photo of sheep with lightning bolts over their heads

Empowered Sheep

What does it take to change the atmosphere around us? How do we maintain our innocence while standing strong in the power of God? Sean Smith unpacks the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 10:16 where He sends us out as sheep among wolves, and what we learn is: it’s all about discernment.

The basic reading of Matthew 10 is this: God, through the Holy Spirit, has given us the charge to change the spiritual atmosphere around us. He sends us out into the world as sheep among wolves. We must therefore be as wise, cunning, and shrewd as serpents while also being as pure, innocent, and safe as doves.

As with all of Jesus’ teaching, there is gold under the surface of the parables and analogies. Sean pulls together ideas from the Old Testament and even zoology to help us understand more of what Jesus was teaching.

Human Realities & Heaven’s Prompting

We’re sent out as sheep among wolves, but we’re not sent out powerless. Jesus is reigning, and His kingdom has been and forever will be increasing non-stop. Since the beginning when God spoke light into existence, darkness has not been able to overcome it. It never will. You and I are prophetic people by inheritance. By covenant. By our union with Jesus. We are equipped by the indwelt Holy Spirit to change the atmosphere around us, to live in prophetic awareness, and to minister reconciliation to the wolves. Wolves, you see, are meant to become sheep (bear with the analogy here…). That’s God’s heart as the Good Shepherd.

Discernment combines both a recognition of the brokenness of humanity and the world we live in while simultaneously looking for what the Father is doing and partnering with Him by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The voice of God is not so much heard as discerned. God speaks Spirit to spirit. We must become more Spirit-conscious through prayer, worship, praying in the spirit. We become attuned to the voice of the Lord thereby. To be used in the marketplace, you must train your discernment. How? Here’s some ways to get started:

  1. Guard your prophetic zone.
  2. Surrender your senses to the Holy Spirit.
  3. Reach for a higher realm.
  4. Develop your discernment.
  5. Recognize your surrounding environment.
  6. Spend time in worship, in prayer, and speaking in tongues.

Keep growing in your prophetic gifting! Whether it’s the gift of prophecy, word of knowledge, word of wisdom, et cetera, the Spirit wants to fill you afresh each day to advance His kingdom.

P.S. This teaching comes from our an online conference we held earlier this year. To watch more prophetic training teachings, worship moments, and our entire catalog of videos, check out globalondemand.tv →

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