THE PROPHETIC GIFT
We recognise the following about the prophetic gift -
- The prophetic gift is a gift given by God to reveal and express His love and His plans for mankind. The ministering of it shows His heart, His intent, and His plans for a person, group, region or nation. Therefore to accurately minister in the prophetic we must have an ongoing deep, personal revelation and experience of the Father's love. We cannot hope to minister correctly without that.
- The prophetic gift is one that is given by God – we cannot earn it, buy it, bargain for it, or claim it as our own. It came from God and it is His gift, freely given so that people may know how much He loves them.
- The prophetic gift is just one way that He reveals His plans and purposes for us as individuals, communities and nations. While it may be directional at times, it should not be acted upon alone, without confirmation from other sources – godly counsel, the peace of God and witness of the Spirit, prayer and communion with God about the prophetic word, possible scripture confirmation, wisdom etc.
- The prophetic word is not a ‘fait-accompli’ or a ‘magic wand’ that ensures that what is said will happen. Most prophetic words will require that we co-operate with the Lord in order for them to come to pass, and are conditional upon us responding to the Lord, working together with Him, and obeying what He asks us to do.
- The prophetic gift is given to us to accomplish God’s purposes; it does not form our identity as a prophetic person! Our identity is established in God. We are made in His image and included in Christ, therefore our identity is founded on the nature and character of God, not our gifts. The prophetic gift is a part of our expression of that nature, but it does not determine who we are.
- God communicates with us in diverse and varying ways, and all those ways are valid and necessary. As examples - the still small voice of God, scripture, angelic visitation and a trance vision are equally valid ways that God communicates with us. None is better than another, they are just different forms of communicating. Some people will find that they receive more easily in one form than in another.
- There are various ways of expressing the prophetic gift and each of those ways are valid. As examples - the spoken word, the painted word and the acted word are all valid expressions. None is better than another, they are just different forms of communicating. Some people will find they move more easily in one form than in another.
- We see in part and we know in part. Any revelation we receive from God, while being true, may not be the whole picture of truth. We cannot, and do not, know everything, so we must allow for that reality in our ministry by ministering in humility and in the acknowledgement of our partial sight. Because of that, we submit our revelation to those we are ministering to, in order for it to be weighed by them and others.
- Prophets do not know all things. God doesn’t reveal everything to every prophet, so we may not know ahead of times about catastrophes etc. Please do not judge our gift by our lack of knowledge. We only know what God shows us.
- We are all still learning; none of us is infallible. As such, we will make mistakes. When we do we must operate in humility and own up to our mistakes. A mistake does not make someone a false prophet; it does, however, show that we are human and are still learning to hear God clearly. A false prophet is not someone who makes a mistake, but someone who accesses prophetic revelation from a source outside of God – the demonic realm or the flesh realm.
- Differences of perspective in understanding and ministering the prophetic gift may arise from time to time. We will always seek to resolve issues according to scriptural guidelines, not ignore them or ‘sweep them under the carpet’. When differences of perspective arise regarding functioning in the gift of prophecy we will not sacrifice values and relationships on the altars of gift and personal perspective.