Transcription
Today, we're sharing on how to handle divine instructions that are exclusively given to you. Acts chapter 10, verse 9 to 19.
Now, I want to begin by sharing on prophetic actions. In talking about how God gives us specific instruction, we are not talking about the word of God that is generally imparted to us in the Holy Scriptures, or maybe giving to a large number of people like a general award from the Lord. We are looking today more at times where God will specifically give you a word, give you a leading, give you an instruction. It is certainly going to happen a number of times in the process of your journey in life.
And one of those things you must understand in order for you to get it right every time God specifically speaks to you is that you must understand how God speaks, the various channels through which He communicates. And you must also understand how to distinguish between the voice of the Holy Spirit, the voice of God, and the voice of your flesh, or the voice of contrary spirits that may appear to be the voice of God. That is very, very important and foundational, so we don't go into error running with a message that we thought was a message from God.
Then we must also have an understanding about some dynamics of the operations of the Spirit of God. And under some of those mysterious operations of God is what is called the prophetic action. Second Kings chapter 13, verse 14 to 19. Some spiritual, some opportunities that come in the spiritual realm cannot be repeated. The Red Sea did not open twice.
Now, there are some peculiar attributes of prophetic actions, and I want you to take note of them. One, not all cases of divine direction are prophetic actions. Not all cases of divine directions, you know, amount to prophetic actions. The word prophetic action is used to describe those unique instances of divine inspiration or direction that are symbolic of something more than the literal meaning of the instruction. And the nature of what you are requested to do can sometimes be strange. So you must understand this: what you are requested to do can sometimes be strange. It can sometimes be unconventional. It can sometimes defy human wisdom, intellectual wisdom.
Prophetic actions are instances when you are divinely inspired or instructed to do a very specific thing, which could sometimes be an unusual action. Unusual action. For instance, the Exodus miracles and the prophetic actions that God gave. He instructed Moses to take in order for those miracles to subsequently happen. Before the first miracle, you see God instructing Moses to take a particular step, and the moment that step is taken, the miracle happens. And this went on and on relative to those 10 great miracles of the Exodus.
Two, something will always be established whenever a prophetic action is carried out. No prophetic action is instructed for nothing. Therefore, any time it is demanded from from you, you should always remember that God wants you to do it in order for a particular purpose to be realized.
Three, they are applicable only for a limited time frame. They are applicable only for a limited time frame. I pray that you will not miss your own time and day and season and moment of divine encounter. May you get the best out of it. They are applicable only for a limited time frame. In Second Kings chapter 13, verse 17 to 19, that we just read, in the encounter of the king with the prophet Elijah, you could see that what the king was told to do could not be repeated. It could not be repeated. It could not be repeated. As such, even those who specifically receive the instruction cannot just carry it out at any other time that they like and expect to get the same results. So don't always assume that God tells you to do a particular thing and you don't do it the way God has spoken. You can always go back and then do it the way God Elias said it should be done, and then everything will still work out. That he doesn't. This doesn't apply to the things of the spirit.
Four, prophetic actions are usually exclusive divine leadings to specific people. They are usually exclusive divine leadings to specific people for implementation within a specific time span. For implementation within a specific time span. They are given to specific. You did. You, you see that in Acts chapter 10. He told him. He told Peter. He said, Peter, he called his name, Peter, get up. When the Lord spoke to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac in Genesis chapter 22, it was a specific instruction to Abraham, not to Abraham and Sarah. When God told the prophet Hosea to go and marry a prostitute, and one that had children from prostitution in Hosea chapter 1, it was a specific instruction to Hosea. They are exclusively given to specific people. The same applies to the Lord's instruction to Ananias in Acts chapter 9, when he was instructed to go to Saul and minister for the Lord to give, grant him healing. So because they are exclusively given to specific people, when the instructed instruction is repeated by other people without divine approval, it may not produce the same results. It may not produce the same results. It is a, it is a divinely inspired step that always has a potential effect or a particular purpose.
But when such a step is imitated or repeated by someone else or elsewhere without a divine direction to such a person, it may not produce the same result. God told someone to take a particular step, and when he took that step, something in particular happened. Someone else can do the same thing, and he's not guaranteed that what happened for the first person who was truly directed to do what he did for this second person imitating what has been done earlier, there is no guarantee the final outcome will also play out for him or for them. Take note of it. A step of faith, a step of faith could be the personal initiative of man. A step of faith could be the personal initiative of man. But all prophetic actions are divinely inspired or approved by God.
And that brings us to this very sensitive issue of disobedience. What is disobedience? It can be defined from two perspectives. One, refusing to do what God has said you should do. Refusing to do what God has said you should do. God can speak to 10 workers in a ministry. Now, you go and serve me for the next one year in the children's church. And the Spirit of God speaks to someone else and says, go and serve me for the next one year in the prayer ministry, intercessory ministry. And God can speak to someone else and tell him, go and serve me in the protocol department. And someone can be told, someone else is told, go to welfare. So when I say told, go to the missions department of the ministry. Someone else, evangelism department. Someone else, the teaching department. You know, sometimes we may prefer to serve in a particular department. And there are times when God, the Spirit of God, will override and wants you to serve, maybe. And sometimes it could just be for a period of time. It's not going to be forever. In a department that you even feel you are not well trained or gifted to operate in, God may just draft you there. It's all part of the maturity process as a disciple that offers to God unconditional obedience.
And you see what happened with Peter in Acts chapter 10. Peter knew that that voice that spoke to him was the voice of the Holy Spirit. And this is where we are going. Once it is absolutely clear that the voice that is speaking, the voice that has spoken, is truly the voice of God, it overrides any other reason that we may want to stand on to disobey that instruction. Otherwise, if you, if you want to look at it for instance, how can Abraham actually carry Isaac and go forward to sacrifice him? Why was God angry with Cain? Why was God agreeing with Cain? So if God has already made known His stand when it comes to taking human life, how can God now tell you to go and kill your son and offer your son as a sacrifice to Him? So if we want to base it on even what God Himself has said, you will have enough reason to say no. And the Spirit of God is teaching us that we must come to a point of maturity where we can distinguish between the voice of God and the void and a contrary voice. And then having come to that point, we then must understand that once it is clear that it is truly God that is speaking, we must obey what He is saying. Oh, Abraham obeyed Him. He knew it was God, so that is why he obeyed.
If you go through the book of Proverbs, you see God make it clear how deadly it is to even get close to a prostitute, both physically and spiritually. It's actually spiritual death. And then the same God now is talking to Hosea much after and telling him to go and marry, not even befriend, marry a prostitute. And who is He talking to? A servant of God, consecrated servant of God, not just any child of God, a consecrated servant of God. So that you can understand, you know. Now that Hosea even had a greater reason to give God than Peter. God was telling Peter in this vision, kill any of these strange animals and eat. And Peter was saying, no, this is our own pure. I don't touch on purity in pure things. You know, he's a very holy man, and he's not, you know, he's now, you know, flexing his uh or you know, trying to brush up himself even before God. And God told him, He offered that thing to him three times, and Peter kept on insisting, I'm a holy man, I don't. And the Spirit, and then he said, Lord, Lord, he used the word Lord, which means he knew that it was the voice of God. It was a voice of God. Please, this message is very sensitive, very sensitive. If God has truly spoken, God must be obeyed. But be careful and be sure that it is God that is speaking, because many people have said, God said, and or some have thought innocently that it was God that was speaking. God, I was revealing something, whereas it was their flesh, whereas it was a contrary spirit. But when it is absolutely clear that is the voice of God, even when you think this instruction contradicts, you know, God's revealed position on issues like this, you can't, you can't, you can't contend with the Lord's instruction. If you are sure it's the Lord speaking, you must oblige. You must obey. It has nothing to do with the instruction of God being right or wrong, being right or wrong. If it is truly God, it must be obeyed.
So Peter refused to eat. And you know what was going on there? Symbolically, that was a big ministry, big ministry that was being offered to Peter, ministry to the Gentiles. That was what that vision symbolized, the ministry to the Gentiles. That was a ministry that was not given to Paul. That was a ministry that was not handed over to Paul. So if disobedience is refusing to do what God has said you should do, and you see most of the time, either the fear of man, what people will say, how people react, is what stops many people from doing what God is clearly saying they should do. The fear of man. We always want to, you know, be right with the people. And I will advise you, it is better to be at peace with God and let people say whatever they like. Let God be the one to ultimately vindicate you, than for you to go with the crowd, and God would stand by and stand back and see how far you can go with the crowd without Him, without His presence, without His grace, without His backing, without His help. May you always go with God and not with a crowd, in the name of Jesus.
So secondly, disobedience on the other hand is doing what God has said you should not do. You should not do it. It may be okay. Take note of this. God can be telling so many people to do the same thing He has told you not to do. God did not tell everyone to keep their hair unshaved like Samson, because sometimes when you want to like resist what God is saying, you, we look for reasons, we look for reasons to use to support, you know, our, our, our grounds. So after all, look at that man, he is also a man of God. And take note, there were other prophets, they were prophets like John the Baptist, that God did not take through the conditions under which God raised John the Baptist. There were other deliverance that God raised for Israel that God did not necessarily instruct that they should have their hair unshaped, as was the case with Samson. So it's like, if, if, are you the only prophet? Are you the only man of God? God has raised other prophets this way, and He never told them not to do this thing. And look, and they will point to, you know, proven prophets, proven ministers of God, or someone in your own context that clearly are working with God, and they will tell you, look, are you, are you saying God is not using them, or God is not with them? But God has not told them not to do this particular thing. The point is, God never spoke to them. You are the one that God is saying, stay, stay back in Gerea, as He told Isaac in Genesis 26. The same God that may be leading someone to relocate to Canada, relocate to Israel, relocate to Europe, relocate to some other part of the world, that same Spirit of God, at the same time, He's telling someone, stay back in Lagos, stay back in Nigeria. God could be telling some ministries, open branches, and God could be telling, restrain from ministries from opening branches. You know, and, you know, the error that we see manifest is that most times people want you to do what every other person has been led to do. They are so ministers of God that God has used mightily, and where their ministry is to children for the past 30, 40 years, they are in children's ministry. God has, they are now generous in the faith, and to date, their focus is children's ministry. There are some people that God is using mightily. They have never preached from the pulpit. The kind of ministry God has called them into does not involve them standing in the pulpit on the pulpit to minister, and they are serving God. And there are people who have the impression that until you know, you are not yet a great man of God, until you are a preacher. Unto you a preacher. Some are called to be intercessors. Intercessors. And sometimes they are the powerhouse behind the powerful preachers that you see everywhere. Unknown to you, there is one unknown man, unknown prayer warrior or non-prayer, that is actually the power behind that great man of God.
So disobedience is doing what God has said you should not do. God told Lot and his family, through the angel, He said, don't look back. Now, I'm asking you, is it a sin to look back? It's not a sin. But because God has told them not to look back, at that instance, that instruction was not going to be forever. That for the rest of their lives, they will never look back. No, it was just for that. In fact, that day, just for that day. Some instructions, these instructions have a time span. And there are different instances where disobedience are called. It sometimes they may have to relate, do with issues or a divine instruction relating to something in the realm of the spiritual or ministry. Sometimes it could be in the realm of the marital or marriage. Sometimes it could be in the realm of relationship or partnership. Sometimes it could be in the realm of career or job. Sometimes it could be in the realm of business or investment. Sometimes it could be in the realm of money or a material asset. Sometimes the instruction could have to do with a particular situation. And take note, this is very important. The instruction may apply to you as a person, or it could apply to your children. And the younger those children are, the greater the responsibility is on you to be the one to ensure that what God has said is complied with. So when Samson sold himself out to Delilah, and God is hair shaped, his parents could not be blamed. His parents could not be blamed because when he was younger, his parents ensured that the divine instruction concerning every aspect of his consecration was adhered to.
There are vital lessons in handling divine direction. One, God's will and instructions are dynamic. What was God's will or instruction in the past, even some hours earlier, is overruled by whatever God says afterwards. I will repeat that so you can have it in your records. What was God's will or instruction in the past, even up to some very short while ago, is overruled by whatever He says afterwards. So it's more about what is God saying now? Whatever God is saying now overwrites and overrules whatever He said before.
Number two, most times God may not give you the reason why He wants you to do a particular thing. Please have this in mind because sometimes what needs to be done is a thing of now. If you are not ready, God will move to another person. God will use another instrument. Most times God may not give you the reason why He wants you to do a particular thing. So a spiritually mature believer is supposed to obey divine direction without necessarily waiting to find out why God wants him to do so.
Number three, don't ever underestimate, despise, or reject whatever is connected to a confirmed divine instruction. Don't ever underestimate it. Don't ever despise. Don't ever reject anything that is connected to a confirmed divine direction. Don't despise the person. Don't despise the process. If it is God that is going to move, this is how you will move. Don't despise the approach. Don't despise the location involved. God does not need a fertile land to make you prosper. In fact, when God really wants to prove His God, He would take you to a barren land and for your sake, He would turn the barren land to the most fertile land. So whatsoever He said unto you, do it. Whatever He has told you, do it. Even if it sounds too simple, go and wash in that popular pool. It sounds unreasonable. It sounds funny. It sounds funny. It says, a man of God said, jump seven times. Jump seven times. It sounds funny. Sounds humiliating. Will attract mockery. It sounds very difficult, painful, or too much of a sacrifice. Go and do it.
And four, completely carry out every detail of the instruction. Every detail of the instruction.
Five, be ready to go the extra mile if required. Be ready to give up whatever you may be led to give up. Instructions like that don't come every day. They don't come every day. It may be, you may hear that instruction just at one time and you may never hear that instruction again for the rest of your life. The more demanding the instruction is, the less likely that God is going to come to you again with such a far-reaching demand. Give out whatever you are being led to give out.
Number six, make the best of the opportunity whenever it comes. God calls your name and then He tells you to do something. That's a great encounter. It's a great privilege and opportunity. Make the best of it.
And the very last point, your response and obedience must be timely. Your response and obedience must be timely.