Speak Tenderly

By Ivan Filby

Directly after the New Room Conference in 2021, I flew from Nashville to San Diego. During the flight, the Lord began to impress on my heart the first two verses of Isaiah 40:

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

I opened the Bible Hub app on my phone and noticed that “speak tenderly” literally means “speak to the heart.” Isn’t that beautiful? Prophetic ministry is speaking to the heart.

Table Saw

Imagine for a minute you are sitting in a church service, and two thoughts come to your mind. First, you see a picture of your friend, Tyler, who’s sitting on the other side of the church. After you’ve thought of Tyler, words come to mind: table saw. That’s random. Unless you work with wood, you probably know nothing about table saws. If this happened to you, what would you do?

• Would you shake your head and think you’re crazy, reasoning, “Table saw couldn’t mean anything to Tyler”?
• Would you go over to your friend and shout, “Tyler, God says to you, ‘table saw’”?
• Would you slip away from the service early so you wouldn’t have to do anything?

This is often how the Holy Spirit gives us words of knowledge, wisdom, or prophecies. Often, the words don’t make any sense to us. Try as we might, we are never sure if it’s meaningful, and if so, how. We will only know if we take the risk and talk with the person.

This is what Tyler’s friend did. During the ministry time at the end of the service, he walked over to Tyler and said, “Tyler, I have a word for you that I believe is from the Lord for you. I don’t know what it means. It came to me just as I was sitting over there. Do the words table saw mean anything to you?”

Tyler’s friend had no idea how Tyler would respond. The words table saw might be meaningless to Tyler, and his friend could be left feeling a little foolish. But the word was significant to my friend.

The day before, Tyler was installing a new kitchen floor in his first home. He had all the flooring stacked and the power tools plugged in and ready to use. His father and father-in-law had joined him to help. However, his helpers stepped in when Tyler switched on the table saw to cut the first piece of wood flooring.

“You don’t know how to do that properly,” they told him, “and you’ll only make a mess. Stand over there and let us do it for you.”

Tyler’s father and father-in-law only wanted to help. They had laid floors before and knew what they were doing. Tyler, however, was furious. This was his house, his kitchen, and his kitchen floor. He felt humiliated and inadequate.

He was still angry when he went to church the following morning and sat fuming throughout the service. At the end of the service, he saw a friend purposely walking over to him. When his friend asked him, “Do the words table saw mean anything to you?” Tyler broke down in tears.

The Lord then gave his friend a prophecy for Tyler: “Tyler, I want you to know that the Creator of the universe sees you and understands you. He thinks you are enough.”

This tender ministry would never have happened if Tyler’s friend had remained silent. Tyler has been my friend for many years, and he still tells this story. God used Tyler’s friend to minister to his brokenness. However, the impact of that word has lasted for years and reminds Tyler that a tenderhearted God loves him.

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“Jesus doesn’t only speak tenderly to our hearts. He massages our tired, weary hearts too.”

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Heart Massage

One of my current joys and responsibilities is to help prepare ministerial candidates in my denomination for Holy Spirit ministry. During one training session, I had a prophetic vision for a ministerial candidate who felt overwhelmed by the pressure of work and new responsibilities.

Here’s what I saw in this vision: I saw the ministerial candidate in a hospital operating theater. Jesus, his surgeon, had His hands inside the pastor’s chest cavity, massaging his heart. If you’ve ever seen an emergency room TV series like “Grey’s Anatomy” in the U.S. or “Casualty” in the U.K., you can imagine the scene. In the TV series, you’d see the surgeon standing, looking worried, with sweat pouring from their brow. You hope the patient will live, but you’re not quite sure.

The scene I saw wasn’t like this at all. Jesus wasn’t panicking. He had no sweat running from His brow. He looked calm. Jesus looked up at me and said, “Don’t worry. I won’t get tired. I can keep this up for as long as he needs.” So here’s the good news: Jesus doesn’t only speak tenderly to our hearts. He massages our tired, weary hearts too. And He is saying the same thing to you and me right now as He said to my young pastor friend: Don’t worry. I won’t get tired. I can keep this up for as long as you need.

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“My story is but one part of a series, and the Holy Spirit wants to cast you in His next real-life drama.”

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Your Turn

If you go to the movies, you’ll know we are near the end. The picture is about to fade, the credits will roll, and the cleaners will shortly come into the movie theater to clean up your popcorn mess! My story is but one part of a series, and the Holy Spirit wants to cast you in His next real-life drama.

I wrote my new book, “Speak Tenderly: Prophetic Ministry Seasoned With Grace,” to prepare you for your role. You have learned that the Holy Spirit can cast anyone — even you. You understand some ministry safeguards, so you can play your part safely. Activation exercises and spiritual forensics will help you connect with the Director, and the reward will be out of this world. Are you ready?

Lights, camera, ACTION!

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