Sermons

← back to list

Jul 17, 2022

Increasing Prophetic Capacity

Increasing Prophetic Capacity

Speaker: Dr. Clem Ferris

Series: Ask. Seek. Knock.

Category: Sunday Morning

Our thirst and hunger should drive us to God in prayer.

A Message from 2 Kings 3

To be prophetic means to communicate with Heaven. The prophetic dimension is where we communicate with Heaven and Heaven communicates with us. We hear from God; God hears from us. If we have a prayer life, it is prophetic, a two-way communication and relationship with Jesus. Being prophetic is connecting with Heaven. Be willing to change so you can hear from Heaven.

2 Kings 3:9 So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. And when they had made a circuitous march of seven days, there was no water for the army or for the animals that followed them. 

These 3 kings are coming together to fight a common enemy, the king of Moab. Are you in your own journey today of fighting an enemy and have run out of water? Do you feel a little disconnected? defeated? dry? Want to get back to normal? Know that we only have one enemy!

2 Kings 3:10 Then the king of Israel said, “Alas! The Lord has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab." A defeatist attitude! When we are running out of water, we need to seek a Word from God. 

2 Kings 3:11-12 And Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no prophet of the Lord here, through whom we may inquire of the Lord?" Then one of the king of Israel's servants answered, “Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah. And Jehoshaphat said, “The word of the Lord is with him.” So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. They were thirsty and went to Elisha even though normally a prophet would go to the king. We will also break protocol when we are thirsty and desperate. Acknowledge the desperation and seek a word from the Lord. Jehoshaphat has been through this kind of thing before... I Kings 22. Elisha had a word for the king.

2 Kings 3:13 And Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother.” But the king of Israel said to him, “No; it is the Lord who has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab.” At this point, they are desperate and have doom and gloom, bad attitudes. 

Verse 14 And Elisha said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, were it not that I have regard for Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would neither look at you nor see you." There is power in one person standing in the gap for others with continued prayer. God is a gap filler. Prayer creates space for God to fill. 

Verse 15 But now bring me a musician. And when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him. When we worship, we are creating a space for God to fill - a change in the atmosphere. 

Verse 16 And he said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘I will make this dry stream-bed full of pools." God says do this work - dig! We tend to not want to work for it. Are you working hard for answered prayers? 1 Corinthians 14:14 Praying in the Spirit makes our mind unfruitful but talks to God. Sometimes we need to say, "God I don't know but I'm praying!" We want "poof" answers; but God wants us to dig - to create capacity. How? Your prayer life is how you make space for God to move and to make changes. It may be in a way we can't imagine. When we dig, we remove dirt. The Holy Spirit will show us, where to dig, why to dig, and what to dig. God will put us in the valley to dig. God meets us in the valleys (sickness, hurt, defeat, despair...) and removes the dirt as we dig. 

How do we know where to dig? It's the last place we had water. If we rake the surface, we get leaves; but if we dig, we get diamonds. Make the valley full of ditches by digging. In the digging, we create capacity for God to fill.

Verse 17 For thus says the Lord, ‘You shall not see wind or rain, but that stream bed shall be filled with water, so that you shall drink, you, your livestock, and your animals. We ask for water when we are dry and thirsty, but God says dig. The answer is not in the wind, or the rain, but in the place where we dig. There is life in our valleys. How?

Verse 18 This is a light thing in the sight of the Lord. Don't compare our capacity to another's capacity as we all need to dig. Our prayer life is how we dig - digging into the Word, using your words out loud in prayer, reading devotions, confessing (saying the same Words of Jesus about who we are). DIG - Do It God. God wants to fill the gaps - it is a light thing for God. Dig and create capacity in our hearts. Verse 19-20 and you shall attack every fortified city and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree and stop up all springs of water and ruin every good piece of land with stones. The next morning, about the time of offering the sacrifice, behold, water came from the direction of Edom, till the country was filled with water. 

Are you thirsty? Are you hungry? Our thirst and hunger should drive us to God. He says dig and He will fill in the gaps. 

What does being prophetic mean? 

Are you in your own journey today of fighting an enemy and have run out of water?

How do you want to start or change your digging patterns?