Rick Joyner is the founder and executive director of MorningStar Publications and Ministries in Charlotte, N.C. He is a well-known prophetic voice and has written many books, including The Final Quest and The Call. Rick travels, speaks and ministers at prophetic conferences. In addition to his writing and speaking, he has founded Morning Star Fellowship, a church of 700-plus, also in Charlotte, and still serves as senior pastor.
This book is an excellent tool for those who seek a greater understanding of the prophetic ministry. Joyner answers many questions the church has about prophecy. He also challenges the reader to take a step further in our communication and intimacy with our Father, and in pursuing an intimate relationship with Him. Let's look at some of the key issues he develops in this book.
The book is The Prophetic Ministry, by Rick Joyner, ISBN 1-87832-790-9.
Why We Need Prophetic Ministry
The book starts by discussing the foundation of prophetic ministry. It outlines why the modern-day church needs prophetic ministry. We live in increasingly difficult and complex times, therefore it becomes imperative to hear God's voice clearly. God wants to protect His children. We need to hear His voice when He warns us of dangerous situations to prepare for or to avoid. As the world around us becomes increasingly shaky, Christians will need to depend more and more on God and His leading for their very survival. God uses the prophetic to direct and protect His people. God uses prophecy to warn us about upcoming disasters and prepares the church for future needs. Therefore, it becomes important for the church to acknowledge the validity of prophetic ministry and to take it seriously.
Even though God has given us His Word, the Bible does not cover every situation in our lives. That's why we have also received the Holy Spirit so we have the ability to hear God about situations not outlined in His Word. In addition to the Holy Spirit speaking to us directly, God also uses prophets to make His will known to His church. The place of the prophetic ministry is to equip the saints so they know God's voice and follow His leading.
The Heart of the Prophetic Person
God looks at what is in our hearts because that's where truth is found. We need to constantly evaluate our motives so our actions, so that they truly represent God's heart instead of our own selfish will. And the only way to know God's heart is to establish an intimate relationship with Him. That relationship is the basic foundation of a prophetic ministry, and it also brings a friendship with God. The prophets are God's friends. Rick encourages each of us to establish a friendship and intimate relationship with God.
If we want to be used in prophetic ministry, we must be "open" to God so He can use us. But that is not enough. The Bible instructs us to seek the gifts of the Spirit, especially the gift of prophecy. And our primary motivation to operate in this gift must be to act in love. God's purposes can be accomplished only when we move and act in Christ's love.
Joyner admits that mistakes have been made in the application of the prophetic. However, we must move past the mistakes, not throwing out prophecy; we must learn from our mistakes. He feels that one key to a well functioning prophetic ministry is to be able to receive, interpret and judge prophetic revelation correctly.
A prophet is also a friend of God. He has established such an intimate relationship with God that God delights in revealing His plans to him. This relationship also entails the fear of the Lord, which isn't like the fear of men. If we are to speak the true words of God, we must be delivered from the fear of men. It comes with the understanding that God will chose various ways through which He will flow through His vessels. If restricts God's ability to use us in the way He may want when we copy another prophet. Jesus is the one we need to copy, not men and not other prophetic ministries. God wants the special gifts He has given to us to flow freely and efficiently through us.
It is also important to understand that we're not necessarily called to the office of prophet simply because we flow in a prophetic gifting.
People will sometimes make mistakes when they move in the prophetic. We shouldn't disqualify that person or call him a false prophet simply because he makes a mistake. If we put our confidence in our own abilities, we set ourselves up for failure. Our confidence should rest only on God's ability, not our own. That mindset allows God to work through His vessels more efficiently and accomplish His purposes in advancing the kingdom.
Rejection and Pride Issues
Some people are concerned that they will be rejected if they allow God to manifest His supernatural power through them. Fear of rejection can keep people from moving in the prophetic. Most of us have experienced rejection - and rejection is part of any true ministry. We have to die to self so rejection doesn't have power over us. Those who are still affected by rejection haven't completed the dying-to-self process. When we are rejected, we have an opportunity to demonstrate God's love and power to those who reject us. God will use our experiences of rejection to work Christ-likeness and spiritual maturity in us.
We must allow God's forgiveness to bring healing to our rejection wounds, or those wounds will influence the way we minister to God's people. These wounds can possibly corrupt the ministry because we will base our response on the rejection, bitterness and hurts we have received instead of on the love of God. The interesting part is that once we've healed from our wounds, we will receive authority in the very place we were wounded. God uses every trial to prepare us so we may grow in spiritual authority and thereby minister to those who are going through the same situations and trials.
We must watch our motives if we want to walk with God in true spiritual authority. If our motive is to promote our agendas and ministries, then our ministry isn't grounded in God. We need a personal and intimate relationship with God before He can establish us in a prophetic ministry. That relationship enables us to seek His approval instead of looking for approval from people. And if God has truly called us into ministry, we must let Him put us into the position in His timing instead of striving to do it our way. That means we may not accept opportunities offered to us if they are not in God's timing or brought about by Him. Instead, we make it our goal to walk in humility before God (Psalms 15:33).
We never use the prophetic to manipulate and control, for that would be witchcraft. Rather, prophecy is a ministry that functions in unity. Our eyes need to be focused solely on the Lord and the eyes of our hearts need opened so we may know the hope to which He has called us (Ephesians 1:18). Our perspective determines how we will interpret prophetic revelation, therefore it is important for us to use God's perspective, which is an eternal perspective. God's perspective is also a perspective of potential, and we must operate in that vision of God's potential when we move in the prophetic. This type of vision allows us to see life even in something that seems dead.
True and Counterfeit Prophets
There is no doubt that there are counterfeit prophets. In this segment Joyner compares the counterfeit prophet with tares and the real prophet with wheat. He reminds us copies can be made only from originals. In other words, if there weren't real prophets, there wouldn't be counterfeit ones. The Lord allows the tares to help His people be prepared for the "ultimate last-day confrontation." Matthew 13:30 points out the dangers of prematurely uprooting the tares: "Allow both to grow together until the harvest." Often developing prophets, who are just beginning to walk in this ministry, make mistakes and may be perceived as false prophets when they aren't. They're just learning and should be allowed the time to grow into the gifting God has given them. Removing them prematurely from the field will be more destructive than helpful.
Sometimes God uses controversy to bring purity into the ministry He is raising up and developing. Controversy results in evaluation, evaluation causes adjustments to be made. And it reveals those who may be in the ministry out of selfish ambition. There dose come a time when the wheat needs to be separated from the tares so "bread can be made from it." But we must not be premature in doing that separation.
Joyner writes: "But even though the Lord commands us to let the wheat and tares grow up together, there must be a separation of the tares from the wheat before bread can be made from it. This is often a very uncomfortable process and can be done only at the right time."
Common Stumbling Blocks
Joyner points to various stumbling blocks that will keep us from moving in the fullness of a prophetic ministry. These include:
- * Presumption
- don't be tempted to use standard formulas that are outlined in various books that teach about prophetic symbolism when interpreting visions and revelations.
- * Looking only from our personal, present perspective
- We must interpret revelations not from our perspective, but from God's eternal perspective. If we interpret all revelations using the same formula, we will get inaccurate interpretations.
- * Seeing through fear rather than faith
- We're not to interpret prophecy through fear, but rather through faith. Fear is also based in suspicion and suspicion will never result in accurate interpretation. True discernment operates only in true godly love.
- * Majoring on minors
- The importance of preparing the way for the King and not primarily focusing on what the enemy is doing.
- * Prejudices
- When we prophesy we should guard against prejudice because prejudice can seriously distort a revelation and the actual meaning of it.
- * Having prejudicial doctrines
- Prophecy isn't meant to establish doctrines. That has already been established through the Bible.
- * Rejection
- Dwelling on rejection will keep us self-centered, which will distort the meaning of the revelations God is giving us as well.
- * Bitterness
- The possible result of unhealed wounds that make us sensitive in those areas.
- * Rebellion
- The refusal to submit to authority rooted in either rejection or self-will.
- * Unsanctified mercy
- Having mercy about situations the Lord may be using to judge or bring correction. The important thing is to be ruled by the Holy Spirit and to gain an understanding of what God is doing. When we move in human compassion we may be tempted to take on burdens the Lord hasn't given us in the first place.
- * The "party spirit"
- The temptation to believe that our ministry is the most important one and the lack of understanding that God uses all ministries to work together as one.
- * Failing to submit to the body
- God intentionally does not reveal everything to just one ministry, but reveals parts of visions and revelations to various ministries. He does that so that one ministry will depend on others, and a working together to understand the entire picture is essential.
- * Lust
- "One of the primary destroyers of prophetic vision." We need to put a guard on our eyes so our eyes are single and thereby the entire body can be full of God's light. In this way we won't use our eyes for evil.
- * Using natural eyes instead of the "eye of our heart"
- We must understand that the things of God must be interpreted by the Spirit and not by our own perspectives and reasoning.
Other Areas Discussed
Joyner distinguishes between different levels of revelation and outlines what they are. He discusses "prophetic addiction," where people constantly want to receive a word from the prophets instead of looking to hear God speak directly to them. He deals with "directive revelation," where the Lord uses the prophetic to grant us specific guidance about a situation. He also discusses the role of the prophetic in spiritual warfare.
Joyner also discusses our tendency to confuse the roles of prophet and elder, and explains how the two roles operate. He also develops the concept of "watchmen for the army of God" in some detail - a must read for those with prophetic or intercessory anointings.
Words of Life
Our words speak either life or death. As we grow in the prophetic and in our relationship with God we will find more and more that there is power in our words especially when God puts His anointing on them. A word spoken within the right timing and God's anointing is very powerful. Joyner points out that it is important that we abide in the Word itself for God uses His Word to express Himself in His language. We learn the spiritual (symbolic) language through dreams and visions. Like many things, it requires time and patience to produce lasting fruit. A problem won't be eliminated by dealing with the symptoms. Instead we must put the ax to the root of the problem tree - e.g., deal with the source and thereby also remove the symptoms. The Lord works a deep work from the inside out, not the outside in. It's that type of working that will create deep and lasting changes.
God is a practical God and His fruit is a practical fruit. It needs to be our goal to not just bear fruit, but to bear fruit that lasts. It requires patience to bear lasting fruit. But it's worth the wait because when there is lasting fruit, Christ will be lifted up by His people and "all men will be drawn to Him."
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