Why Some People Give Up on the Prophetic – Reason 1
The Bible commands,“Do not despise prophecies.” (1Th 5:20 ).
Someone (thanks Em) suggested I write about why some leave the “Prophetic Movement”. People leave things because they lose hope, lose interest or get disillusioned by what the “thing” has to offer. Let’s address this in regard to the prophetic.
Over the 30 years which I have been involved in the Prophetic I have seen many well intended people doing the best they can to hear God and then deliver what they believe to be the Word of the Lord; usually the problems rests in the manner in which they “deliver” the message balanced with the way they “heard” the message. For example, if someone comes to you and says, “I heard God say…” Does this mean they heard the audible voice of God (level 5 on a 5 scale) or did they have a slight impression (level 1 or 2 on a 5 scale) in which they determined – either rightly or wrongly – it was God?
Some important advice I can give about the prophetic beyond – Know God! – is to deliver the message in the manner in which you received it. There is nothing wrong in saying, “The other day I was praying and had an impression to pray for you about…” rather than whoop up a prophecy out of an impression and therefore tilt the scales off balance. It was an impression, deliver it that way. When we deliver a message we believe to be from the Lord as a level 4 on a 5 scale, when it was actually a 2 we can dishearten the hearer by leading them to believe something which maybe wasn’t actually from God, rather it was from our own soul. This dynamic can cause people to “give up” on the prophetic throwing the whole gift away instead of learning to discern themselves what is and what is not the Voice of God.
Another thing which can cause confusion is when we see or hear something from the Lord then – we as the prophetic voice misunderstand the interpretation; this leads us to say what God didn’t mean. I have done this; sadly it was a very hard lesson:
I was asked at a meeting to pray for a lady that I had never met. I laid hands on her and after a short time I saw in my spirit “a brain”. I interpreted this as a “thought problem” and began to pray along this theme. I didn’t ask the Lord what the interpretation was for “the brain”. It wasn’t her thought life at all. I found out she had five brain surgeries and was scheduled for her sixth and last. Had I waited for the LORD to tell me the interpretation, our faith may have been increased and she may have been healed. But, she wasn’t. What a powerful lesson I learned too bad the price was so high! Let us say only what we know. I should have just said, “I’m seeing a “brain” in my spirit. Does this mean anything to you?”
For you who have been wounded by the prophetic, sorry – Please don’t give up on the prophetic! We all need each other and all the gifts of the Holy Spirit to build up the church and win the lost.
Humm, winning the lost by being led by the Holy Spirit in the Word of Knowledge… Maybe next Blog…
I think I found out why people weren't able to post comments and fixed it. This is From Joe who gave me permission to put this in the comments… May 10 at 9:20pm Report
Hi Berta – I tried posting to your blog, but it didn't go so I'm going to just send it to you hear. Please just remember, these are just some of my thoughts and what I've been through.
Hi Berta – Actually I've been doing a lot of thinking about the prophetic movement and also what it means to follow the commands in 1 Thessalonians and also 1 Cor 14. You know probably better than I the scriptures leading up to that one verse. "Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But (and always love it when God puts those conjuctions in there) examine everything carefully; hold fast to what is good…" I wonder though if a lot of our problems or someone's problem at least is that they do not carefully examine what is being said to them. I know that through prophetic people I've been hurt, wounded and also led astray from where God had me going. My problem is that I didn't cultivate that careful hearing ability of my own, I didn't examine what they were saying in the clear light of scripture and I didn't listen to my own heart and what God was saying to me in those times. I remember one time someone prophesied over me, because I wanted to hear better, looked at my watch and the day and said that thirteen was the number of government in the bible and that Seiko meant holy in Japanese. Well I took that to heart for a long time, until I started really looking at what he said. My fault I know, but no where in scripture is 13 found to be the number of government, nor if you look in a Japanese/English Dictionary does Seiko mean "holy". I know it's just one example, and I love the Vineyard for it's understanding that everyone gets to play as John Wimber would say in all of the gifts. But one thing I am understanding is that even those who have a much higher gifting of faith than mine, even if I receive something from them, I need to carefully weight it out and judge it accordingly. Just my thoughts that I've been thinking for quite a while. I love the prophetic gift and how it imparts faith to the hearer when we are on track with the Holy Spirit. Like i said that's why I love the vineyard and their emphasis on the fact that everyone gets to play and learn, not just those who are in the lime light. Just my thoughts Berta! Shema Y'israel, Adonai Elohe, Adonai echod!
That's good Berta. I don't believe that we should determine the validity of the prophetic word based on the way the revelation was recieved. Some of my most accurate prophetic words have been slight impressions. Also, some of my most incredible prophetic words that came with power were first discredited by the person recieving them. I remember one, I gave a woman a word of where she would move what she would do for a living and how God was going to radically change her life. When the word did'nt come to pass right away, she began to question the word to me. I felt the word was true in my heart. But I said,"Well, Lord, you know all, and I do not." It took 4 years for that word to come to pass but when it did, it was bam, bam, bam. All of it.
People get turned off by the prophetic because they treat it like a magic 8 ball. When it doesn't happen because they don't position themselves and co-labor with God, they get hope deferred and the heart gets sick(proverbs) and then they turn to the prophetic and blame the prophetic person for giving a false word, when in actuality, a prophetic word is often like a door that God opens. The door is an invitation into a process that includes, faith, diligence, repentance, alignment, agreement, persistance, and relationship with God.
I think, as we grow more mature in the prophetic, we start to recognise when we are moving in the anointing, in which we are in a state of naba-or bubbling forth many words ecstatically, or when we are prophecying out of our gift (stir up the gift within you Timothy) or when we are in the soul realm. By reason of use, we learn….But the prophetic wasn't meant to be perfect. We know in part and see in part. We need more Grace and we need to allow the prophets to prophecy with the power of God and faith, and then we can judge it. We must keep prophecying no matter what. 🙂
Anonymous, I agree and appreciate your comments. My point is to reveal it the way it was received, ie "I had an impression". Impressions are often God, (Ac 15:28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us,)so I'm not saying "2s" aren't God. Also, this is one of many blogs about this subject…I have a list which will cover what you stated above.
Another thing I would add is that you seem to be at least 4 years (obviously more)into the prophetic (because of the time frame you stated in the above testimony) and can discern the Anointing, slight leadings and other communication from the Holy Spirit,some can't and as Joe stated he has been spun out (my words since I know him personally)by the seemingly prophetic. These blogs are like ingredients to a cake and independently wont taste as delicious as they will when added together; it will obviously be a book.
FYI: Why I love and Value the Prophetic: Reason 2 covers the co-laboring with God from the position of knowing the will of God and laboring with Him thru prayer because you believe the Word spoken.
Blessings!
Blessings!
Anonymous ~ As I considered your thoughts above I believe it is important to add; the times I've heard the internal audible Voice of God (level 4) and heard the audible Voice of God (level 5)- I can't remember a single time where I felt or discerned the Presence of God. When I'm hearing on a level 1-3 I'd say as I'm relaying it to someone else: "I believe the Spirit of God says…";however, when I'm hearing a level 4-5 I'd say, "The Spirit of God says…".