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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES
Authors: Carolyn Wies and Jim Wies <JGWies@hotmail.com>
www.examiner.com/x-36621-Phoenix-Supernatural-Christianity-Examiner
Editor: Teresa Seputis

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

Lesson 9
The "Interior Life" of the Prophetic Minister

By Jim And Carolyn Wies

One needs to be sure they maintain a relationship with the Lord in order to become a mature prophet or prophetic saint. One needs to open their heart and soul to the Holy Spirit's leading, direction, and searching eye. The Holy Spirit is the one who regularly keeps their heart clear of offense, bitterness, resentment, a critical spirit, and other sins.

The maturing prophetic person would do well to cultivate a life of personal and corporate worship, prayer, Bible reading, fellowship and submission to spiritual authorities in the Lord. And, of course, it is also essential to cultivate a good working knowledge of the Bible.

Prophetic ministry is not about some being able to hear and others not. We each are to cultivate an ear with which to hear the Lord and this is all the more critical for the prophetic minister. Prophetic ministry is about the discipline of hearing clearly and quickly in order to be able to stand and minister to people in any setting the Lord should direct. We cultivate hearing and then speaking. If that means ministering in presbytery, then we can line up the people and listen and speak as long as the human body can endure. Our goal is not to make things up, but to hear the individual word of the Lord to an individual, a church, an area, a country, nation or government!

Prophetic ministry has two directions:

  1. Prophetic hearing (or standing before God on behalf of the people) and
  2. Prophetic declaration (or standing before the people on behalf of God).

Jer. 23:22 states: "But if they had stood in My council, Then they would have announced My words to My people." A personal relationship with the Lord is essential to cultivating a heart and an ear to be able to hear the Lord.

Fellowship with Him. Love Him. Devote your life to Him and He will not disappoint you. He will reveal the secrets of His heart to those who fear Him. When we trust Him, He trusts us. What a delight to be in relationship with the Creator of the universe who calls us His friends. Jesus said in John 15, "I no longer call you servants, I now call you friends." You and I are called into the most grand of all relationships when we are called His friends. That we get to share His heart and reveal His mind to others is a by-product of the most glorious of all privileges--being His friends. Friends...there is no one like a friend.

Hearing His Voice

Hearing God's "voice" is an important part of every believer's experience. Scripture teaches that every believer should be able to "hear" His "voice". I believe that indicates every believer should be able to receive communication from God in such a way that the individual will know it is God.

Jesus stated in John 10 the kind of relationship we should have with Him. "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep".... "I am the good shepherd; and I know My own, and My own know Me,"... "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:" (John 10:11,14,27).

It should be the normal experience for a follower of Jesus to "hear God's voice." In chapter 15 of the gospel of John, Jesus also says: "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you" (verse 15).

He wants to reveal to us information from the Father. Again in chapter 18 He states "Every one who is of the truth hears my voice" (vs.37) In fact, the way that we are nourished and fed is by hearing God's voice (His rhema word). "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God'" (Matthew 4:4 NKJ). The ability to "hear" God's "voice" is critical to successful living as a Christian.

One Critical Factor

I believe leaders can and should train every believer to receive guidance from the Lord. But our ability to hear can be sharpened or dulled by one critical factor that has to do with our attitude of heart: a willingness to OBEY what we hear.

If we want to hear properly, it is critical that we listen with a heart to obey. We need to listen and then do what He tells us to; that is a key to having a continuous flow of communication with God. We have an option when we hear a directive from God: we can respond to the light He has given us, and He will give us more light. Or we can hesitate, and the light will fade.

This principle is shown in Jesus' words in John 12:35 " Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going (NKJ).

The process goes like this:

The sad truth is that the other trend goes as follows: After we have heard from God, we either ignore or out right disobey His directive. Then we will lose the light we had opportunity to walk in. The next step away from hearing God's voice is that we then begin to lose the things that we had already attained to. It is stated more clearly in Mark 4:23-25:

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."

So to hear with a heart to obey is the key to hearing more; and if we disobey, Scripture tells us we will have what we did have, taken away. Oh how important it is then, to hear and obey.

It is at this point that something that Scripture calls a "spirit of slumber" begins to set in. This is described in Romans 10 and 11 as something that happened to the children of Israel when they continued to be disobedient to God's word. "But to Israel He saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people...According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear..."

Many Christians continue to go through their religious routines while in the state of spiritual slumber. But after a while, even spiritual activities begin to seem dull, boring and even burdensome. "While having ears they do not hear." They find themselves not receiving the nourishment, strengthening or encouragement that comes from "hearing" God's "voice". It is at this point spiritual famine or drought sets in.

When we discover ourselves in that state of spiritual slumber, God has now gotten us to the place we are ready for a "wake up" call. We are ready to hear His voice once again.

It is when we get hungry enough and thirsty enough; and we begin to want to hear His voice once again, that He will instruct us once again what it is He wants us to do. The great Shepherd of our soul will seek us out and speak once again. At this point the cycle of opportunity to hear and obey begins again.

It is then we need to be as the prophet of old in Is.50:4,5 "The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back."


-- © GodSpeak International 2010 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.net> --

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