Posts Tagged ‘Prophetic’

The Perfect Prophetic Word – Timing

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

What is the perfect prophetic word? I believe that in the strictest sense it is a piece of revelation delivered without any of the communicator’s opinions, feelings, or judgments. Another way of considering this could include a piece of revelation that glorifies God completely and draws the listener to God. But for my line of consideration I want to talk about timing that moment when revelation and delivery come together at the perfect moment.

I remember an instance about 15 years ago when I was in a meeting having a private conversation with God. As I recall it was in that moment of reflection when worship is just winding down and ministry time is in full swing. While I was sitting there a great family friend, Carl Greer, walked up to me and answered the exact question that I had been asking God. It was less than 5 words, but changed the trajectory of my life tremendously.

Having grown up and immersed in in the charismatic culture for most of my life, I have heard, received, been given, had sung and of course prayed several hundred prophetic words on the low end of estimation, however Carl’s word is one of only about three that have always stood out as near perfect. This was because the word itself was incredibly pertinent for me, but almost more important was he gave the word to me at the perfect time.

Another instance of near perfect timing was with Christine Potter. One evening during a service she prayed for me in a spectacular way. It was just a normal Wednesday night service but so much emotional healing took place I can’t really explain it. Christine is an amazingly sensitive person who sees so much, and although the issues she was praying into had probably been seen before, the difference was the moment that her prayers took place. Within 10 minutes of this ministry time I encountered an extreme situation that I don’t know how I would have handled if not for her words. It was perfect timing once again.

The last perfect prophetic word I can remember came from my father in law. He gave me a word that was almost exactly the opposite of what virtually everyone else I knew was saying. It was at a time when things were not going that great for me and the words would have been only words without this perfect timing. Standing in the gap while others where prophesying what they saw in the natural, my father in law spoke what he saw in the spirit. At the end of the day it came to pass that he was right where other voices appear to have been mistaken.

I have been blessed over the years to receive many prophetic words from different people, however in truth over 90% of them seem to have slipped into the ether or are hidden from memory. I don’t know what all the components of a perfect prophetic word are. But I am certain from my own experience that timing is a crucial element that cannot be overlooked. I know that so often what we see as being a powerful word doesn’t even compare to the importance of giving it at the right time.

Going forward I want to focus much more on knowing from God when a word is to be delivered. I think I will worry a little less if the word feels to me less powerful as a result of timing that is not always my own. Because it isn’t about saying things that I think will have a profound impact. It is about having the impact God wants to have, when He wants to have it.

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Cheese and Prophesy, more in common than you think

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

Have you ever noticed that many of the foods that we think of as delicacies are actually the result of spoilage? Imagine the first guy that had a jug of milk go off and after a couple days of rotting and turning sour he decided to give it a taste. That is more or less the process has brought us sour cream, yogurt, cheese, buttermilk and my favorite a nice creamy gorgonzola. Just think about the time that someone cut into their forgotten wheel of cheese around 1200 years ago and discovered that it had all these blue veins because somehow a little bit of penicillium mold had made its way in. I think that they would have had to be pretty hungry to give it a try. But now, over a 1000 years later it is one of the most popular varieties the world over. Something that was smelly, and at first appearance rotten is now special and very expensive costing up to 40 dollars or more a pound.

One of the often unspoken rules of the prophetic is that the greater the word, the greater the test. This test can come in the form of timing, obstacles, and even in some cases total disillusionment. Much like great cheese you can’t see what is going on below the surface. This all came up for me as I was talking with an old friend that was in town visiting about prophetic words that we have received from various well known prophetic voices. He was talking about how all three words from one person who I think of as a spiritual grandfather had come to pass, and been great. For my part I have received maybe 10 words from this same amazing man – going back about 25 years. To be honest not a single one of the words that he has given me has come to pass at this time.

The most common parmesan cheese in America is sold by Kraft, it comes in a green plastic bottle is pre-grated and often lacks the full punch and texture of one of the most loved cheese varieties in the USA. But it fills the role that most people use it for on pizza, spaghetti or making a béchamel sauce. But, in my opinion it is nothing like‘real’ parmesan aged for around 2 years and sometimes longer. The grainy, gritty texture is untouchable by anything that comes in a bottle. Yet, I use the bottle, and I suspect that you do as well. It is cheaper, keeps longer in the fridge and is hassle free. Very similar to the way we prefer our prophetic words. I would prefer to have more history with the prophetic that was quick, relatively satisfying and hassle free. But sadly as fate or destiny would have it I have a lot of unfulfilled prophetic words, and I have many friends that do as well.

Sometimes our inclination with promises that we have held for a long time is treat them as though they are the cheese in the back of the cave that has turned blue. The key is to be hungry enough to have a taste and see what you discover. This is going to be a good year to pull old prophetic words out from the back of the cave. They might be a little moldy or cracked but the truth is they are delicacies.

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Stumbling Around in the Dark

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

Are you an expert at something? There are a few areas in my life that I feel like I have a level of expertise. Some of these are very valuable, some confusing and still others are useless. Starting with areas that are useless I enjoy sports football (also known as soccer), baseball, and my current favorite golf. In golf with total humility I can say I am an expert… At shorting my puts and I seem to be moving in and out of showing great promise at losing my golf balls. But what keeps me coming back for more is that one great shot, the really long put, the ideal drive or a chip in from 20 feet all make the 100+ shots simply slip away and for moment I feel like Jack Nicklaus. But the truth is except for 1 or maybe 2 strokes in a round I am far, far from it.

Another area where I have some level of expertise is in cuisine. I trained under a French master chef and have also worked with a few wine experts. Watching, learning and practicing have made me a pretty good cook. I can make difficult dishes and easy dishes and I understand the flavors and textures that are being tied together from amuse-bouche to dessert wine. One of the things that I have discovered on that path is that the closer to being an expert you are the less often you are surprised and the more you begin to see and understand nuances. This expertise is knowing what you have, and knowing what you are going to get when you are done. It is not being surprised, and at the end what happens is you fall back in love with the simple things like French onion soup, mmm. Early on fundamentals are intimidating, making the stock reducing the wine and onions, toasting the croutons just right. But, quickly you want to move on to bigger more exciting, difficult and elaborate challenges. I have started to get surprised again and focus on the details that weren’t there when I started. On the lifelong practice that is cooking I think I have reached a first step of expertise.

In contrast to cooking I know that I am not an expert in the prophetic. I sometimes glimpse the nuance, but I am frequently surprised. It has caused me to change the way that I approach the gift tremendously. This change is caused by 2 primary realizations – expertise is a level of understanding that precludes surprise, surprise inhibits truly grasping the nuance. At first I thought that this revelation would feel like a demotion but, it is actually exciting. It requires a tremendous shift from “God told me this…”, so this is what I am doing, who I am, etc. To I think, I feel, but I am still learning. Learning is always a good place to be in and leaves a lot of room for discovery, teachability and excitement.

I am not sure if God wants me to be an expert – when Jesus said let these children come and further more the kingdom of heaven belongs to them I feel he sent a powerful shot across the bow of all the experts(Matthew 14 13-15). Those verses imply that he prefers the curious the excited and the teachable to those of us who feel that we are experts. When I teach on the prophetic and other spiritual gifts this is the place I attempt to come from. I am not an expert, but I am excited and I am learning – and this is what I think I have learned. Many people might not want to learn from someone who is still learning – it implies that there are things that you don’t or can’t foresee, I intend to always be learning. But, I think that is OK we all have our place and our areas of favor and gifting. Couple this with how seasons of sowing, tending, harvesting and resting fit into favor and gifting and you have a recipe for total submission to God. Because from what I have learned so far nothing else really makes sense.

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Practical Prophetic Boundaries: Collaboration Part 1

Thursday, December 30th, 2010

In this new series I want to explore some elements of prophetic ministry that specifically relate to working with groups, teams and churches. There are a couple of simple steps that can and often are taken to improve the functionality of prophetic teams and as a result the long term impact the prophetic gift can have in a person’s life.

As anyone will know who has done it, being involved in prophetic ministry with a group of people can be tremendously valuable and positively impact your life, that of your fellow team members and those you reach out to. On the other hand, as many of us will also know, prophetic ministry can be difficult, cause confusion and even misunderstanding amongst the group members and those we are endeavoring to reach out to. So I want to look at a few things we can do that will hopefully help alleviate some of the more tricky aspects of prophetic outreach.

One thing to pay particular attention to when ministering prophetically is making sure we draw a clear line between the different prophetic words given by team members when ministering to an individual. If we are not careful and wise when working in a team there can be instances – especially in the ‘heat of the moment’ as it were, when prophetic words are either hijacked, redefined, emotionally re-calibrated, downsized or super-sized. Let me try and explain a little more fully what I mean by this.

A hijacked word: The setting could be any sort of free flowing group ministry time or an outreach setting where more than one person is speaking prophetically into the life of someone they have just met. From the team, person ‘A’ delivers a word that gives direction, encouragement, etc. Person ‘B’ then adds to person ‘A’s word in such a way that the original word no longer carries its original message. This can cause confusion for the person receiving the word or more likely they will remember parts of both and end up missing the point of one or both words.

A redefined word: Again, the setting could be any sort of free flow group ministry time or an outreach setting. Person ‘A’ delivers a word that gives direction, encouragement, etc. Person ‘B’ then reinterprets the word in such a way that the original word no longer communicates what was originally said. This can happen for a number of reasons. Usually a team member fails to understand what their co-team member had said, or thinks they can put it better/clearer themselves.

An emotional recalibration: The setting is typically a public ministry time where a few people are ministering to a group. Person ‘A’ gives a word that causes some sort of clear impact on the person receiving ministry. Person ‘B’ then responds to this emotional response attempting to increase the impact.
Downsizing or Supersizing a word: This can be done anywhere and doesn’t even need a second person. Person ‘A’ delivers a word. Upon seeing the impact they then either turn the volume up if the response has been very positive, or attempt to back out if the response is negative.

Why do we often find it hard not to hijack, redefine, emotionally recalibrate, downsize or supersize what our fellow team members have said when we are ministering? More often than not it is as a result of being excited in the moment. Most of the time we don’t even realize what we are doing – the Lord is moving and someone is being impacted by what is being said through us, so we are naturally encouraged. The whole point of working in teams is to ensure proper accountability, honest feedback and hopefully growth as we move forward together. No-one’s perfect! However it’s not good enough to let ourselves get in the way of God – that is if we are to act as his vessels, which we are doing when we minister prophetically, we have to be incredibly careful not to enhance or take away from what He has given us to say, based on our own emotional response, experience or simply the place we are in at that particular time.

Thanks for reading.

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