Desperate For A Word

In our last few lessons, we began to explore some principles that help us think and behave maturely when we get around the prophetic. God does not want us to struggle with frustration or other negative emotions when we don't receive a word. So far we have looked at four key principles.

The first principle is that we need to look to God, not to the person who is prophesying. In some cases God wants to speak to us directly and personally before He confirms what we heard Him say though a prophecy. If we are not receiving words prophetically, we need to go back to God and ask Him to speak to us directly. We also need to read the Bible and examine what Scripture says regarding the issues we want God to talk to us about, because God may wish to speak to us through Scripture.

The second principle is that sometimes God allows deep inner issues to surface when we get around the prophetic because He wants to reveal them to us and then heal us of them. This type of healing is usually a process that takes time. But as God heals us of these deep issues, we find that our anxiety about not receiving words begins to decrease. Then we can be in prophetic meetings and not have that "craziness," that desperation for a prophesy, rise up inside of us. And we won't be so frustrated if we are not prophesied to.

The third principle is that we must be obedient to what God has already spoken to us if we want to get more words. God speaks to us through scripture (by quickening it to us). He also speaks to us through prophecies. He expects us to obey what He says to us. If we aren't obeying what He has already said, He may not say anything new to us until we begin to demonstrate obedience on what we already heard.

The fourth principle is that sometimes people have wrong expectations about what a prophecy will do for them. They think that if they can just get a word from God, it will solve all of their problems. In short, they are looking at prophecy as a "quick fix." God never intended for prophecy to do that. He takes us through the process and meets us and reveals Himself to us in the process. So if we are looking to prophecy as a "quick fix," God may choose not give us a word until He has had a chance to modify and adjust our incorrect expectations about the prophetic.

Now let's look at a few more of these principles.

Dying To Self

I have encountered many people who consider it their right to get a personal prophesy from whatever prophet they happen to be around. (Personally I disagree with this view. I don't believe God "owes" personal prophetic words to anyone, through He is an encourager by nature and He loves to give words to many of His children.) However, people with this orientation feel that when they get around a prophet, that prophet is somehow denying them their rights if s/he does not give them a word. At some point, God will ask the person with this type of orientation to lay down their own rights, wants, needs and desires at the cross. This is part of the dying to self process that He brings us all through. This may bring the person into a season where he doesn't receive many prophetic words since God is dealing with them about dying to self.

There is another aspect where dying to self enters into prophetic settings. Some of those who are desperate for a word are desperate because they have a "me" focus, where they are focused primarily on their own needs and concerns. They may get so preoccupied with their own situations and lives that they have inadvertently become selfish in their vision. God may be wanting to expand their vision beyond their own needs to Kingdom concerns. Again, He may ask them to die to self by not receiving personal words for a season.

Of course, it is never easy to die to self. It can be very frustrating when God calls us to do that. Our flesh (and our carnal nature) want to survive and will go to great lengths to stay alive. When God brings us into a "dying to self" phase in some area, we may not recognize it as such as first. The "flesh" knows we love God and we will choose to cooperate with His will, so it will try to conceal or mask itself when God is asking us to lay down our rights, our will and to die to self. Some of those masks include anger, frustration, trying to "blame others" when the flesh is denied something, etc. It throws up as much of a smoke screen as it can, and that sometimes comes out as "craziness" when we get around the prophetic.

Not Your Turn

This is so obvious that it should not need to be mentioned and yet it needs to be dealt with. There are some settings where they promise that everyone present will receive a word, but these are the exception. In most cases, simple logistics make it impossible for the prophetic person to minister to everyone who comes and desires ministry. In a public meeting, for instance, there may simply be too many people to minister to them all. Or there may be time constraints that prevent everyone from receiving a personal word. The long and short of it is that in most settings, not everyone there will receive a personal prophetic word.

In those settings, we have to trust God to select who receives a word and that He is in control of whether or not you receive a word at this meeting. It may be that there is someone else there who "needs" a word more than you. Maybe this is their turn and your turn will come another time.

What do you do in situations like that? You pray for them, intercede, bless, etc, and trust that God will have others doing the same for you when it is your turn.

You may be in Prophetic Training

Do you remember that I shared, in Lesson 1, how I went through a two-year period of struggling with this? I would go to meetings with the best of intentions, but when they started prophesying to people, a desperation would rise up in me. It would turn to frustration when I did not get a word, frequently causing me to struggle with inappropriate emotions. I had to go back to the Lord and repent many times for the thoughts/emotions that ran through my heart and mind when I did not get a word.

If you had told me, at that time, that I would someday be prophesying to many and heading a prophetic ministry, I would have thought you were nuts. My thinking would have been that God won't even prophesy to me, so why would He prophesy through me? But even back then, God knew my future and my destiny, and He had His hand on me. Part of the reason that He allowed me to experience that anxiety, frustration and "craziness" was because He wanted to build an empathy in me when others act "crazy" because they are struggling with it. I understand what it feels like because I've experienced it. I can recognize what is going on "behind the scenes" when someone is rude or hostile to me because I did not have a word for them, and not be offended. In a sense, that difficult period was part of the preparation process that God took me through to equip me for ministry.

It may be that the Lord is doing a similar thing with some of those who struggle with that desperation to receive a word. If you are going through this type of struggle around the prophetic, it may be that God is allowing this to prepare you to minister prophetically to others. Why not stop to pray and ask Him about that right now?

If you are one of those "lucky" people who never had to struggle with this, then I hope these past few lessons have provided helpful insights to you, in case you are ever in the position of ministering to someone who struggles with this.

These past four lessons have examined this "desperation for a word" from the prospective of the person who struggles with it. Our next few lessons will look at this from the prophetic minister's perspective.