You are Inherently Prophetic
Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy (1 Corinthians 14:1 NASB).
Whether you know it or not, as a Spirit-filled believer, you are inherently prophetic. Inherent is defined as belonging to the basic nature of someone or something. In essence, your gift was given to you by God to bless others. The gift of prophecy is quite literally embedded within your genes on a deep spiritual level. It belongs to you and resides in you and should flow from you organically and supernaturally. When you walk in continued ignorance of the gift at your disposal, stagnation and alienation of your God-given prophetic process occurs. Prophetically speaking on the Lord’s behalf is not only germane to the prophet, but it is a divine right given by God to every believer (Strong’s #G4394).
I used to believe that only prophets could prophesy. However, I was completely wrong. In 1 Samuel 10, we have biblical insight regarding something incredibly prophetic happening to a person that was not necessarily a prophet. Saul, the son of Kish, had just been anointed as king over all of Israel and almost immediately received a word through the prophet Samuel. In 1 Samuel 9:20, we find Saul overly concerned with locating his donkeys, which had been missing for three days. Samuel the seer instructed him not to worry about them because they had already been found. It never ceases to amaze me that, when God has a supernatural destiny in store for you, the devil will attempt to keep you focused on your spiritual asses! I’m referring to donkeys in the spirit that are stubborn, refusing to move out of your way in relation to the call of God upon your life. Once you’ve identified them, you gain the ability to defeat them. Knowledge of them equates to power over them. These spiritual asses have already been discovered, but the devil will convince you that they’re still lost. This is essentially a demonic smokescreen to cause you to doubt your true identity (in Saul’s case, becoming king) and focus on a false one (finding donkeys).
In Matthew 4, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. One of the first things that Satan did was attempt to remove the focus of our Lord off the supernatural (God’s will) and on the natural (man’s needs). Starting at verse 3, Lucifer began his temptation of Christ with, “If thou be the Son of God, command these stones to be turned into bread.” This appealed to immediate human needs, not godly directives. Satan used “if thous” several times in this chapter alone. Jesus always answered him with the Word of God, and so should you! Whenever he comes saying, “If you were a prophet…” hit him over the head with the Word. I believe the enemy does this to intentionally remove your focus off the Lord’s will and onto your own will.
Saul was about to rule a kingdom and have a tremendous experience in the supernatural of the Most High, and all he could think about was finding lost donkeys! Sometimes, we become so entangled in the affairs of men that we lose sight of our heavenly assignment.During this time, Saul was humbled by the attention from the prophet, as evidenced in 1 Samuel 9:21. “And Saul said, Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? and my family the least of all the families of Benjamin? wherefore then thou speakest so to me?”
God promotes the humble! Humility precedes ordained, prophetic encounters. According to Numbers 12:3, Moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth. He was also the most mightily used person of God at that time. We must conclude that meekness is might in the eyes of the Lord. Meek is defined as submissive, gentle, obedient, unassuming, and humble. Yes, Moses had all these attributes. In addition, he was also a prophet. Arrogance can never be and should never be attributed to the oracles of the Most High. When a so-called seer of God walks in pride, run! Pride didn’t get a hold of King Saul until much later, but that’s another story.In 1 Samuel 10:1, Samuel anointed Saul with oil, poured it upon his head, and kissed him, saying, “Is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain (prince) over His inheritance (His heritage Israel)?” Afterward, Samuel released three prophesies over Saul. The first dealt with finding the lost donkeys. The second one was about getting two loaves of bread. The third one spoke of coming to the hill of God and meeting a company of prophets. I believe that the “hill of God” mentioned in verse 5 relates to elevation in Him.
After that thou shalt come to the hill of God, where is the garrison of the Philistines: and it shall come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp, before them; and they shall prophesy: And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man (1 Samuel 10:5-6).
Saul had to head up higher to allow prophecy to come down! Notice that as he went up, he met a company of prophets coming down from not just from a high place, but from the high place. Just any old high place will not do; you must seek the specific high place where you are called.In seeking prophetic encounters, you must allow God to direct your eyes to look higher, not lower. When you allow your vision to see as God sees, like Saul, you will see a company of prophets coming toward you with musical instruments, prophesying! According to 1 Samuel 10: 6, the Spirit of the Lord was going to come on Saul mightily, and he would be a prophet with them, turning him into another man. All these things came to pass later in the chapter, but I want to bring something else to your attention.When Saul was around the prophets, he became prophetic. First Samuel 10:10 states that “the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him” so that he spoke under divine inspiration while he was with them. Saul had never done this before. There is no biblical evidence that Saul was enrolled in Samuel’s school of the prophets. He didn’t have a degree from “Sam’s Prophetic University” or “Samuel’s School for the Gifted.” According to verse 11, he spoke by inspiration while among the “schooled” prophets. The question arose, asking if Saul was actually a prophet. My answer to this question is no, because verse 13 of that same chapter states that Saul’s inspired speaking ended. I think that it ended because he left the company of seers. When he was around the prophets, what was in them activated what was in him! I am referring to the prophetic DNA or gift that resided in him. Saul’s divine constitution allowed him to prophesy with apparently seasoned prophets for a specific period of time.
This still happens to Spirit-filled believers today. If you are around prophets or prophetic people long enough, prophecy will rub off on you! If you’re too close to it, you will catch it. I have found that prophecy is contagious and easily passed to others. Everyone has a spot inside them just waiting for the prophetic to completely fill it. A seer seed in all of us germinates once watered by prophetic activity. In order to move your prophetic genes, they need to be activated and exercised. You can do this through prophetic activation, which is simply a stirring up of the gift that already dwells within you. I liken it to strengthening the human muscles through resistance training. The more resistance placed upon a specific muscle area over time, the stronger and more developed it becomes. Your gift of prophecy will respond in the same manner. The more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes. Activations are paramount to this process. Not only do they increase the capacity of your gift, but they also help increase the intensity of your gift. Activations assist in not having to rely on some one else to hear God for you. It augments your innate ability to hear Him for yourself. These activations can cause your spiritual ears to tune into the Lord’s frequency and access your inherently prophetic nature.
I’ve seen many people who were not necessarily prophetic but who became prophetic through activation exercises. Not only does an activation ignite the prophetic gift in them, but the subsequent shaking causes other gifts around it to be stirred up as well. After one such activation, one woman told me that her hands felt hot. I discerned that this was a sign of the gift of healing and told her so. Later, she began operating in the gift of healing. This type of thing has happened in nearly every activation that I’ve ever done. Many wonderful testimonies of prophetic awakenings have resulted from these prophetic activations. (For further information on how I can help activate you or your church or ministry, please contact me at supernaturallyprophetic@gmail.com.)
During one of these activation sessions, I had a revelation. As I laid hands on a woman to activate her prophetic gift, I saw three gifts inside of her, each varied in size. They actually looked like gift-wrapped presents, bows and all. One gift was bigger than all the others, which seemed to be her dominant gift. I believe that everyone has a few gifts, but usually one is primary or bigger than the others. For example, I discerned a prophetic gift as the largest of her gifts. The other gifts, such as healing, faith, and discernment were relatively small, often due to infrequent or even no use. Again, this is very similar to the human muscle. Through consistent, prolonged neglect, muscle atrophies or shrinks. The smaller it gets from a lack of activity, the weaker the muscle becomes. Your God-given gifts operate in much the same manner. The less you use them, the smaller or weaker they become. The gifts the Lord gives you never go away, according to Romans 11:29. “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”The Lord will not give you something and then demand it back. However, gifts might decrease in strength if they are not used. Anything you don’t exercise weakens over time. I’m definitely stronger prophetically than I was the day I entered ministry.In 2002, God instructed me to use my gift, and I obeyed. I haven’t stopped using it since. The more I participated in the process of providing prophetic ministry to others, the more proficient I became. Sadly, many in the Body of Christ have a multitude of untapped gifts. These God-given gifts are wrapped but never opened or used. This is a travesty because a lot of people need what the Lord has bestowed within you. We must come to the realization that gifts are truly meant to be given. Your heaven-sent abilities are the key to someone’s breakthrough. Many are impatiently waiting for them to manifest in you. You are called to minister to certain people in the world. You might not be called to everyone, but you are called to someone.Over the years, my gift became bigger, stronger, and more precise as I exercised it. My advice to emerging prophets and prophetic people is to use your prophetic gift as much as possible. The more you use it, the more robust it becomes. Think about it. The longer that you do anything, the better you become at it. Recently, I ministered at a prophetic conference in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. I prophesied to more than two hundred people over a three-day period. I did this non-stop for almost three hours each day, twice a day without any breaks. On the final day, my voice was just about gone, and I was exhausted, but I must admit, my prophetic gift went to another level.When your gift is stretched, it strengthens! When it’s pushed or pulled upon regularly, it increases in depth. The weight of your gift becomes heavier, and is now characterized by fatness from being consistently fed over time. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing” (Isa. 10:27). The context of this verse includes the ox becoming so fat (anointed) that the yoke breaks.
Similar to “eating” the Word of God, you feed your gift every time you use it. When you routinely neglect daily Scripture reading, you might find yourself becoming spiritually weak. In Matthew 4:4b, Jesus told the devil that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” The Bible is the living Word of God, and you need to eat of it daily in order to provide sustenance, making you fatter in the spirit. Fatness equates to weightiness, which is a positive thing spiritually. Likewise, if you go a week without food, you will feel worn out, depleted, and lethargic. You must be nourished both physically and spiritually in order to maintain a synergistic level between the spiritual and natural aspects of your prophetic gift.
