Mature Prophetic Gifts

This week we continue our series on the artistic five-fold ministry.

Last week I began by saying that there is a difference between the charism, what our English Bibles translate as "spiritual gifts" and what is described in Ephesians as the donation: the five fold ministry people.  Those who operate in the five-fold ministry are the embodiment of the charism.

And the clearest example of this 
is in the difference between the 
gifts of prophecy,
and the one who is called a prophet.
This week I am going to give an overview of the gift of prophecy,
and unpack the "charism."
In part, because we are in a season 
where good teaching is lacking on this subject.
And I don't say this often, 
but if my teaching helps you
it would help me and Belonging House 
if you share these messages with your friends.
The only way we will have a mighty Christian revolution
is if the things that bless you begin to bless others.

So first,
let's define "prophecy."
In Numbers 11
Moses is having a lot of trouble 
leading the people who have come out of Egypt.
He calls seventy elders from the tribes and clans of Israel,
and summons them to a gathering.
He is going to commission these elders as 
assistant judges in Israel.
In this gathering
some of the Holy Spirit that was apportioned to Moses
was deposited on the sixty-eight
and they prophesied.
And, as an example of the obstinate hearts of the people,
two didn't show up.
And even so,
those two also received a portion of the Holy Spirit
and they began to prophesy in the camp.
Joshua,
who was angry that they didn't obey Moses,
said to Moses,
"Why don't you stop them,
 they are prophesying without your authority."
And Moses says a forward looking word:
"Oh that the all the LORD's people were prophets
and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them." (Numbers 11:29)

This is the point of the New Covenant:
we are all intended to be filled with the Holy Spirit
and we are all intended to operate at some level as prophets.
When we baptize, we anoint every believer as a 
prophet,
priest, and king.

Paul would echo this in I Corinthians 14:5:
I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more I want you to prophesy.

In John chapter 10
Jesus tells us that his sheep hear his voice.
So one of the defining marks of the Christian
is the ability to hear God speak.
As you know this is a central belief of this community.
I firmly believe that we can all hear from God.
And this ability to hear from God is the foundation of the prophetic gift.
Some folks have a greater ability to hear from God than others.

I Samuel 9:19 the text tells us that in the beginning 
prophets were called "na'abi" 
"seer."
So throughout scripture
prophecy is connected to the ability to not only hear God's voice
but also to see.
The prophetic gifts unlock a mystical realm
where you not only can hear from the Lord,
you can, as Joel said,
dream dreams,
see visions,
and prophesy.
And again, this was intended for “all flesh.”
From the New Covenant point of view
it is abnormal, or strange
for you to not experience these things.

This is why
thirty years ago when the prophetic gifts began to be restored to the church
so many people became "prophetic artists."
A lot of people,
regardless of artistic ability
began trying to record what they saw.
That was the trickle of an immature beginning,
and now it’s time walk into maturity.

Now God is raising up 
artistic prophets, and we are in a time of war
and those who refuse to grow into maturity are going to be sidelined.
We are called to maturity.

Years ago Steve Witt did a year long course at our church on the prophetic.
I can’t share all of that with you, but I want to unpack the basics this week.

So what is the prophetic gift?
It is the ability to reveal on earth 
what is going on in heaven.
In other words,
it is the revelation on earth as it is in heaven.
Some of have said that prophecy is hearing God for other people,
but this gets a lot of folks in trouble.
The goal of the New Testament is that you will hear God for yourself.
There is a difference 
between learning to hear the voice of God for the community,
and learning to develop a deep relationship with God.

So again
the prophetic gift 
will bring a revelation of the Kingdom to the body.
Everyone can hear God’s voice,
and some will be more able than others to communicate it.
All the spiritual charisms are on a spectrum
and some are stronger than others,
and just like natural talents,
they can be developed, and nurtured.

Paul says the most about the gift of prophecy in I Corinthians 14.
And we have to make a clear statement up front:
in the Old Testament
the prophet was often a minister of death.
We see prophets killing, judging,
and correcting all the time.
A lot of weird stuff happens in church 
when unbalanced people read these stories and they start becoming Elijah.
We once had a woman wander into our church 
in Kentucky,
and she said that "God comforts the afflicted, and afflicts the comfortable."
"God sent me here because I am an Afflictor!"
Yikes.

So first off,
the gift of prophecy is an expression of the 
Promise of the Father.
The gift of prophecy is going to come from 
the comforter,
advocate,
and giver of life.
The New Covenant is about life.
New Covenant Prophecy is a gift of life,
not judgement and death.

And Paul says this in I Corinthians 14.
Prophecy
first is for
upbuilding,
encouragement,
and consolation.
The gift of prophecy is going make people feel stronger,
strengthened to go in the right direction,
and be healed and restored.

Prophecy edifies the church.
In other words,
the whole body is going to be built up and strengthened 
by the gift of prophecy.

Finally,
Paul tells us that the gift of prophecy
reveals the secrets of the heart.
And this is a supernatural act.
It is the holy Spirit revealing things
often unbeknownst to the speaker.

Prophecy will confirm what God is already saying.
Often Prophecy will help give direction,
like when Paul saw the man of Macedonia,
and they changed direction.
But most of all
the true gift of prophecy will strengthen and encourage you.
I’ve encountered a lot of people who came to me
and said they were prophets to me
and told me that I needed to in this direction or that.
In the end they were just narcissists, 
and when I didn’t do what they said they tried to undermine the whole community.  
A prophetic word is never going to come out of nowhere.
God really doesn’t work that way.

In the New Testament 
the gift of prophecy is always held in check
by three things:
first,
love.
The prophetic word is imperfect,
and must always be subject to the law of love.
Do unto others as you would have others do to you.
And prophecy is always subject to the guidance of leaders.
III John is a short letter about two false prophets who refuse submit to his authority.
Ask this question:
Does this word reflect the love of God?
Can I imagine Jesus saying the word I just received?

Second,
Prophecy is always subject to the Bible.
If someone says they are hearing things that are not
lining up with the Bible,
they are not true prophets.
I mentioned that one of the things that derailed my ordination
process was a prophetic word that someone received telling them
to commit adultery.
That’s a demonic voice. 
Be careful when someone starts saying 
“the spirit told me.”
The Holy Spirit is the author of the Bible,
and the Holy Spirit is not going to contradict the Bible.

As an aside,
sometimes people confuse their own souls with the voice of God.

There is a lot of "prophetic art" 
out there that is just people expressing 
things in their souls that do not have an outlet.
I've been the speaker
at a lot of prophetic art events,
and I can't tell you how many people
get in the groove to often very sensual "worship music"
and start painting obviously phallic or sexual images.
I have seen a lot of ladyparts!

And weirdly, people act like I have a dirty mind
when it is right there in front of us
and I point it out.
I don’t have a dirty mind for pointing out the obvious.

So, right here,
all prophecy--be it art, writing, music, or design,
is going to bring a revelation of heaven.
There is going to be order,
shalom,
beauty,
and even if it doesn't depict a religious subject,
it is going to reveal Jesus.
It is going to lift people up.

Third,
Prophecy is subject to discernment.
It's not all good.
As I have said before,
some things we see are God,
some are our flesh,
and some is the devil.
And the most cunning of all is our flesh,
because it can mimic the voice of God.
I John 4:1 instructs us to test the spirits.
Now there is a difference between testing the spirits
and shutting down the prophetic.
People claim to be discerning, 
when in fact they are shutting down prophecy.
People will often reject a prophetic word outright
and say "I will believe it when I see it."
They often reject people that God sends them for the same reason.
This is why I try to receive strangers,
and some of the most unusual people have had a great impact on our community.

And why I also let people speak.

It's dangerous and it is risky.
One time we had a person in a prayer meeting who 
began getting prophetic words.
They were all manipulation and control
and the person was using "prophecy" to voice their 
unhappiness with my leadership.
I called them on it in the meeting and said the word wasn't from the Lord.
Boy was she mad! 
Afterward I discovered the person was raised in a family 
involved in witchcraft,
and she had a habit of manipulating people with prophetic words.
Another ministry had problems with her in the past for this reason.
Rather than pursue freedom and healing,
she left our community.
This is one of the reasons prophetic churches and ministries
attract narcissists.
True prophecy is not about you,
and you don't have the authority 
to speak to others on behalf of God.

And this leads to something extremely important:
discernment.
It's not all good.

Spiritual gifts often come in “clusters.”
Often prophetic gifts will come with the gift of discernment.
Discernment is a heightened sensitivity to the spiritual atmosphere.

For example,
I can hear a difference in the 
sound of the true prophetic
and the false.
And I can feel what's operating in the atmosphere,
sometimes I will hear, see, or feel 
something that reveals the spiritual atmosphere.
I often feel pressure in my ears when I am around witchcraft.
And this is a good thing.
Discernment will freak you out at first,
and it takes time, as all the spiritual gifts do,
to develop maturity.

Finally,
we need to follow some general rules about the prophetic gift.
As Paul says in I Corinthians 14,
these gifts are for our building up,
but they are not to be crazy.
There was a time when I attended what I would call
"tag-team" prophetic ministry events.
One person would get up after another and yack.
Some of it was from the Lord,
but most of it was stream of consciousness,
just like a poetry slam.
If you read some of the prophetic stuff on line,
you find a lot of it is either riffs off other people,
or riffs off what they read in the newspaper.

The greatest prophets of our generation
are not on social media or doing being events.
When we get to heaven
we are going to discover there were great prophets
turning their revelation into prayer,
guiding people behind the scenes,
and learning to translate their words into other ways of communication.

I'm grateful that we have built a culture of order
and a culture of honor
so we don't see as much crazy anymore.
We have to always operate in the gifts 
out of reverence for one another
and for Jesus.
And we have to let the gifts operate,
even if it's risky.

Some good rules around prophecy
should be kept in mind:
No mates, and no dates.
We all have blind spots,
and women in particular will get words about their husband.
Don't trust them.
And men will get words about their big ministries.
Don't trust them.
Personal prophetic words are always to be held loosely,
and never taken as the final authority.
I have found that in general in my life,
prophecy is part of the mix
with Scripture,
the overall direction of my life,
and the input of wise people.
All prophecy in the New Covenant 
is going to bring life and it is going to point to Jesus.
The point is to bring you into maturity.

No direction and no sin.
I have seen people tell others 
"you have to do this and that if you want God to bless you."
You are answering a question nobody is asking,
and directive prophetic words beyond Scripture 
are getting into fortune telling.
Don't do it.
If God is giving direction
it will happen in the context of waiting on the Lord,
and whatever direction emerges
will be clear and have a consensus
from the group.
God works through the body.

God does not give you knowledge of other people's sin.
There is a story from the Spanish Inquisition
where the inquisitor brought in a little girl 
who was having encounters with Jesus.
They intended to put her to death,
but before they did,
the inquisitor sent the little girl home
and told her to ask Jesus what he confessed at his last confession.
When the little girl returned,
the inquisitor wanted an answer.
And the little girl told him Jesus said:
"I forgot."
You are not God,
and if you think God is showing you people's sin,
you are listening to a demon,
because the accuser keeps a record of wrongs.
I hear this kind of thing fairly often
and that's clairvoyance, not prophecy.
You are the one in sin.
If you are having this kind of thing,
where you know other people’s sins, or you see demons on people
I suggest you contact me and we have a prayer for deliverance.

And finally,
as I said,
all the gifts are on a spectrum.
There are levels of prophecy, 
what I call the low level prophetic flurry,
where people find meaning in everything out there,
and they give you fluffy words that are fairly benign.
I would say 90% of the prophetic movement lives here.

And then there is maturity 
where you begin to learn and understand God's nature and ways.
Mature prophetic gifting is 
going to go slow and low.
And those who walk in it will reflect the King of the Prophets.
The point of all the gifts is to help you grow closer to God and 
love one another.  

Next week
we are going to talk about the people who incarnate this gift.
The Prophets.