All right, everybody. Welcome to Valley Creek. Come on. We're so glad you're here with us today. Hope is here. Everyone is welcome. Jesus changes everything. Wherever you are, whatever is going on in your life, whether this is your first time here, maybe you're here all the time, maybe you're young, maybe you're old, maybe this is all new to you and feels like a lot, or maybe you're here all the time. Here's just what I want to say to you today is: you don't have to have it all figured out. You don't have to understand everything. It doesn't all have to make sense to you. It's okay if you have doubts, if you have struggles, if you're wrestling with things, if it doesn't feel like it's all coming together in Jesus' name – that is okay. Jesus says the words I speak to you are spirit and life – spirit and life. He doesn't say they're mental and logical – which means sometimes Jesus will speak over your head and into your heart. You don't have to understand it all. It doesn't have to make sense to you. They're words that are spirit and life – which means they're supernatural and alive. And I believe that even when we don't understand it and even when we have doubts and even when we're wrestling, when we're honest, He can speak right over our head and right into our heart.

In fact, two of His disciples were walking along with the resurrected Jesus and they said at the end, "Were not our hearts burning within us as He spoke to us?" In other words, He spoke over our head. We didn't understand it all, but He spoke right into our hearts and set us ablaze. So to free so many of you – I know sometimes our services are a lot. They're big. They're weighty. We go through a lot of – you don't have to understand it all. It is not mental. It is not logical. It is spirit and it is life. And I believe your heart will burn as you open yourself up to that which He wants to do.

So, welcome to Valley Creek. We're glad you're here. We've had a great fall launch getting everything kicked off. All of our ministries kicked off for the fall. Kids Leadership and Student Leadership Experiences kicked off this weekend with more than 330 kids and students that are in a nine-month long discipleship leadership formation process. Student ministry kicked off with MVMNT Night and circles over these past few weeks. If you're between 6th and 12th grade, we'd love to have you come and check that out. We had our Serve Team Rally where all our serve team members got launched. We had our Leader Summit where all our leaders got launched off into the fall semester. Young Adult Gatherings, Transformation Tuesday are kicking off in the next few weeks and circles have launched. They're all over the city – these small little open heaven environments where people are engaging the Scriptures, talking about the weekend message, praying together, and I'm hearing such great stories of what God is doing in circles right now. People are hearing God. They're experiencing transformation. They're finding breakthrough for things they've longed for for years. You're invited to be a part of that if you want.

And then this past week, we officially launched VC College. Our semester got started and I just want you to see them – 65 amazing students that are earning their fully accredited two or four-year degree in everything from communication to psychology, business, leadership, ministry. Our distinctives are: we are all about academic excellence, spiritual formation, relational skills, leadership development, and missional living. We exist to raise up a generation of kingdom leaders who know who they are, who God is, what they were created to do, and act as if it were so. And I am so grateful for this church and for our students and for what God is doing in the midst of it. In fact, uh, many of our students took over our services today. They've been leading our services both up front and behind the scenes, doing an amazing job. And, and they got to go tour the building that is just about done this past week. And, and one of the girls was real emotional when she was walking through the building and somebody went up and said, "What's, what's the emotion?" And she said, "It's hard to believe that someone would believe in you this much." Wow. So well done church for creating a future that doesn't exist to raise up the next generation and believing in them in such a way that moves them because they don't even believe that someone would think that highly of them and invest that much into the future that God has for them.

So, so many great things launching – so many good things moving forward. But the real question is this is: how are you launching? How is your fall starting? How has your kickoff been? Like, are you aligned and moving forward with God? You see, that's the question we're really asking in this series. And over the past few weeks, we've been in this series just called Prophetic Reset – Aligning Your life With What God is Saying. We need a prophetic reset. We need to hear God's voice – align our life with what He's saying. Because if we're honest, it's easy to get distracted. It's easy to get, get discouraged. It's easy to get entangled and tripped up and overwhelmed and all of these things that are going on. And sometimes we just need a reset in Jesus' name. And we've said that prophetic isn't something mysterious and intimidating. No, prophetic simply means a specific word from God that empowers you to create the future with Him. It's a specific word for your life right where you are at – your situation, your circumstances. And it's from God. It's not from yourself. It's not from the world. It's from the all- knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God. And it empowers you. It's a word of grace that strengthens you, gives you a boldness, a courage, a faith, and a hope to go create a future that doesn't exist.

And you need a prophetic edge in your life. Your life is so big, so important, so significant that you literally need the voice of God in your life. You were not created to live an, “I think, I want, I desire, I feel, they said, the experts say, social media tells me, AI has figured it out.” You need a, “God is telling me, God has been saying, His word declares, I'm waiting on a word from God, I'm wrestling this thing out with Him and He has spoken to me and then this is how I'm going to live my life.” Need a prophetic edge – where your life is so sharp and and so honed and so refined and so piercing and penetrating with such weight and gravity and authority that, that it is literally the voice of God creating the future for you – a prophetic reset in Jesus' name. And, and if I could just simplify it for you, this – big words and all – prophetic and reset and all this stuff, it's just simply this: it's just simply acting like God is real. He speaks to me and I follow Him. You want to know what a prophetic reset is? He is real. He speaks to me and I follow Him in Jesus’ name. May that be true of you as you launch into the fall.

He's real. He's here. He's speaking. Are you aligning? Are you moving? You see, sometimes the prophetic resets are words that align us because we've drifted and gotten off track. But other times the prophetic reset is a word of an advancement. We're already aligned with God. And He says something to us so we can advance. Look at this: Psalm 139. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” That is a prophetic reset prayer. If your life is, is out of alignment, if you feel discouraged, if you feel distracted, then this is a prophetic re: search me, God. Know my heart. Test me. See where I am out of alignment. See where things are, are off. See where I have drifted. Test me, reveal, bring things to the surface that I might know that which You want me to do that I may align with You. So, some words are alignment, but some words are an advancement. “Call to me and I will… tell you great and unsearchable things you do not yet know.” Sometimes you're already in alignment with God, but you want more of Him and you want to advance into the future that He has for you. So, call to Him and ask Him, and He will give you a word that is about your future to allow you to advance into all that He has in store for you.

So the question is not: is God speaking? The question is not: are we listening? The question is: are we aligning and advancing in Jesus’ name? You see sometimes you have to just stop and ask yourself why would I want to hear from God? Why would I want to hear from God? Because He is the only one that has anything worth saying. Look at what it says: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” He's the one who always has been, always is, and always will be. So when He speaks to you – because He exists outside of time – His prophetic word can heal your past, give you grace for the present, and give you hope for the future. That's why you want a prophetic reset in Jesus' name. Because the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Yeah, when He speaks, when He gives you a word, it is a word that can heal your past, give you grace for the present, and give you hope for the future in Jesus' name. He is the only one who has anything worth listening to.

The question is is: do we see Him as that? The alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the creator, the sustainer, the redeemer of all things. You see, all I'm trying to do in this series is stir some things up in you and lift your head up so you stop looking down at what everyone else is saying and doing and start reminding yourself that the one who created, sustains, and redeems all things by His powerful word, yeah, He is the one who speaks to me. And so when He speaks, I can't help but respond whether it's an alignment or an advancement.

I want to read this to you and I'm not going to apologize for how long it is. “Listen to me... you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. To whom will you compare Me or count Me equal? To whom will you liken Me that we may be compared? Some pour out gold from their bags and weigh out silver on the scales; they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god, and they bow down and worship it. They lift it to their shoulders and carry it; they set it up in its place and there it stands. From that spot, it cannot move. Though one cries out to it, it does not answer; it cannot save him from his troubles. Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart… I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is still to come. I say: my purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said that will I bring about; what I have planned that will I do. Listen to me.”

He is God and there is no other. He is the only one worth listening to because He's the only one who has anything worth saying. He knows the end from the beginning. He carries you. He has conceived you. He has made you. He has destined you. He has shaped you. He has formed you. He knows the way – the way that is good and beautiful, the way that is right, the way that is full of life. And oh, He has a lot to say about your life. He invites you to listen and align in Jesus' name.

And I think our great problem is not that we don't ask. It's not even that we don't listen. It's not even that we don't obey. It's we forget who speaks. And the gravity of the one who is unlike anything else – I am and there is no other – He is not first as if there was a second and a third. He is the only because there is no other. So we say speak, Lord, because You are Lord and from that point on whatever it is You say we, we want to do.

I hope if nothing else out of this series there's a gravity that is being created in your own soul of the weight and the glory and the goodness of God. Forget even about alignment and obedience and fixing your life and resetting things and that marriage and the kid and all that. I just, just He is the Lord. Then the word of the Lord came to me. That is so very different than how we live and think and view and evaluate our life. Oh Jesus, may we catch the gravity of who it is that chooses by grace to speak to us.

I mean, do you, do you remember the story of Mary and Martha? It's one of those familiar stories that we've seen throughout Scripture. It just says, “As Jesus and His disciples were on their way, He came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to Him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what He said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to Him and asked, ‘Lord, don't You care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me.’ ‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’”

See, I, I think this passage describes our life a lot of times. And if we look at Mary and Martha and I just asked you and I said, "Which of these two people do you think is living a big, important, significant life? Which of these two people do you think is a leader?” Almost all of us, if we're honest, we're going to say it's Martha. Why? Because Martha is, is doing things. She's preparing. She, she cares about what's happening and she's got the work going on. She's upset that no one else is getting in the game and helping her and making it happen. She's frustrated and crying out to the Lord for more things. And we think that she's the one with the big life cuz she's busy and distracted. Oh, but make no mistake about it, my friends, she is not a leader. She is a worrier. Mary is a worshipper, yes, but she's a leader. Why? Because she's sitting at the Lord's feet listening. The authority to speak comes from the willingness to listen. The humility to listen gives you the authority to lead. And the great problem that we have like Martha is we get all bent out of shape, distracted and worried and upset about many things because we're doing things He never asked us to do. Who told Martha to do all this stuff?

Who, who told you to do all the stuff that you're worried and upset about? Who told you to take that job, buy that thing, enroll in this, sign up for that, get on this team? Who, who, who told you to do that? See, Jesus never told Martha to do that. He invited her to sit at His feet. And I'm convinced that the reason we're worried and upset, the reason we're distracted and discouraged, the reason that we're confused and disoriented, the reason that we're overwhelmed and burdened is because we fill our lives with all these things He's never asked us to do. So the question is is: do you have the kind of life like Mary that sits at His feet and just listens – just listens to whatever He wants to say about any topic He wants to speak about? The only one worth listening to invites me to sit at His feet and whatever He wants to talk about – that's going to be a great conversation.

You spend any time in your life just sitting and letting the Lord speak to you about your marriage or your desire to be married, about your children or your parents, about your work, your calling, your struggles, your pain, your brokenness? See, I just, I just think we just don't sit and we don't listen. And then we become disempowered. See, what's crazy to me in this story – we would think Martha is the one Jesus would empower for His mission – but do you realize that when the resurrected Jesus appears, the first person He shows Himself to is Mary? Why? Because she already proved that she was willing to listen to His voice so He could entrust her with her heart – with His heart – and He empowers her then to go tell everyone else that I have seen the Lord Jesus has raised from the dead. Why? Because she sat at His feet and was willing to listen. She had the humility to listen so she could be empowered with the mission of God. If you want a bigger, more significant, more important life than you already have, sit at His feet. Because then He knows He can entrust you with that which He is doing on this earth. Come on, are you with me on this today? It's incredibly important.

Do you remember the, the prophet Haggai in the minor prophets? Most of you are like a hag of what? No, I know. It's, it's those little books in the middle of your Bible that none of us ever read because they're called minor prophets, which in our which we probably shouldn't call them that kind of means like you're not important guy. We're not sure why you're in there and what you say doesn't matter. But now that you understand that prophecy is a specific word from God that empowers people to create the future with God, now you can understand that those were words to people that were specific to empower them. And a word once spoken continues to be spoken. And in Haggai, the people have rebelled against God. They've drifted. They got out of alignment. They came – an enemy nation came and conquered them. They were exiled. They've come back. The temple is destroyed. And instead of being concerned with the house of God, everybody's doing their own life, their own family, their own business, their own stuff. And so God sends them a word: “Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house [the temple, my house] remains a ruin? Now, this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have you your fill. You put on clothes, but [you] are not warm. You earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it... Why?’ declares the Lord Almighty. Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house.”

Does that feel like your life? Like you plant, but you don't harvest? Like you eat, but you're never satisfied? Like you drink, but you're still thirsty? Like you acquire, but you never have enough? Like the more you get, the less you feel like you have? Does that feel like your life? And did you ever stop to just consider your ways and give thoughts to: why is it that the more I try and the harder I work and the more I do and the more I come to church the less it feels like, like it's all working? He says consider and ask yourself why. And the reason is is because you are not aligned with Me. You are aligned with yourself. You're focused on your house and your life and your business and your family. And you've never once asked Me what's important to Me. You've never once asked me, "What am I saying about your life?" You've never once asked me, "What am I doing? What am I saying? Where am I going?"

Instead, we get caught in this cycle where we're told to seek first His kingdom and everything else will be given to us. The problem is is we seek first everything else and hope we’ll also get Jesus. That's why we plant much and harvest little. That's why we drink, but never have our fill. He says, "Consider, wake up. Look at your life. There is time for a reset." And so, here's what I love: they respond. “Then… the people obeyed the voice of the Lord… and… [they] feared the Lord… so the Lord stirred up… the spirit… of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord... And he said, ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace.’"

Listen, I've been trying to get to this verse for about four weeks. Here's what I've been praying is happening to us right now: that there is a stirring of the Lord in your heart – a divine stirring, an awakening, a movement, something to be like, “There is more to life than what I've been doing. And He is stirring me up. And so I'm obeying because I am hearing. I'm not just listening. I'm hearing and I'm obeying and I have a healthy fear of the Lord because it is He who has spoken to me. And so I'm going to align and I'm going to come to work. I'm going to start doing the things God has called me to do.” And the glory of what's to come will be greater than the glory of what was. And in that alignment, I will grant shalom. In that alignment, I will grant shalom.

Oh, Valley Creek, in Jesus' name, let's align with the voice of the Lord. Let Him stir up our spirit. Let it create an obedience. Let it create an awakening. Let there be a fear of the one who speaks. May we move on from our thoughts and our desires and our plans and our dreams to Lord, what are You saying? Because You have the best thoughts and the best plans and the best dreams. And if I will align with You, the glory that awaits me is so much greater than any glory I could find without You. And I long for that shalom. Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted about many things – only one thing is needed. Sit. Listen. Respond in Jesus' name. And so when He speaks, it's a word of healing. “He sent forth His word and healed them.” Every time God speaks to you, it's a word of healing, a word of breakthrough, a word of promise, a word that sets free, a word that delivers, a word that provides, a word that brings shalom. He speaks and it's healing, but I have to receive it and align myself to it. This is why it says, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins might be wiped out, and times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” He speaks a word of healing. I actually have to repent though and turn from my way to His way and align my heart, my life, my thoughts, my actions, my finances, my time, my energy to that which He has spoken. And then and only then does the refreshing that I long for come.

This is what I so want for our church. This – what I want for my life, for my wife, for my children, for my friends, for our team, for you, for your family, for your marriages, for your children – that we would just be a people that are like the Lord speaks and we hear Him and when He does, we align ourselves to it. And it's like there, there's no other way to say it than that. There's no other way to say it. He is the Lord and when His word comes, shalom is with it.

And the only thing hard enough to resist that word is the human heart. Everything else in all creation immediately submits when He speaks. Do you understand this? Your heart is the only thing in all of creation that is hard enough to resist the voice of God. That should terrify every one of us. That I can have not just, and we're like, "Oh, no, not the whole, right?" But I can have parts of my heart that are so hard that when He speaks, I can resist it. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and see if there is any anxious, offended, hard, bitter, rooted things inside of me and lead me in the way of everlasting life. I never want to hear God and be so hardened that I can't obey, that I don't respond. Oh Jesus, give us grace and humility to be broken by Your word – Your word that breaks so it can heal, Your word that pierces so it can restore, Your word that humbles so it can glorify. Oh, may we be open, open in Jesus' name to His word. Come on. Come on. If you agree with that, just say, "I agree." I agree. Just go on in Jesus' name. I agree. May it be so. Lord, thank You that we don't just come to church. Thank You that we're here and the Living God – the Lord – is speaking to us right now. I bet there is a spot in your heart that might be a little harder than you would care to admit. And even now, the Lord is saying, "Can we talk about that?" Oh, have the humility to say, “Yes, Lord, I, I don't want to keep planting without harvesting and I don't want to keep drinking and always be thirsty and I don't want to keep trying and not make much progress in Jesus' name.”

See what I hope for for us, what I pray for for us, what we've been trying to move towards for years now is this prophetic kingdom culture – this prophetic kingdom culture. This prophetic – we hear God. This kingdom – we're submitted and surrendered to the lordship of Jesus, living under an open heaven, and then we advance and move forward together. And there's this passage in the Old Testament that just captures it for me. And it's captivated my heart. Saul is the king of Israel. And he is this evil, demonically possessed man. And David is the next generation anointed king of Israel. And Saul wants to kill David to get rid of any competition in his life. So he's doing everything he can to kill David. So check this out. It says, "Word came to Saul: [that] ‘David is… at Ramah’; so he sent men to capture him. But when they saw a group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel the prophet standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came upon Saul's men and they also prophesied." So they went back and told Saul what happened, and he sent more men, and they prophesied, too. And they went back and told Saul what happened. And he sent men a third time and they also prophesied. So finally Saul went to Ramah. “But the Spirit of God came even upon him and he walked along prophesying… stripped off his robes and also prophesied.”

Wow. You're like, what on earth is this? There is a group of prophets prophesying. A group of people who are unified, submitted to the lordship of the Lord Almighty. They're worshiping. They're prophesying. They're in alignment together. And they're advancing. And they have created this prophetic kingdom culture that's so strong that when anyone gets in their atmosphere, the Spirit gets on them, turns them around, they start prophesying, and go in a different direction. Three times Saul sends these murderers to go get David. And three times they get into this atmosphere that is so prophetic, so kingdom, so strong. They get into the atmosphere. They repent. They turn. They go in the other direction. And they start hearing from God and start speaking forth the very word of God. Finally, Saul himself goes and even him – the demonically, a possessed evil man – gets turned around, prophesy, is stripped bare before the Lord.

And I tell you that because that – a kingdom prophetic culture, a prophetic kingdom culture – is how we raise up the next generation. It's how we engage in spiritual warfare. It's how we create the future that doesn't exist. And it's how we live on mission. You say, "What?" Do you understand? It's the only way to raise up the next generation. There are demonic people and places and spirits that want to come and kill your children and your grandchildren. And so, what do we do? How do we create a prophetic kingdom culture that's so strong that when anyone gets into the atmosphere, the Spirit of God turns them around and sends them away and says, "Not these ones. No, not these ones. These ones belong in the kingdom of heaven under an open heaven. You're not welcome here." Turns them right around.

It's how we engage in spiritual warfare. The Bible says very little about spiritual warfare. We're not supposed to chase and name and run after all these demons. No, we prophesy in unity with a heart of worship under an open heaven. And that which comes to steal, kill, and destroy gets stopped in Jesus' name and sent away. It is also how we create the future. Do you understand that in David's heart, the next generation king was the dream of the temple? Had he been killed, that future would have never come to pass. So we create the future by creating a prophetic kingdom culture and it's missional living. People get into this atmosphere and this environment and they don't understand what's happening, but something comes alive in their soul. It's not words that are mental and logical. No, they are words that are supernatural and alive. And something about that prophetic environment wakens them up to the goodness of God and turns them towards the Lord. In fact, this is how Paul says it – same exact thing but in the New Testament. “But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying [hearing from God, speaking to Him], he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, [explain] exclaiming, ‘God is really among you!’” I love that.

You know what that says? That says one of the greatest missional tools we have is the prophetic – is to create an atmosphere and environment like this morning where we all come together and we're worshiping and we're prophesying and we're hearing from God and we're speaking out to Him and each other and when other people get in that environment it's so strong, it's so powerful it literally lays their heart bare and turns them in a different direction. You say what was that mean? It means two minutes of kindness – you know why you should never sit down during two minutes of kindness? Because it is a prophetic moment. It's a moment to meet an unbeliever that you don't even know and just maybe the way that you greeted them or prayed for them or asked them a question or spoke something into their life, boom, they're like, "How did this person know? How, how did they know to ask me how my day was? No one's talked to me in three years." You pray for somebody in the atrium and you pray something into their life and they start weeping and you're like, "Why are you weeping?" Because you just prayed the secrets of their heart. You, you didn't know it. The Holy Spirit gave it to you.

Do you understand what I'm saying? Prophetic from the platform, prophetic in the message, prophetic in the videos, prophetic in the way we just engage with one another. Just believing that the Spirit of God is in me and I've cultivated the kind of life where His voice can come through me. That's how we reach people. That's how we change people. Hey, nobody want to come to church to be entertained. I mean, maybe, but not here. You don't. Nobody wants to come to be entertained. They want to come to figure out is there a God and is He real? And does He have any power and can He offer me anything in my life? And I think sometimes we're waiting for this mystical thing to happen in the sky. And God's like, "No, the, the, the, the thing is already in you. The power is already in your weakness. Will you just step out in faith and let Me do what I want to do through you?” The voice of the Lord – it's powerful. It's powerful. It's majestic. It breaks the cedar, strikes with lightning, shakes the desert, twists the oak, strips the forest bare, you know what that means? That when we prophesy, when we prophetically speak, when we give people words, when we pray the life of God into people, and they don't realize what's happening, it is powerful. It's majestic. It is literally breaking the unbreakable. It comes fast and enlightens them. It shakes whatever needs to be shaken. It twists and straightens and it strips them bare. It like removes all of the fear and the doubt and the insecurities and the baggage and the religion and the sin and the judgment and the condemnation. It strips it all. That's why Saul took off his robe. He was naked. Why? Because nothing can stand between you and the Lord. Nothing can stand between you and the Lord when He speaks. And He speaks a word of power and a word of authority and a word of grace and you will be strengthened – and they will be strengthened and they will go with shalom.

I never want anyone walking in or out of us without leaving with strength and shalom. How do we give that to them? Through the voice of the Lord – the voice of the Lord. Come on. And I know some of you are sitting here and you're like, "Not me, bro. I just barely make it in and make it out. I'm trying to figure out my own life." Oh, no. Yes, you, bro. In the last days, ready? “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit, and in those days, they will prophesy."

Ready? Is it the last days? Yes or no? Are you a part of all people? Yes or no? Are you either a son or a daughter? Yes. Are you young or old? Are you a servant? Are you a man or a woman? Then I will pour out my Spirit on you and you will prophesy. It's not about you. It's not about you. It's about the Spirit of God within you. You have a prophetic edge within you as a follower of Jesus. The only question is is are you willing to let Him do what He wants to do? You're not empowered because you're great. You're empowered because He's great. And that makes you great because you carry around the treasure in the jar of clay. You just got to share it. You just got to let it shine. You just got to be like, "I feel like the Lord wants to say, I feel like the Lord wants us to pray, I feel like the Lord has this invitation, I feel like the Lord just has this one word or this picture or this dream or this thing. I just feel like the Lord is saying that person right there – that one who's in the atrium or that person who's in two minutes of kindness that looks lonely. That's the one. I feel like the Lord's just like,” boo, boo, boo. Okay, then go."Hi. This might be a little weird. We've never met before. My name's John. I just wanted to introduce myself.” And they just start crying. They're like, "No one's ever talked to me in church before." And you think I'm making this stuff up. I'm not. I'm not. And it's as silly as that. That's prophetic.

And here's what I love: each one heard them speaking in his own language. God speaks to you in a language you understand. And He will give you a language they understand if you're willing to be used by Him. And I love that it says, "Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy... For everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort... he who prophesies edifies the whole church. I would like every one of you to… prophesy." This is what Paul says to the Corinthian church. This – that means that's what God is saying to us.

Follow the way of love and prophesy. Prophetic voice is meant to flow from a loving heart. The more loving you become, the more prophetic you will be. The prophetic is so powerful and so weighty and so glorious and so substantive and and and has so much authority to it that it can only be wielded by a loving heart. So as we become more loving, we will become more prophetic and we will strengthen, encourage, and comfort the whole body. Because when you edify one person, you've edified our entire church. It's like when your pinky toe gets healed, your whole body feels better. That one person you give a word to, you pray for, you speak out, you trust what God wants to do in their life, it strengthens the entire body and we all become stronger.

And how do you grow in love in the prophetic? Like Mary, you sit at His feet and just look at His face. Just look into the face of love and you'll become what you behold. So you're becoming more loving and you look into His face. And when you want to hear someone speak, you, you look at them and you will hear them speak. So if I just sit at the feet of Jesus in some way in my life, I will start becoming more loving and more prophetic just by looking at Him and listening to Him. Are you with me on this?

And so I know some of you are like, "Okay, that's cool." Like, but like how do we actually do it? Well, real quick, how do you – how do we – actually start moving into this prophetic kingdom culture next level? Lifting your faith, raising your head. The Lord wants to do something amazing through you. This prophetic reset isn't just about your reset. It's about you being a prophetic voice to help someone else reset. Cuz it's not just about you. Prophecy is not about you. It's about His purposes on this earth. Sometimes it's your alignment. Sometimes it's their alignment. Sometimes it's your advancement. Sometimes it's their advancement.

So what do we do? Here's what we do. We fill our life with the Word of God, the Spirit of God, and the people of God. I told you that week one, a prophetic church is filled with the Word, the Spirit, and the people of God because that's the primary way God speaks. So, we fill our life with the Word of God. We consume it. We meditate on it. We memorize it. We hide it in our heart. We, we make it the, the focus of our life. In fact, here's what He says to the prophet Ezekiel. “He said to me, ‘Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak…’ So I opened my mouth and He gave me the scroll to eat. Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, eat the scroll I'm giving you and [fill, fill your life] fill your stomach with it.’ So I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey.” Says, hey, before you speak, you got to eat. Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. I got to eat before I speak. I got to fill my life with the Word of God.

And not just the Word of God, but the Spirit of God, which means I got to wake up and walk in the Spirit. Be led by the Spirit. Holy Spirit, I submit and surrender to You today. Whatever You want to do in my life today, I am open to it. Lead me, guide me. I will go with You where You want me to go. And then the people of God – you got to fill your life with the people of God. Listen to me. When you distance yourself from the people of God, you distance yourself from the voice of God. Think about this. If God says His people will prophesy, then one of the primary ways He speaks to us is through His people. So if I distance myself from the people of God, I've just distanced myself from the voice of God. This is why bitterness and offense and unforgiveness are so massive. Because what happens is we distance ourselves from the very people God wants to speak to us through. A bitter heart cannot hear the voice of God. An offended heart cannot hear the voice of God. An unforgiving heart cannot hear the voice of God. We think, "They bothered me. They offended me. They hurt me. I'm frustrated." God probably wants to speak to you through them. Are you willing to get over yourself to hear the voice of God? Right? We think we're showing them – we're hurting ourselves. I'll, I'll show them. I'll just I'll pull away. Okay. Okay. It's not even saying they're right. It's just saying when you remove yourself from the people, you remove yourself from a person of God, you will very quickly start removing yourself from the people of God. It's, it's impossible to be deeper rooted in the people if I'm offended at a person. So, that might be worth thinking about another time. Okay. Uh, we're kind of not sure we like that one. That's fine. But you won't hear God without it.

Cultivate the secret place – if you really want to hear the god voice of God, you got to cultivate the secret place. What does that mean? Get alone with God and just listen. Get alone and listen. Every person you see in the Bible that heard God, this is what they did. Abraham was a friend of God. He was constantly alone with God. Moses spoke to God face to face. The way a man would speak to His friend, he would go on the mountain for like days and just to be with God. Joshua never left the tent of meeting. All the prophets, they went out into the wilderness. Uh, David, he just hung out at the tabernacle of David to inquire of the Lord. Jesus withdrew to lonely places to pray. Like you got to actually cultivate the secret place if you want to hear His voice. This is the prophet Samuel as a young man. Just, “‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening…’ the Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and He let none of His words fall to the ground… the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord [in the secret place]… the Lord continued to appear at Shiloh [the secret place], and there [in the secret place], He revealed Himself to Samuel through His Word.”

Not sure what that was, but the willingness to listen created the authority to speak. In the secret place, Samuel heard God and therefore he had prophetic words to speak. Do you ever feel like your words fall to the ground? The reason our words fall to the ground is because we speak more than we listen. Wow. Did you ever just stop before you want to say that thing to your spouse, your children, your team, your boss, your parents? Do you ever just stop and listen? Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening. What do you want to say to them? Maybe the reason our parenting words and our marriage fights and our and our team leadership, maybe the reason it always crashes and falls to the ground is because we speak out of the flesh, out of the emotion, out of the moment, out of the, “I think, I want, I desire, you should, you aren't, why not,” as opposed to stepping back and hearing the Lord.

And then I love that it says he grew up in the presence of the Lord. You actually grow up in the secret place. It's in the secret place where you're matured. You can be 80 years old and be immature. You can be 18 years old and profoundly deep in the kingdom of God. Why? Because we grow up in the presence of the Lord. Not in age, but in the secret place. And there the Lord will reveal Himself to you through His word. Listen to me. Prophetic people, prophetic people spend more time listening in the secret place than they do prophesying in the public place. And we're convinced prophetic people just on the spot let these words fly. They spend a lot more time in the secret place listening than in the public place prophesying.

And then the last thing is just simply this. You got to step out in faith. If we're going to actually create, you got to step out in faith. What does that mean? God spoke to me and I'm going to do it. What does that mean? Hey, I, I feel like the Lord put you on my heart. I'm just texting you to say, I'm just praying for you today. I don't know why, but I, I, I couldn't sleep last night and you're the only person I kept thinking about. Hey, I want to share this, this verse with you. I feel like the Lord has asked me to offer this to you. I would just encourage you: take it to Him and and, and pray about it and see if that's from the Lord. Hey, it's just there is like you don't need to do this religious churchy baggage culture. The Lord has told me that you are going to let's let's no that's that's not that's religious culture that some of us have attached prophetic to. We can unattach the voice of God from religious oppression and just be like, "No one needs to call you a prophet to prophesy. No one needs to declare their authority to speak with authority. No one needs to like create this moment where they make you feel very in fear." If you ever feel like you're getting something or making – if you ever feel like you're speaking the word of God to somebody and you're making them feel embarrassed, small, insecure, what are you about to say? That's not the Lord. It's strengthening. It's encouraging. It's comforting. So, if you don't come with a spirit of humility – authority is carried on humility.

This is why Jesus is the authoritative humble one – poured Himself out. He could carry all of authority. All authority on heaven and earth has been given unto me. Why? Because He poured Himself out and picked up the cross and humbled Himself and became obedient to death. Authority rests on humility in Jesus' name. But sometimes you just got to step out in faith. Okay. So you with me on all this? Okay.

So here's what I want to invite you to do this week. This week I want to invite you to a week of prayer and fasting – a week of prayer and fasting. You say, "Hey, you haven't given us any like head heads up? We didn't know. Like you're supposed to tell us for like three weeks. We're about to do it. I got to think about it.” All the things. No, you don't. If your heart has been stirred in Jesus' name, you could start tomorrow. No problem. Why? Because God's speaking. He's stirring. I want to quickly respond. In fact, I have intentionally held it to this point. I knew we were going to do this. And then you're like, "Ah, why didn't you tell me?" Because, because I want to give you a chance to quickly align.

What is fasting? It's giving up food to feast on God. When Jesus says, "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." He says that in the middle of a 40-day fast in the wilderness, He's reminding us that we're not sustained by the things of this world. We're sustained by the voice of God. So, a week of prayer and fasting, you say, "What does that mean?" Here's what it means. It means figure out something that you can do every day. And here's what I want to challenge you on. I want to invite you all seven days to fast something on each seven days. Normally, I'll give you these different things and try to like make it soft for everybody. Nope. Pick something. It might be lunch every day. It might be breakfast every day. It might be dinner every day. It might be that mid-after afternoon snack every day. It might be your coffee that you do like religiously every day. Give up something that you do every single day. And during that time when you offer it to the Lord, use that time to sit and say, "Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening." And then just listen.

Do you want a prophetic reset? Then you got to make space for God to speak. Last verse: “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said….” I believe this week as we worship and fast, the Lord will say…. What does He want to say to you about your big, significant, important life? Tuesday night, we have Tuesday Night Prayer and we're doing our Open Heaven recording. Let that be a part of your prayer and fasting. While they were worshiping, come. I believe the Lord will speak to you there. We're creating space and place and a heart to be stirred to say, "God, I'm tired of planting but not harvesting. I want to align my life with You. So this week, I'm going to fast breakfast. I'm going to fast lunch. I'm going to fast dinner. I'm going to, I'm going to do a juice fast. I'm going to do….” I don't, I don't care. You ask the Lord what it is, but I would but all seven days so that there's this sense of I'm seeking God and giving Him space to speak because a prophetic reset is just saying God is real. He speaks to me and I follow Him and where He's taken me is better than where I've been. The glory of the latter is better than the glory of the former. So speak Lord, I'm listening this week as we pray and fast together. So close your eyes with me. So here's the mistake I made. I preached all the way up to the clock and I told you that we can't do that anymore. But the good news is is this whole week we're hearing God. And next weekend we're going to gather and break the fast with communion and time to hear God together. And we'll pull it, pull it all together.

So just what's the Holy Spirit saying to you? Come on. Not a word that's mental, not a word that's logical – a word that is spirit and life. It is supernatural and it is alive. I just prophesy over your life in Jesus’ name that your heart would be stirred. Now you may not understand it. You may not get it. You may not like it. It may not even all make sense to you. But in Jesus' name, may your heart burn. May it be stirred. May something He has put in there start awakening and coming to life. And may He give you the faith that is required to step out and move forward and align to that which He says to you. Jesus, we love You. You are the Lord and the Word of the Lord has come to us. May we steward it with the gravity of which it was spoken. May we steward it in such a way that it honors and acknowledges the glorious one who said it. Speak Lord for we're listening and we want to move forward. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.