Downcast, Doubting, and Discouraged? Fill Up With the Prophetic Word NOW!

Beloveds, have you been in a dark place? Have you been in a place of despair, where you’ve been tempted or fallen into doubt, unbelief, and self-pity? If so, I believe this is an urgent message from Holy Spirit: you must fill up with God’s prophetic word of hope NOW.

I never used to realize how incredibly, vitally important God’s prophetic words were. I mean, I always loved to hear the prophetic word. But I didn’t really get how crucial it is to have a consistent stream of accurate, encouraging prophecy flowing into your life.

But then I looked up a particular Scripture, and I was in shock.

You know that verse about “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17)?

Well, I always thought that verse meant that, in order to bolster our ability to hear God (and therefore our faith), we need to fill up on studying God’s Word. His logos (“logos” being the Greek word for the written Word of God, and also for Jesus when He’s called the Word).

And I never looked it up to see if that’s really what it means–until recently! When I did, though, I was shocked.

You know what I found? I found that, when it says “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”–that the Greek “word” isn’t “logos” after all!

Are you ready for this?

Drum roll, please …

The word of God that builds your faith is not logos at all. It’s rhema! Rhema!

What is rhema? “Rhema” is the right-now, on-time, fitly-spoken, prophetic word of God!

Yes, His prophetic word!

What is God saying here? Simply this:

When you’re in a crisis of faith, God says you need to fill up on His prophetic word!

Why? Because God’s prophetic word–His rhema–is always encouraging!

• The purpose of prophecy is to edify, build up, strength, equip, and encourage.
• The prophetic word always looks at the heart of God and calls it forth upon the earth (and in your life!)
• The prophetic word always speaks comfort directly to the deepest needs of your heart!

By the way, on December 3 (tomorrow!) and December 13, I’ll be teaching webinars to equip YOU to function in reliable, safe, accurate prophetic ministry–and how to discern and stay away from unreliable prophetic ministry! Click here for more info about Intro to Prophetic Ministry 101 and to sign up! A video replay will be sent to all registrants who aren’t able to attend in person, but only if you register!

Do you need God’s prophetic word today?

I know I do, and God has been speaking His rhema to me in the sweetest ways.

For example:

The last few days, when I’ve sat down with my Bible to study in the mornings, Holy Spirit has been prompting me to go to certain passages and chapters that I haven’t read in awhile–chapters from Isaiah (Isaiah 49, 60, 61, and 62, to be precise–as well as Psalm 37).

And while reading those chapters:

• He started talking to me about some of the deepest concerns of my heart–things that I was trying to put aside and leave in His hands; things I had no intention of praying about in that moment. But Father saw the deep desires of my heart and wanted to talk with me about them.
• He gave me a prophetic mandate, showing me what He has been doing with me during some hard times, and telling me how to act going forward.
• He even gave me encouraging words to share with others who were going through similar situations!

And when I began reading these chapters that are specifically God’s prophetic words for us, it was like water for my soul.

Like meat for the hungry starving famished.

Like new life for the decrepit of spirit.

Oh, it was good.

God’s prophetic word pulled me out of just trying to survive and fend off the pain.

You know how difficult it can be to focus on positive things when you’ve been through hell, right? Well, when I started reading these prophetic chapters from Isaiah, Holy Spirit ministered to me so much that:

• His rhema lifted up my eyes;
• He renewed my hope for the future; and
• He filled me with faith that the hard times are nothing in comparison with what He is doing and about to do.

Not kidding.

I mean, I’ve always known God has plans for me that are good. But sometimes when you go through hell, it can be hard to imagine that the hell can stop and good can happen to you! again.

But that’s exactly what God’s prophetic word brought me: hope and joy and FAITH and courage and JOY, joy, and joy again.

(Did I say joy?)

I was really struggling with doubt and unbelief. #JustBeingReal

And doubt and unbelief are sin, no doubt about it. God’s Word says that whatever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23). And all throughout Scripture, God says over and over that doubt and unbelief are very offensive to Him.

So how can we stay in faith?

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the rhema of God.”

We stay in faith by filling up on God’s prophetic word.

And how do you get that prophetic word? Any number of ways:

Depending on where you are and what your situation is, all of the methods below can work. Just be sure you are ONLY looking to God and godly things for His Word, NOT ever any occultish source like psychics or mind-reading, okay? Those things are demonic and will open the door to the enemy to wreck your life. Stay AWAY from the demonic and the occult! Go to God and ONLY use His methods to hear from Him!

Method 1: You can get a prophetic word directly out of God’s written Word.

That’s how God gives me most of the prophetic words I write:

• I’ll sit down with my Bible just in the course of ordinary time with God, and suddenly I’ll feel prompted to read a particular chapter …
• … and then a verse or passage starts jumping off the page into my spirit …
• … and then I start hearing God explain that passage to me and tell me how He’s applying it …
• … and then He’ll tell me if this is something I’m supposed to pray into, or something I’m supposed to do today, or something He’s already doing …
• … and then He’ll remind me of coordinating Scriptures that fill in the details about what He’s doing, and that give examples …
• … and the whole thing comes together. Right out of God’s Word, His logos.

But it wasn’t the fact that it was logos that builds my faith. It’s the fact that it’s rhema that builds my faith. Because if He doesn’t make those Scriptures jump off the page at me, then I may not get what He’s trying to tell me at all.

(Just because it’s written doesn’t mean it can’t be rhema too. The Holy Spirit turns it from one into the other.)

And if I don’t hear those on-time, right-now, fitly-spoken words from Holy Spirit, the level of faith, hope, joy, comfort, and encouragement I have when I go out of my study time is nowhere near what it is when He speaks His rhema to me.

Method 2: Get a prophetic word through prayer.

Your own prayer.

This is a conversation I’ve been having with a friend lately, so I want to talk about it because maybe more than one person is thinking about this.

Beloveds, I’m being careful to tell you here to get a prophetic word through prayer, Bible study, and your own research (see method #3). Why? Because you’ve got to take responsibility for your own life and your own walk with God.

God can and will send prophets into your life to encourage you. When He does, you’d be wise to listen:

• If they have a word for you, listen. If it resonates with you and it lines up with God’s Word, receive it. God is using them to bless you.
• When they encourage you, listen. If it lines up with the Word, receive it. God is using them to bless you.
• When they offer to pray for you, it’d be good to let them. Not because you can’t pray on your own; you should have already prayed. But if the person prophesying to you has had breakthrough in the area they’re praying about, they have gained a place of authority in intercession over that area, and they’ll get breakthrough without your having to fight for it because they’ve already won it in previous battles. That’s just how intercession works.

Take everything your prophets say to you to the Lord, just like you should with everything else. Make sure that their words line up with His Word. But as long as they do, know that God sent you those prophets to be a blessing to you. Listen to them!

But you can’t allow them to be your first source. GOD has to be your go-to source.

So do you need a prophetic word today? Method #2 is to go to God and pray about it until you have peace and an answer.

Pray about it until you know that you know that you know that God has answered …

… and make sure the answer that you “know” you’ve heard lines up with His Word, and fills you with the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, self-control, etc). If it doesn’t, then the answer you heard was NOT from God, and you need to go back to the drawing board and pray again.

If you’ll pray about your concerns, fears, struggles, and every type of situation, God will hear you and answer. And before you even see the direct answer to your prayer manifested in your life, you’ll have an answer from Him that He has spoken into your spirit, telling you what He is going to do.

That answer in your spirit is rhema. It’s the prophetic word. 

And it’s a beautiful thing. 🙂

Method 3: Keep up with prophetic news sources, to hear what God’s prophets are saying around the world.

My two favorite prophetic news sources are Spirit Fuel and The Elijah List. (Of note, Spirit Fuel published one of my words, We Are Now In an Isaiah 54 Season, yesterday! Go, Jesus!)

The words posted on Spirit Fuel and The Elijah List have been vetted, and they’re from reliable prophetic voices. Although I take every word I read to the Lord and ask Him if it’s true or not (as you should too), I consider both to be extremely accurate sources of prophetic words from the Lord, and they are very encouraging to me.

In fact, if you’ll do methods 1 and 2 before  you do method 3, you’ll often find that Method 3 will validate and confirm what you already got directly from the Lord in Methods 1 and 2. 🙂

God’s just cool like that.

So rhema. God’s prophetic word. THAT’s the word of God that builds faith.

So what do you need to do if your faith is waning–if you’re tired or discouraged?

Fill up on God’s prophetic word right now. Right now. Run, don’t walk, to dine on His rhema. RUN.

 

His prophetic word will fill you with hope and courage. It will renew your faith and re-kindle your joy, and it will give you inspiration to press on with a tremendous sense of expectation about what GOD–God, not the enemy–is doing in your life.

Does this message speak to your heart today? If so, please leave a comment below!