Accountability & Responsibility

Donna Cox

Originally dated: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 14:24:00 EDT

It seems in some circles, this whole philosophy "It's too burdensome" is used as an excuse to justify spouting off in the "prophetic" without any thought or discernment at all.

Sadly, the scenario you posted above does exist. However on the flip side of this issue, there are many existing circles that believe strongly in accountability and responsibility. It would be extremely easy to focus on the circles who, "justify spouting off in the 'prophetic' without any thought or discernment at all" but, if we did... we would become unbalanced in our thinking....and that is not a good place to be. We must remain balanced in our thinking, or we will have the tendency, to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
............. And that is just what the devil desires! :-(

A Prophet speaks the words of God. How can those words, if they be from him, be not 100% correct and perfect??

Sometimes it is because we (humans) are imperfect vessels, so the words of God, actually "are" 100% correct.....the problem lies in the speaker of the words......not God's words. And there is also the fact that we prophesy in part...We simply don't know all of God's plans and purposes.

(I could go on and on, but others have already answered this question.)

If we speak and they are NOT the words of God, then we got in the flesh (and sinned against God). At that point, there's grace; but I believe at NO point did God ever "build things together" for us to speak erroneous prophetic words on purpose or "by design". He's holy and perfect.

Yes, I agree..if we speak and they are not the words of God, we are sinning against God. God holds us accountable and responsible for delivering His words. Yes, there is grace...and we can be forgiven, but the principle of reaping and sowing remains in effect. I know, I personally must give an account to God, for every prophetic word I deliver, this keeps me very humble before God...so I see it as a good thing.

Yet, for those who are young in walking out their prophetic calling, this can be a very scary issue... God holding us accountable...I have seen ones so afraid of missing it, they would not open their mouths.... little realizing they really "were" missing it by the act of disobedience in opening their mouth. Perhaps it would help to know God is a loving Father, who cares deeply for His children. I fully believe He takes into consideration, just exactly how far along we are in our "process." For example, God is not going to hold a first grader to the same level of accountability He holds a grad student. He is a just God, who lovingly holds each and every one of us accountable and responsible, according to His plans and purposes for us.

A "flawed" word should turn you inside out with grief. There is a higher standard here. If you are rumored to speak the word of God, people count on your "Words" and often assume them to be true. I see that as very dangerous.

Of course a flawed word should turn us inside out with grief...... no question about it! And yes, people do, "count on your "Words" and often assume them to be true." ..........And yes, this is extremely dangerous! Here's "why." They should "NOT" be counting on you, "the servant," but instead should be counting on God.! The prophets role is to deliver the message. The person receiving the words role, is to discern it... to accept it as ...'Yes, this message is from God'..or, 'No, this message is not from God'. The ones receiving the message are never to assume... it could lead to disaster!

So to sum up, prophets/ess must do our part...by giving exactly the word God gives us...and the receivers must do their part, discerning the word given. Each one, both the prophet, and the receiver, have a responsibility......it's not "all" the prophet's responsibility.

Care must be taken to ensure our words are from God!

Absolutely! And I believe we must also teach how to correctly receive (discern) a prophetic word. (Does it line up with scripture..etc) I also believe one must fully understand it is their choice to either receive the word given, or discard it.

I believe that it's the frivolous prophets that have made this church antsy rather than their own assumptions. If we all give only "partially right" or "sometimes right" words, the integrity of the office of the prophet is ruined. If it were man's office, fine. But it's God's office. Keep it pure.

Many of us are keeping it pure to the best of our human ability.. We know and fully accept the fact, God holds us accountable and responsible for the prophetic words we deliver.

Hope nothing I say is taken wrong. I just feel we NEED to be more concerned with accuracy of our words.

I agree, we all need to be concerned with the accuracy of our words. Knowing God holds us accountable and responsible for them will help us accomplish this task.

His servant
~ Donna

Luke 4:18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners.
~God's Property Ministries ~ Gary & Donna Cox ~ Columbus, Ohio ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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