Prophetic People

I don’t know about others, but for me I have seen over the years in my own life a tendency to throw out the baby with the bath water.

It is truly amazing how easily we can take a word and petrify it making it to mean only one thing, and at best a static lifeless thing. Such a thing/word is this one, “Prophetic.”
In finishing up reading the Naked Church by Wayne Jacobsen which I have thoroughly enjoyed, I have been drawn to something Father is making clear to me that I have unintentionally thrown out with the bath water long ago dealing with the prophetic.

In my past I was used heavily in the so called prophetic, it was a common experience for me and I gravitated with those of a kindred disposition.
I will be right up front here; much if not all of whatever the Lord might have been doing through me in this arena was me trying to fit in, trying to establish an identity based upon this phenomenon happening through me. Who knows how many other things I have like wise dismissed in coming to know Him as my life, bottom line is, I am learning that my identity is and has nothing to do with what I have or don’t have but has everything to do with Who has me!

I want to quote from the Naked Church things that Father is greatly exciting me with dealing with the Prophetic.
“In our day heaven and earth are on tiptoe waiting for the emerging of a Spirit-led, Spirit-empowered people. All of creation watches expectantly for the springing up of a disciplined, freely gathered, martyr people who know in this life the life and power of the kingdom of God. It has happened before, it can happen again. (Wayne quoting Richard Foster).
You can’t have a hope like Richard Foster’s if you also don’t share his assessment: Individuals can be found here and there whose hearts burn with divine fire. But they are like flaming torches scattered in the night. As yet there has been no gathering of a people of the Spirit….Our century has yet to see the breaking forth of the apostolic church of the Spirit.”

“God desires to equip a generation of believers who can be what I call a prophetic people.
By that I don’t mean they are fortune-tellers, or angry people screaming about God’s wrath, but those who move outside the safety of church structures and terminology and into our starving world.
Church people think about how to get people into the church; kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church; kingdom people work to see the church change the world.”

“Prophetic people recognize that the work of God always begins in someone’s life, where they are.”
“Prophetic people are preoccupied with Jesus. Regretfully, Christians often get sidelined by various aspects of the Christian experience. They jump on bandwagons such as spiritual gifts, apologetics, pet theologies, or specific methods of prayer or ministry.
Jesus in the believer is what this prophetic people are pointing to, He is the main attraction!”

“Prophetic people are of necessity courageous people. They are always going past their own sense of personal ease or competence to obey the Spirit. He wants us to touch the world with his power. This doesn’t mean that prophetic people are never afraid; they’re always afraid, but they find the courage to obey in spite of their fear.
The flow of God’s spirit lies beyond our own personal comfort. What Jesus did for us wasn’t comfortable, and if we don’t risk discomfort ourselves we’ll never discover the wealth of God’s power or the fruitfulness of incarnational ministry.”

“Prophetic people are led by the Holy Spirit-not plans, formulas, or learned techniques. In becoming prophetic this means I will be speaking what God is speaking. The gift of prophecy is the gift of insight. They Are learning to bring God’s insight into situations.
This is the heart of being a prophetic person: We bring God’s mind into the very situations in which we are involved. And the only way to do this is to be led by the voice of the Spirit.”

We are here so that others might see Him in us. None of us can escape that call, but if you’re growing in intimacy you won’t want to.

There is so much of His heart he longs to make known to us. The secret things belong unto the Lord and unto those he chooses to reveal them to.

Rich