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Originally from: jim wies <jimmy@dfs.wwia.net>
Originally dated: Fri, 10 Oct 97 09:15:14 -0500
A letter from my wife Carolyn...
October 8, 1997
I love the prophetic movement of God and my sincere thanks to all those
who execute in honor and integrity their callings in the prophetic office.
I submit the following thoughts as one who believes in prophetic ministry
and knows it is the Lord's desire to raise up a company of prophets who 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 cause us to be
more sobered and moved to greater areas of purity in motives and attitudes
as those called of the Lord to a ministry of such potential for blessing and
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. I know, however, that He is saying something now about a new
requirement coming from His heart to His prophets. 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. Oh,
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.
During the past few days, the Lord has put on me the sense of a
revelation I believe He desires to release on the earth. I have been trying,
as best as I am able, to perceive what He is saying. Over the past few
months (years, actually), my heart has been in despair over the prophetic
ministry as we know it. It was birthed in foundational restoration but
seems to have deteriorated (in some) into
something "glamorous" or a "calling card" for those who want to make a name
for themselves. I have seen the striving of many to "be" prophetic and to
try to come up with a word from the Lord to gain position or prominence and
prophesy something that, in fact, the Lord hasn't spoken at all .
Over the past couple of years, while having ministered the word of the
Lord to multiplied hundreds of people and having mentored others in the
prophetic ministry, I have found myself, in my heart, wanting to shrink back
from prophesying, not because I believe it is invalid; I believe it is very
necessary - rather because of something I sense in our hearts that concerns
the Lord. I have been both blessed by peoples' responses to the prophetic
word of the Lord, and I have become discouraged by the same. That response
being 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 kin to fortune telling or divining and places
the prophet in a very difficult place to minister a pure word of the Lord.
I realize these are strong statements, but I am trying to express my own
struggles in desiring 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, 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 is 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 felt the
Lord say that I (and others) should 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 sensed Him saying that those who fail or
refuse to make the shift HE is calling for at this time 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 speak only when He says "Speak!", in order 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.
I felt the Lord direct 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 in this season surrounding the Day of Atonement, 1997, and do this
thing of 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
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 o f 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.
Submitted in the fear of the Lord,
Carolyn Wies
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