SHAWN: I will say this. That as I?m training you or teaching you in just a few minutes of inspiration that God really wants to give away this ability to hear his voice for the world around us because it? the quickest way for people to be grounded in who He is. They?ll read the Bible forever if they feel like they know the God of the Bible. They?ll seek out Jesus forever if they feel like they know that Jesus personally is talking to them. And He gives words to people all the time who don?t get saved through our ministry and through our friends and it?s just another seed sown but man when they get saved and they remember all the times that God spoke to them, as a matter of fact, you know we gave the word to the girl in Honolulu if you read the book ?Translating God,? it was a little prostitute girl who is no longer a prostitute that we gave a word to that many of you just heard this story about. But she was a girl who I asked her to listen to God and I said what is God telling you about your future? Let?s ask Him about your calling. And she heard from God. I didn?t hear from God for her. So it?s not only transferrable but even people who aren?t saved under our tutelage, under our like just spending time with them are going to hear from God. You?re going to be an intercessor for the whole world around you. So I want to talk a little bit about ?words of knowledge? specifically. That?s what was on my heart to teach today and just share with you today because I feel like this is a lost art in the body of Christ. As a matter of fact we?ve so advocated the position that when I do it many people will accuse who haven?t been around me before like that?s ?cold reading.? Haven?t you heard of Jonathan Edwards? Haven?t you heard of and I?m just laughing going haven?t you ever heard of Jesus! He was way before Jonathan Edwards!
AUDIENCE: [LAUGHING]
SHAWN: Way before these spiritists and these you know people who do all kinds of other stuff. And I just feel like when you look at the scriptures of the Bible how Jesus modeled ministry many times He would say one or two words that someone would respond by saying He knew everything about me! And He knew one detail but they were in a crowd of people that was big enough that all of a sudden they felt so known and connected to the God of all the universe right then. First Corinthians 14:1 says: Follow love like your life depends on it and eagerly desire prophecy. Now this is cool because when you think about like following the love all is that means is the same way you love your kids, the same way you love your spouse, the same way you love your neighbor as your friends you apply that kind of love. You borrow from that bank of love and you apply it to people who aren?t saved or that you don?t know. Maybe there are people in your church who are saved but you apply that same kind of love. Sometimes I have to treasure people and I think that?s why God gives a lot of word association words of knowledge where I?ll see somebody and they remind me of my sister Jennifer and I?m treasuring them like I treasure Jennifer for a moment. Then I?m asking them is your name Jennifer and it is! Or is your wife?s name Jennifer and it is. But I?ve already come to a place of love where I borrowed from the bank of love that I already had towards them. And it just is so beautiful when you can be connected to a person and prophecy grounds us in the moment. You know God is so beautiful. Especially words of knowledge grounds us in the moment! He?s so beautiful because He?s omnipresent but He chooses to come into our time and space and manifest in a moment of connectivity with us. The most beautiful resource we have to give is time! The most beautiful resource heaven has to give is time! So when God comes and brings us into a connected moment, it can happen through worship, it can happen through teaching, it can happen through fellowship but when it happens through prophecy we realize especially through a word of knowledge like when you give a word of knowledge like a birthday to somebody or something of private information to somebody and you ask them is this God? And they all of a sudden feel like the God of all the universe stopped and took a moment out of His time to make me feel special and loved and known. And they are thinking, I?m telling you so many people, especially outside people or in the religious community of the church, and I?m talking about the negative religion, I love the Church but there?s a lot of negative religion where we?ve even we need to deprogram ourselves from religion and program ourselves on love. And I?ve had so many people who are like ?but I?ve done all this bad.? I?ve done so much bad how could God want to minister to me right now? And that?s how we?ve been, the state of our heart has been like God is against me. He?s not for me. And prophecy proves that God loves us even though we have all this stuff in our lives. Despite what we?ve chosen, despite what we?ve done prophecy helps us to feel the God who loves us even though when we still have a chance. We still have a chance for full redemption, a life of fullness and He grounds us in those moments throughout our lives. And if you will choose to prophecy, if you will choose to look at the world around you and say I?m going to treasure these people as though they?re the very gift of God, that?s how Jesus saw them! As a matter of fact Jesus saw everybody around Him as if they were the joy set before Him that He was even willing to go to the cross and pay the ultimate price for it! One of the things I encourage people to do before they even try and get words of knowledge or prophecy is start to treasure the people they?re trying to get words of knowledge or prophecy for. Start to fall in love. Start to say God, I choose to love this person. I choose to be present with this person. I chose to be connected to this person whether we?re with prostitutes in red light districts or whether we?re with business people or people in our own church we?re constantly trying to separate ourselves from technology and what we need to eat later and what we need to do in our busy schedule and we?re trying to have a complete moment that?s for that person where we?re saying you are worthy. You are worth my time!
AUDIENCE: Mm.
SHAWN: That?s how prophecy starts. Many of us don?t ever hear that because a lot of people who prophesy they actually just do a gift. They just prophesy to the measure of their gift. They?re not connected in their emotions. You become one of the millions of people they?ve prophesied over. They don?t know who you are. And I?m not saying I remember everybody I prophesied over but I remember a moment that I spent because I was completely invested in that moment with them with God and my love was turned on or else I wasn?t going to do it. I refuse to do something that it doesn?t have to be an emotion but I don?t turn my love on for. Let?s look real fast at First Corinthians 12 where it talks about spiritual gifts. One of them says that there?s a message of the word of knowledge. Now this is incredible because a word of knowledge does this for people and it helps people to understand that they are loved by God and that He had pre-thought them. One of my favorite words of knowledge I ever had I was in Australia and I was with Pastor Bill Johnson. Many of you now him from Reading California. And right before he spoke they had asked me to get up and give some words of knowledge and to give some prophetic words. So I got up and I gave a list. I had pre-prayed and asked God for names of the people there and for whatever. Not names but just whatever He would say. And I pre-prayed and as I had started to try and give the words no one was there on my list! And I was like well you?re pretty, I?ll just prophesy over you. I don?t know. I didn?t know what to do. I was just like ha, ha, ha, does anybody want a word? You know like it was just one of those moments and it was a big sell-out conference and I bombed! You know but I was not a performance. I?m in love. I?m just trying. I?m taking risks. And I?m learning too and it?s not about information in the New Testament. You don?t go get stoned because you have information wrong. You get stoned when you don?t love well.
AUDIENCE: Mm.
Tags: It's Supernatural, Sid Roth