Powerful Stories and Lessons from The Prophetic @RobSanchezlivg

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So I show up at this 5:00 a.m. Bible study. I got hit with something that I wasn't looking for, nor even in expecting. And he goes, "If you're really a prophet," he said, "tell me my life story." I said, "Your story is actually really easy." And his wife is coming down the stairs. And I said, "You see this beautiful woman that's walking down the staircase? I said, you have said with your own mouth, 'She's ruined my life,' but you're the one that got her pregnant out of wedlock." And I said, "And God's healing you, but you're in a place of conflict because your sexual appetite is so out of order because of the things that have happened in your life."

What does Jeremiah say? "I have a fire shut up in my bones that's consuming fire." And he said, "I have to, what if I don't say something, the fire within me is going to consume me?" I really believe that many times, even when people dream, see, people will dream many times and they'll say, "I had a prophetic dream." The dream itself is not necessarily prophetic. It's the moment that we attach words to it. The words make the dream prophetic because dreams are symbolic. And so what we have to do is we have to find the wisdom, the pattern, the meaning of the words that God uses, you know, in our dream symbolically. Then when we articulate it, that's what makes it prophetic. So a dream is a dream until it's interpreted, and then the moment it's interpreted, it becomes prophetic. So you can see a prophetic event, you can see a prophetic thing, but it has no voice. So when God spoke, he spoke the whole earth into existence with his voice. Same, it's the same principle. So for your dream to begin to manifest and come into the realities, it needs voice. And I think that's what we forget. We forget the power of our voice. Our voice is creative. And so because you had written it, you hadn't voiced it, you may have voiced it to yourself, so it was just reverberating inside of you. Though you thought you lost it, it was deleted, it was still hidden inside of you. And you had, when you wrote it again, it was right there to compare. And you're like, "Wow, God said the same thing again and again."

Yeah, and I wouldn't compare it to like the same authority as scripture or the more sure word of prophecy. No, but but definitely something that God communicates. And we, in our flawed humanity, do our best to bring to people. And of course, as long as it's based on the word, I think you're pretty safe there in what you're writing, what you're communicating. I think that's maybe one of the bigger questions about the prophetic. Is you'll have people who are a little cynical. And I've heard it several times over. It never gets, and never, it never goes away. There's always that criticism because, you know, you have certain individuals who hear something again and again, and they think that they'll be regarded as intellectual or academic for parting something that they've heard over and over again. So their confidence in it grows. Things, phrases like, "Well, because the word of God is sufficient, there's no need of prophecy for today." I'd push back on that and say that it's because the word of God is sufficient that we can prophesy. It's because the word of God is sufficient that we can come into reconciliation with a living God who ultimately empowers us to do that which he's called us to do. I don't think God has stopped speaking or interacting or demonstrating his power. And I would definitely say that those who question God's power and question that the prophetic is for today, I, I would, I would definitely say there's some doubt and cynicism there. And I would wonder why they don't think the scripture is sufficient enough to put us in a position to where these things can happen in our lives.

So how do you navigate that as someone in the prophetic ministry? And you're, you're very different. It's, it's a, it's a very unique gift on you, that's for sure. I, I've seen it myself in operation. And you have a very poetic way of describing things. So like, even as you're talking, sometimes I'll hear you're saying something and I'm thinking in my mind, "Oh, that can easily be misunderstood." I know what he means by that, and I can see the scripture that he's tying that to. But people, they don't, they don't recognize that sometimes. But how do you, as a prophetic voice, reconcile those realities? Because there are those criticisms, right? Where people say things like, "Well, you know what, oh, they'll challenge you, what are you saying? You're just as authoritative as the scripture." How do you respond with love? You know, because one thing that I've come to realize is when I try and make it my word, I'm failing people. But when I begin to reveal His word, which is always through scripture, you know, when we prophesy, we prophesy edification, exhortation, and comfort. We also understand Revelation 19:1, "The testimony of Christ." And so what I begin to do is I just begin to remind them of, of the testimony. What is God done for you? This is what God has done for me. This is what God has done for others. You can't, you can't refute someone's testimony. Like, I can't, I could sit there and say, "Well, you know, you locked yourself in that room, room, and you began to pray all those hours, and then when God spoke to you in that moment, it through all of the works that you had previously tried out, and then you were convinced that God is sovereign, right?" And when you discover that sovereignty, no one can talk you out of that personal encounter. And so what I do is I try and bring people to their personal encounter. Try and bring them.

One of the things that God spoke to me, my father was in his last days. He pulled all of his sons and daughters into his room. And he laid hands on us. He was in his bed, hour of death is coming. He takes his weak hand and he lays it on me and begins to prophesy. And he says, "Robert, the word of the Lord to you is, slow down and smell the roses." He gives all these gigantic words, like in-depth to all my brothers and sisters. And this is what he says to me. And I'm like, "Wow." It was a word that was so resonated so deeply inside of me. Had a portrait, actually two, painted of it now. And one day I was looking at that portrait because I hung it in my bedroom. So it's the first thing that I saw. Because when God gives you a word, you got to see it. You got to remember it. And I didn't want to forget my father's word. And so I painted this picture. I had it painted. And it said, "Slow Down, Smell the Roses." And when the two pictures were put together, it was a picture of roses, but you couldn't see it separated. And so I remember one day I woke up and I looked at it and I, I said, "Lord, help me slow down." And he said, "Do you want to know what it means?" Because the first time that after my father gave me that word, I came upon some roses and the first thing I did was smell them. Well, I'm allergic to roses. I'm allergic to flowers. So the first thing that I did is I, I took a whiff and then I sneezed. And as then I had a headache for the rest of the day. And I'm like, "This is not what it meant." And one day, after years of having its picture before me, God, God literally speaks to me and he says, "Do you want to know the depth of what this means?" And I said, "Yes, Lord." And this is what he said. He said, "The roses are the flower, they're my people. He said, I want you to slow down. I want you to minister to every person like they're the only one in the room." And he says, "When you slow down to that capacity, he says, I'll let you sense the fragrance of who I am in their life, and I'll give you the words to articulate it." And so usually, when it comes to people that often challenge, it's usually because they've never had anybody just take time to converse with them, to share with them the insight and the heartbeat of God on it. Everybody thinks that the prophetic comes to be a word of judgment and a word of condemnation. It comes to point out, you know, what's wrong in a man's life. The true prophetic comes to bring edification, exhortation, and comfort. The true prophetic in this hour is to build, build up versus tear down. If God's tearing down anything, he's tearing down strongholds that are in a person's life. He's removing hindrances and bondages and destroying the things that keep a son or a daughter from knowing their true identity. So when somebody is challenging me with this, I often wonder, do they truly know who they are? Do they truly understand His love? And I just try and paint the picture of His love. Because I can't, I can't prove the prophetic. All I can do is demonstrate it and share it. Then God's fulfillment becomes the proving point.

Well, this is what God said. So I, I remember, I, I've been in some of your services, incredible, incredible services. And when you start to move in your gift, I mean, you're on fire. And then hour one passes, and you're still speaking to people. Hour and a half, two hours in, and you're still the same as you were at the beginning. And maybe even three. I don't even know how long you've ever done it before. I've seen go three, four hours. But like, I mean, that's physically demanding. And to be that sharp and to still continue to to breathe those words into those people. And then still seeing them just crying and weeping because you're hitting on things that again, only God can show you. Like, how are you able to handle that spiritually and physically?

That's a great, great question. Because what people don't realize is the way that you prepare yourself gives you the power to endure. You know, for years, I was a marathoner. I did, um, I did a lot of extreme races, you know, until I really had injured my back. Thank God, you know, he's healed my back. And now I'm, I'm doing my best to get all the weight back off. I'll just say, when you get to 50, things change in your body. But, but it's really, it's preparation. And so I still go to the gym. I still walk for at least three, three, uh, miles. Go out for an hour, hour and a half walk. And that's where I use my time to just spend with the Lord. Detach from my phone, detach from, from life. Just go and walk and be alone with the presence of God. And in that place, that's where endurance is built up. I've realized, I used to sit there and say, "I got to go pray for five or six hours." Well, as I grew older, I didn't have five or six hours to pray. The responsibility of life, responsibility of ministry. So I had to learn, not that praying longer didn't necessarily mean I was praying harder. I had to learn to press in and begin to hear God from the moment the journey started, not fight through anything to get there. Recognize I have the right to be there. And once I begin to realize I'm there with Him, and He's there with me, the conversation, just like we're having with Him or with each other, is like having one with Him. And He begins to speak, unfold, reveal, make known. And so that's where your endurance comes from. Also, I think what people fail to realize when they come out and they're like, "I'm so exhausted." It's probably because it was more them than the spirit. W. So when you learn to flow in the spirit, what happens is the spirit has power, the spirit has energy. And that's what I'm flowing in. When it's all me, when I finish, if I come out and I'm like, "I have no power to even walk, I'm so ex," something is wrong because it was coming out of me instead of out of the spirit of God. And so I've just learned to really trust the spirit. When the spirit lifts, I'm done. I'm not here to prophesy out of performance. I'm sorry if you didn't get a word. I love you. You could come up to me, I'll shake your hand, I'll love on you. If God gives me a word in that moment, I'll share it. But if it's not on me, I can't give it. I can only flow out of the spirit of life to minister.

I like that you said that because I think that sometimes, especially when it comes to prophetic ministry, anything where there's supernatural demonstration, there's this great pressure for people to perform as if it's the people performing. And then you end up with people who are faking healings, who are faking the prophetic, who are getting on people's Facebook. I had a guy, that's a whole different story onto itself. I had a guy, maybe I'll tell it later. But some guy who was propal lying, we shall say. And I just knew as he's talking to me, I'm like, "This guy got all this from Facebook," because it's all outdated information that I haven't updated on my Facebook yet. But I want to go back to something you mentioned just a few minutes ago, and you were talking about, um, edification, comfort, and that being the basic essentials of the prophetic. I think you would agree that edification does include sometimes confrontation, correction, rebuke.

100%. But we can still bring that. We can still have that confrontation and that rebuke and still use it for edification. I'll share this. I'll never forget. I was led to a couple in a Southern California church to pray for this couple. I was led by the spirit. And immediately I saw that the man had fallen in his relationship, broke his vows. And the Lord said, "I want you to prophesy to his wife, healing." And I'm like, "How am I going to do this without destroying him?" And the Lord says, "Easy, follow me." And I walked up and I grabbed her and I started talking about, "You've been on a journey that seems like a wilderness, but God is bringing you to the foot of the cross." And I took her from the far left side of the platform area, back row area, all the way to the front, all the way to where the pulpit was. So I moved her, you know, a long ways, probably a good 75 feet. And when she fell out, the power of God came on her and she was weeping and broken. Then God said, "Now go to the husband."

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And when she fell out, the power of God came on her and she was weeping and broken. Then God said, "Now go to the husband." And I went, took mic, put it behind my back, whispered into his ear, "This is what's taking place." The moment I brought that correction, he falls on his face and he begins to repent. And he begins to say to me, "Only God knows this." What happened is, I'm bringing a correction and a rebuke, but it doesn't always have to be in front of a crowd. Though there was a crowd there, God used me to whisper it into his ear to do it. So it ministered to the person and then brought correction. Then afterwards, he came and testified. And then the pastor came and said, "Oh my God, that word that you gave the wife was so powerful." And whatever you said to the husband, he came afterwards and testified, "I needed to hear that." And what ended up happening through the whole thing was God delivered a family without shaming them before people. So the prophetic will bring obviously correction. It'll confront some things. But that's more through the prophet than it is through someone who carries a spirit of prophecy or a gift of prophecy. So the Lord will bring correction. And I think even in certain instances, they have to come to this really, this place of stubbornness where they've resisted those corrections time and time again. And then the Lord brings those more public corrections.

So I'm curious, has there ever been a moment where the Lord had you bring that public correction?

Yeah, this is kind of funny, you know, uh, not funny, peculiar, you know. I was at a church and God spoke to me and said, "I want to break the religion, bring correction to the church, and set the house at liberty, for they are bound by old ways and old traditions." And God spoke to me about throwing over this pulpit. You know, throwing? You mean like a physical pulpit that I'm standing behind, preach behind? You know, the pulpit, the pulpit is sacred. You know, I get that. And God said, "I want you to knock it over." And I'm like, "Lord, I don't think that's a very good idea." You know. And so what ends up happening is the Lord asked me to do something. But because of the people and because of the faces that I saw, I literally said, "I can't do it." That day, that night after the service, God moved. He, he did, he blessed His people. But I left and I was in a place where I just wept before the Lord because I knew I was disobedient. I went to my room and I cried for probably two hours. Just like, you, you know, when you disappoint the heart of God, He loves you, He's not mad at me, I don't feel that. But I just know that there was something greater that He was requiring of me. And I said no because I was afraid of man. And so I had to grow in, in the faith that that which is, He, which He asked me, I can't be afraid to do. And so probably two days later, that was on a Friday. Sunday, He gave me a second opportunity. I followed through. I laid this pulpit down by pushing it over. The head of the pulpit falls off. I grabbed a glass, a pitcher of water, begin to sprinkle it over the altar, prophesying that God is going to bring a revival, awakening, a move of God. Of course, when this happens, there is a leader. This church had been transitioned from a father to a son, but a lot of the old leadership was still there, though new people were coming. One of the older members of the church stood up and he said he was probably going to come tackle me and drag me out and say, "This is crazy." But he stood up and he said, "Don't touch him. Don't touch him. Everything that this man has said is true." And he stood up and he said, when, when he did this, he said, "I saw powers and principalities, unclean, clean things leaving our house, that God could bring revival into our land." And so, you know, I had to do that. It was not something I wanted to do. It was not something I was looking to do. It was an act of obedience that God required me, as a prophetic voice, to do. Another time, I'll never forget this. I was in North Carolina. And I remember calling a man up and I said, "I see what your hands have touched, and I've seen what your words have done, and I see," says the Lord, "the pain that you have caused." And the Lord says, "I should strike your hands." And I literally tapped him on his hands and I said, "But the Lord says, my hands aren't meant to destroy, my hands are meant to heal." And I embraced him and I loved on him. And I said, "The thing that has plagued you is broken from you." So what I did is I tapped his hand lightly, letting him know, like a child, the Lord is correcting. But then the hands of the father, full of affirmation, grabbed hold of him, and he broke. And that day, he went to his pastor and began to share all the things he was entangled in. And that became the deliverance that was needed. So, absolutely, God could correct without destroying. He can, he can bring that, that measure in love, yet make the person that speaking it to know the power of the correction. When God corrects His children, it's unto restoration. He chastises those whom He loves. Yes, I believe that those are the consequences of our sinful deeds. As believers, I say the Holy Spirit will convict you. And then there is that chastisement. And sometimes there's also that chaos that comes about or the consequences that come about as a natural result of the decisions that we make. So those are the three ways I think that Christians can face the consequences of their sin: those naturally occurring consequences, the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and then chastisement. I think that's 100% much different than the wrath of God upon the unbeliever, which is that has to do more with punishment. Whereas in the case of the believer, it's about restoration. I mean, I could, as I sit here and think, I can think of another time where I was in the state of Arizona and I was brought to a church and I called out three people and began to minister to them about the wedge. By the time I finished, what I had done was without exposing it, but making it known that there was a, a legal relationship, a vow in a marriage that was being broken. And God brought up the three people. And what did He do? He restored them. Of course, I didn't fully know that at that moment. God didn't show me that they're, they're actually walking in the, in sin. He, he just simply said, "I want to correct this." And the Bible says that, uh, remember the Shunammite woman, when her son was dead, she ran to the prophet, fell at his feet. And the Lord, and the prophet said, "She's in great distress, but the Lord has not revealed it." God doesn't reveal everything to me as a prophetic voice. He reveals what is needed for me to say or what I'm needed to see. But He doesn't show me everything because He doesn't want me to get in the way. I have to trust Him. And so when it came to that place of bringing correction to this relationship triangle, God showed me just enough to bring healing to it, to restore the husband and the wife, and that God was removing the wedge. He wasn't destroying her. He was just simply making it known. I mean, I could think of many occasions where God has done something absolutely, in my mind, mind-boggling to the place where that had to be you.

I'll share this story with you. I went and ministered at a large church in the Bay Area. When I went and ministered, God showed up, poured out, did all kinds of things. And at the end of service, one of the people that was close to Pastor came up to me and said, "I have a Bible study. I felt like God told me to invite you. He said, 'Would you pray about it?'" He hands me his card. And I said, "Absolutely, I'll pray about it." When I grabbed the card from his hand, I heard the voice of the Lord say, "I have sent you. You must go." And so I didn't even, I said, "Brother, I just felt it. The moment you handed me your card, I'm to go to this meeting. When is it? Where is it?" He said, "Matter of fact, if you're available, it's tomorrow at 5:00 a.m." Oh my goodness. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, "Oh, Lord, I would have said, Lord, are you sure?" And so I said, "I'll be there." So I show up at this 5:00 a.m. Bible study before service. And I do the meeting, pray, prophesy over several people, and we're done. At the end of this, I got hit with something that I wasn't looking for, nor even expecting. He challenges me and he says, "So you're really a prophet?" And I said, "Yeah." He goes, "Who says so?" I said, "The Lord says so. I said, my name is Rob. You know, that's what my mom called me, Robert. But the Lord has called me to be His prophetic voice." And he goes, "If you're really a prophet," he said, "tell me my life story." Just like that confrontation. And, you know, me, I'm not a confrontational kind of guy, not at all. And so when he says, "Tell me my story," I go, "Oh, your story is easy." And this boldness came on me. I said, "Your story is actually really easy." And his wife is coming down the stairs. And I said, "You see this beautiful woman that's walking down the staircase? I said, I said, you have said with your own mouth, 'She's ruined my life,' but you're the one that got her pregnant out of wedlock. And her father said, 'Make her an honest woman.' And you've been mad because you felt like you had a shotgun wedding." And he's looking at me. And I said, "In fact, I said, two years ago, you ruined her life when you were unfaithful in your vows." And I said, "And God's healing you, but you're in a place of conflict because your sexual appetite is so out of order because of the things that have happened in your life that you demand intimacy from your wife every single day, and even multiple times. And when she cannot live up to your expectation, you become angry." And I said, "And I've seen her go upstairs, lay in her bed, and go to sleep. And you hound her, but she won't cave in, and you become frustrated and angry." And I said, "And I've seen you walk out of your bedroom." And I said, "And I've seen you walk to the rooms of your children."

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And I said, "And I've seen you walk out of your bedroom. And I said, and I've seen you walk to the rooms of your children. And I said, but thank God, your wife is a woman of God, and she's anointed, and she prays protection over her children. And when you've gone in with vile thoughts, the power in the presence of God chases you out. And I said, and when you've been chased out, you've come downstairs. And we're sitting in his living room. And I said, I said, everybody believes this is your TV room. But nobody knows that behind the cabinets in this other room, you have what is called a black box, and it's a disc scrambler. And when your wife doesn't satisfy you, you come down here and you satisfy yourself. And when you find relief, you're able to go upstairs and lay down. I have been sent to you this day to deliver you." And then this young man had acne, really bad, on his face. And I said, "You have gone to," and I looked to his wife, and I said, "The acne that is on your husband's face, I said, it is because of an unclean spirit. And I said, the word of the Lord to you is, today, God has come to deliver what dermatologists and doctors could not bring healing to. I, the Lord, say, when his face is clear, it's a sign to you that he is delivered. And I said, I've been sent to you. Do you want to be made free?" He says, "Yes." His wife is screaming, "Yes, amen, please, thank you." I laid hands on him. Got on his truth. That man levitated. The demonic power that was so strong on him, he bent in a U, and then his legs kicked up for probably four or five seconds. Felt like longer than that, but I'm sure it was only for a few seconds. The power of God fell on him. He crashed to the floor. And then he screams. And out of him, his wife begins to scream, "Did you see that? Did you see that?" And I saw it. There was gray, green clouds that came out of his mouth, this demonic, ugly. I can still, when I think about it, I can still feel the hair of my head of the wickedness stand up on the back. I could still feel that feeling from that demonic power being released from him. That day, he got set free. And the word came to pass. He was delivered. He was set free. Seven years later, I'm in a different city. I'm way up north in, uh, the Sacramento area, probably two and a half hours from where I met this young man. He's now out there. I am sitting at a table just like this, having dinner with with pastors. And all of a sudden, a man from behind comes up and he says, "Are you Rob Sanchez? Are you Prophet Rob?" And I looked over my shoulder and it's that man. And I said, "Yes." He said, "The moment I heard your voice, I felt the authority. And he said, I want to come up here. I want to shake your hand and say thank you. You saved my marriage. You saved my children. You changed my life." And he goes, "What do you notice?" And his face was clear. He shook my hand and he said, "Thank you." That word was a word of confrontation. That was a rebuke. That was a correction. That was all that was a true prophetic act. And then the fruit was seen years later. And I had the confirmation because he came to me and began to share, "This is what God has done." Well, the Lord did it. My goodness. So that prophecy, crazy like that, is insane.

I would like to know, has there ever been a prophecy or prophecies that you did not want to share, maybe about someone you knew or or something deep that you just felt like, "Dang, I don't want to share this, but I know I have to"? Has there been a moment like that?

Yeah, there's, there's definitely moments where you see things and you don't want to, you don't want to admit, you don't want to share, you don't want to to reveal. And here's one. I had shared with you where my father was, was sick. You know, I'll never forget. My older brother was working out with me. We're at the gym. We finished doing our, you know, our walking on the treadmill. And we went into the hot room. You know, we got a lot of pressure with my father, you know, in his life. And my brother and I are the only two in the room in this hot box. And my brother literally walks up to me as I'm sitting on the bench and he says, "Rob, tell me the truth. Tell me the truth. He said, "Is Dad going to live?" And I said, "Well, yeah, I'm praying." He said, "That's not what I'm asking. He said, "Tell me what God has shown you. I know that you hear God's voice and God speaks to you. Tell me what you heard." And I said, "Well, you know..." He said, "No, tell me the truth." And I said, "Okay, I'll tell you the truth. I said, our dad will die October 31st. We'll bury him November 4th. We'll be a celebration of life." I said, "But I'm contending." And he goes, "I know, I know. We all are." And so was that a word that I wanted to open my mouth and say? Heck no. I mean, it still makes me shaky thinking about it. Seeing my brother's eyes with tears looking at me. Sometimes the prophetic, we're all, we're asked to say things we don't want to say. You know, we're asked or challenged to do things we don't want to do. And that was one thing I didn't want to say. I didn't want to throw over that pulpit. I didn't want half the things that I've done. I'm not looking to do. But God has asked me. And because I've said yes to the call, and because I said yes, I'll walk in obedience to the best of my ability by the work of the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna. And I've been challenged to get outside of my own comfort zone. But I'll never forget having to share that thought with my brother with tears in my eyes. It still makes me want to cry because I could still feel the sadness. I could feel the faith. I could feel, I could feel all these things. But the truth was, God showed me that October 31st, my father would leave the Earth. You know, and November 4th, we would deposit him into the Earth and celebrate his life. Life. So was that? Yeah. So yeah, that's happened on many different occasions. But that's one that will still make you gulp. It's one that makes it hard to breathe, you know. So, absolutely.

You talked about seeing a lot of things that you don't want to share. What's the balance that you have, you know, as a prophetic voice, in discerning between the things you see and the things you say?

Great question. I think what it comes down to is very simple. Just because I see something doesn't mean I have to say something. To say something, I have to hear the King saying it within me. Sometimes God will show me something, but just because I see it doesn't mean I'm released to say it. And I think the key is discerning what I'm supposed to see and take into prayer, and the things that I see and I'm supposed to say. Most people will see something and say, "I have to say it." Most people will dream something and say, "I have to give it." But when you mature enough to a place where you say, "Lord, is this something You're asking me to say, or is this something You're asking me to pray about?" You will begin to get an inward witness that begins to lead you in the direction in which you go. You know, and in that leading, you have to remain confident that this is what God has said. And when you stay in that place of what God has asked you to do, I've realized you will operate in peace. You'll operate in that perfect peace.

So, something, uh, something really funny that I always talk about with my wife. She loves ministry. We love your ministry. But she's always telling me, "Hey, are you going to see Part Rob?" And I'm like, "Yeah, we're going to go see you when we go up to NorCal." And he's like, "Okay, ask him what my Starbucks order is." And I just find that so hilarious because I think about it, does God drop those really silly ones in there? Just like, "Hey, tell them this." But I mean, you know, honestly, God has a sense of humor. And He says some of the things that are funny, some of the things that to me make, make no, make no sense. But to the person, He's revealing what is intimate to them, what is meaningful to them. And I'll never forget this word. I came across a young lady and I began to ministered to her and I said, "I don't know why, but I have to say this. I see butterflies on you. I see butterflies around you. And I see butterflies coming from your mouth." So the butterflies on her, on her back, she had a tattoo of a butterfly. Butterflies around her, she had just come back from going to the Santa Cruz Mountain area where the monarch butterflies were all coming to life, coming out of their their cocoons, their chrysalis. The butterflies coming out of her mouth became a prophetic word that she was called to be a mouth of transformation. What her prayer was is, "Lord, will you use me to encourage and build up people?" And so God took something specific to her, in different places she'd been, the things she loved, and began to speak it with such a detail that it just, it spoke to her. But that word was for her. It was very specific to her, her personality. And when she comes and she's crying and she says to me, "You have no idea how accurate that prophetic word to me." That was like a word of knowledge, you know, and with with the prophetic. But to her, it was the details of her life. It reminds me of the woman at the well. She has this encounter with Jesus and says, "Come meet the man who told me all things I ever did." He only spoke one thing, but it encompassed so much of her life that her world was changed, her perspective was changed. I think in the same manner in which I gave that young lady that word, it was so detailed to her that she became a trumpet for our ministry and began to say, "This word, this guy, his message, it's real." And even when I've had people, you know, come against me and be like, "You know, he's a prophet for money. He's this. He's that." They say all the things they say through social media. One of the great things that I've come to learn is other people will testify on your behalf of what God has said, what God has done, what God is doing by and through you, the person and the ministry. It reminds me of that Psalm, "He delights in every detail of our lives." And I think sometimes it's the demonstration of that care that He has over us that comes through the fact that He knows all those little things about us that we think are insignificant, maybe to others, but they matter to the Lord. I like to say that there's no miracle so big that God cannot do it, and there's no miracle so small that God will not do it. And sometimes it's those small miracles that mean the most because they're so personal.

Now, you mentioned that there's a lot of criticism that comes against the ministry. And I think one of the misconceptions that often brings those criticisms is this idea that you can just do it on demand, whenever you want, you can know what you want to know at any point in time. But I mean, even the prophetic gift is subject to the sovereignty of God. So how do you deal with that? That because people, especially online, because when it comes to doing something online, you're no longer a human, you're just a representation of what they dislike. And so they feel very free to just say things against you. How do you deal with that in terms of emotionally, mentally, and in terms of how you actually address it? Do you address it? Do you ignore it? Do you just move on? What's that like for you?

I think it's a little bit of all of what you said. I think you, as a person, you know, uh, have to continually grow. I would like to say evolve, mature, because we're constantly growing and maturing. You know, I'm not the same man I was a year ago, let alone 10 years ago. There is a new level of grounding, a greater level of maturity. You know, when we first started doing social media and people write crazy things, first thing you want to do is respond. MH. Then it got to a place where there is enough thing said, you're like, "I'm going to leave it alone." Then I've come to a place where all I now do is I trust the Lord. And it's so crazy because now others come to my defense. Others will begin to testify. The Bible says, "If you want a friend, show yourself friendly." And so what happens is now I have many friends, you know, throughout the world that began to testify on my behalf. And so I don't have to fight the fight. And when people say, say things that, everybody has an opinion. My duty isn't to fight opinions. My duty is to share the gospel in love. And when all else fails, I try to stay Christocentric, Christ-centered, and try and let His light shine through me. And so I do my best not to let somebody else's words poison me because I know that if it's poison me, it's not what goes in a man that defiles him, it's then what comes out of my mouth. I've come to understand that I have to take that in which people say with a grain of salt. And when I don't know what to do, I take it to the Father and I say, "Lord, what do You say?" And He'll say, "You're my son. Receive my embrace. Receive my love. Let healing take place." So I have this thought that I say to myself continually: "The Father loves me too much for me to not love others the way He loves them." And so I have to let my heart be seasoned with His love. So when I do open my mouth, I'm not throwing stones of judgment. I'm not throwing ridicule or slander at them. I'm just doing my best to love them the way He loves me. The, the Bible says, you know, "You owe no man nothing but the love of God." And so that's, that's my approach. That's how I kind of handle all this stuff. But when I give ear and eye to some of that criticism, it, it could make you mad and it could frustrate you. But then I have to take it into a place and say, "God, help me filter this through Your eyes." Because at the end of the day, that person is still a child that belongs unto God. And so my duty is to be light, to be hope, to be encouragement.

You were talking about taking like those criticisms and stuff, to the Father and prayer and stuff, and just having that connection there. You had said something earlier when you were talking about your, your walks of prayer and how you came to a place of setting aside time and just focusing on your right to be there. Could you talk about that more? Because I know I myself dealt with this in the past, and then I know just a lot of people struggle with this legalistic mindset where they don't, they attribute their like performance, like you were saying, like the hours with that right and access. Could you talk more about having that right to connect with God in prayer outside of like how long you're praying and stuff?

Absolutely. I think religion has made it, "This is what you have to do to meet with God." The religious mind says, "I have to do to receive." But when we look at the scripture found in the Book of Matthew, Jesus is baptized by John. He goes down under the water. When He comes up, immediately the heavens open, a light shines, a voice speaks, and a dove descends. But the words that came out of the mouth of God was, "You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." What I believe in my heart is that I am a son, and God is pleased with me. You will come to the age where you have children, you know, in your marriage, when that time comes, you'll begin to understand a grace that comes on you. And I'm going to say this, and you'll remember it in years to come: Your children will not always do what you believe as a parent is best for them. I have three girls, and sometimes they hear me, but they don't listen. And then they find themselves in a place of trouble and conflict. They make choices that I don't agree with. But the question becomes, "Do I love them different?" And the answer is no. I love my children in spite of the choices they made. I've come to realize that they're not going to make every choice that I agree with. But because they made their choice, my duty isn't to to agree with them anymore. My duty is to love them through their choice. And that's one of the things that I think we have to come through, too. We have to come to the place where my Father loves me in spite of me. It's not what I do, it's that I'm His son, and He's going to love me from where I'm at to where He has need of me to be. And He will always lift me up. And so He doesn't come and go. He's, He's a constant. His word promises us that He'll never leave us nor forsake us. He's the friend that sticks closer than a brother. And so if I can come to the concept that God

doesn't move in or out because I prayed 10 hours that he doesn't move in and out because I said a bad word or I chose to do the wrong thing. I just recognize that when I've made an error, I come to the place of repentance, and then I come to the place of confession.

So we know repentance means a change of mind, metanoia. But we also know that once we repent, we don't stay there feeling guilty. We receive that love, and then we come to the place of confession. Most people look at confession from a place of Catholicism. You go into a booth, you say, you know, you say your your sins to the father, and then he gives you this this prayer to pray, and then you're free.

So we've looked at confession as another form of prayer. But the true confession is the word of God is is a mirror. So when we begin to look in the mirror, or at the word of God, we begin to confess God's word. What are we doing? We're not confessing that we're sinners. We're confessing his words that give us the power over sin. And all of a sudden, we embrace that sonship. We embrace that love that gives us the power to what? To move forward in life, in life, to move forward in grace and in sovereignty, without the burden of it's everything that I have to do to receive his love. It's the word says he loves me, and I begin to confess that I'm his son, that I'm his righteousness, that his truth is within me, that that he loves me in spite of me. When I begin to confess all the things that his word says about me, you know what it does? It frees me from every other thing that I used to try and do in the form of a work to get his approval. I've come to the knowledge that I'm approved.

You know something? I I've always noticed about you, you're very linguistic. Is that the word linguist? Linguist? You know, poetic too. Yeah. You use a great word, poetic. And I remember all the time when you give a prophetic word, you explain in detail what that word really means. Now, is that something like, because I always thought this, just my thought, is that like a hobby you picked up? Or is that literally you go into the word and then you look at these? Because again, you give incredible words.

I think for me, because I'm I am a word guy, I love words. So I look words up when I study in Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin. You know, somebody asked me the other day, how many Bibles do you read? And I listed like 12. So I read like many different versions of the Bible, and I begin to study words. I understand that Jesus spoke not just Hebrew, but Aramaic. And sometimes the nuances of the meaning of a word in Aramaic is slightly different than in Hebrew. And when I discover the roots of both, it brings the word to a broader knowledge for me. And when that broader knowledge takes place, it causes my heart to see the love of God in a way that I wouldn't have if I wouldn't have studied.

The other day, I did a study on the word kiss. So when we from our English vernacular think of the word kiss, we think of affection, we think of love. You know, we think of all all the different types of kisses, you know. But when you study the word kiss from the Hebrew perspective, it's not about love and it's not about affection. The word kiss is a Hebrew word, nasak, which translates and means to equip one to become the greater, to overcome. And so the way I look at the word kiss is like you have a tool belt put on you. But if you have a tool belt with no tools, you're not equipped to do the job. So the word kiss means to equip you to overcome the struggles in your life. So when you have a father kissing his children, what is he doing? He's equipping them and affirming them with a love to overcome.

So when we look at the story of the prodigal son in the New Testament, what do we see? The son said to his father, Father, the son said to his father, you know, give me my inheritance. The father divided his livelihood and sent him away. He went and spent it with prodigal living, wasted all of his money. Then a severe famine arose. When that famine arose, he knew what to do. He should have went home, but he doesn't. What does he do? He joins himself to a citizen, a foreigner in another land. So he takes on a surrogate father. But the surrogate father wouldn't even feed him, wouldn't even give him the food that the swine's eating. And so what takes place is the son is now in the midst of the mire. And when he's in that deep dark place, a revelation comes to him, and he says, even my father's hired servants have bread to spare, and I perish with hunger. He recognized that love came to him. He was rejecting love. And he says, I have sinned against my heavenly father, and I'm going to repent, go home, and I'm going to make well with my earthly father.

And so when he runs home, home, the father sees him afar off, moves past the gate of the elders, because the gate of the elders are the ones that had the law and had the right to stone him to death because he was a son of revile, a son of sin. And so he doesn't throw the stone. Adam, let me say it right, these elders would have stoned him the moment he came back because of his disobedience. So the father runs past the gate. When he runs past the gate, what does he do next? The first thing he does is he falls on his neck, breaking the yoke and sin off of him. The next thing he does is he kisses him, and then he says, bring out my best robe. So the moment he kissed him, it's more than love and affection. It's an equipping. Put on my best robe. His garments were as filthy as rags, but now the father is equipping him to overcome the nature of the flesh, the sin. Put on my ring on his finger. The ring was not just a ring as a sign of covenant. It was a signet ring. And that word signet ring is two words put together, signature, signed nature. The father says, my nature is signed off on my son. Then he says, put sandals on his feet. Why? Because sandals represent an end to slavery. And so the moment he was fully dressed, he begins to announce, my son is alive. He was once dead, but he is alive. My son was lost, but now he is found. He was blind, but now he sees. He he's speaking about how the Father's love came and equipped him. But the son couldn't accept the love until he came to a broken place and realized how loved he really was. That's how we are. We know that God loves us, but then there's a time where we come to a brokenness where we go, God, he really loves us. That's when he kisses us and changes us, changes everything.

You know, I don't know if this is 100% accurate, so I'll ask you on the meaning of words. I think I was looking it up one time in the book of Acts that the same word used when the father falls on the prodigal son is the same word used when it says that the Holy Spirit fell upon those in attendance.

You're absolutely right, because that's the Father's love from the heavens being poured out upon all his sons on the earth. Wow. And so absolutely, it's that place where he comes to affirm us. And what is the purpose of the Holy Spirit? Is to equip us to become the messengers and the people that God has anointed us to be, to make a difference on this earth.

Well, thank you Prophet Rob, and thank you for joining us on this episode of The Encounter Podcast. And now, here is a question for conversation: What is your experience with the prophetic? Tell me about it in the comment section. And until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God.