GOD SPEAKS THROUGH PROPHECY

Sometimes the Lord speaks prophetically through other
people to reveal His will for our lives. A prophecy inspired
by God will strengthen, encourage, and comfort the one
who receives it (see 1 Corinthians 14:3).
There is a difference between a person who has a gift of
prophecy and someone who is appointed to the office of
prophet in the body of Christ. A prophet has a stronger
word for the church at large than someone who is
operating in the gift of prophecy to simply strengthen and
encourage individual believers. The Word encourages us
to welcome divinely inspired prophecy:
I am a unique individual, with a unique, individual
calling.

Earnestly desire and cultivate the spiritual
endowments (gifts), especially that you may prophesy
(interpret the divine will and purpose in inspired
preaching and teaching)… the one who prophesies
[who interprets the divine will and purpose in
inspired preaching and teaching] speaks to men for
their up-building and constructive spiritual progress
and encouragement and consolation… he who
prophesies [interpreting the divine will and purpose
and teaching with inspiration] edifies and improves
the church and promotes growth [in Christian
wisdom, piety, holiness, and happiness]. (1
Corinthians 14:1,3,4)
Prophecy must be in line with the Word of God, and a
personal word of prophecy should confirm something
that’s already in your heart. It’s nice when that happens,
because you know that person didn’t know anything
about what God was saying to you. But if somebody tells
you to go to the mission field, or to Bible college, don’t quit
your job and go unless you know that God has spoken to
your heart this same word. I’ve seen people get into
horrendous messes by trying to run their lives based on
what other people have told them was a “prophetic
message from God.”

If the prophecy doesn’t bear agreement in your heart,
don’t worry about it. There are a lot of well-meaning
people who think they are hearing from God for others,
but they’re not. If someone prophesies something to you
that is not already in your heart, then I suggest you write
down the words that are spoken over you and just wait
for the Lord to reveal to you whether or not the words are
from Him.
Many times, people come to me and share their
disturbing concern that they are trying to do something
because somebody has prophesied to them that they
should do it. Many times they aren’t getting a
breakthrough, so they are confused. It grieves me when I
see people working to make a prophecy come to pass,
because we are not to run our lives by those kinds of
things.

If a word is truly from God, He will make it happen in His
own time. Lay aside the prophecy and just wait to see if
God brings it to pass. He will speak to you in other ways to
confirm it, if it is really from Him.
Opposition is one of the greatest signs that their message
was truly from God.
I know of situations in which five to ten years have passed
before something happened to prove that a prophecy was
truly from God. So even when we have clear direction
from God, we need to let Him fulfill His promises without
trying to manipulate their manifestation. When a promise
does come to pass, the Holy Ghost will call our
remembrance back to that word we received years before
to let us know we are indeed walking in God’s perfect
plan.

If a good word has been spoken over you from other
prayerful and godly believers, then opposition is one of
the greatest signs that their message was truly from God.
Refer back to the spoken or written message when the
devil tells you that you are not called or that you are
never going to do what is in your heart to do or that you
are never going to prosper or that you are never going to
get a breakthrough in your situation. Your weapon
against his attacks will be the words that have been
prophesied to you.
Remember, what has been said through the gift of
prophecy will help you remain steadfast in faith when the
devil wages war against your calling. If the prophecy is
truly from God, the devil will eventually show up to
discourage you from believing the truth, and you will be
able to stand firm in faith because you know what the
Lord has said about you.
While waiting for God to move, you should follow the
instruction given to Timothy by the apostle Paul:
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of
Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect
your gift, which was given you through a prophetic
message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them,
so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life
and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do,
you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy
4:13-16 NIV)

We are not to specifically seek a certain way for God to
speak to us. There are times when I tell the Lord that I
would like for Him to give me a word, but I don’t ask Him
to send it in a certain way. I am not devastated or
disappointed when someone who is anointed with a
prophetic gift doesn’t have a word for me. I trust that if
God wants to speak to me a certain way, He will do it.
Of all the prayer requests that we get in our office, the
largest percentage is from people who have problems and
don’t know what to do. They want to hear from God. They
need to make a decision, so they ask for prayer to know
what to do. Indecision makes us feel uncomfortable, but
our confusion is magnified when we start running to
other people asking them what we ought to do.
I find it interesting that I can preach the Word for an
entire weekend, and yet invariably somebody will come
to me after the meeting and say, “I believe that God said
you’ve got a word for me.”
I am perplexed, thinking, Well what do you think I’ve had
for you the last three days? Now, I will show them the
courtesy of praying to see if God speaks to me on their
behalf, but most of the time people just want to be led
around by what somebody else has to say. It’s sad that
there are so many insecure people in the world who
believe they can’t hear from God themselves. They spend
all of their life trying to hear from God through other
people.

If you get out of balance by always asking others what you
should do, it will hinder your ability to hear from God
yourself. Besides, most people don’t even know what they
are doing, so they are not qualified to tell you what you
ought to do. I don’t mean that statement to be insulting,
but most people have enough issues in their own lives
that they are trying to sort out without taking
responsibility for your life too.
There are times when people ask me what I think God
would have them do in a situation. If I know what the
Word says about their particular situation, I share it with
them. Or if I have some discernment about their situation,
I share it. But many times I feel pressured when people
want me to make their decisions for them. It helps me
know that it is not my job to hear from God for other
people. My job is to teach people how to hear from God
themselves, not to hear for them! The Holy Spirit can lead
us all individually.

Some time ago we had a couple who had worked for us
for more than twelve years, had become dissatisfied with
their positions, and were feeling God wanted them to do
something else; however, they had no idea what it was.
They felt their season with our ministry was at an end
and that they had lost their grace to do their jobs. They
did not want to work for us any longer, but they did not
want to be without jobs either. They came to Dave and me
and said, “We believe God will show you what we are
supposed to do.”
Some people delight in telling other people what to do
with their lives, but I am not one of them. I don’t
particularly like taking that kind of responsibility. I feel I
have enough to do trying to run my own life and ministry
and hear from God for myself. In addition, people need to
have assurance and confidence that they have heard from
God, not other people. If they don’t, they will become
unsure and even confused during testing seasons, which
almost always come sooner or later.

We shared with that couple what we felt were several
points of just plain wisdom, but we could not tell them
definitely either to stay or to go. It was an important
decision, one that needed to be made by them, especially
since it would affect their income and destiny.
We have to let God initiate prophecy into our lives.
God is a jealous God, and He doesn’t approve if we are
always putting people ahead of Him by running to them to
ask what we ought to do. I believe that we should find out
what God says about our situation in His Word, explore
His wisdom, and let our decision establish itself through
peace in our heart. Then, if we feel we need to, we can go
occasionally to someone we trust to prayerfully seek God’s
will on our behalf just to double check that what we want
to do is right. I will share in a later chapter how God
sometimes uses the counsel of others, but even then we
must seek balance in this area. The advice of people
should be in line with God’s Word and tested against our
inner witness of God’s truth.
We have to let God initiate prophecy into our lives, or else
we will never know if it’s something we provoked on our
own. If we ask people if they have a word from the Lord
for us, they may speak something out of their flesh just
because they don’t know what else to do.

We need to trust God to speak to our heart. In the many
years I have walked with God, I have never yet asked
anyone if they had a prophecy for me. If somebody has a
word for us, God will work that out supernaturally
without us seeking it. We don’t have to search or ask, “Do
you have a word for me?” I prophesy occasionally, but I
tell people not to run their lives by personal prophecy.
A man named Fred attended one of our marriage
seminars. Fred shared with us that he was being
mistreated at his job and was underpaid. He was
demeaned and made fun of even though he had given
years of faithful service to his employer. It was obvious he
was not being treated right.
The Spirit of the Lord came upon me, and I prophesied to
Fred that he was going to have a job where he would have
respect, where people would come to him for advice, and
where he would make good money. Then his situation got
a whole lot worse before God’s word to him proved to be
true. But it did get better. It didn’t happen quickly, but a
true word from God will always happen. Prophecy is
meant to encourage us with God’s promise to us while we
wait for Him to work it out in our lives.

I admit I’m no different from anybody else in that I like to
get a refreshing word that is truly from the Lord. It is
wonderful to hear God speak to us specifically through
someone who couldn’t possibly know our needs.
Prophecy is a tremendous gift from God, but we must not
become dependent on a word of prophecy. It’s more
important to get direction from the Word of God.
The more mature we are in the Lord, the more we will
hear from God on our own without the supernatural
intervention of a prophetic message from someone else.
As you learn how to hear from God yourself, you may find
that you will receive fewer words from others than you
did in the beginning of your walk with the Lord.
When God called me into the ministry, I received many
prophetic utterances from people. But there have been
times in my ministry that I have gone for years without a
single prophetic word spoken to me. It is a great gift when
it is given to us, but we must not wait for a word or let our
lives be run by something someone has spoken to us. We
are to diligently read and study the Word, preach, and
teach the good news. As we do that, God will work His
plan through us and for us.