious point. Here is a link that I found which does a good job explaining further simply and concisely.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/gotquestions.org/amp/helmet-of-salvation.html?client=safari
11/23/2016 – This morning I had another dream! I felt a sharp pain in my lower abdomen. When I put my hand on that area I felt a small hard round object protruding out. This object started moving upwards throughout my digestive system and eventually it got lodged near my throat area. I used my fingers to pull it out from my throat. Within this small clear ball, I saw inside a tiny pill. With my fingernails I popped open the ball and clear liquid came out. Then I took the pill into my fingers trying to investigate it. It was a pill capsule. When I pulled apart the capsule, the pill’s powder came out. This is when I woke up.
This morning as I prayed about this dream, I felt the Holy Spirit informing me that the enemy dropped a small pill into my food to get me very sick. When I inadvertently swallowed it, the Holy Spirit encapsulated the deadly pill so it wouldn’t dissolve into my body. As I’m maturing and desiring to consume more varied and solid spiritual foods, sometimes I get concerned about the food sources. I just want to follow God’s way and not get deceived in a weird way. This dream reassured me that even if the enemy cunningly dropped a deadly pill into my spiritual food, the Holy Spirit will protect me from digesting the poison. I’m guessing that it’ll simply be ‘pooped out’? I’m glad in this dream I regurgitated it out. Lol! Praising God for the many creative ways that we are protected from the schemes of the enemy!! So don’t be afraid to dig in and eat!! We are always protected! 🙂
Psalm 91:1 Living Bible (TLB)
We live within the shadow of the Almighty, sheltered by the God who is above all gods.
As you are learning about the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit and even practicing them, please be reassured that you are sheltered by God. Also, I’ve noticed that the enemy likes to wake me up in the middle of the night and throw rocks of “what ifs” and anxious thoughts and scary scenarios. Please be ready for that and have something ready by your side. In my experiences, it has to be the word of God but if worship songs are better for you than use them. I used to get up and read the next chapters of my Bible reading plan. That would put me to sleep in about 15 minutes. Today, I have a few good podcasts ready to listen to with my earbuds. Here is a good one where the guests are interesting but academic enough that they put you to sleep like the professors can in their lectures. 🙂
https://exskeptic.org/podcast/
The late pastor Tim Keller’s sermons always works for me too.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/timothy-keller-sermons-podcast-by-gospel-in-life/id352660924
The late pastor Charles Stanley is great too. Both pastors are full of wisdom and knowledge and have professor vibes.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-radio-program-with-charles-stanley-in-touch/id117752146
If you need encouragement for our country, please watch this interview with Christian journalist, George Thomas. He works for CBN for over 30 years and reports from all over the globe. What he shared about the Iranian church really touched me. ❤️
I came to the USA when I was 8 years old from South Korea. I am grateful for the USA government in fighting for my birth country so that I was born into freedom. Perhaps I and many others were sent to the USA rather than remain in our birth countries for such a time as this. Please pray for USA, our leaders and our people. 🙏 Here’s a good prayer guide on how to pray for our country and government:
Journal of Faith 