Chapter 10: At Last: An Overview of Prophecy

“A lion has roared! Who will not fear?
The Lord GOD has spoken! Who can but prophesy?”
Amos 3:8

To Edify and Encourage, Comfort and Rebuke

Right. Almost done. I hope you’ve enjoyed our time together chatting. God asked me to have a ‘fireside chat’ with people on prophecy and just say Ten Things, and I guess he meant just to be casual and have a little fun and not to make an academic thesis out of this. I hope I‘ve done that. But Prophecy really is a serious business.

But the mindset most common in churches, the most common overview of prophecy in the carnal mind of Man is that prophecy is all fun and games and they often quote and often only quote 1 Corinthians 14:3 and say prophecy is only to encourage. If it’s not encouraging, they say, then it’s not God’s prophecy. So they test a prophecy by asking the person who got the word, “Do you like it? Does it make you feel good?” And the person says, “Yes, I like it.” And they conclude, “Then it really is from God!”

And I don’t know why this bothers me so much, but honestly, how can we teach people this? Because prophecy is for encouragement! Always encouragement and ONLY encouragement we insist, otherwise you’re a false prophet!

Oh really? A false prophet like Jeremiah, is that what you mean? They called him a false prophet right up until they were all swept away into Babylon. Jesus too. They sawed Isaiah in half according to traditional accounts. It’s like the apostles, 11 of whom were known to have died a martyr’s death, the only one unaccounted for is John … But how can people not be encouraged by the ministries of these men of God? Were people just not encouraged enough? Why kill these people if their ministries didn’t seriously ruffle someone’s feathers at least just a little?

The verse that comes to mind is first Revelation 3:19 where Jesus says,

“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.”

You cannot say Jesus will rebuke and chasten but actually he will never do that because he will only encourage; or second, that he can do that but he’s never allowed to do that through personal prophecy. That’s a non sequitur—it simply does not follow.

The next verse that comes to mind is 2 Timothy 4:2 where Paul by the Holy Spirit told Timothy that he needed to:

“Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.”

Do you really think this was God’s direction to Timothy—and yet Jesus will never convince, rebuke, exhort and teach with personal prophecy? Clearly that is wrong thinking because if this is the Scripture then that will also be the prophecy!!

And I already mentioned Hebrews 12:5-6 but people must have forgotten where he says—

⁵ “And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: ‘My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; ⁶ For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.’ ”

I guess there are people who have forgotten they are sons of God and so when there is a rebuke they panic and say, “That’s not from God! I don’t feel encouraged,” and just stop listening altogether. But this verse is very clearly talking about personal interactions with God where people are chastised, corrected and rebuked, so yes, it is about personal prophecy, quite clearly so.

No, someone will say it’s just them reading the scriptures and finding a verse about sin and being convicted and it is not about God talking to them personally. Well, if you read a verse and the Holy Spirit quickens it to you to tell you THIS IS FOR YOU, guess what? At its most basic level THAT IS PERSONAL PROPHECY! That is God talking to you! It’s not very dynamic, exciting or interactive but it is a personal prophecy nonetheless, especially when you are new and young and just learning to hear his voice better. So no, you are wrong. God talking through the Bible to you by quickening a verse is still God speaking to you, it’s the Holy Spirit communicating with you and yes, it is a personal prophecy. Written words themselves do not know your heart, or God’s mind or begin to talk to you—that’s what the Holy Spirit does. And in fact God can quicken any event you experience, any conversation you hear, any t-shirt slogan you see, any object, sound or item you encounter, any book sentence or line of movie dialogue and especially any verse from the Bible to talk to you. All these are the first sprouts of the growing manifestation of personal prophecy and yes, God uses it to correct, exhort and chastise sometimes too.

The Wrong Kind of ‘Fear of God’

But I know this distaste of rebukes is mostly because people are afraid of God and maybe this is all a carnal way to deal with their fear. I said before that it’s true, the carnal view of God is impersonal, unkind, unfriendly or worse—so it’s a true spiritual revelation from the Holy Spirit to see God as happy, friendly, flexible, generous and fun.

I share that I saw him one time and he showed me his two arms: the one on the right looked like a gushing waterfall giving an overabundance of blessings. But his other arm on the left was extended out and his hand was in a posture to say, STOP! This arm was 100% inflexible, immovable, unshakable. So on one side he is giving far, far more than enough, far more than you would need or think is reasonable … but on the other hand he’s saying ABSOLUTELY NOT!! And no one or nothing can make him budge!

What I am reacting to, first, is the imbalance in our depiction of God, that He is only and always saying, ‘Yes, it’s all Good.’ It’s preaching the wrath-less God, a Lion without teeth and that is what I take issue with.

Then logically every hardship, difficulty and discomfort is from Satan and the next doctrine that comes from this, and you can see this, is to say when trying to explain God punishing or God-forbid, killing someone, well, that’s always Satan doing that and so when it’s even a very bad person who dies, hmmm … Oh, I know! It’s God using Satan to do his dirty work!

Are you sure? And how in any way could that leave God guiltless? You hire a hit man and say, ‘He did it! He pulled the trigger, so I’m innocent!’ But no, you BOTH will go to jail. If God is using Satan to do his dirty work, it is still morally by agency, by cause and by fault an act committed by God.

To say God needs Satan in any way is as bad a fallacy as I can come up with, and I can come up with some real doozies. God is the One who punishes. HE IS THE JUDGE. Do you not know what this means? His most common name in the Bible is the God over the Armies of Angels—it is a title like a military conqueror. In Revelations Jesus riding as a Conquerer is wearing a robe covered in blood. God punishes, judges and yes certainly he also even KILLS.

They quote John 10:10 that the enemy comes ‘but to’ steal, kill and destroy and Jesus has come that they may have life, and life abundantly. And by using a wizards logic and narrow-minded forgetfulness of All of God’s Acts, they then say, well if Satan comes only to Kill, then only Satan kills, and so if someone dies, God is not involved in any way … and that means if God wants someone evil to die, like a Nazi or a Terrorist, then he has to somehow manipulate Satan into doing it. Satan comes BUT TO or ONLY to Kill, so therefore ONLY SATAN KILLS.

Really? Then just what’s that angel doing with the raised sword in his hand standing right behind you?

Note Luke 12: 4-5—⁴ “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. ⁵ But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!”

“Fear Him who, after He has killed …” This is not a metaphor people. Just what are they teaching people in Bible schools these days?

Giving Birth to Unicorns

So I want to explain this problem we are having with Man’s logic and our flawed reasoning processes and I’ll use Unicorns to do it.

The Bible says unicorns not only exist but they are a symbol of having a huge amount of strength. I think five or six verses use this word, but in some versions its ‘wild ox’ but the one Bible version that is fairly consistent is the King James and it clearly says the word Unicorn. (Numbers 23:22, 24:8, Deuteronomy 33:17, Job 39:9-10, Psalm 22:21, 29:6, and Isaiah 34:7)

So having never seen the animal and we are talking about people living in England in the 17th Century or before, and being asked to DRAW AN ILLUSTRATION of this named beast, what did they come up with? Well, in England they have horses and also deer, sleek and fleet-footed. The Hebrew word is as enigmatic as a gryffyn which was re’em and it comes into Greek as monokeros they tell me, since I wasn’t there and don’t work in a zoo … so mono means one, keros is the horn and so monokeros is a one-horned animal.

There was an ancient historian, Pliny the Elder, who wrote of such an animal, yes, with a body like a horse, a head like a stag deer, feet like an elephant, and the tail like a wild boar, whatever that looks like. He said it also has one black horn in the middle of its forehead, so yes, monokeros.

This went to the graphic design departments of the day, the monasteries making manuscripts and they drew what their art directors told them to, a sleek horse with one spiral horn in the middle of its forehead. But is there any animal with a SPIRAL horn in the middle of its head? Sure, a narwhal, which they were already familiar with. So they drew a sleek horse with a narwhal horn—done! And the Monokeros, or Unicorn of the day was born. Who first drew the rainbow mane and heart shaped bubbles when it walks I can only guess.

But the thing is the word re’em is a real thing. It was I mean but they all died. It was a ‘wild ox’ like the modern day Indian Gaur or African Cape Buffalo, only very much larger—not the slender Wildebeest but the beefy Buffalo, one of the Big Five African animals, which are Elephant, Cape Buffalo, Leopard, Lion and a fifth one that has a large black horn in the middle of its forehead.

Oh! Wait! Monokeros, Unicorn … oh, Rhinoceros!

The African Rhino is the second largest animal in Africa, smaller than an elephant but not by much, and with a very bad temper. So in fact when they drew the white, slender, narwhal-adorned unicorn of Biblical lore, they mistakenly were drawing an anemic, albino, whale-confused RHINOCEROS. Probably. The Bible mentions the immense strength, the bad temper, impossible to tame, and the horn (or horns). So you can keep your pixie-dust covered, rainbow eating heart-shaped bubble-making fairy decorations for the kids party, but the Bible is talking about a real wild beast, assumingly something like an African Rhinoceros.

However again, re’em may also just be the elephantine but extinct ‘wild ox’ which was no less than six feet tall at the shoulder, had huge horns, and a wild disposition to match—an extinct beast that dwarfed any modern bovine, even the African or American Buffalo for that matter.

All I want to say is when we deal with people, the mind of man, the ways of the Flesh and mix this with the Scriptures … we get white, idealized, mythical unicorns—not dirty, stinky, muddy, smelly rhinoceroses or dangerous, bestial, bad tempered wild oxen. No, when Men are in charge of God’s ministry—and especially prophetic training—they seem to always end up making Unicorns—circus polka-dot wearing, prancing pony-like show stoppers that eat glitter and poop rainbows—unicorns.

Finding Unicorns in 1 Corinthians 14:3

So my experience of hearing God speak and sometimes hearing him speak stinging rebukes gives me warning to this mindset being pushed in so many ‘prophetic’ churches. A real rebuke is rare, and more often he only is giving something not much more stinging than smarting words of correction but yes, a lot of wonderful encouragement too—so yes, quite frequently, but certainly never exclusively … but we still hear people openly teach that “prophecy is only for encouragement” and then they go further and say if it is not encouraging it’s not real prophecy and they start to float the idea of anyone doing so of being ‘false prophets’—well that’s when I need to stop the show and pull back the curtains.

But I’m nervous when I uncover a meaningful discrepancy in teachers I admire and respect, and I’d rather just bury my head in the sand and ignore it all but now we are actually on the topic, so how I can knowingly avoid correcting a false teaching that is so clearly wrong? Maybe I am wrong and maybe I’m just in a bad mood myself and so favoring all the hard stuff?

But going back and forth in my mind over what to do, and hearing the errors again—and then even recently again-again! So OK, I need to speak up and say something.

Anyway, I finally just went back to 1 Corinthians 14:3 to double check if I am just missing something here. How can Jesus say in Revelation 3:19, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten,” if in fact he will never rebuke or chasten and only speak things that are flattering and fun? 1 Corinthians 14:2-4 (NKJV) says—

² “For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. ³ But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. ⁴ He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.”

So 1 Corinthians 14:3 first says he who prophesies speaks “edification,” which does not mean to make people more like Ed, thankfully, but which mostly means ‘to build people up’ or strengthen them but which I assume must therefore also mean to correct and refine out of them whatever is making them weak. Let’s call it correction and encouragement but also there must be an element of purification maybe, because what makes us weak is mixture, mistakes and sin, but yes, also fear, doubt and unbelief.

But second he says prophesy speaks “exhortation,” which means something like ‘to urge people to do good,’ and can mean to give an urgent warning, to caution strongly, and so it is to warn and correct in a sense but with urgency and with some uumph! but in a harder sense yes, would cover giving a rebuke. So it is to advise strongly, caution earnestly, admonish urgently. Note the emotional element.

The third word used here is to “comfort” and the most common other rendering of this term is “consolation,” like if someone has died. All the versions I saw use either of these two words: comfort or consolation here.

So too much English! Let’s refine this word salad down to simple terms and we get straight talk from NIV of “strengthening, encouraging and comfort,” in ESV of “upbuilding and encouragement and consolation” in King James as “edification, and exhortation, and comfort” and NASB as “edification, exhortation, and consolation.”

So: Edification, Exhortation, Strengthening, Encouraging, Upbuilding, Comfort and Consolation.

Ignoring the Unicorn in the Room

So OK, joking about turning everything into unicorns aside, prophecy encourages people. Especially the obedient, humble and trusting. People going through trials of faith, persevering to do good and seeking God’s will are the people who Love God, Fear him, Obey him willingly and these are they whom God blesses and speaks ‘peace’ to and prophecy that ‘encourages.’

But then we have everybody else …

People are weak and need to be strengthened, they sin and need to be corrected, they get mean and bitter and harm people and need to be rebuked, they suffer in hopelessness and despair and need to be comforted and consoled. All this would certainly happen through personal prophecy.

I Corinthians 14 may be dealing primarily with personal prophecy within a church mostly to believers. It is probably not talking about prophets giving dire warnings of war, famine and plague in public or to government leaders, and he’s comparing it to the very private practice of speaking in tongues with a person’s private prayer language.

So prophecy encourages, certainly, but it does more than that also. Maybe the best single word is not ‘Encourage’ but ‘Edify’ actually: to strengthen, build up, repair and make strong. Romans 14:19 offers a good general directive saying, “Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.” So in general all things we ought to do, personal prophecy included, should be to edify, to make people strong, to build up, not merely to ‘encourage.’ And that’s exactly what it says in verse 4!—that ‘he who prophesies edifies the church!’

My beef is that I hear most often that prophecy CAN ONLY BE TO ENCOURAGE. It is never to correct or rebuke because that discourages. So if you hear a prophecy with a rebuke or a correction then it is not God and do not share it. How dare you! There’s words that describe prophets like you, it’s got five letters and begins with an F-a-l-s-_!

Do you see the unicorn standing right here?

Does God not predict natural or even man-made disasters? Is every prediction of war or famine or earthquake or tropical hurricane inherently false because it does not encourage? In Acts 11 Agabus was referred to as a prophet and he predicted a great famine which came to pass during the reign of Claudius (a ruler who died in the year AD 54). Is Agabus a false prophet because no one was encouraged by his word but probably many became fearful instead?

When we say, and people do say that prophecy is ‘just to encourage,’ it tends to morph into a unicorn type of “prophecy only feels good or it’s false and not from God,” and that leads into the dangerous test, “Do you like that word? Does it make you feel good? Yes? Then that’s proof that it’s a true word from God.” Talk about telling people smooth things, and only prophesying the things people want to hear. Because THAT is in fact the biblical test of false prophecy, don’t you know?! Why would you ever fear a prophet who will only validate all your carnal needs, wants and desires? Sometimes people can’t see a unicorn that’s standing right in the middle of the room, staring them right in the face!

In Truth, God Says WHATEVER He Wants to

In truth, Prophecy is God speaking and prophecy must be allowed by us, his servants, to convey ANY idea in Scripture that he wants to convey, and yes, some of it is painful, insulting, embarrassing and will even bring you to repent in tears. Follow Jesus’ examples of talking to people as a good guide and he was comforting to the humble and hurting, those gentle sheep—but to the prideful and comfortable he was hurtful and humiliating, that Brood of Vipers! I don’t want to quote Paul’s colorful language describing those ‘mutilators of the flesh,’ wishing they would ‘go the whole way and just cut it all off!’ Ooops, I just did.

But you see, God is dealing with a wide range of human behaviors and exposing secrets, warning and even acting on his threats of judgment, uprooting evil in all its forms, threshing the wheat (or in our case here in the Philippines, the rice) and throwing the chaff (the worthless or hollow or empty people) into the fires of hell. The time has come to stop fearing he who can kill the Body, block you on facebook or give you a thumbs down in your social media profile, but then who can do no more, for as Jesus said, which I just quoted above, Luke 12:5—“But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!”

Not all prophecy is nice-sounding, slipshod, sugary, feel-good flattery, as many teach others to presume it is. Or are we still diaper babies being bottle-fed? Are we yet on a diet of only milk and not ready even today to eat meat like a mature person? Just what are they teaching people in Bible schools these days?

How can people be equipped to minister to the Body of Christ in the End Times we are in and serve the Only True Living God as his real Prophets if we are only barely able to swallow milk formula from a bottle? They say they are training babies and introducing them to basic level prophecy—but maybe they shouldn’t be? Do you teach babies to use knives? To handle firearms? Then why would you teach babies in Christ who are still weak and hurting and scared of their own shadow like a Pennsylvanian groundhog to handle God’s word, and expect them to serve the Great YHWH as Real Prophets of the Real Living God? You may find this is doing a great disservice to the Body, to themselves and to God as well. First let them heal and grow, but never send babies wearing diapers onto the battle field!

Malachi’s Vision of ‘The Ideal Prophet’

And I feel like having to bring unicorns into the discussion may be leading us down another rabbit path. I don’t mind catching rabbits even when we are supposed to be hunting big game, but if we go down a rabbit trail just make sure you catch that critter by the end of it before we get back to the main hunt. You may find the sheer weight of rabbits we catch could very well outweigh the 14-point-buck we shoot at the end!

So let us consider Malachi which I quoted in Chapter 8, because this is the picture of the ideal prophet, in Jesus, and may serve as the best model of behavior of prophets in prophetic ministry—and no, his ministry was and is not all rainbow colored unicorns burping pixie dust—maybe a little, but what did Malachi write in Chapter 2 that he heard the Holy Spirit say? That Jesus feared God and turned many from their sin:

⁵ “My covenant was with him, one of life and peace,
And I gave them to him that he might fear Me;
So he feared Me and was reverent before My name.
⁶ The law of truth [the true Torah] was in his mouth,
And injustice [dishonesty] was not found on his lips.
He walked with Me in peace and equity,
And turned many away from iniquity [their sin].”

So I know we are often dealing with fearful people who are shy, scared and hurting and we are trying to encourage them to minister in prophecy by focusing on the fun, light-hearted, good things but I worry we are not only avoiding but deleting the difficult, challenging and painful things, but these are the things that bring the most change and bear the most fruit. Focusing only on soft and fluffy words of encouragement does not bring the most growth or edification always, and it is also easy for the flesh to manipulate—oh sure, the flesh can manipulate a titanium wristwatch, at least it will try to do so. And we can’t rightly blame the loving words of God’s comfort which he does speak just because the flesh wants to take the power of God out of his strong words of exhortation and rebuke. But we do need to be vigilant to protect the true voice of God rising within us especially when it really matters in issues of morality, life and spiritual death. When the flesh hijacked the prophetic ministry previously this is what God said was the cause of their shipwreck:

Lamentations 2:14—“The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The oracles they gave you were false and misleading.”

Ezekiel13:1-5—¹ “The word of the LORD came to me: ² ‘Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination: “Hear the word of the LORD! ³ This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! ⁴ Your prophets, O Israel, are like jackals among ruins. ⁵ You have not gone up to the breaks in the wall to repair it for the house of Israel so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the LORD.”’”

Jeremiah 23:17—“They keep saying to those who despise me, ‘The LORD says: You will have peace.’ And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, ‘No harm will come to you.’ ”

To the Pure All Things are Pure

There are people whom God loves and wants to turn from their wicked ways who are more like wolves, goats and whatnot. They need to repent. There are also Sheep who ACT like the goats and wolves because they are surrounded by them and bad company corrupts good character. They also may need a strong word of correction sometimes. In any case, this is the reality of our walk with God: people veer off course, get trapped, deceived, and need help from time to time to get back on track and sometimes what they need is a nice, stinging, sharp rebuke.

Or do you think Jesus just hated the Pharisees? No, he loved them but nothing would break through their stubbornness, self-righteousness, religious deception and pride except a stinging rebuke. Better to sting them with a word and save their eternal souls than pull an Ezekiel 13:5 and not repair the broken walls, or a Lamentations 2:14 and give them a false and worthless vision or worse a Jeremiah 23:17 and tell the sinners who hate God, ‘All is well! You are blessed!’

Écoutez et répétez—Stop trying to EDIT God!

I anyway think most all of this discussion is pointless. If God speaks, you listen and repeat what he says. That’s what a faithful messenger does. He does not add to God’s word or God himself will have to rebuke him and prove him a liar. A messenger who is slow and lazy, inaccurate and irresponsible is like vinegar to the teeth of the One who sent him. I remember learning French way back in High School and being told to “Écoutez et répétez”—that’s all we must do as prophets. Listen … and repeat. Are you hearing God say a hard word and are you telling him, ‘No, you can’t say that! How dare you! Who do you think you are?’ Or are you hearing a hard word and editing God like he needs your red pen to fix his grammar? How dare YOU!

We are prophets, messengers, secretaries, mailmen and delivery-women and not Authors of prophecy, or Lords ourselves or Originators of his prophetic word—we are but servants to the King and must deliver his word faithfully, fully and accurately to be blessed and counted as wise and faithful servants.

I feel many people are being trained to be careless and disrespectful and to intentionally mix the prophetic utterance with their own doctrines, tolerances and house rules for what is allowed or not allowed—no words on Mates or Dates!—No Correction Words!—Great, that means God can’t speak to anyone’s relationship issues, but meanwhile no one is stopping Satan from speaking, so who is going fill that void? And if you ban all correction words, it simply means your people will never be corrected! Did anyone see where that unicorn went to? I swear I saw him standing right here a minute ago.

Prophetic Comfort and Encouragement is Wonderful

I remember when God was first training me to minister Isaiah 61-type inner healing, freedom, deliverance and personal prophecy (communion, direct fellowship with the Holy Spirit)—we would spend a few hours a week, every week, doing this and it was wonderful. People were growing so fast, being transformed literally in a matter of weeks and months into mature Christ-like pure-hearted believers, devoted to the King. Prophecy to new Christians, to hurting Christians, to humble sheep where he draws out the gold, speaks forth his destiny and comforts and heals their souls—what better ministry could you be a part of? We all functioned in prophecy every week and our small team of maids, domestic helpers and abused women could rescue any hurting castaway, deliver any tormented soul and impart directly by laying on hands any strength of comfort, healing, wisdom, encouragement, Joy, Hope and Love.

But this was not the ministry of a prophet.

We were all prophesying every week for as long as we needed to, and you’re saying that was not the ministry of a prophet.

Yes, that clearly wasn’t. It was ministry with the Holy Spirit for sure, and it was prophetic, yes, and it was for healing the broken hearted, releasing the captives, giving insight or prophetic sight or understanding to the blind, and prophecy was interwoven throughout all of it every day. But it was still not the ministry of a prophet. Anyone could do what we did and it was never even very difficult.

The prophet stands as an authority over the area. The prophet confronts the hard cases of apostate wolves in sheep’s pulpits, tearing down strongholds over the churches and administering the gospel on a dangerous battlefield that immature milk-drinking pastors and teachers say does not even exist.

You do not need to be a prophet to please God. You do not need to be a prophet at all. You don’t need to be a prophet to use prophecy to heal, deliver, train, teach and comfort, encourage, exhort or edify his people. You can do that in myriad ways and never stop being known as a pastor, elder or just Happy Joe from Southbank. Hearing God’s voice is not a matter of pride God told me. Don’t approach it that way—but it is a matter of Love.

What I think of when people say they just don’t have the stomach for the kind of ministry I am describing, instead of trying to change the scope of the ministry of the Prophet to make it more fun and easy for beginners—maybe it’s just that this is not the ministry area for you, or them? Prophecy can be used in ANY ministry of the Lord, mind you, and maybe you are just better suited to what Paul called the ministry of mercy (Romans 12:8), evangelism, or child care to orphans and at-risk children (which we do a LOT of), or inner healing, as a few examples? Prophecy can be used in all these areas and you may encounter difficult situations far less frequently than if you are a full-time dedicated prophetic servant who just tells God, “Here I am, Lord! Send me.”

The Vision of the Engagement Gift

I began this fireside chat with a vision God showed me to explain his view on the prophetic ministry and it was of a man courting a woman and giving her a gift as a token of his love. This gift was prophecy. The lady (the Church) was underwhelmed and didn’t seem to appreciate the value of what she had been given and so was too slow to embrace it—slow enough that an ‘enemy’ rushed in between them and took the gift out of her hand. Worse than that the ‘enemy’ began to ‘manipulate’ the gift and somehow found a way to turn it into a weapon and began to harm the woman with the very thing God had given her as a token of his love, causing her a lot of pain, and Him a lot of grief. The feeling of his grief at his gift being used to harm the one he loves was overpowering and stayed with me a long time.

Plainly our reluctance to eagerly embrace the gift of prophecy has allowed Satan to interfere with it and harm us with the very thing Jesus meant to be a blessing and token of his love to us.

And our response could be on one hand to ban prophecy outright. That way we can stop feeling any pain coming from its misuse! But 2 Thessalonians 5:20 says, “Do not despise prophecies.” Why would anyone be tempted to despise or ban prophecy if there was not some trouble or discomfort associated with it to begin with! 1 Corinthians 14:39 as well as 12:31 for that matter say “to be eager to prophecy” and so this first reaction to our confusion and pain is plain wrong!

A second reaction would be to do the opposite: grab that wild ox by the horns, embrace prophecy with both hands, face all the difficulties and stare them down into submission—yes, even the most perplexing mysteries—face it all head-on, wrestle it to the ground until you figure it out, hog tie it, brand it with a hot iron and then take a selfie of yourself standing over it in victory and post THAT on-line! Don’t be like one of these people who run from a challenge. And I think this is the only reasonable reaction since we know prophecy is a gift from God that he has already given us and even if you feel uncomfortable, or scared, or ill-equipped, it’s already manifesting in our midst and even in unexpected places all over the Earth and is impossible to run and hide from, especially in this day and age!

God NEVER Speaks Today! Oh, but He just spoke to Me!

But we had a seminar in Hong Kong a few years ago to train people to hear God’s voice and afterwards a pastor came up to me and said he did not believe God still spoke to people anymore. We were in a room of over 100 people who were all hearing God speak on the spot and they were giving such amazing testimonies of what he was telling them—it was such a real blessing to hear so many undeniable encounters. But instead of discussing his theology I confronted his unbelief because I knew better than what he was trying to pull over on me and I said, “So you’ve NEVER heard God speak to you? EVER?”

“No,” he defiantly said, “never!” like there was something to be proud of in being a pastor for so many years and never hearing God speak to you. But then his wife interjected and said, “Oh wait! Remember that one time when our son was sick?”

“Oh, yes! I remember that!” he said, momentarily shaken out of his religious pride and deception of unbelief.

What happened? I asked, and they went on to tell a story of their young son almost dying and they prayed and prayed AND GOD SPOKE TO HIM that his son would live and not die and recover fully, and yes, it was as clear a prophetic word as the light of day! He himself had heard a real prophetic word from God! They both shook their heads in agreement, God is good and he spoke his word and saved their young son just as he said he would … yet this man still had the audacity to claim God categorically no longer spoke to anyone today, even after a two or three hour long interactive seminar with dozens of real testimonies of hearing God speak.

We chatted some more and yes, he also admitted God even spoke to him in a clear vision during the meeting itself! And so we helped him understand the vision was showing him his immaturity, and we prayed for him according to the prophecy, but a few months later my wife went to hear him preach and he said at the pulpit, ‘While yes, God speaks today he however only speaks … to pastors!’ <Sigh> Step by step, I suppose! Sometimes the old man just refuses to lay down and die quietly!

So how to respond to the Engagement Gift Vision?

When the Lord asked me to write this book on 10 Things on Prophecy he then showed me that vision of the Engagement Gift and it has stirred in my heart for over 15 years before I finally felt I understood well enough what to say in response to be able to actually write this book.

So most all of this learning came to me only after he gave me this vision and so in a way this entire book is a response to it.

But before I wrap it all up neatly with a bow and call it done, let me briefly recap the ten things I’ve shared about prophecy so far in a nutshell as they say. This is to help you digest the many topics I’ve shared to help you learn to be better stewards of the prophetic gift, the real scope of the prophetic ministry and understand the real role of the Prophet in the modern church.

First, in Chapter 1, I said let people prophesy, ye all may and you don’t need a ‘gift’ to do it. People can even have a gift and not know it, not want to use it, or not know how to use it. We are in the Great Falling Away and many people are abandoning God and their gifts and callings are up for grabs! Also discover the higher means of communication and I mentioned open 24/7 fellowship with the Holy Spirit which we call Communion, (not the Lord’s Supper but interactive two-way dialogue with the in-dwelling presence of God). (And beyond that look for the Mind of Christ, which I talked about later, which is a kind of ‘limited omniscience’ and level of intimacy where our thoughts and his are literally one and the same.) You don’t need a gift to hear God speak, but still seek the gifts—and look up because there is also a realm beyond the gifts.

Second, Jesus talks … A LOT! So let him. His thoughts to each of us are like the sand on the shore! And He talks in so many different ways it does not help to try to fit them categorically into boxes or what we used to call ‘pigeon holes.’ Be less concerned with categories and labels of types of manifestations and get more lost in the wonder that your Savior is speaking to you—oftentimes in creative ways that defy categorization. But we still can talk about dreams, visions, word of knowledge, discernment, non-verbal words, and other common ways prophecy can manifest, like time travel, and the Mind of Christ. Do you like being boxed in? No? Then don’t put God in a box either. Deal?

In the Third Chapter if you were listening you might have heard me explain some of the problems we have listening. Listen, what God told me when I was listening to him is that the Most Important Thing about being a prophet … is simply to hear the whole word. So listen more carefully! And if you had listened to me explain this point ten years ago I would have spoken mostly on ways we listen, or ways he speaks but I later realized that’s not even the problem we are having, it’s having ears but still not being able to listen. It’s hearing him say, “I love you,” but you only think, “Oh, here’s more of that mushy stuff! When am I ever going to get any REAL help!?” Or God says you’ll be safe, and it causes people to get extra scared. Or God says, “Trust me,” and they think, “There’s gotta be a catch!” People don’t hear because their minds are full of doctrines, their hearts are full of fears, their memories are foggy with trauma and they just aren’t able to believe what he so clearly says. So He told me, Healing always brings Hearing, and deliverance and maturity make a big difference because when you understand him better and can face him with an open heart you’ll finally be able to hear him clearly even when he speaks without using any words at all.

Fourthly, I explained that personal prophecy is a matter of FAITH—it’s not FATE. Personal prophecy reveals an offer of destiny and Jesus said I can say personal prophecy is ALWAYS conditional. Faith is the key to fulfilled promises. God can offer you anything but then can just as easily take it away. I’m not sorry and it’s still true. You can once be a branch but then get cut off the Vine, or get cut off the Olive Tree—yes, you can. God knows the outcome in advance but we don’t, and he still won’t reward or punish us until we do something about it! So faith matters! Our destiny is based on our response, obedience, integrity and willingness to follow his direction. He knows the result already but he’s not forcing us to do any of it. We have free will and so in our lives the outcome is not already cast in stone. This is because we are living within the Kingdom of God, so faith matters—we are NOT NPC’s in a tragic Greek play!

The Fifth topic of prophecy highlighted the odd juxtaposition that giving personal prophecy to friendly people in church who are already eager to hear a word from God is E-A-S-Y, fun and oh, so enjoyable! But being a Prophet on the other extreme end of the spectrum can be very, very difficult—but still 100% worth the challenges. Whereas anyone can drive, ye all may drive—but the Prophets are the Race Car Drivers of the Body of Christ—some of these guys are just on another level altogether. Will Power is the Champion Mindset—he will excel in any difficult environment he finds himself in, and will find the way to overcome any challenge he is faced with. He has the mindset of a winner and so likewise in a jam you can ask yourself WWWPD—What Would Will Power do? Because that’s the guy who’s going to get it done. We get no rewards for having a gift or calling; the rewards come from what we do with it. And a true prophet turns people from their sin. The False only tell people what they want to hear. So having the right mindset, the right attitude and ‘will power’ will make you a winner, a champion. Run the race so as to get that prize.

How can you tell who the real prophets are? By their costume? Mannerisms? Line of prophetic jewelry on sale while supplies last? Here are some more reliable indicators: they’ve conquered the Fear of Man—they Obey God sometimes in the extreme; they are willing to and are often called on to confront the False, the Flatters, the Liars; they were weak but now are Strong because they walk in the strength of God now dwelling within them; they often deal with real warfare that can be dangerous, but it’s caused them to become intimate with God on a level that is … unusual, so they often do unusual things; they walk in a high level of authority, which God told me is three things: intimacy, knowledge and power; they regularly endure levels of discomfort, heat and G-forces that would make an astronaut turn green and vomit. They know God intimately and Fear him more than regular Christians do. It’s not a matter of gifting but Will Power, making the decision to Stand in the armor of God, finding God’s empowering grace, being willing to face confrontation, to do the warfare, turning people from their sin—these are a few indicators of real prophets. It’s a high bar I’m describing, but not too high for people willing to pay the price. The Price to be prophet is High and yes, there are people who have paid that price! And most would willingly do it again and again and again.

A sixth area of discussion was on Gifts, Callings and Mantles. And when I asked Jesus to explain this to me, he just laughed! Gifts are used for the common good. A Calling fills your identity as YOU become the gift, and you may have any number of gifts, talents or ministry areas to fulfill that calling. And a Mantle is just a strange thing altogether. You can put one on, take it off, pass it to someone else, and wear one that has already been worn by someone else in the past—but a pre-loved mantle is never obtained from the Goodwill Store. We are in a season of apostacy called the Great Falling Away and many people are abandoning God, walking away from him, and so are also walking away from their gifts, callings and mantles which is leaving a great many jobs undone. If you are faithful God will add, but if you are unfaithful we learn the lesson from the one-talent loser of Matthew 25 how God feels about that! So it’s not about gifts again but about Attitude, Faithfulness and Will Power … So be faithful, eagerly desire, seek the greater gifts, because you may pick up some more duties, talents and responsibilities thou good and faithful servant!

Seven is the number of completion and I shared some completely challenging situations where God used me as a prophet to a people who were intent on not listening and going their own way. Telling the Prophets NOT TO PROPHESY is spiritual self harm and but it also harms the prophets—but in a different way. Learn to discern Man’s Ways, learn to expose and pray to ruin their plans and the plans of the enemy because if you don’t Man’s Ways along with the Enemy’s Sabotage will ruin the blessings and success the prophetic ministry is supposed to bring to us. Imagine telling the Nazarites to drink wine or telling the prophets, “Do not prophesy!” But spirit-filled pastors of modern popular churches are still doing this!

Eight is the Number of Renewal, the first number in the new season and when I had this manuscript maybe halfway done I asked Jesus about the title as it seemed a little underdeveloped and I saw him—how to describe this? He was looking up to the future and gesturing with his hands, waving them in the air in front of him like he was laying out a billboard slogan as he spoke it out and said the book was, “A New Vision for the Prophetic Church.” Quite inspirational! It made me want to read it! The main insight here in Chapter 8, and this is a new insight, yet it is an old insight we’ve had from the beginning, but it is to ‘Lean NOT on your own understanding,’ because God’s thoughts are far above our human thoughts, as far above them as Heaven is above the Earth. Man’s plans belong in the trash cans. The Fear of God is largely absent. This chapter is on the Wisdom of God for Prophecy that we need but are often missing because in place of God’s Wisdom we have foolishly substituted Man’s Wisdom instead—a poor trade if ever there was one. But most of what is missing is hidden in plain sight in the Old Testament already but people have an aversion to reading it saying it’s all over, it’s expired, it’s done—but this is not true. Much of the prophecy in the Old Testament has not even come to pass yet, and most all of what is for our Era has still not come to pass fully and is still currently unfolding. The promises, the blessings and especially the wisdom of God in the Old Testament is not expired or past it’s ‘sell-by’ date—don’t be foolish Galatians but read Galatians Chapter 3. Born Again Christians are receiving the gospel announced in advance to Abraham, righteousness by faith, and this is what we are inheriting through faith in Jesus Christ, the promise to Abraham, which is the Spirit—and so it’s no surprise that when God asked me to train prophets he asked us to carefully read the books of History, as well as the Major and also the Minor Prophets to learn how a prophet is meant to serve. The wisdom of God is in the Old Testament, especially for the very much misunderstood and very crucial New Testament ministry of the Prophetic.

Nine … be weird. Just not too weird. I mean be yourself, be your own weird self. But again, just don’t be too weird yourself. Uniqueness is the standard for prophets and if you are somehow nearly identical to your favorite prophetic minister on YouTube, chances are you are faking it, copying them and not doing your own unique part. We already have one of THEM, what we don’t have is an authentic version of one of YOU. The body comes to maturity as each does its part, and since we prophesy in part and know in part we MUST ensure everybody is empowered, allowed and encouraged to do their own part as well—not just you, and not just you copying one of them—Also since the spirit of a prophet is subject to the prophet themselves, Jesus showed me this also means some people hear the Vegetable portion of the overall delivery of his prophetic word and some get the Fruit portion of it, whatever that means. So we are different by design as well as by service. So on one hand beware of the Spirit of the Anti-Elbow, on the other hand also beware of Man’s false or rather carnal version of spiritual unity, which is actually control, and where is the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom so where is there room for control? So be yourself and let each do their part!

Finally 10 and here we are. The last thing I am giving you is an overview. Why at the end? Well, maybe because I’m a little weird too. Or maybe there is a madness to my method. Jesus spoke in parables to give people a framework for ideas they could not grasp right away. I wanted to explain to you first the underlying issues that are causing us so much trouble and some of the solutions God has shown me in hopes that when I do finally share what God told me when I asked Him for an overview then it would, again hopefully, make more sense.

So I first gave you what I see as Man’s Overview of Prophecy and it’s filled with unicorns and only feel-good fluffery, ‘tell me what I want to hear’ kind of smooth talking. Next or rather now, I will give you My Overview of Prophecy as I see it. Finally I will share with you what God told me HIS OVERVIEW of prophecy is and I think it will raise a few eyebrows in the end!

The Big Picture as I See it Myself

I already gave you my take on Man’s view of prophecy, but if I were to summarize prophecy or give my overview, I’d share one verse, Amos 3:8. I shared it above and said that people often quote Amos 3:7, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.” But people don’t see any clear reason to bring up 3:8, but in fact this is the real insight behind prophecy—at least to me.

Prophesy is not first about you hearing—it is first about him speaking. It is not first about you needing—it is first about him providing. It is not first about your loneliness or your confusion—it is first about him loving, because he loved you first, even before you were born! So it’s not about you asking as much as it is about him answering, because he often answers before you even ask. This seems backwards to people on Earth, because they think they asked him first before he answered, but prophecy starts with Him, the Eternal Loving God who saw your needs, your loneliness, your fear and confusion and ALREADY made provision to meet those needs, to comfort and provide and to heal and encourage, to reveal himself to you, yes, and he did this long before you were even born, before he even made the Earth for you to live on, before he made the foundations of the world.

Chicken and Egg? Prophecy came first.

We are always so focused on what we do with prophecy, how we get it, and how it makes us feel—but the origin is with Him. And so before we look at our gifts, our callings, our mantles, the words we got, the solutions we learned, the witty sayings we quote or the famous messages we heard him say, we must put the focus back on him, the eternal, loving and very chatty God, where all the attention belongs and this is Amos 3:8 …

“A lion roars! Who won’t get scared?!
God has spoken! Who can help themselves but prophesy!”

Prophecy is not first about the people’s gifts, callings, mantles, training, temperament, attitude, position in or outside of the church, their maturity, experience—none of that … Prophecy is first about the God Who Cares who is speaking.

Everything else is just … details.

Finally, What does God Himself think about Prophecy?

But I’ll finally end this book the same way I am ending 8 + Splash, by sharing what God told me his view of prophecy is.

He had asked me to host a Prophets Training School and in turn I asked him to give me the big picture, an overview of what he saw prophecy as—but he didn’t want to do that for a while. He had so much he wanted to say first—maybe he was also laying a foundation in my understanding beforehand so I could lay hold of what he wanted to say to me in reply to my question later? But I kept asking—pestering him really, until he finally spoke:

“You want an overview of prophecy?” He said, “I speak to whomever or whatever I like … I fear NO MAN—

“Selah,” [He actually said that! He actually said, ‘Selah.’ So take a minute and ‘let that sink in a bit’ … and then He continued:]

“I AM GOD … I speak to whomever, whenever, about whatever I want—I am unbridled in my ability and choice of communication.

“How much do you have to say to someone? ‘Hi. How-are-ya? How’s the wife and kids? How’s work? How’s business? How’s the weather? …’

“Well, I have INFINITELY more to say—even though I choose my words as a master craftsman, YOU DO NOT FATHOM how much I speak, what I have to say, or what length I go to so as to get my message across—you, many of you, think I am stuck in between the pages of a book—but NO! Yeah, verily not the case with I AM—I am the very essence of Communication … of LIFE … of BEING …

“All that I have to say to you—in a day—
“You could not endure all I would send your way—
“You’d topple over and like a dead man would you lay—
“I would revive you with my word—
“My divine connection to your human level life—
“Edward, what would you like to say???”

Wow, well, I just like to tell it to people this way:

He is GOD:
He speaks to WHOMEVER he wants,
  WHENEVER he wants,
      through WHOMEVER he wants,
          about WHATEVER he wants—
and THAT is prophecy, I say.

Let’s just try and keep it simple, if we may!
Is that OK? OK! … Then have a nice day!

~ The End ~

About the Author—

Edward “Eddie” Johnson is an equipper, a prophet and used to be a lawyer and university lecturer in Hong Kong until he got promoted! Now a missionary in the Philippines, he and his wonderful wife, Lilie Ann, are called to lay the foundation for revival in Bohol, Central Visayas, in the Philippines, as well as build a theme park, a new town and other development projects the Lord said are part of His blessings of restoration to the people there.

Jesus named their ministry Prayer Mountain calling their work in the Philippines: Prayer Mountain Bohol. Their main websites are www.prayermountainbohol.com and www.kingdom-foundations.com and www.40-days-in-heaven.com, among others.

Other books from Edward Johnson include:

Foundations of the Kingdom—based on many conversations with Jesus about his Kingdom this book explains what Paul called the administration of the Gospel, keys to help us open and operate in his Kingdom: explaining the differences between the Gospel of Salvation and the Gospel of the Kingdom, Isaiah 61 as the model of our new life, the importance of ministering in a demonstration of the Spirit and power, of teaching revelation, of equipping the saints so each can do their part, and much, much more. www.kingdom-foundations.com

40 Days in Heaven—for which he was simply the editor as it is the true story of a man’s 40-day visitation to heaven over 100 years ago, which the Lord asked him to republish for a modern audience. On Amazon but the full text is on-line to read for free at www.40-days-in-heaven.com.

8+Splash—as “10 Things on Prophecy” is ‘What He Learned’ about prophecy it is a companion to “8+Splash” the narrative or story of ‘How He Learned’ about prophecy, both of which the Lord asked him to write.

Starquake—the working title for a sci-fi novel trilogy—think ‘Narnia meets Star Wars’ which is a three-book ‘hard science’ series the Lord also asked him to write.

Communion, Enjoying Spiritual Fellowship with the Holy Spirit—is one section of Foundations of the Kingdom expanded into a short book, of which the First Edition is already on Amazon.

… and more … and more to come!