Dos and Dont's for Prophetic Folks

Ezekiel 37 verses 1 through 14 tell of a vision God gave to the prophet Ezekiel. God placed him in a valley filled with stacks of dry bones and then asked him an odd question: “Son of man, can these bones live?” Ezekiel replied cautiously, “O Lord God, You know.”

Then God commanded Ezekiel, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!’” You probably know the rest of the story, the prophet did as God commanded and amazingly the bones came together to form human bodies; but the re-created people still lay on the ground dead.

Then God commanded Ezekiel to call to the four winds to come and restore the breath of life to the dead beings. The Bible says, “…breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.”

God’s will has to be spoken. When God wants to do something on the earth, He will give an earth person the authority and power to speak out His will. That is precisely the reason that God made it possible for born-again people to prophesy. He wants to use us to declare His will on the earth.

I know people who have traveled around the world to places they felt God wanted them to go to prophesy the things He told them to say. They would speak out the will of God concerning a particular location. We need to understand that when we speak something God has said to us, it becomes dynamic. By launching those “words” into the appropriate environment, we make it possible for God to do what He said prophetically He would do.

It may take a day, a month, or a century later when someone walks under the umbrella of that prophetic promise and begins to accomplish the thing that someone else released prophetically. God’s power resides in that place waiting for the right person at the right time to come along to accomplish His purposes.

Call Forth the Kingdom

God said to Ezekiel, let’s get everything needed to create an army and told him to prophesy to the bones to come together. Ezekiel did what the Lord commanded and the scattered bones came together. Then Ezekiel was told to prophesy for muscle and sinew to cover the bones and it happened. I’m sure that included tissue and organs and everything necessary to make a complete person. Then God told him to prophesy breath into their lungs, and they came alive.

This vision illustrates that for God’s will to be accomplished there are often various levels, dimensions, and degrees that must be completed. For example, in your own life God will talk to you about the next thing to come. Once that happens, He’ll talk to you about the following thing—but very rarely will God layout your entire life for you in complete detail. Almost always there is a progression toward the end goal God wants to accomplish. That is how He usually moves and advances us and it is also how He manifests His will on the earth.

As God works incrementally in your life, you may not see how each thing moves you in the direction of His will—some things may even seem to be setbacks. But always remember that God makes “…all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Through Ezekiel’s vision we learned that God wants to speak the things He would do on the earth through His people before doing them. Also, we learned that God usually achieves His will on the earth incrementally.

Prophecy, the Two-edged Sword

Psalm 149:6 says, “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand.” This is the picture of what a soldier, a believer, in God’s Kingdom looks like—a worshipper armed with a prophetic word that cuts two ways.

The phrase for two-edged sword in the Greek literally means “two-mouthed sword.” A prophecy is like a two-edged sword in that it first cuts into us when we hear the word and releases something new in us. That, however, is only half the value of that prophetic word. Anything God gives you isn’t just to speak to you, it is meant to cut another way and be a second mouth when it speaks to others.

Prophecy elevates you to a platform of spiritual influence only limited by God. So, as a son or daughter of God, you have the authority to speak prophetically into any situation and even to the nations.

I’ve learned to use the prophecies God has given me in my personal prayer life. I love to remind the devil of the things God has said. I just speak what God told me prophetically. I say, “Devil, you’re in serious trouble because God told me….” These are things God has spoken to me about myself, my family members, and the church. When I speak those words from God, it is like a sword shoots out of my mouth to overcome anything that would hinder their fulfillment…and you can do the same.

Alphabet In = Logos Out

The Word of God within us is the key to prophecy flowing out of us. (Please read that sentence again.) Obviously, to prophesy you have to hear from God. That means there is nothing more important to a believer than fueling your spirit with God’s Word, the truths in the Bible. What God speaks to you through His Word and during times of prayer, He is ready to release through you. As God’s word flows into you, the Holy Spirit will make it into sentences that flow out of you, if you will allow it.

Luke 6:45 (NLT) explains how this works:

A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.

Since what we hear is important to prophesying, we must ask ourselves, “What and who are we listening to?” Are we spending time reading God’s Word and in prayer listening for His voice, or do we primarily fill our minds with our work, relationships, entertainment, the Internet, the news, etc.? None of those things are bad, they just cannot be the primary focus of our attention if we want to prophesy.

People who move in prophecy, yet are deficient in the Word of God are vulnerable to a host of errors. When they reach out for a prophetic word, they can end up saying things that aren’t scriptural and not even know the difference.

Here is an important principle to remember: a prophetic word will never contradict God’s written Word, the Bible. If it does, it is not a legitimate prophecy from God. Any doctrine, belief, or practice that is not revealed in Scripture cannot be established through a prophecy.

Gotta Have Faith

Romans 12:6 says, “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith.” Okay, we need to have our faith built up in order to prophesy, and Scripture gives us the formula for increasing our faith: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

The level of your faith is equal to the level of God’s Word within you. In prophecy, you can’t go above where you are in the Word. Prophecy comes out after the Word of God goes in.

Want to prophesy? Then you have to become a serious and consistent reader and studier of the Bible. However, we prophesy not according to the amount of Word we have read but in proportion to the amount of Word in which we live.

Different Strokes for Different Prophetic Folks

I believe God wants every Christian to become prophetic, but I realize that they will express their gift in different ways. Very few people will have the opportunity to stand on a church platform during a service and speak. However, God provides prophetic outlets and has prophetic styles that are appropriate for everyone and their circumstances.

An ideal prophetic opportunity for many can be found in small groups. If you are not a member of a small Bible study or cell group in your church, you might be missing an important opportunity to prophesy. And what about when someone takes a seat next to you in church, is it possible that God could have put the person there because He has something prophetic for you to say? What about the person standing next to you in the checkout line?

Sometimes a Scripture comes to mind that a believer feels impressed to share with a particular person. Others will have thoughts or insights they know are from God for someone. Others will have prophetically inspired prayers that need to be declared over a person, place, or thing. Prophecy has many expressions, and no one has to copy anyone else.

Leap into the River of Revelation

In another vision, found in Ezekiel 47:1-12, God showed Ezekiel a stream of water coming out from under the temple flowing toward the sea. When Ezekiel checked it out, he discovered the water got deeper the farther out he went. At first it was ankle deep, and then knee deep, then waist deep, and soon it was over his head. This vision depicts how the Holy Spirit moves in the lives of Christian people.

Some Christians and denominations are merely ankle deep in the waters of the Holy Spirit. They are in the beginning stages of the river. They have found salvation and they are splashing around and calling it glorious. It is glorious that we are born again, but there is so much more and yet many don’t realize it. Their full spiritual potential is never known or of benefit to the Kingdom because they are satisfied to be ankle deep in the beginning stage of God’s river of revelation.

We have to realize that what we call revival and have seen in the past isn’t even swimming waters for the “last days” revival. There is a lot more the Holy Spirit wants to do than we have heard of, seen, or experienced in the past. So we have to dare to go beyond the safety of the waters we know and dive in deeper to find the revival that the Holy Spirit wants to bring to our day.

As Ezekiel moved deeper into the waters, he noticed that the river was pulling on him and he had to fight more and more to remain in control. The greater the river of the Holy Spirit tries to influence us, the more we struggle to remain on top of things.

Prophetic Mistakes

Some people fear that if we open up the church to prophecy that when new people prophesy they will make mistakes…and that may happen. However, prophecy is like everything else, you only become good at something by practicing, and that means making a few mistakes. However, mistakes that occur where there is pastoral oversight can be corrected and no harm done. Yes, you may get it wrong sometimes, but at least you tried.

On one occasion, I was prophesying to two women who knew each other and were standing next to one another. After speaking to the first lady, I turned to prophesy to the other one. When I finished, they looked at each other then looked at me kind of funny and told me that I had their prophecies turned around. The word I gave to the first lady was actually for the second lady and vice versa.

How Deep Are You?

When the water is up to your waist, you are halfway in—but you are also halfway out. You may be at this point. It is a difficult stage because you know that God wants all of you, but you are allowing “things” like fear for example, to hold you back. If that is where you are concerning prophecy, there can be only one answer—ask God to forgive you and plunge into the deep and expect Him to help you with every difficulty that arises.

“Waters to swim in” is the next stage and where God wants you to be. This is when you completely give in to the current of the Holy Spirit and allow prophecy and other spiritual gifts to flow in your life. We need to learn to allow the currents of the Spirit to take us and move us wherever God desires.

There are stages and levels of God’s Spirit. In these last days, God is giving a deeper and fuller measure of the experience of His presence and power than at any time before. He wants to show the world His glory through us. This means that not just preachers are going to raise the dead and do wildly supernatural things—ordinary Christians will get to do the cool stuff too! You don’t need special permission to move in the supernatural, you already have an engraved invitation in God’s Word.

Test Before Tasting

First Thessalonians 5:21 says, “Test all things; hold fast what is good.” I was eating salmon the other day and found a small bone in it so I picked up my plate, dashed it against the wall and shouted, “I will never eat salmon again!” Just kidding, I did not do that. Instead, I picked out the tiny bone, put it aside, and enjoyed the rest of the meat.

We are to do the same thing with a prophecy. The gift of prophecy, like every spiritual gift, has a growth phase. Those who are new to prophecy can mix their own personality, history, feelings, and personal beliefs into a prophetic word.

Most prophecies given by inexperienced people almost always have something from God, but they may also have something from themselves mixed in it.

Some people say that if any part of a prophecy is wrong then none of it can be true; or if a prophet gets something wrong, the person can never again be trusted to say what is right. Those two views are very wrong.

That would be like me saying to a daughter that I am teaching to drive and who just ran over a curb, “Yea, thus sayeth your father, though you drove several blocks well, you just hit a curb so you are permanently disqualified from driving forever and ever and ever. Amen.” No. Just like learning to drive, we learn from our mistakes and get back behind the wheel and do it again—and the more we do it, the better we get at it.

At our church we don’t believe in “parking lot prophecy” because it lacks accountability. We don’t want anything done in the shadows. If someone tells you they have a word for you and says, “But don’t tell the pastor.” My word for you is, “By all means tell the pastor.” Test everything you hear even what you hear from the pulpit; check it against the Bible.

If you believe that you have a prophetic word for someone, take another person with you who is spiritually discerning enough to check the credibility of your word when you give it.

How to Verify a Prophetic Word

First, if a prophecy is from God it will bear witness with you. Prophetic words are almost always a confirmation of something you have already heard from God; and when you hear it, there will be a “leaping” inside you.

Remember when Mary the mother-to-be of Jesus went to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was pregnant with John the Baptist? The Bible says that Elizabeth’s baby leaped in her womb (Luke 1:41). This is an example of the witness of the Holy Spirit within you that you often experience when someone gives you a true prophetic word.

Second, ask yourself if the prophecy lines up with Scripture. God will never tell you to do something in a prophecy that the Bible says is wrong. For example, God will never tell you to leave your spouse to marry someone else. That may sound obvious to you, but we can all be tempted to accept a word that is against Scripture if it gives us the way out of a difficult situation or meets some deep need.

Third, submit any word given to you to your pastoral spiritual coverage for evaluation. If your pastor is a real man of God, he will be able to accurately judge the word given you.

Fourth, ask yourself if the person giving the word is morally clean. The Bible does not tell us to judge others by their gift but by their fruit. What kind of fruit is their lifestyle producing? There is a tendency in charismatic circles to elevate people because of their gift and be blind to their moral failures.

Pitfalls for Prophets

First Thessalonians 5:19-20 explains how to move in the realm of the gifts of the Spirit by telling us what not to do. It says, “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies.” We quench the Spirit by stopping the fullness of the Spirit’s gifts from operating in us and in our churches. We grieve the Spirit by our character flaws or sin. These things distance us from God.

I believe the day is coming when more and more churches will welcome the Holy Spirit by making place for His gifts during their services.

We must be obedient, humble, and teachable to develop our spiritual gifts. A major pitfall for those learning to use their gifts is pride. When God does something supernatural through us, we can easily be amazed by our spiritual gift and forget that we are merely God’s mouthpiece.

Prophecy can cause some people to feel special and important. The fact is that you are special and important, but not because you prophesy. Being a worshipper will help you to reverse pride and keep it in check. Those who operate in spiritual gifts and are not worshippers can become prideful. Worship, however, reminds us what is what and who is who; it keeps us balanced.

Finally—when God gives us a word for someone, we should not use it to make ourselves look good. Rather, we should ask the Lord to show us how to tie the prophecy into meeting the person’s needs. We should always strive to use our gift as a tool to build up others and God’s Kingdom…not ourselves.

Michael Maiden