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October 10, 2008

Comments

Peter

I felt your grief. I came across this teaching by Derek Prince which I found very clear and helpful and without being hopeless:

http://www.dpmuk.org/Groups/75180/DPM/Keys/Protection_from_Deception/Protection_from_Deception.aspx

Yet despite all this advice on how to test, I think Jesus want's us to KNOW Him, not just to apply our brains to work out what is Him, but to know instantly that this is our delightful Lover, and that this other was our Lover frightfully abused and misused regardless of whether by human or demon.

June Jenkins

So glad to read your article, reminded me of the scripture written in Revalation 19 v 10. from the New Living translation.

Paul Rivas

Thank you for this. I recently went to see a famous prophet and was thoroughly disgusted. He had a band open up for him which was fine, but before he came out they started getting the crowd excited about the "prophet" coming out. It was like being at a rock concert waiting for the main show. Jesus was not being lifted up, the prophet was.

josh g.

Good writing, I think this is valid correction and hopefully received as an encouragement by all who are seeking Christ first (whoever we are and whatever mistakes we've made along the way).

One thing that my heart wanted to elaborate on in a way which I think you'd agree with but could be misunderstood:
"The anointing then is not found through the impartation of special prophets and apostles. Rather, it comes from the Holy Spirit as we abide in intimate fellowship with Jesus."

And the solution:

"That we will equip and encourage the whole church with a reminder that they ALL have the Anointing and the Anointed One (He is them, they in Him) to hear and see the glory of God in the face of Jesus for themselves."

I don't believe the root problem with seeking after those with "Special Anointings" is the concept itself of people having unique anointings. It's the sense of hierarchy that comes from only expecting those anointings to come from a Special (read as: popular) Leader.

In the prophetic community I've been learning from lately, I've seen many people bring their own unique anointings into the mix. They neither had to be leaders in an organizational sense, nor were they expected to be. This happened all across the spectrum, from those who were specifically invited to speak to friends within the community who were blessing each other, to even myself and my wife discovering that God has given us authority in unique areas which we can share with others.

I think this often acts as an extension of the faith-building power of sharing testimony. For example, my wife has a specific testimony of something she lived in fear of, and then was healed of it. She has since felt God's okay to pray for and speak blessing over others who are struggling with the same problem. But it would be kind of weird for people to start coming to her from all over the world to receive blessing, because I can guarantee she's not the first one to receive a healing or blessing from God. The more we accept that all of us in the body of Christ have authority (over specific evils) and blessings that we're meant to actively share, the more we can receive all of the crazy flavours of God's love for us via community, and the less demand there is for someone to hunt down someone they saw on TV somewhere for a blessing.

Maybe the listening prayer question version of this is, "Jesus, what do you look like inside this friend or person in my community? What aspect of you shines through the strongest? What is it that you've given them which they can pass onto me (or already have)?" Asking this has helped me keep in touch while receiving from some big-name dudes, and helped me appreciate the variety of how God works when receiving from a whole lineup of wacky prophetic people doing a "fire tunnel".

Mary

Just wondering about mistaken prophetic words, is it possible that in giving a word of knowledge to a person, that my role is not yet completed because God is asking me to partner with him in bringing the word to him in intercession?

adit

a sincere thank you for the well articulated dialogue on a subject in serious need of some illumination and adjustment.
i very much appreciated the information and the tone.
blessings!

Eric H Janzen

Excellent stuff and good for my prophetic heart Brad and Peter. It has been incredibly liberating for me in the recent past to be taught by dear friends and Jesus that I am legitimately prophetic even though I do not head up a ministry of some kind. I would like to extra high light (if that is even a real term!) the point you make that Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. The prophetic is about Jesus and his kingdom. We know that Holy Spirit primarily loves pointing us towards Jesus, and thus the prophetic should be marked by this central focus on Christ and his Kingdom. I don't want to point fingers either so I won't, but we have seen prophecy used in North America to sway people's political biases and to advance political agendas....The politics of earth generally have very little to do with the Kingdom of God (is that the cynic in me?).

Another point I would like to briefly mention is the tension we are now working through in understanding the prophetic as a community event vs. a gift for the elite. I have learned over the past few years that when we take time to listen to the voices of the community and what they are hearing we get far clearer prophetic messages. Let me put it this way: God speaks in puzzle pieces; I receive a piece of the puzzle and it may be a big piece, but the message is bigger than me. When I share my piece with the community it almost always prompts others to share what they have been hearing and we begin to see the puzzle more clearly as the pieces come together. God views the Community as a whole and speaks to us as though we are One. This contrasts strikingly with the belief that there are a few Prophets who get the message and then spread it. I think the idea of the Prophetic Community is more in line with what we see in the NT and I have found incredible fruit in watching it unfold at my church.

cheers,
eric h janzen

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