Prophetic Ministry
Rightly Related To The Body Of Christ,
2nd Edition

If we want to move in the prophetic, then we need to live in an intimate and close relationship with God. He must be our Lord and Master, and we must have made a deep commitment in our hearts to obey Him because we love Him.

I (Jim) spent some time in lesson 9 developing how important it is to obey God. In short, if we want to hear His voice more clearly, we must start by obeying what we are capable of hearing now. We looked at Mark 4:23-25, in our last lesson, but let's examine it one more time:

If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath."

This verse says it so clearly. The key to hearing God's voice more clearly is to listening to Him with the heart to obey whatever He says to us. On the other hand, if we ignore (disobey) what He says, then the Bible tells us that He will take away that which we did have (e.g., our hearing will get dimmer). So the point is this: whatever your level of hearing at the moment, you can increase it by obeying God in whatever you are capable of hearing Him say to you at the moment. Likewise, you can decrease your ability to hear His voice by disobeying that part that you can hear clearly right now. That is why it is so important to listen to God and obey Him.

Spirit-Led Living

Another description of what I am talking about is found in Romans 8:14 "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God."

The Christian life can be defined in terms of walking in fellowship with God or, "walking in the Spirit", which can further be defined as walking in instantaneous and consistent obedience to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Our goal as Christians is to be Spirit-led in all things. In fact the Scripture tells us that, as Christians, we have received the Holy Spirit, Who is also called the Spirit of Truth, Who will lead us into all truth.

Spirit-led living is reliable. In fact, it is the only way to truly live the Christian life. It will lead us away from sin and toward God and His plan for our lives. That is what Gal 5:16-18 means when it says: "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law."

In contrast to Spirit-led living there is what could be called "flesh led" living or even "religion led" living. Some protest "religion led" living and rightly so, but what is it?. Unfortunately, there are some who attempt to pervert or disintegrate the Christian walk into a life lived according to a set of rules or specific behaviors. That is "religion led" living. And even more unfortunately, this is often even done with the Bible as the rulebook. Am I saying the Bible is bad? Of course not! I am saying, however, that even the Bible can be used wrongly to bring condemnation, manipulation and control into people's lives in a way that God never intended.

The Ideals And Dangers Of Being Spirit-Led

Does being "Spirit-led" mean we do what ever we feel like God is saying without any external checks and boundaries? Of course not!

In an ideal world, we are spirit led and never miss the mark. But the reality is that we are in the process of learning to be Spirit-led, and it is possible to "miss the mark" and fall into error. So I'd like to give you a good understanding of the potential dangers of missing that mark, in the hope that it will help you be smarter about moving into a lifestyle of being led by God's Spirit. I am going to do that by contracting the ideal (goal) with the dangers.

Ideal 1: We are in fellowship with God to such an extent that we perfectly hear and instantly obey what He tells us to do, through out every day of our life.

The danger: we occasionally mishear and even worse, neglect to obey what we hear.

Ideal 2: If we are, in fact, Spirit-led in all things, the Spirit will lead us into conformity with His stated will, which is objectively and impartially documented in the Word of God, the Bible.

The danger: we mingle our own feelings and desires with what we think God is telling us through our subjective attempts to be 'Spirit-led" and simply come up with religious sounding rationalizations for doing what we want to do. (The heart is masterful at this and is why we MUST have a reliable external measuring devise for whether or not we are truly being led by the Spirit. i.e. "fruit" inspection <2 Tim. 3:16>.

Boundaries and Markers

God has given us three important boundaries and markers to help us stay "on course" as we learn to be Spirit-led. They are: the Spirit, the Word & the Spirit, and the Church.

If we are being Spirit lead it will lead us into the Word. If we are being Spirit-led it will lead us into the fellowship of the saints. It will lead us into love, joy, peace, integrity, honestly and righteousness. It will lead us away from the works of the flesh which are clearly stated in Gal 5:19-21 "Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."

In other words we do not have to guess at what a "Spirit-led" life looks like. It has the fruit of the spirit in evidence (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control), as per Gal. 5:22-23. It will lead us into conformity with the stated will of God in His Word. If we are spirit-led, we will be exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit called love. Since love it the fulfillment of the law, we will be automatically fulfilling the righteous essence of the law, though certainly not through trying to 'keep the law'. The Spirit and the Word and the fellowship of the saints are a three-fold platform that will keep us honest and help us walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel.

By maintaining these things in our lives, we will continue to grow in fellowship with the Lord, and effectiveness in hearing His voice and proclaiming His words.