The God Who Speaks - Jan. 2008

The God Who Speaks newsletter – Jan. 2008

Dear friends,

I’ve waded a little way into January before generating my newsletter. I didn’t want to just send out “filler.” As I’ve been waiting on what to share, things at home have been crazy.

On the one hand, there’s been an unusual outpouring of prophetic dreams, visions, words and other messages from my church family. We’re just compiling and distilling this input into major themes. They relate to huddling tightly in love within the protective walls of God as our mighty fortress and deliverer. While storms rage and opposition mounts outside the walls, God’s love in and for and between us will in peace, joy and security.

Meanwhile, it feels like we’re under tremendous assault… members and their families have been pounded by very serious accidents, life-threatening illnesses and tremendous testing. Indeed, we’ve had no choice but to huddle and cuddle. Your prayers for God’s impenetrable wall of fire (Zech. 2:5) around Fresh Wind would be most welcome! Even a quick, “Save them!” would help.

As for you, I’ve seen a couple of obvious, but super-helpful tools that might come in handy as you listen to the Lord… simple questions to ask yourself and the Lord that his messages deeper into our hearts. Here we go:

1. What message is God sending me? My excellent bride, Eden, recently shared that for those who don’t literally “see” a vision, “hear” a voice, or get a “word” are nevertheless continually receiving messages from God’s Spirit. This often requires that we put words to what we’re feeling or sensing—and then acknowledging those words as God’s message. Even when we do have a clear internal audio or video from heaven, we might still ask, “Okay, so what’s the message? What’s God getting at? What point is he trying to drive home?”

2. What if it’s true? What if the living God really did just say that? What if he really was talking to me / us just now? Just yesterday I was participating in a service at Cityview Church in York, PA. At some point, one member took the handheld microphone and shared a prophetic exhortation. This fellow hadn’t gone to the stage, so I couldn’t see the person attached to the voice I was hearing. Since the message given was worded in first person as if God was speaking (as per 2 Peter), I imagined that we were all hearing God’s audible voice interrupting our proceedings. And then it hit me, “Isn’t that exactly what just happened?” Given that the message conformed in tone and content to the God that Jesus has revealed, what if I were to treat that voice as The Voice. The pastor was having the same experience as I was, which led him to speak out our follow-up question:

3. What immediate response can I offer? Pastor Steve pointed out that we don’t merely listen and smile and give a little “praise-clap” if God has truly spoken. If we are to take God seriously, does this not invite a direct (and perhaps immediate)? And so right away, he simply asked the Lord what kind of response he wanted? A nod of consent is rarely life-changing. Faith acts on what is heard, even when the message is about what God is doing or promising (Heb. 11). So we pursued the Lord down that path rather than simply affirming the word and moving on to the next item of business. And God responded to our response! It seemed as if he unzipped the roof and began pouring in MUCH MORE. I realized that the words effects were proportional to our response. I.e. when God is pouring our soup, don’t pull away the bowl too quickly.

Sometimes that response is simply to say Yes! and then to posture ourselves to receive, refusing to get up or move on until the Father says “that’s enough for now.” At other times, there will be an attending, “Go!” that finds us following Jesus into his history-making activities.

4. Bonus question: If this were true, how would it affect the way I live tomorrow? What would be different if I KNEW that this was God’s message for me?

Let’s practice: I think I have a prophetic message for you today. You don’t need to send me money to get it or buy one of my books to receive it. But I would ask you to respond by asking God the above four questions as you hear it. This message is a good example because it’s directly from God and directly from the Bible, and might even explicitly tell you HOW to respond. But God must speak to your heart and you must act in order to activate the message. Here it is:

Exodus 33:17 And the LORD said to Moses, "I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name."

Now I'm not saying, "Ask him for anything and he'll do it," (although Jesus DID say that - Matt. 18:19)... but there's something here for you. Something special about him knowing you by name. Hmm.

Messages for 2008

I mentioned the messages that our prophetic community are receiving for 2008. There’s this tradition of asking God for a New Year’s message. We want to know what the famous prophets are hearing about the next year. Why? So that we’ll know what to expect and how to live. This isn’t bad in itself—imagine how that might embolden or comfort you. But you can probably sense how that might also function like nothing more than somebody else’s fortune cookie. Such predictions can be so broad in their scope or specific to that prophet’s ministry that we need to question whether they even apply to us personally or to our local congregation. At worst, they can be supremely disillusioning if we act on them and they turn out to be mistaken! I wish more mistaken prophets would admit to it and take responsibility when they are in error. I also wish that we would stop treating them as our psychics. It’s not fair to them.

But don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. Jesus himself promised that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth, even telling us what is to come (John 16:12-13)—the proper response is to ask expectantly. My suggestion is that this best done within the local body where we fellowship, listening together for the message that emerges from the community gathered. By way of example, I’ve included three messages that arose from and/or for Fresh Wind in recent weeks. You can see them at these links:

1. “What’s Coming?” by Eric Janzen (for Fresh Wind 2008) http://clarionjournal.typepad.com/clarion_journal_of_spirit/2008/01/whats-coming-by.html

2. “Message for 2008 – to the Church”
http://clarionjournal.typepad.com/clarion_journal_of_spirit/2007/12/message-for-200.html

That’s all for now. But if you need some more reading, I’ve posted the following articles this month on the Clarion website at http://clarionjournal.typepad.com/clarion_journal_of_spirit/brad_jersak/index.html :

1. “Those the Father Gave Me” – Sermon by Brad Jersak

2. “You are what you pretend to be” by Brad Jersak

3. “Gems from Tilly” - Interview, review and excerpt by Brad and Dominic Jersak with Meg Tilly

thanks so much,

Brad Jersak