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April 3, 2024
The Shaping of a Prophet
Join Margie as she uncovers the intricate layers that contribute to the molding of a prophet's character, gifts, and perspective. Through insightful discussions and personal anecdotes, Margie sheds light on the challenges, triumphs, and transformative experiences that shape individuals into vessels of divine revelation.
As the conversation unfolds, Margie seamlessly transitions into the profound invitation: "Let the prophet speak." Discover the power and significance of allowing prophetic voices to be heard, as Margie encourages listeners to embrace the wisdom and insights that prophets bring to the table.
Tune in to and embark on a journey of discovery, empowerment, and divine revelation. Let's uncover the purpose behind the prophet's call and unleash the power of prophetic utterance.
Transcript
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The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much God will put the prayer in your heart to pray so that he can answer it.
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It goes into the hearts of the people and doesn't return void? It produces results.
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Hello everybody. Hope you're all doing well. Thank you for inviting me to speak today.
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I really, when Lanzine asked me to do one of the meetings for us here in this region, I really felt like I should do the very first meeting on this subject.
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And I felt like God wanted me to talk more about the shaping of a prophet and what goes into that. And then we can get into going forward, let the prophet speak.
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So with that being said, I'm going to go ahead and launch out here into Ephesians chapter four.
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I'm going to read out the Passion Translation, the Grace Gifts of Christ.
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And he has generally generously given each one of us supernatural grace according to the size of the gift of Christ. That is why he says he ascends into the heavenly heights, taking his many captured ones with him, and gifts were given to men.
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He ascended means that he returned to heaven after he had first descended from the heights of heaven, even descending as far as the lowest parts of the earth.
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The same one who descended is also the one who ascended above the heights of heaven in order to begin the restoration and fulfillment of all things.
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And he has appointed some with grace to be apostles and some with grace to be prophets and some with grace to be, sorry, and stop.
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And some with grace to be evangelists and some with grace to be pastors and some with grace to be teachers.
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And their calling is to nurture and prepare all holy believers to do their own works of ministry as they do this. They will enlarge and build up the body of Christ.
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These grace ministries will function until we all attain oneness into the faith, until we all experience the fullness of what it means to know the Son of God.
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And finally, we will become one into a perfect man with all the full dimension of spiritual maturity and fully developed into the abundance of Christ.
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So we're going to specifically talk about the ministry of the prophet.
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Now, in talking about the ministry of the prophet specifically, one who is graced to be a prophet, no one chooses to be a prophet.
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For the most part, a person who's a true prophet, if I could just be honest, doesn't want to be a prophet, would rather sit in the back of the church, mind their own business, and just be quote, a normal Christian person, because there's a tremendous amount of responsibility and shaping that comes with operating in this ministry gift.
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No one chooses to be a prophet. It is a five fold gift, or as Michael calls ascension gift, a calling, and one is graced by God to operate in that anointing.
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Now, Jeremiah 1 3 says, before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you and ordained you in Jeremiah's case, and the subject matter to be a prophet.
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And in the first part that in the scripture he's where he says before I ever formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you. That leads me to believe that we came from the heart of God.
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We knew him, he knew us. I don't know how all of it works, but I know eternity is in our hearts. But in Jeremiah's case, before he was ever formed in his mother's womb, God said I knew you, and I ordained you to be a prophet.
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He didn't call himself. God already chose him to be a prophet. Okay, so when you're called to be a prophet, God puts in you all that you need to be a prophet.
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And if you're, if you're a new believer and you're newly born again and you have a calling to be a prophet, it's in seed form. It's not, I would say if I could say it like this fully shaped or fully developed, but it's on the inside of you.
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This calling is without repentance. And this calling needs to be developed and you need to be trained in it, or also as we move forward, that gift needs to be unwrapped. It takes time. It takes discipline. It takes preparation.
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You don't automatically just become a prophet. Yes, it's on the inside of you. Yes, it's there in seed form, but there is a shaping, there is a development, and there is a process. And what I want to talk today about is the process.
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So God puts within you all you need to be a prophet, but it must be developed. Now, first of all, if you're called to be a prophet, what I've learned is your personality and your temperament goes along with that calling.
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Right. So for the most part, prophets are introverts.
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Prophets don't like to be seen of men. Prophets like to hide. Prophets like to be alone a lot. And that need to be alone a lot is what I've learned is that so that the prophet can hear from God, have that space to hear from God.
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There could be that intimacy and that oneness and that friendship. A prophet generally, although has a lot of friends and can have a lot of friends, a prophet generally is very happy when they're by themselves.
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But of course, we all know that, you know, to be happy, we still need one another and we need friends. But God puts the temperament in the prophet.
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So he gives you your personality. Generally speaking, like I said, prophets are introverts. Prophets, generally speaking, have like the tap, according to the tap, ways of understanding your personality are generally melancholy people.
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Melancholy doesn't mean sad. It just means that they're deep thinkers. They think a lot and they process a lot. They're more slow and they wait. Well, that's because if you're called to be a prophet, you need to do that.
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Okay. Then, you know, the training for me, for my training to be and shaping to be a prophet, I was a quiet and shy and introverted girl.
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I was raised with five brothers and I wasn't loud. I came from an Italian family and everybody was loud, but I was more the quiet, shy, introverted person.
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And for me, my brothers, the Italian way to show up was to tease me and, you know, you know, do tricks and do all kinds of things. And in a way that kind of damaged me and not anymore, because I'm fine now, but it did do something to me because if you're called to be a prophet, you have to speak.
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And so if you've got your brothers telling you to shut up all the time, and you're an environment where everybody's loud, you're not going to want to speak. So for me, it was kind of like a double whammy God had to really pull me out to get me into the place in the position that he had called me to be and called me to do.
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He works with his prophets. He understands all the things that we have in our environment so he does work with us and he is using some of the things that we've gone through to shape us, and we'll talk about that a little in a little while.
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But I think also for me, being a child in a home of five brothers was by God's divine appointment. And I don't think there's any accidents in God. It was God's will and God's divine appointment that I have five brothers.
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And all the kids in the neighborhood, they're all boys. And I know it doesn't seem like it now, but back in the day I was a tomboy. I used to climb trees, play all kinds of sports, and I just understood boys. I understood men.
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I understood the mind of a man. And it really helped shape me because when God sent me to the East Coast in 1976, I was the first woman in multiple churches in this region.
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I had multiple pastors say to me, we've never had a woman in our pulpit, you're the very first. And I felt like God shaped me for that because of my upbringing, because I had a comfort level with men. It was like they were all my brothers.
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And there wasn't this weird feeling with them and I was able, because of that shaping to get along with the guys like they were my friends. So I just want you to think about if you're called to be a prophet, there is a preparation and a shaping some of it's by God's
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design, and he just does it on his own. So when you go into that place where you need to be, you're already somewhat prepared. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and say this because I find this to be very annoying.
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I would go to a school to be a prophet.
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Yes, all can prophesy, but we are not, we are talking here about an office. And I know we have a lot of that going on, and I'm hoping that as we move forward into maturity in the body of Christ, that we bring somewhat of a balance because a lot of people think that they could go to school to
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be a prophet. And that's not the case. It is an office. If the office of the prophet cannot be imparted through laying out of hands. No, no, no, no, it's God who ordains you it's God who calls you it's God's the one that puts that inside of you cannot be imparted through the
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laying out of hands. But I will say this, the anointing for the prophet and the seer can be enhanced through laying out of hands, association, or who you closely follow, or who you sit under.
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I stand under Kenneth E. Hagan, not only did I sit under him as a 19 year old girl, I not only sat under him, but I cleaned his house. I was around all these leaders you know buddy Harrison and I got to meet normal haze and, and many times I would say to these guys
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they would not let me and pray over me. But just being at Kenneth E. Hagan school, I picked up his spirit, so to speak, I don't know how to describe it. But even when I was preparing for this, for this particular meeting today, I could hear and you're going to hear
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him say that I could hear his voice, and what I'm teaching you. So there is an impartation. It comes through laying out of hands. We were the last class at Ramah that he laid hands on, and we were the third graduating class, why he chose not to lay hands on anybody at the
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office anymore after that. I don't know. But you know, I don't know. But anyway, so things can be imparted. But the office of a prophet is an office, and it cannot be imparted. Okay, so to be a true prophet, you must first be a teacher.
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And so, you know, you're always speaking, if you're called to be a prophet in the office, the first very first thing the Bible says you have to be apt to teach. You know, you must first be a teacher. As you are faithful in that, which God has called you to do as a teacher, what is within you will be shaped, will be what I like to call
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you to be a teacher. And this ministry gift is a gift to the body of Christ. And over time, as you're faithful, and you're teaching, the gift will be unwrapped, and that which is in you will come to the surface.
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And in the prophet, one must operate consistently in the word of wisdom, discerning of spirits, and the word of knowledge, consistently, even in your daily walk, even one on one, even in public ministry, when you're a prophet, you're a prophet everywhere you go, the prophet goes, it's not always in
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manifestation, but it's there on the inside of you. Okay, now I remember Brother Hagan saying one time, and this is pretty scary, I think, some people live and die and never enter into the first phase of the calling and the ministry that they have.
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I made a decision when I was a 19 year old girl sitting under his ministry that I don't want to be that person. I want to be the person that fulfills every single phase and every single part of what he's called me to do. And your ministry as a prophet does have phases.
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For me, my experience was that I started out being a teacher, and then as time went on, I started hearing and I learned from someone I think that that was called a Nabi prophet.
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And I would hear, and I would say what I heard. And for me, a lot of what I get is scripture for people, which I like because it's safe. So I would hear a scripture for somebody or I would hear a scripture for an audience or I would hear something on the inside, and then I would speak.
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But as time went on, and this has actually been more recently, consistently, and I've been saved since I was 19 and in ministry since 1982. So I'll let you guys do the math.
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And it's only been in the last three years, consistently, I've been operating, and I don't know what you call it as a seer.
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But it's the most incredible thing, because when I had to lead guided prayer in one of my churches, I couldn't do it by myself, I needed help.
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Because this is not you can't lead people into prayer by yourself, because people don't want to pray, people don't want to get in the presence of God, people don't understand the things of the spirit.
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And that's when it really started to manifest, because I'm a gift to that church, and God's like, you know what, I'm going to ignite this church to get the spirit of prayer on the whole entire church, and, and I'm just bringing Margie and that which is within her, and what he did was, he
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put me to begin to see, and I would see what we were praying for, I would see visions and, and I would just, I wasn't weird about it, because I think, you know, you got to be normal if you're a prophet, can we just be normal.
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And I was seeing this, and I said, let's pray into that. So the seer anointing manifested to help the people, not, not for any other reason, but to, and to help build the kingdom, and to establish the work of God in our region, because prayer
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opens up the door for God to work. And so therefore he needed me to flow in that river of being a seer and equip me in that regard, not for me, but for the people.
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So that was my process, and that's where I'm at, even now.
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So, so what is the process. Number one, put the word of God first and not experience. It's very important that we put the word of God first and not experience I hear people talking about, you know, their visions their dreams and this and this.
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So let's put what you see and what you hear into the scripture. Does it does it line up with the word of God. Okay, I had a friend of mine. She's a, she's got a master's and counseling and therapy smart, smart, smart, very smart girl.
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And she, she, she texted me yesterday and she said, I heard something from God and I have to talk to you about it because I don't really understand the whole thing. And I have to I feel like I have to a big up and that my first thought was, Okay, I'm going to minister to her and talk to her, but does it line up with the word of God.
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And I think it's important your call to be a prophet, and your shape shape God is shaping you into a prophet that you put the word of God in your heart. What I like to do is, I like to listen to straight scripture.
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And I have I even made some of my own audios. And I made them for myself on all different subjects. I still have a CD player in my car. I put those scripture verses in.
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And that's not a teaching. I just listen to scripture over and over and over and over. It's you got to put the word of God in your heart, because if you're called to be the Nabi kind of prophet where you hear God will take what is in you and you will draw from that and you will speak that word and season to those that are weary.
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Okay, so we have to put the word of God in our hearts and not experience and maturity in this and maturity also takes time.
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And when you put the word of God in your heart, it's like Joshua one eight, God told Joshua this book of the law will not depart out of your mouth you will meditate day and night that you may observe to do all that I might whatever that scripture says all that you know the word, the word says, he said, but it's the
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meditation is my emphasis. It's important that we meditate on the word of God as prophets, because if we're going to be have a hearing ear, we have to develop or train our human spirit.
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You are a spirit, you have a soul, and you live in a body. When we put the word of God in our hearts and meditate on the word of God, it builds up the inner man exercises the inner man feeds the inner man.
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And it helps to shape you into the calling and into the ministry that God has called you. So what what is the benefits of that, it'll help you to develop a hearing ear, because the stronger you are on the inside the more you feed the man on the inside, the more you're going to have
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a hearing ear. Okay, so that's important to do. Number two, the process of the prophet number two intentionally focus on him with the eyes of your spirit man.
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I talked about this in one of our other zooms I tell people you have eyes behind your eyes. And what we teaching people how to operate and they're gifting. It's, it's intentionally focus on him with the eyes of your spirit man, you have an inward man, and you have an outward man.
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Inward man is the real you. So it's with your inward man because your inward man has eyes. It's looking at him.
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And then in the verse 12 one and two, looking on to Jesus looking at him, or how could I say this focusing in on him, looking on the inside and looking for him, because the Lord is not out here somewhere.
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I was a little girl I used to sit in my backyard on a tree stuff and I wanted to see God's face in the moon, but God told me, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, I will dwell in you, I will walk in you, it's out of your innermost being that's what flows the rivers of living
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water. So it's learning in this process, how to, how to draw inward.
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And look on the inside of you. Okay. All revelation originates from within.
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I personally am very leery, and I apologize if I offend anybody, but I am very leery of people who have stuff going on out here in this year.
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And I believe, this is my belief that all the hearing needs to come from John 738 1 Corinthians 316 and 7 from the inside, at least that's how I operate.
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You know, I test to see whether or not, you know, there's all kinds of spirits in the world, and the devil can say all kinds of things, but I, I, if I was here and something out here, I'd test it.
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Okay. And that's, that's, that's all I really want to share about that. So develop your inward man. Oh, revelation comes from within. Here's a good one. Number three, have order in your personal life.
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I remember Kenneth E. Hagan saying one time, he said, he said, I could walk into somebody's house because he traveled he was on the road, I could walk into somebody's house, going to their drawers or closet, and I could tell you whether or not they're going to make it in the ministry.
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Now, specifically with the office of the prophet, right, we help to establish and strengthen what order. So, innately, you know, personally for me, I have to be careful I don't get OCD, but I'm a fanatic for order.
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I mean, my drawers have to be in order, my closets, it's, it's from white to gray to black. I mean, I got to have an extreme amount of order. If my nail chips, God forbid, I got to go get it fixed ASAP.
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But there's something to be said, because the order is good. Having order in your personal life is utmost important, and having financial order, I think, is a must.
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Okay, so number four, we're talking about the process of the shaping of a prophet rejection and misunderstanding.
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That's part of the shaping. It's part of the process. Okay, because God wants you to be totally and completely dependent on him. And oftentimes, prophets, I'm not saying prophetic people, I'm saying prophets, the office of the prophet, are misunderstood,
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because in a way, they're kind of different. Prophets just are a little different, right? So rejection and misunderstanding is part of the, I think, the shaping process process.
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Now you think about the story of Joseph and his brothers, after everything that he went through, all the rejection, all the misunderstanding, how many times was he misunderstood and thrown in prison, but he kept his heart right in the midst of it all.
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It's very important, I think, when you move into phases of ministry and the ministry of the prophet, I think that these kinds of things that happen to us, I think are good for us.
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You know, hard times will either make us better or better. And I think that God works with the prophet in the midst of trials, in the midst of rejection, in the midst of all the things that we've gone through.
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I think it's part of the prophet process. Mark 6, 4, Jesus said, a prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his own relatives. Yay. What does that mean?
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It means prophets are generally loved and respected everywhere, except in their hometown, where the people know all their faults, sins, and so on.
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Right? And let's think about it. You know, even in families, you know, our families know us. They know exactly. So sometimes it can be hard for them to receive from us.
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But I have to be honest with you, I really have a really amazing core of friends, friendships. They're here with me right now. I'm actually away in Florida.
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My best friend and her husband are here. And, you know, they see Margie. And, but man, let me tell you, if I speak, they're like this.
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God speaking. They know how to separate. So it's important that you have people around you that are mature, that can understand the person is just like everybody else, has flaws, says and does things they shouldn't say.
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And it is what it is. And I have many friends like that. They just love me for me. And I really appreciate that.
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And also, I think sometimes to our weaknesses, I don't even think that's a bad thing, because in our weakness, we're made strong. Jesus said my strength is made perfect and weakness.
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So if we have imperfections, what are you going to do about it? There is none righteous. No, not one. It's not to give us a license to sin. But it's just kind of keeps you in a place of I am what I am totally and completely by the grace of God.
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Can I get an amen? Anyone? Okay.
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Quickly, I think I have about 16 minutes. The prayer of the prophet, of course, I was going to get into that, because prophets are men and women of prayer.
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And if we're not men and women of prayer, we are, we start to feel unbalanced. We don't feel grounded. And we can lose our edge.
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So prayer is very important to the prophet. Leonard Ravenhill said in his book, Why Revival Terries, No Man is Greater Than His Prayer Life.
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The prayer, the pastor who is not praying is playing. The people who are not praying are straying. The pulpit can be a shopping window to displays one's talents. The prayer closet, the closet allows no showing off.
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Right. So prayer keeps the prophet dependent on God. Now, prayerlessness existed among leaders in the Old Testament.
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Jeremiah 2, God is addressing Judah, speaks to the priests, those that handle the law, the rulers, the shepherds and the prophets.
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In verse 13, it says, My people have committed two evils. I'm getting goosebumps.
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Two evils. He said, they have first two things. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and they have hewn themselves, cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
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So God said, the first evil was they forsook me. See, we got to keep our eyes on Jesus. We can't operate only out of our gifting. We've got to keep that intimacy with God in the secret place of prayer.
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Okay. But he said, number two, they became cisterns, broken cisterns that could hold no water. A cistern is an artificial reservoir for storing liquids.
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Often it is an underground tank for storing rainwater. So what God is saying is he doesn't want us to be broken cisterns.
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We are deep calls unto deep as prophets. He wants us to maintain that deep intimacy and connection with him. Now you've all been there. We've all been there. I don't like it.
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You know, I don't like it. I know he said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I'm with you always. I'm always there. But I don't like it.
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When I don't have, I don't know how to describe it other than the connection with him, or I've lost my first love, or I've lost my focus, or I'm not where I should be in my walk with him as prophets.
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This intimacy and this place of connection is really important. Okay. And as far as forsaking him, that's not something that happens overnight, something that happens over time.
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And those of you that are in ministry know what it's what it's like. We get busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. And if you're a woman in ministry, you're busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, because you've got the house, the kids, they still call you no matter how old they are.
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We got it all going on. I mean, it's really important to make room for God, schedule our appointments with God, put God first. So it's important that we minister out of our overflow and intimacy with God.
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Moses is a prophet who had intimacy with God. It says here in Exodus 3311, that the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend, and he would return to the camp but his servant Joshua the son of none, a young man did not depart from the tabernacle.
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So Moses knew God face to face. I love that song show me your face Lord show me your face. I'm always looking for his face. Even as a child, if you remember what I said about being a child and wanting to see his face, I wanted to see God's face
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and here we have Moses, you know, it says here, he spoke God spoke to face to face. So Moses can have that I can have that you can have that, but we have to I like what Apostle Calvin taught me, we have to lean into God.
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I used to teach we have to press in, but it's more of a leaning in, we've got to keep that leaning posture. And when we have that leaning posture, we'll have that listening ear, we'll have that heart that sees and we'll have a heart that knows his heart.
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Okay.
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So here, here's, here's one of my favorite scriptures. Deuteronomy 34 9 through 12. Moses was 120 years old when he died. Now Joshua, the son of none, here's the impartation was full of the spirit of wisdom for Moses had laid his hands on him.
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So the children of Israel, he did him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses, my favorite verse, but since then, there is not a risen in Israel, a prophet like Moses.
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Okay, there were prophets, but Moses was different.
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Who knew the Lord face to face in all that of course, the signs and the wonders the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, before Pharaoh, before all the servants and all his land, and by the mind, all that mighty power and the great terror which Moses performed in the site of all.
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Yeah, that's great.
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But his legacy was that there had not risen in Israel, a prophet like Moses. What was the thing that set him apart. His legacy was that he knew God intimately. He knew his heart. He understood that God was faithful.
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And I think that that should be our goal, not. I mean, yeah, we crave and we desire we earnestly covet the gifts to be an operation. Yes, we want that why for the people. And so that many will believe on Jesus for the miracles and the signs and the wonders.
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But let's make our goal to know God intimately.
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Okay, lastly, the purpose of the prophet number one is so obey God Jeremiah one, you know, you're gonna you're gonna go wherever I send you. And I remember one time I was in this little church.
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And for me, for me, I had somebody go with me to drive to New York, you know, to go in this little church. You know, it was a lot because I get, you know, I get kind of intimidated by New York City and there's all kinds of stuff that goes on there that doesn't happen in suburbia
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and New Jersey, right. So I was in this church, and the Lord said to me I sent you here. And then he said to me he gave me a message now for that particular church, who's sending you.
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Are you just going, or is God sending you, I want to be a prophet that is set by God I'm set here. You know it's like the blues, blues brothers right, we're on a mission from God, you know, I love that movie, and they they were unstoppable.
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And you know, as a prophet that God has sent you, you're unstoppable. So our, our purpose is to obey God. Number two, our purpose is to speak.
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So Jeremiah one you will speak whatever I command you to speak right I'm with your mouth and so on so forth Ezekiel 33 if you don't speak the bloods on your head. So we have a responsibility. And as prophets we have to remember we have a responsibility to speak.
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But number three, there's times when we don't speak.
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I don't tell people everything I know. No, keep my mouth shut. There's yet that's your father give us the wisdom. This is one of my prayers to discern what is in your heart and mind.
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And what is in my own heart and mind. So there's a time to speak at a time not to speak and give us Lord I even pray right now over all of us.
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Give us the wisdom to discern what is in your heart and mind and our heart and mind when we're to speak.
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And when we're not to speak, because if we speak too soon, we're out of time, or you know out of the time frame, we can mess things up.
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Right. But if we speak at the right season at the right time, then that's a God thing. And also, I just don't tell every people people everything I know, because I don't, I don't want to be responsible for something that I'm not supposed to do.
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Okay, the purpose of the prophet, we already said it's to strengthen the church, whether it is locally, regionally or nationally. Thankfully, I am not a national prophet.
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I couldn't handle that. I'm not graced for that. Okay, but there are prophets that are called locally. There's prophets that are regionally and there are prophets that are nationally.
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And as you're faithful, if you're supposed to have a greater scope, God will enlarge your territory. But he looks at the faithfulness.
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So number five, the purpose of the prophet to bring demonstration of the spirit, I have churches I go to. And because I'm balanced in the word and the spirit pastors are not afraid are not afraid of me, and what I'm going to do to their church, you know, too much word, we blow up too
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much word, we grow up. I mean, we too much word we dry up too much spirit, we blow up, get a balance of the word and the spirit we grow up. So I have certain churches they know that they need the ministry of the prophet and they know they need a demonstration of the spirit and they know that a lot of them
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don't really operate in that gifting. So they bring a prophet in that they could trust that won't blow up their church.
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So lastly, the purpose of the prophet is to perfect the saints. And from for me, my ministry has been to support the local churches.
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So the shaping of a prophet.
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I'm going to go ahead and pray.
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Thank you, Father.
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Thank you.
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A God of wisdom.
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And I thank you Father for raising each and every one of us up with the wisdom we need to know what is in your heart and mind, and what is in our own heart and mind.
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Help us to discern the difference.
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Help us to understand your heart and to know your ways.
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Help us to lay aside anything, any kind of distractions that would keep us from focusing in on that, which is what we really need.
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And that is to know you in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you.
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Thank you so much for tuning in to today's podcast. It has been such a joy sharing this time with you for more inspiration and resources on today's topic. Please visit our website at margiefloran.org.
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The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much God will put the prayer in your heart to pray so that he can answer it.
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It goes into the hearts of the people and doesn't return void? It produces results.
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Hello everybody. Hope you're all doing well. Thank you for inviting me to speak today.
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I really, when Lanzine asked me to do one of the meetings for us here in this region, I really felt like I should do the very first meeting on this subject.
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And I felt like God wanted me to talk more about the shaping of a prophet and what goes into that. And then we can get into going forward, let the prophet speak.
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So with that being said, I'm going to go ahead and launch out here into Ephesians chapter four.
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I'm going to read out the Passion Translation, the Grace Gifts of Christ.
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And he has generally generously given each one of us supernatural grace according to the size of the gift of Christ. That is why he says he ascends into the heavenly heights, taking his many captured ones with him, and gifts were given to men.
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He ascended means that he returned to heaven after he had first descended from the heights of heaven, even descending as far as the lowest parts of the earth.
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The same one who descended is also the one who ascended above the heights of heaven in order to begin the restoration and fulfillment of all things.
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And he has appointed some with grace to be apostles and some with grace to be prophets and some with grace to be, sorry, and stop.
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And some with grace to be evangelists and some with grace to be pastors and some with grace to be teachers.
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And their calling is to nurture and prepare all holy believers to do their own works of ministry as they do this. They will enlarge and build up the body of Christ.
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These grace ministries will function until we all attain oneness into the faith, until we all experience the fullness of what it means to know the Son of God.
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And finally, we will become one into a perfect man with all the full dimension of spiritual maturity and fully developed into the abundance of Christ.
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So we're going to specifically talk about the ministry of the prophet.
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Now, in talking about the ministry of the prophet specifically, one who is graced to be a prophet, no one chooses to be a prophet.
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For the most part, a person who's a true prophet, if I could just be honest, doesn't want to be a prophet, would rather sit in the back of the church, mind their own business, and just be quote, a normal Christian person, because there's a tremendous amount of responsibility and shaping that comes with operating in this ministry gift.
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No one chooses to be a prophet. It is a five fold gift, or as Michael calls ascension gift, a calling, and one is graced by God to operate in that anointing.
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Now, Jeremiah 1 3 says, before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you and ordained you in Jeremiah's case, and the subject matter to be a prophet.
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And in the first part that in the scripture he's where he says before I ever formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you. That leads me to believe that we came from the heart of God.
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We knew him, he knew us. I don't know how all of it works, but I know eternity is in our hearts. But in Jeremiah's case, before he was ever formed in his mother's womb, God said I knew you, and I ordained you to be a prophet.
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He didn't call himself. God already chose him to be a prophet. Okay, so when you're called to be a prophet, God puts in you all that you need to be a prophet.
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And if you're, if you're a new believer and you're newly born again and you have a calling to be a prophet, it's in seed form. It's not, I would say if I could say it like this fully shaped or fully developed, but it's on the inside of you.
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This calling is without repentance. And this calling needs to be developed and you need to be trained in it, or also as we move forward, that gift needs to be unwrapped. It takes time. It takes discipline. It takes preparation.
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You don't automatically just become a prophet. Yes, it's on the inside of you. Yes, it's there in seed form, but there is a shaping, there is a development, and there is a process. And what I want to talk today about is the process.
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So God puts within you all you need to be a prophet, but it must be developed. Now, first of all, if you're called to be a prophet, what I've learned is your personality and your temperament goes along with that calling.
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Right. So for the most part, prophets are introverts.
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Prophets don't like to be seen of men. Prophets like to hide. Prophets like to be alone a lot. And that need to be alone a lot is what I've learned is that so that the prophet can hear from God, have that space to hear from God.
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There could be that intimacy and that oneness and that friendship. A prophet generally, although has a lot of friends and can have a lot of friends, a prophet generally is very happy when they're by themselves.
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But of course, we all know that, you know, to be happy, we still need one another and we need friends. But God puts the temperament in the prophet.
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So he gives you your personality. Generally speaking, like I said, prophets are introverts. Prophets, generally speaking, have like the tap, according to the tap, ways of understanding your personality are generally melancholy people.
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Melancholy doesn't mean sad. It just means that they're deep thinkers. They think a lot and they process a lot. They're more slow and they wait. Well, that's because if you're called to be a prophet, you need to do that.
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Okay. Then, you know, the training for me, for my training to be and shaping to be a prophet, I was a quiet and shy and introverted girl.
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I was raised with five brothers and I wasn't loud. I came from an Italian family and everybody was loud, but I was more the quiet, shy, introverted person.
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And for me, my brothers, the Italian way to show up was to tease me and, you know, you know, do tricks and do all kinds of things. And in a way that kind of damaged me and not anymore, because I'm fine now, but it did do something to me because if you're called to be a prophet, you have to speak.
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And so if you've got your brothers telling you to shut up all the time, and you're an environment where everybody's loud, you're not going to want to speak. So for me, it was kind of like a double whammy God had to really pull me out to get me into the place in the position that he had called me to be and called me to do.
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He works with his prophets. He understands all the things that we have in our environment so he does work with us and he is using some of the things that we've gone through to shape us, and we'll talk about that a little in a little while.
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But I think also for me, being a child in a home of five brothers was by God's divine appointment. And I don't think there's any accidents in God. It was God's will and God's divine appointment that I have five brothers.
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And all the kids in the neighborhood, they're all boys. And I know it doesn't seem like it now, but back in the day I was a tomboy. I used to climb trees, play all kinds of sports, and I just understood boys. I understood men.
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I understood the mind of a man. And it really helped shape me because when God sent me to the East Coast in 1976, I was the first woman in multiple churches in this region.
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I had multiple pastors say to me, we've never had a woman in our pulpit, you're the very first. And I felt like God shaped me for that because of my upbringing, because I had a comfort level with men. It was like they were all my brothers.
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And there wasn't this weird feeling with them and I was able, because of that shaping to get along with the guys like they were my friends. So I just want you to think about if you're called to be a prophet, there is a preparation and a shaping some of it's by God's
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design, and he just does it on his own. So when you go into that place where you need to be, you're already somewhat prepared. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and say this because I find this to be very annoying.
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I would go to a school to be a prophet.
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Yes, all can prophesy, but we are not, we are talking here about an office. And I know we have a lot of that going on, and I'm hoping that as we move forward into maturity in the body of Christ, that we bring somewhat of a balance because a lot of people think that they could go to school to
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be a prophet. And that's not the case. It is an office. If the office of the prophet cannot be imparted through laying out of hands. No, no, no, no, it's God who ordains you it's God who calls you it's God's the one that puts that inside of you cannot be imparted through the
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laying out of hands. But I will say this, the anointing for the prophet and the seer can be enhanced through laying out of hands, association, or who you closely follow, or who you sit under.
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I stand under Kenneth E. Hagan, not only did I sit under him as a 19 year old girl, I not only sat under him, but I cleaned his house. I was around all these leaders you know buddy Harrison and I got to meet normal haze and, and many times I would say to these guys
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they would not let me and pray over me. But just being at Kenneth E. Hagan school, I picked up his spirit, so to speak, I don't know how to describe it. But even when I was preparing for this, for this particular meeting today, I could hear and you're going to hear
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him say that I could hear his voice, and what I'm teaching you. So there is an impartation. It comes through laying out of hands. We were the last class at Ramah that he laid hands on, and we were the third graduating class, why he chose not to lay hands on anybody at the
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office anymore after that. I don't know. But you know, I don't know. But anyway, so things can be imparted. But the office of a prophet is an office, and it cannot be imparted. Okay, so to be a true prophet, you must first be a teacher.
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And so, you know, you're always speaking, if you're called to be a prophet in the office, the first very first thing the Bible says you have to be apt to teach. You know, you must first be a teacher. As you are faithful in that, which God has called you to do as a teacher, what is within you will be shaped, will be what I like to call
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you to be a teacher. And this ministry gift is a gift to the body of Christ. And over time, as you're faithful, and you're teaching, the gift will be unwrapped, and that which is in you will come to the surface.
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And in the prophet, one must operate consistently in the word of wisdom, discerning of spirits, and the word of knowledge, consistently, even in your daily walk, even one on one, even in public ministry, when you're a prophet, you're a prophet everywhere you go, the prophet goes, it's not always in
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manifestation, but it's there on the inside of you. Okay, now I remember Brother Hagan saying one time, and this is pretty scary, I think, some people live and die and never enter into the first phase of the calling and the ministry that they have.
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I made a decision when I was a 19 year old girl sitting under his ministry that I don't want to be that person. I want to be the person that fulfills every single phase and every single part of what he's called me to do. And your ministry as a prophet does have phases.
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For me, my experience was that I started out being a teacher, and then as time went on, I started hearing and I learned from someone I think that that was called a Nabi prophet.
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And I would hear, and I would say what I heard. And for me, a lot of what I get is scripture for people, which I like because it's safe. So I would hear a scripture for somebody or I would hear a scripture for an audience or I would hear something on the inside, and then I would speak.
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But as time went on, and this has actually been more recently, consistently, and I've been saved since I was 19 and in ministry since 1982. So I'll let you guys do the math.
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And it's only been in the last three years, consistently, I've been operating, and I don't know what you call it as a seer.
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But it's the most incredible thing, because when I had to lead guided prayer in one of my churches, I couldn't do it by myself, I needed help.
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Because this is not you can't lead people into prayer by yourself, because people don't want to pray, people don't want to get in the presence of God, people don't understand the things of the spirit.
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And that's when it really started to manifest, because I'm a gift to that church, and God's like, you know what, I'm going to ignite this church to get the spirit of prayer on the whole entire church, and, and I'm just bringing Margie and that which is within her, and what he did was, he
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put me to begin to see, and I would see what we were praying for, I would see visions and, and I would just, I wasn't weird about it, because I think, you know, you got to be normal if you're a prophet, can we just be normal.
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And I was seeing this, and I said, let's pray into that. So the seer anointing manifested to help the people, not, not for any other reason, but to, and to help build the kingdom, and to establish the work of God in our region, because prayer
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opens up the door for God to work. And so therefore he needed me to flow in that river of being a seer and equip me in that regard, not for me, but for the people.
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So that was my process, and that's where I'm at, even now.
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So, so what is the process. Number one, put the word of God first and not experience. It's very important that we put the word of God first and not experience I hear people talking about, you know, their visions their dreams and this and this.
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So let's put what you see and what you hear into the scripture. Does it does it line up with the word of God. Okay, I had a friend of mine. She's a, she's got a master's and counseling and therapy smart, smart, smart, very smart girl.
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And she, she, she texted me yesterday and she said, I heard something from God and I have to talk to you about it because I don't really understand the whole thing. And I have to I feel like I have to a big up and that my first thought was, Okay, I'm going to minister to her and talk to her, but does it line up with the word of God.
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And I think it's important your call to be a prophet, and your shape shape God is shaping you into a prophet that you put the word of God in your heart. What I like to do is, I like to listen to straight scripture.
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And I have I even made some of my own audios. And I made them for myself on all different subjects. I still have a CD player in my car. I put those scripture verses in.
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And that's not a teaching. I just listen to scripture over and over and over and over. It's you got to put the word of God in your heart, because if you're called to be the Nabi kind of prophet where you hear God will take what is in you and you will draw from that and you will speak that word and season to those that are weary.
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Okay, so we have to put the word of God in our hearts and not experience and maturity in this and maturity also takes time.
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And when you put the word of God in your heart, it's like Joshua one eight, God told Joshua this book of the law will not depart out of your mouth you will meditate day and night that you may observe to do all that I might whatever that scripture says all that you know the word, the word says, he said, but it's the
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meditation is my emphasis. It's important that we meditate on the word of God as prophets, because if we're going to be have a hearing ear, we have to develop or train our human spirit.
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You are a spirit, you have a soul, and you live in a body. When we put the word of God in our hearts and meditate on the word of God, it builds up the inner man exercises the inner man feeds the inner man.
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And it helps to shape you into the calling and into the ministry that God has called you. So what what is the benefits of that, it'll help you to develop a hearing ear, because the stronger you are on the inside the more you feed the man on the inside, the more you're going to have
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a hearing ear. Okay, so that's important to do. Number two, the process of the prophet number two intentionally focus on him with the eyes of your spirit man.
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I talked about this in one of our other zooms I tell people you have eyes behind your eyes. And what we teaching people how to operate and they're gifting. It's, it's intentionally focus on him with the eyes of your spirit man, you have an inward man, and you have an outward man.
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Inward man is the real you. So it's with your inward man because your inward man has eyes. It's looking at him.
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And then in the verse 12 one and two, looking on to Jesus looking at him, or how could I say this focusing in on him, looking on the inside and looking for him, because the Lord is not out here somewhere.
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I was a little girl I used to sit in my backyard on a tree stuff and I wanted to see God's face in the moon, but God told me, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, I will dwell in you, I will walk in you, it's out of your innermost being that's what flows the rivers of living
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water. So it's learning in this process, how to, how to draw inward.
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And look on the inside of you. Okay. All revelation originates from within.
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I personally am very leery, and I apologize if I offend anybody, but I am very leery of people who have stuff going on out here in this year.
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And I believe, this is my belief that all the hearing needs to come from John 738 1 Corinthians 316 and 7 from the inside, at least that's how I operate.
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You know, I test to see whether or not, you know, there's all kinds of spirits in the world, and the devil can say all kinds of things, but I, I, if I was here and something out here, I'd test it.
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Okay. And that's, that's, that's all I really want to share about that. So develop your inward man. Oh, revelation comes from within. Here's a good one. Number three, have order in your personal life.
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I remember Kenneth E. Hagan saying one time, he said, he said, I could walk into somebody's house because he traveled he was on the road, I could walk into somebody's house, going to their drawers or closet, and I could tell you whether or not they're going to make it in the ministry.
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Now, specifically with the office of the prophet, right, we help to establish and strengthen what order. So, innately, you know, personally for me, I have to be careful I don't get OCD, but I'm a fanatic for order.
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I mean, my drawers have to be in order, my closets, it's, it's from white to gray to black. I mean, I got to have an extreme amount of order. If my nail chips, God forbid, I got to go get it fixed ASAP.
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But there's something to be said, because the order is good. Having order in your personal life is utmost important, and having financial order, I think, is a must.
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Okay, so number four, we're talking about the process of the shaping of a prophet rejection and misunderstanding.
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That's part of the shaping. It's part of the process. Okay, because God wants you to be totally and completely dependent on him. And oftentimes, prophets, I'm not saying prophetic people, I'm saying prophets, the office of the prophet, are misunderstood,
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because in a way, they're kind of different. Prophets just are a little different, right? So rejection and misunderstanding is part of the, I think, the shaping process process.
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Now you think about the story of Joseph and his brothers, after everything that he went through, all the rejection, all the misunderstanding, how many times was he misunderstood and thrown in prison, but he kept his heart right in the midst of it all.
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It's very important, I think, when you move into phases of ministry and the ministry of the prophet, I think that these kinds of things that happen to us, I think are good for us.
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You know, hard times will either make us better or better. And I think that God works with the prophet in the midst of trials, in the midst of rejection, in the midst of all the things that we've gone through.
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I think it's part of the prophet process. Mark 6, 4, Jesus said, a prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his own relatives. Yay. What does that mean?
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It means prophets are generally loved and respected everywhere, except in their hometown, where the people know all their faults, sins, and so on.
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Right? And let's think about it. You know, even in families, you know, our families know us. They know exactly. So sometimes it can be hard for them to receive from us.
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But I have to be honest with you, I really have a really amazing core of friends, friendships. They're here with me right now. I'm actually away in Florida.
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My best friend and her husband are here. And, you know, they see Margie. And, but man, let me tell you, if I speak, they're like this.
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God speaking. They know how to separate. So it's important that you have people around you that are mature, that can understand the person is just like everybody else, has flaws, says and does things they shouldn't say.
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And it is what it is. And I have many friends like that. They just love me for me. And I really appreciate that.
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And also, I think sometimes to our weaknesses, I don't even think that's a bad thing, because in our weakness, we're made strong. Jesus said my strength is made perfect and weakness.
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So if we have imperfections, what are you going to do about it? There is none righteous. No, not one. It's not to give us a license to sin. But it's just kind of keeps you in a place of I am what I am totally and completely by the grace of God.
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Can I get an amen? Anyone? Okay.
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Quickly, I think I have about 16 minutes. The prayer of the prophet, of course, I was going to get into that, because prophets are men and women of prayer.
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And if we're not men and women of prayer, we are, we start to feel unbalanced. We don't feel grounded. And we can lose our edge.
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So prayer is very important to the prophet. Leonard Ravenhill said in his book, Why Revival Terries, No Man is Greater Than His Prayer Life.
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The prayer, the pastor who is not praying is playing. The people who are not praying are straying. The pulpit can be a shopping window to displays one's talents. The prayer closet, the closet allows no showing off.
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Right. So prayer keeps the prophet dependent on God. Now, prayerlessness existed among leaders in the Old Testament.
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Jeremiah 2, God is addressing Judah, speaks to the priests, those that handle the law, the rulers, the shepherds and the prophets.
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In verse 13, it says, My people have committed two evils. I'm getting goosebumps.
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Two evils. He said, they have first two things. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and they have hewn themselves, cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
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So God said, the first evil was they forsook me. See, we got to keep our eyes on Jesus. We can't operate only out of our gifting. We've got to keep that intimacy with God in the secret place of prayer.
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Okay. But he said, number two, they became cisterns, broken cisterns that could hold no water. A cistern is an artificial reservoir for storing liquids.
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Often it is an underground tank for storing rainwater. So what God is saying is he doesn't want us to be broken cisterns.
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We are deep calls unto deep as prophets. He wants us to maintain that deep intimacy and connection with him. Now you've all been there. We've all been there. I don't like it.
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You know, I don't like it. I know he said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I'm with you always. I'm always there. But I don't like it.
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When I don't have, I don't know how to describe it other than the connection with him, or I've lost my first love, or I've lost my focus, or I'm not where I should be in my walk with him as prophets.
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This intimacy and this place of connection is really important. Okay. And as far as forsaking him, that's not something that happens overnight, something that happens over time.
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And those of you that are in ministry know what it's what it's like. We get busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. And if you're a woman in ministry, you're busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, because you've got the house, the kids, they still call you no matter how old they are.
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We got it all going on. I mean, it's really important to make room for God, schedule our appointments with God, put God first. So it's important that we minister out of our overflow and intimacy with God.
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Moses is a prophet who had intimacy with God. It says here in Exodus 3311, that the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend, and he would return to the camp but his servant Joshua the son of none, a young man did not depart from the tabernacle.
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So Moses knew God face to face. I love that song show me your face Lord show me your face. I'm always looking for his face. Even as a child, if you remember what I said about being a child and wanting to see his face, I wanted to see God's face
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and here we have Moses, you know, it says here, he spoke God spoke to face to face. So Moses can have that I can have that you can have that, but we have to I like what Apostle Calvin taught me, we have to lean into God.
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I used to teach we have to press in, but it's more of a leaning in, we've got to keep that leaning posture. And when we have that leaning posture, we'll have that listening ear, we'll have that heart that sees and we'll have a heart that knows his heart.
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Okay.
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So here, here's, here's one of my favorite scriptures. Deuteronomy 34 9 through 12. Moses was 120 years old when he died. Now Joshua, the son of none, here's the impartation was full of the spirit of wisdom for Moses had laid his hands on him.
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So the children of Israel, he did him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses, my favorite verse, but since then, there is not a risen in Israel, a prophet like Moses.
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Okay, there were prophets, but Moses was different.
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Who knew the Lord face to face in all that of course, the signs and the wonders the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, before Pharaoh, before all the servants and all his land, and by the mind, all that mighty power and the great terror which Moses performed in the site of all.
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Yeah, that's great.
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But his legacy was that there had not risen in Israel, a prophet like Moses. What was the thing that set him apart. His legacy was that he knew God intimately. He knew his heart. He understood that God was faithful.
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And I think that that should be our goal, not. I mean, yeah, we crave and we desire we earnestly covet the gifts to be an operation. Yes, we want that why for the people. And so that many will believe on Jesus for the miracles and the signs and the wonders.
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But let's make our goal to know God intimately.
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Okay, lastly, the purpose of the prophet number one is so obey God Jeremiah one, you know, you're gonna you're gonna go wherever I send you. And I remember one time I was in this little church.
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And for me, for me, I had somebody go with me to drive to New York, you know, to go in this little church. You know, it was a lot because I get, you know, I get kind of intimidated by New York City and there's all kinds of stuff that goes on there that doesn't happen in suburbia
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and New Jersey, right. So I was in this church, and the Lord said to me I sent you here. And then he said to me he gave me a message now for that particular church, who's sending you.
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Are you just going, or is God sending you, I want to be a prophet that is set by God I'm set here. You know it's like the blues, blues brothers right, we're on a mission from God, you know, I love that movie, and they they were unstoppable.
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And you know, as a prophet that God has sent you, you're unstoppable. So our, our purpose is to obey God. Number two, our purpose is to speak.
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So Jeremiah one you will speak whatever I command you to speak right I'm with your mouth and so on so forth Ezekiel 33 if you don't speak the bloods on your head. So we have a responsibility. And as prophets we have to remember we have a responsibility to speak.
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But number three, there's times when we don't speak.
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I don't tell people everything I know. No, keep my mouth shut. There's yet that's your father give us the wisdom. This is one of my prayers to discern what is in your heart and mind.
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And what is in my own heart and mind. So there's a time to speak at a time not to speak and give us Lord I even pray right now over all of us.
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Give us the wisdom to discern what is in your heart and mind and our heart and mind when we're to speak.
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And when we're not to speak, because if we speak too soon, we're out of time, or you know out of the time frame, we can mess things up.
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Right. But if we speak at the right season at the right time, then that's a God thing. And also, I just don't tell every people people everything I know, because I don't, I don't want to be responsible for something that I'm not supposed to do.
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Okay, the purpose of the prophet, we already said it's to strengthen the church, whether it is locally, regionally or nationally. Thankfully, I am not a national prophet.
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I couldn't handle that. I'm not graced for that. Okay, but there are prophets that are called locally. There's prophets that are regionally and there are prophets that are nationally.
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And as you're faithful, if you're supposed to have a greater scope, God will enlarge your territory. But he looks at the faithfulness.
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So number five, the purpose of the prophet to bring demonstration of the spirit, I have churches I go to. And because I'm balanced in the word and the spirit pastors are not afraid are not afraid of me, and what I'm going to do to their church, you know, too much word, we blow up too
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much word, we grow up. I mean, we too much word we dry up too much spirit, we blow up, get a balance of the word and the spirit we grow up. So I have certain churches they know that they need the ministry of the prophet and they know they need a demonstration of the spirit and they know that a lot of them
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don't really operate in that gifting. So they bring a prophet in that they could trust that won't blow up their church.
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So lastly, the purpose of the prophet is to perfect the saints. And from for me, my ministry has been to support the local churches.
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So the shaping of a prophet.
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I'm going to go ahead and pray.
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Thank you, Father.
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Thank you.
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A God of wisdom.
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And I thank you Father for raising each and every one of us up with the wisdom we need to know what is in your heart and mind, and what is in our own heart and mind.
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Help us to discern the difference.
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Help us to understand your heart and to know your ways.
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Help us to lay aside anything, any kind of distractions that would keep us from focusing in on that, which is what we really need.
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And that is to know you in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you.
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Thank you so much for tuning in to today's podcast. It has been such a joy sharing this time with you for more inspiration and resources on today's topic. Please visit our website at margiefloran.org.
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