And Joseph and His mother marveled
at those things which were spoken of Him.
Then Simeon blessed them,
and said to Mary His mother,
"Behold, this Child is destined
for the fall and rising of many in Israel,
and for a sign which will be spoken against
(yes, a sword will pierce
through your own soul also),
that the thoughts of many hearts
may be revealed."
Luke 2:33-35, NKJV
Have you ever walked up to a total stranger in a crowd and delivered a Word from the Lord to them? Yeah, me neither. On the other hand, I have had total strangers (some of them stranger than others) walk up to give me a word. The only thing I have to say about that is, If you're gonna do it, you better make sure it's a Word from God and not out of your own imagination.
I believe in hearing from God. I believe I have heard the audible voice of God. One time only, but no one will ever be able to convince me I didn't hear it. Sometimes I wish I hadn't. But there it is. I believe God speaks to me regularly through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, who is there to teach and reveal and remind, convict and convince, comfort and guide and guard me. God speaks to me regularly through His written Word, regardless of when it was written or to whom it was originally sent. His Word is living and powerful and sharper than a two edged sword. It's always a good word. And God speaks to me through other people.
Sometimes it's a sermon from some other preachers. Sometimes it's a song. And sometimes it's an individual coming to me under Divine appointment.
I remember the evangelist that called me out as a 16 year old boy and proclaimed, "When the anointing shall break forth into thy life, and thou shalt begin to bring glad tidings unto others, thou shalt know that the anointing of my Spirit is upon thee." There was lots more to it than that, and some of it I'm still waiting for, but that sentence spoken over my life was literally fulfilled while I was preaching the first message I ever received from the Lord. It wasn't my first sermon; I'd written and delivered a couple dozen sermons by then. But never under the anointing. The anointing literally "broke forth", and I knew it.
I remember one of my close friends and confidants who said to me, "It may seem like the sixth lap on the seventh day, and the walls still look the same. But they are coming down!" If you don't know what that means, you need to reread the story of Joshua and the battle of Jericho. To top it all off, that was in the morning, I heard the audible instruction of God that afternoon, and shortly afterward I was in an altar service where the evangelist encouraged us to shout, because the walls were coming down. I did, and they did. But that's a whole 'nother story.
I remember the preacher passing through who got me on the phone at the church on New Year's Eve and said, "Pastor, I just felt led to tell you that everything you've been praying to happen, God's going to do it this year." And God did.
I remember the old preacher's widow from Argentina, who I met (humanly speaking) by coincidence, who grabbed my arm, eyes blazing, and quoted to me from Isaiah, "What does it say? You shall walk through the water and not be drowned, and through the fire and not be burned. For I the Lord am with you wherever you go." What she couldn't have possibly known was the chapter of my life that was unfolding as she spoke, and that for months and even years, those were the exact words my own mother used to encourage me.
I could go on and on and on about the random words people have given me that I knew were from the Lord. Suffice it to say, I believe God speaks through people. But the flip side of that is sometimes people take it upon themselves to speak for God.
Like the guy who saw compasses and anchors on my shirt and tried to interpret what that meant for my life. Or the guy who, while prophesying randomly over a church crowd, called me out and asked, "You're in some kind of ministry right?" I wanted to tell him, "You're the prophet, you tell me." But when I nodded, he proceeded to tell me something about 2 months and 2 weeks, and I don't remember much else. It was just too strange. There were parts of it that might have had a broad application, but I'm still shaking my head over it. Or the kid who was all zeal and no wisdom who met me and wanted to tell me what a great ministry God was calling me to...without realizing I had been called before he was ever born, and was currently serving in the call of God--the greatest place a person can ever be. I learned a long time ago to quit looking for what was "next" and be content with what was "now."
All I'm saying is, if you are going to speak into someone's life on behalf of God, you had better be certain it's from God.
