When Prophecy Disappoints

Welcome back everyone to Season 4! In today's episode we're discussing the pitfalls of the prophetic, namely false prophecy. What do you do when you receive a prophetic word, how should you proceed? How can you tell the difference between a false prophecy and a real one? Lastly, what should a believer do when they hope in words that don't come to pass?

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Transcript

0:01

Welcome everyone to Time for the Soul, the podcast where we talk about life, the universe, and our Lord Jesus Christ. And I have here in this new setup that we're doing, Ruth and Liana. Hey guys, how's it going? So we are super excited to kick off season four with kind of an interesting discussion, but before we get into that, yeah, if you are listening to us via audio, we wanna let you know that we have officially gone video on YouTube. So yeah. Yay. This is new for us guys. So bear with us as we're navigating new territory. I think it'll be good. It's just, you know, getting used to everything. Yeah. We've got a lot of feedback over the years that people would appreciate to see our faces. So here are our faces. I got a comment way back when, when I did in a podcast right at the very beginning and someone met me in person. They're like, you know what, Afia? I thought you'd be brunette. And, to this day, but to be fair, we have a blonde, a redhead ish and a brunette. And I'm pretty sure that's a joke. There is joke in there, we just haven't made it up for our podcast yet. if any of our listeners have a good joke about that, please feel free to share it with us. We'll take it. We have a sense of humor, I promise. I'm caramel not red, but I'll take red. Tinges of red. I was going to ask how have you guys been doing in the new year? Have you guys had any resolutions, any things that you're kind of kicking off 2025 with? Good question. Definitely wrote down some resolutions, but I can't say I could make, most of them are not measurable, if that makes sense, where you're just, I want to get better at this. Speaking my mind maybe more clearly, especially at work or things like that. But I even wrote down, I said, I don't know if this is measurable, but I will try to measure whether or not this will be fulfilled this year. Yeah, mean, I guess how would you measure a resolution that you can't measure? That's an interesting question. Yeah, because they're not specific. I mean, I told Ruth, I said I'd like to finish 12 books this year. So that's a measurable goal. But the rest of them are not that measurable. We'll see. fair enough. I character things would be more like I write down when I'm more patient, you know, it's a win, you know. I don't think I made any resolutions on paper. I feel like I finally feel like God's given me like a vision for the year. It's not exactly a resolution. So that was I didn't think I was going to get one, but it's I came so... Well, I'm glad to hear it, because I didn't even know about this, so this is news to me. I was going to ask, is it tied at all to the fact that this is the year of Jubilee? I don't know if you guys knew this, but 2025 is the year of Jubilee. So the Vatican celebrating it. So it's a year of Jubilee for Catholics and it's a year of Jubilee for the Jews. So who knows? Maybe the Lord might have something fun in store for the rest of Christendom too. Amen. Let it be so. What about you, Rafi? How are yours looking? Um, you know, I think just with the usual prayer and fasting that I try to start off every year, right? So we're trying to unplug, get off of social media, pay attention to more of what the Lord's trying to say. Um, I always feel like the first half, like January, February, I hit the ground running, if that makes sense. But I still feel like that part of the year is meant more for, um, I don't know, explain it just to fill up the gas tank so that. You know, I can run the rest of the year, if that makes sense. It's like hibernation spirit. Prayer and fasting would, I I guess prolonged periods of rest would be helpful too, but... Yeah. Yeah. So I guess not much to share on that end just yet, but got a few things obviously coming in the pipeline, which I always do. So, you know, that's just how it is. But I wanted to get started and go into the topic that we have at hand. I think if people are clicking into this video, they're going to notice that we have a pretty interesting, we have a pretty interesting title today and it's kind of on the subject of when prophecy disappoints. I want to say though, before off the bat, we are people who, mean, all three of us are continuationists. We believe that the works that God still works today, that God still speaks today. He speaks prophetically. He speaks in a number of different ways. So we believe that God speaks and that therefore prophecy exists and is still happening. And because he's a personal God that we ourselves will receive prophetic words that are personal to us. Can, are we all kind of in agreement with that? Yeah. Even though there is. Should I say times when we think maybe God is not speaking and man is speaking that doesn't mean that you stop the gift so that you don't get any falsehoods. You know what I mean? If you you don't need to stop something because counterfeits come out in that sense. I think one great example was we don't reject everything that, you know, Jesus Christ is about. And, know, the gospel is about just because Judas was in the ranks of Jesus. Right. So kind of like, don't throw the baby out with the bath water, but we're to talk about the bath water today. So, um, without much further ado, uh, we're going to kind of build this conversation around three things. And the first thing is, okay. Let's set the ground works. Let's say you guys get a prophetic word, like first things first. What do you do when you get a prophetic word? How do you discern it? How do you act on it? So on and so forth. So for me, I realized that I do look at the person that it's coming through a lot. And I know that I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I'm not sure. But I do. I ask myself, do they know me enough to be able to kind of speak this into my life? And they kind of know what's going on. And then if they don't know me, I'm not going to lie, I do have a little more trust in that. because then I think that, okay, well, they didn't know me, how could they have known this about me? And I'm not saying this is the right way to do it. I'm just saying this is what I've noticed about myself, that my first thing is, hmm, could they have known this about me? And then I kind of go from there. And then I also will try to see how does it fit into my life? Like, how is it speaking into what I'm praying about what I've been, you know, thinking upon? And does it make sense to my life in that moment? So I don't know how you guys do it, but this is what I've noticed that my pattern has been, if I've gotten a word is I go through these kind of check marks. I think basically where we wouldn't, I would interject really quick is there's two types of prophecy, right? So there's foretelling and forth telling. And basically the difference between the two is that foretelling right tells about something that's coming to pass. So probably the subject that we're talking about today is, when prophecy disappoints, well, usually it's going to disappoint if you're expecting something, is it foretold something? in terms of forth telling it, draws forth, right? So. you know, in first, first Corinthians chapter 14, where it says the personal prophesy and that, you know, unbeliever walks into the ranks and falling on his face, you know, the secrets of his heart are disclosed. That's forth telling. It's basically the secrets of your heart disclosing. You're like, no one else can know this. No one else could possibly understand this except God himself. So you really, Anna were saying you like when a prophet is basically. more distanced from you in relationship with you because they would have no way of knowing what was said between you and your friends and so on like that. Yes. And I know that's not like the end all be all of how you mention how you measure prophecies. And it and truthfully, there can be someone who doesn't know you and give you a false prophecy, right? So that's not out of the picture, they can know you and give you a great like Word of the Lord comes true 100 % prophecy. So this is not a cumulative thing. I just realized when I thought about it, I said this is pretty much the way that I do. kind of look at it. And I also I think about I know we're not supposed to base our lives on feelings, but I do think okay, how did I feel when this came like that I feel like it was for me? Did I feel like this is what was spoken for me? I don't know. Yeah, that makes sense. guess, so when you look at a person, the person giving the prophetic word, and I don't want to specifically call them prophets because I think people who are not necessarily in the office of the prophet can still prophesy. What are we looking for when we kind of look at the person who's given the prophetic word? Ruth, you want to tackle that one? I think. I think humility would be like a first like for me. And I don't know exactly how you tell that. think it's like something between you and the Lord or some the way that God confirms it for you. I think that would be like a huge thing for me. And again, like God speaks to us very individually. It's difficult for me to explain how God confirms something in my spirit. But I think like humility would be a, it would be what first comes to mind. How that's outworked, it's hard to say. I mean, we see like in scripture that if a word brings you closer to the Lord, if it draws you to the Lord, it doesn't draw you to the prophet, it doesn't draw you to yourself, then it's of the Lord. So I think that's, you know, it does the prophecy make me very self-focused and not God-focused. And I know we have to work on ourselves for the glory of God, but I think that would come to mind first. I would even say, so does this person generally give accurate words? You know, it's helpful to know that this person has a track record of speaking accurately and giving prophetic words that have come to pass. I think that definitely helps if it's a person who has a track record of not giving ones that come to pass. I think scripture speaks pretty clearly, like you don't have to listen to that. One of the words of... Bible verses that I came across was Deuteronomy 1822. Basically says, when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word doesn't come to pass or come true, that is a word the Lord has not spoken. So that prophet has spoken presumptuously and you need not be afraid of him. So I would just say like, if this person has a track record of saying, track record of saying, you know, this person's gonna have a baby, this person's getting married, so on and so forth, and it doesn't come to pass, then maybe, Not maybe, I just, I don't think you need to listen. I think what, go ahead. I was gonna say what do you do when there's a track record of coming to pass for some people and then you're the one that it never comes to pass for do you know what I mean that's definitely happened to me in a couple circumstances where these prophets like they prophesied yes and amen to three or four other people and Then for me there was very like there was timelines where I could test it where it wasn't a general thing where you couldn't test it there was timeline spoken so didn't come to pass. So I was like, well, what had happened to that? Because it was yes and amen with everyone else. So it is hard to. Yeah, I mean, think a prophet is a human who can make mistakes. But I do think that if you lose the fear of the Lord, as you prophesy, think that you will see, even though you started good, you can actually end bad. just because somebody was used by the Lord at a time for a time doesn't mean that God's still using them today. I mean, that's where I think the sermon comes in too. mean, the Bible says one prophet prophesies the other's judge, you know? And I know like there's different judgments for prophecies, but I do think we need other prophets, well, hopefully led by the Lord, because otherwise they're not prophets, to judge the word too. Yeah. Um, I think even hopping back to what you were saying earlier, but it ties into this is, when you judge a person who's given the prophetic word, you judge their fruit too. Are they living out the Christian walk in their day to day lives? Are they actually exhibiting the fruit of the spirit? And if not, then you could kind of understand, okay, maybe when they're speaking, they're not speaking from the Lord out of the Holy Spirit perhaps are speaking out of a spirit of the flesh or, you know, God forbid, some other spirit, you know? So I think, go ahead. But even that I think is is I do think yes, I think that's a fact you have to look at their fruit But sometimes you don't know the inner life of a person how many people have lived in abusive families that they came to church every Sunday with their Children and their wife and nobody knew anything, know They should and I know that sometimes you find out things through relationship not only seeing each other at church for half an hour, you know after church on Sundays, but I do believe, yes, the fruit would... You would need that but I just don't think it's always visible that I think you need The discernment of the Lord to be able to actually tell like is this person actually walking this out? Yeah. So I, so what I would say to that is usually the prophetic when it was done in the new Testament, when it was done in the early church, it was done in community, right? It was done in close community and they would know about, you know, these other people, right? I also think when people would travel from one church to the other, they would kind of travel with like a word of what's the word, like a recommendation letter, you know? So you know, the hope would be that the same thing would happen nowadays. So that we'd be able to test the fruit. one personal story that I'm going to say with this is I do agree with Ruth though. We do need the spirit of discernment. So, there was this one time where this perfect person is prophetic came into town. And I remember a friend of mine was like, that person I, I discerned, you know, another time when I met him, that he had, just a love of money, just the love of money was over him. And I was like, gosh, that's kind of whatever. And only to find out that this person did end up asking for money for a big project. And for me, that to me just like, man, it didn't hit right. And I personally took a few of the things that he had said that night a lot more cautiously than open-handedly like I would have otherwise. I think on top of that, spirit of discernment is so important too. Like Leanna, you're saying like, what are you feeling too? I've had instances where I would feel the spirit of the Lord come and a person would begin to prophesy, but the prophecy continued so long that I literally felt the spirit of the Lord lift and he wasn't there anymore. But that person kept prophesying and I was like, shoot. This I remember the first time it happened, it threw me off because I realized, from here on out, this person didn't have the word of the Lord anymore. This person ended up speaking out of their own. kind of out of their own heart and what they wanted, but not necessarily what the Lord was saying in that moment. It wasn't bad. It wasn't like that person was speaking like, you know, not scripture, but it just wasn't the word of the Lord for that moment. I think, unfortunately, I do think that happens maybe more often than not, where the Lord gives a word and maybe the prophet or the vessel is adding on to it. And I think that's probably where confusion comes. I just had a conversation with a friend around Christmas time and they were telling me that this was the first time he... they had gotten a prophetic word from someone and they're like, it was so accurate. The whole first part was so accurate. And then there was a second part to it that just did, he's like that confused me. Like I didn't know what that was. it's hard. He's like, I'd rather maybe not even have had it. And I said, well, don't say that. like, maybe it's just, I said, pray on it, hold it with an open hand and see what happens. know, if you feel like you want to test the word, feel free to test the word in the sense of you do what you had in mind. And if the door closes, then you know that the word was right, because that's kind of, you know, in terms of what it was spoken. So it's hard to say, unfortunately, I will say this in the Old Testament, the fear of the Lord was a huge aspect of prophecy in the sense of the Every prophet knew what the Lord expected. Did they fail? Yes, because God literally says you lying prophets to many, in the Old Testament. And I think what I was looking at too, when I was reading the Old Testament is I realized that we come at it with, we expect all the prophets to be good prophets. And that's not a bad thing. But I think if we look at history, and if we look at the Old Testament, when a person does not spend time in the council of the Lord, they become rebellious and they start prophesying out of their own heart. And that's what I've noticed in just doing a little bit of research in the Old Testament about the prophets is that it says every single time, like you've lost your fear of the Lord, you've lost your time in council with me. And that's why you start prophesying your own thoughts and I have not spoken. So it's not I'm not sitting here pointing fingers at prophets or anything like that. But I think if we all did a little bit more digging into the word of God, we would see the expectations. And just because it's the Old Testament doesn't mean the expectations have changed. The expectations for holiness, for blamelessness, those have not changed. Yes, Jesus is the one who makes us blameless. But I think we do have a part to play in the way that we come to the Lord in the way that we Give ourselves to the Lord for him to be able to use us no matter if it's prophecy no matter if it's words of knowledge Whatever it is. It's the council like staying in the council of the Lord is what? Keeps the truth flowing and the lies from not You know what I mean? absolutely. Yeah, you know, and to that point that you made, Liana, I will say we kind of got to need to get into interpretation, right? So I do believe that first of all, when a person prophesies, they can speak out of kind of three different modes. Like they can speak through the spirit. They could speak through the flesh or God forbid they would speak out of like, you know, something demonic. But then I do think once the prophetic word is given, let's say it's a vision or let's say it's just one specific prophetic word, there can be trouble in the interpretation. You know, so I've had this happen before where someone had a dream that actually was really accurate, but that person's interpretation on top of the dream was just not accurate at all because that person was putting their own thoughts and beliefs and whatever on top of actually what was a prophetic word from the Lord. So how would you guys go about, know, when you get a prophetic word, How do you test to see, like, is the interpretation actually from the Lord or is the interpretation what this person's interpretation is? think my default is I kind of, every time I get a word from the Lord, I'm not quick to say, amen, this resonates or no, this doesn't. I kind of like put it like on a shelf somewhere. And I'm just like, let's see what happens. You know, I'm not trying to make the prophecy come true. I think my I think my primary job as a daughter of God, as a Christian is to spend time with the Lord. It's not to get something to come true for myself or you know, like that's our aim is to abide with Christ. It's not just to, you know, get our wants, our needs, our plans fulfilled. I do believe that God is sovereign. I think that God does move nations and kingdoms. And if he moves nations and kingdoms, He's able to move in my life too. And I think when we put a lot of emphasis on ourselves, and I've done that in the past, I'm talking about Dina Noz, she's my sister. When you put a lot of emphasis on yourself and it's like, I have to do this, I gotta make sure that it becomes very, it's a very heavy burden to bear. A lot of onus is on you, everything's about you, and everything's not about me. Everything's about the Lord. My life is not about a certain prophecy. I'm living for heaven. I'm living to live with God for eternity. I'm not just living for this moment. I think we have to, Lord help us to have a heavenly perspective, not just a very like right now, this world. And we can all get stuck in it. I've got stuck in it so many times. That's what I do. just like, thank you. Great. You know, I'm not saying no to it. I'm not saying yes to it. Let's see what happens. You know, I don't know. And I've seen things come to pass in just recently in ways I couldn't have imagined. And even when I got the word, was like, I did the same thing. I'm like, I think my, I wanted it to mean one thing, but I was like, nah, I'm like, it's just. I'm just gonna leave it here, see what happens. And the Lord worked it out in exactly how he wanted, I recognized it. So I just think, just let the Lord reveal it to you. Stay in relationship. I think that's the most important. Like if we stay in a relationship, then God's gonna tell us. Like he speaks to me first and then he speaks through others second. If he doesn't speak to you personally and you're always searching for others. I think like there's something has to shift in your relationship with the Lord. Yeah. I would also say when I receive one, actually, hopefully I have my phone out so I could immediately record it because usually that's the best way for me to make sure that I get it accurately. I've even noticed that, let's say someone gives a prophetic word and you go up to them after and you ask, okay, can you repeat that again for me? It will actually even change. So I always prefer to have, my voice recorder out, I get the word recorded on a voice memo and then honestly, I just transcribe it and I put it in a journal and I like hold onto it. So just like you said, if it bears witness in my spirit that this is probably from the Lord, it's great. You know, I have written record of it. If it doesn't, then that's great too. Cause I've written record of who said what, when I can use that for future reference. So. I will also say like, there are times where God, you know, you have a prayer before the Lord and you're like, God, I need confirmation on this, or I need discernment on this. And the word comes in right then. I think when that happens, you can basically. I mean, it's basically him, you know, I had something like that just happened to me two weeks ago where I had a decision I was making and I'm like, Lord, I feel like I have the go, but just to double check that it's not me and that it's actually you. Can you give me the go? And he did, and it literally happened that night. And it was amazing to the point that I was like, okay, there's no denying that God still works, that he hears my prayers. Hey man, I will say I just realized this too. I think we put our own spin on our interpretation of a word as well. Because it's, if it is the desire of our hearts for something specific, we assume that this word is for that something specific at that one time. And if it doesn't give a timeline, we always assume that the timeline is now. So I think, I mean, I've noticed it with myself many a times. you know, there's many words that haven't come true. And I don't want to put them in the box of this was not from the Lord when a timeline wasn't given. So I think we need to stay humble and actually pray to the Lord to give us the interpretation that is correct and to give us the patience to wait it out. Because sometimes we do need to wait on the Lord to the prophecies about Jesus came true 400 years later, and the prophets didn't even know they were prophesying about Jesus. So there's just like We hold it with an open hand and then we also do our part in not letting our life completely depend on this one word like Ruth said, it's about our life is about our relationship with the Lord and how he wants to use us. So if he wants to speak to me right now, I receive that and I pray that my life would be in a way open to whatever the Lord brings at whatever time so that I'm not pushing God to fit into this timeline, this thing right now, it's Lord, okay, you've spoken, let it come to pass if this was from you and help me not to lose my patience in waiting for this word to happen or this, know, I think many times we do assume a timeline and a timeline is not given. If it's given and it doesn't come true, you can put that on the false shelf and that's fine. But if a timeline's not given, then give the Lord, you know, time to open and close doors whenever he wants to. Yeah, absolutely. I would say, you know, to add to that, basically hindsight's 2020, you know what I mean? So for a lot of words, basically, it's not until you look back, even perhaps after the fulfillment, that can figure out, okay, this is actually what this meant, and not what it seemed like at the time. And I remember, because I texted you ladies, and we were kind of talking about this show. we had talked about this because an X chapter 21, something similar happens. Basically it says, that through the spirit, the people that Paul had gone to had told Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Right? So in the spirit, they're telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem because through the spirit, was revealed. that Paul was going to face a lot of suffering and persecution, he'd be in chains and so on and so forth. Well, that word is accurate. That's exactly what happened. The problem is, is that they put their own interpretation on it and they assumed, well, okay, then clearly God doesn't want Paul to go to Rome then because look at this bad outcome. When Paul in and of himself, he knew every city I go to, every place I go to, I'm going to face trial and suffering and hardship. So that's an example in the scripture where A true prophetic word is given, we as humans are putting our own interpretation on it and the prophet can misinterpret. I'll be honest. I've had plenty of times where I misinterpreted my own because I was really hoping for one thing and it doesn't happen. And then I get disappointed with the Lord when instead, when I look back, you know, once enough time has passed, I'm like, yeah, that's what that applied to. Makes sense. And I think like another aspect of prophecy as I was like reading a lot of the Old Testament prophecies did call people back to repentance. In the New Testament, we talk a lot about like prophecies given for the strengthening, encouragement, edification of the church. That doesn't allow repentance. that does actually God calling you to repent might actually be for your strengthening and edification. Like God God wants good for his children. He disciplines those he loves. You know, he works all things for good. So I think like, I do believe that even when God gives a word of rebuke, it's still clothed in love. But at the same time, it's still a rebuke. Like we need to pay attention and to not shy away from calls to repentance. If you're a prophet and you're just like, the world is so harsh, my God, like how can I deliver it? know, trust the Lord, like he'll work it out. Yeah. think it's just, I actually wrote this exact thing down to Ruth at 20. But I do think we have a little bit of PTSD from our Romanian, like Pentecostal circles, when the prophetic words were never encouraging, they were always damning and always, you you will die or this will happen, you will break a leg if you do not repent. And I'm not saying because I can't judge it. I really can't. I don't know. But I I'm not saying it was from the Lord or not from the Lord at the time. I always was weary about them and my reaction was always like thrown off about it. But now as I'm reading, you're right in the Old Testament, the Lord did call his people to repentance and to to turn back to him. And I think the difference is that there was always hope at the end. It says the Lord will restore the Lord will restore you if you come back. So I think when there is hope, when it's given with come back to the Lord because the Lord wants you the Lord desires that for you. There's a difference between just hitting someone over the head with a hammer and actually allowing them and giving them the hope that comes with the repentance because repentance is not a bad thing. Repentance is a great thing. It's you know conviction like when you have a contrite heart that is from the Lord that is not something that is bad. When you if a prophecy though Given as a rebuke and it leads you farther away from the Lord Then I would say that's a red flag if it's a rebuke that's giving Someone literally saying okay. Well, God doesn't care about me. He just wants me to perish No, that's obviously not from the Lord because any sort of rebuke and any sort of You know chastisement that comes from the Lord will still lead you to him and I would even say like any prophecy that brings you confusion and huge confusion over your life. would very much second guess if that is from the Lord. The Lord speaks clearly. He doesn't confuse. I think there's a clear line between, is this convicting or is this condemning? Right? Satan comes to condemn and to bring guilt. Holy Spirit convicts so that it would bring life. know, Jesus convicted us of our, know, Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins so that we can be led to Jesus, we can be led to the cross. I think that's a great point that you're making. And if a word comes in, brings confusion, well, God is not a God of confusion. God is a God that brings order and clarity. I would really press into asking God to confirm to you personally through whatever means necessary what the actual way to clarity is. And if it's something that means dropping whatever that word was, then please drop it like a hot potato. You don't need it. ask the Lord for wisdom. Like as I was thinking about this podcast, my God, like what? know, and it's like ask the Lord for wisdom. God can give you wisdom in deciphering what he wants to tell you. And like the verse that came to mind was it's the heart of a king to search out a matter. Like sometimes like God, even in prophecy, gives you a seed form. And if you have the heart of a king, like search the scriptures in them you will find life in them you know like let the sometimes the prophecies just the seed it's not just it's not the full revelation you know it's not always that i mean i obviously i don't know but in my life many times god would would just like personally for me he would give me like one word and i'm like okay so search the scriptures and as i was searching the scriptures There's so many things God was teaching me and showing me from that just one word. And we can go into, you, can God, I don't know, is prophesying for yourself a prophecy or is it just the revelation from the Lord for your life? But I've encountered that a lot where God would like send me down a trajectory and he's like, okay, follow this. And as I was following it, the Lord was speaking. Yeah, I mean, it's just another form of God speaking, right? So God speaks to us personally, or God in terms of prophecy uses an intermediary to get the word to us. So I think either way, it's God speaking. So therefore, I think both ways should be like you weigh that just as equally. I will also say, I love that you brought up the seed form. Basically, do think God does also use symbolic language. Right? So when visions are given, visions might not be, or, or dreams, visions or dreams, even sometimes in the prophetic word, sometimes it's so crystal clear that, know, exactly what it points to other times. perhaps certain things symbolize some other things, you know? So, I'm going to give this example, cause I had this happen to me a while back. I was at a conference and, we just, I was praying for the person next to me and I had, I had a word of knowledge and the word of knowledge that I got was fire truck and corn. And there was another thing and I was like, okay. and I'm really glad I didn't try to interpret this, right? Cause what the heck does a, sorry. I take that back. The word that I had was a red vehicle and corn. And, I was like, do you drive a red vehicle? And he's like, yeah, I'm a firefighter. was like, well that's awesome. Cool. And I'm like, do you have anything to do with corn? Like, are you agriculturally related? I don't know why I said it in that way. just said, are you agriculturally related? And he's like, yeah, I'm a farmer. We just pulled in the corn last week. I'm like, okay, well, that's great. That's two words of knowledge there. But if I had put my own interpretation on that symbol, like it would have gone way off. Right. I thought, you know, I would never have thought firetruck. And to be honest, I would not have thought farmers either. Right. So. I like that you talked about that because God can kind of give us the skeleton of it and it is up to us then to say, what does this symbolize? What could this mean? Especially when it's given in highly symbolic language. Well, think of the example with David and Nathan the prophet, right? Like Nathan the prophet gives him this whole image of this is the story. This boss killed his, know, you know what I mean? Killed the sheep, the beloved sheep of another person, yeah. had so much and David was immediately indignant, but he didn't realize that was him right away, right? Nathan had to point that out and say, hey, this is you. And David had to be humble enough to receive that word and to say, I repent. So sometimes it is the humility of our hearts that's going to give us full revelation of what we're going to get or what word the Lord speaks to us, because, you know, It may sound like we're speaking all against the prophets or saying, you know, the prophets, what, but also I think the posture of our hearts when we receive a word is, is what's going to help give us the clarity of what the Lord is actually speaking. Because if we think, yes, this is it. And I'm going to go with this interpretation and give God no chance or no room to, to change that interpretation for us. Then we might go astray and we might just be like, okay. Well, this is what I'm supposed to do. And it may not be what's God is asking you to do. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But what happens when the prophecy is given, the prophetic word is given and we are disappointed? I'm going to say first off, when we give prophetic words, if you are a person who does that, or when you receive one, just speaking from personal experience, be really careful with dates, mates and babies, y'all. I know that that's a thing that Bethel tells, teaches its students, you know, don't ask us with the Bethel stuff, but I agree with this part. Like, Be very careful with the dates and the mates and the babies. Because I think a lot of times we really love and care for the people around us. And then because of that sometimes, someone who's prophetic is a human, and they want the best for the people that they see. I'm not surprised then that they could go into error. And this is also where I put in, I know in the Romanian community, There's this huge thing about, you know, doing the phone a prophet and, know, calling that person in the motherland and be like, Hey, what do you think about this? And I've gotten so many true words when, when that happened and somehow a Romanian word got to me. But I've also had equal parts words that just did not come to pass come. Cause no offense when somebody says, Hey, pray for my single daughter. Yikes. kinda obvious what they're gonna say, you know what I mean? So I don't know, your guys experiences. details. I just think God can find you where you're at. There's a lot of instances in my life where I'm not one to chase profits by any means or anything like that. But it's like I pray to the Lord a sincere prayer and God met me where I was at. He had a friend text me, hey, I had this dream about you. Hey, I felt to send you this verse and it was super meaningful for that moment. I don't, don't undermine the power of God, you know? He, he, he does listen to prayer. Like if you, if you ask him to, if you ask him to speak to you, he will, he'll find you. Doesn't mean that you can't phone a prophet, whatever, but I, I just think that God is... Yeah. Like just believe that God can reach you where you're at. Like he's he's really huge. Yum. I mean, I've definitely, I have had a couple instances where this has happened. And what I did was I made sure not to base my decision on the words that I've gotten. So in the sense of I had a word and I was a little bit confused. this stuff was red flags about it, confusion, wasn't sure what it was about, timelines were given that did not come true, all of that. So it did have to do with a decision I had to make. So in the end, I said, Lord, I'm putting this word away completely as of now, and I want you to speak to me and you direct me in the way that I need to go. And he spoke through a YouTube sermon that I randomly clicked on. And I was 100 % sure what I had to do. And I did it. And it was peace and I was fine. So then that word to me, I just left it. Was it disappointing? Sure, but because I didn't hold it so tightly, it wasn't as disappointing as it could have been. Do you know what I mean? So I think, yes, it's disappointing, especially when it's a word about something that you really, really want to happen and you really desire it to happen and then it doesn't happen. But if your hope is in the Lord, it shouldn't shake your faith completely. You should still be able to say, Lord, I still believe you're good. I still believe you have good plans for me. no matter what, if this word didn't come true. Like my life is not dependent on a prophetic word. My life is dependent on the word, which is the word of God. So either way, my life is going to keep going. I'm still going to serve you because I think what the devil and I, and even if you read in Deuteronomy 18, there's a huge thing. And even in Jeremiah 23, these prophets are leading people astray. So when you get a prophetic word, the biggest win for the devil is if you lose your faith. Mm. win for the devil is if you say, God is not faithful. God is lying to me. God is confusing me. So even though you get a wrong prophetic word or something that doesn't come true, do not blame God for it. Allow it to be the mistake of the prophet or, know, just whatever it is, but don't give the devil a strong cold in the sense of like letting him so bitterness at God, letting him so unfaithfulness in your life. It can happen. Don't get me wrong. It can, but just fight against that as much as you can because when false prophecies happen and false prophets say things, the devil runs with it and he just does what he wants with that to try and get people to leave the Lord. So just don't. Lord help us. I you saw you see that in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Like I actually like Googled Old Testament examples of when like a whole like when a lot of people were disappointed, there's like the whole nation of Israel was disappointed sometimes because a word was given that was false. Like don't go into exile. You prosper where you're at, you know, and actually they were supposed to go into exile. And how do you think people felt like? a whole nation was disappointed. look for examples in the Bible where not the only person that's been disappointed. Joseph, he has this amazing dream and then the next thing he knows he's in a well and then sold to Egyptians. You're not the first person in the Bible to be disappointed, but just don't be the person that forsakes the Lord because of it. Yeah, I agree. I would also say just circling back to the subject of disappointment. Just remember, like, even if man fails you, God will never fail you. I think that's something that we need to really understand. And it is okay to grieve. It's okay that if you've put your faith in a certain word, it's okay that you would be, you know, it It would be a rough time afterwards when you tried to walk that out, but walk that out with the Lord, you know, give that to the Lord. I also want to point out there are certain times when we in our lives come to Abraham Isaac moments where God's like, I gave you a promise, but are you willing to sacrifice that promise for me? Even when you don't understand it. And sometimes God calls each and every single one of us to those moments. And those are tests of our own faith. But even through that, think I would just say understand and trust that God is going to be faithful when he speaks. Like when it is the word of the Lord, it will come to pass. The word of Lord does not come back void. It is evergreen. Right? So just because he might not be working on your timelines, just because he might not be working in the way that you had expected him to work. Like that is one thing I can trust in is that every single time God has himself never let me down and he will always work out his plan. And this is the plan he always had in mind. Like his plans are not plan B, even if it seems like there are plan B, like God will always make all things work out for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. So yes, you might be disappointed, but you know what? Take it to the Lord, grieve it out, understand. that this is just a moment and don't and like Leanna, like you had said, don't let this be a moment where your faith in God fails you. You know, let this be a moment where you say, I don't see it. I don't understand it, but I'm going to have faith no matter what. Hey, man. I have to say this quote I was listening because you mentioned Abraham and I was listening to the awaken network podcasts with our favorite. Sorry, I have to mention him. Twenty twenty five first video. John Tyson. He had a great quote, one liner. It said, do not let delay lead to your disaster. And he was talking about how sometimes when we're delayed, we can choose to take matters into our own hands. And maybe we can choose to take matter into our own hands to make a prophetic word come to pass. Because we think, I got it. I know what this is about. I'm going to go and make this happen. But don't let don't let your own will overshadow the Lord's will for you. So always have that in mind that his plans are always higher than my plans and always you know, his ways are so much higher than our ways where my solution to this problem could actually be a disaster if I try to take this into my own hands and Lord help us not to do something that is You know to jump the gun to birth an Ishmael when we should just be waiting on on Isaac, you know on the and Ishmael was not the fulfillment of God's promise and maybe some people Will make will make an Ishmael seem like the fulfillment of God's promise when it is not and they tried to make it fit into the prophecy that you had or the word that you had and it's not it was not it that was you know man's way of trying to make that happen so lord help us be patient on those words Amen. And you know, I do want to end on a word of encouragement here. yeah, we talked about what happens when prophecy disappoints. Honestly, the reason I even brought up this subject, you know, to have this be our Kickstarter is because Kickstarter to kickstart, you know, season four, episode one with this is because I walked through that recently. So I, I was, you know, I had received a certain words and some dreams and so on and so forth. And I thought they meant a specific thing. And when they didn't come to pass, because keep in mind dates, I like was obviously crushed. But the thing is, is that I remembered through it. First of all, once I grieved through it, I went back to that journal that had kept all those prophetic words in and I was like ready to kind of deconstruct everything. I don't know how else to explain it. I was just ready to be like, everything was wrong. People don't prophesy, they prophesy over their hearts. And then As I went through them and I'm talking about like I went back years, like years only to find out that by and large God has spoken to me. He has been faithful. They did come to pass and I've been so immensely blessed. And this is something that I think all of us should just take heart in. God still speaks. He speaks personally to us. He cares about you. He cares about his sheep and he wants to talk to you. First and foremost, he's going to do that in prayer like you and 101 personally, but don't be disappointed in all of prophecy. Yes, use wisdom, use discernment, but honestly, I think God still speaks and we can take heart that he'll be faithful in those promises no matter what. Amen. And I think I'm thinking another aspect of prophecy is it's part of the gifts that God gives. I think that God ordains certain things in the church that would that would provide safeguards for the prophetic gift. And I think that we need We need to see the prophetic gift not as like an alone thing, especially in the Romanian church. feel like there's just like two, three gifts that are just, you know, stand out very much and the others don't. But like the prophetic gifts works in tandem with all the other gifts. I think like to end on an encouraging note, I pray and I hope that the church functions how it should where this gift will flourish because it has all the safeguards in place that would make it work in the way that it should. mean, God puts pastors and leaders over us for a reason. He puts people with the gift of the sermon for a reason. He puts people with the gift of wisdom in the church for a reason. And may the Lord work that these gifts are all working together so that this gift is not functioning on its own and then it can kind of go wayward, you know? Yeah. Leanna, anything to wrap up that you have? think first of, not first, lastly, actually. Lastly, let's remember the goal of our life as a Christian. The goal of our life is to hear from the Lord ourselves in the sense of to have the Holy Spirit is in us to guide us and to lead us. So let's tap into that more and let's tap into God's word more so that when he speaks, We are so saturated by his truth that we will not be confused and we will know what is from him and what is not. yes, desire the gifts of the spirit, like Ruth said, desire all of those gifts and desire that the Lord speaks to you. But I think more than anything, desire that the Lord speaks to you personally through his word and that when you get a word from a prophet. You won't be confused, it'll just be clear and. one thing that I have done and I have prayed in you know, sometimes in circles that we're at or like at a church or whatever if I if I start seeing that a prophet is like starting to prophesy for a lot of people and we've had that happen. I always pray I say Lord don't speak to me if it's not from you do not let him speak if it's not from you. And the Lord has listened to that. And sometimes other people have forced things like I have an example where the prayer was over and Somebody with good intentions decided they should call the prophet so that they could prophesy for me after on the phone and it did not turn out well. That was one of the wrong prophecies I've received. So let's not push the Lord to speak unless he really wants to speak. I would say that and just Lord help us this year to to truly be encouraged in. our relationship with him and in our way of like in knowing that he speaks to us and in hearing him properly and hearing him rightly through his word because man, there is so much meat in the word that we can devour. I just realized that even just delving into this topic, I was texting the girls. I was like, there's so much I don't even know where to like concentrate. Like which way do I want to direct my thoughts? But praise God, if it's there, the Lord will give it to you at the right time. Yeah, amen. So I think that wraps up the show for today. We thank you guys for tuning into season four, episode one. This is hopefully this part of something new. Yeah, I can't believe we made it four seasons, guys. That's crazy. Well. God's been good. For those of you who are listening on Spotify or Apple podcasts, we encourage you hop over to that YouTube, give it some love, come and see our faces. That sounds so weird. And yeah, if you have any questions, comments, even suggestions for future episodes, send those to us, contact.timeforthesoul.co or pop those in the YouTube comments. And yeah, we are really excited for all that God has in store for us. Without further ado, until next time, bye.