HOW TO PROPERLY INTERPRET YOUR PROPHECY

 *How to properly interpret your prophecy.* 

(Please, send this message to any genuine child of God whom you love sincerely with all your heart.)

A personal word of prophecy can be very helpful when we are seeking direction from the Lord. As we prepare to enter a new year, there are many people who are asking questions from the Holy Spirit. It is a thing of joy when we receive a revelation or a servant of God in the prophetic office tells us something which we consider to be an answer to our heart cry for a direction from God. However, there is a dangerous side to this. In fact, what I want to share with you is something I received as a personal lesson from the Holy Spirit.

Many people have gotten into trouble because they wrongly interpreted a revelation they received from God. I don’t mean that God did not speak to them but that in their understanding of what God said to them, they missed the true meaning and, like I said they got into some kind of trouble. Some even got confused and concluded that it was not God that spoke to them. I have instances of servants of God who packed it up claiming that they are not sure that God called them in the first place because of circumstances that keep repeating in their ministry. 

I trust that God will help someone with this brief meditation.

Someone was in a meeting when the angel of the Lord made the following statement;

"Therefore, this is what the Lord says: 'I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there my house will be rebuilt. And the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,' declares the Lord Almighty Zech 1:16NIV

And in his zeal he decided to take action in the direction of what the Lord has publicly declared.

Then I looked up — and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand! I asked, "Where are you going?" He answered me, "To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is." Then the angel who was speaking to me left, and another angel came to meet him and said to him: "Run, tell that young man, 'Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of men and livestock in it. And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,' declares the Lord, 'and I will be its glory within.' Zech 2:1-5NIV

Take note of the adjective addressed to the person, “Young man”. This implies his youthful strength and passion. He had the energy to do the job. Also take note that he was a good learner, hence, he was quick to know that he needed the measuring line and he had it ready for action. It is important you take note too that the angel urged the other angel to hurry before the young man goes ahead to mess things up in his youthful zeal. 

Hmmm! This disease called, “Haste” has complicated the life of many sincere children of God. Some have even outrun angels in their haste and there are those possessed by holy stubbornness who will never listen to any other instruction that is different from what they heard the first time.

I read some accounts when some people sold everything they had and went to the sea ports waiting, because they had received revelation that someone was coming to take them to Africa for missionary assignment, but they met no one. Some have resigned their jobs before they got the appointment letter for the new job because they received a revelation or a word of prophecy from a prophet, but the new job never came. A young lady told me that she was sure that her pastor’s wife was going to die and he would marry her, hence she turned down a marriage proposal from a ready suitor. There was this very spiritual brother I used to know. He was a respected close friend to one of my friends. He was known to have fasted for 40 days and forty nights more than once. One day he came up to announce to my friend that God has revealed to him the woman he would marry. The lady was living in Lagos City but he lived in the village. They went ahead to print the invitation cards after announcing the date, even before the wife to be had accepted his proposal. I warned my pastor friend that I heard something different in the spirit but they refused to listen to me. Well, the lady turned him down even though guests have already been invited for the wedding.

It is not in all cases that we meet obvious failure in the beginning; in some cases, things progress positively but only for one to discover after some time that one has made a mistake. Hence there some living in marriages that they discovered only too late that they were deceived. Some have started their “own church” and now they have discovered that they misunderstood what the Lord was saying. There are those who abandoned their ministry assignment in Africa because they believed that God was calling them in the USA. Today, their present spiritual poverty has proven that they misunderstood the revelation.

 *How do we avoid this kind of embarrassment and the associated danger?* 

Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. 1 Cor 14:29-30NIV

Avoid the temptation of pride. No matter how high you have risen in the spiritual dimensions, learn to humble yourself to recognize that you may not know it all. This is going to be tough for some people, because they cannot imagine that someone else could receive something different or even better than they have. 

Submit a group of believers who operate in similar gifting or ministries. Take note that other prophets were to listen carefully to what our “Major Prophet 1” is saying and judge it to know how correct it is. Understand that they may end up saying that we may need more time to be sure about this. The one who received the revelation should be humble enough to wait. God will obviously confirm His word. Jer1:12. We can learn from this also that we must not swallow supposing words of prophecy hook and sinker. We owe our self the duty to crosscheck it with scripture.

Seek the opinion of more mature servants of God. This is another difficult task for many young people, unless they are humble. I have this one bible instance that always surprise me when I read it.

Moses' father-in-law replied, "What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone Ex 18:17-18NIV

An old man with years of experience in the ministry and leadership, came around to visit Moses in his duty post. After studying what Moses was doing, he was courageous enough to state that what Moses was doing was not good. We can understand from this text that one may be doing something that is not good, but it does not mean that he is committing sin. Yes, we often miss it up here, because some would say, “I know that I am not committing any sin”.

Even God boasted that He had no servant of God like Moses because He spoke with Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend. Number12:1-9. Moses had direct and daily access to speak with God. All through their journey they had the Lord accompanying them as a pillar of fire by night and pillar of cloud by day. It was to this Moses that Jethro said, “What you are doing is not good”.

Today, the protocol officers of Prophet Moses would walk Jethro away immediately and he would be lucky if they didn’t beat him up. Strange enough that Moses listened to the voice of experience and adjusted the pattern of his ministry and we are not told that he enquired from God before he did so. He was able to achieve more in his ministry by following that advise. Till date, governments all over the world have borrowed this pattern.

The principle of bible correctness. It is important that we mention this here. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ is referred to as the Word of God made flesh. We know that the Holy Spirit is God in the Spirit and He is working with all believers to do the will of God. We know that all that is written in the bible are inspired by the Holy Spirit. (John1:1-3, John14:16-17, 2Tim3:16-17), hence, we can be very certain that we will never receive anything from God through the Holy Spirit that is total in variance with what the bible would permit us to do.

Finally, remain open to the Lord for further instruction. From our main text, even though the young man was very zealous to carry out his God given assignment, he was within reach for the second angel to correct him. 

 *This you can do by,* 

1. Daily reading of the bible, 

2. Regular reading of healthy books on revival history. Stories of other servants of God can be very helpful for someone seeking direction for his divine assignment 

3. Daily prayer meditation,

4. Fasting prayers

5. Having a place and time for quiet time. A place you can just stay quiet to listen to the Lord.

6. Listening to and reading sound messages from other more experienced servants of God. Don’t make the mistake of only listening to your favourite preachers.

7. Attend conferences and prayer meetings just to fellowship with others.

8. Follow Pastor Emma N J Nwosu through the Social Media.

I will like to hear from you.

Emma your brother pnurnigeria@gmail.com

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