Hearing Gods voice, discerning the Spirits and other prophetic stuff

Do you remember your first car?
I remember after I got mine suddenly my car was everywhere?
The grandma had one. the pizza guy. everywhere I went there was my car.

That is just how our brains work.
When you are focused on something that is what you see.
So one test for me when i started to walk in these things was to be sure that what I thought was God was not just seeing my first car.

Test 1 - Was it what I was currently focusing on or thinking about.
Test 2 - Was it connected to my recent thoughts, concerns or fears.
Test 3 - Did it seem all too familiar like the theme of a recently binged watch movie series.
Test 4 - Did i have a lot of pepperoni pizza the night before?

The more out of nowhere it came the more I tended to consider it from God.
Especially if it just kept showing up, the more impossible ways the better.

But these are just a baby tools, toys of reason.
You come to discern the Spirits in the following.
You test them against the written word.
You get the advice of those mature in it.
Still it is on you to do with it what you know is good to do,
Don't let the advice of others be an excuse to sin against your own conscience.
Eventually you will just recognize his voice as you keep going and testing and discovering.

ALL Christians are to do this!
Hearing his voice is just what his sheep do.
It is just coming under Christs direct leadership of your life.

Those who have a Prophetic gifting just have this in quantity for a different purpose.
For the equipping of the saints.
To help them grow in hearing and following for their own spiritual walk.
To speak directly to those stubborn sheep going there own way
To speak to ones lost pointing them in the right direction.
To head out into the wilderness and meet those crying out to God with their answer.
To deliver a message of Gods life to the dying.
To operate as a watchman in and over your fellowship.

Unfortunate the place of the prophetic has been dishonored in the Church and She is worse off because of it.
I do believe God is changing that, restoring.church, bringing back what was lost to the centuries.

My first car at 18 years was a 1967 Dodge Polara convertible. I put the top down and went cruising through town.

"With the top down on my car
Cruising to all the local bars in town.
With hair down to my collar,
Picked my pool cue up and holler,
Hey, it's time to put your money down!"

Discerning his voice and the Holy Spirit is the key, it can be very easy for satan to pretend to be the voice of God and deceive you. After all these years I still doubt who is talking to me sometimes.

James 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

1 John 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

1 Kings 19:12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

Isaiah 28:23 Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.

Revelation 1:15 ...and his voice as the sound of many waters.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Revelation 19:10 ...worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

1 Corinthians 14:5
Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

Which is ironic that, like you said, the prophetic place has been dishonored among some groups. Another thing I've heard is that some groups in the church have the audacity to say that someone has not received salvation unless they speak with the gift of tongues. Not only is that unscriptural, but even if it was then 1 Cor. 14:5 says that one who prophecies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues.

Love is the greatest spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 13) but how did we get from being encouraged to prophecy more than speak in tongues to that not happening?

Possible theory is that many false prophets (a sign of the end times: Mark 13:22) have gone out and poisoned the watering hole so to speak.

I have spent decades working with churches trying to find a place, make it right, make it work, make it fit.

I have given up trying to make it work in another mans church.
Start over, that is all I can think of doing right now, rebuild the ancient ruins. Let it be Gods Church once again.
Where the spirit is trusted to rule and lead.

What i would like to do is build up one healthy working example and see what God does with it.
A solid nucleus in unity to build on.
I watched my parents be part of a nucleus of a new church as a child. Now hundreds of people go there.
If you want to change it back to what it once was i think that is the only way it can happen.

...........................................................................................................................................................................

So, do you believe that YOU are a profit sent by God to instruct His Church?

Do you believe in and profess the Holy Trinity as being one of the Cornerstones of the Christian Faith?

He is a crafty liar.

1 Corinthians 14:5
Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

Which is ironic that, like you said, the prophetic place has been dishonored among some groups. Another thing I've heard is that some groups in the church have the audacity to say that someone has not received salvation unless they speak with the gift of tongues. Not only is that unscriptural, but even if it was then 1 Cor. 14:5 says that one who prophecies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues.

Love is the greatest spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 13) but how did we get from being encouraged to prophecy more than speak in tongues to that not happening?

Possible theory is that many false prophets (a sign of the end times: Mark 13:22) have gone out and poisoned the watering hole so to speak.

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oh yes, he is crafty and a deceitful liar, and so were we all, before our calling/conversion...

Apostles
Prophets
Evangelist
Shepherds
Teachers

it is both a list of ministry roles and the authority structure of the Church body.

Today it looks like this:

Teachers
Pastors
Evangelists
Prophets
Apostles ( if they even accept they exist anymore )

Young prophets make a mess, have zero guidance and no one with the power and authority to correct them.
Because the mature ones are usually thrown out or abandon the fellowship so as not to do down with the ship and its captain, who is never God.

Prophets are dangerous to the status quo.
How do teacher pastors and evangelists operate under the authority of a prophet?
Which of them is humble enough to actually do just that?

Their is no proper seat at the table for them.
Most are left to operate in the streets.
While the Church goes unprotected, without watchmen.
you end up with wild fire stuff because there is no one to put it out or light the true flame in others.

I have spent decades working with churches trying to find a place, make it right, make it work, make it fit.

I have given up trying to make it work in another mans church.
Start over, that is all I can think of doing right now, rebuild the ancient ruins. Let it be Gods Church once again.
Where the spirit is trusted to rule and lead.

I think we have lost so much since the beginning.
Our love feast and its joy is now a crumb and a squirt and some navel gazing.
Our giving to bless and be blessed an obligation to the law of the tithe, robing god and us of the joy giving freely to each others needs ourselves.

What i would like to do is build up one healthy working example and see what God does with it.
A solid nucleus in unity to build on.
I watched my parents be part of a nucleus of a new church as a child. Now hundreds of people go there.
If you want to change it back to what it once was i think that is the only way it can happen.

Yes, there is a five fold ministry:

Apostles
Prophets
Evangelists
Pastors
Teachers

None of them have authority over the other. All operate in unison and do not break rank. They are more like an "assembly line" in how they operate.

First, the Apostle carries a heavy anointing that shuts down the kingdom of darkness. The apostle goes into dark territories of principalities and shuts them down so they cannot operate. Then....

Secondly, the Prophet comes to prepare the hearts of the people. The prophet has a special anointing that can turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the hearts of the children back to the fathers. After the hearts are prepared, then.....

Thirdly, the Evangelist comes with the Gospel - the Good News - the Testimony of Jesus Christ of the Gift of Salvation. Those that believe are saved. Next,......

Fourthly, the Pastors are to provide a safe place for the Lord's sheep to eat and drink, learn and grow and fellowship - so pastors raise up church buildings for the sheep and protect them and serve them and are kind and gentle and help them as they grow up in Christ. Lastly,.....

The Teachers, are to feed the sheep the Word of God WITH the Holy Spirit of God - line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little.

It is the "work of the Holy Spirit" in God's people that is actually performing ALL the works. As the sheep mature, they start producing the Fruit of the Holy Spirit in their lives because it is NOT their fruit, it is the Fruit of the Holy Spirit working in the Believer.

There is no reason to complain about "prophets" not being accepted or able to work.......just stay filled with the Holy Spirit and let the HOLY SPIRIT do ALL the work.

If a person is struggling as an Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor, or Preacher, then they are in their flesh and it is NOT the Holy Spirit.

Just like Salvation is the "works of Christ" - the witnessing of Jesus Christ and the maturing of the saints is the "works of the Holy Spirit." Let Him work - stop resisting, grieving, quenching, and neglecting the Holy Spirit.

We get in trouble and make a big mess when we think WE have to do it.