The Prophet, part 6!

1st of January

Part 6

I am not allowed to continue with another theme even if we are entering a new year. You can use this material as teachings, beneficial for yourself as well as others or even your Bible-school. I find it easy to write about the prophet and his ministry will not become less important in the future.

In The Old Testament we find three important offices, the king, the priest and the prophet. God spoke to and through them. The Holy Spirit came over them or they were visited by angels. We must not forget that the Holy Spirit did not live in them. That is a main difference between then and now. We read in Rom.8:14 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”

Jesus had not become a sacrifice for our sins in The Old Testament and people could therefore not be born again by the Spirit. This is why they sacrificed impeccable animals, but they could never serve the same purpose as Jesus did when He sacrificed the sins of the whole world. When we read John 3, we can see what we need to do in order to be born again or get saved, the same thing. When The Spirit of God convicts us of sin and righteousness, we can receive Jesus as our Savior and our spirit is born by the Spirit. The third Person in the Deity does not move into your spirit, but you get the same DNA. Your mother and father do not move into you, but you are a result and you have the same DNA. Our spirit is perfect since it is born by God Who is perfect and it is this part that wins victory over the world. When God speaks to us, He speaks from depth to depth, from Spirit to spirit.

Most people do not know the difference between our spirit and our soul and I therefore recommend you to read about this. You can look up the heading: Spirit, soul and body. It is in the very beginning of this web-site. We find our emotions in our soul. So often we are led by them, but we are supposed to be led by the Spirit.

Are all the signals we receive from God? How do we know that God speaks?

All of the signals are not at all from God. We can receive thoughts and emotions, dreams and visions either from God, the devil or from ourselves. How can we know the source of our revelation? That is not so easy, but I will write some conditions that must be present in order for God to speak.

The first one is knowledge about the Word of God. How well do you need to know the Word? You do not need to remember the entire Bible, but you should have read the Bible and know about the main principles. You should read the Word daily and spend time with the Word in order for it to become part of you. We can read in psalm 119: 105 that His word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. We should in other words be led by the Word. WE do not need to make mistakes and we do not need to walk in the dark. The more knowledge of the Word, the more correct are your prophesies. I have listened to newly saved ones prophesying, and a lot of nonsense might come out of their mouth. They might have a prophetic gift, but they lack knowledge of the Word and they might lack guidance by more experienced Christians. There are two ditches we can fall into when we have a prophetic gift or ministry. The first one is the one I just mentioned when we lack knowledge and guidance and the other one is driven by fear for making mistakes. They might never dare to come out with what God has given to them. If you hide your talent and dig it down, it might be taken away from you. Do you remember the story from Matt.25? God wants you to bear fruit. God once said to me that He could not use me if I was not willing to make a mistake. He wants us to be led by the Spirit and not by fear, but do our best according to the Light we have.

If God shall use you as an instrument, you have to spend time with Him. The Bible says that we should know the voice of the Shepard. The more we get to know Him, the easier it gets to distinguish His voice from other voices. Some people have asked me if I hear voices and my answer is no. I have only heard an audible voice a couple of times. We Christians do not hear voices, but we are led by One voice through the Word and the Spirit. It is quite difficult to explain how one is led by the Spirit. I personally receive inner pictures, words or words from His word. They might come when I pray in tongues or when I sense that the Lord wants to convey a message to someone. I do not always know what to say on beforehand, but I open my mouth in obedience. God has promised me that He will give me the right words. In order to function in the prophetic, you have to trust God and yourself. God has promised to be with you and the Holy Spirit has promised to help you. It is also important to get one’s eyes away from oneself and focus on Jesus. Think about Him and not on your own performance. You should also be involved in the person you prophesy to. You must never forget that you only are a tool. When I pray for healing and deliverance, I always see myself as a knife in the hands of a surgeon. I should not think about myself as The Surgeon. I cannot heal, nor deliver.

When you are new, it is good to have somebody else to guide you in how to practice the spiritual gifts. It is the duty of a local pastor to bring forth the different gifts in the members and to help them to fulfill their calling. He or someone else who is called for that purpose, should guide you. He is not called to criticize, but to guide you in a spirit of a loving father.

I have heard about small groups where they prophesy over each other all the time and it becomes almost like a competition. Then the prophetic has taken the place of the Word and the teaching. This is unhealthy.

I mentioned that we are only tools in the hands of God. A tool needs to be clean and cannot do anything on its own. When we talk about a clean tool, we think about sanctification. That is a life-long process and we cannot wait till we are perfect, but we should confess conscious sins and repent, live in the Word and stay close to the Lord. A prophet should be very much aware of the fact that he is in the world, but not of the world. One cannot indulge in sins of the world and then convey a message from the Holy God. You must protect yourself from the influence of the world. The ditch you can fall into is isolation. God does not want us to flee from the world and become strange people. People will listen to normal people and not to people who act in a strange way. There are times when you need to seek the Lord, but I believe you know what I mean.

If you have a prophetic calling, it is important that you are set free from sins and habits in the past. Ask someone to help you to cut the roots and get the demonic powers or influence out of your soul and body. The cleaner we are, the easier we hear from the Lord. A lot of dirt will block the hearing and can give us wrong signals. We do clean our natural ears and we do not want to have diminished spiritual hearing.

DIVE INTO THE WORD OF GOD AND PURIFY YOURSELF FOR A HOLY SERVICE!!!

Mother Else