The word "strategic" in Webster's dictionary is defined as that which is necessary to or important in the initiation, conduct, or completion of a strategic plan. The word "strategy" is defined as a careful plan or method. It also involves the devising or employing of plans for reaching a goal.
Someone has said that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. God had a plan when He created the heavens and the earth. He had a plan when He created both male and female. He had a plan when He sent His Son into the world. He has a plan for the church at the end of the age. He has a plan for each of us individually. God spoke to His people who had been carried away as captives to Babylon and reminded them that He still had a plan. One translation of this verse reads, "I have not lost sight of My plan for you." (Jeremiah 29:11)
God is a strategic planner. He has a goal in mind for His creation. He is the initiator and conductor, He has done all that is necessary, and He is working right now all across the earth bringing His glorious plan into completion. Part of His plan is to use you and me in His plan in this final hour.
God's ability to lead us in His plans far exceeds our ability to follow Him. He can see to it that we are in the right place at the right time. He can cause us to hear exactly what we need to hear, at the exact time we need to hear it. He can give us just the right word to speak at the very moment He wants it spoken. He is truly an awesome God. Yet, God gives us a choice as to whether or not we will participate in His plans.
As the end of the age approaches, it is going to become increasingly important that we hear and distinguish God's voice over all the other voices that will be demanding our attention. To accomplish His will His way, we must have our spiritual ears trained to move at even the slightest nudging of the Holy Spirit. We also must be disciplined to wait and not move when He has not spoken. Getting ahead of God will be just as dangerous as getting behind Him. He is calling us to do nothing less and nothing more than what He wants to be done. Accomplishing His will demands that we have an understanding of the nature of, and how the prophetic ministry can give us the strategies necessary to accomplish His will.
We want to begin this lesson with a truly remarkable story that has recently emerged from the underground church in China.
A group of Chinese Christians had been meeting in a secret location. The pastor of the church knew that a government spy had infiltrated the church. No one knew his or her identity. The pastor announced to the congregation that the meeting would have to be changed to a different location. However, to keep the meeting location secret, he, nor anyone else, was to announce or reveal where exactly the meeting was to be held. The pastor encouraged each believer to ask God to show each of them where to go the next week. The Holy Spirit alone was to lead them. When the time arrived for the next meeting, everyone who had attended the meeting the previous week showed up in the new location, except one.
Doing His will at the end of the age will demand that we get His strategies. Here are some keys in doing that:
This statement may at first seem contradictory to what we have already spoken to this point, however it is not. Jesus told Simon and Andrew, "Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men." (Mark 1:17) They immediately dropped what they were doing and followed the Lord. Following the Lord will always begin with our dropping what we are doing. Simon and Andrew knew that their responsibility was to simply follow the Lord. Jesus had the responsibility of making them and placing them where He wanted them. They did not even have a plan. However, the Lord did. Their plans came together as they followed Him.
The nature of true ministry, and what will be the identifying mark of that ministry at the end of the age, will not be our doing something "for the Lord," but our doing exploits "with the Lord." Paul told Archippus, a fellow servant of the Lord, "Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it." (Colossians 4:17) The ministry each of us have been called into is not just something we receive from the Lord, but in the Lord. As we daily walk out our relationship of being in Christ, we will see what He is doing and then join Him in doing the Fathers will. Understanding this is essential. All true ministry flows out of our relationship with Him.
A good description of the ministry at the end of the age can be found in Revelation 14:4. "These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes." Prophetic ministry is simply following the Lamb and then saying and doing what He wants said or done.
Prophetic ministry is simply hearing from God and then speaking or doing what He has told us to say or to do. Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." (John 10:27) The hardest part of prophetic ministry is simply our believing what Jesus has already said. If we will believe what He has said, we will have faith to hear what He is saying. If Jesus said we do hear His voice then it's fact that we indeed do.
As this age comes to a close, God is going to see that our hearing His voice improves dramatically. Not only must we hear His voice to accomplish His will, but hearing His voice will be necessary for survival as His judgments and His shaking begin to be released upon the earth. Joel reminds us, "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions." (Joel 2:28)
We must understand that Joel said this outpouring occurs "afterward." By looking at what is occurring in Joel's day just prior to his prophecy in Joel 2:28, we can better understand why it will be important to accurately hear His voice. World conditions will demand that we hear from God. Prophetic revelation (dreams, visions, and prophecy) is not just a good idea, but is vital in our doing God's will at the end of the age.
God has and is giving those called to the prophetic ministry time to learn and mature. He hasn't been as concerned as we have about some of the messes that have come from those not yet mature in the prophetic. Proverbs 14:4 reminds us "Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; but much increase comes from the strength of an ox." Many want the church to rise up in strength, yet are unprepared or unwilling to allow for the immaturity that at first will appear. However to move forth strategically in this final hour, a greater maturity and accuracy will appear in those called to the prophetic ministry. One way this will happen will come through a greater and continual fulfillment of Joel 2:28.
This is basic but must not be forgotten. "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him." (James 1:5) In the coming years many in the world will be looking for answers to problems never yet faced. God will have a prophetic people ready to give them God's answers.
When Pharaoh told Joseph his dream, Joseph told Pharaoh exactly what God was showing him. Joseph knew that the interpretation was not in himself (Gen. 41:16), but as He sought the Lord, God gave him the exact interpretation. He then said nothing more and nothing less than what God had given him. Out of Joseph's prophetic experience, a strategy was given that saved the lives of many people.
To move forth strategically will demand that we resist the temptation to speak or move out in what may seem good, but may not be God. As has been said, the good is often the enemy of the best. Those of us who have been called into prophetic ministry have not been called to give that which is just good to the Body, but that which is God's best.
Jesus only did those things He saw the Father doing. This must be our desire. This also requires a discipline to wait for Him. The desire to "do something" for the Lord can actually hinder us from doing that which He has called us to do. Make it your prayer not to do just something, but His thing.
Paul Cain once said, "God is not saying all we say He is saying, but He is saying a lot more than what we really want to hear."
God spoke through Jeremiah about those who went but were not sent, and those who spoke but were not spoken to. "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied." (Jeremiah 23:21)
In Isaiah 11:2 we see the seven-fold or the seven Spirits of the Lord. All seven references make up the character and ministry of the Holy Spirit. The prophetic ministry is an extension of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The fear of the Lord is mentioned among this list. Therefore to move forth strategically in this hour will demand that we walk in the fear of the Lord.
Now is the time we've all been waiting for. Each of us has been called into the Kingdom for such a time as this. We must give ourselves to hearing, and doing His strategies. The result will be glorious!
Each lesson is accompanied by an activation exercise, or workshop, designed to help you more fully develop your prophetic gifting. These activations start simple, and each week's activation builds on the previous ones. To see the activation for this week's lesson, click here.