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-- © GodSpeak International 1998 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org > --

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES
Author: Teresa Seputis <ts@godspeak.net>
[http://www.godspeak.net]
Editor: Al Vesper

Prophetic-School MiniTraining Series

Prophetic Bloopers and No-Nos

or

Ministry Mistakes To Avoid Making

(The goal of this series is to open our eyes to some common mistakes and improper attitudes that occur during prophetic ministry. The intent is that we AVOID inadvertently falling into these mistakes as we minister.)

Course 5 -- Part 1: Sounding Brass and Tinkling Cymbals

or

Self-Promotion and Ministering Without Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-2 says: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

This applies to prophetic ministry, whether it is prophetic preaching or one-on-one prophetic ministry. We are to minister in love, and if we minister for any other reason.... we are not really ministering, we are just making noise. If our motivation is to show off our great prophetic gifting or to impress people with detailed words of knowledge.. we are not moving in God's love and our ministry is ineffective. And when we "minister" like that ... according to God's economy, we are nothing.

So if our motive is to impress man, we certainly will not impress God.

Learning By Example (by a bad example)

A relatively unknown prophet was the key speaker at a series of renewal meetings. The flyers for his meetings acknowledged that he was unknown and billed him as someone who had "ministered with" several well known prophets, listing them by name as though these people were providing a reference for him.

The meeting started well, with exuberant praise and worship. The pastor made announcements and warmly welcomed visitors.. then introduced this prophet. He got up and began to both toot his own horn and also to speak against a spirit of religion. You've seen comedians who insult the audience and the audience responds by laughing. This is what was happening here, under the guise of prophetically "exposing religious spirits". His basic approach was "I'm OK.. you are NOT." He would say things like "I am free from religious spirits, but most of you aren't" and "the only ones who don't think this is funny are those ones with religious spirits.. so if you are not laughing then something is wrong with you and you better repent."

Everyone laughed. Who would dare not to laugh?? He had made "not laughing" synonymous with publicly confessing that you have a religious spirit. But he was not helping the people open themselves up to God. Instead he was causing them to erect shields to protect themselves from his accusations.

This particular prophet also liked to name drop... such as sharing that he was staying at a famous prophet's house and caught a cold from him.. Then he said, "I am not going to tell you who he was.. ok, yes I will.. it was" and he gave the name of a well known and well respected prophet. He also made several boastful statements, such as "When I get under this anointing, I cannot miss" and "when I am under this anointing, I know you better than you know yourself."

This man wanted to impress people. He was self-promoting and arrogant. He did have a prophetic anointing, but he was misusing it to draw men unto himself... to make a name for himself and to lift himself up in the eyes of his audience. He was not ministering in love. He was much more concerned about himself than about the ones he was supposed to be ministering to. He may or may not have succeeded in impressing some of the ones in his audience. But he did not impress God. According to 1 Corinthians 13:1-2, he was "nothing".

Who Is Being Promoted? You Or God?

When you get up to minister, ask yourself who is the one being promoted? Who is the one being built up and exalted? Is it you or is it God? Are you trying to draw people to yourself or to God? Are you trying to minister to them or trying to impress them? True prophecy is revealing God and God's plans and purposes in the person's life (1 Corinthians 14:6, Gal 1:12). The Holy Spirit and the prophetic word testify of Jesus (John 15:26). Our purpose in prophetic ministry is to point the person to Jesus, not to ourselves.

We don't need to convince people that we are a great prophet or a powerful speaker. We merely need to point them to Jesus.. to toot His horn instead of trying to toot our own horns.

One way we can judge our motives (after all it is sometimes hard to be truly honest with ourselves) is to examine where the focus of our attention is. It is on ourself and our own agenda, or is it on God and His agenda?

Here is one simple test:

Are you be willing to look unimpressive and deliver a generic prophecy such as "God really loves you. He knows you have been through a difficult and painful relationship and He desires to bring His healing and His grace to you .. He values you and has a good plan for your life."

Or is it important to share all the details even if it would embarrass the person? (Such as: you are having marital problems and your wife is threatening to leave you, or your teenage daughter has a substance abuse problem and is prostituting herself.)

If we need to let everyone know we are getting an accurate word of knowledge (even though it could embarrass or devastate the person), then we are not ministering in love. Instead, we are ministering in pride and self-promotion. And we have made our own personal agenda (impressing folks with our ability to hear God) more important than God's agenda of ministering to, healing and restoring this person. We are causing the person to erect walls of defense and self-protection rather than helping them open up to God's healing touch. This type of thing grieves the Holy Spirit and hurts the person we are supposed to be ministering to.

Who Is The One Being Edified (Yourself Or The One You Are Ministering To)?

First we must have right motives, and then we can translate those right motives into right actions.

Our motive should be to breathe the life of God into the person, to build them up in their faith, and to draw them closer to God. Our motive is also to encourage, exhort and comfort the person. (1 Corinthians 14:3)

We must be careful about ministering to feel good about ourselves.. or to try to make the person depend on us ("they need me") instead of drawing them to go boldly and directly to God. Do we need to feel that we "did good"? Do we find ourselves thinking things like "I did great.. look at all the powerful words I gave" or "Look at all those accurate words of knowledge I got.." These are dangerous motives that can lead to hurtful or inappropriate ministry.

At this point, let me say that is is perfectly natural and acceptable to be delighted and excited when God uses us to minister. We are to enjoy participating with Him in ministry.. it is His plan for us.. He choose to use us to minister instead of doing it without us because He likes to involve us. He enjoys watching our delight as He moves powerfully through us to minister to another.

But our posture is to be that God is the one being exalted, that we recognize that He is the one who is making this ministry happen and that we give Him all the credit/glory for what He does. Just as the believer shares the good news, but the Holy Spirit convicts and converts the heart, likewise we share His words prophetically, but the Holy Spirit bears witness to them and breathes His life into the person. We are allowed to cooperate with God to advance His kingdom, but He supplies the direction and the power and the anointing. Our motive must be to worship and serve Him, to obey as He directs. It must not be to do something important or impressive or powerful for the sake of wielding that power. Our focus and attention must be on the person to whom God is ministering .. and we must draw their attention to God and not to ourselves.

Closing With A Good Example

One time I was on the ministry team of a prophet, ministering at a woman's rehabilitation home. This prophet would sort of combine preaching with personal prophetic ministry. She would preach for a bit, then give a person a word, and then preach some more and then give another word. Her words were accurate and life-breathing. (Now at this particular rehab center, it was against the rules for pregnant women to participate. One lady had been a prostitute and left the streets and drugs to come to this rehab home. She did not know she was pregnant when she started the two month program.. and was now a few weeks into her program. She had recently accepted Christ and God was beginning to remold and heal her self-image. Earlier that same day, she found that she was pregnant. She was feeling very bad about herself.. after all that child was the product of her former life as a prostitute and she did not even know who the father was. She was in danger of being kicked out of the program if the other woman found out that she was expecting. And she felt really bad about herself as an unwed mother, dirty and unclean.)

The prophet happened to pick this woman out of the crowd and saw the situation. But she did not say anything over the microphone... just gave her a simple and encouraging word about God making her accepted in the beloved ... that she was no longer under condemnation.. she was now pure and clean and holy.

Then there was an altar call followed by a time of open ministry.. anyone who wanted to could come forward and receive prayer. A team was there to pray for and prophesy over those who came forward. During this time, the prophet made her way to this woman. She privately told her.. "the thing growing inside of you is of God." If anyone had overheard the comment, they would not know what she was talking about.. but the woman knew. A release came on her and instead of feeling dirty and unclean, she began to feel redeemed and holy and pure. The Holy Spirit ministered so deeply to her, the shame broke off of her and she was able to begin to love and desire that unborn child.

This prophet was motivated by love and her agenda was to do with God what He was doing. She did not build herself up by delivering a spectacular word of knowledge or by promoting herself. As a result, God was able to do such a deep and healing work in the pregnant woman's heart.

And that is how we are supposed to minister.



-- © GodSpeak International 1998 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org > --


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