ACTIVATING YOUR PROPHETIC DESTINY
Todd Bentley
www.freshfire.ca

If you get hold of the truth I am going to give you in this teaching, it will revolutionize your life. This message on Prophetic Decrees will help you contend for your healing and help you to know what your responsibility is with every prophetic word and every prophetic promise that God has given you. Some of you have had prophetic words over your life for twenty years. It's been great to get those prophetic words, but you've been left wondering what to do next: "Ok God, that's great. Now how do I bring these words of the Lord to pass?" you may have asked. "Do I need to do something with what was spoken to me? How do I birth the prophetic word? How do I see my prophetic promises fulfilled?"

Even though this is a prophetic message, I'm also going to tie in the subject of miracles and how to prophetically call them into manifestation in the natural realm. I believe this message will give you a foundation for miraculous manifestations in and through your life. The revelation that I'm about to share with you actually helped birth our whole ministry. You're going to learn how to receive mysteries in the spirit-how to take things out of the invisible through God's creative power and transfer them onto the earthly scene to create your destiny. Now some of you may be thinking, "Whoa, I don't know-that sounds a little New Age to me." Don't worry; I'm going to lay out sound biblical principles. I will show you how to release destiny through a visitation with the Holy Spirit, the word of the Lord and by speaking out that word. This process of speaking things into existence, I call making a prophetic decree.

As I learned how to make prophetic decrees and proclamations into the heavens, God began to do things a lot faster in my life. Recently, the Lord has shown me that we can even ask Him to release angels to go and get what God has for us. Part of the angelic job description is that of bringing us what is rightfully ours. The angels must be sent out to battle the forces of the enemy trying to keep us from our destiny.

Removing Roadblocks To Your Destiny

Some of you have prophetic words and promises that haven't come to pass and so you've said, "The prophet was wrong. He was off. I know that it was confirmed more than once, through the mouths of two or three witnesses, but I still haven't seen the promise of God." On the other hand, some of you have reached that same roadblock in your life in the area of healing. You have said, "I've heard everything the Bible has said about healing, but I still haven't received the promise of God in a miracle." So you gave up on believing the word of the Lord and the revelation.


However, it may not have anything to do with the prophet that spoke the word. It may not even have anything to do with you. It may have everything to do with opposition set up in heaven against your destiny. So I hope to give you some insight in this teaching on how we can begin to make prophetic decrees and proclamations into heaven which will hasten and bring to pass the word of the Lord. I want you to understand your responsibility with God-given promises and visions and how you can partner with God to bring your destiny to pass.


I pray that the Holy Spirit would come and empower us-we are going to make war in the heavenlies. Hallelujah. We are going to talk about the arrow of the Lord. We are going to get out some wife arrows for some of you single men. We are going to get out some husband arrows and some healing arrows-thank you Jesus. Let's look at a passage in the gospel of Matthew which speaks of our responsibility with the word of the Lord:

When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (Matt. 16:13-17)

Take note of one thought in this passage: "Peter, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Peter had a revelation from heaven. You may also have received divine inspiration like Peter-a prophetic word, a vision or, perhaps, an illumined scripture from God. Maybe a prophet called you out and prophesied over you or God has spoken to you through television, radio or a dream. Every one of us has prophetic promises from heaven-whether God has revealed something that we would accomplish for him, something that we would become or something that we would see Him do in our lifetime.

Revelation Activates Divine Destiny

Those prophetic promises are specific to our lives as individuals as opposed to the more general Word of God we see from Genesis right through to Revelation. When we combine the Word of God and the promises of God, we have some powerful principles which can activate our divine destiny. However, I want to focus primarily on those words that God has given to us personally, those rhema words. Let's look again at Jesus' words to Peter in Matt 16: "I say to you Peter, 'on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.'" Now what does Jesus mean by the words "on this rock"? The Catholic church thinks that phrase refers to Peter and his ministry, while others think it refers to the apostles. However, I don't believe Peter or the apostles are the rock. I believe Jesus is saying, "Upon this rock-the rock of revelation I am building... upon the rock of being able to hear what your Father in heaven is saying. Flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you. Upon that rock shall you build, shall I build, My church."

In the book of Jeremiah, the Bible also tells us that the purpose of the word of the Lord is to build, plant, root-up, and pull down. So when God gives you a revelation of something that comes out of heaven, it's for you to build. When God gives you a revelation, a promise that comes out of heaven, you are called to build, plant, loose, birth and bring to pass that word by working with the Holy Ghost. At the same time, you might have to pull some things down (in the spirit) that are opposing the fulfillment of your word.

In that same passage, Jesus goes on to say, "Peter, I've given you the keys-the keys to the kingdom." You know what the keys are? They are every prophetic word that you have. The keys are every revelation you've received. Some of us in the body of Christ are running around with a key chain full of keys, like a janitor, with keys jingling wherever we go. Maybe you, my reader, have a whole lot of keys on your key chain. You may not even know what they are there for any longer. "I used to know," you may be saying, "but these keys have been here so long that I don't even know what they do anymore. I know what these five do, but I've got fifty on my key chain."

Using Prophetic Keys To Unlock Heaven

My wife always bugs me saying: "How come you've got all those keys on your key chain? You only need keys for the car, the house, and the mailbox." I've got all sorts of trinkets and toys on my key chain with a bunch of extra keys. Many of us have those kinds of key rings in the natural, like a janitor with one of those big rings full of keys. In the Body of Christ, we're like that janitor. Every time we receive a prophetic word, we add a key to our ring-it's a key to the kingdom, your kingdom. It's a key to a destiny. It's a key for you to open up the heavens and loose things in heaven so what God said about you in heaven can come to pass on the earth. With that destiny word, you can build and plant or you can uproot and pull down every opposition to its fulfillment. That is what we're supposed to be using the keys for.


But some of us in the body of Christ like to run around with our keys saying: "Hey, hey, look at this one. I got this one over at the last Rick Joyner conference. See what he said about me. Then Paul Cain gave me this one and Bob Jones gave me this one." People are running around in the body of Christ comparing prophetic words: "See my keys? You see the keys that I have? Praise God! What did you get?" Christians are getting excited about these destiny words: "Hey, you know what? I got a prophecy in a meeting-I'm going to be like Kathryn Kuhlman." or, "I was prophesied over and I am going to be like A.A. Allan and Jack Coe put together." So many Christians get excited about words God has about their life concerning their destiny, plan and purpose. However, we need to know how to properly use these keys which have been handed to us through visions, dreams or words from the Lord. That's what Jesus was teaching Peter. The Lord's message was: "Peter these are keys. I just gave you a key called revelation. With that key, you have a responsibility to open up the kingdom of heaven so it can come to pass."

God is not going to show you something that He does not want you to have now. I believe He has a timetable, but I do not think He wants to dangle a carrot on a string in front of you. You think God works like this?

"Hey, I'm just pretending this is yours, but I really don't want you to have it. I've given it to you in the mouth of two or three witnesses; it's the word that I keep speaking to you, but just forget about it. Put it on the ring with all the other ones that you have because that is all the prophetic is for-just to have a good time and to get you excited about receiving another word from Me. So here's another key, and here's another carrot-yes, I'm stringing you along. Are you excited about that? I'm not going to do it for fifty years, so just tuck that one away on the shelf. And here is another one!"

No, I don't believe God works that way. I believe that many times we have not walked in the fulfillment of what God has said about us, not because of the prophet, God or the devil, but because of ourselves. Often, we do not know what to do with what God gives us. However, we need to learn to hasten the word of the Lord. We have a responsibility to birth prophetic promises that are given to us. When God speaks something about you, He is releasing a potential. But we must posture ourselves to become what He said about us. What we do or don't do with what God gave us can determine out destiny.

Learn To Hasten Prophetic Words

So how do we hasten the word of the Lord? We do it with what I call prophetic decrees. You need to understand that when God says something about you, He is speaking out and releasing your potential. He is not proclaiming what is absolutely going to happen. But He wants you to get excited and press on toward the mark of what He said you will be. Many people will get to heaven and find out how much more God had for them when they were on the earth. So many Christians wonder why their dreams have not been fulfilled. The problem is that we have a whole lot of people in the body of Christ with good intentions who never walk out what God has for them. Many Christians don't realize that most prophetic words, or their timing, are conditional upon us taking certain steps of obedience.

I've heard so many Christians say: "I don't like all those Benny Hinns and Billy Grahams and all those big ministries. I just wish that God would tear them down." Well, one day I heard God say, "Todd, the reason people speak that way is because they want to do what the big ministries are doing but don't want to pay the price." Everybody wants what you've got, but they don't want to do what's needed to get it! Everyone wants what I have, but when I look at their life I don't see them doing what I had to do to get the anointing. It's going to cost you everything.

Lots of Christians want to do great things for God, but they do nothing. They are just talkers. They've just got a lot of vision. I hear these people complaining about everything that everyone else is doing and not doing and wonder: "Well, what are you doing? When is the last time that you even won a soul to Christ? Are you doing anything for the kingdom of God? You sound like you are, but I don't see anything."

Daniel Birthed His Prophetic Word

Let me tell you something else about the prophetic. Think about Daniel. He had a revelation while he was reading the book of Jeremiah. While he was reading, God came along, breathed on the scripture and said, "Daniel, what Jeremiah prophesied about the Babylonian captivity-that's your generation. You are about to come out of Babylonian captivity after 70 years." You know something about Daniel? He didn't just run around the body of Christ having conferences saying, "Guess what's coming! God gave me a word. This is what is coming on the body of Christ. We are about to be released from Babylonian captivity. God gave it to me out of the book of Jeremiah. I got a word from God."

Although, it's not wrong to talk that way, Daniel knew that there was something more important. He begins to fast and pray (Dan. 10) about what God said-he didn't just take God's spoken word for granted. He realized that God wanted him to be involved in the word. God said it and so now he needed to lay hold of what God said. Like Daniel, we need to birth those prophetic words of God. Many believers think, "Well if God said something, He is going to do it. God's sovereignty is going to bring it to pass, so I'm just going to wait for God to do what God said He was going to do." If the word doesn't come to pass, they want to stone the prophet for delivering a false prophetic word. They don't realize that the word was only speaking of potential-they need to learn to do something with what God gave them. The prophetic is really just designed to stir and cause destiny to come alive in you so you'll get passionate about what God said you'll be.

So Daniel hears God's promise of release from Babylonian captivity and he says, "Ok. Now I need to do my part. It's not just good enough that God spoke. I need to pray it through." So he starts fasting and praying. After a few days he could have said, "Well, maybe God didn't really mean anything by this. I don't know if anything is going to happen. It's not happening. If it was God, it should have happened already. I mean God said it." No, Daniel didn't give up-he kept praying and after 21 days Michael the archangel shows up and says something like, "Daniel, come over here for a minute. Let me tell you something. God heard you on the first day. But you see... we ran into some opposition in heaven called the Prince of Persia. The enemy didn't want you to receive what God wanted you to have 21 days ago, so there was a delay in the spirit."