God Warned Me about a Specific Celebrity.

I heard about Taylor Lautner, and then I'm going to get to this exhortation. I heard a Taylor Lautner quote unquote vote is coming. I believe this is an exhortation to us that there is a method of control and it's called manipulation and it's called fear. And a lot of times it's tied to the idea of, well, you need to have the fear of the Lord. Yes, the true fear of the Lord. We do need to have. But the word says there's no longer any fear in love for perfect love casts out fear. Hey, y'all, this is Troy Black. So I heard a word about a celebrity, an actor. His name is Taylor Lautner. So if you've never seen the Twilight films, you are fortunate to never have seen those. But he was an actor from those films when they were they were a big thing many years ago. I think it's it's something a lot of people regret at this point ever watching this. But anyways, all jokes aside, I got a word about this guy and I'm going to submit this as a prophetic word. And just read it and kind of let it land how it lands. And then I got a very encouraging word, and I believe it's also a word of exhortation for those listening as well. And so the prophetic parts of this, you know, I'm going to I'm going to jump to the scripture, but the prophetic parts of this, I highly encourage you not to run with until you get confirmation, either by comparing it to the scripture or by praying and making sure that the Lord is confirming it. That's what the word asks us to do with prophecy. It says test prophecy. 1 Thessalonians 5 says, do not utterly reject prophecy, but test everything. It says, hold fast to that which is good and reject every form of evil. So we are meant to do this because we have a foundation as Christians. And that's the word of God. It's written for us. We can read it. It's right there. We don't have to test it. It is the standard. But then the Holy Spirit can still speak today. And he speaks to not just some anointed individual out there on a platform somewhere or online or whatever. No, he speaks to the hearts of believers. And so if you're hearing something personally where you're in prayer and you're hearing something, it's a very good idea to test that by number one, the written word and saying, what does the scripture say about this? Right. And then also run it by other seasoned, mature believers and say, does this sound like the voice of God to you? Does this sound like something the Holy Spirit would say? Does this sound scriptural and biblically based? Does it sound like wisdom? Right. And then also another thing you can do is be like Gideon, right, and continue to pray, continue to ask for clarification, for confirmation. There's nothing wrong with that. There's a lot of fear, unfortunately, that's been sown into parts of the charismatic culture, in some cases having to do with asking questions and that's asking questions of leaders, but also just asking questions of God, asking God a question or asking for clarity or just saying, Lord, I don't know, like, I don't know if that's you or not. That is not a sign of distrust or unbelief or a lack of faith. God didn't rebuke Gideon for saying, Lord, I want to make sure this is you. Lord, I want to make sure that you're the one speaking to me. There wasn't a rebuke there. The Lord responded and he said, okay, I'm going to give you a sign. I'm going to, and then I'm going to give you a second sign. It's because Gideon's heart was sold out to the Lord. Gideon wanted to be obedient. Gideon wanted to be walking in the ways of God, but also the direction God had for his life. The calling, the specific calling he had for him, but he didn't know. He didn't know. Was that the angel that came to him? Was that the Lord? Was that not? Like the word even tells us to test those kinds of encounters, right? And so we shouldn't take something and run with it just because somebody said we should, or we had a feeling about it, but instead we've got a plumb line and it's called the written word of God and we've got other tools that God has given us as the church to help us to know, is this really coming from the Lord or not? And so that's kind of what this message is about. And I believe we're in a critical season of distinguishing and discerning the voice of God versus the voice of the culture, but then also more specifically in the church, the teaching that's coming from God versus the teaching that's coming from man. So this is August 13th. I heard these phrases, I'm submitting this, please pray into this. And then we'll be following up on this later. I have an archive on my website, Troyblackvideos.com. But I heard Taylor Lautner, a victory and an escape. And then I heard he's having trouble lifting off for some reason other than his own and outside quote unquote force affecting his destiny. And the impression I got was like mental pressures, uh, even maybe potentially societal pressures of some kind could be the, the weighing in of, of fans voices or something like that or an organization. But then I heard, don't let this happen. The devil does not hold authority over you any longer as a saint. Then I heard you are free. He who the sunset's free is free indeed. So the Lord got back to Taylor Lautner in a second, and I'll get back to that in a second. But this is what I was hearing after that. I believe this is an exhortation to us that there is a method of control and it's called manipulation and it's called fear. And a lot of times it's tied to the idea of, well, you need to have the fear of the Lord, right? You need to have the fear of the Lord. Yes, the true fear of the Lord. We do need to have, that's an awe and a reverence and a decision to obey him no matter what. God's in control. I'm not in control, but the word says there's no longer any fear in love for perfect love casts out fear. So we are in a relationship now with our heavenly father where we get to actually ask questions. We get to say, Lord, I want to be obedient, but I don't fully understand. I need your help. I need you to help me. Right. And I'm going to walk in faith. Yes. And I'm going to be obedient. But also I want to be protected from something that's false. I want to be protected from manipulation. I want to be protected from false teaching, false doctrine. And the Lord wants to protect his people. Absolutely. And he set the church, the scripture, things like that. But also the Holy Spirit is going to step in. If we will, we will spend time in his word, spend time in prayer. Just, just ask him, believe by faith. Jesus paid the price so that we could, we could be forgiven our sins. We could receive the Holy Spirit. We could be in relationship with God. Just ask him in faith. And he wants to direct you. And he's, there's the distinguishing of spirits. There's the discerning of spirits gift, but there's also the gift of wisdom. And James chapter one says, if you ask God for wisdom and you believe by faith, God's going to give you that. He's, he's, he's going to be very generous with the amount of wisdom that he gives us. And so this is a picture of external pressures or manipulation, trying to get us to conform to something that's manmade. And the Lord, I believe is wanting some of us to take a step back out of that and say, wait a minute, am I under pressure and in a, in a fear of not doing something? What, what will happen if I don't do this? And is that from God or, or is that a construct of man? And I, I truly believe the Lord wants people to shake that fear off today because he has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. And we get to move forward out of making decisions based on wisdom and making decisions based on what the word of God actually says, not out of a fear of missing out, not out of a fear of accidentally offending God or, or, or stepping outside of his will. That's, that should not be the motivation, the, the, the continual motivation of a believer's life. No, it should be his love. The word of God says the love of Christ compels us. It controls us. It says the Holy Spirit pours the love of the father into our hearts. We, he cries out, Abba, father. We're in a relationship where God is able to direct us, but also if we step off that course, off that path, he's able to lovingly correct us. And when you've accepted the grace of God, the sacrifice of Christ at the cross, you want to be the corrected. You want, you say, Lord, correct me. I would rather be in your will. It's not a fear-based motivation. It's a love-based mentality. I'd rather be in your will. Why? Because I believe that that's the best place I could be. And if I make a mistake, guess what? What does the word say? His grace is sufficient today. And it says it's his loving kindness that leads us to repentance. This is the next thing I heard has to do with Taylor Lautner. Again, I heard he will be moving to a quote unquote, new career, slightly a new career entirely in some senses, though the move will feel lateral. And then I heard adjoining forces combating against the one I love. This is the world and the kingdom of the enemy. You don't have to take it. You don't walk as a slave anymore. So again, the Lord is speaking about external pressures that are trying to motivate the people of God and the Lord saying, shake that off. You don't have to live in that space. And some of that in some cases, unfortunately, comes from leadership among the body, among the church, you know, that's either in an unhealthy place or has been taught wrong. And I'm going to go ahead and share what I'm hearing right now. And I'm submit this. But what I'm hearing is this, this phrase in a lot of ways, I'm correcting from the top down, but I'm starting with the bottom up and I'm using those who are the least among these in the lowest positions in some cases to call out those above who have been running in error and who have said, I don't need correction. I don't need rebuke. I don't need accountability because I'm the man of God. I just hear this phrase. That's not what this hour is about. I'm correcting my church and I'm using the least of these in some cases to do that. And I just hear it because it's time for the truth to be at the forefront, not the opinion of a man and a man's vision and what a man is building, but rather the church of God being led by the head, which is Christ being holy and fully sold out for the gospel truth, the message of grace and kindness in Christ Jesus, the God of the universe coming to save a people undeserving of that, but that he loves fully and wholly and with every ounce of his being. And I hear the Lord saying, I'm here to do that. I'm here to set the captives free, but some of my people are getting in the way and I'm correcting it and that the movement has started. It's begun. It's already happening. It's here, but it's moving full steam ahead as well. We're going to see, keep seeing the correction happen until it's finished. So that's what, that's what I hear. So y'all take that to the Lord in prayer if you need to. But this is the next thing I heard about Taylor Lautner. And then I'm going to get to this exhortation. I heard a Taylor Lautner quote unquote vote is coming. And so this is strange because it is definitely alluding back to the whole Twilight series because at that time, whatever the main character's name, I forget, the lady in the series, she was either going to wind up with, I think it was maybe Edwin or Edward or something on one side or the Taylor Lautner's character on the other side, right? And so there was a big vote happening online who she was going to wind up with anyways, super silly, but that's what I heard here. So there's some sort of funny reference back to that. A Taylor Lautner quote unquote vote is coming to people across the online world, raising their voices to weigh in. Is this the right move or isn't it? And then I heard, I will answer before too long. I care about this too. People say I would never speak into some things. And then I heard that it is outside my realm of jurisdiction or outside my thought, but it is not. And then I heard, I care too much what happens to human beings to not think about it, to not consider it. It's worth talking about. So is the Lord saying he cares about online polls and celebrity chatter? That's not what he's talking about. He's saying he cares about people. He cares about people. And so of course he's willing to speak about something that is going to affect human beings. It's going to affect people. Why? Because he wants people to come home to know Jesus. You know, and this was the impression I got before I started filming this today, is that there are some people listening who you think some of the things you're dealing with are too small, you know, for the Lord. Like it's, it's, God wouldn't care about that. God would never speak to me about that. Or God would never lead me in that area of my life. God would never step in with this thing. It's, it's not a big enough issue. And that's just simply not true because he loves you. Like he's your heavenly father and he loves you. And Jesus said, the father knows what you need before you even ask. So of course he's willing to get. And what does James say? I want to pull this up on screen because I feel like this is important. It says, but if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all generously and without reproach and it will be given to him. So no matter what area you need wisdom in, the Lord wants to give that. And he's waiting for you to ask like, that is what this verse is encouraging us to do. And it says without reproach, you know, same way that Gideon was like, I need direction. I need help. I need wisdom. Gideon did not have to go to an anointed leader to get that. He just went to God. Now somebody, some would argue, well, Gideon was an anointed leader. Yes, that's true. Under the old, under the old covenant. Yeah. In that way. But now what does the word say? Paul, the apostle says, I wish you all would prophesy, which means that this gift of the Holy spirit of being able to hear God's voice. Now we all hear his voice to different extents in different ways. And God speaks in ways that we can understand all of that. But we all have a relationship with him. Like that's the point. We don't have to go through an anointed leader to get to God. God's blessing doesn't come through the construct of a, of a human, of a person. It comes through Jesus, comes through his finished work on the cross. And if you believed in that, then you have his divine favor and you have his ear and he's with you and he wants to help. He wants to give you the wisdom that you need. This is what I heard. The Lord asked me to share a very short message about integrity, the fear of God and persecution. And I heard these two, three phrases and I thought these don't really feel like they go together. Integrity, the fear of God and persecution until today when I was praying about this. And then the Lord gave me specific references. And so I went and I looked these up and I was like, okay, now I see it. He's talking in the, in, in reference to leadership in the church and not allowing that pressure, that manipulation to dominate us or to control us. Now I'm not trying to paint people in a bad light. There, there's so many healthy leaders out there, you know, but a lot of times they're not the ones that are getting the recognition and that's okay. That's not a bad thing, but we see a lot of the bad and then we start to question the good as well. And is it okay to question? Yeah, absolutely. But the Lord wants you to know based on the scripture I'm about to read that the same standard that you are walking under and the same expectations he has, he has those same standard, that same standard and those same expectations and the same calling for those that are in some sort of leadership position and they're no different than you are. Like they are relying on the grace of God the same way. I'm no different than you are. I, I, I wore this shirt today. I was going to go put like a button down like I normally wear and I just felt this impression like I was supposed to wear it. This is my frog and toad. I don't know if y'all can see it. My frog and toad shirt. I have a matching shirt. My nine year old daughter has one that looks exactly the same that my wife got for us because one of their favorite book series is the frog and toad, you know, kids book series. But this is normal life for me. Like this is, this is something that I believe the Lord is saying to the church right now is, is that we, we've exalted our leaders to, to too high of a position and, and simultaneously we've run them through too low of a standard. And I heard this phrase, I have called my saints up higher than many are walking right now. And that, that's not a, that's not a correction or rebuke. Instead it's, it's a, I believe the Lord's talking about that fear and that external pressure and it's rooted in, tied into manipulation that, that, well, what if I accidentally step out of line? What if I do that? What if I do? And instead we ought to be walking in the love of Christ, the love of the father. And if we need correction, we should be humble enough to receive it. But at the same time, you are a saint. You've been called with a, with a, with a high calling. You've been anointed. The anointing is just the Holy Spirit and you have the Holy Spirit. So, so if, if, if you're afraid of, of, of stepping out from under the anointed leader of God, well, you need to recognize the anointing that you have on your own life. And that's not to say that God hasn't, doesn't raise up leaders and that God has not asked us to honor leaders and that kind of thing. Yes, that's in scripture. That's biblical, but not to the point of giving somebody a power over us that only God should have. This is Ephesians four. Let's jump into this. I'm just going to read quickly through this. It says, therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. So this is a call to believers, right? It's it absolutely. He's urging us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we've been called. But also it's, it's a standard for leadership as well. Are they walking in humility? Are they operating in humility with gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love? Or is it a domineering experience? This is Ephesians four, 11, same, same chapter. I'm just going to skim through this, but it's talking about the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, right? It's saying there's these roles, but what are the roles there for? What are the gifts? What are these gifts there for? It says for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, it's to equip the saints to do the work. So who's the important person in this passage? It's the saints. Why? Because it says they're doing the work of the ministry there and there are servants serving them to help equip them, right? Like that's for the building up of the body of Christ, not the building up of an individual. It's building up of the body, bringing people in and feeding those that are inside and building them up in faith, strengthening. And then it says until we all attain to the unity of the faith, like not to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. It's saying we all are meant to be attaining to that, not like some people have attained and then the rest of us are just going to have to, you know, hope for the best, right, or get onto that bandwagon. It's like, no, like we are meant to be growing together in unity to a place of maturity in Christ. And then what is the result? We're no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. So the warning here is that this is going to happen. There's going to be false doctrines. There's going to be tricky people. There's going to be craftiness. But God has put the Holy Spirit inside of you and he's put his word, his written word in your hands so you don't have to fall prey to these things. And the Holy Spirit is sanctifying us and helping us to mature in Christ Jesus. And sometimes maturity means, man, I got filled with the Spirit and I'm operating a gift of the Spirit. That's super cool, super legit. But sometimes maturity means getting into the word and reading until the Holy Spirit is able to correct some of the false things that we've heard. Sometimes maturity means going to a Christian counselor and saying, hey, I'm dealing with these emotional issues and I'm not able to get over this. And hearing iron sharpening iron, hearing from an external perspective. Sometimes it's humbling oneself and saying to one's spouse, I'm not good at this and I need your help. Sometimes it's going to a leader in the church and saying, me and my spouse, we're struggling, or our family, we're struggling. We need you to pray for us. We need some advice. Sometimes it's listening to somebody who you would deem less than yourself, who the Lord gave them a word of encouragement or a word of exhortation for you or comfort or correction, whatever it is, and humbling oneself and saying, I'm going to listen to that. I'm going to listen because if that's from the Lord, I need to hear it. The word says submit one to another. So there's a maturing process that God has us in. This is 2 Timothy 4, 5, this passage is in the context of manipulative or false teachers, because it just said accumulating teachers in accordance with their desires. That's literally what it's talking about. Then it says, but as for you, so Paul's talking to Timothy, he's saying, OK, he says, he says, Timothy, I know you're a leader, you're doing the work of an evangelist, you're helping to plant these churches, you're going, you're feeding the sheep. But he says, but as for you, so he's contrasting it with false ministry. He's saying you use self-restraint in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. So, you know, persecution happens, right? Hardship happens. Some of the persecution, a lot of it's going to be from the world, from the culture, right? But some of that persecution is going to happen when you're just doing what God has called you to do. And there's somebody in the church that doesn't like what you're doing because they're outside of the will of God. That's going to happen at times. And then other times, there are going to be people who are teaching false doctrine, they're using manipulation tactics, and they're going to be using that word persecution. They're going to say, well, this is just persecution, this is just persecution. When it's actually not, it's actually a loving rebuke, a correction from the Lord. And God's using people to correct them. But they're going to throw that label on it. So we've got to understand what real persecution looks like. Is this a hardship that I'm bringing on myself or is this a hardship that God is bringing on me? Is this a Jonah moment where God's brought the storm to correct me, to turn me around? Or is this an Apostle Paul moment where I'm being beaten for the sake of Christ? We've got to be able to distinguish the difference. This word right here to Timothy is not just for leaders, it's for saints. This is something we all can grab a hold of and learn from. This is 2 Timothy 3. Indeed, all who want to live in a godly way in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. So it's saying persecution is going to come, right? But look at the context here, like you would expect it to say that the world is doing the persecuting, right? But it says, but evil people and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. So now it's talking about evil people and imposters in the church, false teachers, false prophets, et cetera, walking in deception in the context of persecution. This is a very confusing, this seems very confusing at first until you look at where we're at right now and you start to recognize that anywhere there's a platform where power can be amassed, there are going to be people who are using manipulation tactics to try to grasp and grab as much of that power as possible. And they're going to be using fear to make people afraid of not doing what they want, not listening to them, not giving to them, whatever it might be. And it's the word says it's going to proceed from bad to worse, like it's going to get worse. But look at this. What is the what's the encouragement here for us? It says, you, however, and this is Paul talking to talking to Timothy, continue in the things you have learned to become convinced of knowing from whom you have learned them. It says, and that from childhood you have known. This is amazing. The sacred writings, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. What if they learn to be convinced of the gospel truth? He's saying, but as for y'all, you continue walking by faith in what Jesus has done for you on the cross. And he's saying and he's saying, I know that you're rooted in the scriptures which pointed to Jesus. That's what he's saying. The the the the law and the prophets were fulfilled in the commission that Jesus came to bring in his finished work. And then in in the commission to love one another and to be the hands and feet of Christ, it's in all of this pointed to Jesus. And he's saying, I know you you're rooted in that. He's saying, don't throw off that that foundation. It says all scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training and righteousness so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work. I love this. It says the man or woman of God. Not not talking about the like the you're the man of God for this, not talking about the leaders, although it is also applying to leadership. Right. So I'm not everybody saying it's saying that if we will stay rooted and grounded in the scripture and the truth of the word that points to Jesus, the Old Testament pointed to Christ, the New Testament points back to Christ. He's the foundation that that we're building our life on. And there's the truth is right there. And we can use the truth that's found in scripture, the truth about God's character, God's nature, what he expects, what he what he likes, what he doesn't like, the guidelines and the rules that he set laid down for the New Testament church. All of these things are right there. And it's saying you can use that to correct when you get off track or when somebody gets off off track, we know what is right and we can recognize the false based on what is true. And it says when you're in that place, you are going to be fully equipped for every good work, fully capable. And this this truth right here can save us from a lot of headache and a lot of heartache when there are people coming and putting external pressures on us and trying to manipulate and using fear tactics and saying, well, you better do this or else. Well, don't question that. Right. When the devil comes in the garden and he puts pressure on Jesus and he tries to use his circumstances, the hardship he's going through and even what God had told him to do in that moment, he tries to use those things and he tries to bring fear and manipulation and pressure to convince Jesus to do something wrong. What does Jesus say in response to him? He says, man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God. So he's saying there's a standard and this is not it. And he's saying, but I know what the truth is. I know what my father has already said to me. And I'm going to walk by that. I'm going to live by that. I'm not going to be sidetracked. This is the good word that God has given us in his scripture and through the message of Jesus Christ, the gospel message. Don't get sidetracked. Get into the word. Be rooted and grounded in love and in the truth. The Holy Spirit's right there to help you. It's going to give you wisdom if you ask. I hope this is encouraging. I love you all so much. I'll see you next time.