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Introduction -- (written by Teresa Seputis)
We are beginning to move into practical aspects of prophetic ministry. The lessons in the next two series will deal with some of the less obvious but very practical aspects of prophetic ministry.. this first series on impartation through the laying on of hands and the next series on healing. I would like to give a brief introduction about why these topics are relevant to a prophetic school...
When I first began to move in the prophetic, I thought that prophetic ministry was the "end" in itself, for the encouragement and edification of the body. It brought so much life to people. Sometimes God would confirm things that He had been speaking to someone in such a wonderful way that .. so that would become alive and animated, full of vigor and excitement. Sometimes prophetic ministry would explain to someone what had been going on in their life and it would be such a relief to them to understand. Occasionally the prophetic ministry would give the person a new vision to pray into and steer towards.. or perhaps simply confirm to the person that they were on the right track and should simply continue with what they are doing. All of these types of ministry were so life-giving, so wonderful. And for a season I thought that was the extent of prophetic ministry.
Then I discovered the wonderful world of gentle prophetic correction.. which was still "obviously" in the realm of the prophetic. This correction can be extremely life-giving and refreshing. Correction was not a thing to fear/dread.. instead it was like my old ice skating coach correcting a move I was doing wrong... my coach was never mad at me and he never made me feel stupid or evil, he simply showed me what I was doing wrong and how to fix it, so that I could improve my skating.. to move closer towards my goal of excellence. I still remember the first corrective word I ever received.. a prophet I did not know telephoned me and we chatted for a while. Then she began exhorting me to settle within myself that God had called and gifted me so that I would stop disqualifying myself. She explained that I could get no further along in my calling until I settled this and then went on to spell out for me what God had in store for me.. so that I would be motivated to get past this "hump". Goodness, I felt so alive and enthused.. and the Holy Spirit was all over me bearing witness to me about what was being said. It was such a positive experience that it took me a good 15 minutes to figure out I'd been corrected. The result of this prophetic correction was life-changing and I have moved much further along in the ministry that God has for me.
So I came to view "prophetic ministry" as encouraging, confirming, explaining, imparting vision, warning, and even loving correction. All of it was so good, and produces life in those who truly have a heart after God and desire His will for their lives. This is good stuff!!
I came from a Vineyard background and praying for healing (and seeing results) is as natural for those in the Vineyard as prophesying is for those in CI. Some of the healing prayer is almost mechanical in nature.. but there is an aspect of it that ties closely to the prophetic.. words of knowledge. Sometimes when God wants to minister to a person's physical condition, He gives words of knowledge or supernatural revelation about that condition or about things causing it. These words can come in many different ways.. some people see the body part, some briefly feel the condition in their own bodies, some may get a picture of a medical book and be able to read the text describing the condition, some get a deep knowing or impression, etc.
I will never forget how I first learned about words of knowledge. I had been a Christian for years, but had only discovered that Jesus is to be Lord of every area of my life one year before. I was in the process of learning to walk out His Lordship. I ended up attending a course that Peter Wagner taught at Fuller Seminary on Healing. One of the things he did there was to pray for people with various conditions.. such as chronic backaches, etc. I remember one time on the first day of class.. he prayed for someone with a chronic (almost crippling backache). The person was healed, but while he was praying for them, I seemed to "catch" their backache.. it lasted for about 1/2 hour and I was miserable. The next person he prayed for had migraines.. and sure enough, as he began to pray for that person, I got a severe headache.... I was not sure if I was being suggestionable or if something demonic was going on. So I purposely left the room while the next person was describing their condition.. I came back in before the prayer was over and suddenly I had terrible stomach pain.. so I asked a classmate what they were praying for.. and sure enough, it was a stomach problem. Yikes!! I became convinced that somehow the illnesses had been caused by demons and as the demons were being cast out of the sick people, they were all coming to visit me. I had never even heard of the term "word of knowledge" at that point.
After class was over, I stood in line to talk to Peter.. to ask him for deliverance ministry since I was catching all the demons of all the folks getting healed. Peter began to laugh at me .. he says he was actually laughing with me... but at the time my back hurt, my head hurt and my stomach hurt.. so I did not think it was funny. Then Peter told me about physical words of knowledge. My "condition" cleared up as soon as I left campus and I spent the rest of the evening pondering how God could be so mean to "invent" physical words of knowledge.. of feeling the condition that He wanted to heal in my own body. Yikes!
At class on the second day, Peter began to pray for people and I began to feel their condition in my body again. Peter stopped and caught my eye, and asked me if I was feeling the condition. I said yes. He told me to stretch out my hand towards the person and pray for them to be healed.. as soon as I began to pray, the pain went away.. Wow!!! (I tell you, that type of word of knowledge really motivates one to pray for healing!)
That evening I was having dinner with someone and got a physical word of knowledge.. so I asked the person and sure enough.. they needed a healing.. so I prayed for them and two important things happened.. my pain went away the instant I started to pray and the person was healed. Wow.. I had a praise report for class the next day.
Before the course was over, I had prayed for a dozen people and seen 8 of them totally healed and another two partially healed.
That was my first introduction to healing and to words of knowledge. At the time, no one told me that words of knowledge were part of the prophetic.. I just thought it was part of healing. It became very normal for me to pray for the sick and frequently see them get healed. And words of knowledge were common place... a part of healing. Imagine my surprise when I learned that I was moving in the prophetic to get the words of knowledge! The prophetic and healing really are very closely tied together.
I saw healing manifest as a part of prophetic ministry earlier this month (April 1999). Donna Cox and I were just back from ministering in South Africa, and we were sharing/ministering together at a church in San Jose. There was a visitor there, a sister of one of the church members, who felt leery and had never seen the gifts of the spirit operate before. We had been prophesying to each person in the room.. when we got to her, Donna said, "The Lord shows me that you have some health problems that keep you from being able to do normal day to day things and you've been crying out to God about them." Then she prayed for the woman.. and she was healed. The lady had been unable to raise her arm above shoulder level. Suddenly she could raise it up all the way. Then I had a word for her about having been falsely accused (and the emotional pain it caused her). That opened her up to receive healing from the Lord and release bitterness. She went home a totally different person. Now, she would have never received the word about being falsely accused if the Lord had not demonstrated it was Him by healing her first. So we saw the prophetic used to minister both physical and inner healing.
One of the things that God loves to do via the prophetic is to set the captives free, to break oppression off people. This was a big part of Jesus' personal mission statement.. see Luke 4:16-22. The Lord began to quicken Luke 4:16-22 to me even before I moved in the prophetic.. about preaching good news to the poor, proclaiming freedom to prisoners, sight to the blind and breaking oppression off people. Later, he began to show me how the prophetic was used in this. Suddenly a whole new dimension of inner healing opened up.. how the right revelation would cause a rapid major breakthrough for the person.. how oppression would fall off them and they would be freed up in an area that had been dragging them back.. and they would be able to step up into the fullness of what God had for them.
I began to see how words of knowledge (as well as discerning of spirits) were useful in deliverance. But I had my first exposure to what I call "prophetic deliverance" in South Africa.. it was keen and precise and very fast and effective.. doing in 10 to 15 minutes what used to take 2 to 3 hours. My very first exposure was at one of the prophetic conference meetings in Capetown South Africa on Easter Sunday. An alcoholic (who was quite drunk at the time) wandered into the meeting and came up front for ministry, standing right in front of Steve Lincoln. Steve backed up for a second and looked (in the spirit) at this man.. seeing the demon on him... then he asked the man if he wanted to be free from this thing. The man got out a very drunken "yes." Steve grabbed the demon, that he was seeing in the spirit, and pulled it off the man.. and the man was instantly sober and coherent and in his right mind.. the change in the man was staggering. He committed his life to the Lord. It was very powerful and very quick work... I believe this is a foretaste (or leading edge) of what might become common-place ministry in the future. As the week progressed in South Africa, both Steve and Donna were able to do very quick and powerful deliverance ministry via a combination of prophetic revelation and discerning of spirits.. and the resulting changes in people's lives were staggering. I believe that we will be seeing this "prophetic deliverance" become more and more common in the future, because God is in the business of setting His people free and breaking oppression off them so that they can rise up and step into the calling and destiny He has put on their lives.
There are other activities that those in the office of prophet participate in. This includes impartation/activation of gifts and installing people in their office/calling.
Moses imparted his giftings and authority into Joshua (Deut 31:1-9, Josh 1:5-9), Samuel installed Saul as king (1 Sam 10:17-24) and later anointed David as Saul's replacement (1 Sam 16:1-16). Elijah anointed Hazael as king over Syria (1 Kings 19:15), Jehu as king over Israel (1 Kings 19:16) and anointed Elijah as a prophet (1 Kings 19:16).
I personally got to experience this in Sept of 1997, when a prophet prayed for me and identified my calling and called forth the gifts the Lord had put into me. I can't explain it, but something was activated in me at that time and I began to move in a noticeably greater level of gifting and anointing than I had before that prayer.
Since then, there have been times where the Lord has told me to impart a part (or sometimes all) of my giftings/anointings into another person. The times I have done this at His direction, there has been a noticeable change in the person's life and ministry. There is really something that goes out in the impartation.. I cannot explain it, but I know it is real.
I have seen the Lord use prophets to anoint and install people into one of the 5-fold offices... I have seen a change come over people when this occurs, where the level of gifting and anointing increased drastically.
I have also seen prophets impart various spiritual gifts into people, and again, there has been a change in the lives of those prayed for. The prophet may also be used to call forth and awaken spiritual gifts that God had given to people, but that have gone unused.
Impartation and setting people in their God-appointed place/calling seems to be a part of the prophet's role.
We have just seen that there are many areas that a prophetic person operates it.. it is not limited to simply speaking forth the words of the Lord. God uses his prophets in physical and inner healing, to set captives free and break off oppression, to do deliverance, to impart giftings and to install people in the roles God has called them to.
Much of the prophetic impartation is done by touch.. by the laying on of hands. This includes impartation of physical healing, impartation of spiritual gifts and commissioning for ministry.
The following teaching series, by Fred Kelly (on impartation through the laying on of hands) will cover these areas, as will the following series by Keith Gerner (on healing).
I believe that we need to be well rounded, understanding more than just our prophetic gifting, and these next two series will help bring some understanding/knowledge in some of the areas where God frequently uses His prophets. I hope these next two teaching series will bless and inspire you.