The Practicalities Of The Prophetic

Recently we have been discussing a topic about "living prophetic words" that is very dear to my heart because it is a very real part of my prophetic life. I would have to say that in my own experience, God has almost always required me to live the prophetic words He would give me. God commissions, trains and equips those He calls to be prophets in many diverse and creative ways, to accomplish His purposes. In my own prophetic walk with the Lord, His prophetic assignments have required me to walk out and live many of the prophetic words He has given me. To live out a prophetic word simply means to experience them on a personal level. While I realize that this is not every prophet's experience, I have found it to be true in my prophetic walk with the Lord and would like to share how this gift was commissioned; how it is manifested in my every day life through dreams, visions, revelations, prophetic words and daily situations; and how it has benefited others to achieve the purposes of God.

One of the first ways the Lord taught me to hear His voice for prophetic direction was by reading the Bible. I would read a passage and the Spirit of God would put a question in my mind about what I had read that I could not answer. These questions would get me to thinking and seeking God for an answer. When the Lord gave me such a question, He would powerfully answer the question, and He would always use it as a powerful personal teaching with applications for direction in my life. In my case, God used a study of Ezekiel's life to to teach me a spiritual truth about His purpose for the prophetic gifting. Ezekiel is a picture of a prophet whose life and ministry required him to the live out the prophetic words that God gave him. He becomes our model in learning how and why God has his prophets live out prophetic words as is seen in God's initial commission of Ezekiel:

"And he said to me, 'Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel.' So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. Then he said to me, 'Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.' So I ate it and it tasted sweet as honey in my mouth." (Eze. 3:1-3)

Two questions immediately came to my mind. What did the scroll represent? And Why did God have Ezekiel eat the scroll? (Eating the scroll sounded a bit nasty to me, like eating paper wads in elementary school.) And, why did the scroll taste sweet? These were the questions that the Holy Spirit put into my mind. I wrestled with these questions for many days before He graciously gave me the answers.

I believe it God's heart that prophets understand the specific purpose for which they are called. They must also understand the necessity of the intended purity in which we are to walk these words out. This teaching has guided my prophetic life ever since the Lord gave it to me.

The Lord patiently guided me to understand that the scroll represented the prophetic words that God would be giving Ezekiel from that point on. The scroll was a symbolic representation of the prophetic words from the Lord. The prophetic words were initiated and commissioned by God (Eze. 3:1,2,3,4). The Lord gave Ezekiel the scroll to eat is a picture of how our heavenly Father presents us with the prophetic word. We must not try to make events happen by initiating a physical act on our own instead of receiving the word directly from God. If we do that, we are in danger of using our prophetic gifts with manipulation which is a form of witchcraft. As prophets, we are servants of God to do His bidding. It is not the other way around! So the Lord taught me from this reference to act on only on those things He initiates in my life.

The second thing I began to understand from this Scriptural model is that God gave Ezekiel a command. In this case it was to eat the scroll. Ezekiel could have refused the assignment. (all prophets can choose not to do what God has called them to do). But if he refused, Ezekiel would be disobedient to the call of God in his life and would also miss out on God's presence and favor resting on him in ministry. The fact that Ezekiel was obedient to eat the scroll indicated to me that God had presented Ezekiel with a form of a test: a test of obedience. God could give Ezekiel the next prophetic assignment because he was obedient and ate the scroll. While eating a scroll may seem like a little assignment, the next assignments were much bigger. First he was to speak harsh words of discipline and rebuke to the Israelites as God's representative. Later in his ministry he would have to shave his head and beard (Eze. 5) and still later, he would be required to live as a nomad in exile as a prophetic symbolic act of the impending judgement to come (Eze. 12:3).

This showed me another aspect of the Sovereignty and love of God in our prophetic assignments: He knows who He can trust with which assignments. I believe that because He knew Ezekiel's heart, He knew that He could trust him with this assignment as well as future assignments. But also, God prepared Ezekiel in stages of progression of difficulty of prophetic assignments. He started with small tasks and increased their difficulty as Ezekiel increased in prophetic maturity. That is encouraging to me: God won't give us anything He hasn't already equipped and prepared us to do.

Probably the most important lesson the Lord wanted me to understand from the commission and call of Ezekiel was the godly purpose as symbolized by the prophetic act of Ezekiel eating the scroll and "filling his stomach with it." It does not matter if we are called to speak prophetic words, or to act and live them out or both; God's Words must be a part of the prophet's life. The prophetic word of God must live in us and through us. It must be an intimate part of our existence. The prophetic word is spiritual food for the life and existence of the prophet. It is just as essential to them as food is essential for our physical life. For by His Words we life and have life.

When God required Ezekiel to fill his stomach with the prophetic words, He prophetically demonstrated that the words He gives His prophets to speak and live out apply to the prophet too. God showed me that a prophet must walk in a balance of humility, which is the opposite of pride and arrogance. At the same time, the prophet must not fall into the self-pity or cave mentality of Isaiah. We are to walk in confidence. It is the confidence of who and what God is able to do and not in our own flesh or abilities. By digesting the scroll, Ezekiel is a picture of how a prophet is to "walk the walk and talk the talk". We are not to be above the words we deliver, nor are we beneath the words. We must be sure that our lives reflect the purity of the words we are asked to deliver.

The next principle that God wanted me to learn was answered through the question of why did the scroll taste sweet. It seemed like a contradiction since Ezekiel would later have to deliver harsh and severe words to Israel. Why didn't the scroll taste as bitter as the prophetic words Ezekiel would later have to deliver? The Holy Spirit guided me to understand the scroll represented God's Word. As such, the Word of God is always true and pure-- like honey (Ps. 34:8). Thus, even a harsh prophetic word will be "sweet" because it is God's truth. So all around, but eating the scroll, Ezekiel becomes our model of obedience and purity in walking out and delivering God's truth.

Have you ever wondered why God asks prophets to do certain things that simply don't make any rational sense? I mean, if God asked you to write down a Scripture and then eat it, without telling you why, would you do it? This may seem obvious to some of you, but one of the purposes of God in living out prophetic words in to accomplish in the spiritual realm what is acted out in the physical realm. Sometimes God calls us to do physical acts to accomplish spiritual ends. When He does, He almost always confirms this with me before hand through Scripture--so that I have a Biblical word to guide my path.

In my own case, the most common way God gets me to live out prophetic words is through dreams and visions. When I awake from such spiritual dreams, the emotions are so intense, that I feel that I can directly relate to the situation with more empathy and see things from God's perspective a little clearer. To distinguish between godly dreams, ungodly dreams or "indigestion dreams" I have asked God to confirm the dream is from Him with a Scripture that is directly relevant. Many times I will "see" a Scripture chiseled out at the bottom of a dream as if it were a subtitle. Upon waking, I am always relieved when it matches and know which is of God and which is not.

The best example of this is a dream I had called "Illegitimate Children." It is the best illustration of how God had me live out a prophetic word, of how it accomplished His purposes, and the impact it had in the lives of others. The dream dealt with all of the issues of marital unfaithfulness: adultery, betrayal, deception, anger, rejection, sorrow. At the end of the dream, like a credit at the end of the movie, was the phrase: "Look up illegitimate in your Bible concordance." When I awoke from the dream, I was surprised at the intense level of feelings I had. I could directly relate to hurt, deception, betrayal, etc. My poor husband had to help me separate the dream as fictional while at the same time learning to listen for the spiritual applications. Why was God giving me these intense feelings?

The first lesson God wanted me to learn was the correlation between how He sees sin in the lives of his people and the dream of infidelity. I was led to understand that all sin is a betrayal of a covenant relationship we have as God's children. Just as infidelity is a betrayal of a marriage covenant, so too sin among the children of God is a betrayal of a godly covenant with the Lord. I had never thought of it before, but because of the intensity of the feelings that God placed in my heart through this dream, I was deeply aware of the grief and pain that I cause Jesus each time I sin. I saw His face of love and patience and felt the pain of suffering that He has when I sin, as it is a sin against Him. It still breaks my heart when I think of it. The first purpose of this dream altered forever, how I would see personal sin. It was no longer something impersonal, it was intensely personal and painful. I also understood how the discipline of God was for my good.

When I looked up illegitimate in my concordance, I found Heb.12:8 corresponded to the intent of the dream perfectly and got a second teaching and application from the Lord.

"If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline) then you are illegitimate children and not true sons." Heb. 12:8

My heart was filled with encouragement from this verse in connection with this dream in that I understood that when I sin and receive God's discipline, it is not a bad thing-- it proves I am His child, a "true son" and not an illegitimate child! He cares enough to discipline me in order to bring me back into alignment and a right covenant relationship with Him. But that wasn't all. There was a prophetic word in this that was later to be revealed.

I shared this dream, scripture and word as an encouragement to four of my friends who were in ministry. Within a few days, two called me to confess to affairs and two called to confess specific sins that were hidden and affecting their relationships with the Lord. God showed me this dream was a corporate word for the body as many were in similar sinful places and were either in the midst of godly chastisement or were about the receive godly discipline for sins. Because of the intense feelings of the dream and because I felt that this betrayal had occurred to me personally, I found that I had a new sense of mercy and compassion for these individuals instead of judgment or criticism.

Sometimes when God has us live out a word by experience, the most important thing He want to communicate to His prophets is how He sees a situation. We are His representatives, so we need to develop hearts of mercy and compassion for those we minister to. Since one of our major prophetic assignments is to intercede, we need compassionate hearts. This is essential in praying the heart and will of God in a situation.

Living out the prophetic words makes us more sensitive and more effective vessels for the purposes of God. Some of the things we will be required to "act out" will not be easy. But if we do them in purity and with the heart of God, it will be well worth it. Then we can know that we are walking in obedience to our Lord and we can feel His good pleasure in our lives and see His purposes achieved in the lives of others.