This is an excerpt of the message, “Prepared to Receive Prophecy,” that was shared by Apostle Kathryn Krick, Lead Pastor/Apostle of 5F Church in Los Angeles, on September 28, 2025. To watch the full video, scroll to the bottom of this post. We pray this teaching blesses you and equips you to walk as a powerful vessel of God.

Matthew 16:21-26

From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead. But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!” Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?”

‭‭Jesus chose Peter to be His close disciple. He chose Peter to be the rock that the church was built upon, to be the leader of the first church, to be the lead apostle. He had brought Peter in close, as a chosen one. Jesus had so much love for Peter, and Peter for Jesus. But all of a sudden, one day Jesus says to him, “Get behind me Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me.” 

Imagine hearing that! Imagine being Peter. How would you have felt? 

Jesus was delivering a true prophetic word. It was a sharp, correcting prophetic word: “Peter, you’re letting the devil use you right now. You have an open door. You’re missing humility right now because you’re supposed to see me as Lord, as your teacher, prophet, and Lord. And so if I say, ‘I must do this, I must go on the cross,’ a humble person says, “OK, I don’t get it, but OK.” They don’t question, and they don’t say, “No! That can’t happen!” 

If you think about it, it was really prideful of Peter to answer Jesus the way he did. I mean, he could have felt in his heart, “I don’t want this to happen,” but the proper thing to do was to ask Jesus, “What do you mean? This sounds horrible; can you expand?” 

I share that with you so you can understand why Jesus uses such strong words. There was pride in Peter in that moment. And because Jesus is 100 percent God and 100 percent human, it wasn’t easy for Jesus to go to the cross. He was sweating blood at one point as He could envision the torture and the torment to come. Since He was 100 percent man, that was a temptation for Jesus to hear Peter to say, ”This can’t happen.” Jesus went through temptations but He overcame them all. He knows what it’s like to have temptation. That’s why it was so serious. That’s why Peter was a vessel of the enemy in that moment, and he was a dangerous trap. Jesus said to Peter, “You are thinking of things in the human way and not in the spirit.” So He’s correcting him. He’s saying, “You need to go in the spirit more Peter. You need to grow more. You need to be more humble. You need to not be quick to speak what you’re thinking, how you’re feeling, because you’re letting the enemy use you right now by just being quick to speak.” 

The Father corrects those He loves. Jesus was lovingly, sharply correcting Peter with this strong prophetic word. But how would you receive it if Jesus said to you, “Get behind me Satan! You’re a dangerous trap.” How would you feel in your heart? Some people may not have responded how Peter did. What did Peter do? We don’t see Peter doing anything. We don’t see Peter protesting. We don’t see Peter leaving Jesus. We don’t see Peter talking back to Jesus. That prophetic word MADE Peter. It didn’t break him; it MADE him. Because the prophetic word always instills the fear of God. It corrects you. It makes you see how you were wrong. So it humbles you if you will let it. It wakes you up if you let it. It wakes you up from your pride, your selfishness, your ego, and your selfish ambition. It wakes you up! It wakes you up to see: God sees you and your evil ways in your heart. He sees your intentions. He sees your motives. 

The prophetic word opens your eyes to see, “God sees it all. What are you doing? Why are you trying to fool God? This is gross. This is wicked. Come on. Live in the fear of God. Love God. Love God with your actions. Clean your heart. Get that out of there. Renounce it.” 

And so out of all the disciples, out of everyone in the Bible, Peter was the one that was called "Satan" and "a dangerous trap." But look what happens! Jesus chooses to call him the rock, and chooses to make him the leader of His church. He chooses to use him to deliver the first sermon that brought thousands to Jesus. He chooses to use him in such mighty anointing that all who came under his shadow were healed and set free 

Look how the prophetic word can make you if you will allow the fear of God to be instilled in you—instead of being offended by the fear of God, instead of being offended by this strong prophetic word when it’s supposed to bring the fear of God and make you more humble and correct you. 

This prophetic word made Peter. It humbled him. It corrected him. He thought, “Oh, I have to be careful. Jesus called me to such a big calling and I just let the devil use me. I have to be more diligent over what I say, over my heart, to make sure I’m more humble.” 

That prophetic word made Peter because he chose to have it make him, by receiving that sharp, strong, hard word with humility.