Rich sent me a doc on something he has been processing. Interesting. It’s on maturity.
Prophetic Perspectives Unit-1
This first unit will have to do with judging ALL prophecy:
Today there is a deep passion in the saints to mature in Christ and experience more of the supernatural lifestyle of Jesus in the church and everyday life. The restoration of prophecy in the church has ignited such desire. Prophetic ministry releases the possibility of every aspect of God’s divine attributes of supernatural power and authority to the body of Christ. Prophecy releases encouragement, direction, and vision of unlimited possibilities to God’s people, ministries, churches, and in advancing the Kingdom of God. As with all other gifts of the Holy Spirit, prophecy is supernatural in that God speaks to men and through men, declaring His divine nature to encourage and build us up as a people, church, city or nation. It is imperative for us to be able to determine the truth in prophecy and to judge it using both the written word and the Spirit.
What are the things to test in judging prophecy? In 1 John 4:1-3, John writes about false prophets and instructs us not to believe every spirit, but to test the spirits to determine whether they are of God. Verses two and three tell us how to determine between the Spirit of God and those spirits not of God. It requires maturity in the Spirit and the Word to effectively test these spirits.
Determining the difference of spirits is a vital test in living a godly life. Because the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of true prophecy, we must look for the likeness, love, character, and integrity of Jesus in those who prophesy. They must not only display their trust in Him, but be of moral excellence, knowing Him intimately, persevering to self-control, living in godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. (See 2 Peter 1:3-11). These are the divine attributes of God outlined for us in the Scriptures.
The mature prophet will bear the fruit of the Spirit in their ministry. The character of their prophecies will carry the fruit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (see Galatians 5:22-23). The gift of prophecy, a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom and the gift of discerning of spirits will produce the fruit of the Spirit in all prophetic speaking. These particular gifts of the Spirit are all a part of prophetic speaking. The Lord’s desire is that all believers be conformed to the nature of Jesus. Those who carry these characteristics will demonstrate through their lives a great love for the Lord’s body and His kingdom. This love is essential for mature prophetic ministry. Looking at the wide spectrum of prophetic ministries today, it seems obvious that not all prophetic speakers have matured, but that is still the goal to which we must attain. In simple terms, we look for the testimony of Jesus in the spirit of the prophetic word. Testimony can be described as giving evidence that something or someone is true. Jesus Himself is the truth; His very life gives evidence of the life and truth of the Father. He clearly stated that, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). So in judging prophecy today we look for the divine nature in both the prophecy and the prophet.
I must point out here that I believe there are three possible Prophetic levels of ministry in the church today. So I want to interject my thoughts about this here.
New Covenant Functions
A primary function often overlooked by the Church is that the New Covenant prophet has the responsibility of equipping the saints for the work of the ministry. Most of the Church today puts that total responsibility under the title of the pastor or associate pastor. A primary reason for the Body of Christ being weak is our error of putting too much emphasis on the pastoral position as the absolute authority. All of the five ministry gifts are what He gave to equip the saints for service (see Ephesians 4:11-16). Prophets are often unique in the area of equipping us because God has a history with them. He may have destined them before their birth to be His voice to the Church or nations. He works in them the message for the time in which they live and minister. They have been trained by Him to know, hear, and see in the Spirit so in turn they may equip the Church in the ways God speaks through His Spirit abiding in them. Thus, God, in the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit, distributes the things of the Spirit (gifts) to whomsoever He wills. In that, we find different levels of prophetic gifting in the Body of Christ today which help bring the saints to maturity.
New Covenant prophets also function as foundation builders who understand the mysteries of Christ based on the revelation given to them by God concerning building the spiritual house. That house is both the Hebrew and Gentile Church which is destined to be one new man—the fullness of God in His church (see Ephesians 2:14-16). Along with the apostle, the prophet builds the foundation, of which Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone, upon which all the truth of the Church is built in length, depth, width and height unto a dwelling place of God in the Spirit (see Ephesians 2:19-22). All of this ongoing revelation of the Spirit is given to His apostles and prophets. New Covenant prophecy comes by revelation from the Spirit and will agree with the Gospel of the Kingdom and all that is written in this covenant. The prophet and all the Body of Christ must be engaged in living in this New Covenant with better promises (see Hebrews 8:6). The Spirit reveals this authority so that the manifold wisdom of God is made known by the Church to the principalities and powers in heavenly places. The prophet, along with the apostle and teacher, will have a significant revelation by the Holy Spirit that God’s intent will be known to principalities and powers in the heavenly places; the varied and multi-colored wisdom of our God living in us, the Kingdom Church. In that knowledge is revealed the real power and authority of God in the spiritual house called His Body, the Church. The above statements are all according to God’s eternal purpose accomplished by Jesus through the Cross (see Ephesians 3:1-13).
Another message of the New Covenant prophet is that we are living in the times of restoration of all things that have been spoken by the His holy prophets since the world began. The prophetic theme of our time is based on restoration, revelation of our new nature, purifying the Church, living in the Spirit, and being “as He is so are we in this world” (see 1 John 4:17). In all this the New Covenant prophet releases the Father’s vision of the Church, and restores holiness, purpose, and strategy for the advancement of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven. The emphasis of New Covenant prophecy is the Kingdom of God—Jesus is the King dwelling in us, bringing completeness in Him in the fullness of the Godhead bodily (See Colossians 2:9-10).
As I stated previously, prophecy in this covenant is specifically for building up, encouraging, and bringing well-being to the Body of Christ. Here is the Lord’s intent for the Church:
“…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3 16-19).
We clearly see here the intention of God for His Son’s body to take back the Creation that He sovereignly spoke into being for the love and purpose of His pleasure.
Jesus is the model of the prophetic gift that God has given us for New Covenant prophecy. All prophets, prophetic ministers, and those who prophesy in simple prophecy will have one common thread of emphasis. That is, “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10). This simply means that all prophecy in this covenant will have evidence that Jesus is the Son of God and His emphasis of ministry was that the Kingdom has come to earth! No matter what level those prophecies are given, they will carry the love of God that reveals His nature, character, and likeness for the situation, person/persons, cities, and nations.
Much of what I have shared in Unit 1 is taken from my two books:
The Face of Prophecy-Determining the Truth
A Paradigm Shift Of Prophetic Revelation
Please feel free to comment back to me with your thoughts and questions. This will be a bi-weekly communique.
One thing we will eventually deal with is: Do New Covenant Prophets pronounce judgments on the earth and to the Body of Christ/Mashiach.
Be blessed, Rich