"To build a child's faith"

Following last night's cell group meeting, in my quiet time this morning I found myself asking "Lord, what possible purpose can Mark's colour-blindness serve in your kingdom" and into my mind immediately came the idea that a child would pray for him; that the answer was "To build a child's faith". As we were talking about weighing things last night, then maybe this is another thing to be weighed. Also, it seemed to me that it wouldn't happen the first or second time of praying, to teach persistence.

Back on 4th October 1995 there was a day seminar on prophecy at St Andrews, Chorleywood. I took some fairly comprehensive notes (4 pages of them!), typed them up and filed them away. Today I took them out to read through and decided they were worth sharing:

Seminar on Prophecy - St Andrews, Chorleywood - 4th October 1995

Initially their experience of the prophetic was 'love notes' back and forth with God. At Anaheim church pastors/ministers were invited to meet with prophets. The room was filled with 200 - 300 pastors and wives, which was too many to receive individually. This led to the realisation it was important to develop prophecy in local church to ensure it wasn't necessary to go somewhere else to receive a little trickle.

They wanted 'inside information' : helpful, meaningful prophetic words available within the church so that they weren't flying blind. The Lord has supplied a number of prophetic words at critical points in the ministry.

Pragmatic side to church life (do the resources balance the needs) - also in prophetic. It is a simple, natural part of church life, not overbalancing on one side or the other. Wanted a church that does it all - teaching, ministering, visiting sick, reaching poor, discipling - well-rounded church. Not looking at becoming a 'prophetic church', rather at being 'this is what a normal church looks like'. Prophecy is a helpful, useful tool, confirming direction, helping individuals, etc. At same time there may be a lot of failures and foolishness around prophetic ministry - words fall to the ground, or people get carried away by enthusiasm - so although they were committed to prophetic ministry, they weren't enamoured: it has its place, but need to be aware of the difficulties.

Preconditions to developing healthy prophetic ministry
Theological foundation essential.
Avoid extremes - don't deny God's intervention, but on the other hand don't let just anything supernatural become the driving force when this is not rooted in reality.

Role of prophetic in relation to Church
It's there to assist leadership functions. It plays a supporting role. Need to discern each time 'is this prophecy going to help here?' - may not always be helpful or appropriate to offer every word of prophecy (1 Cor:12:13-14). This perspective shapes all kinds of other things.

Structural
Leadership needs to be in place and empowered to lead - it's up to leadership to test prophecy.
Leadership structure needs to be strong enough and in place, and the church to have trust in the leadership (otherwise prophetic can cause division in places where there is lack of trust).
Combination of small groups/large meetings - offers place of development of gifts giving freedom, plus the opportunity of modelling.

Climatic elements
Vision for church (coming from church leaders and laid out in church) needs to be clear.
Unity in congregation
Safe place - where people can take risks and still be accepted when they fail, and receive correction.
Biblically informed so congregation can weigh prophecy against scripture without needing it spelt out all the time.

Developing prophetic ministry with Church
Teaching validity/scriptural basis
Building in theological issues
Learning how to relate to God as individuals for themselves (not idol worshipping prophecy/prophet):

• how to hear God
• how to meditate on scriptures
• being open/honest vulnerable to God in prayer (building intimacy with God)
• build expectation (priesthood of all believers - all relate directly to God)

Secret prophecies are suspect - BIG NO, NO!

• opens door to manipulation
• shortcuts community testing of prophecy

Test of predictive words is when they happen. Cheque bounces if these are banked and don't happen.

Prophecy regarding direction of church, correction of church, warnings, or about changing someone's ministry - these need to go to leadership, and not be issued direct to congregation.

NO prophecies about babies/marriage - our own desires get mixed up - too many emotions tied up in these areas.

All prophecy has to be tested, no matter who speaks it.

YOU have the final responsibility on a word for you - do not abdicate personal responsibility.

Their church reinforces these messages all the time, reminding people even as prophecy is offered that prophecy is to be weighed and tested, and should be 'dumped' if inappropriate.

Prophetic individuals
God does give people to the church who are able to operate at a deep level of prophetic gifting - able to speak about where people come from, their lives, etc. Their problem may be sorting out what they receive - their open spirit brings a constant stream of revelation - these people need an extra measure of care and concern.

In their church, Eloise had the opportunity to sit alongside someone else ministering for a day and realised just how much she was receiving too. This built her faith.

Test the character
Can you work with them? Are they called to work with you? Do they have any major character flaws? Do they have a hunger for power?

If someone is going to work with you as your eyes, there is a lot of pressure in that. They need to meet the criterion. May hide the prophet - the prophet needs to be comfortable in their home church, eg Eloise is loved by the church through her natural person (lively/spunky, children's minister, etc.).

Good characters, sound team players - you relate to them as a pastor. This is what they need. Spend time with them, love them, etc. Teach them along the way - discuss things - encourage them to take next step. Maybe even push them a little.

Prophetic person may want to settle into what's comfortable and safe - may need encouragement to step beyond and take risks and give the 'next bit' that they have withheld. It may be necessary to sort things through together, eg. may confuse people's names and place names.

Their hearts are open, not filtering out the painful/antagonistic situations which may knock them back. The sensitivity that allows them to pick things up makes them vulnerable to other influences including negative spiritual power. Pastor needs to protect them, including protecting them from other people. As they ride a wave it just flows - but when they begin to labour, they make mistakes - pastor steps in and protects them, gives them freedom to stop working when this happens.

Prophetic ministry so helpful when you travel, because the people you are addressing are not known to you, yet everyone around them knows exactly what you are saying.

Pitfalls
Many times revelation has an accessibility - it's like a radio broadcast which a whole bunch of people pick up and have the same word - strong annointing so that all are prompted to prophesy. May be just one part of the message that is important to hear at that time, so only need to take two or three of these similar words, pick out the best and pass them on.

Sometimes prophetic people have a real need to establish their credibility (usually because of some wound inside, or past rejection). Two answers:
1. Firmly established and living in sense of identity/meaning in life based on their relationship with God the Father.
2. Normal route of healing.
So, priority is for your own personal relationship and identity with God, and the pastor needs to build some relationship with the prophet which makes room and acceptance for failure.

Further pitfalls:

• adding to prophetic word, eg. you keep talking when God stops
• assumptions about meanings. The prophet assumes that they know what something means, allowing their interpretation to colour the prophecy. Answer is for prophet to deliver exactly what he heard/saw, then make it clear that he has moved on to interpretation (leave application to Pastor).
• prophetic exaggeration: prophetic people have a hard time distinguishing degrees, eg. making it bigger to have a bigger impact. So, may say "you have a gift of evangelism" - then may begin to enlarge on it, so it seems like the person will become a mass evangelist.
• confusion of gifting with position, eg. leadership gifting does not necessarily mean the position of leader within that church. Offer the gifting without defining the positon.
• do not get into fortune telling. Do not offer decision on specific things. God has His own agenda and he may not want to speak about this specific decision.
• depth of conflict when it comes to seeking words for areas close to our heart may lead to inaccuracy. Weigh it closely.

System for checking it out

• prophets pass prophecies to pastor, not to each other
• pastor keeps secrets
• then if he hears something through various channels and knows it's uncorrupted by people talking about it together or seeking to please him by confirming something he has spoken about, he can be sure it is from the Lord.

Levels of prophecy
1. Inspirational
2. Giftings
3. Facts about person/past
4. Prophecy for future - a) individual; b) nations

(Someone may be good at low level and bomb out completely at other levels).