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-- © GodSpeak International 1998 --
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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

The Making of a Prophet: God's Character Curriculum

Course 1 -- Part 1

Why Is Character Important In Prophetic Ministry?

This is the first of a series of articles/discussion starters on what might be called God's character curriculum for prophets and prophetic people. We just spent 10 weeks doing intensive equipping with the gifts of the Spirit and particularly the gift of prophecy. I strongly believe we can, and in fact, have a mandate from Eph. 4 to equip, train and activate the prophetic giftings within believers.

But while we can master the skill of "message giving", the Holy Spirit also has an agenda to make the messenger as well as the message. It is interesting to note that Balaam, whose story is in the book of Numbers, delivered very accurate prophetic words, and even gave the only Messianic prophesy recorded in the book of Numbers, but was called a false prophet in the New Testament.

Why?.. It was a character issue.

So God goes about making the messenger as well as giving him the message.

At issue is the reality that leadership in the Kingdom of God functions quite differently than leadership in the world. In fact, it has even been called the "upside-down kingdom", because the Kingdom of God works very opposite the natural domain. For instance:


God's school of character curriculum for prophets occurs in the school of life much more than in any class room. This school is God's dealing with a man or woman that may endure a lifetime. For unless the character foundation is sufficiently laid, when the heady glory of success comes through our giftings, it will only serve to topple our ministry and be to our demise.

The following poem describes this school and is from the excellent book by J. Oswald Sanders called Spiritual Leadership.

When God wants to drill a man,
And thrill a man
And skill a man,
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part;
When he yearns with all his heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him,
Into trial shapes of clay which
Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!
How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses
And with every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out -
God knows what He's about!

We will be developing these themes in weeks to come. We will look at topics such as


And remember, just as in any school you keep repeating the test until you pass... (sounds fun, right?..<grin>). But we can take courage from these following scriptures:

Heb 12:11

Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

2 Cor 4:7,17,18

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us... For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
[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 1998 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org > --


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