This blog is a response to the question
posed from my youth pastor friend Sam. I planned to respond via
email, but decided a blog is even better:) So the question: What is
your take on “the prophetic?”
The Race has introduced many new things
into my life, some as simple as smart airport packing, other things
are more deep. My faith and my relationship with God has expanded
more on the Race than ever before. Other than my actual conversion in
high school, my relationship with God has never been so changed,
challenged and intentional. My time in the Word is time spent with
Him. Worship is a love
offering, a love song I sing to my Friend and my Father. Prayer is a
conversation. A two-way conversation. He speaks. God, the One from
the Old Testament, the One from the Cross, the One who dwells inside
of my heart speaks.
What
does He say? Well, it depends on what we are talking about, but part
of what He says is prophecy. Yup, prophecy. Now, I’m not talking
about Words of the Lord that I need to deliver to Isreal like Isaiah
or Jeremiah, or about morphing into a trance like Professor Trelawney
in Harry Potter. I don’t lose myself and suddenly start speaking with
“the voice of the Lord.” This prophecy is from 1 Corinthians 14,
the words of wisdom or knowledge from God. Paul writes:
So
this prophecy strengthens, encourages and comforts people. It does so
for people I am praying for as well as God speaks these things into
my life as well. As I spend time in prayer I can ask God to give me a
word, an image, a passage of Scripture, or even a song to encourage,
strengthen or comfort another believer. Typically for me I just get a
single word or passage. Then as I pray about that word, may it be
love, or perseverance, or whatever, I begin to understand more
completely what about that word the person needs to hear. Now part
of this process is trial and error. I don’t always hear what God is
saying, but think what I am saying is what God is saying. Before I
deliver any prophetic words I check to make sure they are
strengthening, encouraging or comforting, Biblical, they make sense
and that God will be glorified in my sharing them. If those things
are there I can be assured that even if the words I have are not from
God they are edifying to the other person. I make mistakes. I thought
I was supposed to give someone a Psalm… which Psalm God… 196,
okay, what does that say??… no one knows that because there are
only 150 Psalms… but through more prayer and clarification and
spending time in the Word I found what God was trying to say, where
he wanted me to look in order to encourage my friend.
This
past month my teammate Summer had words of wisdom from God for each
member of my team, and that is a new challenge for me. I want to
seek prophecy on behalf of others intentionally. I am going to be
spending time with God this month asking for words from Him that can
strengthen, encourage, and comfort people in my life. This includes
my team, leaders, and you, my friends and family back home.
