Become An Effective Messenger

By Teresa Seputis

Lesson 1 The Messenger Becomes A Part Of The Message

I wanted to share a few thoughts with you about delivering God's prophetic word to the body of Christ. Before I can share these thoughts, I need to lay a brief framework about how God speaks prophetically through a person. Sometimes God gives us a message to share in a manner where He dictates word for word pecisely what He wants said. If He gives it that way, then we are responsible to share it precisely as we receive it, without changing a single word. But most of the time, that is not how God chooses to give words. God's preference seems to be to give a message to His messenger, then let that messenger find the words to express that message. In other words, He allows us to select the words to articulate His message. Yes, the word is from God because He supplies the message it communicates; it is His prophecy. But He allows us to participate with Him in it. He gives us the task of choosing the words to convey His message. When God gives us words that way, then our delivery skill can impact how effective that word is. The clearer we communicate God's message, the better it will be understood and the more power it will have. I know that some of you are raising your eyebrows right now, and you are almost ready to reject what I have just said. That is because some people have been taught to respect prophecy (God's spoken word) in the same manner that they respect Scripture (God's written word). But God does not put them on the same level. The Bible is infallible; it is the standard by which we evaluate everything else. But modern-day prophecy is not infallible because it comes through flawed human messengers, and at times it is not 100% accurate. That is why the Bible tells us to judge prophecy. In order to judge it, we depend on the Bible and on God's Spirit, Who lives inside of us. While we do judge prophecy, the Bible is not something we judge. We are expected to accept it as absolute; there is not a passage anywhere in the Bible that invites us to prayerfully judge the Bible and decide what parts of it to receive. The entire Bible is the word of God and it is to be accepted, not judged. That puts the Bible on a different standard

than modern-day prophecy, and modern-day prophecy must be judged as per 1 Corinthians 14:29. It is true that we are to respect the message that God speaks through His modern-day prophets once we have judged it to truly be His word. We need to understand the dynamics of how He gives words to best understand how to judge and respect them. God uses flawed people to accomplish His purposes. He could do it all Himself and do a much better job than we could ever do, but He doesn't choose to do it that way. He chooses to involve His children in doing with Him what He is doing. Let's look for a second at healing the sick, because that will help us to better understand the principle about prophecy. When we lay hands on a sick person and pray for them and they are miraculously healed, who did the healing? Did God do it, or did we do it? Or was it a joint effort? Surely God did it in the sense that we do not have any inate ability within us to do miracles--that power comes from the Spirit of God, Who lives inside of us. Yet, God often limits Himself to not healing the person until some human is laying hands on them or praying a prayer of faith. E.g., the miraculous healings usually go to the people who are prayed for, and the sick people who are not prayed for don't usually get a miracle healing. (Of course, there are always exceptions to this. There are stories of God sovereignly reaching out and touching a sick preson when no one prayed for them. He can do that because He is Almighty God and He loves to heal. But most of the time, He doesn't do it that way.) Most of the time, He sends someone to the sick person to pray for them, just like He sent Ananias to pray for blind Saul that he might receive his sight in Acts 9:17. Why does He choose to do it that way? I think it is because He likes to involve His children in the works He is doing, to have us do it with Him. As we grow in our faith and experience, we become better at moving with God in supernatural healing, and then we see more and more of the people who we pray for get healed. We grow in our skill, the skill of cooperating with God to do what He is doing in physical healing. We grow in our skill and ability of working with God to heal the sick, because that is how God wants it to be. It is similiar with the prophetic. We are able to grow in our ablity to move with God, to become more precise mouthpieces, to speak His words and deliver His message. We literally become more skillful in delivering God's word as we grow in our gifting. That means that when we start out we are not as good at it as God wants us to become.

He uses us before we are experts, before we are perfect at it, but He wants us to keep growing in the gifing that He has put within us. Occasionally a person rises up who did not go through a learning curve, who simply started out at a great level of power and anointing and propehtic skill--but that is the exception. Most of us will grow in our gifting and develop more skill at flowing with God's Spirit and speaking His words. One of our goals in the prophetic should be to communicate clearly. (There are exceptions to this. There are times when God releases so much anointing with the prophecy that the precise words spoken to deliver the message don't matter at all...the Holy Spirit works in the hearer's heart and communicates what He wants them to know. I can think of several modern-day examples of this, including some of the corporate words that Cindy Jacobs or Heidi Baker have given. Let me use Heidi as an example. At times she is so much under the power of God that she is a crumpled heap on the floor and she can barely get the words out and there are repeated phrases and incomplete sentences and a bunch of "ho-o-o-o's"--yet her words are so powerful because of God's manifest presence as His word is being delivered. When the anointing is that strong, you don't need clarity of delivery, the Holy Spirit bears witness directly to the spirit of the listeners in a strong and tangible way.) But most of the time, most of us need to try to deliver God's message clearly and accurately. We must take the message that God has put inside of us and find a way to express it that will let the hearer know and understand what God wants to say. There is a factor called "prophetic style" that enters into ths. You may have noticed that some of the modern-day prophets have different styles from each other. Some are loud and forceful, some are soft-spoken and gentle, some are down-to-earth and use humor in their delivery. That is biblical. In fact, we see different prophetic styles in the Bible. John the Baptist was forceful and in-your-face, but Jeremiah was a weeper and Isaiah was a poet. Those are all valid prophetic styles, God has used all of these delivery methods and many others. He wants His prophets to participate with Him in giving His message, so He allows them to put little bit of themselves in that message in the form of their delivery style. Yes, His message comes across clearly, but so does some of the prophet's own style. I know we always talk about speaking "pure words," about conveying only God's message and not our own. That is the way it should be; we are not to add our own message to God's message. The message must come from Him, not from us, or it is corrupted and impure. But at the same time, we are allowed (even expected) to put a tad of ourselves into the message by the words we choose to convey that message, by our tone of voice and facial expressions, and by the gestures we use.

God is capable of sending an angel to deliver His words and there are still reports of Him doing that today. So why does He send you with His message? Since He can send an angel, have you ever wondered why He chooses to speak through you? It is because there is a part of you that He wants to permit into the message, a part of your delivery style to go along with what He wants delivered. God knows you and your style and that affects the messages that He will give you. For instance, He won't usually give the "forceful shouting prophet" a tender message of God's love and comfort. Likewise, He won't usually use the tentative weeping prophet to deliver a faith-building message of an ensuing victory as you are about to go into battle. This is a simple fact: if you have a prophetic gifting, then God has chosen you to deliver certain of His messages. He allows you to be a part of that message in your delivery style, in your current level of gifting and in your ability to share accurately what He is saying, etc. The messenger is, by default, a small part of the message, and it can't be helped. Therefore, it should be our goal to become the very best messengers that it is possible for us to be. We should try to grow in and improve our delivery skills, to become more skilled and more able to accurately reflect the message that God has given us to deliver. That is why I have written this teaching series, so we can talk about how to develop our delivery skills and become the best messenger that it is possible for us to be.

Lesson 2 Understanding The Medium And The Target

In our last lesson, I talked about how God expects us go grow in our gifting. I shared how the prophetic often has two parts to it: "God's part" and "our part." God's part is to select a message that He wants delivered and to communicate that mesasge to us in a way where we understand what He wants to say. Our part is to communicate God's message to the intended receiver in a way where they clearly understand what God is saying to them. Most of the time, God allows us to select the precise wording or phrasology to deliver that message. His heart and desire is for us to accurately communicate what He wants said, but He often gives us some leeway to "make mistakes" and to put little pieces of ourselves into that word as we work with Him to deliver it. I would like to look at some ways that we can improve our communication skills to give better messages, to more accurately reflect what God wants to say, so that more of His power and anointing flow into that word. In order to do that, we have to

understand a few things about the message that God is giving through us. The prophetic has many aspects, or dimensions, to it. Two of them are particularly important: the medium and the intended receiver (or target audience). The Medium I am not talking about witchcraft or E.S.P. or channeling here. That stuff is of the devil and is to be strictly avoided! When I use the word "medium," I am refering to a technical term that describes what mechanism is used to deliver a message. A prophecy is usually delivered in either of two ways: spoken or written. Some words are spoken words, given verbally to the intended recepient(s). A few examples are call-out prophecy to an individual, corporate words given over the microphone at conferences, someone standing up in a worship service and sharing an encouragement to the body of believers there. The main characteristic of a spoken word is that the receiver hears it at precisely the same time that the deliverer gives it. There is no time delay. There is no second chance to go back and change something. Written words are not initially delivered in a spoken manner, they are written down for someone to read. Examples would include words in ministry newsletters, words circulated on email lists or posted to Internet bulletin boards, etc. The distinction between a spoken word and a written word is that the writer has a chance to go back over the word and make corrections or modifcations to it before anyone reads it. The prophet does not have to get the word perfect on the first pass; they can go back and prayerfully review it with the Lord. Then they can make changes to it to get it just the way God wanted it. There is a second important difference between spoken and written words, caused by the fact that we don't talk the same way we write. Have you noticed that powerful spoken messages often lose something when they are transcribed word-for-word? That is because some of the aspects of the spoken delivery style are lost when the word is written down--such as the volume and tone of the prohpet's voice, the pauses or intentional delays for effect, the response of the other hearers, etc. It is also because there are different criteria for what makes a good spoken message and what makes a good written one. Most effective communicators don't write the same way that they speak. Snytax and grammar rules become more important in writing. The emotional aspect of non-verbal cues is missing from the written format, which makes things like incomplete sentences and poor grammar become distracting. Sometimes when a spoken word is transcribed, it needs to be edited or it will lose some of its impact. Some people don't understand the difference between the

"message" and the words used to convey that message. They assume each word in the prophecy is sacred; they don't want to change or rearrange it. So they preserve the precise wording of the prophecy, but the message becomes obscured or clouded, and the word loses its power. Let me give you a very simple example. Verbally it is ok to say "To the battlefront (pause) take me," providing you pause in the right place. But when you write that down and the pauses are lost, it stops making sense and the reader has to expend effort to understand it. You can change the written words to make it clear and easy to understand. You can do that without changing the actual message, simply by fixing yoda-like sentence structure, or poor grammar or bad punctuation. Remember our above example. Spoken it made sense because of the pause. But literally transcribed, it becomes "To the battlefront take me." It would be much clearer to modify it to read, "Take me to the battlefront." Do you see the difference between the message and the words used to convey the message? The words are not the message, they are just a tool used to communicate the message. The message comes from God and it is sacred, but the words used to construct the message are not sacred, and they can be adapted to communicate the message more clearly. Our goal is to communicate God's message so that it is accurate and easily understood. We use words to do that. When we speak, we add gestures, tone of voice, facial expressions, etc. When we write, we add grammar, syntax and punctuation. The same message is communicated a bit differently when we speak it and when we write it. The medium (e.g., the way we are conveying the message) affects how the message is effectively delivered. So what happens when we change mediums (say to go from spoken to written by transcribing a word)? Do we want to preserve the precise wording of the mesage, or the precise meaning of the message? Many times it is not possible to do both, because we talk differently than we write. Since the message (the thing God wants to communicate) is more important than the words used to construct that message, we want to make sure that the message is communicated clearly. A literal transcription often loses clarity and power because we do speak different than we write. If the transcribed version is done word for word, it can become hard to understand. But if you rearrange the words slightly to preserve the meaning, the written form becomes clear and easy to understand. That way, the word keeps its power. The Target Audience

The target audience is simply the intended receiver; e.g., the person (or group of people) who the word is for. Is it for a specific person individual (a personal prophecy), is it for a small group with some common interest or experience (a corporate word), or is it for the Church at large (a global word)? The way that you deliver the message could change depending on who the message is going to. This is true in everyday life, and it is also true in the prophetic. We phrase things differently for different receivers. For instance, you would talk differently to a sixyear-old child than to a college professor, because they have differing levels of experience and abilty to understand. You would talk differently to a group of construction workers than you would to a group of babysitters, because they have different interests and different life-experiences. The same is true in the prophetic. The person that God intends the word for will have some influence over how you will compose that word. You want them to understand it and to relate to it, so you have to choose words and phrases that are specifically meaningful to the person the word is for. Our choice of words and vocabulary level will vary from audience to audience. The examples you use to illustrate the Lord's point should also change to fit the target audience. Newer and inexperienced prophets tend to draw examples from their personal experience instead of choosing examples that are meaningful to the person they are giving tht message to. It is always better to tailor the message for intended receiver. There will be times when God will send you to two rather different groups to give the same message. Since each group is different in the maturity and life-experience, the message may come out a bit differently for each of those groups. For intance the Lord may give you a message to trust in His timing, and to allow Him to tell you when something should be done instead of constantly sticking our noses into it to see if it is time for us to do something. Let's say that God sends you to prophesy that message to a group of young mothers and also to a group of construction workers. For the first group, you might use the example of baking a cake, and how you can ruin it if you keep opening the oven while it is cooking, because that might keep it from rising. Many of the mothers can relate to that because cooking is part of their day-to-day life and experience. But many of the construction workers would not relate to cooking, because most of them have never baked a cake. So you would need to use a different illustration for them. One that might fit is pouring concrete into a form. You don't keep taking the form off to see how dry the concrete is or it will lose its shape. You leave the form in place for a certain length of time to let the cement dry before you remove the form.

Did you know that words given to a specific individual are different than words given to a group? That is because individual communication uses a whole different set of dynamics than public speaking. We have to make the necessary adjustments in our delivery depending on who the target is. Even when we are speaking one-on-one, the way we talk to different people varies depending on their personality and on our relationship with them. You will be far more formal with a professional acquaintance than you would with a close friend. You will be a bit more reserved with someone who is reserved and more candid with someone who is very open. God gives us the message and then he allows us to package it for the ones He wants us to deliver it to. Fortunately we don't have to package it in a vacuum. God wants to be involved in the packaging process with us, if we will invite Him into it. We can pray and ask God to help us put it together in a manner that is most appropriate for the recipient. He knows their heart, so He knows when to be gentle, when to be forceful, when to be subtle, when to be blunt, etc. God knows what specific details are most meaningful for a given person, and He is willing to give us those details if we ask Him. God likes it when when we go back to Him and ask Him to help us do a good job of serving Him, e.g., He likes to be involved in the process. Let me share how I involve Him. I pray things like, "Lord, I know the message You gave me for this person/group. But would you help Me to share it in the way that will be most meaningful to them, in a way where they are most likely to receive it?" Remember, God gives us the message and we have to deliver it. The goal is to deliver it in a way that clearly communicates what God is saying. We have to understand the message and then we have to figure out how to package it so the person we are giving it to will understand it clearly. That clearness of communication is what makes us become effective messengers.

Lesson 3 Guidelines for Improving Our Delivery Skills

As we said in earlier lessons, prophecy has two components: 1) the message God wants to share and 2) how the message is shared, (e.g., the things we use to communicate God's message, such as the words we choose, our tone of voice (if spoken) or our grammar and composition (if written), etc.) Many times God gives us the message, but allows us to figure out how to package it (e.g., choose the words to convey His message). Since God lets us be involved in the process, one of our goals should be to get as good as we can at delivering it. That

means we want to share the message God has given us as clearly and accurately as possible, and we want to improve our delivery skills to do so. And that is what we are going to talk about in our remaining lessons. Types Of Words God gives words in three primary ways: spoken, written or demonstrated (prophetically acted out). Spoken words are words that are meant to be heard, where the intended recipient hears the message at the same time that the deliverer gives the message. Usually they are first given orally, e.g., someone speaks them aloud. A spoken word may later be written down (transcribed), but initially the Lord had someone speak the word to the intended receiver. This is the kind of word you may hear at church (or a Christian conference) during worship, or at a prophetic presbytery or call-out session. Written words are words that the Lord intends to be read, not heard. Written words may occasionally be read out loud to someone, but most of the time they are intended as something for people to read for themselves. One of the important things about written words is that there is a time delay between when the deliverer gives them and when the receiver gets them. That delay means that things don't have to come out perfectly on the first pass, the deliverer can go back over them and adjust them if they need tweaking. Most of what you read on the internet are written words. Demonstated words are words where the prophet does something (an action) rather than saying something or writing something. The action they do is symbolic of a message from God. Many times God will have them act it out first and then later on He will have them explain what those actions meant. We find an example of this in Ezekiel 4, where Ezekiel was instructed to build a clay model of Jerusalem and then lay siege against it, as well as to publicly lay on his left side for a 390 days to represent bearing Israel's iniquity, then lay on his right side for 40 days to represent bearing Judah's iniquity. Guidelines For Giving Efective Written Words It would be far too big of a project to work on all three different delivery types at the same time, because each type has its own set of guidelines. Some of the guidelines overlap for all the delivery styles, but many of them do not. That is why we are going to focus in on just one of the three. This teaching series will focus on becoming more effective when giving written words. We will look at the things we can do to make God's message come across more clearly, so it can be more easily understood and accepted.

I am going to share some guideliens that the Lord has given to me. God took me through a process to develop these guidelines. A lot of it came as I prayerfully reviewed thousands of words that various people submitted to the prophetic-word email list over the past seven years. God began making me aware of some common "mistakes" in those words, e.g., things that obscured the message and clouded what God was trying to communiate. Once I became aware of the mistakes, God began giving me some principles to avoid them. These princples (e.g., guidelines) are intended to help people learn to better communicate God's message in written form, so that the words are easy for people to understand and receive. I have seven guidelines that I would like to share. We will start looking at them in this lesson and will continue doing so over the following lessons. The guildelines are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Deliver one message per word, not multiple ones. Deliver God's message and not your own opinions. Know your target audience and address them accordingly. Use proper writing skills. Choose the appropriate level of detail for the message. Don't obscure the message with irrelevant information. Stick with the same speaker for the whole message.

Let's look at each one. 1. DELIVER ONE MESSAGE PER WORD, NOT MULTIPLE ONES God generally gives us a message to share, and tells us who it is for, then lets us choose how to package and deliver that message. At times, He may give us more than one written message and we decide to bundle them all together in a single word instead of creating multiple words. This usually isn't a problem in spoken words, because God knows the person will be hearing it at the same time we are speaking it, which is usually the at same time that God gives it to us. He knows it would be too hard for us to process things quickly on the fly and sort out what should be in which message. So He usually gives us one single self-contained message at a time. But written words are different, because there is usually a time delay built into them. E.g., God doesn't usually intend for them to be delivered at the same time that He gives them to us; He intends for us to write them down. That gives us time to prayerfully review them, modify them to communicate more clearly, etc. Then the written word is made public (by email, by internet bulletin board, or put in a

newsletter or magazine). The recepient will read the word later on at their leisure. Let me emphasize the last point, the words are not given to the intended recipient at the same time that God gives them to us. That means that we don't have to "get it perfect" on the first pass. We can prayerfully review it with the Lord and get it just the way He wants it. At times the Lord give us words on multiple subjects. It is easy for the prophet to make the mistake of throwing them all into a single word instead of dividing it into multiple words. When that happens, the word appears to wander all over the place, and it becomes hard to tell what the word is actually trying to say. This is bad because people may miss the point that God is trying to make. Let me give you an example from a real-life word, a word that was recently submitted to the prophetic-word list. The first paragraph talked about our destiny in Christ. The second paragraph talked about warfare and overcoming our past failures, which could be a logical progression from the first topic. But the third paragraph radically switched gears and talked about pleasing others. The next paragraph changed directions again to talk about evangelism and being God's light to the lost. Then the word switched gears one final time, inviting us to draw into a close and intimate relationship with God. When I finished reading that word, I had no idea of what its message was. Was it about destiny? Or was it about overcoming failure to walk in Christ's victory? Or was it about pleasing man verses pleasing God? Or was it about evangelism? Or was it about intimacy with God? Any one of those themes could make a very legitimate word on its own merit, but when they were all combined into a single word, the message got obscured. It became difficult to figure out what the meaning of that word was. Generally, any given prophetic word should stick to a single theme, it should have a main message. If we feel that God is giving us two completely different themes or messages, we should package them as two separate and distinct words. 2. DELIVER GOD'S MESSAGE AND NOT YOUR OWN OPINIONS. I don't think I need to develop this guideline a lot. We all know how important it is to give pure words; we never want to add our own message to His word. But the problem is that at times we can add our own message without being aware that we are doing so. Let me give you a real life example. I have an acquaintance who is a very legitimate and very gifted prophet. This man also happens to have a passion for evangelism. It is ok to have that type of passion, but unfortunately it reflected in every single word he gave. Every one of his words

had two themes, one of which was always evangelism. The part about evangelism was almost word-for-word identical in every one of his prophecies. Not that long ago, God instructed me to approach him and call that to his attention. I was a little nervous to do so, because I did not want to hurt his feelings or offend him. But God wanted him to be aware of it, and He gave me the job of pointing it out to him. To this man's credit, he was very open to what I shared and has very much of a heart and a desire to be a clear and accurate messenger for the Lord. He had been adding to the words he gave, and was not even aware that he was doing so. Now he is aware of that tendency, and just being aware of it is probably all that is necessary to fix the problem. Let's explore this a tad further. He added the topic of evangelism to every one of his words. Does God have a passion for evangelism? You bet He does! In fact, that is one of God's biggest passions. But does God want to talk about evangelism in every single prophetic word He gives through this man? Of course not! This prophet simply got into the habit of throwing in two paragraphs on evangelism into each word he gave. He was not consciously trying to add to God's word, it just "felt right" to do that because he was used to doing that. Those paragraphs probably came from God in the first place, probably in a word he gave some time ago. He really liked what they said, it sort of stuck with him. In other words, he passionately agreed with what God said that one time on evangelism. He liked it so much he started using it all the time, regardless of what God was talking about in the rest of the word. God might be giving him a message on intimacy with God, but somewhere in that word there would suddenly be two pragraphs about us being God's light to the lost and about God's passion and desire for the lost to come to Him. The reason that I shared this guideline is because it can be easy to add to God's word when we have a passion for something or have a strong opinion on something. We may need to take mental stock of our passions and opinions. Then we may need to prayerfully review the word we are writing and ask God to point out to us anything of ourselves that He is not saying that snuck into the word. We don't want to prophesy our opinion, we want to prophesy God's. We don't want to add to the message, we want to give a pure word from the Lord.

Lesson 4 Improve Our Delivery Skills By Knowing How To Address The Intended Receiver

This teaching series has seven guidelines to help improve our delivery skills for written words. This lesson looks at the third guideline: Know Your Target Audience And Address Them Accordingly Different people (or groups of people) are in different places in their walk with God, and God addresses them differently, depending on where they are. The same exact message can come out sounding different, depending on who you are addressing and where they are in their walk with God. There are two important things to consider in our walk with God: how close we are to Him and what direction we are moving. From those two things, we get seven basic categories that a person could be in: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Those who are far from God and who are moving away from Him. Those who are far from God and not moving. Those who are far from God but moving toward Him. Those who haven't heard about God (and need to be told). Those who are close to God but moving away from Him. Those who are close to God and not moving at all. Those close to God who are moving closer to Him.

It is hard to know where a person is in their walk with God by just looking at them at any given instant; we have to consider where they are going in their walk with God. Which person is in a better place with God: the believer or the blatant sinner? (Most people would say that the believer is in a better place with God than the blatant sinner.) But what if the believer is starting to backslide and the blatant sinner is starting to repent and move toward God? Now which one is in a better place with God? The direction a person is moving will affect how God wants to interact with them. In short, we don't just want to consider how close a person is to God or how far they are away from God; we also need to look at the direction that they are going. God wants to encourage those who are moving toward Him and the devil wants to discourage them from doing that. Conversely, God wants to discourage those who are moving away from Him and the devil wants to encourage them to keep doing so. With that in mind, let's look briefly at how God might want to address people in each of the seven groups. GROUP 1: THOSE WHO ARE FAR FROM GOD AND WHO ARE MOVING AWAY FROM HIM

These are people who have willfully rejected God and His ways, and who are moving even further away from Him. They could be unbelievers or they could be severely backslidden Christians. Some of the people in this group choose to worship false gods or they may practice occult practices to get "power" from demons. Others of this group could be those in blatant sin, those who reject God's standards of holiness for their own perverse standards. Or they might be self-seeking and self-serving (e.g., hedonistic). Or they might be materialistic (e.g., those who devote themselves to accquiring posessions) or those who devote themselves to acquiring power/prestige/status. God sees them as willful sinners who have intentionally rejected Him and His ways. He might start by warning them of the error of their ways and asking them to repent and turn back to Him. He may even give them wonderful promises of what He will do for them if they turn to Him. As they continue to reject Him and continue in their sin/depravity, He would give stronger warnings, rebukes, then progress to judgments and condemnations. GROUP 2: THOSE WHO ARE FAR FROM GOD AND NOT MOVING The big difference between group 1 and group 2 is that those in group 2 are not progressively getting worse. God's main objective for this group is to "wake them up" and get them moving toward Him. He will often start by trying to make them aware of the problem, of getting them to recognize their need so they will turn to Him for help. He may release words telling them of their need, or He may even bring difficult situatons into their lives to drive the point home. If the people in this group start moving toward Him, they move into group 3 and eventually into one of the "close to God" groups. If they stubbornly resist His message, then He may begin to treat the group 2 people like He treats the group 1 people. But His initial interactions with them will be to try to give them a wake-up call and get them moving toward Him again. GROUP 3. THOSE WHO ARE FAR FROM GOD BUT MOVING TOWARD HIM God's posture toward people in this group is mostly inviting. He will encourage them to keep moving toward Him. He will patiently teach them how to embrace His ways, how to stop sinning, how to make serious commitments to His Lordship. He will show a positive and loving side as they respond to Him, and He may begin to release encouraging promises. He will demonstrate that He is a practical help with their problems.

People in this group may still have very serious sin in some areas of their lives, but God's main focus will not be on condemning them for it. He may even seem to ignore that sin for a time as He deals with other issues in their lives to move them closer to Him. But don't worry, He will eventually (in His perfect timing) convict them of that sin and make them deal with it. God will encourage them to come to Him and to embrace His ways. He won't be condemning; He will be inviting. But at the same time, He will begin to incrementally teach them about His holiness and of what He expects of them. God will continue moving them toward Him and cleaning them up as they move. If the people stop moving toward Him or start moving the other direction, then God will give warnings or rebukes (gentle at first and increasing in severity as they persist in rebellion). But as they move in the right direction, He will do a lot more inviting and a lot less warning or rebuke. GROUP 4. THOSE WHO HAVEN'T HEARD ABOUT GOD (AND NEED TO BE TOLD) Obviously this group needs to hear the good news, and we need to present God to them and to invite them into a personal relationship with Him. We don't want to focus on their sin because they are not intentionally sinning; they simply don't know any better. We want to focus on lifting Jesus up and letting them know that God wants to help them, to heal them, to love them and to set them free from the oppression of the enemy. GROUP 5. THOSE WHO ARE CLOSE TO GOD BUT MOVING AWAY FROM HIM This is a group where God wants to discourage their present behavior and encourage them to turn back to Him. He will usually start with warm invitations, but He will get increasingly harsher and more direct as they resist Him and continue to move further from Him. This group could receive rebukes from the Lord as they continue to move away from Him. God particularly wants to discourage the movement in the wrong direction because they could easily cross from here into group 1. This group is the group that God is most likely to chastise or discipline in the hope that they can be restored to right relationship with Him. This is also the group that the devil most wants to entice, because he is getting those who are close to God to move away from Him. Members of this group will often look at circumstances, assuming that if things are going well for them then God is not upset with them. One of the devil's greatest strategies in this group is to try to make things go well for them as they

move away from God, but make things hard for them as they turn back to Him. God will gently often warn people in this group about the danger and consequences of moving away from Him, and of the enemy's deceits and lies, letting them know that true happiness and true contentment come from being in right relationship with God. GROUP 6. THOSE WHO ARE CLOSE TO GOD AND NOT MOVING AT ALL Members of this group are in a good place in that they are close to God and living to please Him. The majority of what God will have to say to them will be very loving and favorable. However, they are in danger of becoming stagnant. They have gotten comfortable and don't want to press in to keep on growing. God's words to them may contain little nudges designed to get them moving and growing again. He will generally be encouraging and inviting them to come deeper, to know Him better, etc. He may also give them nudges to step out in faith. The devil's strategy for members of this group is to side-track them. He doesn't usually resist or attack them directly, because he knows that will drive them to press in closer to God. So he looks to distract them from God, to get their attention focused on other things. This may be as simple as using relationships or entertainment to nudge into their prayer and devotion time. Or it may be more extravagant, such as getting them busy and loading them down so they don't have time to nuture their relationship with God. The enemy wants to make use of activity or business to drive a wedge in between them and God. He wants them to slowly start to grow farther and farther away from God. God may warn them of the enemy's strategy, but He will do this gently and lovingly-not harshly and not with threats or condemnation. GROUP 7. THOSE CLOSE TO GOD WHO ARE MOVING CLOSER TO HIM This is the group that God wants to cheer on and have them continue moving in the direction they are already going, because this is where He wants all of His children to be. This is also where the enemy is most likely to directly resist believers, because those passionately in love with God and sold out to obey Him are the greatest danger to the devil. So it is not uncommon for God to warn them of upcoming attacks or strategies of the enemy against them, and He will give them a strategy to foil the enemy's plans and gain a victory. These are the ones who God invites to deeper levels of intimacy, the ones He most encourages, where He makes promises of great reward. This is also where God will

often reveal more of Himself and more about heaven. These ones don't need chastisement because their heart is so set after Him that they will repent at the slightest hint of God's displeasure or disapproval. God does not have to rebuke them for disobedience because they are quick to obey. Address Your Group Accordingly The biggest mistake I have seen is people taking a harsh and condemning tone when addressing those whose hearts are already tender and submissive to God. God is not going to be condemning His dedicated and obedient children because they missed an area that they did not know about. Instead He will inform them gently about that area, giving them strategy and direction. Then He will encourage them to step out in obedience and move on to great victory as they do what He tells them to do. The second biggest mistake I have seen is to be alienating and hostile to those who don't know about God, instead of sharing the good news with them. That type of approach alienates people against God and makes them resistant to the gospel. God usually does not tell the unsaved about their sin before He tells them about His love and grace and mercy. He wants to show Himself as the solution to their problems. If they turn to Him and begin to approach Him, He will teach them about holiness and His terms at precisely the right time in their development. If they turn away from Him and reject Him, that is when He will begin to release the rebukes, judgment and condemnation. You have to know who God is sending you to and you have to know what message He is sending you with. You have to phrase the message in the appropriate context for your target group. Let me see if I can give you a quick example by giving essentially the same invitation to people in three of the above groups. Look at how the message changes a bit based on where the people are in their walk with God and what direction they are moving: TO GROUP 7: God is pleased with how you are pressing into Him, and He wants you to keep on keeping on. The more you press into Him, the more He is going to reveal Himself to you. He is pleased with the way you are walking close to Him, of how you are not allowing distractions to come between you and Him. The Lord would say, "Keep on keeping on, you are doing well and I am pleased." TO GROUP 5:

The Lord wants you to remember where you came from, that place of closeness and intimacy with Him. Remember how you were constantly pressing into Him, and how He kept meeting you and revealing more and more of Himself to you. The Lord wants to invite you back to that place. He wants to draw you close again, to show you more of Himself, to bring you back into that place of His presence. He wants to fill you once again with His peace and His joy and He wants you to experience the sweetness of His presence again. But in order for Him to take you there again, He needs you to give Him more of your time. You must to make Him a bigger priority in your life and you must begin spending more time with Him. Are you willing? TO GROUP 3: The Lord wants to invite you into a new place. He wants to meet your needs and provide for you, to heal your hurts and solve your problems. He wants to show you just how real and how powerful He is, how good and how loving He is, and how well He treats you when you are His own. He wants to let you experience the life and joy and peace and contentment that He alone can give. He wants to give that to you if only you will come to Him. The Lord knows where you are at, and He will meet you there. He is not requiring you to change before you come to Him. But He wants to lead you out of that place and bring you to where you know you need to be. He is stretching out His hand to you right now. If you take it, He will begin to lead you down His path and He will begin to pour out His blessings on you. Are you willing? His hand is outstretched toward you. Will you take it?

Lesson 5 Improving Our Delivery Skills By Using Proper Writing Techniques

We have been discussing some guidelines to improve our prophetic delivery skills, to help us get better at sharing God's word when He gives it to us in written form. We want to become the best possible vessels we can be for God to flow through, and that is why we try to improve our delivery skills. We don't want our inadequacies to get in the way of the word that God is trying to give through us. We want to learn to better flow with Him, so He can put more of Himself and more of His power and more of His anointing into the word. This teaching series is focusing on written words, (e.g, words that God intends to have the receiver read), such as words in a ministry newsletter, or magazine, or words sent to an email list or posted on an Internet bulletin board, etc. We have been looking at seven guidelines to help us become more skilled at writing down the words that the Lord gives us to share. Those seven guidelines are:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Deliver one message per word, not multiple ones. Deliver God's message and not your own opinions. Know your target audience and address them accordingly. Use proper writing skills. Choose the appropriate level of detail for the message. Don't obscure the message with irrelevant information. Stick with the same speaker for the whole message.

We already discussed the first three in previous lessons and now we will talk about guideline number 4, proper writing skills... 4. USE PROPER WRITING SKILLS One of the most important things is to write at your level. Remember, you are the vessel that God chose for this message, and that makes you a part of the packaging that God intended for this message. If you write at the 8th grade level, then don't try to write your words at a 2nd grade level (unless, of course, it is a word to secondgraders). Likewise, don't try to write it at college level. Give the words at the level that is approprate to who you are and how you write. One of the mistakes I see is when people who are very plain and clear communicators suddenly start giving their words in King James English, with a bunch of "thee"s, "thou"s and "-eth"s in them. The problem is that we don't speak King James English today, so that doesn't really communicate clearly. The reason God gives a word is for it to be understood, so He is going to give it in a way that is understandable. If He wanted to make the word difficult to understand, then He could always choose to give it in a foreign language. But He doesn't do that (except occasional messages in tongues, but then He also provides the interpretation). God usually gives words in our native language and He speaks clearly. Speaking in King James English makes it much harder for people to understand--and we should avoid intentionally making a word harder to understand. There is one exception to the "avoid King James English" guideline, and that is when God sends us to people who think in King James English. There are small pockets of believers, whole congregations, who feel strongly that King James Version (KJV) is the only valid translation of the Bible. They don't read any other translation, and over time they even start to think in King James English; they are used to it and they are able to understand it. Since God likes to reach out and meet people where they are, He will often ask us to use King James English when addressing this select group of people.

When we are sharing God's word in written form, we must use reasonable grammar, syntax, punctuation, complete sentence structure and other things that go with good writing skills. God is not illiterate, and He does not want a literate person to suddenly become illiterate when they give a word. That reflects poorly on Him, and it is also a big distraction to the people reading the word. These things (bad grammar, bad punctuation, spelling mistakes, etc) all serve to distract the person reading the word and they can make it hard to understand the message that God is asking you to share. Another big distraction is improper capitalization; e.g., capitalizing words or letters that should not be capitalized. The big area of debate in this is personal pronouns for God. Those are words like "Me, My, Mine" (first person) or (He, His) second person. Personally, I prefer to honor God by capitalizing all personal pronouns for Him, even thought that is not technically correct. Others feel that written words should always follow proper grammar and syntax rules, and therefore personal pronouns for God should be lower case. Either style is fine, but please do not mix them within the same message. It is never ok to sometimes capitalize personal pronouns for God and other times not capitalize them. We should not use capital letters to emphasize certain words in a sentence. Let me give you an example: I am coming in my Power and Authority to do My Works among You. In the above example, some words were capitalized for emphasis. It is ok to do that on the rare occasion, such as with a single word in maybe one out of every ten or twelve prophecies, when God really wants to make a point. But we should not make it part of our regular style, because it obscures communication and makes the word harder to read. I frequently see words submitted to the prophetic-word list that do this in every single sentence, making them hard to read. The correct way to write the (above) example is either: I am coming in My power and authority to do My works among you. or I am coming in my power and authority to do my works among you. If you want to emphasize something, try to find a way to do it that does not violate good grammar. You can use repetition or you can rephrase the sentence for emphasis. For instance, you could write the above sentence as: "I am coming in My power and authority--in My unlimited power and glorious authority--to do mighty works in your midst."

ALSO, YOU SHOULD AVOID USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS AND NO LOWER CASE LETTERS IN EACH WORD, AS I AM DOING HERE IN THIS PARAGRAPH TO GIVE YOU AN EXaMPLE. IT IS VERY HARD FOR MOST PEOPLE TO READ THINGS WRITTEN IN ALL CAPITALS, BECAUSE THE BRAIN HAS TO WORK HARDER TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS READING. WE HAVE BEEN TRAINED THAT THE ONLY TIME ALL CAPITALS ARE USED IS EITHER FOR PARAGRAPH HEADINGS OR FOR EMPHASIS. THE READER'S BRAIN BEGINS TO TO "TILT" WHEN THEY READ SOMETHING FOR AWHILE THAT IS IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS BUT IS NEITHER A POINT OF EMPHASIS NOR A PARAGRAPH HEADING. IN FACT, I BET SOME OF YOU ARE GETTTING TIRED JUST READING THIS EXAMPLE PARAGRAPH BECAUSE IT IS WRITTEN IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. I THINK I HAVE MADE THE POINT NOW AND I WILL SWITCH BACK TO THE PROPER CASE FOR THE REST OF THIS LESSON.... There is one more important thing I would like to say about proper writing skills. That is what I call Yoda-like sentence structure. Yoda was a character from George Lucas' Star Wars, and he intentionally and always talked funny. It was part of the charm of the furry Jedi master. But we should not imitate him when we are speaking for the Lord. Different languages use different sentence structures and different grammatical rules. You need to write your word in what is proper for the language in which you are giving the word. Have you ever seen what happens when you literally translate something into another language without adjusting the grammar accordingly? Some "instructions" from Japanese manufacturers work that way, coming across Yoda-like. Let me give you a short example: The wrapper of plastic, it is not conducive for breathing proper. From small children it should be kept, or resulting in death it can inflict. Once removed and discarded, to the task you can address yourself to. Take you the components as per Illustration A, and in the proper order assembled they must be. That order change not, or results not pleasing will be. Those product instructons can be really humorous to read if you don't actually need the instructions, but they are frustrating when you need them and have trouble understanding them because of the bad sentence structure. When God gives us a word, we really need the information it contains, or He would not have bothered to give it. We don't want to frustrate the people and make the message unclear by using poor sentence structure. I recommend after you have written the word, you go back over it and clean up any bad sentence structure. In fact, you

probably want to prayerfully review the word to fix any/all errors or unclarities, because you want the final product to be is well written and easy to understand.

Lesson 6 Other Ways To Improve Our Delivery Skills

We have been looking at seven guidelines to help us be more effective in delivering written words. Those guidelines are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Deliver one message per word, not multiple ones. Deliver God's message and not your own opinions. Know your target audience and address them accordingly. Use proper writing skills. Choose the appropriate level of detail for the message. Don't obscure the message with irrelevant information. Stick with the same speaker for the whole message.

We have already discussed the first four and will now talk about the next two. 5. CHOOSE THE APPROPRIATE LEVEL OF DETAIL FOR THE MESSAGE People tend to get over-specific or underspecific in detail on their words. Let me give a few real-life examples. The Lord used some things at a womens' conference to speak a message to someone. The message was not just for ladies, it was for any/all intercessors. The significant gist of the message was that this was a largly attended conference (9,000) and ten percent of the attendees (e.g., 900 people) all attended a breakout session on intercession because they were intercessors. The Lord asked this one intercessor to look around the room at all the intercessors there; then He told her that even though she felt like she was alone when she prayed in her prayer closet, she was not the only one praying. It was a powerful object lesson and well worth sharing in a prophetic word. However, the lady to whom God gave this to threw in more detail than was relevant when she wrote it down. She shared when and where the conference was held, the fact that she flew to it, and the fact that it was a womens' conference. Most of those details are not appropriate to the message; in fact, those details obscured the message rather than enhanced it. If the message had been targeting just women, then it would have been appropriate to mention it was a womens' conference. But since she was targeting intercessors of both sexes, it is not appropriate to share that this conference was just for women; it was enough to simply refer to it as a conference, then omit all the

details about the conference except for the number attending and how many of them were intercessors. Here is another example: "Recently, I was returning from a wonderful conference in CT. On the flight home a child sitting two or three seats in front of me was really upset and crying. I felt I was to press in and pray for him. He cried out in a loud voice, 'I want my blankey!' When he said this I heard: ... " Then she went on to share a word about how God wants to be our security blanket in the times when we feel frightened or unsettled. What is the thrust of this message? It was that God will be our security blanket when we feel insecure or unsettled. Let's look at the details she included and see which ones are relevant. Is it relevant that she was flying? Yes, because that sets the theme for seeing the child in front of her who was frightened by the flight and wanted his 'blankey.' Was it relevant where she was flying home from? No. Was it relevant that she had been at a conference? No. Was it relevant that she thought the conference was wonderful? No. Was it relevant that she was praying and interceding for that child? Maybe, but probably not. Her word included a lot of details that had nothing to do with the message. The delivery of that word could have been improved by sharing only the relevant details and excluding the irrevelant ones. Here is an example of how it could have been given: "Recently I was flying and there was a child sitting two or three seats in front of me who, frightened by the flight, was upset and crying. He cried in a loud voice, 'I want my blankey!' As I heard this, the Lord began to speak to me..." The general principle is that we want to exclude details that don't apply to the target audience because that starts to lose them. In the first example, the audience was a mixed group of intercessors (both men and women), so we don't want to focus in on the fact that it was a womens' conference and make the men feel excluded. In the second example, the theme was about God meeting us when we are feeling insecure or afraid. The fact that she was returning from a wonderful conference in CT was not relevant to feeling insecure or afraid; those details were simply clutter. We want to eliminate clutter and we want to avoid details that tend to exclude some portion of the intended recipients. On the other hand, we want to include as many details as possible that apply specifically to the receiver. One of the big problems I see with personal prophecy is what I call "overgeneralizing the word," or intentionally leaving important details out. If we have details that are specific to a person and we don't share them, they may not realize that God is specially targeting them in the word. They may think it is a "catch all" word for everyone, and not realize that the message is specifically for them.

For instance, God may tell you that someone has been deeply hurt because someone they trusted has stolen from them and taken advantage of them, and that He is actively working in their situation to restore what was stolen. That is a very specific detail and it is relevant to that person. If you generalize it to "The Lord knows you have been through a difficulty and He is going to meet you in it," you lose the power and impact of that word. You have taken something that needed to be very specific and made it so general that it could apply to anyone. But in this case it was not for just anyone, it was for a specific individual who went through a very specific hardship. It detracts from the power of the word when you over generalize it. 6. DON'T OBSCURE THE MESSAGE WITH IRRELEVANT INFORMATION Sometimes we can get so caught up in irrelevant things that we miss the main point. We want to put an emphasis on the message itself, and we don't want to spend a lot of time and energy on things that are not part of that message, because that simply detracts from the message. I am sure you have seen the comedy shows where someone who is a bit of a scatterbrain is asked to describe what happened. They start to tell the story, but something in it reminds them of something they experienced years ago, so they switch gears and start telling their own story instead, throwing in all sorts of irrelevant details and keeping people from learning what they are waiting to hear about. Eventually someone gets mad at them and tells them to get back to the point. So they tell a few more sentences about the story of interest and then digress once again into their personal recollections. It seems that every sit-com has a character who does that sort of thing and it gets the other characters really frustrated when they do it. Sadly, some of us do the same thing in our prophetic words. We start to tell God's message and then digress into something that is of personal interest to us. In short, we ramble in our words, and we need to avoid doing that. Let me share an example from a prophetic dream someone had. In that dream, the Lord took her to a quiet garden and told her to wait there for Him and He would come and meet her in a little while. At first she was excited at the prospect of an intimate encounter with God. But she had to wait a lot longer than she expected, and after awhile she began to get bored. She thought about the things she needed to do, and almost left to go do them. But she was hungry to be in deep intimacy with the Lord, so she decided to wait. She amused herself by looking at the various flowers in the garden. The flowers had no specific significance, they were just the plants in the place where Jesus told her to wait. Finally after a long wait, the Lord came to meet her. The sense of His presence was so strong that it overwhelmed her and she had an encounter with God that impacted her deeply. Then the Lord gave her a message to share with

the body of Christ: don't grow impatient if God does not come on your time-table. Instead continue to seek Him and press into Him and He will come and reveal more of Himself to you. Unfortunately, when she wrote up the prophetic dream, she spent about 90% of it describing the various plants in the garden in great detail. She described the size of the blossoms, the colors, the texture, the fragrance, etc. Most of her write-up was dedicated to talking about the plants she saw in the garden as she waited for Jesus. However, the plants had no significance in the dream, they were merely filler in the garden. So putting all of that attention and detail about the plants in the write-up merely served to clutter things, making it harder to find, see and i understand message ("Wait for the Lord and He will come and reveal Himself to you.") Be sure that the things you put in the write-up are the significant things. Don't spend a lot of time and effort describing irrelevant things; stick with the ones that are pertinent to the message.

Lesson 7 Understand Who The Message Is From And Deliver It Accordingly

We have been looking at seven guidelines to help us be more effective in delivering written words. Those guidelines are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Deliver one message per word, not multiple ones. Deliver God's message and not your own opinions. Know your target audience and address them accordingly. Use proper writing skills. Choose the appropriate level of detail for the message. Don't obscure the message with irrelevant information. Stick with the same speaker for the whole message.

We have already discussed the first six and will now talk about the last one, which is: stick with the same speaker for the whole message. First-Person Verses Third-Person Verses Experiential Reporting In regular speaking, first person is when you speak directly for yourself and third person is when someone else speaks for you. Experiential reporting is when someone reports an experience they shared with you, including some of what you said in it.

First person uses personal pronouns like "I," "me," "my," "mine." Third person uses pronouns like "he," "she," "his," "hers." Experiential reporting has elements of both in it, because the personal experiences are shared from the other person's point of view and what you say is reported third person. How does that apply to the prophetic? It applies, because we will either report God's message first-person, third-person or experientially. First person is when God speaks directly through you as though He was speaking and you were not there. Third person is when you report to others what God is saying. Experiential reporting is when you have an encounter with God, and He gives you a message during that encounter. Then you share both your own experience with God and the message that He gave to you during it. Let me give you examples of all three from Scripture: First Person: Isaiah 65:1 "I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. To a nation that did not call on My name, I said, 'Here am I, here am I'" (NIV). Isaiah 61:7-8 "Instead of their shame My people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs. For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In My faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them" (NIV). Third Person: Isaiah 63:9-10 In all their distress He too was distressed, and the angel of His presence saved them. In His love and mercy He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Yet they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their enemy and He Himself fought against them (NIV). Hosea 4:1 Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land (NIV). Experiential Reporting: Hosea 1:2-7 (third person experiential) When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, "Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the

Lord." So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. Then the Lord said to Hosea, "Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. In that day I will break Israel's bow in the Valley of Jezreel." Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, "Call her LoRuhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them. Yet I will show love to the house of Judah; and I will save them--not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the Lord their God." The book of Revelation is another experiential prophecy, as John shares a vision. He includes his own experiences and things that God says in the vision. The book of Revelation is first person experiential reporting, because John tells his experience directly, using words like "I," "me," etc. as he shares his experiences. He has many of his own experiences, such as seeing the glorified Jesus and falling on his face before him as if he were dead (Chapter 1), seeing God's throne and holy creatures worshipping God there (chapter 4), being asked to eat the scroll (chapter 10), etc. John also had many times when he reported what God was saying, such as the letters to the seven churches in chapters 2 and 3, the angels' declaration in chapter 12, the Lord's statement in Rev 16:15 "Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed." The key is to understand which style you have chosen (first-person, third-person or experiential reporting) and stick to that style for the whole word. Do not switch back and forth bewteen speaking styles, because it confuses the word and makes it harder to understand. If you are sharing a word in third person and you need to include a few sentences that are word-for-word from God, be sure to clearly quote that section. Here is a portion of a word that excessively mixes speakers. (This is an example of what NOT to do): The Lord wants you to know that He has seen your pain and suffering and I have great compassion for you as you walk through it. I have not abandoned you in this difficult situation. But He is asking you to hold on just a little while longer and persevere. God is going to turn that situation around in the not too distant future and bring My glory into it and work in that situation for your good. Then the closed door will open to you and all that has been held back will be released to you. So be strong just a little longer and look to Me, your Lord, for He shall be your deliverer. He shall give you the victory over this difficult situation and I will cause your joy to be full. Whew! What a mess. Here is that same word given all in third person:

The Lord wants you to know that He has seen your pain and suffering and He has great compassion for you as you walk through it. He has not abandoned you in this difficult situation, but He is asking you to stand firm just a little while longer, to hold on and persevere. God is going to turn that situation around in the near future and bring His glory into it, and He is already at work in that situation for your good. He is going to open that door which has been closed to you and He will restore all that has been held back from you. So be strong just a little longer and look to the Lord, for He is your deliverer. He will give you victory over this difficult situation and he will cause your joy to be full. Here is that same word in first person: Child, I have seen your pain and suffering in this situation and My heart is full of compassion for you as you walk through it. Know that I have not abandoned you in the midst of your difficulty. I am asking you to stand firm just a little while longer, hold on and persevere. Very soon I am going to turn this situation around for My glory; I am already at work in this for your good. Soon I will open that door which has been closed to you, and I will restore to you all that has been held back from you. So be strong just a little longer and look to Me, for I am your deliverer. I will give you victory over this difficult situation and I will cause your joy to be full. Do you see how unclear and confusing the first example (mixed-person) was? Mixing first and third person in the same word is something we should work hard to avoid. There will be times when God tells you that He wants a word given a certain way. There will be times when He wants you to give it either first or third person. If God gives that direction to you, then you need to do what He says. He knows the person the word is for; He knows how they need to hear it in order to be able to receive it. So when He gives you specific delivery instructions, be sure to follow them. But much of the time, God leaves it up to you. How do you decide which one to use in that case? There are two factors for you to consider. One is your own comfort level in giving first-person words. Some people, especially those newer to the prophetic, are very uncomfortable speaking directly from God and are much more comfortable reporting what He has to say in a third-person style. The other factor is the impact the style has on the receiver. Most people find the first-person style more powerful because it is more personal, it feels more like God is speaking directly to them. You have to weigh those two factors and decide which way to present the word. Know Which Member Of The Trinity Is Speaking

A common mistake I see is for a word to start as though God the Father is speaking, and then suddenly mid-stream switch gears and be Jesus speaking, or vice versa. God does not have an identity crisis; He knows who He is. So when we see that happen in a word, it is an indication of a delivery mistake, e.g., a mistake that the person giving the word has made. The beauty of written words is that after we have written it down, there is time to prayerfully review it with the Lord. We can use that time to identify and fix this type of mistake before the word is sent out to the intended receiver. So look at Who is speaking in the written word. If you find the word mixing things from the Father and the Son, go back and ask God which one He wants to be the main Speaker in the word. Then adjust the word accordngly. Some words are given in a way that does not identify which member of the Trinity is speaking. They are simply from "The Lord your God," and that is fine. The problem comes when God does identify Himself in a portion of the word, but another portion of that same word appears to be from a different Member of the Trinity. Those problems can be easily caught and fixed by simply reviewing the word and before you release it to the intended receiver. Let me show you a few examples of this and how it is corrected. Example 1: (Word from the Father that mentions Jesus dying for our sins) I am your Father God, and I love you dearly. That is why I suffered great pain for your sake and died on the cross that you might have life. So turn to Me, your loving Father, and allow Me to draw you into new depths of intimacy. The fix for this word would be: I am your Father God, and I love you dearly. That is why I allowed My dear Son to suffer great pain for your sake and die on the cross-- that you might have life. So turn to Me, your loving Father, and allow Me to draw you into new depths of intimacy. Example 2: (Word from Jesus that mentions how God the Father loves us) I am your Lord and your Redeemer, and I must also be your Master. You are to obey Me without question just like I obeyed My Father when I walked on this earth. You are to dedicate yourself to doing My will, and you are to draw close to Me, your loving Father God, for I love you as dearly as My Son Jesus does. The fix for this word would be:

I am your Lord and your Redeemer, and I must also be your Master. You are to obey Me without question just like I obeyed My Father when I walked on this earth. You are to dedicate yourself to doing My will, and you are to draw close to My Father, for He loves you as dearly as I do.

Lesson 8 Review and Closing Remarks

This teaching series may be a bit on the advanced side, because it looks at specific ways to improve your delivery skill. It assumes that you already know how to hear God's voice clearly and that you already know how to get a message from God. The prophetic beginner typically struggles with issues like: "I think I am hearing something, but how can I be sure that was God?" or "God is stirring my heart so I know He wants me to share something, but I don't know precisely what He wants to say." Or they may get a very general message like "God loves you," and be struggling to hear at least one specific detail to personalize it for the one whom the message is for. When a person is at that beginning level, their big goal should be to step out in faith and let God speak through them. They should not have to worry about how to refine and fine-tune that message. They should not be concerned about how to make it clearer and more powerful; they are just trying to get up the nerve to share the message that they think God has given them to share. At first it is enough just to deliver the word, and the stepping out in faith to share will please God immensely, no matter how clumsy those first initial steps are. But as a person grows in their prophetic gifting, it becomes important for them to start refining their delivery skills as well. Why? It is because God often gives us a message to share, but He asks us to play a role in it by deciding how to package and deliver His message. Sometimes He gives us detailed packaging or delivery instructions, but at other times He leaves those details up to us. Let me define what I mean by packaging and delivery. Those things are not the message itself, but they are necessary to get the message to the intended receiver. Think about ordering a book from Amazon.com or from some catalog or mail-order bookstore. When you buy the book, it has to be packed (put in a box and addressed to you) so that it gets to you in good condition. Then it has to go through some sort of delivery service to get from the Amazon.com warehouse to your house, such as through the postal service. The postman or courier delivers it to you. They are not a part of the book you ordered, but you could not get the book without their service. The

box the book came in and the address label are not a part of the book either, but they were also necessary to get the book to you. In this illustration, the book is the "word" and the box and label are the packaging and the postal carrier is the delivery. It is somewhat similiar with the prophetic. The message is what God wants to say to a person (or to a group of people). Delivery is the things like how the word is communicated (written, spoken, acted out), and which Member of the Trinity addressed this message to the receiver (Triune God, the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit). Packaging is things like whether it is given in first person (God speaking directly) or third person (you reporting what God is saying). The actual words and phrases used in the prophecy are often part of the packaging. Sometimes we give examples to clarify a part of the message, and that can also be part of the packaging. When God uses you to give a prophetic word, He will often give you the message, then allow you to choose the words and phrases to best communicate that message. He is trusting you to select ones that accurately reflect the message God wants you to give. That is why it is important to develop our skills as messengers, so we can do a good job with the message that God entrusts to us. If we look at different prophets in the Bible, we notice that they had different styles of prophecy. Each of them did a good job delivering God's message, but we see something of the personality of the prophet reflecting in their words. John the Baptist was direct and confrontational. Moses was methodical and systematic. Jeremiah was passonate and a weeper. Isaiah was a poet. God was fine with this. In fact, He intentionally used the prophet's style as a part of His message. Since God did that in the Bible, we can expect Him to do it with prophecy today. In short, God expects His message to be delivered faithfully and accurately, but He allows some portion of the prophet's own style and personality to become a part of that message. Have you ever wondered why God does it that way? It is because He likes to involve His children in what He is doing. He lets us work with Him; He gives us a real piece to do with Him. Of course, He wants it done His way and in His power and anointing, but He lets us do it with Him; He lets us play an active part. I.e., the prophetic is not just God speaking; it is God speaking through us. And because of that, we become a part of the process and a small piece of His message. That is why we want to do our best to grow in our gifting, to become more skilled at packaging and delivering His message. We want to accurately reflect what God wants said.

This teaching series looks at written words and shares seven guidelines we can use to improve (or fine-tune) our prophetic packaging and delivery skills. Let's briefly review each one. 1. DELIVER ONE MESSAGE PER WORD, NOT MULTIPLE ONES There should be one main message that the word is trying to communicate, not several. Each prophecy should have a single theme (main topic) and it should stick to that theme. It may have some subpoints to build and develop the main point, but they should all be directly related to the topic of the word. If you have two completely different subjects/topics in a given word, you probably need to divide that word into two separate words, one for each topic. 2. DELIVER GOD'S MESSAGE AND NOT YOUR OWN OPINIONS We need to be aware of our own passions and strong opinons. Any time we see them appear in a word, we should prayerfully review that with the Lord to assure that it is really Him speaking and not our own passion or opinion. I shared about a prophet who had a strong passion for evangelism. Over time, his words began to reflect that passion until every single one of his words, regardless of the subject, always contained two almost identically worded paragraphs on evangelism. He did not mean to do this, but he had begun throwing his passion for evangelism into every word, adding it to whatever message God was giving. We need to be careful that we give the Lord's words and not our own. We have to watch for themes or messages that run through many/all of our words. If we find a theme that repeats a lot, it might be us and not God. We need to pray and ask God if He is really saying that or if we are adding it from our own strong opinions or passions. 3. KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE AND ADDRESS THEM ACCORDINGLY There are two important criteria that God uses in deciding how He is going to address a person. One is how closely they are lining up with His will and the other is what direction they are moving. In general, God wants to encourage those in the center of His will, and the devil wants to harrass them. Also, God wants to encourage those who are moving towards Him, to wake up those who are stagnant (not moving), and to discourage those who are moving in the wrong direction so they will change directions and start to move toward Him again.

God is not going to use strong rebukes to those whose hearts are close to Him and whose hearts are passionately commited to obey Him. He would encourage them to continue in the direction they are moving, and He would say positive things to them. Likewise, He would not want to encourage someone who is backsliding and let them think it is ok to keep on doing so. Instead, He would invite them back into intimacy with Him. God is going to be gentle and loving with those who are close to Him and moving closer, but He is going to be sterner and more rebuking with those who are in active rebellion and continue to disregard His wishes. 4. USE PROPER WRITING SKILLS God is not illiterate, so do not misrepresent Him as such by intentionally using bad writing skills. If you normally write at an 8th grade level, then your written words should also be at an 8th grade level. Some people have the mistaken idea that when they prophesy, they have to write in a different way than they would normally write. Some drop into King James English, which is very hard to understand. Some begin using Yoda-like sentence construction, which may sound mystical but doesn't communicate well. (That is where they don't use the proper order in a sentence, such as saying, "To the store take me" instead of saying, "Take me to the store.") We should avoid bad grammar, spelling errors, wrong punctuation, run-on sentences and mis-capitalization in our written words. In short, we need to use proper writing skills when we give a written word. 5. CHOOSE THE APPROPRIATE LEVEL OF DETAIL FOR THE MESSAGE People err on both sides of this. Some over-specifize, giving details that are inappropriate to the person/group the word is for. For instance, if you are writing to a mixed sex group, such as all members of a given church, you want to avoid terms that would tend to exclude some of them. I see this all the time in words submitted to the prophetic-word list which targets the body of Christ at large. They will say "son" or "daughter" in the word to refer to one of God's own. If you say "Son," that excludes the women, and if you say "daughter," that excludes the men. You have to select a term of endearment that fits both sexes, such as "Child of Mine," or "Dear one" or "Redeemed one," etc. The other side of the error is when God gives you specific details tailored to the target audience and you choose to leave them out so that the word will be more general. For instance, if the word is talking to intercessors, God may give details like "you seek Me on bended knee, and you are at My beck and call at inopportune times to stand in the gap, to raise the standard and to call upon My mercy on the behalf of the lost." Those are specific details, and they would fit the group that God is targeting with the word.

Those details would be inappropriate to groups whom God is not targeting, such as the teachers or the worshippers or the Christian businessmen. But that is ok, because the word is not to them, it is specifically to the intercessors. It would be a mistake to overgeneralize and eliminate the details God gave about "bended knee," "standing in the gap," "call upon My mercy on behalf of..." to fit all believers. Why? Because this message is not targeting all believers; it is to a specific group who happen to be intercessors and who happen to do these things. (On the other hand, if you were giving a word to the body of Christ at large, then you might want to adjust it to something more generic, such as "You faithfully seek Me and you are available to serve me no matter what I command you to do.") 6. DON'T OBSCURE THE MESSAGE WITH IRRELEVANT INFORMATION Sometimes God will talk about a subject about which we have some natural knowledge, and we may be tempted to throw in our natural knowledge, which can clutter the subject and make it hard to find the main point. For example, one man worked at a hardware store. The Lord gave him a word about nailing our sins to the cross and not letting them have ownership of the people any more. This man knew something about nails, and he wanted to pass that information along in the word. He talked about different kinds of nails. There are the stainless steel ones, the galvanized ones, ones with a large head, ones with a narrow head, etc. Unfortunately, all of that infomation about nails was totally irrelevant. Describing different types of nails had nothing to do with the concept of "nailing our sins to the cross." A similar thing happens when describing visions or prophetic dreams. Certain elements are in the vision because they have a meaning to the vision, and other things are in there as filler, to complete the picture. If the vision is about a tree planted by the river of living water, God may include other (insignificant) things in the picture, such as grass or rocks, trees, a sky and maybe a few clouds in the sky. If the clouds are not relevant to the image and related message, then you probably don't want to mention those clouds and you definitely don't want to spend a lot of time describing them. 7. STICK WITH THE SAME SPEAKER FOR THE WHOLE MESSAGE Some words are God the Father speaking to His children, while others are Jesus speaking to His bride. Some words are God speaking in such a way that you don't know/care which Member of the Trinity is speaking (and I refer to those as words from Triune God). If one Member of the Godhead is identifed as the Speaker in the word, then the whole word must come from that perspective. You don't want part of the word to be from God the Father and another part of that same word to be from

Jesus. If God identifies Himself as one Member of the Godhead in the word, then that Member of the Godhead needs to speak for the entirety of that word. You want to avoid words that switch speakers, such as, "I am your loving Father God who laid down My life for you on the cross." Be consistent in terms of Who you are speaking for in any given word. Closing Note This teaching series has been very down-to-earth and pragmatic. I know it has been a stretch for some of you who have had it grilled into you that the spoken word of God (prophecy) is just as sacred and infallible as God's written word (the Bible). The truth is that the Bible is infallible, but modern-day prophecy is given through fallible people, and therefore it can contain errors. As God's spokespersons, we do our best to try to eliminate as many errors as possible. That is why we practice drawing near to God and learning to listen and hear His voice more clearly. That is why we spend a lot of time in His word and get to know His nature and His heart. And that is why we do our best to take an honest look at our own delivery and packaging skills, then to do what we can to improve those skills. We try to eliminate errors from our delivery so that we don't get in the way of the message that God has given us to share. We want to give God our best and we want to "study to show ourselves approved." And that is what we have been doing in this course, learning as much as we can about how to speak clearly and accurately for the Lord as we share His word with others. I hope this series has been helpful for you...