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-- © GodSpeak International 2001 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES
Author: Teresa Seputis ts@godspeak.net
http://www.godspeak.net

The Practicalities Of The Prophetic

By Teresa Seputis

Lesson 2
Assumptions

I want to talk about assumptions. These can play a role in a prophet's effectiveness. We can hear clearly from God, but then make assumptions about what God meant. If we deliver the meaning we attach instead of the actual message the Lord gave us, we can get into trouble.

Let me illustrate with a true story. Kari, a friend of mine, went through a very difficult time with her older sister. They had always been close. The sister had accepted Christ first, and for many years she had been a mentor and spiritual "mother" to Kari. That sister had somehow become very offended at my friend and refused to speak to her. She would not take phone calls from Kari and she would return email or answer letters. Kari tried everything to communicate so they could reconcile. One time she showed up at a family function that she knew her sister would be at. The sister immediately left when Kari arrived, refusing to say a single word to Kari. My friend was very distressed about the the breakdown of this relationship, which had already lasted several monthes. She made it a matter of constant prayer and it disturbed her to the point that she had trouble sleeping at night.

One day Kari decided to go online and check out the prophetic-school dropin chatroom. There was only one other person there at the time, a lady who frequently had very accurate words for people. This lady prophet proceeded to give Kari a word. She had a picture of a woman covered with a blue blanket, and the blanket began to pull away from her as she knelt in prayer. A thread from the blanket had caught under the woman's knee and the blanket was unraveling as it pulled away. The woman was doing all she could to keep the blanket from pulling away and from unraveling. The prophet knew the blanket represented a relationship with someone who Kari considered a "spiritual covering". She knew the relationship was failing and that the more Kari tried to fix it, the worse it seemed to get. The prophet asked Kari if she was married and Kari replied "yes." The prophet heard that the Lord was going to restore the relationship, but first Kari had to let go completely and stop trying to hang on to it on her own.

The prophet knew nothing of Kari's situation, and she had received some very keen and accurate details from the Lord. If you think about it, it was an incredible word! It had accurate details, was full of life and encouragement for Kari, plus containing some prophetic direction that Kari would find helpful. Unfortunately, assumption entered into this. The prophet assumed that the blanket (blue spiritual covering) represented Kari's husband and that they were having serious marital problems. In reality, Kari and her husband were doing just fine. The "blue blanket" did not represent a man who was her covering as the prophet assumed. Blue is also the color representing the prophetic, and Kari's the older sister had been mentoring Kari in the prophetic. The prophet made a bad assumption and began to speak into Kari's marriage. The meaning of the word from the Lord was being obscured, and the power of it was lost. Kari could not relate to the word because her relationship with her husband was very healthy.

Then the prophet described the picture she saw to Kari. Kari asked if it was possible that the blanket could represent a mentor instead of her husband. To the prophet's credit, she stopped, checked in with the Lord and realized she had made an assumption about what the blanket meant. She admitted this to Kari and agreed that it could be a mentor. Suddenly the power of this word was restored, as soon as Kari understood it to address the relationship with her older sister. It became a message of hope and encouragement for Kari after all.

What would have happened if the prophet had delivered just the interpretation she had put on the picture, and not the actual message (the picture in this case)? The assumption would have obscured the meaning and Kari would not have been ministered to. The prophet would have addressed the wrong relationship (the healthy one instead of the broken one) and the message would not have made any sense to Kari. Even though the prophet had heard God clearly, the assumption would have made it look like a "bad word".

The tricky things about assumptions are that we usually don't realize when we are making them. We don't think to ourselves, "Oh, I think I will make an assumption about this." Rather, we hear from God and often do not realize when we add in our own assumptions.. assumptions that can obscure what God is really trying to say.

Even the twelve disciples made this mistake when they were with Jesus. They heard Jesus say something clearly and accurately, but they made assumptions about what He meant. They ended up getting it totally wrong and Jesus had to correct them. Let's look briefly at two different accounts of this incident. It is an incident where Jesus had just fed the 4000 and then was confronted by the Pharisees and Sadducees. Jesus left that confrontation, got on a boat with His disciples and set sail across the water. In the haste of getting going, the disciples did not make proper travel arrangements, they did not take food with them as they should have. Jesus was still thinking about the confrontation with the religious leaders and warned the disciples about their doctrine. But Jesus spoke figuratively, and the disciples misunderstood what He was talking about. Their mind was on the bread that they had forgotten to pack. So they assumed Jesus was talking about that, since that was what was what they were concerned about and conscious of. This incident is described in Mark 8:14-21 and Matthew 16:5-12. Let's read both passages...

Mark 8:14-21:

  1. Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat.
  2. Then He charged them, saying, "Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."
  3. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have no bread."
  4. But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened?
  5. Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?
  6. When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?" They said to Him, "Twelve."
  7. "Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?" And they said, "Seven."
  8. So He said to them, "How is it you do not understand?"

Matthew 16:5-12

  1. Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.
  2. Then Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."
  3. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have taken no bread."
  4. But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread?
  5. Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up?
  6. Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up?
  7. How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?--but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
  8. Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Here is what happened. God spoke something to them, and they heard Him clearly. But they made assumptions about what God meant by what He said. They totally missed what He was trying to communicate even though they had heard Him clearly.

God was aware of their misunderstanding (Mark 8:17 and Matt 16:8) and He began to correct their assumption. We see that God is faithful here. He could have said, "These disciples are not listening to Me" and left them in their wrong understanding. But He did not do that. Instead, He called their attention to their incorrect assumption. He began to dialog with them until they finally understood what He was talking about. The disciples could have stopped listening to Jesus, but they did not! They could have begun to sulk and feel discouraged because He was rebuking them (or so they thought). This Bible story has a successful ending because the following happened:

Since we are human, I guarantee that sometime or another each of us will hear God clearly but make incorrect assumptions about what He said. It happens, and it will happen to you someday. But we have an account of God's reaction when this happens. God will continue to communicate with us, to call our attention to our assumption and to correct our wrong understandings. He is faithful and we can trust Him to do this for us. But we need to keep listening to Him.

Too often a prophet gets a revelation from God and then "runs with it" and stops listening. We need to learn to always be in a listening posture, so that God can put His spotlight on any assumptions we accidentally make, so He can bring His correction to our accidental misunderstanding. It is easy for an assumption to slip in when we hear God. Thank God, He is faithful to correct these assumptions.. but we need to be in a listening posture to hear and receive His correction.

Assumptions can creep in when we are hearing God for our own lives or when we are ministering to others. In the case of prophetic ministry, we must be careful to deliver the message that God gives us, and not what we think it means. Don't try to add to a word from your own understanding. Don't interpret the parts that the Lord has not given you an understanding of. Rather, be faithful to deliver what God has actually given you. Even though it may not mean a great deal to you, it will probably be rich in meaning to the person who the word is intended for.


-- © GodSpeak International 2001 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

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