Hundredfold Ministries, Int'l

One of the most valuable services a mature prophet performs in the church is to set a new God directed path for a church. As we have already seen, the pastor's focus is on individuals. He often does not see the big picture. Indeed, it is not his job to see the big picture. Or a pastor may simply get too comfortable in his pastorate. He may like things the way they are and not want any changes. Whatever the case may be, it is easy for a pastor to lose forward momentum.

The mature prophet sees the big picture. He is more able than most pastors to see great distances and over time. He sees the issues facing the church at large more clearly from God's perspective.

Thus, it simply makes sense that God will send a prophet from time to time into the pulpit to bring a change of direction to the church. When the prophet speaks this new direction, it breaths new life into the assembly. It brings new insight to the people. And it almost always stirs up an excitement in the congregation.

This call for a new direction can be done in several ways. It can be done by the prophet speaking privately with the pastor and/or the church leaders. It can also be done through preaching. Or it can be done through the more classic “prophetic word.” Often it is done by a combination of all three.

When it is done, the prophet's message is always sharply in focus. There is no doubt what is being said and it has a ring of authority to it. At that point it is the obligation of the church leadership to take that word, pray over it, and respond in an appropriate manner.

Let me give you an example. I know of a very mature fellowship of believers who had gathered for a week long conference. One of their guest speakers was a spiritually mature teacher who was well respected in the church at large in America. During one of his preaching sessions he seemed to falter and lose his train of thought. He shook his head and continued on. A few minutes later he stopped again. He said something like this: “I believe the Lord has a word for this assembly. I believe the Lord has been giving me this word for the last several minutes and I feel I must say it.” He then proceeded to speak in a prophetic manner for about 10 minutes. After he finished, he went back to his topic and finished his sermon.

Fortunately the conference was being tape recorded. The elders of the fellowship had the prophetic message transcribed and sent it to everyone in leadership with instructions to pray over it and seek the Lord about it. They met in about three weeks and, after discussing it and praying about it as a group, they concluded that it indeed was a word from the Lord and they took the necessary steps to follow the directive as spoken during the conference. Fortunately, in this case, the fellowship had been taught to recognize prophetic speaking and they were quick to recognize what had happened and what they needed to do in order to respond in an appropriate manner.

Did you notice in this example the prophetic word was delivered by a man who was generally recognized as a teacher in the body of Christ? He was not known as a prophet. But he was very well respected for his spiritual maturity among the leadership at the conference. Thus the Lord was able to get their attention by speaking through a very mature peer even though he is not a called prophet. I have known the Lord to use apostles and pastor/teachers to deliver this type of word. Such words are not always confined to prophets but they are prophetic words.

Let me give you another example where the prophetic word was not so well received. I am aware of a church in which the Lord had sent an outside prophet to the pulpit to deliver a series of clearly prophetic sermons setting a new direction for the church. Unfortunately, the pastor only “selectively” heard what the prophet was saying. In other words, the pastor rejected much of it and only embraced the parts that he agreed with. He also did not gather the elders for prayer regarding the message. He simply decided himself what was to be done and what was not to be done.

A prophetic word to a church does not always involve big changes. Remember the six categories of prophecy: edification, exhortation, comfort, prediction, rebuke, and guidance? A prophetic word to a church can involve any one, or a combination of these six.

For example, maybe a church is already doing its best to be obedient to the Lord's direction and, as a result, some people have left the church. And, because of this, the church is having a hard time staying faithful to the word of the Lord. In this setting the Lord may send a prophet to encourage and comfort the people. Through his word they can feel new energy and a renewed sense of commitment.

There are other times when the Lord will speak to a church by giving instruction first, then admonishment, and finally, a full rebuke. We can see examples of this from Revelation, chapters two and three. Such words will usually come through a prophet. I believe the Lord first gives his instructions to a church. If the church leadership does not follow them, then there may come an admonishment which is simply a mild rebuke. An admonishment is an attention getter and does not have a hard sting to it. This admonishment can come from a person with a prophetic call from within the congregation, it doesn't need to be an outsider. If that fails, the Lord may well send a prophet to deliver a full scale rebuke to the assembly or to the leadership for its lack of obedience. This rebuke may not be in public, it may just be a strong word to the pastor in private.

It has been my experience that most often these initial directive words by the prophet come from outside the local church body. Occasionally the Lord can use someone from within the congregation but, as a rule, it is the outsider who comes and delivers the word. Why? Because when the person comes from the outside, the impact is usually greater. This is especially the case when the prophet seems to be addressing an issue that the church is involved in and about which the outsider has no prior knowledge.

Let me address the issue of the outside prophet praying for people in a local church body. Often when the prophet comes to a local church he is asked to pray for individuals. Or, he may have an altar call at the end of a service for all those who want individual prayer. It is fine for the prophet to pray for individuals. Because he is mature in his calling, he will know that not every person he prays for will receive a prophetic word. But the congregation must know this too.

Often people will want this person to pray over them because they are looking for a word from the Lord. I say again, we are not to go looking for a prophetic word from the Lord. If he has one for us, wonderful, but we are not to seek it. We are to seek the Lord Himself.

God simply will not have a prophetic word for everyone who gets into the prayer line. So, a well-taught congregation will know that to go forward for prayer is perfectly valid. But it is error for anyone to believe that every word spoken by the prophet was somehow a prophetic word from the Lord.