“For even though by this time you ought to be teaching others, you actually need someone to teach you over again the very first principles of God’s Word. You have come to need milk, not solid food.
For everyone who continues to feed on milk is obviously inexperienced and unskilled in the doctrine of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action), for he is a mere infant [not able to talk yet]!
But solid food is for full-grown men, for those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish between what is morally good and noble and what is evil and contrary either to divine or human law,” Hebrews 5:12-14 (AMPC).

We Need a Deep Level Right Now

The LORD said that many need greater discernment at a deeper level right now. We can no longer judge by the flesh in this day of great deception. The enemy has ramped up His game but I feel that the LORD is trying to drive us back to the word and prayer!

We don’t know His heart because we don’t know His word! There is no way to have discernment without knowing His word and in prayer, hearing the Spirit of Truth. Knowing the difference between the voice of God and the voice of the enemy is not in following Prophets but in following the one who is THE TRUTH.

Recognizing the Counterfeit

They teach bankers to recognize counterfeit money by showing them REAL bills. If He then sees one that differentiates from the real he then immediately spots it. And the truth is, if we are not students of the word of God as a foundation for truth then we will not understand who’s voice we are listening to.

As you know full well, I am all about the prophetic voice but before I knew how to hear God, I was a student of His word and always will be. Then when I set myself to seek His face.

He began to speak to me through His word and when I would hear His voice, I knew it was Him. He said in John 10:27 (AMP) ” The sheep that are My own hear My voice and listen to Me; I know them, and they follow Me.” But you can not know His voice if you do not know Him and he is “THE LIVING WORD”

I have heard many people since I have been writing on Facebook say to me. “I heard this or that from a prophet but I don’t know if it is God or not.” In the first place, do you know His voice when you hear it?

You see, on the road to Emmaus, when Jesus appeared to them, He talked with them, but it wasn’t until they broke bread AND REMEMBERED WHAT HE SAID ABOUT THE SCRIPTURES THAT POINTED TO HIM, that they recognized Him and said to one another in Luke 24:32 “Didn’t our hearts burn as He spoke.”

You see, breaking bread is literally fellowshipping with the Living Word and THEN THE SPIRIT QUICKENED IN THEIR HEARTS BY A BURNING that they realized who He was. So if we want to know for sure that we ourselves are hearing from God, we must also set time to fellowship Him in His word and in seeking His face.

Taking time to hear Him speak, then acting on His word to see if it was truly Him through this experience. But if we waver and do not practice it, then James says that we should not think that we will receive anything from Him.

“For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the LORD. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways,” James 1:6-8.

So you will always be unsure of hearing His voice if we waver. It is not until we step out on His word to prove it that we will know for sure.it is our trust in Him and faith and without it God is not pleased.

So to go back to My first point. If we want to know the voice of God, we must know Him through His word.

We have to study the truth before we can recognize what is not of God. Soon, after you do this on purpose for a while, you will spot a fake a mile away. Because you will have learned who He truly is, you will know the difference between a sheep and a goat!

You will know the difference in a Prophet and a false Prophet! Discernment only goes as deep as your roots are in Him and His word! It is time to go back to some basics!

 

~ by Jo Ellen Stevens
Arise Shine!

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Jo Ellen Stevens of TCIC Ministries is a Prophetic speaker, author, worshiper and intercessor. She has ministered with her husband for 23 years and was a worship leader at the Assembly of God for many years. She is an ordained minister (Restoration Ministries) and works with Restoration Ministries in their Ministry Rooms doing prophetic worship with her husband. She has taught many bible studies and have led many intercessory prayer groups.

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