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-- © GodSpeak International 2000 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from copyright@godspeak.org --

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES
Author: Jim Wies jimmy@cornerstonemin.org
Cornerstone Church and Ministries [http://www.cornerstonemin.org/]
Editors: Teresa Seputis, Al Vesper

Prophetic-School MiniTraining Series

Prophetic Ministry: Rightly Related To The Body Of Christ

by Jim & Carolyn Wies

Part 2

The Sins of the Prophets

We (Jim & Carolyn) love the prophetic movement of God. We feel a deep, heartfelt and sincere thanks to all those who execute in honor and integrity their callings in the prophetic office. I (Carolyn) submit the following thoughts as one who strongly believes in prophetic ministry. I submit it as one who knows God desires to raise up a company of prophets that will declare His voice on the earth and reveal His heart, will and mind. I also feel responsible to share what I feel the Lord is saying to make us more sobered in the prophetic. We must exhibit pure motives and attitudes as those called of the Lord to prophetic ministry. This ministry has such a potential for blessing and edification, as well as an equal potential for harm.

I have given my life to the prophetic ministry for the past 20+ years and am under authority to many in this area. I have felt under great constraint of the Holy Spirit to try to discern His movings and dealings with me regarding something He seems to be saying about His prophets. I don't pretend to understand it all; I simply want to share what I felt the Lord saying in order to prepare us for what lies ahead.

It is true that the Lord does nothing without first revealing it to His servants, the prophets. However He is saying something now about a new requirement coming from His heart. He needs a voice lifted up in the earth that will not be tainted, mixed, compromised or polluted with our own agendas, desires, imaginations, emotions or wills. The days that lie ahead of us require true prophetic voices through which He may declare His heart and purposes. May we hear His heart and purify ours afresh, in Jesus' name, to be as the 'holy prophets of old' in speaking the Word of the Lord in this hour in which we live.

About three years ago, the Lord began to show me the sense of a revelation He desires to release on the earth. I have been trying, as best as I am able, to perceive what He is saying. For several months (years now actually), my heart had been in despair over the prophetic ministry as we know it. It was birthed in foundational restoration but it seems to have deteriorated (in some) into something "glamorous". In some cases the prophetic has become a "calling card" of those who want to make a name for themselves. I have seen many striving to "be" prophetic. They try to come up with a word from the Lord to gain position or prominence. And they end up prophesying something that, in fact, the Lord hasn't spoken at all.

Over the second half of the last decade, I have ministered the word of the Lord to multiplied hundreds of people and have mentored others in the prophetic. Yet I have found myself, in my heart, wanting to shrink back from prophesying. This is not because I believe it is invalid; I believe it is very necessary. Rather tt is because of something I sense in our hearts that concerns the Lord. I have both been blessed by peoples' responses to the prophetic word of the Lord, and I have become discouraged by the same. That response (the discouraging one) is that some seem to want "a word" after their own hearts' desire more than they want "the Lord's word, and Him, Who is the Word." This concerns me, for what is supposed to be a ministry initiated by the Lord, seems reduced to something at times, kin to "fortune telling" or "divining". This places the prophet in a very difficult position to minister a pure word of the Lord.

I realize these are strong statements, but I am trying to express my own struggles. I (and many others) desire to administer this office in purity based on the will of God and not the will of people.

I felt the Lord said to me that the season surrounding the Day of Atonement, (fall) of 1997, was going to mark a significant season of change for the prophetic ministry on the earth. I sensed He was saying He is sending a new thing to His prophets. He was coming not merely to impart, but rather, to implant anew the 'seed of the holy prophets of old' in the hearts of His prophetic servants on the earth.

I (Jim) believe this corresponds to the shift that has taken place. And is becoming more and more evident to many in the Body of Christ that the "season of the apostolic" is at hand. That is, the "Kieros" time, God has appointed for the restoration of apostles and apostolic ministry. It is a key foundation that must be laid in the church God is building, for His end time plans and purposes. I say that the shift has already taken place. But when making a statement such as that, it is also important to clarify that when God changes a "time" or a "season", it can take, in some cases, years for much of the general population of the church to "catch on". One clear example of this was that when Jesus was born, there were only a small hand full, (such as Simeon the prophet and Anna the intercessor) who even had a clue that a major transition of "dispensational" proportions was taking place right under their nose. But it was at least 30 years before very many others even knew it.

I (Carolyn) felt the Lord say that I (and others) were to enter into intercessory repentance before Him for the sins of the prophetic ministry of misuse and abuse on the earth. Many have sinned against the Lord and His dear church in the way they have managed or mismanaged their prophetic gift or office. I sensed the Lord say that this season marks an outpouring and deeper anointing for the prophets, but He is also requiring a greater accountability from those who serve Him in this ministry.

I also sensed Him saying that those who fail or refuse to make the shift HE is calling for at this stage of God's plans will be those held responsible for the spirit of false prophesy that continues on the earth and in the church. (II Pet. 2:1) I sensed Him saying that deadly and deceiving false prophesy would be the result of those who continue to prophesy words out of their own imagination when, in fact, the Lord has not spoken. (Jer:29:9; 23:21) I have been pressed by the scripture in Jeremiah 23:22 which says: "But if they had stood in My council, then they would have announced My words to My people, and would have turned them back from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds." The Lord wants prophets who are in relationship with Him in such a way that we go only when He says "Go!" And we speak only when He says "Speak!". God's motive is to continually turn the hearts of men and women to Himself. The prophets belong to the Lord and to His people. They are like the priests of old; the Lord is their inheritance, but they serve the people of God. They commit to speak His Word and to represent Him to the people in truth and integrity.

The Lord directed me to a study of the sins of the prophets in the Old and New Testaments. I am convinced they are the same sins of the prophets today. Nothing but the names and dates have changed. Some are prophesying out of their own imagination. Some are prophesying for gain and reputation. Some are wanting to be seen and heard in the land and known as those through whom the word of the Lord comes. In this study, I also cataloged the sins of the people who incited such behavior from the prophets. Jeremiah 5:31: "The prophets prophesy falsely (of their own emotions, mind, will and imagination), and the priests rule on their (own) authority; AND MY PEOPLE LOVE IT SO! But what will you do at the end of it?" (Jer. 5:13a, Jer. 5:31, Jer. 14:14, Jer. 25:14, Jer. 23:16, Jer. 23:21, Lam. 2:14, Ezek. 13:2.3, Ezek. 2:25, 28)

I have felt both the mercy and indignation of the Lord for He is very jealous for His prophets. Judgment must begin first, at the house of God, and even more so for those who are called to represent the Lord by speaking His word. I have felt the fear of the Lord in a way I have never before. I have felt the nearness of the Lord as He said He would come and visit His prophets with new levels of accountability. And He is implanting within us the "seed of the holy prophets of old." I have sensed what His coming will include and it has terrified me. His coming to those who are not walking in integrity and honor in the prophetic office will be much more terrible than we have imagined. "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like a fullers' soap. And He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness." Malachi 3:2-3

The apostle Paul spoke of a mystery that was at last being revealed by God to all of creation including the principalities and powers in the heavenlies. In Ephesians 3:5 he speaks of this mystery "which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets". The Scripture goes on to say that it pertains to this glorious entity called the Church, His body.. His body is comprised of what was once irreconcilable parts, but which were now reconciled and made into one body in Christ. The body, working in unity and harmony within its individual members, is very important to God.

Paul felt humbled that God would entrust to him the stewardship of this revelation: the unfolding of the "unsearchable riches of Christ"; the revelation of the church; and that the church has been given stewardship of "the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God". The purpose was "that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places" (Eph 3:9-10)

This section of scripture indicates there is a unique place apostles and prophets have in particular to administrate this mystery. There are many other aspects to the work of apostles and prophets, and the foundational place they have in the church. Yet this one function is primary - the ability to unfold the revelation of the unified corporate Body called the church, But that being contained within the greater revelation of the "unsearchable riches of Jesus" - revealing Who Jesus is to mankind and to all creation.

Stated more simply, the greatest purpose apostolic and prophetic ministries have, the ultimate goal above all else, is to bring a revelation of Jesus - to bring to light an unfolding of the unsearchable riches to be found in Jesus. It is to reveal the Cornerstone - Who is Christ Jesus Himself!

May those of us who have received this entrustment from the Lord to be His spokesmen in the earth "...go deeply into the rock (Jesus) and hide ourselves in the dust (humility) from the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of His majesty. For the arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day," (Isaiah 2: 10-11) May we hear and discern what the Lord is saying and make the shift of heart He is speaking to us regarding the execution of this, His calling and choosing on our lives.

[Please Note:
This is intended as a discussion series. Please feel free to send your discussion (comments or questions) to prophetic-school@godspeak.net. We will have online discussion each week, MC'd by Jim Wies, the author of this series. These discussions will NOT be put on the WWW page.]


-- © GodSpeak International 2000 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from copyright@godspeak.org --

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