PROPHETIC WORDS

PURIFYING AND MATURING THE PROPHETIC

by Lyn Packer

This prophetic word was released at the NZ Prophetic Round Table in Christchurch, February 2020.

Over the past few months I’ve felt a very strong prophetic burden and call from the Lord. He is wanting to bring a purifying and maturing to prophetic ministry within NZ. There is mixture, misunderstanding, and immaturity in our understanding and practice of the prophetic in our country and it’s critical that we bring correction to that, otherwise we will miss what God is wanting to release to the world through New Zealand. We are called to be a forerunner nation of people that go into all the world and release the Kingdom of Heaven. There is a real sense of urgency that we need to step up, come to a place of greater maturity, and take our place, being ready for what is about to be released in the earth – a great harvest! We are at a crossroads moment where we can turn one way into blessing and fruitfulness, or another way into another cycle of frustration, hurt and increasing misunderstanding.

This is a very important time we are in! God is placing great importance on both vision and declaration at this time, and He has a timetable He is working to that we need to align with. At the moment He is saying, “If you are called to prophetic ministry then it is time to take your calling seriously and it’s time to upskill and mature in your understanding and practice in that calling.”

The Lord is calling for an individual and corporate maturing, and He is calling for church leaders and commissioned prophets to work with Him to bring a purifying and maturing in the prophetic in our country.

In particular He is calling us to –

Bring understanding

The church needs systematic teaching on the prophetic. Very few churches offer any systematic ongoing training in the operation of the revelatory gifts, the gift of prophecy, or training for emerging prophets. If we are going to raise up mature prophetic ministries in New Zealand this needs to change.

Some of the mixture in the church is in misunderstanding the differences between the spirit of prophecy (the testimony of Jesus), the gift of prophecy, and the calling of prophet. Many people in our churches think that if someone prophesies a lot then that makes them a prophet. As leaders (pastors and senior national level prophets particularly) that misunderstanding is largely there because we haven’t seen the importance of teaching on this subject on a consistent basis. We need to repent of that and change it.

Establish accountability

Prophetic people need accountability in the use of their prophetic gift and calling. We are called to weigh prophecy, not just accept anything that is said from anyone who claims that they are prophetic. If the prophetic gift is recognised and released in a church then there needs to be love-based accountability and feedback given to those who prophesy in order to help them come to a place of maturity.

Provide acceptance, understanding, and community

Prophetic people need to know that they are accepted and understood as a part of the family of God. They need community and connection. They need to be recognised as being gifted, not weird! If they are weird that’s partly on us as leaders because we haven’t cared for them well and taught them how not to become weird. However, prophetic people also have some part in that – they need to learn to discern how to function properly in their gift. They also need to learn that they are not infallible – they do get things wrong, and they need to be humble and teachable. They need to repent if they have had superior attitudes or pride, and, if need be, to submit themselves to being corrected and retrained.

Train people to discern well

Discernment and discerning of spirits are absolutely vital things in this season. We must be able to discern if something is of God, the human spirit, or a demonic spirit.

Come to a greater place of maturity

Part of a prophet’s main calling is to help bring the church to a place of maturity and train them for their work of ministry. We do get to prophesy, but if that’s all we’re doing we are not doing our full job. The Lord is calling prophets to step up into a greater place of maturity in several areas – all of these areas can be developed in different ways and will have different effects and fruit.

• We need to be working strategically with apostles and pastors, in particular, to see the church brought to maturity, and in the prophetic realm – to see that people understand the prophetic and how to move in it with love and wisdom.

• We need to step up into fathering the next generation, not just prophesying – fathering requires involvement in the lives of sons and daughters. We cannot be stand-alone wandering prophets any longer; that’s not New Covenant body ministry.

• We need to be on the look-out, recognising emerging prophets and mentoring/training others.

• We need to be teaching about the revelatory gifts – Gift of prophecy, word of knowledge, discerning of spirits, dream interpretation, understanding mystical experiences and visual revelation. We must give people understanding that they can build well on. That can be done in many ways – through seminars, articles, one-on-one mentoring, short or longer-term schools, books, blogs, and prophetic companies – within churches, cities, regions.

• We must move from just reporting what we see to releasing what we see, with the necessary power for the full manifestation and establishing of that thing.

• Lone ranger prophets need to get healed and set back in place in the church, becoming part of the answer, not part of the problem.

• It’s a time for prophets to not just declare and walk away, but to work practically, hands-on, with the Lord and the church to see prophetic words come to pass. We can no longer just give words on a church-wide, city-wide, regional, or national level that we aren’t prepared to physically work to see established. We are to be ‘a part of’ not ‘apart from’ the church.

BIO