A New Way Of Faith

JoAnn and I brought our passports when we came to Las Vegas for two months, so it wasn’t a total surprise when Dennis Walker asked us to be part of a team going to Peru for a week in January.  But we had no money for the trip.

I looked to God and sensed I should send an appeal for donations by email.  We were busy and it took a few days to get everything together, but at last the letters went out and now I wondered if anything would come in.

At this point I decided to soak and hold the trip before the Lord. Sometimes when I soak I simply jot down words or phrases as I sense God directing me, but at other times I write out the full message – I’m simply acting on what I wrote in You Can Hear From God.  So as I waited on God about the Peru trip, here is what I heard:

I am training you in a new way of faith, a way more restful and more productive than what you have known before.  By my Spirit I will show you things to come, and they will be a light to your path.  As you move towards them, they will steer you into divine appointments and opportunities for the overflow of My Spirit.

We shall grow to know one another as you catch these glimpses, for I will show the scenes from your future that will steer you and shape you.  I will select them carefully to direct your life.  I will teach you my ways, and together we will walk in them until they become so habitual to you that they become part of your nature.

This excited me.  As a younger man, I lived by faith as I planted one church and then another.  If a bill arrived, I didn’t know how I’d pay it; I often didn’t know how I’d put food on my table tomorrow.  But I never made my needs known to man.  I prayed, standing on promises and continuing in prayer until I knew the need was met.  God is faithful; my family and I never went without, and we always managed to pay our bills on time.

But I haven’t prayed like that for years.  Now that I needed money for a trip to Peru, did I still have it in me to pray the prayer of faith?  I pondered what God was telling me.  I knew He wasn’t calling me to go back to the prayer life I had years ago.  It was time to step into a new pattern.

So I lay in bed and put on soaking music.  I meditated on Ephesians 2 and our being seated in Christ in the heavens.  Then my thoughts went to Ephesians 1:3, where all spiritual blessings are ours in heavenly places ion Christ.

I decided to look around in the heavens and see what God had already provided.  First, I needed more faith.  That was already there; Christ who lives in me has plenty of faith.  Next I needed eyes to see what God has provided; again, Christ in me has perfect spiritual vision.  So I looked around for the money, and there was an envelope on a table.  I reached out and took it, and sensed my prayer was finished.

But as I finished my prayer I sensed that God wants to give a variety of these experiences before we go to Peru.  The conference theme is “Accessing The Open Heavens” and 40 pastors will be attending.  I need to gather fresh testimonies about the resources we have in Christ, and how to access them.

It was the easiest praying I ever did.  I didn’t try to talk God into anything; I simply tried to dial in to what He had already planned.  I didn’t speak a word, but nevertheless my inner man conducted a transaction with God.  But did it work, or was it just a mystical experience?

In the next week, pledges and donations came in, and we bought our tickets.

The heavens are open in Christ.  God wants to give tangible evidence as we see prayers answered and as He leads us into doing the works of Jesus.

There’s more to this story, but I’ll have to write it in another article.

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

7 Ministry Opportunities

Many of us may think there are no ministry opportunities unless we first go to seminary and then are given a pulpit where we can speak ever Sunday.  But in Matthew 8, Jesus found seven diverse ministry opportunities without first being invited into a church to preach.  See if some of them show you an area where God might be able to use you.

1.  A stranger came and asked for ministry. It was the leper, the one who said, “If you want to, You can make me clean.”  Not only did Jesus make him clean, but He multiplied the ministry opportunity by sending the man to the priests to verify his healing.

Even if you haven’t gotten anybody healed yet, don’t be afraid to ask God to do the impossible in people’s lives.

2.  A stranger came to ask Jesus to minister to someone else. It was the servant who came, asking Jesus to visit the Centurion.  Jesus dropped what He was doing and started walking across town.  The Centurion got wind of it and tried to get Jesus just to speak the word only – soon the Centurion was healed, and the testimony became the topic of a teaching Jesus gave about faith.

Be willing to go out of your way to minister to people, even if someone else asks you to minister to them.

3.  A family member in the house where Jesus was staying. It was Peter’s mother-in-law, sick with a fever.  Jesus took her by the hand, got her up from her bed, and she was healed; she went on to cook dinner for everybody.

Ministry can happen right under your own roof, with the people you see every day.

4.  At a home meeting. It came about spontaneously, but a crowd gathered at Peter’s house and Jesus went outside and ministered to them.

Take time in home meetings to minister to people one by one as needs arise.  Get involved.

5.  With disciples. Matthew 8:18-22 tell of a scribe and a disciple who had personal questions for Jesus; He took time to speak to them.

Ministry doesn’t have to be in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes God looks for you to give personal attention to people who have questions; even if you don’t know the answer, you can at least encourage a person to seek for truth.

6.  In a crisis. They were crossing the lake and a storm almost swamped the boat.  Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves, then challenged the disciples to start using their own faith.

Sometimes the best way to minister is to do the right thing in a crisis.  Your example will teach people far more clearly than your words ever could.

7.  In spiritual warfare. When Jesus met two demonized men, he simply took authority over the demons and His few words brought a very noticeable change to the men.  They responded by going into town to tell what Jesus had done to them.

James 4:7 gives a simple recipe for this kind of ministry:  submit to God; resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  We can’t resist the devil successfully unless we have first submitted to God.  This is why Jesus called the twelve to spend time with Him so He could give them power to cast out demons – see Mark 3:13-15.

Finally – in most of these stories, people came to Jesus.  For you and me, we usually have to begin by reaching out to others.  Slowly but surely, you will develop a track record for seeing answers to prayer or moving in gifts of the Holy Spirit.  At that point, people will start coming to you.

But none of these ministry opportunities happened in a traditional church service.  There are plenty of opportunities to minister outside the church; if you want to be like Jesus, you’ll start finding them.

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

Create A Scavenger Hunt

A few months ago I began to experiment with using a scavenger hunt, listing several experiences you can reach for as you seek to grow in the things of the Spirit.

Recently I’ve decided to create a scavenger hunt to stretch myself – I’m still learning – and I’m expecting to finish these few items in the next month or two.  Here’s my list; you’re welcome to use it yourself, or to use it as a template as you develop your own.

But here’s a caveat.  I’m trying to avoid good ideas.  I took time to soak and asked God what He wants to do in my life in the next few weeks; I want it to be what He wants, not necessarily what I want.  As I got quiet and listened, I sensed it is a time to press further into evangelism and ministry opportunities that happen with strangers outside the church.  So here are a few things I feel led to reach for.

 

Stay filled with the Spirit. I’m seeking to live in a fulfillment of Ephesians 5:18-20.  I wrote about this a few weeks ago – see Testimony:  Spirit-Filled Living.

Get a word to myself every week, then act on it. I’ve written before about the keys to hearing God’s voice – a quiet heart, focusing on Jesus, getting into a spontaneous flow of words, and writing it down.  I’ll share one or two in the next few weeks.

Prophesy at the dinner table. I’m used to giving words in the church, but whenever I read the four gospels I notice that Jesus often ministered when he sat down to eat with people.  So I want to start giving words at the table.

Press in to evangelism. JoAnn and I are in Las Vegas for the next two months, staying with Dennis and Lynnie Walker and connecting with their ministry at the Dunamis Resources.  I don’t know yet what this will mean, but sense that I’m to get involved in evangelism whenever the opportunity comes up.

Ask my question to people every week.  See where it goes. It doesn’t come naturally to me to relate to strangers, but I plan to ask questions to start conversations. I was led to do this a few years ago when JoAnn and I spent five weeks in the U.K. as part of a prayer ministry.  I was led to ask strangers – hotel clerks, waitresses in pubs, people waiting for the bus – “We’re part of a prayer team from California, spending five weeks in a prayer ministry for the U.K. – how would you like us to pray for your country?”

Sometimes they gave an intellectual answer that was a bit stand-offish; sometimes their hearts opened and they ended up asking prayer for themselves.  We didn’t get pushy, but we tried to leave a taste of God’s love with each person and we stepped into whatever ministry times opened up.

I’m not quite sure what questions to use, but sense that I need to use this format to start engaging with strangers.  I sense that if I’ll be faithful to experiment, God will show me how to get better and better at finding ministry opportunities outside the church.

Get a stranger healed outside the church. Matthew 8 says Jesus did this with a leper and with the Centurion’s servant.

Move in word of knowledge outside the church. This is what Jesus did with the woman at the well and with others.

 

That’s my list.  I think it will make room for me to stretch as I soak 2-3 times a week and encourage 5 people – a larger gift mix, new ministry opportunities, and plenty of room for the manifest presence of God.

Feel free to join me; take the list to God in a soaking time and let Him revise the list to fit you better – look for items that will take you one or two short steps past your comfort zone.

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

 

4 Ways We Can Overdo It

We soak and do our best to hear from God; we follow through by acting on what God tells us as we encourage 5 people each week.  Sometimes we act overdo it, acting too quickly or working too hard.  Here are four examples.

1. We obey too efficiently. We treat obedience as an item on our to-do list, and we check it off as quickly as we can.  But we never give a moment’s thought to how God might stretch us or cause us to grow.

Keep your eyes and ears open as you act on God’s directions.  Leave room for Him to surprise you.  Ask God questions as you go.  Often He will reveal more as we step into obedience, and this is where we learn the most.

2. We obey in a frenzy – “I have to obey God now!” Ask God about timing.  Sometimes He wants you to act as quickly as possible; sometimes He will give you a mission you can’t fulfill for days, weeks, or even years.  He has the right to speak either way.

There’s another issue here:  frenzy.  The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy.  God isn’t locking you into a vise of high-pressure demands.  If His kingdom is at work in you, you will walk in easygoing righteousness, you will stay in His peace, and you’ll have a good time walking with Him.

3. We postpone obedience because we feel unprepared. Sometimes God speaks a destiny word into our lives and then leads us into years of preparation.  Joseph’s dreams told him he would be a ruler but it took years of preparation in slavery and prison before the word came to pass.

But I’m not talking about the seasons in our lives here.  Sometimes God calls us to do something that isn’t in our gift mix. We balk; we want to prepare first.  But God is calling for us to rely on Christ in us, who already has the gifts the situation demands.

Step into it and give it your best.  Many people have come into the gift of healing because a speaker didn’t show up or a scheduler made a mistake, but they leaned on God and were totally surprised when He actually healed a few people.

4. Trying to add to what God told you. I learned this many years ago when pledges were being taken up for a Bible school in India and God told me to pledge $250.  I told Him I could give twice as much.  “It is just as disobedient to give twice what I called for as to give half.”

Sometimes God leads us to do something simple.  “Post a word of encouragement on J.’s FaceBook page.”  Look to God for what to write, but don’t overdo it – it doesn’t have to be a prophecy with ten words of knowledge in it.

I preached in my home church on a Wednesday night and asked God what to do by way of personal ministry.  He led me to anoint people with oil as a follow-up on the word I was to preach.  I was restless about these instructions; I wanted to minister to the sick or get into personal prophecy.

Keep it simple. If God tells you to do something, act on His word as soon as you reasonably can.  Keep your eyes and ears open as you obey; He may want to tell you more about when or how to minister. Expect the Holy Spirit to overflow as you obey and release gifts you weren’t expecting to get into.  And remember that there are more gifts in your gift mix than you have ever used if Christ lives in you.

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

Rediscovering Scripture

I have a simple Bible-reading discipline, six chapters a day.  I finish the whole Bible every eight months or so.  I’ve kept this habit for years.

My biggest problem with this discipline is that it’s easy to read the scripture thoughtlessly.  I read, but something inside says, “Yeah, yeah, I already know that.”  I have to make myself get fresh meaning from the familiar words.

And the online school helps.  Now that I’ve made a habit of soaking 2-3 timers a week and reaching out to 5 people, some of the yeah-yeah-I-already-know-that passages of the New Testament are starting to ring with fresh challenge and excitement.  Here’s an example:

[God] “will render to each one according to his deeds”:  eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality…  (Romans 2:6-7)

Do any of us really go out of our way to seek glory, honor, and immortality?  Here’s how the online school is helping me act on these easy-to-overlook words.

 

1. How can we patiently continue doing good? By taking time to soak in God’s presence, looking for Him to send us to needy people we can encourage – edifying, exhorting, or comforting them.

We aren’t doing these good works to try to earn anything from God.  We’re simply looking for the adventure of Spirit-led living, so we can glorify Him by bearing fruit.

2.  How do we seek glory? The Lord’s prayer ends with our affirmation that all glory belongs to God, but like Moses, we can ask to see His glory.  II Corinthians 3 makes it clear that we are changed as we behold Him.  So while we don’t seek to take any glory away from God, we do seek to be transformed in God’s manifest presence.

Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”  (John 14:21) As we soak in God’s presence, we hear fresh commands from Him; as we act on them, He will manifest His presence whenever and however He chooses.

3. How do we seek honor? In John 5:44 Jesus asked, “How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?”  There is a right way to seek the honor that comes from God, and it plays out in a life of increasing faith.

God honors us by speaking to us when we soak in His presence.  He honors us by healing the sick when we minister to them – we can’t accomplish this without Him – or giving us a word in season when we speak to people.  He honors us by telling us things that bear fruit in the real world.  We seek this honor by spending time in God’s presence and by reaching out to do the works of Jesus.

4. How do we seek immortality? Many of us think of eternal life as a gift that starts to work after we die, but it can begin here and now.  Do a study of the Greek words for life, contrasting the psuche or soul kind of life with the zoe or divine life we receive in Christ.

Through the good works of soaking and encouraging, we aren’t trying to earn the zoe life of God. We can’t earn it; we can only receive it as a gift of grace.  But we can seek to experience the undying life of Christ who lives in us as He does things in us and through us that our flesh can’t do.

 

There’s one example.  As my Bible reading takes me to a few more of thee easy-to-overlook passages, I’ll write a quick blurb about how the online school can help you dig into them.  But we got more than we realize when Jesus came into our hearts – and the online school can help you start enjoying what you received in Christ.

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

 

Use The Cracks In The Sidewalk

My grandmother had a green thumb, and the family joke had it that she could grow things in the cracks in the sidewalk.  The online school of the Spirit can work like that; you can find kingdom opportunities in daily life.

I’m in for a busy week.  Company is coming on Friday and on Saturday JoAnn and I leave for a week’s vacation.  On top of that, we have a lot of things to clear off our desks this week.  I don’t foresee a lot of free time.

It occurred to me that most of you are about as busy as I am, so I’m going to keep my week’s record of activity right here.  (You don’t need to write this much in your journal; a list is all you need.)

Encouragement – 3 people after church. The first was a man who asked me to pray for his healing; problems with an eyelid.

The second was a couple who were getting baptized; they asked if I was going to stay late for the baptism and I said I didn’t have time, but may I pray for you now?

The third was a man who asked how the trip to Korea had been; he said his small group had prayed for me.  I said the best thing about the trip was the connections with people – he came to life because that was a key thing they had prayed.  So to encourage him that his prayers were answered, I gave three testimonies of what God had done with relationships in Korea.

Encouragement – 2 people while going out to do errands. I saw the next-door neighbor in his driveway; he’s recovering from cancer treatment and mentioned a slipped disc – I said I’d pray for him.

Then I saw Wade at the Goodwill pickup place; as I left stuff with him I told him about the online school of the Spirit – soaking/listening 2-3 times a week and encouraging 5 people.  “You’d be a natural, friendly as you are,” I told him.  “You always have a big smile…”  I went on to tell him ministry opportunities are all around us, and we overlook most of them.

“You made my day,” he said, shaking my hand as I gave him my card with the internet address for the online school.

Soaking. The first time I soaked wasn’t very profound; I had a tight schedule and needed to exercise, so I took my iPod to the gym and tried to soak while I walked and jogged on the treadmill.  The TV in the gym was distracting, but if nothing else I managed to dial in to God’s peace.

Then Saturday night I sat in a plush chair and soaked.  As sometimes happens, I felt God was pressing understanding upon me about what life is like in the open heavens.  It occurred to me that living with Jesus was a unique experience for the twelve, not only because of the miracles Jesus did but also because of the heavenly lifestyle He modeled.   Just being with Him was an opportunity to absorb the values of heaven; it was true then, and it’s still true today.

Sometimes when we soak it can feel like a weight of God’s presence is bearing down upon us.  It is a very subduing influence.

Encouragement — at a state office. I’m working through a situation that is more complex than anyone expected, and the official I’m working with has been helpful, courteous, and thorough as he untangles it.   We’ve met on the phone and by email several times, and this week I met him face to face.  It came up that he is a retired pastor.  For now, he’s in a season of secular work, but he senses a day will come when God will call him back into more active ministry.

I encouraged him to do the online school assignment, soaking 2-3 times and encouraging 5 people each week.  A look of hope spread across his face.  He doesn’t have to wait to retire from his state job before he can minister; he can find ministry opportunities now.  Our visit ended with a bear hug, the first I’ve ever experienced in a state office.

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

Two Answered Prayers

JoAnn and I took turns praying when it appeared almost hopeless, and God answered each of us in turn.

The first happened when she suddenly developed a problem with a tooth.  The symptoms indicated it needed a root canal; the problem was that she had already had a root canal for that tooth.  So in all likelihood she would have to lose the tooth, and this in turn would cause a succession of other problems. And every step in the process would cost $1000 or more.

But as I soaked, God suddenly told me to go pray for JoAnn, calling for the problem to vanish, the tooth to be saved, and the bills to be minimized.

I was in Korea when she went to the dentist, but we got to talk on the phone and she reported that they took x-rays which showed a fourth root that they had missed when they had done the root canal previously.  She sat in the chair for more than an hour as they completed the work – then they didn’t charge her for it.

I got home from Korea and a severe rainstorm with high winds swept through California.  Suddenly water was dripping through the kitchen ceiling.  I put a pan under it and counted twelve seconds between drips – this meant five drops of water per minute were coming through.

I don’t have the tools for this kind of work, so we called our builder.  He was out.  I decided to walk out in the street where I could see the roof; there I noticed a vent that looked like it could be the cause of the leak.

“I guess I can go to the lumberyard,” I said.  “I think they make a kind of tar you can smear even on a wet roof to stop a leak.”  But as I went out the back door to the carport, the front doorbell rang.  It was the builder.

“That kind of tar never works,” he said.  “We’ll have to wait for it to dry up and I can go up on the roof and see what it needs.”

He left, agreeing to come back as soon as the rain let up.  JoAnn was still concerned about the leak; she had seen the effects of water damage in another property she had owned years ago.

“We’re at the mercy of the rain,” I said.  “Until it stops, there’s nothing anyone can do.”

Then her face changed.  “Yes there is,” she said.  “We can pray.”  So she prayed for the rain to let up and for the roof to be repaired with a minimum of cost and fuss.  She closed the prayer by commanding the drip to stop.  In less than a minute, it did.

I went out.  When I got home, JoAnn told me what had happened.  “The rain let up, and Corky came over.  He was in the neighborhood anyway to put in a bid on another job.  He had everything he needed – went up on the roof – took care of it – and when he came down I asked him how much I owed him.”

“Three sheets of paper,” he replied.

“What?  That’s all you want?”

“Yes, I came over to the neighborhood to do a bid and forgot to bring any paper.”

JoAnn gave him a whole steno book.

God answers prayer.  And it’s good to be writing this down.  Another need has come up, and it’s good to look back at what God has done for us in the past…

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

How Far Ahead Does Prophecy Look?

I was with Pastor Jung Shik Hong at Harvest Church in Seoul, and just before the meeting started he asked me, “Do you have a word for Korea?”

“No,” I replied because in the traditional sense of how prophecy works, I didn’t.  But as soon as I said no, I realized I may have given the wrong answer because in an offbeat way, I really did have a word for the nation.

It had come to me in a very intense time of prayer that morning:  that someone in the congregation has been having an open heaven experience of meeting someone from North Korea for prayer.  I was to supply five scriptures that would verify that this spiritual experience was a reality, not just an imagination.

On one level this word was not a prophecy over Korea.  It certainly didn’t predict Korea’s future.

On another level, if the person or people it was directed to will take the word to heart, it may go on to be part of God’s plan to heal and unify the land.  It is a way for two or more to agree on earth as touching anything.  So although the word didn’t predict Korea’s future, it may affect it.

I ministered in a conference and two churches in Seoul, and in a few meetings I had the opportunity to minister prophetically to people one by one.  As I ministered, I noticed that God sometimes told of the goal He was leading people to, and sometimes of the path He would lead them on.  Either way, He always left something unknown.

The more exciting prophecies mentioned destinations that may be a few years or even decades away:  an apostolic ministry, travel to the nations, or something specific in the gifts.  It was less exciting if the word was that someone was to pray in the morning, to thank God for something every day, or to choose humility whenever possible.  Yet the less exciting words may have been more useful and edifying.

When prophesying over people, we can face a subtle temptation to make every word exciting.  We don’t want to make people think their lives are insignificant; we want to challenge people to believe God for His best; we don’t want anyone to feel left out.

I call this a temptation because these noble but humanistic motives will steer us into error.  If God gives a word that sounds dull and unexciting, we are better off to give it than to try to reach into God for something that sounds grander or more exciting.

In some meetings the prophecies indicate that everyone in the room is to become an apostle or a prophet.  Who knows?  Maybe the word is true.  But how many years does it take to raise up a quality ministry?  How long will it take for such words to come to pass?

Sometimes God will give us words that simply identify the next step or two a person needs to take.  This means we need to let people know they are not limited by the word; God will not confine His actions to the few things the prophet spoke.

As I ministered to one person after another, I noticed that God sometimes gave words oriented towards deliverance or inner healing.  Sometimes He spoke of things that would happen in the next few months.

I prophesied over one young lady that she would see heavenly things and God would often speak to her in pictures.  The next morning she told of being awakened at 5:00 a.m. with the room filled with a thick cloud that emitted light; she went on to see a vision of how I would minister that evening.  Her vision confirmed the direction I was sensing for the evening meeting.

If you receive prophecies that don’t speak grand promises of future ministry but that tell you instead what to do now, act on the words.  As you take the steps God is calling for now, you will follow Him into greater challenges tomorrow.

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

Testimony: Trip To Korea

I had a full schedule of meetings in Korea.  I arrived on a Sunday afternoon and spoke twice a day Monday through Wednesday, had two meetings that centered on one-on-one prophetic ministry on Thursday, and had a single meeting on Friday night before I left for home on Saturday.

They arranged my schedule to leave my mornings free every day, which gave me time to soak.  This gave me the opportunity to hear something from God that launched a time of personal ministry or a flow of the gifts of the Spirit in the meetings.

But before the whole schedule began, three people met me at the airport and took me to my hotel.  Was I hungry?  Yes; I left my bags in my room and we took time for sandwiches in the hotel snack bar before I went to bed for the night.  And soon we were talking about deep things in the word and the presence of God was tangible.

This set the stage for the rest of the week.  Several times the conversation at a meal gave way to a moment of prophetic ministry, but I wasn’t trying to make these things happen.  The people were hungry for God, and God was ready to feed them.

I had time to soak or to pray each morning, and God spoke to me daily.  One day I took a walk to climb a mountain near the hotel; God turned the walk into a parable and taught me something about open-heaven protocol.  (I’ll write about it in a separate article.)

I was led to present a vision for the supernatural life in the Spirit, and to anchor it firmly in classic truths of Christ crucified, risen, ascended, and enthroned.  Though I shared a few testimonies of open heaven encounters my friends and I have had, I felt it was important to anchor everything in clear words of scripture.  I found it very gratifying that Evangelical leaders in the meetings came to me and said they were convinced it was time to open the door to the Holy Spirit in a new way.

During worship one evening, I saw a vision of a fishing boat floating in waters dotted with chunks of ice.  There was no danger; I sensed the peace of God as missionaries were traveling to their next stop on the boat.  I prayed for understanding and realized the boat was in the waters of coastal Russia, north of Korea.  So at the end of my preaching, I asked if anyone in the room had ever been a missionary to that region or was planning a trip there.  Three people responded, a young couple and a young man.  I sense the mission trip is in the future, and the rest of the story remains to be written…

There were several opportunities to minister prophetically to individuals.  This is always a labor of faith, as there isn’t time to stop and ask each person, “What does this word mean to you?  Is it the word of God to you?”  Nonetheless, several signals told me God was speaking to people:  many wept, several stared at me with astonishment, a few came to me later and said the words had spoken to them.  One laughed aloud and said, “That’s her!” as I spoke over her friend.

Possibly the sweetest moment happened at the end of the prophetic conference.  It’s too long a story to write here so I’ve posted it on the prophetic song blog, but it was thirty-five minutes of spontaneous prophetic worship with no human leadership at all – see http://propheticsong.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/open-heaven-bondslaves/.

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

Two Things That Overflowed This Week

What happens when you do the online school assignment?  Here are two examples from my own life this week; both illustrate that God may give something small that keeps growing and overflowing as we use it.

Soaking. On Wednesday morning I heard something from God while I was soaking – I’ve posted it on my Prophetic Song page – but I’ll post just a short quote here:

Haven’t I said Open your mouth wide and I will fill it?  Therefore be not slack, be not passive, but stir yourself to take hold of the promise of your God.  There are many things I will yet speak to you, but I look for you to abandon yourself to the flow of My Spirit…

Part of what I heard that morning was a prophetic word to give in my home church that evening.  I want to share a little more about that here.

Prophecy is about flow.  It isn’t just information; the prophetic word is an energized word that unpacks itself as it is given.  Do a study of the Hebrew word nabi and you’ll see that it refers to a pressurized word that comes gushing out of the prophet.

I have learned that it is good to go into a meeting (or any other ministry opportunity) with a phrase or two that will pop the cork and start the flow of a word.  But I’ve also learned not to try to get the whole word before I give it; if I do, I’ll simply pass on information without capturing the immediacy of true prophecy.

I have heard some people describe the gifts of the Spirit as packages God sends us to deliver.  That’s a helpful picture, since it minimizes our importance and enables us to sow into humility, not pride, as we move in the gifts.

But remember that a prophetic word is the kind of package the U.S. Post Office refuses to deliver.  It is pressurized.  It isn’t designed to pour tidily out of the bottle; it is designed to explode when you uncap it.

This is why I never ask God for the whole word before I give it.  I need just enough to know how to open the bottle.  After that, I expect the prophetic word to speak for itself.

Encourage = Edify, Exhort, Comfort. A friend at church asked me a question a few days ago.  I told him as much as I could, and went home.  Only when the conversation was over did God give me a scripture with a simple and practical answer to his question.

I asked God why He hadn’t given me the right words for this man until the conversation was over.  Here are the reasons He gave me:

1.  He is a God of relationships.  He isn’t looking for all our ministry encounters to be one-shot experiences; he wants us to build friendships.

2.  He wanted the word to work in me.  I might have forgotten it if I had simply passed it on, but God did it this way so I would pay more attention to the word.

3.  He wanted me to thank my friend for the question.  The scripture God gave me answered a question I had held before Him for ten years or more. But God didn’t give me the answer until it was in a context where it would bless someone else besides myself.

4.  Finally, I sensed that God wanted me to share the story here.  Part of the assignment to encourage one another is to edify, exhort, or comfort each other.  And one of the best ways to edify is to share something helpful from the word of God.

So here’s a challenge for you. If someone asks you a question from scripture and you don’t know the answer, go home and ask God.  If He gives you the answer, take it back to your friend.  If not, put it on the back burner.  He’ll answer sooner or later.

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com