Before we go into the more in-depth teaching on the prophetic gifts of the Spirit and the ways that the Lord speaks to His people, we have been addressing the spiritual and moral foundation of prophetic ministry. There are two reasons why this is important.
1) A primary purpose of the prophetic ministry has always been to call God’s people back to Him and to turn from their wicked ways. The most effective of all the prophetic abilities has been the anointing to bring repentance and a restoration of God’s people to Him.
2) The second main reason is that we are entering the times when accurate, dependable knowledge of the future will be the most valued gift anyone can have. This is the special domain of the prophetic, and many tests, and temptations will come when even the most wealthy and powerful start turning to you for help.
For this reason, we must continually fortify ourselves in the ways of the Lord. The Lord has helped us with this by allowing such an attack to come upon the prophetic ministry that it has driven away most who were drawn to it simply because it was something popular. It will be popular again and even more sought after than ever. The real test of character will come when great popularity comes, which has also been the case with the church in general.
We are also seeing the beginning of a badly needed change in the leadership of the whole church. With the almost constant assault now being released against Christianity, the church is waking up. Almost daily, I am hearing from Christian leaders who now see that the building of their own ministry, church, or movement, is no longer the main thing they should be doing—they are receiving a deep revelation of how we need each other and how we must be about building the whole body of Christ. Sectarianism is now only found in shrinking, dying churches. The fastest growing and healthiest churches in the world now tend to be those that it is really hard to put any sectarian label on even if they are a part of a denomination or movement.
A move is also beginning to gather the scattered believers. Last night I heard an account of a pastor who took over a congregation that had about 60 people regularly attending services. He went to the church rolls where there were hundreds of others and started contacting and visiting these former members. Within a few months, more than 300 were regularly attending services and it was growing fast. With most of these people, it was just the fact that this pastor cared enough about them to contact them that caused them to come back.
Studies show that nearly half of all Christians now are not a part of a local church. As you will hear me say often, we cannot be properly connected to the Head without also being properly connected to His body. We need all of the frustrations and irritations of local church life to mature in Christ. The prophetic gifts cannot develop as they should without a vital local church life, and neither can prophetic character.
We need the church, but the church needs us as well. Much of the church has been hesitant about the prophetic because of the bad examples of it that they have experienced. These pseudo prophets, and in some cases false prophets, have muddied the waters, but this is an even greater opportunity to rise to higher standards of integrity, character, and maturity that will overcome these negatives. If we don’t think that it is worth the trouble to try to overcome this, then we are not worthy of these extremely valuable prophetic gifts that the Lord is giving in this time. Difficulties are not meant to stop us, but to help us.
One principle that is apparent in Scripture and history is that the easier and quicker something is obtained, the more insignificant it is. The great gifts, and the great ministries, are always fashioned and purified by passing through great difficulties. We therefore need to see the problems and difficulties laid before us as opportunities from God to grow and become trustworthy.
As our friend Francis Frangipane likes to say, “You never fail one of God’s tests; you just keep taking them until you pass!” If we run from opposition or problems in one church, you can believe we will have to face them at another time and place. These tests are given to us just like the ones we took in school—so that we could be promoted. If you want to go higher, embrace the test and work on it until you can pass it.
