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Write theVision Habbakuk 2:2,3 http://writethevision.org
What Can Prophets Do?
By
Ron
Wood
“You’ve never
seen what a prophet can do!”
Those words
sprung from my mouth without forethought as I walked alone through our
apartment. Two things were going on at the same time: First, the Lord was
speaking to me by the Spirit, reminding me of how weak and immature my own
ministry was and of how much I had to grow. Second, I was hearing a conversation
in my heart that had prophetic symbolism and significance to it.
Do you believe
God shows things to prophets? Yes, He does! The Bible is filled with it. My life
experiences and the experiences of many other prophets testify to it. I could
tell you story after story of how God reveals mysteries, today.
In my spirit, I
was in dialogue with someone discussing an issue and I was reproving them with
the words “You’ve never seen what a prophet can do!” In my mind I imagined an
encounter with an anonymous pastor. He was discounting the value of prophets,
specifically, the value of having a prophet around and “messing with his
stuff.” (Do you know what I mean? Prophets afflict the comfortable and comfort
the afflicted. They never leave things like they found them.) In this
conversation, he was dismissing the prophetic person with an attitude of, “Who
needs them?”
He was saying,
“They’re not good administrators. They don’t take care of the youth or carry a
pastoral load. They don’t do anything the way I want them to. They never show up
on time. Their ministry doesn’t generate income for the church. Why bother
making room for misfits anyway? They’re always tearing something down or
starting something new. What good are they?”
Unknowingly, by
his words he had devalued the valuable, thus displaying a carnal,
unbelieving attitude in his heart. Unfortunately, whatever attitude any leader
carries is also the attitude he projects to his people. Before long everyone
around them has the same attitude. This causes an inevitable devaluation
of the things of the Spirit.
Yet the Lord
has another viewpoint. The things men esteem, God despises and the things God
esteems, carnal people disdain, especially the things of the Spirit. There is
something so precious to the Lord about men and women of the
Spirit—prophets—that of all the gifts and offices which He offers to the Church,
this one is protected by a strict commandment: “Touch not my anointed and do
my prophets no harm.”
God highly
values prophets. Why? Because He values the dispersion they cause of the
Spirit of God. They are carriers of grace. The Lord takes years to refine,
humble, purify, test, and perfect His prophetic instruments. He says that He
“rises early and sends them,” implying effort, care, and deliberate intention.
They are not ordinary. They are not a cheap commodity. Failure to hear a prophet
who is sent by the Lord is tantamount to missing “the day of your visitation.”
I’ve said often
before, “I am nobody but I represent someone who is Somebody.” I am an agent of
His kingdom. Jesus set the values and vision of His kingdom. I can describe them
and deliver them, but I can’t alter them. To me, the message of the Lord is far
more important than the messenger, so I take no stock in accolades or titles.
But God takes notice of how we treat (or mistreat) His messengers. He watches to
see whether His servants are received. Reject the servant and you have by
default rejected the word that he carried.
Picture
religious rebels: angry with changes, grumbling, knowing they are losing
control, plotting, saying, “Stone the prophet but get the cassette tapes out of
his coat pocket first!” This won’t work. Even true prophetic words become
powerless and void when they are embraced by rebels. There is no substitute for
a prophet, no artificial container that can bottle up their anointing, no
prepackaged method or book or program that can make up for their absence.
We’re going to
learn that there is a difference between someone who gives a prophetic utterance
and someone who is a prophet of the Lord. Any believer may prophesy by the Holy
Spirit’s anointing. That doesn’t make them a prophet. Prophets carry a unique
branding. It is the Spirit of Jesus. They are marked by a peculiar
anointing. God always knows where they are and what is going on around them.
People often judge the prophets, but God is often judging the people who are
reacting to the prophets’ presence.
Prophets may
not always be good preachers or even good teachers. They don’t have to be. Of
course, the ones who are good teachers become a real treasure! It is not what a
prophet does that makes them valuable, but who a prophet is; that
is, who they are in Christ. Christ has deposited something of himself
inside the man or woman of God who carries that special prophetic grace and who
manifests its aroma as a blessing in the Church.
The presence of
prophets, as uncomfortable as they may make us, is a sign of God’s favor. Their
absence is a signal that God has decided to leave us alone. Does that thought
frighten you? It does me! Their presence is vital and crucial to the life of any
New Testament Church. Along with apostles, these ascension gifts of Christ are
fundamental. They must be present in every generation and in every location or
else something becomes sorely lacking in the church’s governmental structure,
expression of community life, and corporate ministry.
The Key Thought
The incredible
fact is that with all the amazing restoration we’ve already seen of the gifts of
the Holy Spirit (healings, miracles, faith, unknown tongues, interpretation of
tongues, prophecy, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, discerning of spirits)
and the ministry offices (apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and
evangelists) in the last fifty years in the Body of Christ, we have yet to
see the full measure of what a true prophet of the Lord can do.
To this day, we
have seen them operate only in limited harness, ministering with reduced power,
moving with hampered authority, exercising partial revelation. They have done
this with unbelief clouding the air and spells of religious bondage hindering
their work and their words. They have only had a little grace to make a little
difference, but not so much as to shake up the status quo.
Do you know
what status quo is? Someone said, “It’s Greek for the mess we’re in!”
Actually, it is a Latin phrase for “the present state of affairs.” Prophets
don’t leave things alone: they shake things up… if they are received,
believed, and allowed the time and the opportunity to deposit the grace they
carry.
Prophets pay a
price to be men and women of the Spirit. Saturation with the Spirit takes time
and devotion. Just having good notes is never enough for a prophet- they want to
demonstrate God’s power. They may not be useful in earthly areas but they do
know the things of God. They are companions of the Holy Spirit. They know and
cherish His voice. They feel God’s touch. Their heart is pulled by God’s heart
when others feel nothing. They know when something’s not right. They know the
seasons, and they often move prematurely (to others’ way of thinking) only for
folks to discover later that they were right on-time in God. Prophets are
comfortable with angels, with dreams and visions, with improbable circumstances
and sovereign divine appointments. They live their lives “out of control,” full
of mystery and misunderstanding, but always in touch with heaven’s reality. They
march to the beat of a drummer that no one else can hear.
Do you know a
prophet? I could happily spend the rest of my life encouraging sincere prophets
and equipping young apostles. You can’t attach a monetary value to your
relationship (if you have one) with a genuine prophet. In that sense, they’re
like lawyers: not worth a plugged nickel to keep around, but when you really
need one, you’d pay a mint to have access to one who is on your side!
The words I
spoke by the Spirit, “You’ve never seen what a prophet can do,” were
actually words filled with great hope for with them came another aspect of the
word that was left unspoken by the Lord… “but you will!”
By the way, if
you think you have trouble with prophets, wait until the real apostles come out
of concealment and take off their market-place disguises.
What Can
Prophets Do?
© 2005 by Ron Wood, Touched by Grace Ministries, P.O. Box 12740, Wilmington, NC
28405. Ron and Lana Wood have served as pastors, missionaries, and prophetic
teachers for over thirty years. Write to us at ron@touchedbygrace.org.
Subscribe or unsubscribe with an email. Feel free to forward this email or
publish this article along with this byline. We are Touched by Grace to Touch
the World!
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