Desperate For A Word

Wrapping it all up

We have spent the past nine lessons looking at different aspects of anxiety and frustration some people experience when they get around the prophetic. Lesson 1 tried to give a flavor of some of the feelings, emotions and struggles a person may experience when they get around the prophetic. A person may have a critical situation in their life or an issue that is causing great concern. They feel an urgency for God to speak to them on that issue. They have been seeking God for a solution and they are desperate to hear from Him on it. While prophetic ministry is being offered, they may struggle with anxiety about whether they will receive a word. If they don't receive a word, they will go away feeling very frustrated. Many people will struggle with anxiety and never show it externally. But it drives them to think in inappropriate ways, and sometimes they become critical, resentful or struggle with rejection or wonder if God really loves them since He won't speak to them. Others find that the anxiety/frustration will sometimes cause them to say or do things they would not normally do.

Lessons 2 to 4 looked at some principles to help people who struggle with that anxiety/frustration. These were:

• Do not look to the prophet for a word, look to God to speak to you. God may choose to speak directly to you instead of giving you a prophetic word.

• One of the aspects of the prophetic is that it causes "hidden things" to come to light. It may be that God is causing some inner issues to surface when you get around the prophetic. He causes this so you will be aware of the need and come to Him for healing. And He reveals them not to frustrate you, but because He loves you and wants you whole and well.

• Look for any area of disobedience in your life. If God has already spoken to you in some area, through a prophetic word, through an inner prompting or through quickening a scripture to you, then He may expect you to begin to act on what He has already said before He tells you more. So if you are "prophetically invisible" for a season, prayerfully examine you heart and look for areas where you may be inadvertently (or even intentionally) disobeying God. Begin to obey Him in those areas and you will find He will begin to speak to you and tell you more.

• Examine your motivation for wanting a prophesy. Are you looking for a quick or easy fix to your problems. God usually works through process in our lives. So if we look to the prophetic as providing an easy solution for a difficult situation, God may not give us a word. He may choose another way to help us work through the situation we were seeking a quick fix for.

• God may be asking us to die to self in some area.

• It simply may not be your turn to receive a word. Most of the time, prophetic ministry is offered in settings where it is not possible to minister to everyone there. It may be that a brother or sister needs to hear from God more than you do. It may be that God plans to speak to you prophetically at another time, but not at this particular meeting.

• You may be in prophetic training. God may be allowing you to experience this anxiety/frustration so you will have an empathy for others who struggle with it when you are prophesying to them.

Then lessons 5 to 7 looked at this from the prophetic minister's perspective. First we saw that some people struggling with anxiety/frustration over not receiving words will approach you in very reasonable ways. They may share their experiences with you and ask for advice. If so, don't brush them off. If God does not give you a word for them, try to give them an understanding of the above principles. Pray briefly with them and demonstrate God's love to them. They will find the principles helpful even if they did not receive a word from you.

Or they may approach you at a reasonable time and share their concern with you in the form of a prayer request. You can usually tell when they are looking for a word even though they are requesting prayer. If you feel "led" to give them a word, please do. If not, pray with them for their request in a manner that makes them feel loved. Also, you may choose to offer pastoral advice on their situation, showing them the scriptural principles that apply to their situation. If you do give pastoral counsel, be sure to be clear that it is pastoral counsel and not a prophetic word.

There will be times when you simply cannot minister to them -- you are pressed for time, too exhausted from ministering, etc. If possible pray a quick blessing prayer over them. Share that you cannot minister to them now and why. Most people are very reasonable when you explain things clearly. They don't like being brushed off, but they will understand if you have a valid reason and explain it.

We looked at ways to facilitate "fair" ministry, including making sure you leave some time for prophecy instead of preaching too long, selecting people seated in many parts of the room instead of zeroing in on one area. Also, don't select just the church leadership and worship team, select some who were not up front during the service. If there are a lot of people, try to intersperse corporate words between personal ones. If the church has ministry teams, use them. One way you can use them is if you call up a group that meets a special criteria, such as married couples with young children. You can speak a word over the group that comes up, then you can have the ministry team pray for those who you just prophesied to while you move on to prophesy to a person in another part of the room. Also, you might want to consider making yourself available after the service ends, inviting those who want prayer to come up after service, etc.

Lessons 6 and 7 dealt with some of the unreasonable ways people might approach you when they are struggling with frustration for a word. They are sometimes the bruised reed Jesus would not break, from Is 42:3 and Matt 12:20. God does not want to "snuff out their smothering wick." Rather He wants them to put their hope in Him (Matt 12:21) and He wants to bring healing and maturity to them. It is always easier to have compassion on them in theory than when they are "in your face." Try to be motivated with the Lord's love instead of reacting to them.

Some may be operating on a misconception that made them feel wronged or mistreated. If that is the case, identify the misconception and clear it up for them. They will usually become quite reasonable if you explain the misconception they were operating under.

Sometimes people will become incredibly demanding, insisting that God sent them to you for a word. In that case, check with God. If He tells you He did not send them to you, and if you do not feel He wants you to prophesy to them, send them back to God. If possible, give them some strategies and ideas on how to listen to God and hear Him. I find that often God will not want me to give them a word for their situation, but He is happy to give me a word for them on how they can approach Him and how He will speak directly to them.

Lesson 7 covered how people will sometimes be unreasonable or make demands where it is appropriate to set limits and say "no." God gives different types of calls to different ministers. Some are called to teach the body at large and are not expected to do a lot of work with hurting people. Others are called explicitly to help the hurting, to heal those with inner issues and to set people free from enemy oppression. People with this type of calling need to be careful that they don't set too stringent of limits, because God may be sending the hurt person to them to heal.

Finally, we found that the more liberal a person is in ministering from his/her prophetic gifting, the more people receive words and the fewer go away feeling frustrated. They say that spiritual giftings improve through use, so use yours as much as you can. You will get keener and sharper in the gift and more people will be ministered to, so it will be a double blessing.

Lessons 8 and 9 looked at a strange phenomenon that happens to some people. They have waited a long time for a word. But when they finally get their word, they are disappointed or they don't like what God said to them. This usually happens because expectations have built up over time and God may choose to say something different from what they expected Him to say. Then they have to figure out how to process and properly respond to their word. Some helps in this area are:

• Judge the word and verify that it is a God word.
• Evaluate your expectations and initial reactions because they may be flavoring how you perceive/interpret the word.
• Talk with God about the word. Pray about it and talk to Him about what He said to you.
• Do your homework on the word. Read/study any Scripture passages referenced in the word. Research any biblical and historic figures or events that the word refers to.
• Seek godly advice and counsel from others -- they will help you identify blind spots the word deals with and help you process the word.
• Keep the word in context with everything else God has been speaking to you. Understand that if God does not deal with an area in a given word, He is not denying you that thing. He is simply talking to you about something else at the moment.
• Remember God's nature and character. He loves you and He desires to encourage and strengthen you through this word, not tear you down.

God is a loving God and prophesy is one of the ways He expresses that love to His children. 1 Cor 14 says that God intends New Testament prophesy to build up, exhort, edify, encourage and comfort. When people have inner issues that rise up in them and interfere with their ability to be blessed by the prophetic, God wants to heal them. He wants to get them to the place where the prophetic accomplishes what He intends it to accomplish in their life. He wants to bless and encourage His children.