The Prophetic Spirit - 7/12/26

Welcome.

Hi there.

My name's Randy.

I'm the associate pastor of Formation in Prayer and very happy to be here this morning.

Yeah, we got to worship a long time and I loved it.

It was a particularly sweet time.

And um, so I'm gonna jump right in because God's doing more than just me speaking.

He's done it, he's doing it, and he's going to do it.

So I want to leave time at the end for us to pray for one another.

We're in this series called Paraclete, which is just a Greek word that means one who comes alongside.

It's the word that Jesus used most often for the Holy Spirit.

The helper is the way we would think of it.

So Adam talked about the paraclete, the Holy Spirit in creation and in new creation.

And I want to talk about the Holy Spirit this morning a little bit in action.

And really just two things I want to say that are connected.

Listen to the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit speaks life.

There's the message.

If you've gotten enough, go home, have a coffee, have a pizza.

Listen to the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit speaks life.

John 6 63, Jesus says, the Spirit is the one who gives life.

Human strength can do nothing.

The words that I've spoken to you are from that life-giving spirit.

That's Jesus giving the power and the life-giving power of his words, giving the credit of that to the Holy Spirit.

Because Jesus, what he did, didn't do it because he was the Son of God, though he was, he did it because he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

That was the power of Jesus, was the power of the Holy Spirit, just like we have the power of the Holy Spirit.

The voice of Jesus was communicated by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so listen to the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit speaks life.

I want to tell a short story, and I've told this probably many times, but I'm going to tell it again because when you have an encounter with God, that encounter becomes a part of your life.

And that part of your life becomes something you can give away.

And so if anything I've experienced I can give away, I want to do that because the Holy Spirit speaks life.

Adam told about his story of sort of a first encounter with the Holy Spirit.

Mine was the years ago, too, while I was in seminary in Chicago in Evanston, and I gone to uh I was first year of seminary, and I'd gone to a class for future pastors, and I thought maybe I'll be one of those.

I don't really know.

And I have no idea what the guy said uh during the class.

All I knew that at the end, when he said we're going to pray for one another, and if you want prayer, come forward.

What pricked my heart was the fear that I was living in.

Incredible fear, fear of everything, fear of failure, fear of man, fear of God, fear of me.

And so I just kind of ran forward and I put my hands out and I just needed to repent of fear.

Someone came up to me and I just said, I'm just fear defines my life, and I need to turn away from it.

So I put my hands out and this guy just prayed a prayer.

I don't know what it was.

I'm sure some in somewhere in there it was Holy Spirit come.

And in the middle of that prayer, I started to feel this tingling in my fingers.

And I wasn't there for very long.

I just put my hands out.

I started to feel this tingling.

You know, something happens, you're like, what's going on?

Like, I don't think my hands can be asleep.

That would be strange out here.

And uh this guy says in a very monotone voice, the Holy Spirit's on you.

And then he just says, More, Lord.

That was his big prayer.

Holy Spirit's on you, more.

And all of a sudden, this tingling starts to go down through my arms, both arms.

I'm feeling, I feel it now.

Um, this thing, this fingling is, yeah, this tingling is going down my arms.

I feel it in my body, it's going to my legs.

And I literally open my eyes and I said, Do you feel this?

And he's laughing.

I said, No, touch my hand.

I said, Do you feel this?

The power of God's going through my body.

And for I don't know how many minutes I'm standing there and I just feel this like a massage chair, like this zinging power going through my body all the way down to my feet.

And um, so um, there might have been more words.

I don't know.

He just said, Hey, go sit down.

The Lord wants to speak to you.

And so I'm just like this, and I sat down.

I just hear these words, I sit down, these are the words that come into my mind.

I love you, dear son.

As strong as I've ever heard anything in my inside voice, I love you, dear son.

It's it was a simple phrase and the most powerful phrase in my life ever.

The heart of the Father towards me and who I actually am, the son.

So I I walked up convicted about fear, and I I simply agreed with God, I'm full of fear.

I said, I want to turn from it.

It's called repentance.

In the name of Jesus, we broke the power of that fear, and that encounter opened me up to the power of love.

Cue the Huey Lewis song.

Because that's what love does, right?

The spirit speaks life.

That's the Father speaking to me by the Holy Spirit.

I love you, dear son.

And it broke the power of fear in my life.

Now, that power has been breaking more and more and more and more for the last 30 years.

Because yes, it happens, and then it happens again and happens again and happens again.

The spirit speaks life.

You know, I I had some notes here, and I wasn't gonna, I thought for time, you know, I'm not gonna, I've got too much to say.

I'll I'll kick this part out.

And then Cheryl got up, who didn't know what I was gonna say, and she talks about weakness and our and our recognition of that and what the Lord wants to do.

So I guess I'll keep this part in.

An important note about us and the Holy Spirit.

Genesis 2, it tells us that we're created from the what?

Dust.

We're created from dust.

The Lord formed a man from the dust of the ground.

Genesis 2, we're dust.

Genesis 3, from dust you were made, and to dust you shall return.

That's who we are, a part of our nature, our our flesh, our human part, dust.

Back to Genesis 2.

The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground, good thing it didn't end there, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

The breath of God is the spirit of God.

Adam talked about that word for spirit in the Old Testament, breath can also mean wind or spirit.

So the Spirit of God, God speaks the Spirit of God into the dust, and we become alive.

So what are we?

We are dust and breath.

We're dust and breath.

When I heard Cheryl say that, I thought what she's really saying is some of us are feeling really dusty this morning.

And our dust is right here.

We're like pig pen.

We're a good person underneath, but man, is there a lot of dust on the outside?

And the Lord wants to speak to the dust.

Tell us who we are.

We're in Christ, we're the children of the living God, but he also wants to speak through the dust.

Isn't that the power of the Holy Spirit?

Not just that he gives us life, but then he gives us the grace to speak life into other people.

It happened in the sanctuary here last week, right?

How many people came up and got prayer?

And just from these dusty humans came out the breath, the spirit, the life of the Holy Spirit, and many of us got encouraged.

Many of us got words that were like, I can't believe God thinks about me this way.

I can't believe God sees me.

If you listen to the Holy Spirit, he'll speak life to you.

The question is, are you listening to the Holy Spirit?

Today, in your life at this point, are you listening to the Holy Spirit?

During that same time, no, it wasn't in seminary, it was our kids, our kids were older, our kids were maybe teenagers, and Jane and I and the whole family were driving to Chicago.

Mistake number one.

I love Chicago, Jane's from there, I love it, but you just can't get there from here.

Or anywhere from there.

It's Chicago.

So we're driving on, I think it was I-90, the Skyway or something.

We're headed into Chicago.

It's late at night, 10, 11 at night.

Kids are being kids, parents are being grumpy, right?

And at this one point on 90, there are six lanes going 12 ways.

It's what it feels like anyway.

And it was the I had just gotten a new phone, and I'm just understand Siri, you know, so Siri's telling me where to go, you know.

And Siri says, take the next exit.

In this very kind woman's voice.

And then this very confident woman's voice, known as my wife Jane, says, Don't take the exit.

So I'm in a pickle, right?

Who am I gonna listen to at this point?

Right.

I'm I'm a man, I want to be right, so I listened to Siri.

And I take the exit.

Yeah.

Um, it got really cold in the car at about the second stoplight as we headed into downtown Chicago.

We were headed for the west side.

I listened to the wrong voice.

You know what I did?

I listened to the inanimate voice rather than the animate voice.

You know what the word animate comes from the Latin word anima, which means spirit or soul.

What did I listen?

I listened to the spiritless voice rather than the one with life.

You may not know, I'll tell you now, that Jane in our extended family is known as JPS.

She can get anywhere at any time.

It's a gift.

What was my mistake?

I didn't listen to my wife, duh, right?

Bigger than that, I didn't listen to life.

It's not I just didn't listen to Jane, my wife, I didn't listen to life.

I put my trust in the inanimate rather than the animate.

So my question this morning is who are you listening to?

Who are you listening to in your life?

Are you listening to the voice of just human reason?

In my case, bolstered by pride?

Or are you listening to the the the voice of faith which takes you down the right road and gives you life?

Listen to the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit speaks life.

And the Holy Spirit can speak life through you.

Ezekiel 36, God, you can just write these verses down.

They're always on the website in our notes.

Ezekiel 36, he says, I will give you a new heart.

This is God speaking to his people.

I'll give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you, and I'll put my spirit in you and you will live.

Joel chapter 2, God's promising that that spirit would be poured out on all flesh.

Joel 2 · chapter mention

And that in Joel chapter 2, he says, Sons and daughters will prophesy, young and old men will dream dreams and see visions, men and women will have the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Joel 2 · chapter mention

They'll prophesy.

And on the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2, Peter, while he's speaking to the crowd, the Holy Spirit has been poured out.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

He's speaking to 3,000 people who are hearing about what?

The life of Jesus.

And he quotes this exact same verse and he says, What's happening right now is that promise.

And that's why old and young are seeing visions and having uh dreams.

And sons and daughters are prophesying, young and old.

It happened there and it's happening now.

It's it's it's us.

We're the young and the old.

We're the men and the women, we're the sons and the daughters, and the Holy Spirit who speaks life to us.

God, I love prepositions, also likes to speak life through us.

That's the voice of the prophetic spirit.

That's what the Holy Spirit does in our midst.

He speaks to us and he speaks through us.

When we speak by the Holy Spirit, New Testament calls it prophecy.

That's just literally a word that pops into your mind that you think might be from the Lord that you give to another to test.

First Corinthians 14, it says, But those who prophesy speak to people, to other people for their upbuilding and their encouragement and their consolation.

That's the purpose of the prophetic word.

It's it's to encourage us, it's to comfort us.

That word from Cheryl this morning brought some of us real encouragement.

It brought some of us comfort.

It's bringing some of us a sense of I'm being built up.

Oh, it's okay that I'm dusty because the breath of God is here.

This summer, Jane and I were meant to be leading a group of people on a hike, like a pilgrimage.

And because I had some health issues, we weren't able to do it.

And so instead of being with them, we did it from afar.

And so we gave them a little booklet and sent them off on their way, and we did some videos for them and we prayed for them one by one each day.

And so one day I was praying for one of them, and I'm just sitting in my chair, and this verse pops into my mind.

I'm just like, God, I pray for Psalm 86.

Just like that.

So I look up Psalm 86, and I just thought, oh, maybe this is for this person.

So I start praying for Psalm 86, and I and I sent them a little WhatsApp.

I just said, hey, thinking about you this morning, this is what popped into my brain.

And I just prayed some stuff.

Hey, here's uh what God might think of you.

Here's how I think God might be speaking to you.

Here might be an invitation for you from the Lord.

Send it off.

God, do what you want to do.

Next day, I get a WhatsApp back, and I'll just I'll just quote it.

Says, I literally read through and wrote out Psalm 86 in my journal yesterday, capitalized, underlined, exclamation points.

I was sitting in those verses all day.

So thank you for your encouragement.

Here's the last thing they say.

I feel very known and very loved and very seen by the Lord through this.

That's the prophetic voice.

That's it.

I didn't have an angelic visitation.

I just sat down and prayed, and I'm open to the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit's in me, and I am willing to take a risk of being wrong, or a risk of being right.

And what happened?

One person got encouraged.

No, two people got encouraged.

Because you know what I thought?

Holy cow! Holy Spirit! You speak through me.

And so what happens is two people are in awe.

And you know what?

I think God gets glorified when people are in awe.

That's the prophetic voice.

Listen to the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit speaks life.

I have 4.6 minutes.

So we'll read the entirety of Ezekiel 37.

No, we won't.

You probably know of about Ezekiel 37 as the valley of dry bones.

Let me give you a short version.

Because it it's all of these things uh come together in Ezekiel 37.

So Ezekiel is having a prophetic vision.

It's one of the ways that the Lord speaks to us.

He gives us pictures, he gives us visions.

And so the Lord's speaking to Ezekiel in this in this vision, and he sees this valley full of bones, dry bones.

And uh Ezekiel 37, one, it says, The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord, and he sent me in the middle of a valley, and it was full of bones, and he led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.

And he asked me, Son of man, can these bones live?

And I said, Sovereign Lord, you alone know.

So the Lord speaks to Ezekiel then, and he tells him to speak to the dry bones.

It's you know, the vision is for the people of God.

It's how God is seeing the people, and what the Holy Spirit wants to speak to the people through Ezekiel.

And so verse four says, Then he said to me, Prophesy to these bones and say to them, Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones, I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.

And so what happens is they come together and they're formed, but they're without life.

They're just dead bodies, without breath, formed but lifeless.

So then God says to Ezekiel, here's this one will mess you up a little bit, prophesy to the breath.

It's the same word as ruach.

Prophesy to the breath, prophesy to the spirit.

God says to a man, speak to the Holy Spirit.

That's how I see it.

Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to it, This is what the sovereign Lord says, Come, breath from the four winds, and breathe into these slain that they may live.

So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them, think Genesis 2.

Breath entered them, and they came to life, and they stood up on their feet, a vast army.

The Lord speaks to Ezekiel, he sees bones.

He says, Tell them to get together, they get together.

But they have no life.

And then the Lord says, Now, what I think, I mean, I'm a vineyard guy, right?

What's the vineyard prayer?

Come, Holy Spirit.

What does God say Ezekiel to say?

Tell Ezekiel to say, Come, breath.

Come, Holy Spirit, and do what only you can do.

Bring life to these bones.

But there's more.

They all come to life and they're an army, and then the Lord tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the people.

So Ezekiel's now talking to the people who were brought to life because God told him to speak to the Holy Spirit to come and bring life.

This is how God works with his people.

This is what the sovereign Lord says: My people, I'm going to open your graves and bring you up from them.

I'm I will bring you back to the land of Israel, and then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord.

When I open your graves and bring you up from them, I will put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I will settle you in your land, and then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.

The Lord promises life, I'll open your graves and put my spirit in you.

He promises restoration, I'll bring you back.

He promises peace, I'll settle you in your land.

And who gets the glory for that?

Who gets the glory for the Holy Spirit speaking life through Ezekiel verse 14?

It says, And you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and that I have done it.

That's the prophetic spirit, speaking through dust with the breath and the voice of God, so that people come to life and they get restored, and they and they and they get enlivened and they receive peace, and God gets the glory.

And we just we get to know the Lord did it.

You know, I give Psalm 86 because it comes to my mind, and you know what I say at the end when I get that that what's that back?

The Lord did it.

The Lord did it.

As dust enlivened and inhabited by breath, the Holy Spirit wants to speak to us life.

And he wants to speak through us to other people life.

The question is, are we listening?

Are we listening to the Holy Spirit?

Are are we willing to take a risk when we hear not just the word for somebody else, but the word for yourself?

You know, it took a little risk for me to believe that when I get this into my mind, I love you, dear son, that that was really the Lord.

Ah, not me.

But God, don't you know me?

Took a little risk.

Are we listening?

It doesn't have to seem like a big deal.

When we listen to God, right?

Remember Adam talking about Jesus seeing Nathaniel?

And he says, I saw you, you know, Nathaniel's like, How did you know me?

He said, I saw you under fig tree.

That doesn't a big deal.

I saw you under the fig tree.

Like a big prophetic word from Jesus.

And what's Nathaniel's response?

You are the Christ.

You're the Son of God.

It seems like a little deal, but it's a word from God, so it becomes a big deal.

That's how the prophetic voice speaks.

Listen.

It's about five till in about five minutes.

I'll just ask you if you have children, if you've gotten ministry or you're waiting, go get your kids and bring them back because God's still working.

He was working before you walked in.

He was moving in our worship.

He's speaking as I'm speaking to you.

And he's moving and it was working right now.

What's the Holy Spirit saying to you today?

Something the Spirit's giving you to comfort you, to encourage you, to build you up.

Something you think the Lord might be saying to another person to comfort, to strengthen, or to the build-up.

You know, I said at the beginning, when I told that story about my encounter, I said an encounter becomes a part of you, and then it's a part of you that you get to give away.

I wonder if there are some here this morning that when I talked about being gripped by fear in life, you just had a big aha moment.

It just went inside you.

That's me.

I'm gripped by fear.

I think the Lord wants to speak to that, and I think that all it requires is repentance.

Repentance is just turning around and looking at God, yourself, and the world in a new way.

It's just agreeing with God.

So I'm going to pray for us, but as I'm doing that, if that speaks to you, if the Lord's saying, that's me about fear, I just want to ask you to come over here in this area.

And you could just kind of settle here.

And I'm going to come over and just pray over you.

And then maybe we'll have some people that will pray for you.

I know there's some here that that's just hitting you.

It's it's you're gripped by fear.

You're feeling all dusty in fear, and the Lord says, I want to, I want to blow my breath on you.

And when I want to speak to that fear, my love.

There might be some others that are just feeling dusty in life and burdened, and you just need the breath of God.

You know, the beauty of the work of the Holy Spirit is he's the voice and he's the breath.

Sometimes out in the world these days, we just hear voices from afar, right?

We go online, we get a voice from afar.

You don't have to be proximate.

But when the Holy Spirit speaks, it's the voice and the breath.

It's face to face.

And some of us just need to need another face to face with the Holy Spirit.

So I'm going to wait a minute and I'd like you to come.

I'd like you to come to anyone up front who you who you think would you'd like to pray, them to pray for you.

We'll just wait for a moment.