Prophetic Intent 2023 - Dave Food - Sharing the gifts

From there on, because I'm a great believer in if we're filled with the

spirit, we're filled with the spirit everywhere, anytime, any place, anywhere.

And so consequently, the gifts of the spirit are not just for in

the church. And I would say that this is true for me personally.

You know, I have found myself. I am what some people might call

a tent making pastor. I have. You know, I work in the

marketplace. That's what I do most of my time. But I found more

and more. Eight nine years ago, I used to have a Facebook profile

for work, and a Facebook profile for church, and a LinkedIn profile for

church and a LinkedIn profile, and I found I was posting on the wrong

thing in the wrong place. I post something about supply chain in the church

thing, and I post something about church in the supply chain thing, and

I just found myself going completely schizophrenic. This is crazy. I am who

I am, and you are who you are. So let's just be who

God's called us to be. And so I think it's most and that we

don't start pigeonholing the way we use gifts in the marketplace or the way we

use gifts. You know, you may need to use your gift, the

spiritual gift that God gives you over breakfast at home. God might just give

you. Know, you've got a child who's kind of moaning about school and

stuff that's going on at school, and you're thinking, I have no clue

how to speak into this particular situation. God give me something, and God

will just download something into your heart and into your spirit, and you don't

have to say, thus says the Lord. And that's the kind of kind

of weirdness sometimes we've got around the prophetic is that people feel they've got to

frame it in these ways, and they've got to speak in this particular bold

voice that's says the Lord. I've been in a couple of churches where it's

like that, and honestly, it makes you jump out of your skin when

somebody stands up and they boom through the microphone. Ah. You know,

the prophetic is not meant to scare you. The prophetic is the comfort to

exhort, you know, and that's exactly purpose. So let me get some

scriptures, and I want to start by saying, we're in interesting times.

The sons of Ishakar, as you would read in one chronicles, you know,

they knew the signs of the times, and I want all of us

to be aware. You know, we could probably we'd all frame it in

our own way. We'd all say something about, you know, this is

this, this is this is the way it is, this is this is

what's going on. Well, let me frame it. Let me just give

you some observations. I'm not I'm not prophesying to be an expert here,

but there's a whole bunch of stuff going on the world. Water shortages,

wars one you're probably not even touched, but it's probably touched you. Silicon

chip shortages. Yeah, you're probably going, what are you talking about,

Dave. Well, if you've had something that's been delayed that you ordered,

it's probably because of a silicon chip shortage. I'm not going to put my

supply chain hat on there. But there's all this stuff going on, and

what it says is there's a massive amount of uncertainty going on in the world.

You know, my wife and I ordered some blinds for our Belux windows.

We ordered them in July to try and cool the back of the house,

and in September Julia said, where are they? So I went and

checked and he said, all three months letime, so they should have arrived

in September. We got them the first week in December, but we're now

shutting them to keep the warm, the cold, the warmth in. But

the point I'm making is there's a massive amount of uncertainty and that changes our

behavior. If we're not certain whether something's going to come, then we'll do

something else. And so, you know, that's a supply chain thing,

but it also applies in the way we organize our lives. And so I

start to find people and say, well, yeah, I've had people say

it's church on this Sunday. Well, I can't remember the last time we

didn't have church on But because of that uncertainty, everything is fluid, and

we're starting to live in a world where as everything's fluid, we start to

ask questions. Here's a few things that you might like to think. We

are starting to head towards a world where there are biblical ages coming up.

Now I've heard statistics that would say our expected age is going up, life

expectancy is going up. And now people are coming around for their second hit

replacements because the first ones are wearing out. And there is a suggestion that

there's probably somebody alive today who will live till there one hundred and thirty five,

you know. Now, okay, just think about that. I'm not

going to go into a deep dive on this, but just think about that.

Okay, if we've retired at sixty five or seventy, we're only halfway

through. Not wanting to scare you, but you know, what are you

going to do with those other seventy years? And I look around the room

and I see a few gray hairs, so I think I can talk about

this stuff. I've lost most of my hair, so you know. But

the point is we are having more and more time after the time we've finished

our usefulness in terms of work, and actually that's a massive opportunity for you

and I to be even more useful. We need the sixty seventy somethings who

are still fit and able to come back and teach those don't yet know and

so Biblically, you know, we're finding a lot of global tribalism going on,

and I don't just mean countries. You know, you can see how

Scotland wants to separate, and that's a big issue at the moment, but

you also find tribes of Facebook tribes and Twitter tribes and our circles are and

if I said what tribe are you part of, you probably come out with

a list of ten different tribes. Your family, your church, your workplace,

and then probably Facebook or something else. And all of those places have

a conversation, and all of those conversations need to be spoken into. And

if what better to speak into them something that God's given us rather than something

that's in our head. You know, we see the virtuality of stuff.

We're living in a place where people start talking about virtual truth you know.

So you know, there was a German guy who went to court because he

felt he looked a lot younger than he was. So he said, I

want to be forty, and he actually took it to court and said,

I want to be I want my I want my birth certificate to be changed

or my age to be changed. You know. Well, okay, so

we've got virtual sexuality going on now, and now we've got virtual age going

on. Where does it stop? And I think there are some fundamental truths

that we need to build upon because God's given us some of these fundamental truths.

Yeah, it should be thank you, And so for me, some

of the strategic measures and tools that we can use are we need leadership the

church. Leadership is more important than ever the church. And when I say

leadership, I don't mean the leaders of the church. I mean the church

leading in the community. Your voice matters at work. Silence speaks. So

I've had people a number of times in my life who said things like,

oh, Dave agrees with me on this, and I've sat there and thought,

when did we ever discuss it? How on earth do you know what

my opinion is on this? And they have asked them afterwards, I said,

well, we discussed it in this meeting and you said nothing, so

you must agree with it. Well, okay, sorry, I don't,

and I should have said something. Silent speaks, And in a world where

resources are running out on lots of fronts, I believe a generous God will

help a generous church to be a generous people personally. If we then bring

this from the kind of corporate to the personal. You know, what gifts

do you have? What gifts do I have? I want to ask some

fundamental questions something you've probably never been asking. Is today a history day?

I've got a set of books that I'm not going to that I've got right

at the end of my slides here, and one of them is called The

Contrarian's Guide to Leadership by Stephen Semple from the SoCal University in California. And

one of the things they did a piece of research on was they did a

piece of research to say, okay, where do you feed yourself from?

And they took a group of people. This wasn't a Christian piece of research.

They took a group people said, read the Great Text every morning for

breakfast, read the Great Text. And another group of people read the news.

So people are reading the Little Prince, the Bible, the Torah.

You know, they were reading those those books. And there are other people

who are just reading the news. And then they measure things like happiness and

mental health satisfaction. Which group do you think was happy and satisfied? The

one who was reading the stuff that hasn't changed much, you know. So

please if your life, if your life is driven by the news, I

would encourage, you know, temper it with something from God's word because I

think that's important. And some other questions, are you growing? I don't

mean physically or physically, but you know, are you growing? And claim

asked the question an, what are we here for? We are we here

to just do improve our bank balance? Well, okay, it helps us

to do other things. But what are we here for? Are we here

for the great purposes of God? What is your gifting? What is your

X factor? A bit of a more modern term there, what is your

X factor? I want to throw in a lot of practical examples here.

So I used to be part of B and I Business Network International, which

is one of those things where business people meet every Friday on a morning for

breakfast. They're meant to find leads for other people. And I got invited

to go, and I went along. And sometimes I'd wear my church leader's

hat and sometimes I wear my business hat. And so you'd stand up and

you had a minute to describe what you do. And sometimes I'd stand up

and say, well, I hatch match and dispatch people, and other times

I talk about supply chain. But one particular morning, so this is in

Beaumont House on the way to Windsor, somebody said, oh, they did

a four minute education slot every Friday morning at seven o'clock. As people were

eating their breakfast, there was this four minute education slot and the guy hadn't

turned up. He had some problem and said, Dave, you could do

something, couldn't you? In size? I shared something. I talked about,

what is your factor X? You know what do you do with your

factor X? Do you invest in your factor X? I was talking about

gifting. I was literally talking out of the Book of the Story of Talents,

the Parable of the Talents. I literally took that because I had about

three minutes warning they could you do something? Yes, I can, made

a statement of faith and then did that, and they so liked it.

They said could you do it in two weeks time? And then could you?

And I did it every other week for nearly half a year. But

the reason I'm sharing this is because none of this was me. I just

used to pick a story out of the Bible and just tell it. I've

read a book recently, and here's the story I want to share with you.

I was looking in my handbook for maintenance, and this is what it

showed me. I was looking at my map for life, and this is

what it displayed to me. And people started asking me, Dave, you've

got some great stories. Where do they come from? So they actually all

come from the same book, and I gave away at least two Bibles to

people. No, I didn't just give them away. And this is why

I'm telling you this story. I didn't just go, oh, there's the

Bible. I kind of tease them a bit, if I'm honest with you.

And so they said, Dave, you know, could you tell me

what the book is. I said, I'll tell you what. I'll bring

a copy next week, and after the breakfast is over, we'll have a

quick look at it, and then i'll give you a copy. He said,

oh, really, thank you. And so the following week I turned

up. We had breakfast, it all finished, and we sat down in

Beaumont and we were just talking away and he said, so, have you

got the book. I said, yes, I've got the book, but

you're probably not going to recognize the stories in it. And so I then

I brought it out and I said it's the Bible. And he said,

no, you're joking. I said, no, no, I'm not joking

at all. As I said, just to prove it, here's the story

I told last week, and here's the one I told three or four weeks

ago. And off we went. I said, all I'm asking you is

to take a copy and commit to read one of the books. He said,

well, I've never read it before, he said, Dave Wade,

do I start? I said, well, okay, how about one of

the one of the stories about one of the books about Jesus and one of

the Gospels. You pick Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. And he

did and we talked to me. It came back a few weeks later and

asked me some questions. Why am I telling you all this story. I'm

telling you this story because you are a gift, and your gift needs to

be unwrapped by the people you spend time with. And so if you're not

uncomfortable being unwrapped and share it, because when you start to get unwrapped,

the paper gets torn. When the paper gets torn, it gets a bit

messy. And suddenly they ask you a question. What makes you say that

you know? Or maybe suddenly they are asking a question that's difficult for you

because it was a difficult time. You have to choose them whether you're going

to open up the kimono and share some stuff or not. And so I

just we've all been on a journey, and here's a diagram of my journey.

This is my I did this about eight or nine years ago, and

it was my map for the journey, and the whole purpose was just to

see where have I been, what have I done? And the yellow yellow

spots are significant events that were okay, the green spots that were significant events,

yeah, and the red ones there should be the white ones and the

red ones. Yes, there's a few red ones down there that there are

significant events that didn't feel like that. But here is the thing, you

know what, as I look back over life, some of some of those

red spots, when I really reflected on them, you know losses. You

know, my singing teacher, Winford Evans, he passed away unexpectedly. I

loved the guy, who was a great guy. He really spoke into my

life and I loved singing with him, and you know, he passed and

that affected me. You know, I stopped doing singing since I've never found

another singing teacher since him. But the reason I shaw that was because out

of that came a whole bunch of other good things, you know, And

so sometimes we need to compost the bad things so that out of them can

come something good. I think he might be right. So anybody been to

the seaside recently bought a stick of like this. I don't know whether you've

ever seen rock made. It's an amazing thing. It's a very very clever

thing. And they stretch they kind of weave it all together, and then

they stretch it, and they stretch it and they stretch, and it starts

out as a great big piece of sugar with all the stuff in there.

And then they stretch it and they get smaller and smaller and smaller. But

the thing that I can tell you about a stick of rock is when you

break it open. Wherever you break it open, it says the same thing.

If I broke you open, what would it say? If I broke

you open, what would it say? Just a question, just a thought.

Let's get to some scriptures. It's good to get Bible into teaching,

isn't it claiming so one Corinthias twelve versus seven to eleven. Let's just explore

the gift itself. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one

one for the profit of all, For to one is given the word of

wisdom through the spirit to another, the word of knowledge through the same spirit

to another, faith by the same spirit to another the gifts of healing by

the same spirit. Another of the works of miracles to another, prophecy to

another, discerning of spirits to another, different kinds of tongues to another,

the interpretation of tongues. But one of the same spirit works all these things,

distributing to each one individually as he will was. But as the body

is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body,

being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by

one spirit, we're all baptized into one body. Whether we're Jews or Greeks,

whether slaves are free, we've all been made to drink into one spirit.

For in fact, the body is not one member but many. If

the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I am not

of the body, is it therefore not of the body. And if the

ear should say, because I am not an eye, I am not of

the body, is there is that not of the body. If the whole

body were an eye, where would the hearing be, if the whole were

if the whole were hearing, where would the smelling be? But now God

set the members of each of them in the body, just as he pleased.

Okay, so we're all part of the body. We all know that.

We all know that scripture very well. So what's your function? What's

your purpose? Are you a finger or you a toe? My mum had

her little toe removed when she was fifty something years old. She had to

learn to walk again. It's amazing how that tiny little thing on the corner

of your feet is so crucial to keeping your balance. And if you have

it removed, you know you need to learn to walk again. It didn't

take long, but you still needed to learn to walk again. And as

we listen to God, as we start to think about being a gift to

others, what do we do with that? Now? I don't know how

God speaks to you. I don't even know if God does speak to you.

We read in scripture God wrote on the wall. God spoke through a

donkey. There's so many different ways God can God. I just give you

an impression. Sometimes I've had people say I've got a picture. I was

at a prayer meeting in Lightwater many years ago, and many different churches there.

Gary was there, actually, so Gary was there, And as I

was walking, it was an open time of prayer and we're walking around praying

and praying for people and I saw Sue across, and I immediately into my

mind I had this phrase, lead, now is not the time for flight.

Now. I don't know what you'd read from those words, but I

immediately thought, now is not the time to run away. That's the words

I interpreted that the men. So anyway, I went across the sewer and

started praying for it, and I just said, I just sensed the Father.

It wasn't just the Lord. It was just because I want to be

teachable. You know, Corinthians talked about me prophesy in part we get in

the way, and that's why we need to be right with God. You

know, if I'm angry and God gives me a prophetic word, my anger

will taint the word that I share. It doesn't invalidate the word that I

share, it taints it. And so that's why we need to be in

a good place. Yes, And if we're you know, if we're in

a good place, then we can share what God's given us. And so

I walked across and I just said, I think God is I sent.

God is saying to you now is not the type of flight. And she

burst into tears, fell on the floor, and I think oh, dear,

and we prayed, and there was a couple of people and we prayed

and we ministered and she I didn't really see her much until asked them,

but she had a daughter in America and a son in law in America and

they just had a little baby and she was just planning to go, and

because of this word, she canceled her tickets. And about four or five

months later, she said, Dave, thank you for that prophetic word.

And I said, okay, I didn't really know what's going. She then

explained that her son and her daughter and her son in law were arguing about

whether you left the baby or to cry, or whether you picked it up.

They were in that stage, in that moment, whether you know,

and they weren't agreeing. And she said, if I'd have gone at that

time, I would decided with my daughter and it wouldn't have been good.

And she said, but I went later and they'd all sorted it out,

and I just see the goodness of God. Now here's the interesting I thought,

I transmitted, now is not the time to run away. So I

really want to share with you honestly and practically, that sometimes we don't know

what we're sharing and the same. You know, sometimes somebody will preach something

in church and somebody will come up afterwards and say, that was a great

word on grace, And I'm thinking, I don't remember mentioning grace at all

in the sermon. And then I realized that they've taken a particular particular scripture,

and God to taking them on a journey as the sermon's being preached,

and the significant things are where they ended up and what they ended up carrying

and taking away. So I want to encourage us to be prophetic, to

choose to be prophetic. We read in Habocut too. I will stand at

my watch and station myself on the ramparts. I will look to see what

he will say to me and what answer I will give to this complaint.

Then the Lord replied, writes down the revelation and make it plain on tablets,

so that a herald may run with it. A herald was the carrier

of a message. But the first thing was the message. Okay, what

is the message? The message comes, you know, from the Father,

and so you hear phrases, don't shoot the messenger. I just share say

it simply. This is what I sense God is saying. And so I

want to unpack some very practical things because I want to give some activations this

afternoon. So often when I travel, I will put some things in my

bag, or when i'm going to visit, or when I'm going to speak,

I'll just say, Lord, what do you want me to pack?

And I'll put some things in a bag. And as I'm preparing for today,

I didn't just want to talk at you or talk with you or teach

you. I wanted to show you. And so I said, God,

give me some things that I need to take. Then I need to do

something with And you might say, you might think I'm a bit weird,

but that's okay. But you know, I packed some things and they're up

here at the front, and I don't know what I'm going to do with

them or what I'm going to use them for. But an example would be

I ended up speaking in a church in Nigeria and I felt I should pack

in my bag a tie to give to somebody. I didn't know who that

person was, but I felt I should pack in my bag a tie to

take with me. And so in this church, which had a tarpaul in

roof that the walls had been built. There were no windows, and it

had a great big tar paul in roof. There was probably a couple of

hundred people in there. And I was speaking and I felt God say,

Okay, now's the time to use the tipe, just a little nudge.

Now. I didn't know what I was going to say. All I had

was a tie in my pocket, and I thought, Okay, this is

the tie that I'm going to use, and I'm just teach. I want

to show you this is not as easy as you think it is, but

it's not hard either. So I called this guy out and I'm putting my

hand into my pocket and I said to the father, going, no,

not the one in your pocket, dake, the one you're wearing. Okay,

now I want I need to explain some backstory here. The tie that

I put in my pocket when I said, God said take a tie,

I picked one I didn't really like that much. I picked a tie that

I hardly ever wear. And the tie that I was wearing was one that

John Deniese gave me, who used to be part of our church. And

it was a tie with a picture of a lion on it. The line

of the tribe Tudor so I'm going up to this guy and I put my

hand in the pocket, thinking, okay, I'm going to give the tie,

and he says, no, the one you're wearying it really not the

one in my pocket. And this is just I'm just arguing with God claim

he already gave us some glimpses, you know, God speaks, and we

then want a discussion with him about what he's thinking. You know, really,

can't I use the tie that I got in my pocket? He said

no. Now as soon as I took the tie off, I knew what

I was going to say, because I then started talking about this. This

guy was going to roar in prayer, and that all came from the image

of the type. And i'd got the other tie out, I'd have been

talking about. Uh. I don't even know how to describe the pattern.

It was just a patterned tie, you know, but that's what I would

have. But that wasn't it. The prompt that God wanted to give me

was Okay, here's the picture, now share this, and so I just

so I put in my pocket this this This is the kind of thing.

If you're an electrician, you know what this is. You connect wires together

and Andrew you might have coming out the front, just just so that so

this is this is the way it works for me. And I'm just sharing

it because I want to be really practical with it. I want to give

you this as a prophetic sign because I believe you're a connector. I believe

God's called you to be a connector. You connect people. People come to

you because you're trustworthy. People come to you because you're reliable. People talk

to you. You have people who come to you at work and say,

can I just have a bit of a chat and over a cup of tea

and a bun, that's what you'll do. You'll have a chat with them.

But you are a connector with people and you're going, do you know

what? You ought to talk to this guy? And you kind of connect

people and I'm not talking about matchmaking those things, but you just seem to

connect things. And you know this connector is not the thing about these kind

of connectors is they carry power. And the connections you're making and I'm not

just insubstantial connections, they're connections with purpose. They're going to carry power,

They're going to carry that kind of capability. And so I just want to

encourage you in who you are to join with people. Just realize that there

are times when you connect with people and it's intention the intentionality of God.

The intentionality of God means that, you know, it's almost like, don't

just shake hands with people, shake hands and hold hands, you know,

get hold of people, you know, put their arm around. I guess

you're the kind of guy who hunts people. I know we've had some hunds

from time to time. But you know, but but sometimes you do that

and that changes somebody's world. Somebody. I can see guys coming to you

and they've had a tough day and you just put an arm on their shoulder

and they almost melt in your hands. You know. But that's something of

what God's calling to you. And it's not unintentional, it's not a mistake.

It's who you are. And because of who you are, God's going

to open doors to do more connecting. And as he opens to do more

connecting, suddenly you'll find yourself connecting a CEO with with with with with with

the groundsman. You'll be connecting somebody who delivers stuff, with somebody who's a

head master, and you'll be making those connections because God's putting you in the

place because you are someone who goes, oh this belongs with this. Okay,

let's screw them together. And that's why I'm giving you that just as

a prophetic sign. Bless you and my friend. M h m hm m

hm, keep it alive. Why did I share all that? I really

don't want to put myself on a pedestal here, guys, this is any

one of us could have done that. Well, do you need? All

I needed to do is to put some things in my pocket and just be

faithful with that. A seely, I'm to go with the flows, Simon,

Yeah, these are these are I mean, this is not expensive to

do, but it can be expensive. Story of my tie, Simon,

I ended up putting a bottle of tips right in my pocket. And it's

not that you make mistakes. It's not that you make mistakes. But I

do sense the Father is leading you to a place where you will write other

people's mistakes. You will see things and you will help them to blot out

the past. You will help them to see Christ. And as you help

them to see Christ, some of the mistakes that are written down in their

lives will be readjusted reframed repositions. And I'm not just talking about children.

I know you've got a heart for children. I just sense that there's a

there's there's almost a grandfather role coming to you spiritually, maybe even a grand

great grandfather role coming spiritually spiritual. But but but I just I just sense

that what God's doing, He's going to give you such an insight into almost

a bigger doctor, but without medical training, because he would just go,

let me just give you a few thoughts, like you do, you just

have a chat, and you'll just give them a few thoughts. And those

few thoughts well not just band bade over it, but it would be the

kind of things you put the doctors put in into a wound to help to

make it buying together. I don't know what you've called them, mesh or

something, and you put that on the wound and that then heals and then

it melts and disappears. And I just sense that actually, that's the kind

of thing that God's calling you to do, calling you to be. And

that's not just in your ministry, I think that's also in who you are.

I think a pint around the pub, you're going to find a bit

of this, yeah, and I really wouldn't be surprised. Sometimes God gives

you a picture of okay, time to get the brush out, of time

to lose a few words. And one particular area that I think you will

be very sensitive to is where people's lives have been spoken into and those words

have got stuck. You're rubbish, you're no good, you're you're a mistake,

those kind of things. And I know I'm pretty sure you've touched those

kinds of things in school with kids. But I sense God to go to

take you into a place where you are going to start to, as it

were, replace those words with words they're useful and helpful and breakthrough, blessing,

my friend good. And why am I sharing this? I really don't

want to put myself on a pedestal. But you know why Well in one

Corinthian's fourteen thirty one it says this for you can all profit I not just

me, All of us can. All we just need to do is to

listen and then to find a gentle way of sharing it. A really interesting

way to start. It's just to kind of stand alongside somebody. If you

have prayer times in your church, you know, just if you come for

prayer. You know, you speak to your prayer team, speak to your

church leaders, say you know, I'm really interested in exploring this stuff.

Can I come and just stand alongside and then maybe you'll be bold enough to

then share with the person who's praying and just say look, I've got this

picture, and then they can be your countenance, They could be your check

and say share it. Many years ago now, I ended up going to

East Germany and I think the reason we went to East Germany was because the

tickets were cheap. We went to a place called Yana, and we were

somebody I'd met out in Mexico and he was a leader of a church in

East Germany as it was then. He was Nigeria and his wife was German,

and just because of the mindset in Germany, that's a really difficult community.

So they were reaching out to other mixed race churches. And so we

went to this conference and I took with me Nate and a guy called Andy,

and he was a quiet guy, and he came and we went and

I said, Okay, I'm going to be speaking, but when it comes

to a ministry time, if you want to come and pray, please do

so. The first ministry time we had and he came and stood next to

us. He just stood there. The second time we had a prayer time,

he said, I think I've got a picture. Do you mind if

I share it? So go ahead, Andy, and he shared a picture.

By Saturday afternoon, we come to kind of the end of the second

day, I'm just look where's Andy? Looked around him, couldn't see,

and then I realized he was the back and he was praying for somebody.

And then there was a testimony that Saturday evening and the Russian guy had walked

in to the service at the back. He hardly spoke any German, and

he came in and he sat down and he had kidney problems, he had

back pain and everything else. And so anyway, we came to the ministry

time and he asked for prayer and he prayed for him. Now he's praying

for him in English, and he got translated into German and then from Germany

into Russian. So you know, that's a pretty kind of three dimensional prayer.

But the guy, the guy stayed for the evening and testified that all

the pain in his back had gone, you know, And he's just a

gentle guy who prayed some gentle prayers, and so we can all profit so

one by one. But ernesty desire the best gifts, and yet I will

show you more excellent way, and ernesty desire just I want to be someone

who gives gifts, and therefore I need to receive gifts. Otherwise I'm giving

out of my own strength. If you've ever had a growing family or a

growing community of people, you need to give to nieces and nephews or aunts

and uncles or grandchildren. Suddenly that list is getting longer, and you start

to think, I have to budget for this kind of stuff now, ye

know if you and then you start thinking, well, maybe we'll just give

it to the grandchildren, not the children. We're all looking at that from

our own economy, and my economy is it's his economy. So actually I

don't need to run. I don't need to worry about running out if I

stay in touch. If I stay in touch, then if I run out

of love, he'll give me more love. If I run out of words,

and I do run out of words, sometimes he'll give me the right

words to say. If I run out of wisdom, then he'll give me

some wisdom. And as I read there from Corinthians, we talked about the

gifts, you know, and the word gifts, the word of knowledge,

the word of wisdom, the word of prophecy. They often flow together.

Sometimes you can't tell the difference. And I've said to people, you operated

in all three gifts tonight, and did I? And what happened was they

said something about somebody that you know, I see, and this was about

their history. This is about and nobody else knew about it. And then

they started to explain why they were like that, and that was a word

of wisdom. And then then the word of prophecy came and the people received

the prophetic word because of the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge.

That was the foundation that lay to say, Okay, God knows you,

and I'm listening to a garden. You know, because many times if you

share a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom, people say who told

you? And sometimes that's a great, great story to share. I mean,

I don't know what you think think about, but can you imagine something

like this? If I ask you to imagine something like this, can you

imagine it an elephant hang gliding? It doesn't compute, does it. You're

looking at that saying, but Dave, that's impossible. Well, I think

Jesus gives us a way that helps us to challenge about what is possible.

Let me give you some examples. You probably you get these. You know,

he fed five thousand or more than five thousand. He turned water into

wine at a wedding feast. Yeah, inviting Peter to get out of the

boat and come and walk on water. Now here's the thing. I don't

know what you remember out that story, but the story that I remember from

Sunday School was that Peter sank. But actually the story we should remember is

he got out the boat. Because would you I'm not sure I would.

So let's take steps. And I want to encourage you to take steps to

hear and to speak to activate the prophetic in your world. And so I

now want to take this outside the church and outside Christian community and talk about

being prophetic at work. I don't think you have to go thus this the

Lord. But I was in a meeting. I used to work for Oracle,

small American software company, and I was in a meeting and I was

I took this job because in the job title it said we're looking for someone

who's going to be an evangelist on the supply chain and be prophetic to the

marketplace. To this day, I don't know where those words came from.

I couldn't find anybody who was a Christian in the HR team who would put

that down. But I went, that's my job, and you know,

and just I went in with the confidence because those words were in there.

I thought, Okay, this is what God's got for me. So I

went and they were looking for a five day week, and I don't want

to work five days a week, not that I don't want to work,

but I need to give space to church and other things as well. And

so I just said, look, I just can I work four days a

week? And they went, well, we never had anybody asking an interview

before now, but yes, yes, yes we can. And they prog

raftered everything and that was fine. And so I remember sitting in this meeting

and there were people, there was probably twelve people in the room and I

was the supply to an expert, and we were talking about some ideas and

some programs and things we were going to run. And I said, I've

got this, and I was sitting there, I had this picture pop into

my head of a particular campaign. I got up and I said, look,

let's sell you map something out and I drew it all out on the

whiteboard and they said, Dave, that's crazy, but we've got nothing else.

And I said, well, okay, I'd like you to remember that

I'm the expert in the room. And I didn't say that lightly. I

wasn't putting a badge on. I was just trying to get some focus.

And really I was getting some focus on who was behind me, not who

I was. I I was trying to get them to remember this moment.

Anyway, the program went very well, and as far as I know,

the program is still running seventeen years later. But then there were various other

meetings that followed, and they the next meeting, I said, I've got

another bit of a strange idea. Guys, should we should we try this?

And they, oh, go on. Then the first one worked,

so why not try the second one? And once I got to about the

fifth or sixth one, I had a guy say to me, Dave,

where do you get your ideas from? I said, let's have a coffee

in the canteen and I'll tell you and so I did, and I said

to him, I said, I'm a Christian and I pray. And when

I don't know, I share. What If I get an idea, I

share it? What do I risk? I just look a little crazy.

It's just an idea that failed. But I did not say, thus,

that's the Lord. I did not say, you know, this is God.

And I only shared that it was God when people asked me, I

didn't. I didn't even say, oh, I've had you know. I

didn't even go brownie points. But I didn't want the brownie points myself either.

I didn't want to say, okay, Dave's ideas because it wasn't it

wasn't me. And so I want to encourage you to put yourself into a

place where you can hear, and once you've heard, do something with him.

The worst thing you can risk is telling somebody something good. Okay,

thanks, So you know I won't come to that yet. So thinking about

the impossible and the possible, what is it that you need to take something

from being impossible to being possible. I know there are people in this room

who are encourages. I know there are people who do encouraging things. Jill

sitting here she's an encourager. She came to Tenerif with us. Was that

eight years ago, Jill something like that, And she was sitting on the

couch and we're in the Spanish church and the sermon was preached in Spanish,

and I shared some thing. And then we were after church and Jill was

sitting there on the couch talking to somebody. And I was sitting there thinking,

Okay, I don't think Jill speaks any Spanish. So I said,

either this person he's found one of the few people who speaks English in the

church, or they're speaking in tongues, or they're both deaf. Now any

of them could have been true. But you know, this conversation didn't just

go on for one or two minutes. He went on for a good ten

minutes, I think, Jill, if I remember rightly. And I got

chatting to somebody else who was chatting to the person who's been chatting to Jill,

and through the translator, they said they were so encouraged about what Jill

said. I said, how did they know? He said, well,

they just got it. And so please do not think that the words that

you If you come with the right spirit, then you share something and what

is impossible to you and I is very very possible to God. Nikki.

I just want to say, God, coming to put a first class stant

in mine in my pocket? Well number one first class. You know you're

a first class person. But actually these are new stamps. Are the ones

with the barcats on, And I could have picked some of the old stamps,

and we haven't got any old stands. I was looking for some old

stands thinking and God said the other ones with the barket on, And I

went, okay, why because this means that they're track and traceable. And

I just saense that there's something where you connect to people. And you're connecting

to people and even over teams and all the stuff that you've been doing in

the COVID claus, you are connecting with people in ways that is way beyond

the cerebral. It's there is a deep spiritual connection going on even over teams

and zoom of those countries. And I said, God is God has been

building those connections and building your credibility in this job in a way that you

don't get Sue. I said to you will start to come back to you

where people say you said this three months ago and won't be challenging you.

They're wanting to explore more and more about what you're saying and why you're doing

because they see the heart of God through them, and as you see the

heart of God through you, they will start to ask questions. So just

be ready for those questions when they can thank you. I think I'm kind

of I think we're banging on schedule, but I want to end with you.

What I'd like you to do now is I'd like you to pick someone

else in the room. So just have a look around the room and if

you've got a big faith and pick someone you don't know. Okay, if

you and what I'm going to ask you to do is just find an encouraging

thing that you can say to somebody else. Just I'm going to give you

two or three minutes just to pray, and it might just be one word.

And this is the reality of how God speaks to us and through it.

Sometimes he gives us the first word and that's all we have until we

start speaking the first word and then comes a whole sentence. And then sometimes

you'll surprise yourself and there's a whole paragraph. But you know what, do

we risk here. If we listen to God and we hear God, then

we're sharing godthar. If we're listening and it's because we had cheese for lunch,

then the worst thing we're doing is we're encouraging somebody in the wrong way.

Well, how can we encourage somebody in the wrong way. I'm not

talking about being directional here, I'm just talking about being you know, because

prophetic is about comfort, to exhort to comfort and those kind of things.

And so I'm going to ask you to look around the room and before we

break for coffee, Oh, as we break for coffee, why do we

do it as we have coffee? There's a radical thing. We're not going

to make this spiritual. But although it is spiritual, you know, just

over the coffee break, just go out to someone and just say I had

this word for you. I did this with the Academy at Kerith and there

was probably sixteen seventeen people in the room and I've gotten to write post it

notes, and they went and stuck post it notes on and I'd planned this

activity to take ten to fifteen minutes as they stuck things on the post it

note. An hour and a half later and there were people weeping on the

floor and people getting prayed for. And it was just writing some stuff on,

just writing some stuff on some post it notes. But if we communicate

the heart of God. So I'm just going to encourage you. So I'm

going to give you a couple of minutes of silence. We don't have silence

that often in this world? Do we a couple of minutes of silence,

and then we'll break for coffee. I'll just give you the nod, and

then I'm going to ask you, now, please please just share it.

Let me just give you a little trick here. I don't want you to

wear the badge of a profit or say thus says the Lord, say something

like I had a picture, this word came into my head. However you

want to put it, your word's not mine. But just make it teachable

so that if somebody says, well, I don't get that. And if

you receive something you don't get, please at least be willing to test it.

My final story is this, many many years ago, when I was

at youth camp, there was a couple there, Matthew and Nadine. They

were youth pastors in the church in Bedworth in the Midlands, And I'm going

to give you the backstory. First, they've been praying and they felt,

as a young couple that they should be going as missionaries somewhere, and they

weren't particularly sure where, but they'd shared with their house group leaders that they

should be, you know, be preparing for mission. Then they led a

group to youth camp and Ian Green called them out and he laid hands on

them and said, I sent God's calling you to Japan and prophesied this over

them. And they went back and shared it with their church leadership, and

the church leadership said, sounds good. And so about five or six weeks

later, somebody came to that evening meeting in their church called them out,

prophesied, since God's calling you to Japan. Now, for them, this

was the third confirmation for the church. This it's the first time they'd heard

anything like this. But in the meantime between when they first prayed, what

they'd done as they put themselves on Japanese training courses at a local college,

and they talk to their mortgage company about how they would rent their house out

should they go on mission. In less than six weeks they were in Japan.

Now you know it depends exactly what claim was sharing earlier on. It

depends on your attitude to when God speaks. If you say here i am

Lord speak and he speaks, say okay, I'm lining yourself up with that

prophetic word. So even today, the encouraging word that you might receive might

line up with something else you've already heard before. Take note, and let's

just see what God does. So don't we pray and then you can go

and share your words with other people. Father, God, thank you that

you're a real God. And as you're a real God, we'd love you.

And as we love you, Lord, we just want to do more

with you. And so Father speak to us, speak through us, help

us to be men and women who change this world for good and for your

glory in Jesus name, Amen, Time for coffee. Without detracting from your

ask, do you have a look at the books that's got in the therapy

room? Yeah, because they're pretty good. And if there's anything you want

Askma. We have to advise you whether she can get it, and you

will get it to you if you want to order things, so do have

a look at that too. And if you want to be called pizza,

feel free yeah y