Module 4 Gifts dry up without grace

Module 4

Desired outcome of this module: -

• Understand the connection between Grace and flowing in the Gifts.
• How to activate the Gift of Prophecy.
• How Prophecy comes.
• Activation time.

Steps:-

• Repent of Pride
• Understand Thanksgiving
• Connection between Graceful and Grateful
• How to receive the Gift of Prophecy
• Types of Prophecy
• How to minister in Prophecy
• Activation time

Gifts dry up without Grace.

Unrighteousness blocks the river of His grace, and the gifts begin to dry up.

Jonah after disobeying the Lord, went down to Joppa, then down into the ship, then down into the depths of the ship, before he was thrown out of the ship into the sea, where he went down into a great whale that took him down to the depths of the sea.

Even the ungodly can recognise when it is time to throw a disobedient saint out of the ship.

Following worthless idols disconnects you from the relationships through which God has been using for His grace to flow into your lives.

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• Luke 17:11 – 19 10 lepers stand afar off/ ask for mercy in a loud voice.
• Psalm 138:6 the proud he knows afar off.
• James 4:6 God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

How do we know who are proud?

• Hear it in their voice – loud, controlling, dictatorial.
• See it in their actions – centre of attraction, selfish.
• The lack of fruit, need to steal others, claim the glory.
• Their conversation is about what they have done not what The Lord has done.
• Self-righteousness like filthy rags, they have few answers to their prayers.
• Recognise it by the lack of grace, their impatience and unforgiving attitude.
• Lack of gratitude, take for granted.

Hebrew concept of thanksgiving

Hebrew word "Yada" – means thanksgiving…

• Extended hands.
• Confess thy name.
• Speak well of.
• To speak of the excellence of someone.
• Give thanks based on the gratitude of the speaker.

Luke 17: 16 and thanked him – Greek / Eucharis

Charis… gratitude…grateful / graceful

V 15 praising God in a loud voice – Greek /Doxazo which means to

• Glorify. - to boast of, exult over, rejoice over
• Descriptive words of the excellence of His character.
• Assigning the highest status to God.
• Un-ashamed, loud praise for The Lord and directed to Him.
• Opposite is vainglory, ostentatious display, a boaster.

A sign of little grace is: -

• Ungratefulness which is disgraceful behaviour
• A lack of thanksgiving- see no need for it.
• A lack of testimony of what the lord has done.
• A lack of testimony of what the lord is doing.
• A lack of praising God or going through the motions.
• A lack of glorifying God.

To be full of the Holy Spirit - is to be so grateful for what The Lord has done that it constantly spills out as a testimony to how good and great and awesome and beautiful and compassionate and loving and kind he is.

To be so grateful for the amazing things that he has done for you and your family, and those around you, that you can't stop telling people about him.

• Psalm 22:3 The Lord inhabits the praises of his people.

When God's people start to thank and praise and glorify him like this He turns up in power. It is the release of His Spirit in us and is attractive to the Lord.

Consequence

Luke 17:19

The Leper that returned to give thanksgiving and glory to Jesus was made whole. The other 9 lepers were healed but this man was made whole.

I believe the parts of his body that had decayed were made whole again.

Testimony

When you testify to what the lord has done, it enables him to do even more for you and it creates the atmosphere that enables the Lord to do for others what he has done for you.

I believe this is true evangelism, over-flowing with genuine thanksgiving to the Lord that other people can see is real and are attracted to.

I always want to do more for those who I can see are grateful and less for those who are ungrateful.

How to activate this gift.

Today we are going to ask The Lord for the gift of prophecy using as the model for our prayer: -

• Mark 11:22-24" Therefore I tell you that whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

Desire......we are told to eagerly desire the gifts, especially prophecy.

Pray.........we ask for this gift.

Believe.... we know that it is his will for us to receive it.

Have........ we thank the Lord for the gift, believing we have received.

Use………we step out in faith and operate in the gift.

• Matthew 7:7-20 v9,10 Or what man is thereof you, whom if his son ask bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he give him a serpent?

Pentecostal belief is that a Gift only operates as and when the Holy Spirit directs and therefore cannot be practiced, this is linked with operating under the Spirit of Prophecy not the Gift.

Charismatic belief is that the Gift is given to that person, and they have a responsibility to develop that gift. That these gifts are given as a seed and need to be nurtured and we have a responsibility to stir up these gifts and step out in faith to operate in them.

We have been instructed to be doers of the word not just hearers, so based on that instruction, we now step out expecting the gift to operate. We realise that the gift needs to develop, but we can begin to prophesy today.

The evidence of being baptised in the Holy Spirit is speaking in other tongues, the evidence of receiving the gift of prophecy is to prophesy.

2 Types of prophecy: -

Corporate…to the congregation as a whole…

A prophecy can come before the meeting and be written down, or can come spontaneously during the meeting, with the person prophesying having 10/15 minutes to prepare how to deliver the prophecy, or it can be completely spontaneous.

Personal … to an individual, either openly in a meeting or privately during ministry time.

Learning to drive a car begins by learning the separate steps and then as we become more proficient, these steps flow into each other.

How Prophecy comes - We ride on the wings of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit gives us: -

(1) Revelation....................we see, hear, or feel something from God

Ask for the interpretation, what does it mean?

(2) Interpretation.............understanding begins to come of what it means

Ask how to communicate this meaning?

(3) Delivery.......................How we minister this to the person.

Wrapped in love to bless them.

(4) Edify…………………exhort and comfort….to build up the body

Activation of prophecy … Jesus' method of Discipleship

• Instruction Short teaching to show it is biblical.
• Demonstration See and hear gift in operation.

• Operation You step out in faith.

Prayer of submission to God and bind the demonic

We ask the Father in Jesus Name for the Gift of prophecy and then we thank Him for that gift.

Find a partner, preferably someone you do not know well.

Introduce yourself.

On the instruction, begin to pray, ask The Lord for something that will bless your partner, and then begin to pray in tongues, for about 2 minutes.

Stop praying and start listening, what is God saying to you for this person.

After about 2 minutes you will be asked to deliver what you believe The Lord is saying to that person.

When you finish the other person will now, deliver what they have for you.

There may be time for some feedback before you change partner and repeat.

There will be opportunities to prophesy in small groups, and if there is enough time to receive prophecy from seminar leaders.