The following is a little talk I do for people who are about to receive personal propehtic ministry from trained teams at our Baptist Church. It sets a context for them, and gives them a grid for processing the words they receive. I hope you will find it helpful as well...

What To Expect

1 Corth 14:3-5

3. But everyone who prophecies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragment and comfort
4. He who spaeks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophecies edifys the church
5. I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophecy. He who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified.

God's main agenda for NT prophecy is to build up and encourage. As a result, in our ministry time, we don't tend to see much of the OT prophecy in the area of:

1. Secret Sins Being Laid Bare

   If you are in secret sin, we will not confront them here, but that is not a carte blanche to remain in it. That type of revealing is outside of the scope of the ministry we do here. This is not a place for you to be afraid or embarassed.

2. Correction And Rebuke

   Our teams will not be giving these types of words. There may be areas that you need to correct. This type of correction will come from pastoral relationship, not from the prophetic. Thus, if you have an area you need to work on, do not be afraid of being pounced on for it here. Conversely, if we don't mention an area you need to work on, don't assume God is giving you permission to walk in an area of sin or unhealthiness.

3. Direction

   Directive prophetic words are very valid, when given by highly experineced and trained prophets. However, many on our team are relatively new at prophetic ministry. I think they hear good, or I would not let them minister. But I have asked them not to give prophetic dierction (sell you house, quit your job, move, etc) in the scope of this ministry. (From time to time, the Lord may impress a direction on them stronly enough that they will share it with you. We expect that you will judge any directive words before acting on them.)

   Does that mean that God won't address areas where you need to hear from Him? Of course not. But He may address it by giving you an understanding of His overall plan and strategy in your situaton. Let me give you an example.

   Sue (not her real name) was purchasing a home and suddenly there were unantisipated problems with the bank loan. It should have been approved ages ago, but for some reason the approval kept being put off until the seller was about to give the house to someone else instead, if the approval did not come in 24 hours. Sue came to me seeking prophetic direction... should she stay with this loan company or should she switch to a different one?

   The Lord did not give me direction (do this) or prediction (This loan will come through), but He did give me the nature of the test (faith building and walking in God's peace despite the circumstances). It helped her emensely once she understood how everything fit together. She was able to walk in peace and make the right decisions.

4. Easy Fixes

   God often works through processes. The prophetic can be keys in giving you breakthroughs in certain areas. But one prophetic ministry is NOT going to fix all problems.

   Our goal is to help you connect more with God and to be encouraged to walk out His plans for you and to help you be able to hear Him more clealry yourself.

   Much of what happens here will be confirmation rather than new revelation.

A few hints:

• If you get a word that does not sit right, you are free to take it to your home group leader, a pastor, or elder, prayer partner, etc. The word may be addressing a blind spot. In that case, those that know you will be able to help you see that blind spot. On the other hand, if the word truly does not fit you, they will be able to assist you in rejecting that word.

• Be aware some times words don't feel right at the time, but make sense later. Let me give you an example. One time, in New York, I prophecied to a lady. Much of what I said was a real encouragement to her. But then the Lord began to address her sorrow over her family rejecting her because of her walk with God and His promise that He would restore these relationships. She stopped me, saying that she was the only saved person in her family, but that she had a wonderful relationship with them, so she could not accept this portion of the word.

  The next day, she was back at the meetings, but in tears. Her family (mother, sisters) had told her not to come to a family event and that they never wanted to see her again while she was involved in Christianity. She was devistated and shock and disbelief. But the Lord reminded her of the word the night before, where she was promised the relationships would be restored. Suddenly this word, which seemed wrong at the time, was a source of great comfort to her.

  The Lord gave her the word just in advance of the "event" so that she would not be overwhelmed when the event happened.

• It is possible that the person giving the word made a mistake. We won't have alot of that, but it could happen occasionally. So if it does, please feel free to "simply sit it aside" until God either confirms it for you or confirms it is not of Him. Please look at the guidelines, enclosed below, for judging and processing prophetic words.

• Some words will be figurative. You will get into trouble if you take them literally. For instance, a prophet gave someone a word about big boulder blocking their path as they climbed a mountian trail. They had tried and tried to get around this boulder, but could not. The word then promised that God Himself was going to remove the boulder from their path. The person receiving the word had been struggling with a besetting sin, and had great shame because of this struggle. He had been crying out to God to help him with this. This man immediately recoginzed boulder represented a besetting sin. He was greatful the Lord had addressed this figuratively, rather than telling everyone in the room about his struggle with besetting sin. Thus he was encouraged rather than embarassed.

  JUDGING PROPHETIC WORDS

  Please be aware that all prophetic words are to be prayerfully judged. If you have any questions or discomfort about judging a word, I strongly recommend you take the word to your pastor or spiritual overseer and have them pray it through and evaluate it with you. Here are some guidelines...

  1. Be sure to bounce it against scripture... Scripture is the final authority and anything that contradicts scripture must be rejected.
  2. Look for the inner witness of the Holy Spirit to your spirit. Also look for a witness of His peace with the word (Col 3:15).
  3. Pray it through. Take the word back to the Lord and discuss it with Him. Ask Him to show you if there are any conditions He wants you to meet, any changes He wants you to make in your life or thinking. Ask Him to show you if any parts of the word are not from Him and to confirm the parts that are from Him.
  4. Compare the word against other things God has spoken into your life through prior prophecies, personal devotions, pastoral counsel, etc.
  5. If you have any question/alarm/fear/discomfort about a particular word, run it by your pastor or a leader from your church.
  6. Do NOT act on any predictive, directive or calling/gifting definition words unless you get confirmation from other sources. If this is a word from God, He will be happy to confirm it to you.
  7. Do not "read into" the word what you want it to say. Here are examples of what to avoid:
     1. A woman was given a word that she would meet the man she was to marry in 5 years and he would be a musician. She was in fact engaged to another man, who was not a musician and married him a few weeks after receiving the word. She redefined the word to meet her circumstances, changing its meeting to:

        her fiance would become a musician in 5 years.

        The marriage did not go well and they separated three years later.. it was invalid to use this word as a basis for marrying this man because she twisted the meaning to fit her circumstances.
     2. A woman was given a word that had a figurative portion about her standing at a light airy window overlooking a green valley. She went home and noticed that her house did not overlook a valley and did not have any light airy windows. So she interpreted the word as "sell your house" and did so without seeking any sort of confirmation from the Lord from any other sources.
     3. A minister was involved in a building project and began to encounter financial difficulty; the money stopped coming in and they were about to default on the loan. About that time, the minister received a word that God would "protect that which was most precious to him and not allow it to be lost or destroyed." He took that to mean God would supply the needed money for the building project, since that was the circumstance that was prevelent in his mind, and since his ministry and this building project were very precious to him. However, the money did not come in and the bank forclosed on the property. He lost it all.

        He felt devistarted that God did did not keep his word and to make matters worse, his daugher ended up in a life-threatening situation, and he had to spend months nursing her back to health. Finally he confronted God as to why God had not kept His word to him regarding the property. Then God replied the word was never about the property.. it was about his daughter who had nearly died. When he got the word, the circumstance it applied to was not yet in his life, so he assumed it applied to his current circumstance.

  PROCESSING PROPHETIC WORDS

  1. If you decide it is a valid word after juding it, then print it out and review it often and pray regarding it. Invite God to work in your life to bring it to pass and ask Him to show you any conditions in it that He wants you to meet to fulfill it.
  2. Ask the Lord to reveal any prerequisites that must be accomplished before the word can be fulfilled. For instance, if the Lord gives you a word that you will be used to bring revival to the nation of Mexico, He may require that you learn to speak Spanish first. Sometimes the prerequisites are spelled out explicitely in the prophecy. Other times they are not. Ask God to show you what (if anything) your part is and then ask Him to empower you to do it.
  3. Ask the Lord what His time frame is for the word. So often people have jumped the gun and tried to fulfill a prophecy in their own strength (or by their own resources) before it was God's timing. This often creates messes to clean up. An example of this is Sarah's attempts to have a child through her maid .. she had a true word of God (that Abraham would have a son) but she tried to fulfill it in her own time and through her own resources. It is important to know (and follow) God's time table and His strategy for fulfilling His word.
  4. Once you are sure it is a word from the Lord, stand in faith for your word to be fulfilled. This is "warring" over your word, as per 1 Tim 1:18.

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