Joel 7 – Marks of the Last Days Church, Pt. 3 - Joel: The End Times Church

It's time now for the rope with Pastor Peter E.

Hope.

I contend, and speaking of contingent, that God wants us to be exponentially making an impact in all areas of society.

I think the best artists should be coming out of the Christian community.

I believe the best musicians should be coming out of the Christian community.

I think the best businesswomen and the best businessmen should be coming out of the church.

Because we're empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Welcome to another edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Steve is the head pastor of The Road in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

It's our vision to make wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ and to see you grow in the grace and knowledge of his love.

If you're in the area, we meet at Chapel Hills Church, located at 2025 Parliament Drive, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80920.

You can go to our website at thheroad.org for service time.

That's thheroad.org.

Here now with today's message is Pastor Teacher Steve Hope.

We are in the book of Joel.

If you're a guest with us in the book of Joel, you can download the app or you can use your Bible if you have it with you or in the book of Joel.

And we've been going through the book of Joel.

Calling it the marks of the last days church.

And we've been looking at these harbingers.

Really, chapter one and halfway through chapter two are harbingers that we see in the latter days.

Many of the aspects that we see in Joel are actually covered in Matthew chapter 24 by Jesus when he talked about the latter days.

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

We've chosen the book of Joel because I believe it's a great preface to the book of Revelation.

And in February, we're going into the book of Revelation.

We're calling it the Apocalypse.

And here in Joel, as we're finishing out, we've got a few more weeks in Joel.

We're looking at these specific marks.

And if you're new with us tonight, we've covered a few weeks ago, number one, the first mark of the last days church will be a cultivation of wholehearted intimacy with Jesus.

We just had a worship seminar, a personal journey worship seminar by Mark and Carrie tonight.

And the message really from the life of David was intimacy, that worship is intimacy.

Secondly, what we're going to see as we grow into these latter days and there's the rise of evil on the earth, there's going to be a rise of power within the church, the last days church.

And the second thing we talked about was prayer and fasting.

And we're doing that.

We're going to go into prayer and fasting.

That's why you got my article when you came in, as poorly printed as it was by Kinkos.

I did not like the print job, so we'll let them know in a nice way.

Get the next set free.

Or we'll find another printer.

And if any of you guys are printers, let us know and we'll use you because I like keeping things within the body.

But prayer and fasting is one of the tools of the kingdom of God that's being rediscovered in these latter days.

And we are seeing across the globe prayer and fasting movements that are really exciting.

And we're a part of that.

The road's a part of that.

And if you haven't learned to fast and pray, read my article.

I think I break it down in a very simple way where you can understand both physically and spiritually the importance of fasting.

So we talked about that mainly last week.

And then thirdly, we talked about cultivating and overcoming prayer-answering lifestyle.

So, church, I believe that as we grow in intimacy with Jesus, then you know what to pray about, and you know what to fast about.

You're going to see prayers answered exponentially.

And so as we go into Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, three days of fasting and prayer.

And by the way, if you're not comfortable with fasting, be here anyway.

We're calling it the power to rule.

And I want to talk about the principles that I see in the Old and New Testament about being really being an overcomer and learning to contend for your faith.

Do you realize that most people never learn to contend for their faith?

Most people, most believers stay in the same place.

Here's what happens: you get saved, and some of you in this room, you got radically saved.

You were truly going left, and God got a hold of you, and now you, you know, then you started going right, but then somewhere along the way, the old worldly habits started to creep back in, right?

It's true for all of us.

And then we just kind of stall out.

We kind of stall out in our faith.

And what we're gonna be talking about on tomorrow night and Monday night and Tuesday night is how about restarting?

How about restarting?

How do we contend as an overcomer?

And I believe there's things you've got to do.

And if you don't do it, you're just gonna stay the same.

And that's a real bummer.

Here's the bummer of acting like a mere person, 1 Corinthians 3, as a believer, is you can't even have all of the toys that you had before because you feel so guilty about it, because you know it's so wrong, but you're not experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit because you're just kind of floating in the middle.

It's like the worst place to be.

And it's that lukewarmness that we're gonna talk about in Revelation, where the Lord is, I just spew you out of my mouth because you're not any good either way.

I contend, in speaking of contention, that God wants us to be exponentially making an impact in all areas of society.

I think the best artist should be coming out of the Christian community.

I believe the best musicians should be coming out of the Christian community.

I think the best businesswomen and the best businessmen should be coming out of the church.

Because we're empowered by the Holy Spirit.

I mean, I mean, I I've read the book on Steve Jobs, I've seen the movie on Steve Jobs.

I'm fascinated with the guy.

He didn't know the Lord, he was a Buddhist.

He was actually a bad Buddhist, but but he was a bad Buddhist, okay?

But look what he did.

Think what could happen if we could tap into the imagination and the innovation of the Holy Spirit.

We have settled for a form of Christianity we might call churchianity that's very, very lukewarm.

And we are not building, we are not building a lukewarm church here.

Our city's full of them.

We don't need another one.

We need a fired-up, overcoming, word-rooted, spirit-empowered, disciple-making church that makes an impact in our city and around the world.

And so that's what it's about.

So join us at 6 30.

We have Next Gen Junior for the little guys, and bring your kids.

I'll try to make it as interesting as possible, even for our high schoolers and our little elementary school kids.

I think they'll like it.

So turn in your Bibles or look on your app to Joel 2.23.

That's where we are tonight.

Joel 2.23.

Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the former rain faithfully, very interesting phrase, and he will cause the rain to come down for you, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.

That's really significant.

You ought to underline or highlight that.

The latter rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month, verse 24, the threshing floor shall be full of wheat, and the vass shall overflow with new wine and oil.

Quite the contrast from Joel chapter 1.

Joel 1 · chapter mention

So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locusts have eaten, the crawling locusts, the consuming locusts and the chewing locusts.

My great army which I sent among you.

So in the book of Joel, for you that have missed this, that the context is these locusts, literally, physically, locusts coming over the land, consuming the land.

And we talked about being harbingers of the coming of the Lord.

And that the locusts represent all through scripture, spiritually, represent the work of the demonic.

And we are going to see an increased level of the demonic.

Even in the last two months, I've been to three houses to cast out demons out of houses.

And in the process, we've cast demons out of people while we were casting demons out of the house.

Because we're going to see a rise of evil.

When you look at the movies, when you look at the TV shows and stuff that's available, so much is in that paranormal kind of context.

Three Ivy League colleges have paranormal courses that you can take.

And so there's an increased level of interest in witchcraft, the occult, and demonic activity.

And all that does, men and women, is it actually, not that the people who are interested in it are demonized.

I'm not saying that, but I'm saying that kind of interest feeds, feeds the work of the enemy.

So I've tried to be careful over the years not to give, like every problem that occurs in our family or everything problem that happens in church, say, oh, you know, the devil made us do it.

Kind of a Flip Wilson kind of theology.

Not that, but the reality is, here's the deal.

We don't want to say there's a demon behind every bush, but the evangelical church has tended to have no demons behind any bushes.

And I'm telling you, you guys, in many of your lives there is demonic activity, and you've got to learn to fight.

You've got to have the courage and the strength to say, get out of here in the name of Jesus, and they will leave.

Because you have power and authority through the Holy Spirit.

So I pray that we'll be bolder, more assertive, more aggressive in the spirit.

So as we look at this aspect now of these crawling, consuming, and chewing locusts, there's a day coming where something new is on the horizon.

And here's my fourth mark.

The fourth mark of the last days church is supernatural restoration.

Supernatural restoration.

Now, what do I mean by that?

I'm not talking about salvation here, even though salvation's part of it, but that's only like step one.

But a supernatural restoration, what I mean by that is I believe God's gonna bring, and I believe God is bringing it today, exponential healing in the body of Christ.

A work of the Spirit that's beyond what we've seen in the past, where God's gonna bring healing.

He's gonna give us insight into things, and we're seeing it already in our midst.

I mean, the stories.

I mean, I was on the mission field for 10 years, and I used to read everything that came down the tube from all the major mission groups.

I mean, all I ate, I drank, I consumed missions for probably 14 years of my life.

That's all I thought about.

And that's what I was a part of, and we were always talking about who, you know, where are we at on the hidden people group list?

How many hidden people groups are there now?

I remember when there were 17,365 hidden people, ethnic groupings in the world that hadn't been touched with the gospel yet.

And that was around 1981.

I don't know what it is now, but that's the way we used to think.

And so I read all the literature and the stuff now that's coming out, and I'm not even as steeped in it as I was then.

Some of you guys are that are missionaries, but I'm not.

But I just hear stuff that's like amazing.

I mean, the dreams that we're gonna talk about this next week.

But the dreams and visions, it's happening in the Muslim world.

I mean, Imams, Muslim imams, these guys that run their, that they're the leader over a district for Islam, having a dream that Jesus comes to them, speaks to them in their language, and tells them that someone's coming that's a messenger of God.

And then two weeks later, this guy comes in and starts preaching the gospel, and everybody in the village gets saved.

I mean, true stories like that are happening all over the place.

That was not happening 20 years ago.

It's happening today.

So listen, don't get your revelation from Fox News.

Do not get your revelation from CNN.

Get your revelation from what God's doing.

I mean, he's doing some cool stuff.

But that's what I mean.

There's going to be an exponential rise of evil, but don't forget there's also an exponential rise of restoration happening in the body of Christ, and it's really, really exciting.

And so when Jesus was talking about the last days, he said, it will be not unlike the days of Noah.

And so you see Noah and his sons, and what's interesting is that the sons aren't exactly, you know, elders in the church, okay?

Um, but they're part of this elect, and I believe in the elect.

I mean, part of the elect that got to build, build the ark, made fun of.

I'm probably jokes were told about them.

I mean, do you hear what Noah's up to?

They're probably in far side cartoons or something.

But that, you know, all that stuff's happening, and what God's doing is they're the only ones who seem to know that something's about to happen, right?

And so that's what Joel is.

Joel is like a briefing, it's like an intelligence briefing from the Lord.

We can be getting prepared, as in the days of Noah, for the ability, and I believe in the rapture of the church, but we haven't gotten into that.

We'll get into that in Revelation.

But that aspect of God's deliverance coming, and it's going to be through supernatural restoration.

So he says here in verse 23, the latter rain in the first month.

The former rains in the Middle East came from October to December to prepare the seed bed and assist germination, while the latter rains came from March to May to provide ample moisture for the grain and the fruit crops to be rich and full.

So for him to say there's going to be a latter rain in the first month is speaking of supernatural restoration.

It's also speaking of supernatural economic prosperity.

So here's the caveat.

Oh, Steve's becoming a prosperity gospel guy.

By the way, I never wasn't.

Now you guys know what I'm talking about.

I'm not, I'm biblically, we're supposed to prosper.

John 10 10 is one of my favorite verses.

I mean, when I first got saved, I read John 10 10.

Thief comes on, steel, killing, I came.

You might have, you might have.

I lost my train of thought.

I was thinking a lot of rain.

I might have life, you might have, listen, you might have life and have it more abundantly.

That's prosperity.

Psalms 1 is prosperity.

You want to know a prosperous man, be a Psalm 1 man.

A man who meditates in God's word.

It says that the roots will go down on the river and he will produce, he will produce fruit in season and out of season.

I mean, that's prosperity.

So God's going to bring prosperity upon his church, a blessing that's supernatural.

Now here's what Amos says.

Listen close to this.

This is Amos prophesying of the latter days.

On that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, and repair its damages.

I will raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old.

That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who does this thing, verse 13.

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when, listen, this is really amazing, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes, him who sows seed, the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.

This is a supernatural restoration.

It's like, as these days pick up, and in two weeks I want to cover this, especially as it relates to the nation of Israel and the revival that's going to come to Israel, is that we will be sharing our faith and people will be getting saved so fast that we won't be able to form enough D groups.

I mean, D groups will be like, whoa, uh oh, I just formed a D group, but ten other people want to be in my D group.

We'll form another D group.

Well, he's not trained.

Well, use the untrained.

We just got to have more D groups.

Because there's a day coming, Amos is speaking of, Isaiah speaks of, Joel speaks of, this day coming where the harvest is going to be faster than the planting of seeds.

That's what's happening, and I believe that's coming, especially in Islam.

The last great frontier, the last great missional frontier is Islam.

Because let's face it, we do not know what to do militarily.

We do not know what to do with our intelligence as it relates to this, but we know spiritually.

You quit being a bomber when you come to know Jesus.

Almost a hundred percent of the time.

And so, and so there's no greater defense against all that we see happen in the world than the sharing of Jesus and the preaching of the gospel wherever we go.

And God, and think about it.

I mean, can you imagine if you were a terrorist, the type of mentality that you have to go and plan and strategize to blow yourself up and then you get saved?

I mean, that kind of mentality now is working for Jesus?

This is like, these are like Apostle Paul's of the 21st century.

Paul, who had no fear, became the most fearless missionary in the first century.

And so God's gonna raise up a new kind of missionary, it's a new level of restoration.

I believe some of you here are gonna get healed this year of some stuff.

The shame's gonna be broken, and you're gonna come into a new restoration in your life.

We're gonna start tomorrow night talking about how that's gonna happen.

Be here.

What we're gonna do tomorrow night through Tuesday night is I'm gonna teach first, and then we're gonna do, and we're gonna practice it even tonight a little bit.

We're going to worship and pray together.

So it's gonna be a combination for the second half of our time together of worship and prayer.

Worship and prayer.

Um, some may have called it a concert of worship and prayer.

That's gonna happen on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night.

I will restore to you the years that the swarming loose is eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locusts, and the chewing locust.

There will be, men and women, a supernatural grace for you, and my people shall never be put to shame.

Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel.

I am the Lord your God, and there's no other.

My people shall never be put to shame.

The emphasis is mine.

Verse 26 and 27.

Never put to shame, never put to shame, never put to shame.

We're working on a video right now.

Isaac and I are dealing with the breaking of the power of shame, not dissimilar from the one you saw tonight, as it relates to being wholehearted warriors.

Because I think it's the biggest struggle of our lives in our day and age is shame.

And I believe God's gonna come, I believe he's doing it right now.

I think the one of the I think raising up worshipper and warrior, the ministry, is to help men specifically deal with shame issues because we're the ones that are the most frightened of talking about it.

We do not want to go there.

We as men in our own masculinity and the kind of men that our culture has told us we're supposed to be.

We run from those dark hidden places of our heart, and yet the scriptures would lead us to face the shame, let the light shine on the shame, and break the power of shame so we can walk in wholeheartedness.

Loving him with our whole heart.

We can't love him with your whole heart if half your heart is still in bond.

That's what God's doing in the latter days.

So Romans 5:17, this will be our theme for these three days.

Romans 5:17

For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace, some of your Bibles say overflow of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life.

Reign in life, not in your own power, but through the one, Jesus Christ.

You see how intimacy plays a part in this.

It's through intimacy, it's through a personal, growing, vital, dynamic relationship with Christ, we can reign in life.

We have that power to rule in our life as co-rulership with Christ in that Genesis mandate that he gave us authority in the very, very beginning.

And so what we see today in the area of restoration is in the arena of parenting, in the arena of family life, in the arena of marriage, in the arena of spiritual warfare.

I remember, are some of you old enough to remember that in the 70s and 80s, if you said anything about demons, you are a total weirded out Pentecostal.

I mean, seriously, you were a holy roller.

You were.

And then as you moved into the late 80s and 90s, if you said a Christian could be struggling with demons, oh man, you were a heretic.

And now what's happened is all these are accepted.

Because, I mean, I remember Chuck Swindah, I remember when Chuck Swindah came, this was in the early 90s.

And Chuck Swindah was really big on, you know, no Christian can ever have a demon or anything.

And by the way, I'm not talking about demon possession, I'm not talking about demon-influenced, demonized.

And then he had an encounter with a real life situation, and he became a believer like overnight.

There's nothing like personal experience to change your theology.

So I had on Facebook, some of you saw the Facebook posting that I had, it was that, I think it was that video, and the subtitle there was Supernatural Restoration, and then I had two guys on there totally making fun of that phrase, spiritual, uh supernatural restoration.

Well, I blocked them, so they won't be back.

But um, but I thought, okay, here we go again.

We still have people living in the dark ages.

The reality, though, is that God's giving us fresh revelation, not in any way adding to scripture.

You guys hear what I'm saying?

I'm not talking about adding to scripture.

I'm talking about insight into the scripture.

Greater revelation of the scripture.

So God's supernatural restoration is coming.

It's upon us.

Verse 28.

And it shall come to pass afterward, and this is the reason it's happening, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.

Now you understand, don't you, that from verse 28 now for the next few verses, this is the passage that Peter drew from in Acts chapter 2 at Pentecost.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

So he draws from this speaking of the last days.

So let me just say this about that.

We've been living in the last days for 2,000 years.

So we're in the last days of the last days, I believe.

And even if we're not, and I'm completely wrong, you're definitely in your last days.

So let us live in those last days of our last days, believing they're the last days, because of what we see in the harbingers that are all around us.

I mean, you guys think you look great and young, and that's great, that's suiting all the makeup and all that, but you know, you are in your last days, you are.

Okay?

I know I am.

I felt it today on the fourth rep.

Fifth mark.

In the latter days church, there will be an outpouring of the Spirit.

So there was an outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost.

We know that well in Acts chapter 2, and that really set the stage for the rest of what happened in Acts.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

But men and women, that's nothing.

I mean, that's literally nothing compared to what's happening right now.

I mean, there are Presbyterian churches, there are episcopal churches, there's Catholic churches that are getting slammed by the Holy Spirit.

They're getting slammed.

And they're like, that's not, that's not Presbyterian, that's not episcopal.

And then someone is saying, but it's biblical.

Ah, heaven forbid.

You know, I remember when my dad is a Lutheran pastor, clergy, I mean, clerical collar candles, and I was his crucifer, and we walk in, everything, little uh white gowns and everything that you wear, and you had the choir behind you, and everybody's got their choir book, and there was a big the biggest thing that happened in the 70s in the ELCA Lutheran Church was whether you had a red hymnal or a green one.

Really important things, you know, for the gospel.

And uh, so we're in that context, and then my dad gets slammed by the Holy Spirit.

And so he starts having these praise and worship meetings in the church, and man, did he get into a heap of trouble.

And so pastors in these mainline denominations, now for the last 25 years, they've been getting in tons of trouble.

The charismatic movement really was not out of the Pentecostal churches, it was out of mainline churches that got filled with the Holy Spirit.

So God's been pouring out a spirit, and it's only gonna increase as we move forward in the things of the Lord.

Alistair McCrath, the great theologian, said this.

The Holy Spirit has long been the cinderella of the Trinity.

The other two sisters may have gone to the theological ball.

The Holy Spirit got left behind every time.

Well, that's not true anymore.

The Spirit of God is leading out in fascinating, powerful, and unique ways that were unbeknownst to us, I'd say even 15 years ago, what God's doing.

And so, make reference to 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Corinthians 13, 1 Corinthians 14, and Romans 12.

Those are whole passages that talk about spiritual gifts that are given to those who are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Why is that significant?

Because, and I'll talk about this, I'll briefly talk about it tonight, but I'm gonna cover it a lot more next week, the difference between being a cessationist and a continuous.

And I'll talk about that in a moment.

But this idea that really started mainly out of a Dallas Theological Seminary and it's changing even there from dispensational theology that through the dispensation of the church and the dispensation of the word, that there's no longer the same kind of spiritual gifts that we read about in Scripture.

Well, I can tell you right now, that is not only wrong-headed, it's bad theology and it's poor experience, because the reality is God's moving.

And so in the area of spiritual gifts, you've got chapters, four major chapters in the New Testament dealing with the work of the Holy Spirit.

But here's my point tonight on the outpouring of the Spirit.

That as a church, as a word and spirit church, the road is always dependent on Jesus through the Spirit, not me, not the shepherds, not the stewards.

As important as those roles are, and I take that seriously, the reality is we are dependent on the word and the spirit, and we listen to him.

He guides us.

And I can't tell you how many thoughts and ideas on the leaders on the church, you guys know some of them, where I'm like, oh, this is what we're gonna do.

It's the next thing we're gonna do with the road.

And then doggone it if I don't fast and pray, and the Holy Spirit says, What are you doing?

That's the dumbest.

I never even thought about that.

Like, you know, it says that God's thoughts are not our thoughts, they're higher than our thoughts.

I think sometimes God said, Your thoughts are not my thoughts.

They're the lowest thoughts I could ever have.

And so sometimes when you fast and pray, you realize that's really dumb.

And so that's another reason we fast and pray.

That's another reason why we seek God, is because we get, and it's not bad.

You know, it's not bad stuff.

It's not bad and good.

A lot of times, it's good, better, best.

I mean, do you want good?

Do you want better?

Or do you want the best?

And our thoughts are so often so askew, even as believers, from what Jesus is up to, that we have to realign ourselves, don't we?

To listen to Him.

That's why I believe it's so important that you're spending time, PB and J, Prayer Bible Journal, every day with the Lord, and then sometimes even pulling away and doing a personal retreat.

Getting away.

If you've got a big decision you're facing, or maybe it's not a big decision, you just want to kind of reinvigorate your walk with God, take a Saturday, take a Sunday, or whenever you got some time off, and go.

Go somewhere alone and spend time with the Lord in worship and prayer and let Him speak to you.

The church in the book of Acts was filled with the Holy Spirit.

In church growth circles, the big emphasis over the last 30 years is being church growth and being culturally relevant.

And you'll see, I think, I mean, I imagine it's still on the some of the websites.

I was telling my kids the other day, we were sitting there talking about, it was Anna, Isaac, me, I don't remember if Allie was there, Ryan was there, but we were all talking about just, you know, the social media world.

And I was telling them, when I started Mountain Springs, you know what the biggest thing was?

Was yellow pages.

How big is your yellow pages ad gonna be?

I want a two-incher, you know, or I want to be like New Life and have a six-incher, you know, half-page ad.

You know that was$700 a month.

That's what it costs to have a yellow pages ad.

Hello?

You kidding me?

Because you want to be culturally relevant.

You want everybody, and I always said culturally relevant worship, which meant you didn't do organs anymore, I guess, or something.

The book of Acts is about a church that didn't care about being culturally relevant, they wanted to be God obedient.

They were word-rooted spirit-empowered.

That's what God wants to do.

God is more interested in being spirit-empowered than culturally relevant.

You see, we've taken our cues way too much from the culture and tried to make ourselves like the culture.

Instead of taking our cues from the Holy Spirit and changing the culture and transforming the culture.

The church in Acts turned the world upside down because they outprayed, outlived, outloved, and outworked the world systems of the Roman Empire at that time.

And God would call us as a church to outpray, outlive, and outlove the cultural systems of America.

So instead of being frustrated what's happening in Washington, let's be mobilized to make a difference in our city.

Now the next one's really fun.

The next part of this verse is really fun.

And I wish we had more time, but I knew I'd run out of time, so I'm gonna do it way more next week.

So it's just gonna start with it.

Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

Oh my goodness.

The sixth mark.

An outpouring of the Spirit resulting in a prophetic lifestyle.

Now I find it interesting that Joel, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said, Sons and daughters shall prophesy.

I believe God is raising up children in a mighty way with dreams, visions, and especially worship.

We saw it at Christmas Eve with that multi-age, multigender worship team.

And we just had the seminar by Mark and Carrie today about worship.

How exciting would it be a year from now if we don't, on a regular basis, have some of the young people of our church, really young, but really anointed in worship, prophesying through an instrument, prophesying through their singing, prophesying by who they are in Christ, even at a young age.

Who are we to hold them back?

Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

The cessationist view is that all of the supernatural power gifts ceased after the first century.

That the only prophetic utterance is the teaching of the word.

And by the way, that's the most important.

Solid preaching from God's word is the most important prophetic message every week.

But it's not the only prophetic message of the week.

God has gifted his church with prophetically gifted people that can hear from God.

And my good friend Wayne Grudom, the great theologian, has described it this way.

When he describes sort of New Testament prophecy, I love it, it's just so simple.

Here's what Wayne Grudom says prophecy is today.

Speaking human words to report something, God brings to your mind.

Let me say it again.

Speaking human words to report something, God brings to your mind.

Now, why is that important?

The reason that's important is because there's a big difference between Old Testament prophecy and New Testament prophecy, and there's a big difference between Old Testament prophecy as it related to the writing of the Old Testament, which the prophets did, Jeremiah did, Daniel did, Isaiah did, David did, and in the rim of the New Testament prophecy, what the apostles did.

See, the apostolic prophetic gift was to write the New Testament.

So their words were directly inspired by God, and they wrote Scripture, and it's inerrant and infallible.

But as we finished the canon and the closing of the canon came, the 66 books of the Bible, the prophetic gift is for edification, encouragement, and consolation.

And so all of you are prophetic.

In some way, shape, or form, everybody in this room is prophetic.

When you are, when you're up here getting prayer, or you're in counseling, or you're helping someone who's a neighbor, and you have an insight into that person's life that's from the Lord.

That's prophetic.

That's the gift of prophecy.

Some are more gifted in that arena than others.

And I could tell you just dozens of stories from our life.

But I mean, one that just, you've heard me say it before, but it's the most pronounced in Liz in my life was where we took three days to fast and pray on Anaheim.

We're in Anaheim, California.

I've been offered a great job in California to be a pastor there, but I feel this urging now for years to go to Colorado Springs and plant a church.

And I'm leaving staff meeting.

As I'm leaving staff meeting, this lady just comes up and she goes, I know you.

Like, I don't know you.

And she goes, Your name is the same as my husband.

Your name is Steve.

And God spoke to me during the staff meeting, and I saw a vision, and you were standing on this mountain.

You were standing on these rocks.

There were rocks on rocky mountains.

It's rocky mountains.

And God is, it's it's March the 1st, which it was, 1994.

It's March the 1st, and God tells you it's time to march, and He's been telling you what to do, and you keep messing around, it's time for you to march.

And I just started weeping and fell on my face.

And I resigned that day and started making plans to come here.

That's a pretty anointed prophetic gift.

Never met the person in my life.

And she'd never met me or knew me at all.

So listen closely.

And I'll cover this more next week because I'm going to get quiet in a moment here.

The Old Testament prophets spoke and wrote the very words of God.

Do you understand that?

That's why it says, if a person calls himself a prophet, but they prophesy falsely, stone them.

Okay?

In the New Testament, with the apostles, the apostles, listen, the apostles carried the same anointing as the Old Testament prophets.

Do you understand that?

We don't have that same anointing.

The Lamb's 12 is the Lamb's 12.

Those early apostles were called to write Scripture.

We're not called to write Scripture.

The canon is closed.

But listen, every word that's given is judged by Scripture.

Do you understand?

Everybody go like that if you understand what I'm saying.

So in other words, that if someone gives a word, I see the Lord says to me, thus saith the Lord, divorce your husband.

And we say, thus saith the Lord, get out of here because you are a false prophet.

You know, if it contradicts Scripture, it can be an error.

And here's the deal: you can give a word, in this church, you can give a word, and it can be partially wrong.

Remember Agabas with Paul?

This would be, I'm not going to tell you the answer to this.

You go home and do this, do your homework.

Look in the book of Acts and see what Agabus does with Paul, and you tell me if he got it all right or not.

Because he doesn't.

Because the prophetic gift today is giving what you sense the Lord saying, and you don't say, thus saith the Lord.

We don't have that level of revelation here.

We don't say, thus saith the Lord.

The way we say it at the road is say, I feel like the Lord might be saying this.

What do you think?

You do it in an evasive way that if it's of the Lord, it still does the same thing.

But if it's not of the Lord, it gives the person a chance to, in a sense, critique it.

Because we are not apostles.

We are not Old Testament prophets, but we are ministering in New Testament prophecy.

And I'll explain more about this next week because I know I don't have much time.

So I'm not a cessationist, I'm a continuist.

So what we see in Acts is continuing today.

Next slide.

You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Steve Holt.

We pray that you've been blessed by the message today.

Our hope is to make wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

And that's why we teach the Word of God verse by verse, scripture by scripture, and precept upon precept.

We're excited about all the things God is doing in the lives of our faithful listeners.

We understand that there are many trials and tribulations in this world, and we'd love to be able to pray for you as you encounter difficult times.

Please drop us a note and let us know how we can pray for you.

Write us at The Row.

DO Box 88485, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80908.

If you've been blessed by this message, please let us know as well.

Again, the address is The ROAD.

DO Box 88485, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80908.

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We meet at Chapel Hills Church, located at 2025 Parliament Drive, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80920.

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As always, we cover your prayers.

Thanks again for tuning in today.

And be sure to catch us again next time for another edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Hope.