Passing along some good info about the "prophetic" and dealing with spiritual battle. All churches may not view the "prophetic" by the same definitions but I though this explanation from Bethel had a good and practical view in dealing with "prophetic" gifts and lifestyle. Also, Kris Vallotton's book, "Spirit Wars" is great! I included some key tactics to discern your approach to conflicting thoughts."
Enjoy!
The prophetic according to Bethel
What is prophecy?
Broadly and simply, prophecy means "truth from God spoken through another person". Hopefully, it's completely clear that the Bible is a unique revelation from God unlike any other. No accurate prophetic word will contradict what God is communicating in the Bible and no prophecy will ever judge the Bible or be considered God's Word in the Bible is. The Bible stands alone and is greater than any prophetic word and is properly used to judge them.
In I Corinthians 14 we see that prophecy is for strengthening, encouragement, comfort and edification of the believer and to help unbelievers encounter God. It might be about the future, but many times it isn't. You may receive a "word of knowledge" which is information you already know but encourages your faith in the moment that God knows you and is speaking to you.
All Christians can hear from the Holy Spirit. In prophecy we hear from the Holy Spirit for another person. According to John 14 - 16 we may be reminded of what Jesus said, given new information, sometimes it is the information we know it's what the Spirit is currently hearing in heaven, and sometimes the information is about the future.
Who is ministering to you?
The apostle Paul urged everyone in the Corinthian church to "follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy" (I Cor. 14:1). As with all of God's gifts, some people are more gifted than others, but all Christians have gifts like prophecy and become better and better at using them. This is likely the situation of the person who prophesies to you--they are not a prophet, but are growing in the gift of prophecy. Every believer ca prophesy, but no one may appoint themselves a prophet. The role or office of "prophet" is different than a believer who is simply ministering in the gift of prophecy. Prophets are formally empowered in the church if it recognizes the character, gifts and call on their life. They are then accountable to that church for their ministry.
Even the best prophets are not completely accurate all the time and humbly admit it. We teach our prophetic team to grow in their humility, reliance on God, and realize that just like all the gifts of the Spirit, we don't practice them perfectly.
How should you respond while receiving prophecy?
Prophecy is NOT a conversational prayer time, pastoral counseling or deliverance. It is normal to experience the whole word and later process it with the Lord and others. God may lead the team to address an area you really want to discuss but this is not the time or team with which to discuss it. Occasionally, the things being said won't seem to fit and you may ask for clarification. Lots of time the team has no more information than what they give you and we teach them to stop talking when God does- (which some people are better at than others!) Let them give you the word and later look for others with which to discern the quality of the word.
If the prophecy is just plain wrong or your spirit is deeply troubled, you should feel the freedom to explain your concern right there in the moment, as it is not wise to pretend a word is right or helpful when it is not. The person prophesying may just be wrong. Some words take a long time to come to pass and feel wrong right up until they are correct. However, if it becomes apparent it was an incorrect word, you have the option to let the one who prophesied know, as this feedback may be helpful to them.
What's your responsibility after you receive a word?
1. You are a participant in prophecy--it is not "one-way communication. Our prophetic culture is successful because it involves two powerful people who hear from God. The one who gives "the word" and the one who gets the word. You are responsible to judge the prophecy and decide how accurate it is and what sort of with to give it. Does it follow the instruction of I Corinthians in that it is edifying, encouraging and/or comforting? Do you experience strength from the Lord in hearing and recalling it? If not, all or part of it might be an incorrect word that you should dismiss.
2. Prophetic words must be judges, as they may be all correct, partially correct or all wrong.
Don't easily dismiss them because they are big or you can't reason how God will do something. Discernment is not merely a matter of taste or previous experience. Accurate prophecies are often outside our box and/or comfort zone. But at least twice, the New Testament church was commanded to receive and then evaluate the prophecies given to them. "Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil." (I Thess. 5:19-22). "Two or three prophets should speak and the others should weigh carefully what is said" (I Cor. 14:29). We suggest you discern them with Scripture, your spirit (the inner part of you that was dead but became alive when you were saved), your faith discussions with God, your reasoning (which is growing more like God's reasoning), what God has previously told you, and the input of your leaders, family and friends.
Relying solely or too heavily on prophecy to make significant decision is a mistake. They are a part of the information you need but not all you need. We caution our people that when prophesying they are not to give strong "direction" words. (Prophets recognized by the church sometimes have a bi more leeway in this area.) We tell teams, "no dates and mates" as individuals may immaturely act on prophecy alone, apart from discernment and every other source of communication from God and wise decision-making because prophecy feels very supernatural. And it is, but the other ways God leads us are equally important and supernatural. They should not take a backseat to prophecy. Prophecy has an emotional dimension to it too, so it is good to let the emotions settle a bit before you come to any conclusions. Some Christians have unwisely chosen career, ministry or marriage when they don't love it and have no respect or vision for it simply because they believe "God said so". This is completely and sadly wrongheaded. Test the word you are given.
3. We don't prophecy perfectly or receive prophecy perfectly.
God is communicating truth through imperfect people to imperfect people! Those receiving might misunderstand the word because they ignore the context and/or just grab what they want to hear. Or they may want a specific answer so they twist the prophecy to make it fit. They may come with an agenda and expect God to address it. Often times, God is answering questions or saying things He knows to be key, but aren't the things we are interested in. He knows our hearts but will often bring up the things that are on His heart rather than ours!
4. Sometimes prophetic words require our participation or contain conditions required for their fulfillment.
It is a dance with the Lord. You partner with God to see things come to pass without taking over. Conditions may be in your control or out of your control. For example, a promise from the Lord might require you to forgive someone--that's in our control. Other times the condition is out of your hands and it is important that you do not strive to make it happen. You must trust God with the outcome. Talk to Him about the word and let Him bring it to pass in His own way and time. If the word is not from Him, or outside your control, it won't do any good to worry about it. Sometimes, we are given information that without being exact, leads us to exercise faith in a given direction. Prophecy always reveals the love and leadership of God in our lives and spurs us to partner with Him in faith.
5. Review the recording of the prophecy.
We recommend that you transcribe the word as you can get more insight when reading it. Value it and hold it before the Lord.
Prophecy has been a great blessing to our corporate and individual lives. Some of our biggest, best, wildest dreams and breakthroughs have happened because someone first prophesied it. Indeed, if they hadn't, we are not convinced that they all would have happened or that we would have had the faith or direction to go after them. That is some of the power of prophecy. Thank you for your trust in our teams.
~
"Spirit Wars" excerpt:
(Referring to Nehemiah)
"Strategic Restoration
...Nehemiah 'arose in the night' and 'didn't tell anyone' what God put in his heart to do for Jerusalem. This is a prophetic statement about how the Holy Spirit works in our lives to restore and perfect us. I have found that it is in the dark times (night) of our lives that the Lord begins to 'arise' and shine His spotlight on our brokenness in order to make us whole. But in these night seasons when He is doing the most work in our lives, we are often completely unaware of it, or we think it is the devil. We must discern the difference between the Holy Spirit's searchlight, which assesses the damage done to our walls in order to rebuild us, and the accusations of evil spirits, which point out our weaknesses but have no redemptive value whatsoever...
Lying Speculations
Let's peer back in time at that last passage (Nehemiah 4:1-2) again to see what else we can glean from Nehemiah's diary. Here, the enemies are not employing any subtle tactics like temptation; they are resorting to a full-on accusatory attack. They use the same five accusations that our enemy mostly commonly levels at us as believers!
Here are a few keys to overcoming these common assaults. First, it is imperative that we never talk to the devil without our attorney present. Jesus is our advocate (see I John 2:1) and we should by no means negotiate with a terrorist! We should always let the Lord take up our case.
Observe how the Lord dealt with Satan when he brought charges against Joshua the high priest. I am sure Joshua was experiencing one of those hard seasons in his life where the devil was reminding him day and night of his failures, shortcomings and sins: Zechariah 3:1-4
The Lord's work in our lives is an open rebuke to the powers of darkness. When evil princes mess with us, they trespass into dangerous territory. We are made righteous by God's works and not our own, and the truth of His grace overrides the devil's facts and fallacies.
Jesus has invited us to 'draw near wit confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need' (Hebrews 4:16). When terrorists spirits are hunting us down, we can run into the palace, jump up on the throne and be seated with Christ. In fact, if things get too bad, we can play dead and hide in Christ (see Colossians 3:3). When my soul is under siege, I often have this vision of myself sitting on this huge throne with Jesus. The chair is so high that He has to help me up onto His lap. With my legs dangling several feet from the floor, I whisper in his ear, sharing with Him how someone is stalking me and will not leave me alone. The enemy seems terrified as he peers through the window of the palace and sees me whispering to the Lord. He suddenly flees the premises as the Lord gives the order to punish him for harassing me."
Enjoy!
The prophetic according to Bethel
What is prophecy?
Broadly and simply, prophecy means "truth from God spoken through another person". Hopefully, it's completely clear that the Bible is a unique revelation from God unlike any other. No accurate prophetic word will contradict what God is communicating in the Bible and no prophecy will ever judge the Bible or be considered God's Word in the Bible is. The Bible stands alone and is greater than any prophetic word and is properly used to judge them.
In I Corinthians 14 we see that prophecy is for strengthening, encouragement, comfort and edification of the believer and to help unbelievers encounter God. It might be about the future, but many times it isn't. You may receive a "word of knowledge" which is information you already know but encourages your faith in the moment that God knows you and is speaking to you.
All Christians can hear from the Holy Spirit. In prophecy we hear from the Holy Spirit for another person. According to John 14 - 16 we may be reminded of what Jesus said, given new information, sometimes it is the information we know it's what the Spirit is currently hearing in heaven, and sometimes the information is about the future.
Who is ministering to you?
The apostle Paul urged everyone in the Corinthian church to "follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy" (I Cor. 14:1). As with all of God's gifts, some people are more gifted than others, but all Christians have gifts like prophecy and become better and better at using them. This is likely the situation of the person who prophesies to you--they are not a prophet, but are growing in the gift of prophecy. Every believer ca prophesy, but no one may appoint themselves a prophet. The role or office of "prophet" is different than a believer who is simply ministering in the gift of prophecy. Prophets are formally empowered in the church if it recognizes the character, gifts and call on their life. They are then accountable to that church for their ministry.
Even the best prophets are not completely accurate all the time and humbly admit it. We teach our prophetic team to grow in their humility, reliance on God, and realize that just like all the gifts of the Spirit, we don't practice them perfectly.
How should you respond while receiving prophecy?
Prophecy is NOT a conversational prayer time, pastoral counseling or deliverance. It is normal to experience the whole word and later process it with the Lord and others. God may lead the team to address an area you really want to discuss but this is not the time or team with which to discuss it. Occasionally, the things being said won't seem to fit and you may ask for clarification. Lots of time the team has no more information than what they give you and we teach them to stop talking when God does- (which some people are better at than others!) Let them give you the word and later look for others with which to discern the quality of the word.
If the prophecy is just plain wrong or your spirit is deeply troubled, you should feel the freedom to explain your concern right there in the moment, as it is not wise to pretend a word is right or helpful when it is not. The person prophesying may just be wrong. Some words take a long time to come to pass and feel wrong right up until they are correct. However, if it becomes apparent it was an incorrect word, you have the option to let the one who prophesied know, as this feedback may be helpful to them.
What's your responsibility after you receive a word?
1. You are a participant in prophecy--it is not "one-way communication. Our prophetic culture is successful because it involves two powerful people who hear from God. The one who gives "the word" and the one who gets the word. You are responsible to judge the prophecy and decide how accurate it is and what sort of with to give it. Does it follow the instruction of I Corinthians in that it is edifying, encouraging and/or comforting? Do you experience strength from the Lord in hearing and recalling it? If not, all or part of it might be an incorrect word that you should dismiss.
2. Prophetic words must be judges, as they may be all correct, partially correct or all wrong.
Don't easily dismiss them because they are big or you can't reason how God will do something. Discernment is not merely a matter of taste or previous experience. Accurate prophecies are often outside our box and/or comfort zone. But at least twice, the New Testament church was commanded to receive and then evaluate the prophecies given to them. "Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil." (I Thess. 5:19-22). "Two or three prophets should speak and the others should weigh carefully what is said" (I Cor. 14:29). We suggest you discern them with Scripture, your spirit (the inner part of you that was dead but became alive when you were saved), your faith discussions with God, your reasoning (which is growing more like God's reasoning), what God has previously told you, and the input of your leaders, family and friends.
Relying solely or too heavily on prophecy to make significant decision is a mistake. They are a part of the information you need but not all you need. We caution our people that when prophesying they are not to give strong "direction" words. (Prophets recognized by the church sometimes have a bi more leeway in this area.) We tell teams, "no dates and mates" as individuals may immaturely act on prophecy alone, apart from discernment and every other source of communication from God and wise decision-making because prophecy feels very supernatural. And it is, but the other ways God leads us are equally important and supernatural. They should not take a backseat to prophecy. Prophecy has an emotional dimension to it too, so it is good to let the emotions settle a bit before you come to any conclusions. Some Christians have unwisely chosen career, ministry or marriage when they don't love it and have no respect or vision for it simply because they believe "God said so". This is completely and sadly wrongheaded. Test the word you are given.
3. We don't prophecy perfectly or receive prophecy perfectly.
God is communicating truth through imperfect people to imperfect people! Those receiving might misunderstand the word because they ignore the context and/or just grab what they want to hear. Or they may want a specific answer so they twist the prophecy to make it fit. They may come with an agenda and expect God to address it. Often times, God is answering questions or saying things He knows to be key, but aren't the things we are interested in. He knows our hearts but will often bring up the things that are on His heart rather than ours!
4. Sometimes prophetic words require our participation or contain conditions required for their fulfillment.
It is a dance with the Lord. You partner with God to see things come to pass without taking over. Conditions may be in your control or out of your control. For example, a promise from the Lord might require you to forgive someone--that's in our control. Other times the condition is out of your hands and it is important that you do not strive to make it happen. You must trust God with the outcome. Talk to Him about the word and let Him bring it to pass in His own way and time. If the word is not from Him, or outside your control, it won't do any good to worry about it. Sometimes, we are given information that without being exact, leads us to exercise faith in a given direction. Prophecy always reveals the love and leadership of God in our lives and spurs us to partner with Him in faith.
5. Review the recording of the prophecy.
We recommend that you transcribe the word as you can get more insight when reading it. Value it and hold it before the Lord.
Prophecy has been a great blessing to our corporate and individual lives. Some of our biggest, best, wildest dreams and breakthroughs have happened because someone first prophesied it. Indeed, if they hadn't, we are not convinced that they all would have happened or that we would have had the faith or direction to go after them. That is some of the power of prophecy. Thank you for your trust in our teams.
~
"Spirit Wars" excerpt:
(Referring to Nehemiah)
"Strategic Restoration
...Nehemiah 'arose in the night' and 'didn't tell anyone' what God put in his heart to do for Jerusalem. This is a prophetic statement about how the Holy Spirit works in our lives to restore and perfect us. I have found that it is in the dark times (night) of our lives that the Lord begins to 'arise' and shine His spotlight on our brokenness in order to make us whole. But in these night seasons when He is doing the most work in our lives, we are often completely unaware of it, or we think it is the devil. We must discern the difference between the Holy Spirit's searchlight, which assesses the damage done to our walls in order to rebuild us, and the accusations of evil spirits, which point out our weaknesses but have no redemptive value whatsoever...
Lying Speculations
Let's peer back in time at that last passage (Nehemiah 4:1-2) again to see what else we can glean from Nehemiah's diary. Here, the enemies are not employing any subtle tactics like temptation; they are resorting to a full-on accusatory attack. They use the same five accusations that our enemy mostly commonly levels at us as believers!
- 'What are these feeble Jews doing?' First, the devil attacks our personhood.
- 'Are they going to restore it for themselves?' Next, the accuser questions our motives.
- 'Can they offer sacrifices?' Then he tries to get us to doubt our relationship with God.
- 'Can they finish it in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble?' The enemy tries to convince us that we do not have the ability to accomplish the mission.
- 'Even what they are doing, if a fox should jump on it, it will fall down.' Finally, he attacks the quality of our work.
Here are a few keys to overcoming these common assaults. First, it is imperative that we never talk to the devil without our attorney present. Jesus is our advocate (see I John 2:1) and we should by no means negotiate with a terrorist! We should always let the Lord take up our case.
Observe how the Lord dealt with Satan when he brought charges against Joshua the high priest. I am sure Joshua was experiencing one of those hard seasons in his life where the devil was reminding him day and night of his failures, shortcomings and sins: Zechariah 3:1-4
The Lord's work in our lives is an open rebuke to the powers of darkness. When evil princes mess with us, they trespass into dangerous territory. We are made righteous by God's works and not our own, and the truth of His grace overrides the devil's facts and fallacies.
Jesus has invited us to 'draw near wit confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need' (Hebrews 4:16). When terrorists spirits are hunting us down, we can run into the palace, jump up on the throne and be seated with Christ. In fact, if things get too bad, we can play dead and hide in Christ (see Colossians 3:3). When my soul is under siege, I often have this vision of myself sitting on this huge throne with Jesus. The chair is so high that He has to help me up onto His lap. With my legs dangling several feet from the floor, I whisper in his ear, sharing with Him how someone is stalking me and will not leave me alone. The enemy seems terrified as he peers through the window of the palace and sees me whispering to the Lord. He suddenly flees the premises as the Lord gives the order to punish him for harassing me."
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