True North, part 1.

This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Running with Horses, a podcast devoted to inspire you, concerning a relationship with Almighty God that empowers you to accomplish things you never thought possible.

Shirley Weaver wants to take you there. And now here's today's episode. Hello and welcome.

I'm glad you're here. You know, we're emphasizing right now for today and in the days ahead, we want to really emphasize and therefore grow in our understanding about where we are in time according to Bible prophecy. And with that growth in our understanding that maturing as it were, the goal is for you and me as individuals to engage the culture like we never have before.

And so if you've been thinking, you know, be isolated or be low key, don't rock the boat, the encouragement that I want to suggest for you is take responsibility for what you've learned, what you've heard, what you know, and what your role right now is in the importance of engaging the culture, again, because of the day in which we're living and that we do believe time is short. If you believe that, just remember this, Romans 1.19 puts it this way, for what can be known about God is playing to them because God has shown it to them. So see, we're without excuse. Whatever needs to be known about God, He has shown to us, Romans 1.19. So we draw there, we draw from the source of that truth, and we engage with what God has given us, what He is speaking to us.

In this episode, because of the dire, dire conditions, really all around us, whatever nation you're in, there are conditions that are purely evil, not to mention chaos and upset of every imaginable kind. And in the vein of accountability before the Lord, really on an individual level, you and I have got to get better at discerning the true voice of the Lord as it is spoken through what we hear as we engage in everything really, in life in general. This is true, but especially now because of where we are in time, we have to spiritually discern, we have to get better and better at it. So for you and for me, there's a challenge here to discern what the Spirit of the Lord is saying and decide what is truth, half truth, not truth, and by the Spirit of God, I believe we can do that.

That is our prayer. You know, spiritually, as well as in a natural way, like I said, in life in general, we know every individual, both the Christian and the non-Christian, a believer, and even a person who has no Bible-based beliefs, every person can be sure of this. They possess two things, strengths and weaknesses. Strengths and weaknesses. So biblically, see the benefit here is that we know from 2 Corinthians 12 verse 10, in Him, in Jesus Christ, where I am weak, He is strong. I exchange my weakness for His strength. So I need the presence of the Holy Spirit on the inside of me to quicken His strength where I am weak or I have been weakened by any level of deception or any maneuvering that causes me to lose a strong, discerning edge. And also Paul said to the church at Corinth, when you think you're standing strong, take heed lest you fall.

1 Corinthians 10 verse 12. Take heed lest you fall when you think you're strong. So you see there's a tension where I realize I'm weak so I ask for the Lord's strength and then I realize I'm strong but I'm also warned by the Spirit. Don't get arrogant about that because we're always in the balance of what the Spirit of God is doing to shape us and to form us after His likeness and after His wisdom to be more and more like Him. So we have the Holy Spirit living within us to strengthen us where we are weak and to warn us when we think we are strong, when we are about to fall and don't see the danger. The Spirit of God is on the inside of us for both. And to that end, the Lord also sends external voices, the voice of His prophetic anointing, those with that anointing, the voice of the prophet, the collective voice of the prophets, plural. The Lord sends that to you to assist, to encourage and strengthen what you are already hearing on the inside from within, from the Holy Spirit indwelling because you know Jesus the prophet is the one who's living on the inside of you. With a prophet living on the inside of you, God has shown to us everything we need to know, right? Just as we read. So it's a solid truth.

You can completely trust it. And to that end, we need both the voice on the inside and the true external voices confirming Holy Spirit leading, we need God's genuine true north. The real thing we need to hear completely clearly so that our navigation will be accurate. And especially now, the collective voice of the prophets is important because we're inspired by those voices. And you know, we expect, we do expect that the prophetic voice must have wisdom.

As I said, if you're alive and breathing, you're human, you have strengths and weaknesses. But the fact is, the truth is that we've come to expect that the voice of the prophet is true wisdom. We've learned to trust that voice.

And we have a high expectation for integrity in that voice. Because when that is the case, there's a stabilizing influence for us individually and corporately in the midst of all this tumult and chaos, definitely becoming definitely a force for righteousness and justice, which remember, righteousness and justice are the foundation of God's throne. So we've got to have righteousness. We've got to have justice for the throne of God to be built on the inside of us. Those foundations have to be built within me internally. And I need the voice of that, of the same externally so that it's all one message. You see how important this is? The fine tuning, the accuracy that you and I have, the confidence that we have, the boldness that we build, the strong faith that we have is not in a man or a person. It comes from within inside of us, which in turn builds even further our expectation. And this is valid.

This is so, so important. Consider me on this, an expectation of true integrity. Believers who have a prophetic gifting or prophetic calling, well, and prophetic calling, should be expected to demonstrate integrity and honesty and truth and value and balance.

The prophet on the inside of us, the prophet who is the Lord Jesus on the inside of us demands it. So recently, you know, as the fate of nations ebb and flow, sometimes that ebb and flow really hinges on the emergence of some very unlikely people, situations, things like protest, civil unrest, unpredictable things like the economy in any given nation or locale, being up and down, not dependable. Governments are destabilized.

Stability is not guaranteed. So the stability of your government, my government, or the lack thereof, and you see this need for stability has elevated not only the need for, but opportunities for inspired voices to speak, inspired voices like spiritual prophets who are speaking by the Holy Spirit. And don't forget, there are also secular prophets, such as those Jesus mentioned when he was teaching his disciples in Luke 16 verse 8, where he said that they are shrewd and realistic in the way that they deal as they're in search of a maximum personal advantage.

You know, in the situation as they know it, you might say street-smart or culture-savvy. So even those, a secular prophet or a secular influence can be used by the Holy Spirit for our benefit. So both, when used by the Spirit of God, when anointed by the Spirit of God, are profitable for us. So basically, these prophetic voices coming to us have the ability to draw us to what they're saying, basically saying, come this way, believe this, come this way, believe this, which is why, see, what you believe as an individual is so important. Because congregations are important, but a congregation is made up of individuals. The individual believer is the basic building block for the corporate body, which is the house of the Lord, including its leadership. But really, here's the question, somewhere along the way, did the individual believer morph into something that looks more like a beautiful expression of the whole?

Has personal discernment been surrendered in order to go along, not rock the boat? I mean, did you know that the way that we each stand before the Lord is on an individual level? No one will stand with you. When I stand before the Lord, you will not be there with me. And when you stand before the Lord, I will not be there with you. We are before the Lord, accountable to Him individually, personally.

2 Corinthians 5, 10 says it this way, each one may receive compensation for his deeds done through the body in accordance with what he has done, whether good or bad, each one, each individual. So you see, your discernment is important for you even more so than the emphasis on the corporate body, the congregation, because your influence will be felt in that congregation. You know, discernment is always important, even when we talk of signs and wonders, or not even, but especially when we're talking signs and wonders, miracles, the divine interventions you've heard me teach about and give testimony to. So very important to the message of this podcast, but you know, Jesus rebuked the leaders of his day for demanding a sign of him. So we know that the focus must be on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and not on the sign, not on the manifestation or the evidence, but on the person of Jesus Christ first and the demonstrations or the evidence second, in that order. So that's why looking out over the coming days, we remember David's declaration.

Is there not a cause? 1 Samuel 17, verse 26. David said this, who is this pagan Philistine anyway? That he is allowed to defy the armies of the living God. That's what David is saying.

Like he can't believe this pagan is being allowed to run amok. And verse 29, he said, is there not a cause? Verse 31, David's question, is there not a cause, was reported to the king, to King Saul, and the king said, bring that man to me. He sent for David. You know the story about the encounter with Goliath and how David got the victory that day. Was there not a cause?

So because hearing is only valuable when there's a response, a godly suitable response, like the case with David, in the face of evil that's coming at us from every side, is there not a response? That's the question. So in the next episodes, we're going to look at the individual's responsibility. There is a corporate responsibility, but we will look at the individual's responsibility, that that belongs to you, the responsibility that belongs to me. What is our responsibility? What must our response look like if we've heard the word, and do we have a cause?

If we don't have a cause, if there is not a cause, why not? So looking at the importance of what we hear and how we respond. Up next, we'll look at the Old and New Testament precedents for prophetic and Bible prophecy, and also the silence of a believer in the face of evil. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support this podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or leave a rating and review. Don't forget to check out the show notes or visit acleartrumpet.org, where you can subscribe to Shirley's email list. Download the ministry app and purchase your very own copy of Shirley's 365-day devotional, Running with Horses. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time.