Prophetic Ministry

Some excerpts from "Prophetic Wisdom" by Graham Cooke (pg 43-49)

On waiting on the Lord.

Building a relationship with God secures our inheritance. "Wait for the Lord and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land; When the wicked are cut off, you will see it" (Psalm 37:34). We don't have to worry about our future, destiny, or identity because God has got all of that covered. All these things are simply added to us while we bask in His presence. The plans He has for us unfold in His heart. Once we ensure that we are in His presence and ready to receive them, they will surely flow to us. "The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and He delights in his way," says Psalm 37:23-24. "When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the one who holds his hand." We may stumble, but God holds our hand. Relationship belongs to us, but guidance is His alone. It's not our job to seek God's will. It's our joy to seek His face. Relationship is the key to all things spiritual.

Below, Cooke defines guidance as coming from within us as an outflow of our relationship with God, while direction comes from a third party.

Guidance comes from the Lord through our ongoing relationship with Him. The goal of the Holy Spirit is to teach everyone how to hear the voice of God for themselves. [...]

The Old Testament prophetic anointing made no distinction between guidance and direction. They were one and the same. This is because people did not have the indwelling nature of Christ and were not capable of beling led by the Spirit. Their spirituality was ordained through the office of the prophet and priest who represented God to man and man to God. [...]

The world changed on the Day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is now in people, not on them. In the Old Testament, the prophetic gift was concentrated on a few people. In the New Testament, thanks to Pentecost, the ability to hear God and to move in the gift of prophecy is now available to every Christian (1 Cor 14:1,5).

In the Old Testament, it was okay to go to a prophet to inquire of the Lord. In the New Testament, that would be deemed illegal behavior. We have the indwelling Presence of God and therefore capable of hearing His voice ourselves (John 10:27).

The role of a New Testament prophet has now dramatically changed. The chief role of a prophet is primarily to teach people how to hear God themselves. They train people in how to discern and obey the will of God. They instruct, train, equip and release people in the prophetic gift, ministry and office of a prophet. In the process of that training directive, they also bring prophetic words to individuals and people groups. [...]

In the modern church, many people go to prophetic conferences because they want a prophetic word, not because they want to learn to prophesy or hear God's voice themselves. Prophets are put under incredible pressure to prophesy. I have been given marks out of ten by leaders, most of whom had never prophesied but were comparing me to other prophets they knew. [...]

Guidance is a relational issue, not a prophetic one. If people are not walking with God properly, prophecy will not solve that problem. Prophets cannot come between people and God. We point the way back to God. We equip and empower people to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus (Eph 1:17). When asked for guidance, a true prophet will first question the current status of people's relationship with God. [...]

The principle is this: we take care of the relationship and God takes care of the guidance. In itself, guidance is the by-product of a right relationship with God. Everything a New Testament prophet does should push people back into their own relationship with God. Direction is God's responsibility, not ours.

He likes us

The problem with unbelief, worry or fear is that it is not so much about unbelief, worry or fear, even though that's what our minds get focused on. The deep issue here is thinking that even if God exists, or is here with us, or is able to, He probably doesn't like us very much.

But He does! He likes us so very much, and He created every part of us to be enjoyable and to be enjoyed by Him.

Returning to reality begins with realizing this truth.

Trust Me

When God speaks to the depths of our being, and calls us to trust Him, and when things later do not turn out the way we expected, one of the voices that screams at us is "Why didn't you act on this before?!" It is the voice of fear. It tells us that we should not have trusted God but depended on ourselves. It tells us that we didn't do enough. It tells us that God only helps those who help themselves.

But God calls us to trust Him even more in these times. He knows exactly what is going on, and He gives us wisdom to act from a place of rest, not a place of fear. When the Israelites were led out of Egypt, one of their first complaints was this: "God, why did you lead us out of here, only to die in hunger?" But God was calling them to trust Him even more. His love... His unfailing, abundant, amazing love that knows us and cares about us down to our deepest desires, that knows even every strand of hair on our head. It is this love that makes this trust possible.

Trust doesn't need to understand. It needs only to know the love of the Person we are trusting. It needs only to believe in His ability, not ours.

Faith is living in Reality

Faith is not about seeing two possible perspectives, and choosing the one that is more positive. That is just positive thinking, or even blind faith.

Faith is seeing two possible perspectives, and realizing that one is false and the other is true. It comes to that realization in the fullness of the love and the presence of God, and recognizing that the reality must be consistent with the personality of God and what He has already accomplished. It is the realization that reality is full of freedom, peace and joy, and that any other shadow of reality always puts us in some kind of bondage. It is not even about choosing, because it is impossible for our spirit to choose something that is false after realizing what the truth is. Revelation of the truth always sets us free.

Are we saved by our belief in God?

Continuing on the topic of the finished work of the cross, I'm reading this book which a friend gave me recently - "52 lies heard in church every sunday, and why the truth is so much better," by Steve McVey. Just blogging some thoughts I had reading it.

I've often thought that it is my belief in God that saved me. Or that it is my belief in God that causes blessings to flow in my life. That God has done everything, but we cannot access it unless we have faith. This thought puts a heavy burden on us, a responsibility to work up faith inside of us.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." @ Eph 2:8-9

This verse tells us that we are saved, not by our faith, but by the grace of God, what He accomplished completely on the cross. Period. It is entirely by His grace, and we can add absolutely nothing to this equation.

The fact that we can add nothing to our salvation was reiterated in Eph 2:4-5. "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved."

But what about faith? Why then did Paul say that "we are saved THROUGH faith"? I am not an expert in Greek, but I am guessing that the word "through" here is used in the same way we say "I was saved by the doctor through the medicine he gave me." Faith is the tool which God uses to manifest salvation in us. We cannot generate it by ourselves. He puts it in us. As Eph 2:8-9 above declares, this faith is not from ourselves, but a gift of God! Wow, how amazing is that! How awesome is His love! He truly provides everything we need!

We cannot generate love by ourselves, but are filled with love as He loves on us. In the same way, we cannot generate faith, but is filled with it when we discover He is faithful. Faith is knowing He is faithful.

If there is any belief that puts a heavy responsibility or burden on us, rather than on His amazing extravagant love and provision, it is a lie. The truth of grace sets us free from this burden.

I think the reason we added our responsibility to believe into the salvation plan of God, is because we see a lot of people who are not "saved". We feel the need to create a theology that puts that blame on Man rather than on God. The truth is that God doesn't play the blame game. His perspective towards us is all about love. Also, we feel the need to create a theology that makes people go out and preach the gospel. Unfortunately, this creates a guilt system, a feeling that people will "die" if we do not reach out to them. The truth is that God is the one who saves. And if He decides to use us in the process, He wants us to be motivated by nothing but love. Furthermore, if we truly understood the message of grace, His rich overflowing joy, love and pleasure towards us, what can stop us from sharing the good news with everyone else?!

Experience is a bad teacher. We cannot let our circumstances or outer experiences dictate our inner realities. We cannot let our observations of the world dictate our theology.

Almost every religion and human being in the world believes that love, joy and peace are good things. The only thing we disagree on is how we get there. Or more precisely, whether we are there already but don't know it ;)

Achieving our dreams

We have to realize that God is not primarily interested in the achievement of great dreams.

If He were, He would not have been disappointed when men decided to build the tower of Babel to make a name for themselves (Genesis 11).

What God desires is us. That we trust Him, and enjoy the rich overflow of relationship that comes from this trust.

He puts impossible dreams in us, not so that we would try to accomplish them by our own efforts, but that we learn to trust Him and have so much fun in the process. He loves seeing the expressions on our faces when we realize what He is accomplishing for us.

Prophecies lead us to love

I've always wondered what 1 Cor 13:8-13 means. Today, I think I finally do. It is talking about the experience of love, about what happens when we encounter God, who is Love. It acknowledges that prophecies, tongues and words of knowledge can lead us into an encounter with God. But when God shows up, all of these fade away into the background. Because prophecies are but shadows of the reality of His love. When His love comes, all these shadows have served their purpose and they need no longer to be there. In our encounter with God, all things fade away, but three things remain: Faith, Hope and Love. And the greatest of these is love.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. [1 Cor 13:8-13]

We are fully intimate in our relationships

We live knowing that who we are is fully purchased on the cross. Our personality, our character, our desires, our passions. We are already perfect. This manifests in our lives as we believe more and more in this reality. We step confidently into this belief because of the love of Jesus and what He has done.

What if our relationships are also fully redeemed? What if the wisdom of the world that we need to work hard in our relationships is a myth? What if our relationships come into new levels of intimacy just by us believing that it is already there?

New Testament Prophets

New Testament prophets remind people of the finished work of the cross.

"The Old Testament prophet speaks from Mt. Sinai;
The New Testament prophet speaks from Mt. Zion."
- John Crowder, Mystical Union, Pg 169.

The Mountain of Fear and the Mountain of Joy (Hebrews 12:18-24)

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Joy unspeakable.

The way we think about things

A wise friend of mine, Allan, said to me, "Your job is not the source of your finances. God is." Sometimes, we look to certain things in our lives for the solution, but we don't realize we are limiting the ways God could work in or lives. All the riches of the world belong to Him. God could provide money through a fish's mouth (Matt 17:27).

When everything has been accomplished on the cross, the only thing left for us to do is to believe. The wisdom of this world tells us that this is foolishness, but the way of living in the Kingdom is different. What we think affects what we believe.

We need to start thinking differently and brilliantly (as Graham Cooke puts it), such as remembering that God is our source of provision, not our job. As my friend Jeremy puts it, it's all about Perspective.