Is God Actually Talking to You? | Holy Spirit

This is the Sandals Church Podcast, a place for real people with real struggles learning to follow Jesus. Wherever you are right now, driving, working, or trying to make it through the day, we are really glad you're here. Let's get into today's message.

It was a slow Saturday morning and Ash and I were just enjoying our day of rest, having a conversation out in the backyard. I found myself admitting something that just felt very strange to say out loud to her. As many of you know, we have just been in a difficult season. It's been a hard season as a family. And I just said to Ashley, you know what?

I sometimes wonder if God actually hears me and if He actually is speaking to me. Maybe some of you have said that before too. And, she was gracious to me, heard me ramble for a few minutes and eventually went nowhere. But, the next day was Sunday and I happened to be preaching that day. And after the 10AM service here at Sandals Church Hunter Park, I was in the lobby kind of mingling as a minister does, know, kissing babies and taking photos and whatnot.

And, man, a church member walked up to me and he said, Fredo, as you were teaching this morning, God prompted me to tell you this. And I don't know why or how you're even going to receive this, but God wanted me to tell you that He still hears you, He's still speaking to you, but you need to be ready to listen. And I did everything I could to not melt right there in the lobby and just said, man, you have no idea how much that means to me right now. Nothing strange happened. He didn't begin to levitate.

He didn't say, Well that'll be a $100. I'll take Venmo or Zelle, you know. We simply shook hands and he left. What do we call that, friends? What do we call that?

I'll tell you what the Bible calls that. The Bible calls that the gift of prophecy. Prophecy. Now, as soon as I say the word that might mean all kinds of things to you based on your background, your personality, your experience in church. And that is totally fair because the phrase God told me to tell you has been misused and abused countless times in church.

And so we gotta be careful when we talk about it. But I want you to be open to the reality today that God wants to use your words to change another person's life. And the same way that happened for me in the lobby just a few months ago. And I can't even begin to imagine like where my life would be, where I would be without the prophetic words that people have spoken over me. Maybe that's true for some of you.

Like you can think of a particular moment in your life when someone spoke a word over you and it changed the direction of your life. Maybe for some of you, you can remember what it was like to be prompted by God to share a verse or like a picture, an image, a word, and you were like nervous, you felt awkward, like what am I about to do? And you just went, and you said it, and you changed someone's life. What an incredible moment. And I believe that one of the things, one of the most powerful ways that we experience the Holy Spirit of God in our life today, particularly in the life of the church, is through the gift of prophecy.

We need to hear this word. And so there's an invitation for all of us to learn once again what it means to listen to God and then to speak on His behalf. And so with that said, I would invite you if you are willing and able to stand with me for the reading of God's word. First Corinthians 14, and then I will pray for us. The Apostle Paul writes this, Follow the way of love and eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.

For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them. They utter mysteries by the spirit. But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church.

This is God's word. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, in this moment together that we have gathered, we pause in prayer to acknowledge that You have gathered with us too. And so we ask now God, that You would speak to us from Your word. That as Jesus said, You would give us ears to hear and eyes to see so that we might become all that You desire us to be in Him.

We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You guys may be seated. What I just read to you from first Corinthians 14 is often referred to as kind of the defining chapter on what this gift, the gift of prophecy looks like in the church.

And this is an important thing for us to take note of because as we have continued in this series, the Holy Spirit, understanding that He is much closer to us than we can possibly imagine, one of the ways, one of the most beautiful ways that you experience the Holy Spirit in your life is when He prompts you to speak a word to another person. What a gift that is. Now notice though, in verse one, how Paul frames this entire discussion. Notice the very first phrase, Follow the way of love and eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. Now let's just think about this and kind of mind this verse for all the gold that we could possibly take in the next twenty two minutes because some of y'all listen slow.

Firstly, he frames the entire discussion on gifts in what? Following the way of love. That is to say one of the primary ways that you and I love each other in the church is by using our gifts. Not for our own name's sake, but for what? The good of someone else.

Follow the way of love and eagerly desire the gifts. Particularly, he says, or especially prophecy. So in the mind of Paul, the Spirit gives various gifts to all kinds of people. Pastor Matt talked about that a few weeks ago. But the one thing that all of us should eagerly desire, according to Paul, is prophecy.

Now sometimes we just kind of mask prophecy under the guise of us really just wanting to get something off our chest, and we call it prophecy. No, you're just a bit problematic, right? You're just a bit moody. But prophecy is something that we should all desire. Now to be clear, here's a helpful definition for all of us kind of just to get on the same page with.

Prophecy is the ability to speak God's timeless truth in a timely manner to another person. Somebody's like, wow, that's a great definition. Thanks. I didn't write it. Pastor Matt did.

Straight from our position paper on the Holy Spirit. It's the ability to speak God's timeless truth, His eternal truth, in a very timely manner to another person. So it happens spontaneously. You're prompted. Maybe you're nudged by God.

You get a verse. You get this picture in your mind. A word comes to you. Maybe a memory comes to mind and you're so compelled that you're like, I actually need to give this to someone. And God puts on your heart, who needs to hear this?

Right at that particular moment. It's an incredible thing when this begins to happen. Now whatever prophecy may be, Paul later describes in verse three that the direction of this prophecy is for strengthening, encouraging, and comforting. Now here's what I find to be so compelling though about this. If we ask the question, who gets this gift?

Well, according to Paul, he says, everyone should eagerly desire it. That is to say prophecy is a gift for every believer. Think about that right now. Whether you are a new believer or you've been around for decades, prophecy is a gift all of us should be asking God for. Now, I don't know what you've been asking God for lately.

More attention, more grace, more help. But according to Paul, the thing that he says we as a church should all eagerly desire is the gift of prophecy. Why? Because it's a gift for every single believer. Meaning right now in this moment, depending on how good you think you might be with God or how poorly you feel with Him because you haven't cracked open your Bible in weeks, you have the capacity to speak on God's behalf to another human being.

Imagine the magnitude of that right now. That there could be an ordinary moment in your life, like me walking through the lobby, wanting to know that God still speaks to me and someone else walks up and says, Hey, here's the actual sermon. Not what you just shared for thirty minutes, but here's the word. This is for every believer. Now for us to understand the significance of this, we need to go all the way back to the beginning of the story.

Genesis chapter one, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It was, formless, it was void, and then it said the spirit was hovering over the darkness, the face of the deep. Now that word there in Hebrew, spirit is also translated as ruach. Now ruach can mean equally, listen now, spirit and breath. That is to say the breath of God breathed life into existence.

God breathed all of life into being. God built the world with words. It's amazing. Genesis goes on to say that He breathed His own life into humanity, right? He breathed into man, to men and women, the breath of life.

And this is something that uniquely happens to you and I, people who are made in the image of God. This is something that does not happen for any other part of creation. Why? Well, because I think according to the first command that we're given to be fruitful and multiply, God desires you and I, through the breath that He gives us, to also create in a similar way that He creates. There's something important that begins to happen.

He breathes life into existence. He breathes into you and I. And then as the story continues, we see all kinds of places where God, His Spirit falls on a particular person in a particular moment to bring an utterance. Now there's one amazing place where this happens in Numbers chapter 11. Some of you might be familiar with this passage.

Numbers 11 · chapter mention

It's the day that Moses almost quit his job as Moses. He was fed up. Some of you all been fed up before? Fed up with the people you care for, fed up for the job that you got, fed up for the calling God's placed on your life. That was Moses.

To the point where he said, God, just take me out. I'm done. And God's fed up too. The people are fed up. They want meat.

So God's like, All right, you're going get meat real soon. But there's this unique place in Numbers chapter 11 verse 25, reread these words. Paul, excuse me, God's like, Oh, you're tired? Then here's what I want you to do. He said, The Lord came to him, excuse me, The Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and He took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him, the power that was on Moses, and He put it on the 70 elders.

Numbers 11:25

When the Spirit rested on them, what does it say? They prophesied, but they did not do so again. So now we get to see this pattern that unfolds throughout scripture that God's spirit particularly falls on people in a way where they're given the ability to prophecy, but they don't do so again. Now, what I find pretty funny about this story is that if you keep reading, we're told that there are two elders who are listed, who did show up to church that night. But God still poured His Spirit out on them, and they weren't even there at church.

If there's ever a time to not miss church friends, it's when the Holy Spirit falls on But they're on the list, so God gave them His Spirit and they begin to prophesy. Young Joshua happens to be there. Here's what's going on. He's like, Yo, Moses, this isn't good. But then Moses has this incredible response to him where he says, Listen, I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets.

Wow. And that the Lord would put His Spirit on them. In other words, Moses is dreaming of a day when this would not be reserved for a select few, but that all people would prophesy. Joel later picks up this dream of Moses and he says there in Joel two, that I will pour out my spirit on all people. We have read this verse almost every weekend here at Sandals Church, so some of you probably memorize it now.

You continue to fast forward the story, we finally get to Jesus, who by the way is the greatest walking, talking prophet who ever lived. And in John 20, when He rose from the dead, He meets His disciples who are scared and terrified. And John 20 verse 22 says this, He breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. There is something beautiful happening in this image. The God who breathed life into creation now in Jesus breathes His Spirit onto His disciples.

John 20:22

The proof of this came on the day of Pentecost, the first day of the church, session one, the church starts, the Spirit falls, people are speaking in tongues, other people are hearing their languages, the Gospel is going out. It's an incredible day for the church, a day that changed the world forever. People are trying to make sense of what happened. And Peter says, listen, this is exactly what Joel was talking about. That your sons and your daughters would prophesy, young and old, men and women, servants, ordinary people.

The point that Peter is making is listen now, a new day has has come. Ordinary people like you and I filled with the Spirit of God will prophecy, will speak on His behalf. What Moses longed for, Joel promised. What Joel promised, Jesus made possible. And what Jesus has made possible, Paul is telling the church to put into practice.

Put it into practice. And the reason why I'm so passionate about this is because, yes, there has been plenty of times when somebody has said, God told me to break up with you. That's terrible. Right? There's been plenty of abuse in the church, but there is never a scripture to be found where it says, just because there's an abuse of a gift doesn't mean we should just stop practicing it altogether.

If there is anything for us as a church to recover when it comes to the work of the Spirit in our life, it is this gift friends. We need the gift of prophecy. The prophetic presence of the Spirit is poured out broadly across all people, not just on pastors like me, not just on elders, not just on those of you who feel more spiritual or those of you who kind of, you tend to look at them like, woah, they probably hear from God. No, all people, young and old, new Christian and old Christian can receive the Spirit of God in such a way that you begin to speak on His behalf to another person. Now some of you might be freaking out in your chair thinking I have never had an experience like this.

That is okay. You do not have to manufacture certainty about prophecy before you can simply obey Paul's invitation to desire what the Spirit may want to give you. Eagerly desire is an invitation to our church to learn how to open our hands and receive what the Spirit longs to give us. This is so important friends. Now I say all that also realizing that some of you may become out of traditions where you were taught that this no longer happens.

I'm one of those people. I went to a school who can explain the gifts of the Spirit, talk about the Holy Spirit all throughout scripture, and then say, Oh, by the way, this kind of ended when the church was fully founded. Now this particular camp, I don't want to make fun of them, be rude about it at all, but this is a tradition they hold that they would say, Yes, everything you have said up to this point, Fredo, is true, but some gifts have ceased when the apostles died and the church was founded. So in short, God's spirit was given as this kind of extra battery support to just get us through this particular moment, but that no longer happens and is needed because the church is here and we now have the collection of scriptures known as the Bible. And so they would say some gifts like prophecy are no longer really experienced or needed.

Some of you came out of those traditions. And so I want to not try to defend our position, but simply pastor us well through this particular moment and show you why I think that's just a faulty way to think. Number one, from personal experience, I cannot explain to you my life as a Christian apart from the prophetic work of God speaking into my life from somebody else. And I would imagine that's the case for some of you too. You think about your life, where you, what you've gone through, what you've been through.

It's hard for you to make sense of it without the role of prophecy. Let me zoom out. Just logically speaking, how is it that we are told over and over and over that the God of the Bible is a God who is relational. He's real. He's authentic.

He wants to speak to you. He is a personal God who longs for direct communication. Why all of a sudden would we just assume after the church is done, He's like, well, I'm going pull back. We'll leave it up to mediocre sermons, worship songs that sound like Coldplay, and really small awkward conversations in small groups so you can hopefully hear from God. That's almost like me telling Ashley, who I've been married to for fifteen years now, Honey, today we're done talking.

But I've written everything in a book that's got stories of when I used to speak to other people. So reference that when you ever want to hear from me. Let me zoom out further and just get right to the nuts and bolts of the scriptures. First Corinthians thirteen ten is typically where the division happens. Where Paul says there back in verse eight, Love never fails, but where there are prophecies, they will cease.

There goes this whole sermon. Where there are tongues, they will be stilled. Where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophecy in part, but here's the crux. Verse 10, But when completeness comes, what in part disappears.

And so the argument here is really around what completeness is. Is it the church is established, the apostles have died off, or is completeness really when Jesus returns and the world has been made right? What I'm here to offer to you is that what I think Paul is arguing here is that completeness is about when the world has been made right, then prophecies will cease. Until then it continues. We need to hear from God.

You have the ability to hear from God and to offer that word to people. And here's exactly what it's for. Secondly, now prophecy is for building others up. Verse three, Paul makes this incredibly clear. Notice prophecy is not for future telling.

It's not for predicting. So think about this gift as much less about future telling, predicting something that's going to happen. It's not so much that you see the future clearly, it's that you could see the presently, the present moment so clearly that you have a word for someone. The word there strength means to literally build something up that is breaking. So when you offer a word, a prophetic word to someone, what are you doing?

You are building them up. You're building them up. When you're comforting them, you're coming alongside to care for them. To encourage someone is to call someone forward. It is to see something that they can't quite see in themselves yet, and you are calling it out of them.

You are speaking courage into discouraged places. And so think about this gift is less about your ability to predict everything and more about you being able to see the present so clearly. That's what's really, really important. It's less about you looking spiritual because you heard from God and it's more about somebody else being strengthened because God has now spoken to them. Because someone right now in this church is wondering if God sees them.

There is someone right now in this church who is deeply discouraged. There are some people in here who are grieving. There are some people here are questioning everything. There are some people here who are on the verge of walking away from Jesus. And imagine for a moment that God may choose to answer the prayer they prayed privately through the obedience of another person like you speaking a word to them publicly.

You see prophecy makes in the invisible care of God visible through the words of His people. And so right now in this moment, just ask yourself, God, is there anything you want me to say to someone that might build them up today? Like when that church member found me and said, hey, I don't know why, and I don't know how this is gonna land, but God hears you. He's still speaking. You see oftentimes a prophetic word is not new information.

It's just timely information. It's confirmation of something you already know. The gift of prophecy, the power of this gift is that it pushes the truth of God's word from your head down into your heart and makes it fresh again, real again. And so if that's the case, how do we receive a prophetic word from someone? This is a great question to ask.

If that's what the gift is, if it is for everyone, it's for the building up, how do you and I begin to receive it? Well, let's think about this. First Thessalonians five twenty puts it like this, Don't treat prophecies with contempt, but test them all. Right? I could have finished that sermon, walked around being a great minister and someone's walking up to me and they're like, Fred, I got a word for you.

And I'm like, bro, I just gave a thirty minute word. It's better than yours. Peace, I'm out. Right? No, no, no.

Don't treat them with contempt, but test them. Paul, in the same passage that we just read from in First Corinthians 14 says, Notice he just casually talks about this like this is a normal experience in church. And then the others should weigh carefully what is said. Take note of that. Weigh carefully what is said.

So here's how you and I should practice receiving prophetic words from people. First, we test prophecy with Jesus. Prophetic words, or the role of prophecy is to personally reveal God to the human soul, where what you know about Jesus becomes more real in that particular moment to you. So if you're curious about whether or not you should receive a word from someone, test it according to Jesus. Secondly, test prophecy with scripture.

The same Holy Spirit who inspired authors to write scripture, to write the Bible is the same Spirit who prophetically speaks to His church today. So He won't contradict Himself, friends. So test it with scripture. Thirdly, and maybe really, really critically in our particular moment today where most of us do church through podcast clips and viral sermon clips, test prophecy with community. Community.

What does this word mean for you in light of the people who know you best? Everyone wants to receive a word that a great job is coming for them, or that this person really likes you. I got a nudge from God. I think they, you know, this is the one. Test it with community.

Test it with community. Allow the character of the person giving you the word to help you make a decision and allow the character of the community who knows you best to also weigh it out. Again, just because this gift has been abused does not mean we should believe we should just stop practicing it. Perhaps one of the most powerful witnesses we offer the world today is not through great sermons, a great environment, and music that'll rock your socks off, But that when they showed up to this place and they gathered with these people, they heard a word from God today that changed their life. And it's doing something to them now.

Now, that's the case, if that's the vision we can aim towards at Sandals Church, how do we practice it today? As we begin to close first, desire and ask for the gift. Paul has said in verse one, eagerly desire. The word there is zaleo. Set your heart on it.

Eagerly desire. Think about it constantly. Not about you, when I think about something constantly, I think about it all the time. It's on my mind in everything I'm doing. Everything I'm doing.

Right now, I'm thinking about hoodie season. I want summer to be done. I want to go in my hoodies. I want to dress warm and cozy. It's on my mind constantly.

I'm eagerly desiring fall. Just bring it, God. Now I said it because in church today, we eagerly desire worship moments that will transport us. Everyone to sound like Maverick City. We eagerly desire teaching that will blow our minds.

A pod class, a podcast clip that will, you know, fix all my problems as a bad Christian. We eagerly desire all those things. And I'm not against great worship. I always love a fresh wind. People know that here.

I sing often and regularly in the office. I love great teaching. But Paul says to eagerly desire something that everyone can offer each other. And I think the reason why we have misplaced when God speaks and how He speaks is because we've put too much value on the stage at church. Thinking that only the word from God can come from the person up there.

And we do not value what it means to be in community. We do not value what it means to be in the lobby. We do not value what it means to speak to another family member, a volunteer who's caring for your children. We do not value what it means to be gathered together and for God to actively be nudging us, prompting us to offer a word of encouragement to each other. What would happen if you showed up this weekend at Sandals Church and you said, God, I know you got a word for me.

Help me to listen to you so that I might give it to someone today. Oh God, what a vision for us. And so just think for a second, does a person come to your mind right now? Does a scripture come? Does it, does it like a phrase maybe come?

Does a memory come to you? Pay attention to what God might be saying to you. Now, some of you are thinking, well, that's just my imagination. Friends, let me gently remind you of who gave you your imagination. God did.

So if you're sitting there thinking, well, that just like breakfast in my imagination or is that really God speaking? You'll just have to find out. God gave you that imagination. Don't always pit what you're thinking about and daydreaming about as if that's against what God is also wanting to say to you bring to your mind. And then listen, if nothing happens, don't panic.

There is no need to force anything. I oftentimes air on the fact that I'm not feeling anything at any given moment. But friends, silence from God is not a failure, but never choosing to ask God to speak to you absolutely is a failure. Silence is not a failure. Choosing to not desire it is the failure.

Remember, this is a gift, not a technique. Secondly, how do we practice this? We encourage other people every day. You see the two gifts I think in scripture that are closely related, the gift of prophecy and the gift of encouragement. I love what Tyler Sutton says in his book on the Spirit.

He says, prophecy, or excuse me, encouragement is prophecy through what I can see with my human eyes. But prophecy is encouragement that only God can see with divine eyes. So if you want to get better at being prophetic, learn to encourage people. Call the good out that you see in people. When was the last time you were at church or in community group and you just encouraged someone because of the good thing you saw God doing in them?

Encourage people, friends. And I think the great temptation for us is that we are too busy gossiping about other people than encouraging them. Because we live in a digital age where it's much easier for you and I to gossip about someone the way that we perceive their life being lived than the actual way they are living their life through the practice of encouragement. So call out the good in other people. Here's what I see God doing in you.

And eventually you'll be surprised at how God begins to speak to you. Lastly, how do we practice prophecy? You gotta learn to take the risk in faith. Take the risk. Learning to hear God's voice and speak to another means that you are going to make mistakes and once in a while you will look foolish.

A number of weeks ago, I'm in my garage. It's a Saturday. Crazy stuff always happens on Saturday. Don't know why, but it's a Saturday afternoon. I'm selling an old fridge on OfferUp for way too cheap because I'm trying to be a good Christian.

The man's coming up to buy it, we're helping him move it into the truck, and an AT and T worker walks up to me and says, Hey, you got a moment? I'm like, Of course, dude. I'm just carrying a big fridge. But it was the same guy who came up to me the previous night who knocked on the door when I was cooking dinner and doing middle school math, so I did not have time for him at that moment. Said, Come back.

Well, he listened to me and he came back. So he shows up, we start talking, I'm like, Well bro, you're gonna be here, help me move this new fridge in. So I help him move the new fridge in before I've bought anything. He starts talking about AT and T fiber. I'm like, I need fiber, kids want fiber, da da da, sorry, we make this deal.

In the process of all this happening, I just feel God prompt me to say something to him. And I find out over the course of us, mean, I'm talking about being a pastor, he's a young 21 year old man, and I'm like, man God, don't how this is gonna come off, this feels a bit awkward, I'm super sweaty, he's maybe gonna think I'm gonna say this because I want a Christian deal or something like that, like who knows what he's thinking about. I'm just prompted to share this word. And I said, man, I don't know how this is gonna land, but God's telling me that as a young 21 year old man, you have a lot of different voices in your life right now, but there was only one voice who's gonna lead you to the good life, and that voice is Jesus. I said, how does that land with you?

He goes, can you just fill out the paperwork, please? I'm like, absolutely. Yeah, sure. Whatever you need, bro. But here's the thing.

Learning to speak prophetically to someone requires the ability to take a risk. My responsibility is not to manufacture the outcome, but to be faithful to the prompting I'm feeling. We have to be willing to risk being wrong if we are ever going to get it right church. And you and I will have a hard time following Jesus if you would rather give yourself to American comfort and acceptability than never willing to look a little foolish to the rest of this world today. Be willing to look foolish, be willing to take a risk because I would rather feel the sting of a risk than the ache of missing a moment God invited me into.

Who needs to? Amen. So who in your life today needs a word from God? As we close, let's just open our hands as a posture of receiving from God today. I'm gonna give you a moment just to quiet your heart wherever you might be watching this, if you're at a campus too, would you just take a deep breath in and out.

And as we have been praying God throughout this series, we once again say, Come Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit. Help us to listen. And would You make us people who could speak a word to one another. For some of us today, God, would You make us obedient to the words that You have already given us, but maybe we have failed to share.

Would You give us courage to speak? For those of us maybe, God, who feel ashamed, useless, would You remind us that You have hidden Your treasure in jars of clay so that the magnifold power of God might be displayed through human weakness? Everyone can speak on your behalf, God. Come Holy Spirit, make us a church who could build one another up with our words. We pray these things in Jesus name.

Amen. I just want to take a quick second to say thank you to all of you who are watching online, wherever you may be watching from. You might be in your car, you might be at the gym, you might be in your jammies, wherever you are. I'm glad you took time to be with us in this particular way here at Sandals Church. I understand that maybe even some of you attend another church and you give there and that is incredible.

Praise God for that. But listen, if anything that we are doing as a church here at Sandals is serving the way that you are following Jesus, I want to encourage you to support that work of what God is doing here. And to do that, you can go to sandalschurch.com/support. Grace and peace.