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The Spirit of Prophecy Pt. 2: The Testimony of Jesus

In the Church today, we have an uncomfortable relationship with the Holy Spirit and His gifts, especially prophecy and speaking in tongues. We hold to the belief that the Spirit of God no longer works in the Church today and that all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit were only for a time. One of the verses cited to prove this is Revelation 19:10, which states that the “… testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” This now begs the question, what does this mean? Join ArieRashelle as she searches through Scripture to find the answers in her video, The Spirit of Prophecy Pt. 2: The Testimony of Jesus.

Revelation 19:10
John 1:1-5, 14-18
Genesis 15:1
Jeremiah 1:1
Joel 1:1
Malachi 1:1
Judges 13:2-5
Exodus 3:1-2
Hebrews 1:1-2
1 Samuel 3:1
Acts 2
Joel 2
1 Timothy 2:5
Jeremiah 1:12
Isaiah 55:10-11

The Spirit of Prophecy

The Testimony of Jesus

19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

2 Peter 1:19-21

10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Revelation 19:10

The Gift of Prophecy

The Prophecy of The Spirit/Gift of Prophecy

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:

17 ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; 18 even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. 19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; 20 the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. 21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Acts 2:14-21

The Importance of The Spirit/Gift of Prophecy

4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. 5 Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

6 Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? 7 If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? 8 And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? 9 So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. 10 There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, 11 but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. 12 So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.

1 Corinthians 14:4-12

spirit/gift of prophecy
spirit/gift of prophecy

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Seek The Truth

12 Then the disciples came and said to Him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” 13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” ~ Matthew 15:12–14

Jesus said there are blind guides leading the blind into a pit. What does that mean? There are teachers out there who don’t understand what they are teaching. In fact, they don’t understand that their teaching is inaccurate and erroneous. Jesus said that they, being blind, meaning they don’t fully understand the word of God or what they are teaching (although they think they do), will lead others who are like themselves into a pit.

It doesn’t sound like they will accidentally stumble into the Promise Land. It doesn’t sound like they will accidentally stumble into Heaven. No, they will fall into a pit. Why? Because every tree that our Father has not planted will be rooted up. Every tree that will not bear fruit will be uprooted. This is why we have to be careful with who we listen to. Listen is why we have to be like the Bereans and check what everyone says versus what the Word of God says. That’s why we have to ask questions until we have the Truth. Not our own truth or someone else’s truth, but the only Truth. God’s Truth. This is the only Truth that matters.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Seek The Truth.

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Mourn In Its Season

1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1-4

For everything, there is a season. Nothing happens randomly. Nothing happens out of its season and doesn’t fail. As humans, it’s easy to say that this is Truth, but it’s much harder to act like it is Truth. When we live out of the season that we have to be in, we begin to die inside. Sometimes, we completely refuse to live in the season we have to live in in order to get through our situation, and our spirit dies within us. And sometimes, depending on circumstances, we even die physically because of it.

So many of us struggle with grief because we either don’t want to face it or we don’t know how to face it. Because of this, the suicide rate goes up with each generation. Many of us don’t mourn because we’re afraid to. Many of us don’t laugh because we feel like we can’t because of our grief. It almost feels like we are stomping on the grave of a loved one if we move forward with our lives. It almost feels like if we laugh or enjoy life, we’re doing something wrong because they’re no longer with us. Mourning is necessary. Something both spiritually and physically is released and comforted when we go through our season of mourning. It isn’t easy to mourn, but always remember that it’s just for a season because after you have mourned, God will comfort you and fill you with joy. Many of us miss out on the joy of the LORD because we refuse to mourn. Don’t miss out on joy. Don’t miss out on dancing. Don’t miss out on living because you are in mourning.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Mourn In Its Season.

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Ignite a Deeper Faith

10 When Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who followed Him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment. ~ Matthew 8:10-13

So, the centurion goes to see Jesus and explains to Him that his servant is ill and needs a healing. Jesus said, “Sure, I will come with you and heal him.” The centurion was like, “You don’t even need to come. Besides, I’m not worthy for You to come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed.” That pretty much floored Jesus. He was stunned when He heard this.

In fact, Jesus states that no one in all of Israel had that kind of faith. This would mean that not even Jesus’ disciples had that kind of faith. The men that walked and talked with Jesus daily didn’t have that type of faith. Even though they witnessed miracle after miracle. Healing after healing. Sign after sign. Wonder after wonder, their faith couldn’t compare to that of a man who had only heard of the good things of Christ.

Many of us in the Church are baffled by this. We can’t understand how the men that walked and talked with God have less faith than a man who had never met Him. But what many of us fail to realize is that we are often the disciples, not the centurion. When we grow up in Church, it’s easy to take the Bible and all of its promises for granted. It’s easy for us to miss out on something deeper with Christ because He’s always been there. When we allow the things of God (going to church, reading your bible, praying, worship, etc.) to become just another routine, then the Word of God slowly becomes less and less important. We slowly become asleep, and our faith slowly dies the deeper into a spiritual sleep we get.

So, when we come to Jesus, we need more than just head knowledge. We need a good real down to earth belief in who He is and what He can do. We need to strive for an unshakeable faith.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Ignite a Deeper Faith.

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Activate The Sword of The Spirit

17b … and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, ~ Ephesians 6:17-18

The Sword of the Spirit isn’t just the physical Word of God that we refer to as the Bible. It’s not just quoting Scripture. It’s quoting Scripture in Jesus’ name through the power of the Holy Spirit. This power of the Holy Spirit can only be activated through praying in the Spirit because your spirit can only be built up through praying in the spirit, just as your mind can only be built up through praying with your mind.

This is why the Church has been in a dormant state. A state where people leave the Church and become pagans or occultists because the Church has no power. We no longer see the miracles of old in the Church today because the Church rarely prays in the Spirit. Each and every one of us has a Spirit language. This isn’t the same as the speaking in tongues that we saw in Acts 2, which is speaking a heavenly language, and each person hearing heard it in their own language regardless of whom they listened to.

This isn’t the same as the speaking in tongues that Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 14, which is speaking a word from God in a heavenly language to the Church and then needing the interpretation of that heavenly language from either the person that spoke or from another who received the interpretation from God. This is speaking in a heavenly language that is specific to your spirit that connects to God’s Spirit that is in you. It is your spirit’s way of building itself up but also cutting through the limitations of our minds and getting straight down to what it is that you need that you may not even know. Without feeding our spirit, it can’t grow. This is how we grow our spirit.

This is the key to activating the Sword of the Spirit. So, when we start to pray in the Spirit and we start to activate the Sword of the Spirit, we will begin to see a change in our lives. We will begin to see the power of God fill us as His Spirit builds in us and builds our spirit with Him. After we have prayed in the spirit, we must pray with our mind that our mind might be built up as well. After we have built up our spirits and our minds, we must then make supplication for the rest of the saints of God. These are the keys to wielding the Sword of the Spirit. Each one of these is important, for a three-strand cord is not easily broken.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Activate The Sword of The Spirit.

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Take All Three Keys

12 Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. 13 The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia, 14 and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.” ~ Daniel 10:12-14

According to Gabriel, Daniel was able to break through the Territorial Spirits in the kingdom of Persia and receive the answer to his prayers because of three things. The first is to firmly set it in your heart that God will answer you. You have to have an unshakeable desire and faith that you will hear from God. That He will answer your call, and nothing and no one can stop your prayers from being answered.

The second key is to humble yourself through fasting. Fasting breaks down spiritual strongholds that we may not see with our natural eyes. It’s only through forcing your body into submission that your spirit can grow and flourish, allowing your prayers to be answered. The only way to truly achieve this is to not only fast food but also to fast the secular world. Your spirit cannot truly grow and flourish unless you are feeding it with the Word of God. Unless you are first tying up the strongman, your flesh, and putting him into submission, can you actually feed your spirit the way that it needs to thrive?

Lastly, the third key is to continue until you see your prayers answered. Just as Jacob refused to let go of God until he received his blessing, so must we refuse to stop praying until we receive our answered prayers. We have to come to God multiple times a day, every day if we want to break through these kinds of blockades. Think of it as going to court because immigration has arrested your answered prayers at a point of entry, and you are your answered prayers lawyer. You have to show up to each court appearance. You have to remind the judge (God) of all of the promises He has given about answered prayers. Remind Him of all the promises He has made you. Unless we show up to each court appearance and defend our case with all that is within us, then we will lose our case, and we will never receive our answered prayers.

Peace. Love Go Forth and Take All Three Keys.

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Take Them Captive

4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. ~ 2 Corinthians 10:4-6

You cannot play around with sin and pull its tail or its ear and think that no harm can or will ever come to you. Remember, its desire is to have you, but you must master it, not by playing with it or trying to befriend it, but by casting it down.

When you play with sin or with temptation, you become familiar with it, and its familiarity begins to break down your resistance to it, and eventually, you will give in to it. Because one thought will lead to another thought, and that one still to another, and soon sin will have its desire.

You!

Sin will overcome you each time if you continue to allow it residence in your mind. That’s how sin gets you. The idea. The fantasy. The repetition. That’s why Paul said we cast down every thought and force it to conform to Christ. Because it’s only God who is perfect, it’s only God that can truly know right from God. And it’s only God that knows what is best for us because even we can/do fall for the lie that some evil isn’t truly evil.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Take Them Captive.

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Territorial Spirits Pt. 2: Getting Prayers Answered

Throughout Scripture, there are stories of spiritual warfare and how answered prayers can be held up by these spirits. Paul even writes that our battle isn’t against flesh and blood but against spiritual beings around us and in the heavenly places. So, if our battle is against the spirit realm, how do we fight the spirit realm if we are in the physical? How can we get our prayers answered? Join ArieRashelle as she searches through Scripture for the answers to these questions and more in her video, Territorial Spirits Pt. 2: Getting Prayers Answered.

Daniel 10:12-14
Genesis 30:24-30
Hosea 10:3-4
Romans 10:17
Romans 12:3
Daniel 10:2-3
Psalms 69:10
1 Corinthians 9:27
2 Corinthians 11:27
Luke 18:1-8

Getting Prayers Answered

Evidence of Territorial Spirits

12 Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. 13 The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia, 14 and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.”

Daniel 10:12-14

1 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. 2 And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before Him.

7 And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 8 For He was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” 10 And he begged Him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 12 and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” 13 So He gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

Mark 5:1-13

Keys To Receiving Answered Prayers

First Key to getting answered prayers is to set your heart to understand. In other words to believe with everything in you that you will receive your answered prayer.

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Awaken The Power

5 After that you shall come to Gibeath-elohim, where there is a garrison of the Philistines. And there, as soon as you come to the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them, prophesying. 6 Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. 7 Now when these signs meet you, do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you. ~ 1 Samuel 10:5-7

Before the Day of Pentecost, where tongues of fire rested upon the believers in the Upper Room, the Spirit of the LORD was not dwelling on earth in mankind. In fact, there were times of silence when the Spirit was not in the land at all. But look at what happened when the Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul after he was anointed as king of Israel. The Spirit rushed powerfully upon him, and he began to prophesy. In fact, the Spirit even went a bit farther; Saul was changed into a different person. He became a new creation. Today this should be even more real to us.

Many believe that the power of God no more works through the Church. That the spiritual gifts given to the early Church were somehow only for the early Church. Why would God tell us to earnestly seek the higher gifts if it wasn’t for us? Either all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that we in the Church may be complete, equipped for every good work, or none of it is. We can’t make an entire section of the Word of God null and void just because it makes us uncomfortable or we don’t understand it. Today when we are saved, we should see an even greater change in us than Saul did, for the Spirit, Himself, abides in us. It didn’t just rush upon us; it is living in us, for we have become the Temple of the Living God. So, when we are saved, we should be filled with the very power of God that not only redeems us but awakens the spiritual gift we have been given that has remained inactive in us, waiting for the power of God to awaken it. Not all will prophesy, but all who are willing and who seek it out will receive the power of the Spirit of God, and their spiritual gift will be awakened with that power.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Awaken The Power.

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Travail Like Hannah

5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. 6 And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. 11 And she vowed a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.” 13 Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman. 14 And Eli said to her, “How long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you.” ~ 1 Samuel 1:5-6, 11, 13-14 ESV

Isn’t it peculiar that a lot of important people or people used by God came from barren women? Their wombs may have been barren year after year, and people may have mislabeled them as drunk when crying out to God, but God still used them if they were willing to be used by Him. Even though they couldn’t see it in the physical because their barren womb had the potential of bearing/producing children, as long as they sought God with all that was within them, God turned that barren womb into a womb that would house greatness.

For instance, Hannah was barren, but she travailed in prayer before God because she wanted a child. She didn’t allow the antagonizing taunts of her rival to keep her from her heart’s desire. She didn’t allow the misjudgment of the man of God who called her drunk to cause her to give up praying. Hannah believed that her barren womb would one day produce life. That’s how we need to be with our dreams that God has put into us. We need to travail in prayer as Hannah did. Even if people put us down and call us all manner of derogatory names, even if they mislabeled us as drunk or crazy, we cannot give up. We have to fight through the antagonizing world so that our prayers may be heard. The only one who giving up hurts, is the one who has given up. Therefore, we must continue to pray until our time of being barren is over, and we give birth to our dream/promise.

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