Matthew Helland reaches out to prostitutes in the Red Light District of Amsterdam using prophetic evangelism. On this episode of The Evangelism Podcast you will learn how to activate the gift of prophecy in your life as an evangelist.
Website: http://www.prophesyandheal.com
Transcript:
Matthew Helland (00:03):
Hello. My name is Matthew Helen, and together with my wife, we are pastors to the men and women who work in Amsterdam, red light district sex industry. Well my wife and I, we planted our church in Amsterdam. And last year we handed that over to our associate pastors. And now we’re focusing primarily on, on working with people who work in the red light district there in Amsterdam, primarily Spanish speaking, men and women who are there in that industry. And aside from that, I do a lot of training. I do a lot of training and I do a lot of traveling training churches and individuals, how to grow in prophetic ministry, how to grow in words of knowledge, how to grow in, in healing and what I like to call power of evangelism. In fact, recently I just published my first book, which is prophecy and heal, the sick, how to grow in prophecy, words of knowledge, healing, and power of evangelism.
Matthew Helland (00:56):
So this is about seven years that I’ve been experiencing growing and training in this. This is, these are testimonies about how God has used me in Europe, how God has used me in different parts of the world, but also stories about how God’s power has, has, has changed my life. Beginning with my, my testimony, my birth, I, I was born with cerebral palsy. I was never supposed to walk or talk. I should be sitting in a wheelchair, but when I was six months old, my aunt in California sent to prayer cloth from California to Chile, the country where I was born in, and my mother sewed it to my pajamas in a, within a one month’s time, I was totally healed cerebral palsy. So the, the story of, of divine healing and that God heals begins with my birth. And I can only say with great gratefulness to God that he healed me and that I’m alive is, is simply a miracle sign and wonder, I, I am a sign and wonder, and I, I really believe that signs and wonders should always always follow.
Matthew Helland (02:01):
Whenever we preach and teach about knowing Jesus, you call it prophetic evangelism. I like to call it power evangelism because it’s using not just the prophetic, but also words of knowledge healing using the gifts of the spirit to be, to be able to initiate an encounter with somebody in, in Holland most people on the street do not believe in God. I think that’s pretty general. Most people in Europe do not believe in God, specifically in Western Europe because they are so well off and they think they do not need God. So this leads me that many times when I go to the street, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll ask people and I’ll say, Hey, can I tell you what I see in you? Or do you have any pain in your body? And being able to initiate a conversation with a word of knowledge that’s accurate, or with a, with a healing, just makes it a lot more easy to talk about Jesus Christ, to individuals who otherwise think they don’t need Jesus Christ and are not interested in him.
Matthew Helland (02:59):
I think one of the best examples of this is going to psychic fairs. What I’ve seen in the last 10 to 15 years is that there’s been a huge change in Europe. And I think this is, I know this is the United States as well, is that there are people who want some people call ’em secular mystics or, or spiritual atheists. They don’t believe in God, but they believe in something. And the, the whole thing about atheism has kind of lost its luster because now there’s, there’s a huge generation of young people in Holland, for example, who are, have a good education, good jobs, but are burnt out because they have no purpose for their lives. And so what I’ve seen is that many times when, when I talk to strangers on the street and I’m able to use a healing or a word of knowledge for their life than it, just so much easier to be able to share more about Jesus because and, and I think what’s real important here also is just to define a few, a few terms.
Matthew Helland (04:01):
When you say prophecy prophecy, a lot of people don’t understand prophecy. They have an old Testament paradigm of prophecy that prophecy is, is, is an old Testament profit with a big sticks and you repent or, or, or, or you’re good to hell. That is not a new Testament paradigm for prophetic ministry or evangelistic ministry. Instead new Testament prophecy, according to first Corinthians 14, three is strengthening, encouraging and comforting people. According to revelations, 1910 prophecies all about worshiping God for the, the spirit or the heart of, of, of prophecy is testifying or the testimony of Jesus. So when I speak about doing prophetic ministry, I’m, I’m speaking about reflecting Jesus to people and, and listening to Jesus and listening to them and, and seeing how God can open doors and open hearts to be able to demonstrate, not just talk about, but demonstrate the reality of Jesus Christ, old Testament, prophecy the, the prophet, it was only certain individuals who could hear the voice of God only at certain moments.
Matthew Helland (05:10):
And again, the old Testament was a lot more bringing judgment such as Jonah saying, you’ve got, you know, a month or, or more to repent. And then destruction is coming. Also in the old Testament, if a profit ever made a mistake, he needed to be stoned. Fortunately, the new Testament, we find that everybody can prophesy. And when I say prophecy prophesy, I’m not just talking about telling the future because foretelling is a legitimate part of the prophetic ministry, but also forthtelling or telling what the heart or the mind of God is. So in the new Testament, we see that whenever someone stands up to, to prophesy, according to first Corinthians 14, it says that everybody should test and judge first Teston five, 19 through 21 speaks about testing, prophetic words and holding onto what’s from God or holding onto what is good and whatever we don’t understand, we leave on the side.
Matthew Helland (06:03):
So once again, there there’s a total different paradigm that we have between the old Testament and new Testament prophecy, just like there is a totally different paradigm between the old covenant and the new covenant. And what we find is according to acts two 17 and 18, Peter stands up and says that in the last days, God will pour out his spirit upon all flesh and all sons and daughters, everybody servants. So the wealthy, the poor, they can all prophesy. They can all hear God’s voice and give other people messages from God. So it’s real important that everybody realize that hearing God’s voice is not just for certain individuals, but everybody who is a son or daughter of God can hear God’s voice. Because Jesus said that he is our good shepherd and that the sheep hear his voice. He calls us by name.
Matthew Helland (06:53):
So this ability to hear the voice of God is something that’s very important for everybody to cultivate and everybody to, to, to learn. If they truly want to be able to follow Jesus, I, I understand that people are, couldn’t be afraid of false prophets. But just like there’s false profits. There are real profits. And there are also false teachers. There’s also false pastors. There’s, there’s all kinds of false things, but so what’s important to realize is that the, if there’s a false, that means that there’s also a real in each, in these ego chapter 13, verse five, we read a very important differentiation between false profits and real profits. And here he’s actually condemning the false profits. And this is what he says. You have not gone up to the breaches in the wall to repair it for the people of Israel, so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the Lord.
Matthew Helland (07:45):
So here we see three things that false prophets we’re not doing that all true profits are called to do the first thing that says you have not gone up to the breaches in the wall. That’s a picture of standing in the gap or being an intercessor. That’s a person who stands in, in a wall and says the enemy’s not gonna come in. And if they come in, they come over my dead body. So a true prophet is somebody who’s gonna pray. I I’ve heard it said that every, every prophet is an intercessor. Not every intercesor is a prophet, but every prophet is an intercessor. And it’s, it’s truly through prayer. In fact, all mature prophets that I know are, are men and women who are, are great men and women of, of, of prayer. And this means that we’re not interested in, in, in, in raising up our own ego.
Matthew Helland (08:32):
In fact, the greatest prophet of the new Testament, John, the Baptist said, Jesus must become greater and I must become less. So it’s not about making ourselves greater. It’s about making Jesus great. And because I spend time with Jesus, I get to hear his voice just like I spend time with my wife or with my children. I know when it’s their voice. I know when it’s them talking. So it’s, it’s normal to hear the voice of Jesus. And, and even like, for example, the pastel, John, what was he known for? He was known for laying his head on the chest of Jesus. And that’s where we find our authority. It’s an intimacy with God. It’s the intimacy with God, hearing his voice, studying the Bible, fasting, praying. These are all things that we develop the, our intimacy with Lord in order to develop our identity, that we are sons and daughters of God.
Matthew Helland (09:24):
And through developing that identity, we grown spiritual authority. So that it’s, it’s something that’s rooted and grounded in a love relationship with God. In fact, no one should prophesy if they don’t love God and love people and also love themselves. So the first mark of a true prophet is that their, their ancestors, secondly, it says stand in the wall to repair it for the people of Israel. It’s real important that the, the prophetic ministry has to do with, with restoration and repairing and healing healing in the body of Christ. In fact, it’s very clear in, in first Corinthians 14 that the prophetic ministries and ministry that builds up. And if there’s anything that the church needs today is we need individuals who build up the church, who, who love the church. And a true pro true prophet will bring restoration, will bring love.
Matthew Helland (10:18):
In fact, I, I even know true prophets, one of a friend of mine, his name’s on Beto. When he first began his prophetic ministry, he used to pick people out in the audience and say, you there, you’re committing adultery, come repent. You there you’re on drugs, come repent. God wants to change your life. And God really told him he had to stop that because the new Testament ministry of prophecy is not to bring condemnation, but it’s to bring mercy and it’s to bring love. It’s the ring healing. And, and this is why people that perhaps have a prophetic gift who have not been mentored, who have not been trained. They make big mistakes, but, but the Bibles seriously says here that a true prophet will, will stand in the breach for other people will bring reparation healing restoration so that, so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the Lord.
Matthew Helland (11:09):
The third thing that they do is is that they prepare people and they create a safe place where they can be nurtured, where they can grow, but also so that they can fight the battles. Where do we find this? We find this also in first Timothy one 18 that says Timothy, my son fight the, the good battle that was given to you. In fact, let me take a moment and just read that so we can see the context of this. What’s so amazing about this is that the Bible, the new Testament is full of references to, to the prophetic ministry and full of scriptures that a lot of people have read over or never seen because because this is a ministry that unfortunately is not well understood today. This is what it says, Timothy, my son, I’m giving you this command and keeping what the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them, you may fight the battle.
Matthew Helland (12:06):
Well, and to be honest with you, every one of us have had moments in our lives where we’ve had difficulties and we had not known what to do. And it’s been somebody that’s called us or prayed for us that have, has given us a strength to continue to, to battle, to, to, to fight the good fight. One of my favorite examples is, is a young woman who is in Amsterdam. And I, I told her, God says, Europe welcomes you. You are welcome to Europe. And the next week she was in London in the airport and they said, sorry, you don’t have the right visa. You can’t come into Europe. And she was taken to a little back room in the back and she started taking her fist and started saying, Europe welcomes me, Europe welcomes me, Europe welcomes me, Europe welcomes me. And five minutes later, somebody from immigration comes and says, you don’t have the right visa, but welcome to Europe.
Matthew Helland (12:55):
And that’s just a, a great example of how a true prophetic word, a word from God enables us and not only brings healing but it also gives us a strength to fight the good fights the, the battles that God has for us. Yeah. I, along with many other people differentiate different levels of the prophetic ministry. And we can find this, first of all, that the spirit of prophecy, we find this in revelations chapter 19 verse 10, where it speaks about that the, the, the, the heart of ministry worship God for the, the, the, the, the spirit of prophecy is testimony of Jesus. And we find in places such as in first Samuel chapter 10, first, Samuel, I believe is 19 where Saul would come into a, a school of prophets or a group of profits. And he would begin to prophesy.
Matthew Helland (13:47):
Well, in fact, in one of those accounts, three soldiers who wanna come get David, they run into that group and they start prophesying. And so at this level, this, this basic level, the spirit of prophecy, anybody can prophesy again. Another biblical example is first Corinthians 14, where it says, when everybody in the church is prophesying, somebody will come in from the street that’s that doesn’t know Christ. They will prophesy the, the, the secrets of their hearts. Then they will fall on their knees and say, God is truly among you. And the way that the spirit of prophecy is activated, and I’ve seen this many times is whenever there is like just a strong spirit of worship, where everybody just feels like the presence of God is tangible, and it’s easy for everybody to get a picture or a word from God.
Matthew Helland (14:35):
But the second place where I’ve seen the spirit of prophecy be activated is whenever you have someone like me or someone who has a strong, prophetic gift and they say, okay, guys, we are, we are gonna ask God for a picture. We’re gonna ask God for a word. I think the classic example I like to tell is, is I went to youth group once in Holland is when I was looking at all of them. I came to speak about prophecy, and everybody kind of looked at me as if I had a, like a third eye on my forehead, like pro what’s wrong with him. So anyways, I, I tried to explain prophecy and, and before I, I even started one young woman, I brought with me she had her arms crossed like this, and she said, I want to know if God really exists.
Matthew Helland (15:18):
You know, so I I saw that there was no faith in the room, but as there was no faith in the room, I just stepped out and I started prophesying. And I, I pre that over everybody in the room and eyes in the room popped open as God began to speak to me, give words from their past their president and their future. And that the faith level in that room shot up. So high that by the end of the evening, the woman who, who was saying, I wanna know if God really exists. She was getting pictures and words from God. And she had tears running down her face and she was experiencing God. And like a week or two later, I got to baptize her in water, which, which is wonderful. But the, the crazy thing about this is that there were even people there that, that were were Muslims were from other faiths and Jesus was speaking to him as well.
Matthew Helland (16:06):
And so this is what is so cool. God is always speaking, but we’re not always listening. And whenever there is a, a strong pro anointing or presence of God, then it’s very possible that the, the spirit of prophecy can be there so that everybody there can hear God’s voice. The second level of prophecy is, is, is the gift of prophecy. Now this is found in first Corinthians 12, where it speaks about nine different gifts of the holy spirit. And what’s real important to hear also to realize that it’s not, that we own a gift or have a gift. It’s more, that God is a generous God who likes to give gifts through us. And the, the cool thing about this is that if, if you have a gift of prophecy which by the way, many times, all of these different gifts run together, one with the other, because I never know when I’m necessarily giving a word of knowledge or a word about the future or a healing or discernment of spirits.
Matthew Helland (17:01):
But what what’s cool about this is that I don’t need worship music to give a prophetic word. I can be on the street at a supermarket Walmart at a quick trip at a, at, at a brothel in the red light district. I can be at a psychic fair among people doing a bunch of witchcraft and things. And I can deliver a word from God to people, and I don’t need a special anointing or, or, or anything special like that. So that’s, that’s the gift of the prophecy is that you, you can deliver a word from God at any moment at any time, and you don’t need a special set of conditions. Now, just because you may have a gift of prophecy does not make you a profit. In fact, there are many people that have that God uses with a gift of prophecy, but they’re, they’re not primarily called to be a prophet.
Matthew Helland (17:49):
They’re called to be a teacher or a pastor or a businessman because these are not limited just to people in, in full-time ministry. What is a profit? A profit is someone who can operate at a higher level of authority. It’s important here. And, and this is really important that I say this right now, is that when you first start stepping out and growing in the gift of prophecy, you need to just focus on first Corinthians 14, three, which says strengthening, encouraging, and comforting people just strengthen, encouraging comfort people. Don’t tell them who they’re gonna marry. Don’t tell ’em when they’re gonna die. Don’t tell them how many kids they’re gonna have don’t. And especially, don’t say, God told me you’ve gotta marry me, because that can be very manipulative. And that could be God, but it also could be your own desire.
Matthew Helland (18:37):
But back to the, the difference, the levels there has been much manipulation. And in fact, I, I write in my book about charismatic witchcraft. When people try to get their own will done by using God’s name, we wanna avoid this. And how do we avoid this? Just have people focus on, on strengthening, encouraging comforting people. God says, I love you. God says, you’re my dearly beloved son. That’s a word that’s always right. That’s a word that you can always give to people. And I’ve seen people in, in Budapest and Barcelona and Amsterdam and Kiev and major cities of Europe begin to cry because people are not used to hearing the love of God. And the ministry of prophet is a ministry of loving people. It’s a ministry of, of, of, of giving God’s truth in his words, in, in a way that’s loving.
Matthew Helland (19:24):
Now back to the ministry of, of, of, of the prophet there are many prophets who do not call themselves prophets, and that’s okay, because all a prophet is, is a friend of God. But whoever is called to the ministry of a prophet will be able to function at high levels of, of telling the future that can happen. Spiritual warfare, bringing breakthrough. In fact, this is one of the things that the ministry of the prophet does. The ministry of the prophet brings breakthrough into a place. We planted many churches in this region of, of Oklahoma, Missouri of Arkansas. And I remember my brother would get a prophet to come and travel with him. And that prophet would bring breakthrough and the supernatural would breakthrough mightily. And, and I have seen how, when I deliver a word from God to somebody, and I don’t know anything about him, a great example of this, I just found out about this last week.
Matthew Helland (20:20):
But last year I was here briefly and I walked to a man and I started telling him all about his business and what God was gonna use him for. And what I did not know was that God had given an idea for a business and he’d lined up all of the financing, but that weekend he’d prayed and said, God, I need to know if you want me to do this or not. And then he happened to meet me. And I happened to turn to him and start, describe to him exactly what his business was, what he was planning and what God was gonna do. And he has since then launched that business. And again, I knew nothing about that business, but I allowed God to use me as a mouthpiece because that is what a prophet is. He’s a mouthpiece, he’s the hands and feet of, of God to the world.
Matthew Helland (21:09):
And actually this is something that, that God caused all of us to be his friends and, and being able to share his words and his power to the people around us. I, I believe with all my heart and, and the way that I define prophecy, not just telling the future, but strengthening, encouraging comforting people. I believe with all my heart, that everybody who’s a follower of Christ can hear God’s voice and everybody can can prophesy. I think that the, the best way to explain it, or, or give an example of it is my own children. Last week where at IHOP and house of pancakes, and I had everybody in IHOP go ahead and sing happy birthday to my son. And he just wanted to climb under the table like, oh, they’re singing happy birthday to me. And then two people came and gave him $20 bills.
Matthew Helland (21:53):
And he looked at me and said, dad, let’s go prophesy over ’em. And, and for my kids, it’s very normal to be, to, to, to get a word from God or a picture from God to people and go strength and encourage and comfort them. And so the way that, that, that I break down in fact, why don’t I just do it now, if you open up your Bible to the book of Proverbs chapter four here we see three classic ways that you can hear God’s voice and that you can deliver a word to somebody else. Proverbs chapter four verse 20 says my son pay attention to what I say, turn your ear to my words. The first way that we prophesy is knowing God’s word is scripture. In fact, I say to everybody, you wanna prophesy, read your Bible, pray every day, growing that intimacy with the Lord, don’t be a lazy person who just needs to go to a prophet to get a word from God every day, God speaks to me through his word.
Matthew Helland (22:48):
So the first way that we prophesy is someone is we ask God for a scripture. We ask God for a Bible story or a worship song. So like the cameraman behind me, I don’t even know him, but I’ll just go and ask God for a word for him. So God will you just gimme a scripture for this man. And immediately what it, what I just, I think of that scripture that says those who believe in me will have rivers of living water flowing out of them. And what’s your name? Shane Shane Shane the Lord has called you to a ministry of, of, of being not only filled with the holy spirit, but of flowing out of the holy spirit. And I see you just like, even in the future training people in holy spirit and empowered ministry. And I see you not only working with media as you’re doing now, but I also see you communicating and speaking things to the lives of people, because you just said everyone who believes in me, they will have rivers of living water flowing out of them.
Matthew Helland (23:43):
And, and again, I see the Lord using you, not only here in, in this area, but I also see him using you internationally. And that the Lord is just gonna, he he’s, he’s cultivating and he’s forming things inside of you. And you’re learning from other people such as Daniel King. But I, I see you just grabbing your, your, your Eagles wings and, and soaring, and that the Lord’s gonna use you mildly to equip other people in spirit empowered ministry. Now, what, what I often do when I, when I give a word to someone I say, does that make any sense to you now realized I, I could be relaxed in delivering that word. I didn’t have to say, so says the Lord thou my child, you can speak in king James’s version, but God doesn’t always speak in king James’s version. We can be very relaxed about when we prophesy.
Matthew Helland (24:29):
And, and so what I just did to him is, is I gave him a scripture and I encourage, I strengthened. I comforted him. And then the next verse do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart. The second way that God speaks to us is through visions or, or pictures or dreams. And, and you don’t have to be weird about this. Just ask God for a picture. If I were to say, do you see three yellow bananas? And, and the knife going through these three yellow bananas, you’d say, yeah, I can imagine that. And so God can speak to us through our imagination. Now I realize the evangelical Protestant church has, has kind of thrown the baby out with a bathwater when it comes to dreams and visions and the supernatural because of abuses. Let’s not do that.
Matthew Helland (25:17):
<Laugh> in fact, a, a huge percentage of the Bible is prophetic words is visions and dreams. And God did not stop speaking to us 2000 years ago, just because we got the Canon scripture. No, he continues to speak to us this way. And, and I can tell you stories. Oh, about three weeks ago, I was in Orlando in the airport. And I I’d spent some time just waiting for my family. And I was just silent, silent, just waiting before the Lord. And I walked into the Sam night store and I started talking to the guy there. And all of a sudden, I just looked at him and said I see you as an engineer. And I, I started telling more things that I saw on him, and I asked him, so, so what are you studying? And he looked at and he said, oh, I’m studying to be an engineer.
Matthew Helland (25:58):
And so what happened was God was giving me information about him not to misuse it or abuse it, but to show him that God loved him. So the second way that God speaks to us is through pictures. So if you’re watching this right now, why don’t you go ahead and pause this if you can. And why don’t you go ahead and ask God, God, speak to me through a picture. Give me a picture, give me a word, go ahead and, and speak to me right now. And, and you might see something saying, well, what does that mean? That’s half the fun, because when God starts giving you pictures or dreams, you’ll see many times prophets in the Bible said, what does that mean? Then you begin the, the, the, the process of hermeneutics and what is hermeneutics that’s interpreting and applying a word, just like you, you, you do a scripture.
Matthew Helland (26:46):
So you do it with, with dreams and visions. You, you, you take a picture. You God, what does it mean? And Lord, how do I apply this to my life? And it’s not always simple. That’s why I’ve written a whole book. So in, in my book, I, I describe 10 guidelines for developing prophetic ministry. And it’s really important that we have guidelines whenever someone wants to grow in prophetic ministry. The first one is, is always prophesy lovingly. I learned from my parents that the most important thing that you you can do is not how good you can prophesy or teach or preach or, or, or heal the sick. The most important thing that you can do is love people. And the Bible says that that prophecy, new Testament, prophecies is strength and encouraging comfort people. So even when I may have a word, that’s a word to bring correction or a word that could it possibly be a warning, I’m still gonna bring it in a way that’s gonna strengthen and encourage and comfort people.
Matthew Helland (27:45):
In fact, the difference between condemnation, which is the, what the enemy does is that he brings truth. And then he tries to kill people with that. Whereas conviction will bring truth to somebody, but it will bring a way that gives them life and hope. In fact Jesus himself in the, in the first two chapters of revelation speaks to seven different churches in those churches. He all tells them a warning, but he always ends it with a promise and what rewards they can get if they obey him. So it’s really important that whenever we deliver a word from the Lord, whenever someone who’s prophetic sees something that they bring a word in a way that still is going to bring God’s love. And, and, and it’s important that, that you be wise when you do this. For example, I, I prophecy over a woman once I, I, I said something to the effect of, you know, I see like a hand and it’s like a spirit of fear that wants to control you.
Matthew Helland (28:40):
And in the name of Jesus, I just come against all fear and I speak life over you. She didn’t hear anything else. She only saw the hand and, and fear, and that stuck with her. And that, that was a problem. So that’s why it’s really important that you be very, very wise in what you say and how you say that so that you won’t make people scared, but that you will really bring God’s message in a way that that will build them up and, and, and do it in a way that, that, that truly is, is strengthening and encouraging and comforting. The second guideline is, do not isolate yourself, but work together in teams. This is probably one of the major problems I see with people that have a prophetic gift is that they they’re sensitive. They can get offended easily and they will isolate themselves.
Matthew Helland (29:29):
And that is not good for anybody. In fact, the example that we have in scripture is that profits always worked in teams or schools. And so I like to travel with other people so that we can, as iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another, we can sharpen each other. We can grow in the gifts and there can be a transmitting of gifts of spiritual gifts from one person to another. There’s one profit from the UK that says that a self-made profit. It takes him about 20 years to develop the to his potential and the prophetic gift in the prophetic ministry. But if he’s trained, then it can take, instead of 20 years, it can take 12, 12 years. So there’s great acceleration, which takes place when you work together in teams, also great accountability, which is also incredibly important.
Matthew Helland (30:20):
Point number three, don’t be too dramatic when you prophesy. You don’t have to speak in king James version. Also smile, be relaxed. Don’t be unnecessarily weird guideline four, be sensitive for God and to people ask permission before you place your hand on someone, if you want to place for them pray for them. Be extremely sensitive regarding weddings, births, healings, and deaths be culturally sensitive when ministering in different culture than your own. As I, as I already said previously, if you’re in a, a cold culture where they don’t trust emotions tone your emotions down. But if you’re in a, in the south of the United States or in Africa, be as passionate as you want to, because that’s, that’s, that’s what those cultures appreciate, but be sensitive to people, to guide into people. Number five, never allow people to worship you the goal of prophecies to make Jesus great.
Matthew Helland (31:18):
And not yourself. Step guideline six, never give a prophetic word that is contrary to the Bible. The Bible is the word of God and prophecy does not come over scripture. No scripture is what we judge every prophetic word as Kenneth Hagen once said we do not live our lives according to prophecies. No, we live our lives according to scripture. So, so every prophetic word must be tested and must be submitted to what is in scripture. Someone once told me that it was God’s will that he was living together with his girlfriend and out, and, and, and not being married. That does not line up with scripture. We, we submit to scripture and not to the feelings that we may or may not have. Number seven, learn to give a prophetic word at the right moment in the right time. The Bible says that a prophet has control of him or herself in first Corinthians 1432.
Matthew Helland (32:15):
It’s important to learn, to give a word from God at the right moment. And at the right time, in fact, one prophet who trained me told me that 90% of what God shows you, you don’t necessarily need to say, instead of write in your journal, in fact, pray about it. Not everything that you know, or that the Lord gives you, do you need to say, and there are many words that sometimes I’ll receive from, from, from the Lord. And I will not give that publicly, but I’ll just pull somebody aside and share that in a private way. A, a classic way of this. I was in a church in, in Eastern Europe and all of a sudden I felt an evil spirit RO walk into the room. Now, the last thing I should do at that moment, say everybody, listen, an evil spirit just walked into the room.
Matthew Helland (33:05):
No, that was information for me to know at that time. And I just continued to focus on the holy spirit, focus on Jesus and kept doing what we’re doing. I took authority over that spirit and I, I prayed at that moment. And at the end of the service, I took the pastor aside and I just said, Hey, I feel like this spirit was here. And I really feel like this and this and this, and this was, was taking place. And he said, that’s true. What, what you’re saying? That’s true. That’s something that we have to deal with. And so it’s really important that you have wisdom to give a prophetic word at the right moment and the right time to the right person. Number eight, every prophetic word must be tested. Welcome feedback. When you minister in a church, you submit the authority to the local church.
Matthew Helland (33:50):
Prophets are servant leaders who help build up the church. Once again, we don’t compete against each other. We complete each other apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers should work together to equip the saints so that they can do the work of the ministry. Number nine, record, every prophetic word possible. I had a, a pastor who, who told everybody that I met some of his people and I, I prophesied told them that it was God’s time for them to leave his church. And I said, pastor, did you listen to the recording? Because I never said that. And I would never say that now, thanks that I, that was recorded. There was proof that I never prophesied. I never said that that was something that they interpreted in their own way. Again, people can say things that you said, something that you never said. So for the sake of your own safety, but also for the ability of later listening to what the prophetic message has been record, write it down or put it on your, on your smartphone and number 10, prophesy from faith.
Matthew Helland (34:50):
And not only from feeling sensations or emotions, the key scripture here is Romans 12 six, which is you as a gift of prophecy, does it, according to their level of their faith, you do not need an angel to sit on your head. You do not need to feel anointing. I’m all for feeling anointing, but we walk by faith and not by feeling. So I prophesy not by how I feel, but by faith, I believe that as I opened my mouth, God is going to speak Smith. Wigglesworth was once at a meeting where he was praying. And then he started speaking and prophesying over people. And it was like liquid fire coming out of his mouth. And they said, how do you do that? And his response was I, I begin in the flesh and I end in the spirit and that’s just like speaking in tongues.
Matthew Helland (35:43):
That’s just like praying for healing. That’s just like prophesying. Many times, we by faith step out and begin to speak. As it says in Psalms, open your mouth and I will fill it in Luke 10 and 12. It says that that when we’re before Kings and, and priests, when we don’t know what to say, don’t worry because the holy spirit will give you at that moment. What to say? It says that when we speak it’s, it’s not just us speaking, but it’s God speaking. First, Peter four 11 says that whoever speaks, speaks as if God himself is speaking through you. So the Bible clearly instructs us that we can speak words of God, to other people, but when we do it, we do need to do it in a way that’s, that’s humble in a way that honors people in a way that’s loving.
Matthew Helland (36:31):
And, and ultimately remember faith is spelled R I S K. You have to get out of your comfort zone. You have to say something which might look you may, may, may, may look, may seem like you’re really stupid. A beautiful example of this is, is Gary Best book. It’s naturally supernatural, where he tells about a vision where he had was where he was on diving board. And he looked down and there was no water in the swimming pool. And God says, jump. He’s like God, there’s no water in the swimming pool. That’s gonna hurt. God says jump. God, I don’t like pain. I don’t wanna jump. And finally he jumps and the moment he jumps, the swimming pool gets full of water. And that’s, it is that’s the same way it is with the supernatural first time I had a word of knowledge on television.
Matthew Helland (37:25):
All of a sudden I got pain right here. And I thought, oh no, this is the word of knowledge. What am I gonna do? Finally, with two minutes left on the, on the video or on the, on the camera. I said, okay, someone there has pain right here. And I believe God’s healing you when I was done. I was like, what did I just do? I mean, if you take a step of faith, you’re gonna feel stupid. But that, that that’s okay because it was actually the cameraman that at that moment got healed from his pain that he had right there. So if you wanna operate in the prophetic, if you wanna operate in the healing, in these things, that means that you will have to get out of your comfort zone. I know for example Daniel King is here with me. And every time that you stand up to say, God is going to heal.
Matthew Helland (38:13):
Now you’re taking a risk. You’re doing it by faith. And I’ve been in churches. For example, this last Sunday, I was in a church here in Tolson. I said, I believe God is going to heal 30 people in the next five minutes. And we started praying. And the first time we prayed, 12 people were healed. And I said, now we’re going for 30. Let’s do it again. We started praying again, that time 18 people raised their hand. I said, okay, we’re gonna do it one more time. And I believe that God’s gonna heal 30 people. And we prayed one more time. I said, okay, let’s do it again. And I counted. And there was 30 people waving their hands. If they had experienced a healing in their body, what did that take? It took faith. It took me taking a step of faith. Now, let me be real honest with you.
Matthew Helland (38:59):
Not every time I pray for healing, does everybody get healed? I’ve had meetings where it seemed like everybody got healed that I pray for. I’ve had meetings, maybe one, or nobody gets healed, but that’s okay because I can’t heal anybody. It’s God that heals. And my job is to step out and to love and to pray for people. So whether or not people get healed, whether or not all the words I give to people are accurate or not. It’s not about the signs and the wonders. It’s about Jesus. It’s about knowing Jesus, because Jesus said there will be people who will say, have we not prophesied? Have we not healed the sick? Have we not cast that demon? And you’ll look at them and say away from me, I never knew you. So if you want to grow in the prophetic, don’t focus on the prophetic, focus on Jesus, focus on loving him on speaking his word on strength and encouraging on comforting other people’s. And you’ll see how the, the, the supernatural can begin to become very natural and normal for you.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Do you have any testimonies of how you use the gift of prophecy or word of knowledge, of course. And witnessing the people? Of
Matthew Helland (40:15):
Course. Yeah, let me, let me share a few testimonies here regarding using words of knowledge and, and using prophetic words. One of my favorite places do this, I don’t know if I’ve talked about it already, but is, is psychic fairs as psychic fairs, people are coming there looking for for information. And so what I’ll do is I’ll set up a table and I’ll set up a menu board. And on that menu board, I’ll write things like I offer healing, I offer spiritual advice. I offer dream and tattoo and name interpretation a workshop on how you can hear from my source. And I make it look as if I’m just another psychic, which I’m not a psychic I’m, I’m a, I’m a man of God. I call myself a seer. And in front of myself, I put a bunch of scripture cards and people ask are those terror cards.
Matthew Helland (41:12):
And I’ll say, ah, there’s something like that. But all it is is it’s God’s word. And so I’ll, I’ll tell people, well, go ahead. You know, this is my menu. And I operate from out my source and my source is Jesus Christ. And so what happens is, is just different examples. One little girl says, nah, I wanna know my future. And I said, Ooh, grab a grabs, a card, Jeremiah 29 11. I know the plans that I have for you to give you hope in the future. Another man from a radio program came to interview me and see if I was the real thing or not. And he said, I wanna know my future. And I said, well, grab a card. And there said, and you will be, and I will be your father. And you will be, my son says the Lord, God almighty.
Matthew Helland (41:54):
And this just opened the door for me to be able to share the gospel with him. I will give a presentation. And again, I do not use any churchy words or Christianity words, the Christian words, because that would scare people away because they think that the church does not have anything to offer them in a spiritual sense. One woman I baptized said, I knew the church had the father, the son, but I did not know you had the spirit. So what I’ll do is I’ll begin and I’ll tell stories about healing. And then I’ll say my source is gonna heal people now. And sometimes I’ll use the word of knowledge by saying, who has pain here, or who has pain there or who, whose name is possibly this. And then people will come forward. And, and as I begin to pray for people, people get healed.
Matthew Helland (42:38):
And then I’ll say, who would want to know who my source is? And then everybody in the room raises their hand. And then I start saying his name is Jesus Christ. And then I share the gospel about how God loved the world and we’re broken and came to heal it and how Jesus was broken on the cross. And he wants to take all our brokenness hurt pain and sin, and he wants to give us a new life. And I end by saying, who would like a personal word from Jesus Christ and everybody in the room raises their hands. Everybody wants prayer. Everybody wants a personal word from Jesus Christ. Whereas if I go to a psychic fair with a big black Bible and preach at people, nobody’s gonna want to talk to me. But if I become a Jew to the Jew or a, a Gentile or the Gentile, or, or reaching people in psychic affairs, the way that other people are doing it.
Matthew Helland (43:27):
And the cool thing is, is what I say is the way that I treat witches in psychics is I give em a hug. And many times Jesus heals them. And many times they send people to our table. And many times we have higher percentage of, of healings taking place, but what are we doing there? We’re simply loving people. And the other thing that I, that I, that I, where I work weekly in the red light district, and I love to be in the red light district when it’s dark and there’s lots of busyness and nearly every week, well, every week I get to pray with, with men or women in the prostitution. And, but what’s normal is that that I’ll come in and, and everybody will close their window and we’ll grab hands and I’ll start praying for him. And I’ll start prophesying over him.
Matthew Helland (44:12):
And I’ll who has pain and I’ll start praying for him and God will heal them there. And what is my message? My message is God loves you. He has a hope and a future for you. You are his dearly beloved daughter. And by the grace of God, we’ve been able to help some get out, but every week there’s there’s women or, or even some men that say, can you help me get out? Can you help me? Like one woman looked at me and said, you’re the pastor. And you’re gonna help all of us get outta here. And by the grace of God I don’t mean to be pretentious or arrogant in any way, but we want to continue to help serve these men and women in that place. But again, evangelism and prophecy is really not that hard. It’s all about loving people and loving God and trusting God that for a picture for a, a word, a scripture or something that when you look at somebody, you can say, you know, I see this or this, or, or I feel this or this.
Matthew Helland (45:11):
And, and, and if that word is accurate, which many times it is, then now you have instead of a small door to op talk about Jesus. You have a much larger door and opportunity to share about Jesus. One of my some of the people that I really enjoy ING to are, are people that are, are transgenders. And I’ve, I I’ve seen when I, when I go to their places of work, I, I don’t go there to condemn them or, or, or tell ’em off and I just go there to pray for them. And as I pray for someone, I can tell you stories about how all of a sudden, they’ll just start feeling like a warmth that goes over their body, or a pain that God heals them, or, or, or, or I might interpret a dream or, you know, something happens.
Matthew Helland (46:00):
And they’ll start asking me the hard questions. And I can’t always answer all the hard questions, but one thing I can do is tell them that God loves them and that he has a future for them and a purpose for them, for anybody that would say that that prophecy is not necessary. Because we have the Bible, I would say, read the Bible. The Bible says for Corinthians 14, one follow the way of love and eagerly desire, spiritual gifts, especially prophecy. The Bible says that we are to desire to prophesy that we are desire to heal the sick. He says again, in, in 1439, therefore my brothers and sisters be eager to prophesy and do not forbid speaking in tongues, but everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way. Whoever believes. And I, and I respect many, many wonderful men and women of God who have great respect for them, but the, the, the, the teaching of cessationism is a teaching that is based upon man’s experience and not upon scripture, because everywhere that we see that the scripture is preached, we see that lives are changed.
Matthew Helland (47:09):
We see that signs and wonders are normal. Let’s go to the ministry of Paul real quick. He says, for example, for Corinthians two my message in my preacher, where we’re not with wise and persuasive words, but with the demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power, all he knew was Jesus Christ, crucified, resurrected. And he was not going with wise words, but with power. And, and again, we turned to the book of Romans chapter, chapter 15, and here he says verse 17, through, through 20, it says, I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God, I will not venture to speak of anything, except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done, what did he do by the power of signs and wonders through the power of the spirit of God? So from Jerusalem, all the way around to lyric, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.
Matthew Helland (48:07):
The Bible speaks about us preaching the gospel with demonstrations. Jesus told us to heal the sick, to cleanse the dead lepers to, to, to, to raise the dead freely. We have received freely. Give that we say that miracles and signs and wonders have stopped because of the can of scription scripture is, is not only unscriptural. It is buying into the culture and the times of modernism, because modernism says that you’ve gotta be rationally, be able to explain everything the, the world that we live in. It’s, it’s actually a problem of, of, of, of worldview. John Wimber, he was the one who always spoke about worldview, and he said, the four things that Western culture teach us are, are, are, first of all, that we are actually deist or atheist. We believe that basically God created the world like a clock maker, and then let the world just continue to run without his daily involvement that, that, that we need to do things in our own strength, individualism that, that we have to have nobody tell us what we can do or not do materialism and rational that you shouldn’t be able, you shouldn’t trust anything that you don’t understand fully, but that is not the Bible of scripture.
Matthew Helland (49:29):
That is not the teaching of scripture. It says that he’s a God who does more than we could ever ask, think or imagine. And when we read the book of acts, when, when we read not just the book of acts and, and, but we read the pistols, we read the, the book of revelation. We read all of the Bible. We find a God who, who speaks through scripture, but he also speaks through dreams through visions. He speaks through prophets, he speaks through apostles. And so this whole idea of throwing out because of legitimate abuses, there are false profits, they’re all FARs teachers, but there’s also real profits. And there’s also real teachers. And there’s real apostles, many of who won’t call themselves a prophet or an apostle, but we need as much as we needed signs and wonders back then we need signs and wonders today.
Matthew Helland (50:28):
Why is it that people are going to psychics? And they’re going to, to, to, to other sources, because they believe that the church is, is only about teaching moral teachings and that they have no power. One woman came to me and said, I believe I have the gift of healing in my hand, but my church says that that doesn’t work. That, that, that, that, that’s not of God. And I said, well, come to my church because that’s what scripture says, that everybody who believes in Jesus can lay their hands on the sick and that they will recover. And so it’s really important that we do not base our doctrine upon our experience. If you have never experienced a healing that does not mean that God does not heal. In fact, he commands us to, he heal the sick by laying our hands on them. So I would, I would respectfully disagree with my brothers and sisters who believe that that in cessationism that God does no, no longer does healings and signs and wonders.
Matthew Helland (51:32):
And again, part of that reason is because I am a sign in wonder, I was never supposed to walk or touch, but by the Walker or talk, but by the, the power of God, God healed me of cerebral palsy. And the list can go on and on. There are many false teachers and false prophets and false pastors, but don’t throw away the baby with a bath water, because God still wants to heal. Still wants to do mighty things through his church, through his people today. If, if you wanna grow in the supernatural, let me just encourage you to grow on three things. The first thing is love. The second thing is faith, take risks, go find people who, who are doing this stuff. Go learn, go, go buy my book, prophesy and heal the sick. You can get that on my, on my website, prophesy, heal.com or, or on Amazon.
Matthew Helland (52:19):
There’s other good books. But third, stay humble. Please stay humble. And let me break down humility. Real quick. Humility is four things. According to Jonathan Edwards, a famous preacher, he said first humility is being content. If you’re prideful, that means you’re driven by fear or driven by emptiness, trying to prove yourself, be content as, as, as, as Paul said whether I’m rich or poor, I can do all things to Christ strengthens me. Second of all, humility is, is being friendly and kind and respectful to people who disagree with you. That’s being humble. Prideful means that you’re, you’re you’re disrespectful. You, you you’re mean to people that that don’t agree with you spend time with people that, that don’t believe like you that are of a different faith that are a different political opinion. Number three humility is, is is being teachable is being correctable.
Matthew Helland (53:18):
But if, if you’re, if you’re prideful, then you know it all, then no one can teach you anything. So, so remain, remain teachable and fourth, someone who is humble is, is someone who is, is secure. Whereas someone who’s prideful is highly insecure. And why, where is our source of, of security? It’s that we know that we are not what we do. We’re not what we have. We’re not what people think of us is that we hear the voice of Papa guy that says you are my dearly beloved son. You’re my dearly beloved daughter. I love you. And I please with you and learning to connect with that voice every day enables us that we can be that voice to other people. And to let them know that the gospel is about a God who loved the world so much, that he gave his son to, to die on the cross for us.
Matthew Helland (54:14):
And that, that is not just something from 2000 years ago, but that’s something of now that he wants to take our brokenness, our hurt and our pains and that because of the incarnation, because of what he did the, the, the, the son of God became a son of man, so that the sons of men could be sons of God. We can know God, because ultimately all prophecies about it’s about knowing God, knowing God and being his hands and feet to many people. So please remain full of love, remain full of faith and remain very humble whenever you operate in prophecy and any gifts of the spirit. Thank you. And God bless.
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