Test All Things

(Sorry, I don't know why my computer has made this all italicized)

Today in class we practiced prophecy. And I learned that I am not very good at it. I know if God ever placed me in a situation where He needed me to give a prophecy to someone, He would give me the words to do it. But in this practice setting... yeah I didn't excel.

Prophecy has really peeked my interest this week. I have had a lot of people tell me things about my future since coming to DTS, but over this past weekend I realized that God Himself had not actually told me some of these things. If there is something big that is going to happen in your life, God will tell you about it. Its your life.

Karen, our teacher this week, said something along the lines that sometime people will give you a word and it will be wrong. This is why we need to "test all things."

"Do not treat prophecies with contempt ²¹ but test them all; hold on to what is good, ²² reject every kind of evil." ~1 Thessalonians 5:20-22

I raised my hand and asked her how exactly to test prophecies that are given to us. The first most important thing to do is look at how it lines up with Scripture. God never contradicts himself, so if the prophecy goes against the Bible, it's false. Then you want to ask "does this appeal to my spirit?" Usually we can get a strong sense of is this for me or not. Again, know that God would tell you if it was something big. If someone came up to you and told you God told them you were going to die tomorrow...if you have a relationship with God that's something He would probably just tell you. And finally, you want to look at motivations the person giving you the word might have. When we were given a 10 minute break, I went up to talk to Karen about this teaching. I told her a lot of the things that have been said over me since coming to DTS. She told me to write them all down and than lay it down at Jesus' feet. Pray about it and wait. If it happens, it was of God. If it doesn't happen, than it wasn't. No matter what prophecy we are given, it doesn't need to tie us down in any way or force us to change anything or live any differently. It's God's responsibility to bring it about, not ours. And as I went back to my seat and prayed about that, I just felt so much peace. I hate when things seem so obvious coming from someone else's mouth. 1 Corinthians 13:12 says we only know in part anyway. So I'm done worrying. What's been said about my future doesn't really matter right now. Right now, the thing that matters is my focus on God. I just need to focus on how much I love my Jesus and everything else will fall into place.

I started going through my journals today. I really want to see where God has spoken clearly to just me. Not based on what people have told me. I want to see where God has told me things. So far, there are three things that I know that I know that I know. But the even cooler thing is that I'm seeing a pattern to how I know that I know that I know. With these three things, I have multiple journal entries where I think this is what God's telling me. Eventually, God backs it up by giving me some Scripture relating to what He has been telling me. And, with each of these three things, at least one person has backed up what God has been telling me without them knowing what God has been telling me. Its all very cool :)

I'm half way through my week of fasting. And God has spoken some pretty cool things to me and given a few good revelations. Still more to come. I'm excited! Rough weeks always seem to turn out to be the best experiences with God.