LARRY: Welcome to Something More. I’m your host, Larry Sparks, and today I’m going to tell you how you can actually be activated in the prophetic ministry. And you might be thinking, Wait; wait, wait, I’m not a prophet. How can I prophesy to people? Let me tell you 2 quick things because I believe it is biblically legal – in fact, your spiritual inheritance – to prophesy. In Ephesians 4, yes it talks about an office of a prophet. Just like you have pastors and apostles in the Church, you have prophets. And today I’m very grateful to have a guest who is a prophet, but let me tell you this. A prophet’s job is not just to hear God for you. I believe a prophet’s job is to get you connected with your prophetic destiny, and actually clear the airwaves for you to hear from God. Because even though Ephesians 4 talks about the office of a prophet, 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 actually encourages you. Paul encourages all Believers to prophesy. So today I have Hakeem Collins with me. And again, I’m – I’m so encouraged to know you, to read your material, listen to your material, –

 

HAKEEM: Yes.

 

LARRY: because you’re not being this voice saying, Hey, you know what, you got to come to me, to hear God; you’re actually helping people get connected with God, so they can prophesy. So just – just share with me a little bit, Hakeem, about the difference between the office of a prophet, and then the gift of prophecy, because I think there’s a lot of confusion about that.

 

HAKEEM: Yes, Larry, it is definitely. Allot of confusion about the gift of prophetic, or p- – I call it the gift of prophesying, –

 

LARRY: Yeah; yeah.

 

HAKEEM: or the office of the prophet. And the Bible is very clear, in Ephesians

chapter 5, where God set in the Church first apostles, secondary prophets, and thirdly teachers. We see that God set these gifts – these ministry gifts

– in the Church for the purpose of equipping the saints. Now we see that the prophet is a secondary ministry, but it doesn’t mean that they’re superior; it does not mean that they’re greater than any other gift. It’s just that God has a government; God has an establishment; God has a setting. And so the office of the prophet is a high responsibility –

 

LARRY: Mm.

 

HAKEEM: to the church, for the Believer to be equipped, into, their ministry. , but also there’s a difference as well between the office of the prophet and the gift of prophecy. And I believe there’s a lot of misunderstanding about that, and I believe it’s because of teaching.

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: And my heart really, as a modern-day prophetic minister is, really to bring understanding and clarity of the difference, because a lot of times because someone prophesied, doesn’t mean that they are a prophet.

 

LARRY: Yeah.

HAKEEM: and just because someone speaks the Word of God doesn’t mean that they have the responsibility that an office prophet has to the Church, so my job is, really to bring clarity. So as you stated, in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, it gives you the outline of the ministry –

 

LARRY: Yes.

 

HAKEEM: of the prophet. But also in 1 Corinthians, when Paul begins to give an outline of the parameter, I believe what the gift does, it is to edify the saints, to really build them up. I believe the gift of prophecy is to build up the saints.

 

LARRY: Yes.

 

HAKEEM: It’s, really to build the Church.

 

LARRY: Now hold on a minute here, because here’s – here’s the problem: I know back in, I don’t know, the 50s and 60s where – where we the prophetic being restored in many ways –

 

HAKEEM: Yes; yes.

 

LARRY: in the Church – t-to some degree in one wave – I think a lot of people have this – they’re a little bit scared of the prophetic, Hakeem. And I think they’re scared because they think a prophet is going to come, and, you know, call out all their sins.

 

HAKEEM: hm.

 

LARRY: Or they think, Okay, so I’m going to be activated in prophetic ministry. Does that mean I’m always looking for all the negative in people, and all that? But you’re actually talking about how it edifies; it builds people up;

 

HAKEEM: Yes.

 

LARRY: it’s constructive. So, you, please give us a definition, so we have a clear vision of what the prophetic looks like. What is it intended to do? How is it constructive?

 

HAKEEM: Well, the purpose of the gift of prophecy

is to bring edification, exhortation, and comfort.

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: That is the boundaries that the gift does. It’s not the office, but it’s the gift.

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: And so it is to build, to edify, and to exhort. And a lot of people needs edification; a lot of people needs encouragement; so it’s not to be used as a way to bring destruction, –

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: but it’s a gift that the Holy Spirit will allow every Believer to operate in, to bring construction. I believe that we are in a, you know, an hour where we’re looking for doom and gloom and judgment; –

 

LARRY: Right; yeah.

 

HAKEEM: but I believe that the purpose of prophecy is to really help the Believer to come into their identity, come into their purpose, to build them up in their faith; but also, to know that the gifts of the Spirit are available today.

 

LARRY: Yes.

 

HAKEEM: I believe that you know, we are in an hour where God is placing this prophetic spirit upon all flesh; we see it in Joel.

There was a prophecy that was released, that He was going to release. God was going to Release His prophetic Spirit upon the sons and daughters and they may prophesy. That means that there is a prophetic spirit that’s about to be released, –

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: but it’s not just for an – a prophet, but every Believer, Larry, can prophesy! Every Believer can speak for God, to edify, to exhort, and to comfort them.

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: This is a season; I believe it’s not for the doom and gloom, –

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: the judgment. I mean people know what they’re going through.

 

LARRY: They are.

 

HAKEEM: They know their sin; they know what their struggling; and they don’t need someone to come to identify, put a magnifying glass and say, This is what you did. You know, we’ve seen these misused and abused in the prophetic –

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: and it’s breaking my heart to see them, so my job is really, to bring clarity. I believe that there have been people that are genuine prophets, –

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: have prophetic gifting’s, but really lack the teaching and the true biblical principle of what prophecy is, –

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: and what the purpose of it. And so my job really is to really bring, make prophecy easy, –

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: and make it simple; not to make everyone prophets. I believe we can all be activated in the prophetic gift.

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: We all can move because it is, a desired, gift. The Bible talks about, in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, that we can desire spiritual gifts, –

 

LARRY: Yes.

 

HAKEEM: but also that we may prophesy.

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: But before even it said that we can desire spiritual gifts, it says, Pursue love -; that’s the first thing! So even to move into–

 

LARRY: Mm!

 

HAKEEM: the prophetic gifting, we can pursue – and have a desire – to move in love.

 

LARRY: Wow. Well, and even as you’re saying that Hakeem, I’m thinking to myself, you know, it’s so important that we recognize that a prophetic voice, whether it’s a prophet, whether people being activated in the prophetic – it’s not about going out calling out sins; not even about calling out judgment.

 

HAKEEM: Right.

 

LARRY: Because like you said, so many people are so beat up; people already know their sins; –

 

HAKEEM: Sure.

 

LARRY: but as a prophetic voice, you’re actually seeing past the sin, and you’re looking at that person’s destiny. You’re looking at how God sees them, –

 

HAKEEM: Absolutely.

 

LARRY: and calling those things out. That’s why a person who’s completely in sin – I’ve heard testimonies where – I’m sure you have.

 

HAKEEM: Yeah.

 

LARRY: Have you seen whacks desk situations where people were just like totally in sin – totally away from God – and yet a prophetic word activated them, turning them back on the course towards God. I mean have you seen that?

 

HAKEEM: All the time; all the time.

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: Everywhere I minister and I travel, my heart is, really to pull out the treasure in people.

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: The prophetic gift gives me the ability to see how God sees them; to see from God’s perspective.

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: It’s to really to see the treasure in them, and not the dirt.

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: Our ability, prophetically is, really to dig out what God sees; to dig out their full potential – their gifting’s, their callings –

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: and really call those things that be not as though they are.

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: That’s the prophetic element or the ingredients of prophecy!

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: It’s to pull those things out, that really see what God sees for them, and allow them to understand it; but also bring clarity to it.

 

LARRY: Yeah; yeah.

 

HAKEEM: But also allowing them to manifest it. So again, it’s not to really cause them to see their sin, —

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: and judgment; they already know, and they already felt like they’re, beat up.

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: a lot of times there’s a lot of abuse that I’ve seen, even as I travel Larry, where I’ve seen people use the prophetic gift, that are not prophets; but even uneducated, don’t understand the gift of prophecy, and its purpose that God has r originally assigned it in the Church.

 

LARRY: Yeah.

 

HAKEEM: They’ve used it and abused it to a point where they have cut people down, and not built them up.

 

LARRY: Yeah; yeah. Well and again, as we come back, we’re going to talk about how you can actually operate in the prophetic – you can hear God. And at the end of the day, you need to hear what God is saying, so that when you see someone, and you are getting a prophetic word, you can actually bring your words into agreement with God’s, call out their destiny; and then when you receive a prophetic word, you can actually know whether it’s, whether it’s the flesh, or maybe it’s even some devil trying to give you a word. So don’t go away. When you come back, we’re going to answer all these questions [music] and more.

SID: You have this timeline which just makes the Book of Revelation so simple. What is next on the prophetic timeline?

 

ROD: Well we’re right now in the church age. The very next event will be when the magnificent magnitude of his person sweeps out from north to south and east to west, and his appearing in the sky, spoken in verse, that’s noted in Chapter 4, we will be caught up, reposo, we will be raptured off this planet and then we’ll begin the seven years of tribulation, three and half and three and a half, which will culminate as the last day of the tribulation period becomes the first day of the Second Coming, which begins the millennial reign of Christ when he steps on the Mount of Olives and the bitter waters become sweet, and he sets up his earthly kingdom on the Temple Mount in that restored temple, the third temple, and rules and reigns for a thousand years. At the end of the thousand years, final judgment, the end of final judgment, eternity.

 

SID: You know, John saw thrones.

 

ROD: He did.

 

SID: Who’s going to be on those thrones? We know Jesus is on the throne.

 

ROD: Right.

 

SID: But who’s going to be on the thrones?

 

ROD: Can you imagine it, Sid? I know we can’t. Eye’s not seen, ears not heard, hasn’t even been able to enter into our hearts the things that God has for us. Those thrones, they’re meant for those who have had their robes washed white in the lamb’s blood of life. That’s right. You’re going to have one and I’m going to have one. And if you don’t want yours I’m big enough to sit on two.

 

SID: Get right with God. Tell him you’re sorry for your sins. You believe the blood of Jesus is amazing grace. Ask him to live inside of you and be your Lord.

SID:                 Hello, Sid Roth with Something More and Jonathan, you have such a… and by the way my guest is Jonathan Bernis, the head of Jewish Voice and you’ve probably seen him on television and… but Jonathan and I are friends and we’re gonna let you eavesdrop on our conversation. You have had a passion for years for confessing God’s word. Why?

 

JONATHAN:    Well very simply, two words. It works!

 

SID:                 I like that.

 

JONATHAN:    It does. It absolutely works. And I’ll tell you very quickly the story how I came into this. I was counseling a woman and one of the things that I, that I least enjoyed, between us, just the two of us…

 

SID:                 All right.

 

JONATHAN:    …when I was pastoring…

 

SID:                 You just hit your mic again!

 

JONATHAN:    I know, I know.

 

SID:                 Okay. I like to emphasize… (laughing)

 

JONATHAN:                I was gonna hit my forehead and I missed. Oy vey, but one of the things I least enjoyed when I was leading a congregation, pastoral ministry was counseling. And there was a woman that was severely depressed, clinically depressed. And she had been, like the woman with the issue of blood to every psychologist, to every psychiatrist. They had spent a great deal of money on counseling and she was, she just exuded depression and everywhere she went it was just like a cloud over her and then it hit other people. And I just spent hours of what really wasted time trying to help her without any results whatsoever. And then I was praying for her before a counseling meeting and the Lord told me just give her some scriptures like of liberty. That confess liberty. ôWhomever the Son sets free is free indeed.ö ôWhere the Spirit of God is there is liberty.ö ôGreater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. And I gave her this assignment and I didn’t know what to expect. I actually, I probably didn’t expect much of anything. Sid, she came back the next week and she was a different person! The cloud was gone. She was smiling. It was the first time I had ever seen her smile. And what she did was to takeà she obeyed the homework assignment. She did it. She became a do-er of the word and not a hearer only and she stood in front of the mirror like I recommended she do. She began to confess these scriptures and in about three days the depression lifted because the word of God works and confession is a Biblical principle. If you look at the word meditate in the Hebrew it’s hagah. That should remind you of something. The Haggadah…

 

SID:                 Right.

 

JONATHAN:    …which means to tell the Passover story. Haggadah. But that word hagah…

 

SID:                 Excuse me. The little booklet that has the whole format for Passover is called the The Haggadah.

 

JONATHAN:    Why because we’re retelling the story of Passover, the exodus out of Egypt. Yeah, thanks for clarifying. But the word in Hebrew hagah means to mutter. To utter. To speak. And when God told Joshua to meditate on the word and he’d be successful in everything that he did and he’d be able to take the Land and lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land the word is hagah. So Christian meditation is to think, to contemplate but Jewish meditation is to confess, to use that little member of our body, the tongue, which we’re told has the power of life and death in it. And to speak the word of God and by speaking the word of God something happens, Sid, that’s supernatural! I know you like that word.

 

SID:                 I do.

 

JONATHAN:    Supernatural! And what happens is faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God and the spoken tongue, the language, speaking forth words has creative force for good and bad. What happens supernaturally is that when we confess the word of God we hear it. When we hear it over and over and over again it becomes faith. It drops into our spirit. And then when we confess it from our spirit it has creative force, it has life and it brings change. It’s miraculous. It’s supernatural!

 

SID:                 What I find is so amazing if you could see in the invisible realm when you speak…  I just did the same thing. (Sid hit the mic)

 

JONATHAN:    I was gonna point it out. (laughing)

 

SID:                 Yeah, I wasn’t gonna let you point it out.

 

JONATHAN:    (LAUGHING)

 

SID:                 When you speak the word of God it literally it’s called a sword and it literally it does what a sword does. It just totally, the enemy stands no chance. In fact…

 

JONATHAN:   You feel the anointing growing right now as you’re talking? The anointing is, I’m getting excited!

 

SID:                 Joshua 1:8 you teach about. Explain.

 

JONATHAN:                That is the scripture God is encouraging Joshua. He’s preparing Joshua to take over for Moses. What a, can you imagine how daunting this is? The great Moses has now departed and you have to lead somewhere around three million Jewish people. Everyone is a president unto themselves. And you have to lead them…

 

SID:     I know. Yeah. When you have ten Jewish people you have eleven opinions, but go…

JONATHAN:                ..or more. And God is encouraging Joshua. This is Joshua’s pep talk, Sid. And He’s saying Joshua, you’re gonna make it but here’s how you’re gonna make it. You’re gonna succeed. You’re gonna accomplish this. I’ve been preparing you but here’s what you have to do to be successful. You have to meditate, hagah, confess my word day and night and never let it depart, he doesn’t say from your heart or your mind, He says never let it depart from your mouth. So if you confess the scriptures by speaking them forth and they’ll get into your hearing. You’ll listen to them. It’ll drop into your spirit. It’ll become faith and you will succeed in everything that you do.

 

SID:                 You know I’m having an amazing thought right now. We Jewish people we go into the synagogue and we daven. That’s called pray. And we use usually a Prayer Book but the prayer book is loaded with scripture so a religious Jew is going into the synagogue and he is meditating on the word of God every day. My father used to have the prayer book memorized and there’d be a contest to see who could say the prayers the fastest (laughing) in the synagogue but what he was doing was he was speaking the supernatural words of God. He was meditating. He was actually mumble… when you said that, it’s like mumbling. They do it real fast.

 

JONATHAN:    Mumble or mutter?

 

SID:                 Mutter. That when they read it that quickly in the scriptures and maybe, just maybe that’s one of the reasons why Jewish people are such a blessed group of people. I mean more Nobel Prizes for Jewish people and we’re such a tiny group of people. I believe that has something to do with it, Jonathan.

 

JONATHAN:    This is… again, our spoken words have creative force. Our spoken words are what we hear and faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God and the most powerful thing is when it gets into our heart and don’t you notice you confess scriptures and then you remember them at key times…

 

SID:                 Yes.

JONATHAN:    …the Lord brings them to mind at just the right time and that’s how it works. But when you speak forth the word of God, when you speak healing to someone from your spirit you’re releasing the creative power of healing and I love it Sid. There’s nothing more exciting!

 

SID:                 Okay, but you have incorporated Hebrew.

 

JONATHAN:    I have.

 

SID:                 Whyà now it’s interactive so you have the English, you have the Hebrew and you have transliteration which we’ll get to which in a matter of seconds you could actually speak the Hebrew that you’re seeing. But why Hebrew?

 

JONATHAN:   Well there’s a couple of reasons. First of all Hebrew is known as the holy tongue. It’s the tongue of the prophets. It’s the language of the Old Testament and I believe it’s the language of heaven. I believe that when God created the world it was the spoken word in Hebrew. We’ll find out when we get to heaven but I believe it was Hebrew. It’s a createà so the language itself has creative force. And we were talking in a past program about the, just the different tone, tonal qualities of Hebrew they’ve determined actually have creative power.

 

SID:                 You know I can’t, I can’t tell you from a technical viewpoint I can just tell you to my ear I like spoken Hebrew. I like the way it sounds.

 

JONATHAN:    I do too! And that there’s a reason for that. Our spirit likes it. It’s not our mind that likes it. It’s our spirit that likes it. When I hear Shalom I just love it. And I know that it’s speaking peace. I know that it’s speaking life. But here’s another reason. Okay, let’s take this one. Adonai Yireh. The word Yireh. Okay? The Lord will provide. So Yireh or Jireh. Jehovah Jireh, my provider (singing the song). So what’s the English word? It’s provide.

 

SID:                 Right.

JONATHAN:    Right. But Yireh, but when we confess Yireh we’re not just saying provide. We’re saying, we’re speaking forth prophetically abundance, blessing, multiplication. I’m reading all the words that Yireh means. Lacking for nothing, prosper, success, fruitfulness, sustenance, rescue, protection, shelter, graciousness, enjoyment, carry us to old age, rain when there’s famine, asking and receiving. All connected to the word Yireh!

 

SID:                 You know what? That sure sounds a lot better to me than just money. That’s what money can’t buy. You know that? Money can’t buy what Yireh provides for us.

 

JONATHAN:    You know we have super supplements and super vitamins and whatever else. Super foods. Hebrew are super words. It’s a language of super words. So we say provide in English but then we look, we go to the Hebrew and we release in Yireh a super word that has 20 or 30 English words all contained in the one word that we confess. Yireh!

 

SID:                 But the problem if you have ever looked at the Hebrew language unless you’re taught you can’t speak it and you’ll have to be taught it for a number of years to understand it, to speak it. But there was a problem when Jewish people came to America. Tell me about that, Jonathan.

 

JONATHAN:    Well the Yeshiva, the idea of Yeshiva and men being brought up as from the time that they were little children in the Hebrew language disappeared when America, when Jews started coming to America. In fact the Hebrew language was basically lost. It was really lost in what we call the Dispersion when the Jews were forced to leave Israel…

 

SID:                 Scattered.

 

JONATHAN:    …banished from Israel in 70 A.D. or actually 130 after the Bar Kokhba revolt they were scattered to the nations of the world and you would think they would assimilate. Here’s a people without a homeland anymore and really without a common language. Hebrew really faded away but it continued on in the European Shtetl and so on but in America particularly Hebrew literally disappeared. And so the religious leaders at the turn of the twentieth century were asking a question. How do we preserve Hebrew in our worship? And they came up with the idea called transliteration which is simply taking the English language and phonetically spelling out the Hebrew and we both grew up with this to some extent. We both went to Hebrew School but we also have in most prayer books now outside of the Orthodox this thing called transliteration where we have the phonetic English that is an aid to read Hebrew and I’ve employed that in these books.

 

SID:                 No, I see it. For instance the Hebrew you’d never understand if you saw it written but then it’s so easy. Here it is phonetically. And in the book, that’s what I love about this book. And it’s you see it’s a hard back.

 

JONATHAN:    It’s a workbook, Sid.

 

SID:     Beautiful.

 

JONATHAN:    It’s a workbook.

 

SID:                 And the CD is interactive. He has an Israeli reading the Hebrew but then you can read right along with that Israeli because it’s written out phonetically and it’s so easy. Just that word ôthe Lord will provide,ö all of those meanings you’re losing you’re capturing it when you’re saying Hebrew. Okay. Whyà so they developed this system. It’s so simple that anyone without understanding how to read the Hebraic letters sounds like an Israeli scholar but you’ll really sound Israeli because on the interactive CD that comes with this beautiful book you get the Hebrew from an Israeli, not just Jonathan or myself that speak ôBar Mitzvah Hebrew.

 

JONATHAN:    And you can read with it and follow it right along. There’s aà here’s how long it takes to learn Hebrew with these books. Five minutes. Five minutes!

 

SID:                 I said seconds. Okay?

JONATHAN:    Yeah, no.

 

SID:                 I’m an evangelist, you’re a teacher! (laughing)

 

JONATHAN: No, you’re exaggerating. It’s a full five-minute process.

 

SID:                 Okay. Well…

 

JONATHAN:    To start. Let’s be honest. I gotta be honest with you.

 

SID:                 Can you do the five minutes? By the way it was so supernatural the way Hebrew was lost when the Jews were dispersed to the four corners of the earth. How was Hebrew restored for Israel? Because see here’s the problem. Jews were coming back from the four corners of the earth to Israel as God promised but they all, some spoke French, some spoke Italian, some spoke… what’s the Ethiopian language?

 

JONATHAN:    Amharic?

 

SID:                 Amharic.

 

JONATHAN:    Yiddish. Yiddish was a, Yiddish there was two…

 

SID:                 So it’s like a Tower of Babel…

 

JONATHAN:    That’s right.

 

SID:                 We gotta have one language so how did we get one language back?

 

JONATHAN:                Well Hebrew was a precursor to the restoration of Israel as a state in 1948 and it began as you said with pioneers in the nineteenth century that began to go back to the Land and God spoke to a man named Eliezer ben- Yehuda and he’s known as the Father of Modern Hebrew. And he was I believe called supernaturally by God to return to the Land of Israel and he was a linguist who began to recreate, to take the ancient language that had been preserved but lost at the same time and began to put together a multi-volume dictionary and all of these modern words that didn’t have a Hebrew word he created Hebrew words and he restored, he was used by God to restore Hebrew as a modern spoken language.

 

SID:                 How, how… You know he had all sorts of persecution when he did this. You think about…

 

JONATHAN:    Terrible.

 

SID:                 àHow heà it had to be God.

 

JONATHAN:    It had to be!

 

SID:                 Because without the modern day Hebrew, Israel would be a nation like the Tower of Babel.

 

JONATHAN:    Sid, just to see the way God orchestrated everything though. Zionism with Theodore Herzl who was a proclaimed atheist. Saw a trial in France called the Dreyfus Trial and said we’re never going to be safe anywhere. We need our homeland. Started the modern movement of Zionism. You have Eliezer ben-Yehuda being used by God to recreate the language of Hebrew, reestablish it.

 

SID:                 It’s all started dovetailing!

 

JONATHAN:    All dovetails and comes together at a specific time in history, a divine intersection, a kairos moment and we’re in it!