A Bigger Perspective of The Prophetic

There are many voices that can be heard today - some call themselves prophetic, others call them heresies. But in the light of the end-times, are we looking at a generation whose eyes and ears are HIS? Or are we seeing a perverted generation dwelling in the occultism that the new age has given?

 

Much has been said and there are many prevailing to the reality of the prophetic voice establishing God's ultimate purposes and plans. His plans will prevail, no man or anything can thwart what God has established. We have seen this in the lives of the prophets like Daniel, Isaiah and even Joseph. Their lives portrays different experiences yet continues to show us that the God we serve is true, evident and from everlasting to everlasting.

 

I see that this coming time is a time to not just leap but look wider in the horizon where God has placed his people. Current news depicts of a darker future and what can lies beneath the spectacle of these things are a better understanding that YHWH is up to something good even in the worst of times. Daniel and his friends never imagined to be part of something historic as slaves. He served 3 great kings and with one who declared that surely the God he serves is alive and supreme of all things.

Today, look into a bigger perspective on what God is doing in your life. Make every effort to not just believe and have the faith to what God promised but act on it. Knowing that the one who has called us is faithful and true to every single words He has spoken through the scriptures.

 

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The Source of All Prophetic Error by Jeremiah Johnson

One of the greatest mistakes we can make in the prophetic movement is to limit our revelation of who God is based on our personal experiences alone, and not according to the full council of God as revealed in the Bible. 

 

 

 

For example, some prophetic people have had deep personal encounters with the goodness and kindness of God, but from their experience and therefore erroneously, they portray God as if He is ONLY good and kind. They categorically reject any idea of the correction, discipline and rebuke of the Lord because that has not been their personal experience. I want to reiterate one more time: Who we say Jesus is will directly affect the way we prophesy.     

 

The source of all prophetic inaccuracy is not only found in not spending time with God in intimacy, but failing to embrace every aspect of His character and nature. To embrace aspects of His Nature such as His goodness and kindness and to reject others such as His truth, justice and righteousness will surely lead us down the path of inaccurate prophecy and even worse, to misrepresent the heart of God to His people. It is a serious mistake to spend our lives simply prophesying and limiting God to two aspects of His character and nature and fail to release the many other aspects of who He is that people so desperately need imparted to their life.

 

I believe many of the prophetic words that God wants to release over His people in this hour have nothing to do with what we are going to receive, and everything to do with who we are becoming. We are going to witness a rise in prophetic words that are directly geared toward assisting people in partnering with their ultimate call in life: "To be transformed and conformed to the image of His Son" (Rom. 8:29).

 

Imagine the aspects of God's character and nature like arrows in a quiver. What we are witnessing today is many prophetic voices who only have one or two arrows in their quiver. In essence, that's who God is to them and every person that they prophesy to is only going to get one or two of those aspects.

Unless we wholeheartedly give ourselves as prophetic people to embracing every aspect of the Father's character and nature as revealed in Scripture (and even those that stretch beyond our personal experience), we will not only limit Him but also misrepresent Him to people! This is the greatest disservice we can do to God as His messengers! We have to allow Him to work every part of Himself inside of us or we will not communicate or portray Him to His people in a way that is in alignment with the Scriptures.

The Word of God

 

We must look deeply and intently into the Scriptures to discover the character and nature of God. I must briefly note however, how little emphasis is being placed on the written Word of God among prophets and the prophetic movement. I cannot count how many prophetic conferences where I have personally spoken where pulling out my Bible and preaching from the Word of God was seen as a bad omen among prophetic people. I have had multiple pastors and people on many different occasions tell me, "Put down your Bible and prophesy to us."

 

The divorce that I'm seeing from the Word of God and the movement of the Holy Spirit as I travel is producing a generation of prophetic people that are hungry to be stimulated with words of blessing, but who do not want to get impregnated with the truth of God's Word. So many prophetic people want to be tickled with promises of destiny and wealth, rather than be provoked into holiness and righteousness.

 

In the midst of this, God the Father is raising up a new breed of prophets in the earth that are going to teach and encourage a new prophetic generation to primarily give themselves to the study of His revealed will through the Scriptures and less time chasing after His hidden will through strange and oftentimes bizarre experiences. I see such incredible standards being raised up in the days ahead at prophetic schools, that prophetic people will not be allowed to prophesy unless they can accurately back up what they are claiming God said with a Scripture, and specifically not use it out of context.

 

We desperately need to see the Word of God handled accurately and with integrity in the prophetic movement. God is raising up a new prophetic generation that will stop searching the Scriptures to justify their prophetic experiences and start using the Word of God as the foundation and litmus test to see whether their so-called prophetic experiences are even biblical.

 

Jeremiah Johnson is the servant leader of Heart of the Father Ministry in Lakeland, Florida. A gifted teacher, book author, and prophetic minister, Jeremiah travels extensively throughout the United States and abroad as a conference and guest speaker. Jeremiah and his wife, Morgan, reside in Florida with their two children: Bella Grace and Israel David. Check out Jeremiah's new book release, I See A New Prophetic Generation and visit him online at  Unknown Dreamer Ministries or connect with him on Facebook.

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10 RoadBlocks To Prophetic Accuracy by Michelle McClain

Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. —Jude 11, (NKJV)

 

 

 

Accuracy is important to the prophet’s ministry. Accuracy is defined as the quality or state of being correct or precise. There are things that can hinder and block accuracy, such as prejudices, misconceptions, doctrinal obsessions, sectarian views, bitterness, rejection, and lust. Prophets and prophetic people need to be careful that we guard our hearts against things that can block our prophetic flow and the accuracy of the word of the Lord.

 

Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. —James 3:12

 

Accuracy is important, and we want to speak what the Father gives us to speak. James talked about both sweet and bitter water coming from the same fountain. Our wells must be pure. What comes forth must be pure. Our fountains must be pure. We cannot allow ourselves to be hindered and bound by our own issues.

Here are some things that can be roadblocks to prophetic accuracy.

1. Too opinionated—Many prophetic people stumble because they feel that their opinion is God’s opinion. God’s thoughts are always higher than the thoughts of men. Many times prophets can become narrowminded and dogmatic about revelations they believe to be a truth received from God.

2. Prejudices—This can be cultural or religious. This includes being prejudiced to a race, gender, age group, denomination, or movement.

 

3. Rejection and fear of rejection—Rejected people need deliverance or they will minister out of hurt. The priests could not have scabs (Lev. 21:20). Scabs are unhealed wounds that can become infected. Rejection leads to isolation, and prophets are called to associate and minister to people. Rejection can lead to prostituting the prophetic gift—prophets giving prophetic words to people just to be accepted by them. The root of this spirit is insecurity. Basically we reason with ourselves, saying, “I will get acceptance if I tell them what they want to hear.” This also leads to flattery.

 

4. Fear of man—The Bible says, “The fear of man brings a snare” (Prov. 29:25, NKJV). “Snare” is the Greek mowqesh, which means to bait, lure. It’s an iron ring placed in the nostril of a beast.1 Fear of man leads us around like a beast with a ring in our nose. We must fear God more than man. The only way to overcome fear is to have faith in God.

 

5. Bitterness—Unresolved hurts lead to bitterness. Angry and bitter prophets can be tainted in their prophetic flow. Hebrews 12:15 says, “Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled” (NJKY). Bitterness can be a root hidden in the heart going undetected. This heart condition springs up at the most inopportune time.

 

6. Respect of persons—This can be a religious spirit. The high priest carried the stones of all the tribes on his heart, and we should carry the whole church in our hearts and not be limited to organizations and denominations. True prophetic ministry will learn how to minister the word of the Lord to all kinds of people and denominations because Jesus is Lord of all the earth. God likes variety and different tribes; that is why He had twelve of them. A Baptist preacher once told me, “I’m Baptist born and Baptist bred, and when I die I’ll be Baptist dead.” Some people will never leave the church denomination, and this shouldn’t disqualify them from receiving a prophetic word. The prophetic anointing is not designed to change church culture; it’s designed to change the hearts and minds of the people who affect the culture. God loves the Baptists. He even had one in the New Testament—John the Baptist. Prophecy is never used to establish new principles in a denomination or organization. A skilled prophetic minister can deliver the heart of God without partiality. I found that many different denomination leaders have invited me to teach and train their people in the prophetic because of trust and relationship. James 2:9 says, “But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.”

 

7. Human compassion—This is having compassion on that which God is judging. Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get thee behind me, Satan” (Matt. 16:23). Jesus spoke what He saw the Father doing. Prophets cannot allow human compassion to dictate their prophetic flow. There are times you need to minister correction to people you love, and it can be hard, but prophets must pledge their allegiance to the Lamb of God.

Prophesying truth brings deliverance to the hearer. I have learned that every time I neglect to speak the truth to someone, I lose my power to discern or my hearing in that situation becomes dull.

 

8. Judgmental—This is the opposite of mercy, and when one has a religious spirit he can point out problems with great accuracy but seldom have a solution. All they have done is judged and torn down. Beware of pride and being overcritical. The critical prophet with pointing of the finger is not ministering out of the heart of God.

 

9. Judging by appearance—Looking at a person’s hand for a ring before giving a word about marriage or looking at someone’s countenance for some emotional signals is judging by appearance. Samuel had to anoint David although he was a boy. God told the prophet to judge not according to appearance (1 Sam. 16:7).

 

10. Lust—The simple definition of lust is having a self absorbed desire for an object, person, or experience. When we are in lust, we place the object of our desire above all. Prophets must guard their hearts from the lust for power, prestige, promotion, and wealth.

 

Lust in these areas will cause you to be drawn away from the will of God into a place of error and deception. Unresolved lust issues of the heart have serious implications to the validity of a prophet’s ministry. These lust issues create stumbling blocks to accurate prophetic ministry. If you’re not delivered from them, they can entice and drag you down a path of falsehood, causing you to potentially become a false prophet. “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed” (James 1:14).

Being developed in a sectarian environment is not the best for a prophet. It can warrant any of these issues to taint or color the way a prophet delivers the word of the Lord. Prophets have to be developed in the proper environment, else they can develop or be influenced by religious spirits. Religious spirits are real, and they can work in the environment of churches and sectarian groups.

Religious spirits work where people believe in prophecy and the gifts of the Spirit. We need discernment and deliverance to avoid contamination.

 

Prophets cannot allow any bias to affect their words. Bias is prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair. God is fair, and He is no respecter of persons.

Michelle McClain serves as director of prayer ministry on the staff of Crusaders Church under the leadership of Apostle John Eckhardt. She is also one of the house prophets and apostolic team leaders at Crusaders Church in Chicago. She is the author of The Prophetic Advantage, from which this article was excerpted.

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A Surprising Prophetic Word About the Supreme Court Same-Sex Marriage Ruling By Jeremiah Johnson

God is compelling his bride, the church, to rise up in intercession, and now. (Lightstock )

As news began to spread regarding the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to legalize homosexual marriage in America this past week, my heart was filled with an unusual mixture of hope and crisis as I got on my knees before the Lord.

 

I immediately began to seek the Father regarding His perspective on the ruling and I believe He said to me, "In the natural, the Supreme Court justices have just legalized homosexual marriage in America, but little do they know that they also just authorized an awakening of the Spirit in My bride. For know that now is the time to turn inward, it is a time of repentance and fasting for My people.

 

Has their laziness and blindness on the issue of sexual immorality in their midst not given the homosexual agenda its true power? America has now legalized homosexual immorality because the American church legalized heterosexual immorality first."

I immediately received a powerful vision of intercessors gathering from all over America in response to the ruling. They gathered and began to pray, but what they were interceding about was very displeasing to the Father. I listened very carefully to the cries and prayers of the intercessors in the vision and this is what they were crying out: "Father, we repent for the sins of America! Father, we ask that you would turn the hearts of homosexuals back to you. Father, bring justice to these people!"

 

As I listened in to these continual prayers, the Father said to me, "Do you know what's wrong with these prayers Jeremiah? They are all focused on the call for America to repent when I have called My bride to repent! You must tell the intercessors to shift their focus from America to My bride. Their self-righteous hearts and blindness to their own sin is a stench in my nostrils. The issues coming forth in the United States is not an American problem, it's an American Church problem."

 

America is in a crisis, but the American church is in a greater crisis. We are and will continue to reap what we have sown and that is seeds of silence and tolerance on the key issues of our day that have come before the Father as sin.

 

As Abraham Kuyper once said, "When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling, and peace has become sin; you must, at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy, with all the fire of your faith."

 

I believe that God the Father is releasing burning and shining lamps in America to sound the alarm and wake up the bride of Christ from her slumber (see John 5:35). He is bringing forth a worthy bride in the earth right now who will make herself ready by voluntarily choosing to love His Son Jesus.

   

In Revelation 3, Jesus told the church at Sardis, "You have the appearance of being alive, but you are dead." It is this same message, that the American church has every sign of thriving, every program known to man, every self-help workshop, yet they are spiritually dead that will awaken the bride and call her back to her first love.

 

I want to encourage intercessors and leaders across America to take the plank out of our own eyes before we begin judging homosexuals and the lifestyle that they have chosen (see Matthew 7:5). While I do believe that these individuals are choosing to blatantly sin and will be judged by God Himself for their behavior (see Romans 14:12), we have an obligation as believers in Jesus Christ to look within our own lives and in our own spiritual communities and ask the Spirit of truth to search us inwardly before we begin calling others to accountability (see Psalm 51:6).

 

My hope today is in Jesus Christ and in His desire to call His bride to the place of repentance and fasting in this hour. There is no other hope for the American church. We must remember that the heart of a religious Pharisee continues to cry out, "Thank God I'm not like them" (see Luke 18:11). May we repent to the Father for our failure as the bride of Christ to preach holiness and purity to those that call themselves believers in Jesus and for our self-righteous attitudes toward those who are in need of His grace and mercy.

 

I fully recognize the crisis that is here and will only increase in the days ahead if we as the bride of Christ do not turn to the Lord Jesus and repent of our sins. Let us choose wisely which path we walk. Shall we put our hope in Him and the invitation to look inward in this hour and examine our own hearts as the bride or shall we welcome continual crisis by becoming more consumed with the American problem than the American church problem?

 

Remember, reformation never comes to a society before it first comes to the church!

 

Jeremiah Johnson planted Heart of the Father Ministry in Lakeland, Florida and is on the Eldership Team. A gifted teacher, book author, and prophetic minister, Jeremiah travels extensively throughout the United States and abroad as a conference and guest speaker. Jeremiah and his wife, Morgan, reside in Florida with their two children: Bella Grace and Israel David. Check out Jeremiah's new book release, I See A New Prophetic Generation and visit him online at Behold the Man Ministries or connect with him on Facebook."

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