God Has Not Forgotten You

God Cares and He has Not Forgotten You!

On Sunday, there were two prophetic words during our worship:

I have not forgotten you. I have been faithful and I will always be faithful and you can trust me, you can come to me. The world around you would convince you to look elsewhere, the world around you would convince you to find your own solution. But, I am your solution! I am your strength. I am your light. I am your life. I am faithful. You can trust me.In the time that you are experiencing now, I am giving you an opportunity to know me more if you will come toward me, if you will pursue me.Don’t allow the circumstances of the day in public places, whether it would be politics, whether it would be public decisions, whether it be governments, whether it be your workplace. Don’t allow those things to determine what I am doing. They don’t determine what I am doing. Bring yourself into a focus of who I am. Set aside the distractions and fully worship me. 

I had a picture of standing on a hard place. And you look down and it is rocks. There is no topsoil it is just rocky crags. And the Lord says, “Lift up your eyes. You are on a mountain top. This is a hard place, but it is going to be a high place. I’m going to raise it up. You just need to look around and see.”

Maybe God was speaking to you? What do we do when we hear the prophetic? The Bible tells us not to despise prophecies. So how can we handle prophetic words with grace and truth? Here are six guidelines to consider:

Edited and Adapted from CBN.com

1. Does the word line up with Scripture? Someone may say to you, "I've had a vision about your life," or "The Lord has given me this great word for you." God does lead supernaturally, there is no doubt about it. But whenever you are considering any form of special guidance, you need to judge it against the light of God's Word to see if it is true. 
2. Is the prophecy given in love and grace, or in anger and judgment? Prophecy in the New Testament flows from the Spirit of Christ, which is a spirit of grace and love. As we have already considered, the majority of personal prophecy should be given as edification, exhortation, and comfort (1 Corinthians 14:3). 
3. What is the timing? Many times a prophetic word will be given, and we immediately expect to see the result. The problem being that God is "outside of time" and he sees past/present/future as one. His ways are not ours and his timing surely is not. It is critical to not presume upon God the timing of what He is doing or has done.
4. What is the character and fruit of the person giving the word? The personal character of a prophetic minister, or any minister for that matter, is the foundation of his or her ministry. Character is a primary guide for determining whether someone is a true or false prophet. 
5. Do I sense a witness from the Holy Spirit? When a guitarist tunes his guitar, he will play one note and then match the next string on the guitar to the note on the first string. A true musician can hear the dissonance when their instrument is out of tune, and they will tinker with the tuning key until there is resonance between the two strings. We have the privalege as Christians to develop a "tuning" to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Not only that, but God has given us leaders and friends in the church who can be a testing point to help us know if something is from God or not.
6. Don't reject a directional word, but test it against the other keys. If the word is something new that you have never heard before, it may be a directional word from the Lord, but don't act on it right away. Test it like you would any other guidance from the Lord.