FireSide Chat II

Sometimes we don't realize the power or effect of a message that God gives us to deliver to someone. There are times when a lot is "hanging" on that message--more than we could possibly realize. That is why it is very important that we do our best to deliver only what God gives us--no more and no less. We want to clearly and accurately represent what He is saying and we must not try to modify a word so that it makes better sense to us. We are acting as the "postman" to deliver God's message to someone. There will be times when God is doing a major work in the persons life through that word, and we have no idea of how significant that message is to the person's life.

Let me give you a few examples of this, to give you an idea why it is so important.

Several years ago I had a friend named Lucy, who lived in another state. We talked on the phone a couple of times a week, plus keep in touch by email. Lucy had a teenage son, who was going through a difficult period of his life, and he was frequently getting into trouble. Of course, my friend loved her son dearly, and she asked me to pray for him. One day when I was praying for him, the Lord gave me this little word for him. It did not seem like a significant word at the time. It was just a little word of God's love and calling on his life, along with some simple encouragement. I did not understand what God was doing in him at that time. The boy seemed to have turned his back on God and was not interested in living for Him, so I wasn't sure if he would even receive the word. But I obediently wrote it in an email and sent it to Lucy to give to her son. Lucy thanked me for sending it and told me that her son loved the word. I suspected that was probably an "optimistic" report designed to protect my feelings.

Lucy and I lost touch for a while. A few years later, we connected again and touched bases. By then, I'd completely forgotten that I'd given a word to her teenage son. Now he was "all grown up," and he was past all of his issue and passionately serving God. In fact, he was training to be a full-time missionary. I rejoiced with Lucy about this wonderful change in her son's life. Then she told me something that really surprised me.

She said, "Teresa, you have no idea how much that word you gave him effected him. He folded it up and put it in his wallet. He would pull it out every day and read it. He would frequently tell me that even through it might not look like it at the moment, God had chosen him to do great things. That word got him through the struggles he faced. The more he read the word to remind himself that God had a destiny for him, the more he changed, until eventually he was a completely different person. Now he is living in that destiny. The word spoke something that 'was not' into existence in his life."

God used that word powerfully in the boy's life. It wasn't really the word "itself" that changed him--it was the Holy Spirit working through that word and transforming his life. But the Lord used the word as a "key" in how He ministered to Lucy's son. The printout of that prophecy (folded up in his wallet) was something tangible that he could latch on to. God's word to him became a focal point to focus his faith on--then God moved in and responded to his faith.

God does this with words more than we realize. He doesn't just speak to people because He likes to talk (though He does like to talk). He is purposeful and intentional, and He has good things that He wants to accomplish in people's lives. When you speak His words at His direction, He releases great power through them for good into the person's life. God uses prophecy as one of His tools to accomplish His purposes in a person's life.

Sometimes His purpose for a given word is simple (e.g., for a minor thing) and sometimes it is huge. The problem is that most of the time, we have no idea what God's purpose for a given word is in that person's life. So we need to treat every word we speak as though it is one of God's "big ones." We need to make sure we are hearing Him, and sharing His message to that person He says clearly and accurately. When we claim to speak for God, we need to share only His thoughts and opinions, and not add in any of our own.

We have to make sure that the thing that their faith latches on to is God's message and not our own. We can't speak our hopes for the person, we have to speak God's plans. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen people come to me, suffering because they latched onto a false word and it never came to pass in their life.

I would like to believe that no one in full-time ministry ever intentionally gives a false word, but sometimes mistakes are made that really hurt people. Let me share a little bit about what can drive some of those mistakes. Some prophets have a tendency to release what I call "grandiose words." Instead of speaking forth the person's real calling or destiny, they tell them what they think the person wants to hear. They have a tendency to install a lot of people into 5-fold offices, to tell them that they are going to be the head/leader of a great move of God, etc.

I hate to say this, but there is a bit of a financial pull on some prophets who make their livelihood from itinerant ministry. They know they will get better offerings if people are excited about the words they give. It is sad, but it is a fact of life--people tend to be more generous when they are blessed. Many prophets are aware of this and are carefully on their guard to avoid falling into the trap of giving false and grandiose words in order to get bigger offerings.

But every now and then, it gets into someone's subconscious and they find themselves falling into that trap. I know that I personally am leery of the visiting prophet who "set" several people in the congregation into 5-fold offices of "prophet" and "apostle," and who release "mantles" to a large percentage of the people there. There are times when God really does that in a meeting, but it is rare. If a prophet goes from congregation to congregation doing that, I personally would begin to question the legitimacy of their words and the motivation behind them.

[By the way, the desire to be the center of attention (or to be needed or wanted or liked) can also have the same effect on someone. It can motivate them to give grandiose words because they desire to please the ones they are ministering to a bit more than they desire to clearly and accurately represent what God is saying.]

I am not trying to turn this into a dissertation about why some prophets miss it or give bad words, but you need to know that there can be pulls on you to do that--and you need to be sure to avoid them. Endeavor to speak only God's words. Concern yourself with pleasing the One who gives you the message instead of the one who the message is given to. (Of course, be sure to minister in love with regard for the person's feelings in how you present the message. But don't their desires pull on you to get you to say things that God is not saying.)

Let me give you an example of what happens to people when they are given grandiose words, where we have added to God's word in order to make it sound good to them. One elderly man (probably in his 70s) came to me one time. He had been given a word by a visiting prophet back when he was 40, installing him in the office of prophet. He had been expectantly waiting all of his life for God to bring that word to pass in his life. He did not know how to hear God's voice, and he had never given a prophetic word (or even an interpretation of tongues) in his life. But he was convinced that he was in the office of prophet, and he would tell that to other people all of the time. He said he was speaking "in faith." But, in reality, he was speaking fantasy. It is true that he had great faith, but if you put your faith in something that God has not said, no amount of faith is going to make that come to pass.

Here is the really sad thing. The gift that the Lord had put in him was one of evangelism. He had a tendency to bring the unsaved people around him to the Lord. But the problem was that he was so busy going from church service to special meeting to pursue his "prophecy" that he hardly had time to be around unsaved people. He was so busy chasing after a "false prophecy" that it hindered his ability to move in his real gifting and calling. He was given a grandiose word by a visiting itinerant prophet several years ago, and that set him on a wrong course and life-direction. I am guessing that the visiting prophet had no clue how his word effected the man and I am sure he had no intention to misdirect his life-path. But the sad truth is that a false prophetic word and release great power for harm in a person's life, just like a true one can release great power for good.

We need to understand that the prophetic words we give can have a much larger effect in a person's life than we realize. As a result, we must be careful that we don't add in extra things we think the person might like to hear.