The Practicalities Of The Prophetic

There are so many excellent books and teachings written on hearing God's voice and on godly character development. There are also several excellent resources on learning how to prophecy. And these are all important aspects of the prophetic lifestyle. But there are other aspects that are just as important, but not as widely written about. And these less written about aspects are crucial ones that developing prophets must come to know.

This series discusses what I call "the practicalities of the prophetic." In other words, it covers many different areas that effect anyone who desires to walk and minister in the prophetic anointing. Some of these (such as open visions and angelic visitations) will be very popular and exciting. Other lessons will touch on decidedly less popular (but equally critical) subjects, such as submission to godly authority, accountability, disqualification and things along those lines. This teaching series will not be comprehensive... it is impossible to be comprehensive on this topic just as it would be impossible to write a comprehensive book on "experiencing life." There is no way in the world that I (or any other instructor) could possibly teach you everything you need to know about the practicalities of the prophetic.

Fortunately, you have the best teacher in the world available to work with you, both during this course and after it ends. He is easily accessible to you because He resides within you... and that teacher is the Holy Spirit. He will continue to teach you and quicken practicalities to you long after we have completed this series.

We are going to look at a lot of different practicalities or subjects over the course of this series. Here is an overview of where we will be going:

Lesson 2 - Assumptions.

This discusses how assumptions can enter into what we hear from God, how they can distort or diffuse a perfectly good word. It will examine how Jesus responded when the disciples made assumptions. It also covers how to detect when we may be making assumptions that distort the prophetic word.

Lesson 3 - Disqualification and Accountability

This examines bible models of when people do and do not get disqualified from ministry for their sins and rebellion. It also looks at accountability, and discusses it's interaction with correction and/or being disqualified. It covers how God wants us to respond when we discover we've been in error. It also examines the concept increased accountability accompanying increased anointing, and what that means to us as prophets.

Lesson 4 - How Revelation Does Not Necessarily Yield Good Theology

This teaching will examine how it is possible for someone to receive direct supernatural revelation from God and still draw theologically incorrect conclusions from that revelation. It shares an example of how one of the disciples did this. It outlines the process the Lord used to correct that disciple's bad theology. It also explores how our theology changes (or fine-tunes) over time as God gives us increased revelation and understanding of Who He is.

Lesson 5 - Submission and Our Attitude Towards Leadership

We will look at the different aspects of submission, our actions and our underlying attitudes. This lesson also examines the authority of a pastor (and other leaders that we submit to) and their accountability before God.

Lesson 6 - God's Commands and God's Suggestions

This lesson explores the concept of unconditional obedience to God's commands, and why God expects that type of obedience from us. It also develops the concept of God's suggestions (where we have the option of heeding or ignoring them). It shares of the reason that we might want to heed God's suggestions even when we are not strictly obligated to do so. It also discusses how to recognize God's suggestions when He makes them, as they are sometimes very subtle and easy to miss.

Lesson 7 - Discerning of Spirits

This lesson discusses the discerning of Spirits: both God's spirits (angelic and Holy Spirit activities) and of enemy spirits (demons). It shares why God gives us this awareness of spiritual activity around us and describes what He desires our response to be when we experience this spiritual gift of discernment. The lesson gives bible examples from Nehemiah's life and from Jesus' life. Then it describes the practical aspects of how to recognize when this gift is operating.

Lesson 8 - Confidence

This lesson explores the strong confidence, or assuredness, that some prophets seem to walk in, and how God develops that in us. While a prophet will never be infallible, they can (and should) develop a confidance and comfort in what God has called them to do. They should be able to operate in their gifting with ease. This lesson explores what the basis of that confidence is, and shares the process that God uses to develop it in us.

Lesson 9 - Living Out Our Words (part 1)

It is not uncommon for God to require His prophets to live out or sometimes prophetically act out words that He gives through them to the Body of Christ. This will share a personal example, and then examine three different types of living out the word. It will look at Hosea's life, where he literally had to live out the message that God proclaimed through him. Then it will examine identificational repentance and intercession, which is the response God brings out in some of His prophets. Finally, it will look at propheticly acting out a word from the life of Jeremiah, (e.g., living the experiences of the word before the word comes to pass for the body at large.)

Lesson 10 - Living Out Our Words (part 2)

This is a guest teaching from Rebecca Lindrose. It will continue to develop the theme of lesson 9, sharing about prophetic actions from the life of Ezekiel and then some of her personal experiences of living out a word. Rebecca originally wrote this in response to a discussion starter on the now obsolete ps-discussion list. I felt that what she shared was so powerful that it needed to be shared in our teaching series. So I asked her to develop it out into a full lesson, which she gladly did. She dives into the significance of God asking Ezekiel to "eat the scroll," and she develops principles we can learn from his experience and apply to our own ministry.

Lesson 11 - Visions and Open Visions

This lesson explores the difference between a vision and an open vision. It develops the various types of visions one might see, giving bible examples of each. Then it looks at a few open visions from scripture, such as Peter's vision on the rooftop and John's vision from the book of Revelation. The the lesson moves on to some of the practicalities of experiencing an open vision. It includes some a small portion of Rick Joyner's teaching on the subject. It mentions how God uses symbolism in a vision and then it gives two examples of modern day open visions.

Lesson 12 - Angelic Visitations

There are different roles that angels play in God's plan. This teaching focuses in on one of those roles, the role of God's messenger. It shares some scriptural examples of angels baring messages from God to humans. Then it switches gears and discusses modern day angelic visitations, sharing some details of one such visitation.

Lesson 13 - Divine Visitations

Divine visitations are when God Himself appears to a person. The lesson starts by sharing some of the expectations that people have around divine visitations and of how God will sometimes violate those expectations. It develops some bible passages about divine visitations, such as the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Moses seeing God's backside from the cleft of the rock, the crowds seeing the dove and hearing God's voice speak to them when Jesus was baptized, and Saul's conversion. Then it discusses some modern occurrences of divine visitations, sharing some common elements in these visitations. Finally it details two modern day divine visitations that one individual experienced.

As you can see, this series covers a wide variety of topics. These are all various aspects of the prophetic that we need to be aware of and begin to develop an understanding of. Some of these are more relevant than others. For instance, you do not have to have an angelic visitation or an open vision to be an effective prophet. But you must have obedience to God and correct submission to godly authority down pat if you want the Lord to use you to the full extent of your anointing. I hope you will be both blessed and stretched by this teaching series.

As you read about things that you desire to experience (or that you desire to understand better), please dialogue with God about them. Ask Him about what you read and ask Him how this applies to you personally. Ask Him to speak to you and teach you about the practicalities of the prophetic over the next several weeks. Ask Him what changes He wants make in your life and cooperate with Him in them. Invite Him to keep teaching you about them after the course ends. The Holy Spirit is more than willing to be a dedicated and capable teacher if you will commit to being a committed and obedient pupil. Ask Him to teach you how to work with Him and cooperate with Him in this process, that you might become more effective at learning directly from Him. God is willing if you are...