You’ve Just Received A Personal Prophecy, Now What?

After prophesying to a woman about the Lord having a special husband for her, I was shocked to see the pastor jumping in between us. “Now,” he said, looking the woman in the eyes, “just put this prophecy on a shelf to wait and see if this is from God or not.”

This happened twenty-three years ago in a small church. There’s no doubt the pastor had the best of intentions, in that he wanted to protect one of his members from a possible false prophecy.  But did he take the right action? Is it scriptural to just put a personal prophecy on a shelf?

When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own  authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things to come. (John 16:13)

But one and the same Spirit works all these things [spiritual gifts], distributing to each one individually just as He wills. (1 Corinthians 12:11)

First, go to the source and seek the Lord about every prophetic word that you may receive. It’s His responsibility to reveal via the Holy Spirit to you whether the prophecy is a true one or not. Your spiritual life and maturity is under His oversight. So, do not depend solely on the discernment or advice of others.

Now, does this mean that you should not receive the counsel of other believers about a prophecy? No, not at all. In fact, this is often a good idea, but even so, ultimately you will have to make the decision for yourself.

Second, all prophecies must line up with scripture. Period.

Third, if you do not receive an answer about your prophetic word after a significant period of time, then what? Keep on seeking, asking and knocking until you do receive an answer from the Lord. He loves it when we believers grab a hold of His robe and won’t let it go. Don’t ever give up!

Fourth, let’s say that you now know the prophecy is a true one, so is it then okay to place it on a shelf and wait for it to come to pass?

NO! NEVER, EVER DO THAT AS IN NEVER, EVER, NEVER, EVER!

This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck (1 Timothy 1: 18-19)

In the late 1980′s, I attended the same church as a particular seventy year old widow. After a special service, in which a traveling prophet had prophesied over numerous people about their callings, she told me that she had received numerous prophecies over the years about her unique calling and singing ministry.

“Really?” I said.

“Yes, I copied them all down in a large notebook,” she said.

“What’s happened to them?” I asked.

“Nothing so far,” she answered with a twinge of bitterness. “I’m still waiting for God to do something with them.”

She died and none of her prophecies were ever fulfilled. You see, that notebook was her shelf which she placed her prophecies on and waited for the Lord to do something with them. And sadly, all the while the Lord waited for her to fast, pray, use her faith and fight to bring her personal prophecies into the earth’s realm so they would be fulfilled.

Paul told Timothy to fight the good fight and that means to do everything you possibly can to bring your personal prophecies into the earth. Along with God’s grace, it’s up to us and no one else to do this.

None of us want to appear at the Judgment Seat of Christ holding a notebook of unfulfilled prophecies, right?

THE END

After 41,000 words and 61 posts, Prophecy One-O-One is completed. Go out and boldly prophesy.

Sometime, next year, I hope to publish these blog posts as a book. So, thanks for your support during the last year.

Is There A Hunger For Prophecy? (Part 2)

If you ask Christians, “What’s the first word that comes into your minds when the word Pharisee is mentioned?” Nine out of ten will say, “Hypocrite.” This is because Jesus used the term to describe the Pharisees in eighteen New Testament verses.

But did you know the Jews of Jesus’ day considered the Pharisees “the hope of Israel?” In fact, the word Pharisee means the separated one, as in separated unto God. Their main goal was to point Jews back to the Law and God. They loved God.

So what were the major hangups the Pharisees had with Jesus?

Hangup #1: traditions.

The Pharisees held onto traditions which had been taught over hundreds of years by various rabbis. These traditions were meant to be fences around specific laws so that people did not defile themselves by breaking the Law, and thereby, angering God.

For instance, the Law stated that no work should be done on the Sabbath. Since walking was considered work, the question arose about how far a Jew could walk and not break the Law on the Sabbath? The rabbis took into account that Jews needed to attend a synagogue or the Temple and thus came up with a Sabbath Day’s Journey as 2000 cubits, or 1000 yards, from a Jew’s home.

The oral traditions dealt with hundreds of minute examples just like this.

And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do Your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?” (Mark 7:5)

Jesus was the living Word of God and obeyed the commandments of the Father. He paid little attention to the traditions of the elders which really bugged the Pharisees. They were determined to trap Him with questions about the traditions of the elders.

Jesus Himself did not say all traditions were wrong, but instead, He stated that the Pharisees should not set aside the commandments of God so their traditions could be maintained.

Hangup #2: interpretation of prophetic scriptures.

The Pharisees had preconceived opinions from their studies of scriptures of where the Messiah would come from and what His kingdom would be like. They, of course, knew he would be born in Bethlehem of Judah and would be out of King David’s lineage.

But when he arrived from a Podunk town named Nazareth and out of the lowly state of Galilee, they said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” The Pharisees knew no prophets had ever come out of Galilee; so how could the Messiah be from there?

Plus, Jesus taught about a spiritual kingdom that was righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit which was totally at odds with the one the Pharisees had in mind. Their belief was the Messiah would be a warrior-king like David who would overthrow the Romans and bring in an age by which all nations would be ruled from Zion.

Then the disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?” But He answered and said, “Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:12-14)

Sadly, the Pharisee’s traditions and interpretation of prophetic scriptures not only hindered many Pharisees from believing in Jesus, but it also hindered people who believed in the teachings of the Pharisees.

A modern example of misunderstood traditions and interpretations of prophetic scriptures is Israel.

On May 14, 1948, Israel declared itself a nation, with America being the first nation to recognize its nationhood. Israel was admitted into the United Nations a year later. Since then, Israel has fought countless wars with its Arab neighbors.

Yet, even though Israel is a speck of land surrounded by Arab nations, it has survived and flourished as the only democracy in the Mideast.

Now learn the parable from the fig tree; when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; so you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. (Matthew 24: 32-35)

The Fig Tree Theory teaches that Israel is the fig tree in the above parable and that when Israel became a nation, the end times clock was set for that generation to see the return of Jesus. A generation was figured at forty years just like in the Bible.

When Jesus did not return by 1988, the theorists then said the clock did not actually start until all Jerusalem was united with Israel. This happened in 1967. Yet, Jesus did not return by 2007.

The Fig Tree Theory is not one of those loosey-goosey, far-out prophetic schemes advanced by a few wackos and weirdos. This theory has been taught and written about by numerous reputable teachers and preachers.

To date, no teacher has stepped forward and said, “Oops! We were wrong!”

So what’s going to happen to believers’ faith in prophetic words if they see Israel fall?

(Continued in Part 3)

Is There A Hunger For Prophecy? (Part 1)

Many years ago, I was a member of a group which was invited to a married couple’s home to pray for their eleven year old daughter. She had leukemia and had undergone every kind of chemo treatment. Her doctor stated she had just a few months to live because, medically speaking, there was no hope for her at all.

The young girl’s eyes appeared listless and her body emaciated as she sat on her dad’s lap wrapped in a thick blanket. A baseball cap covered her bald head. The mother sat next to her on the sofa, gently caressing the girl’s shoulder with her hand.

Our group’s leader began praying for the girl, pleading with God for a miracle on her behalf. Others followed with their own fervent prayers. Tears rolled down our cheeks as we listened and prayed silently in agreement with the prayers.

After everyone else had prayed, I walked over to the girl with a simple prayer of faith which I had composed in my mind. As I touched her hand, my mind went blank and I had a glimpse of a vision for her. Then, I prophesied to her.

My prophecy proclaimed what this young girl would do when she was twenty-five and thirty years old. The prophetic words described her preaching the gospel, healing the sick, traveling to Asia and building up the Kingdom of God. The words also spoke about a godly husband and the children she would give birth to.

When finished, I looked around the room. Almost everyone’s mouth hung open and I could tell they thought the village idiot had escaped again. The looks showed their contempt for my insensitivity to the young girl’s hopeless plight. How dare I mention a future for a young girl who would soon be dead!

But there were three people in the room who did not have contemptuous looks on their faces. The father. The mother. The girl. All three were Southern Baptists, through and through, yet they got the prophecy. They understood that in order for the prophecy to come true, the young girl would have to survive and live until she was twenty-five and thirty years old.

The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for He has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the LORD’s favor has come.” (Luke 4:18-19 NLT)

Is there a hunger in America for prophecy today? Let’s check out the facts.

In 1906, prophecy and the gifts of the Spirit were birthed in America in what is known as the Azusa Street Revival. Out of this major revival, the Assemblies of God and other denominations were spawned and the Pentecostal Movement began.

The Charismatic Movement then occurred in the 1960′s. It spread prophecy and the gifts of the Spirit to mainline denominations.

But even with these two great moves of the Spirit, only 10% of American Christians today admit to having gifts of the Spirit in their personal lives.  So, if there are 80,000,000 evangelical Christians in America, then the approximate number of believers who have the gifts of the Spirit would be 8,000,000.

To quantify this even further, I estimate that only 5% of these 8,000,000 believers have the gift of prophecy. Thus, my guesstimate is that around 400,000 believers in America can prophesy right now.

400,000 believers who can prophesy sounds like a huge number until you realize that 50% of these believers live in the Bible Belt which is located in the fifteen Southern states. The remaining 200,000 believers who can prophesy are spread out over the other thirty-five states which have 40,000,000 believers and a total population of 200,000,000 people.

Thus, there is approximately one prophetic voice for  every 1,000 people of population in states other than the Bible Belt states.

Okay, are you with me on this?

My personal prayer goal for the three West Coast states of California, Oregon and Washington is to add 50,000 people who can prophesy. Where will these prophetic people come from?

Answer: Most will come from the Left Behind, Harry Potter, Twilight Saga and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy readers and movie viewers.

The  Left Behind series, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, have sold more than 65,000,000 copies to date. Adding in movie ticket sales and other venues, the total number would reach 85,000,000 people who have been introduced to the Left Behind series.

But the Left Behind figures are dwarfed by the seven Harry Potter books which have sold over 400 million copies to date. Adding in paperback, ebook and movie sales, the number of people world-wide who have been introduced to Harry Potter is over one billion people.

Plus, if you add in all the readers and movie viewers for the Twilight Saga and the Lord of the Ring Trilogy, another billion or so people will be quickly tacked onto the total.

Now, whether you think the Harry Potter, Twilight Saga or The Lord of the Rings Trilogy are godly or not, does not really matter because the books have stirred millions of people to hunger for the supernatural.

And what is more supernatural than prophecy?

So, if you are a believer who wants to prophesy or a teacher who longs to teach prophecy, there is a river of people outside your door who have their pumps primed and readied for you to open the door and walk through it.

But here’s the catch: you’re going to have to lay aside your “come to our church” attitude and obey what Jesus said:

“Go…and make disciples…” (Matthew 28: 19)

Even with all of this good news, there is a fly in the ointment and its name is Israel.

(Continued in Part 2)

Confirmation. Confirmation. Confirmation (Part 2)

Do all prophetic words have to be confirmed by the Lord before a believer or group should consider them to be true words from the Lord?

A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any inquiry or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed. (Deuteronomy 19:15)

But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. (Matthew 18:16)

Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true. (John 8:17)

This is the third time I am coming to you. Every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses. (2 Corinthians 13:1)

Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. (1 Timothy 5:19)

Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. (Hebrews 10:28)

On the basis of the above scriptures, a popular teaching has arisen in the Prophetic Movement which states that prophetic words needs two or three witnesses. A witness in this particular case refers to another prophetic word, a dream, a vision, a visitation by an angel and so forth.

So popular is this teaching that you will find it in book after book authored by the top leaders of the Prophetic Movement. Yet, I guarantee that they don’t even fully follow it themselves, but only use it when it is convenient or their faith is running low.

For example, let’s say that Dudley Doright, a prophet, is sitting on a sofa in his house. All of a sudden, the Holy Spirit speaks these prophetic words to him: “Terrorists are about to attack the junior high school. Go warn them.”

What does Dudley Doright do with these prophetic words? Does he wait for a phone call from two other people who may prophesy confirmations to him? Does he pray and wait for two visions or two visitations from angels?

This sounds silly, right? And it is a example to the nth degree, but if you have rules then the rules have to work all the time, not just on a willy-nilly basis. If they don’t work all the time, discard them.

You see, the problem with this popular teaching is that all of the above scriptures concerning two or three witnesses refer to accusations against people and never once refer to prophetic words. Never once. This is a mixture of apples and oranges just to make a simple rule for us believers.

Now, why do you think a simple rule like this one was made in the first place?

The sheep who are My own hear and are listening to My voice; and I know them, and they are following Me. (John 10:27 Amplified)

A prophetic word is the Lord speaking through another believer to us. But this should make no difference to us because we are supposed to be in tune with the Lord and hear His voice no matter how He chooses to speak to us.

Obviously, the rule was made so us believers would not have to hear the Lord’s voice for ourselves and then pass judgment on it. But sadly, this demeans the importance of the Holy Spirit in our own lives, and also how prophetic words are supposed to draw us closer to the Lord because we need to seek Him on each and every one.

No doubt, we would all like to have dozens of prophetic words and visions before we step out in faith on a prophetic word, but we may not receive them.

Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. (Matthew 14:28-29)

Notice how Peter did not turn to the other disciples and ask for confirmations from them. He stepped out of the boat upon hearing just one prophetic word.

But seeing the wind, he became frightened , and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately, Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him… (Matthew 14:30-31)

The Lord especially encourages us to step out of our boats of comfort and act on prophetic words. If we make mistakes, He’ll reach out and help us. After all, He’s our friend in whom we can trust.

Remember: Confirmations are God’s sign posts along our journeys, pointing us toward the eventual fulfillment of our prophetic words. Without any such confirmations, we might lose hope and our faith in the prophetic word would then dry up. Thus, we usually need them.

But we may not always get them.

(I will be taking July off for some writing projects. So, this series will return in August, but I will still be writing on the Larry Who site. See you in August.)

Confirmation. Confirmation. Confirmation. (Part 1)

You have just prophesied to a person about his calling and what great things he will do sometime in the future. So what is the next step in the prophetic sequence, which usually must happen, before it is fulfilled?

Thus He has confirmed His words which He has spoken against us and against our rulers who ruled us… (Daniel 9:12)

And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed. (Mark 16:20)

Confirmations are God’s sign posts along our journeys, pointing us toward the eventual fulfillment of our prophetic words. Without any such confirmations, we might lose hope and our faith in the prophetic word would then dry up. Thus, we usually need them.

Now, when can we expect the confirmations to occur?

(1)  Before the prophetic words are given to an individual.

And coming to us, Agabus took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands, and said, “This is what the Holy Spirit says: ‘In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” (Acts 21:11)

Agabus was a well-respected prophet in Paul’s day. If he said something, believers paid attention. In this instance, Agabus was confirming what Paul already knew.

And now, behold, bound in spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. (Acts 20:22-23)

The Greek word diamartyromai, which is translated into our English word testifies could have just as easily been translated as confirms. Therefore, the Holy Spirit confirmed His prophetic words over and over again before it was manifested in Acts 21:33.

(2)  Or while the prophetic words are being given to an individual.

They said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)

This [is] my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me. (Psalm 119:50 KJ)

The early Pentecostals often used a phrase which is not used much anymore. They would say, “I was quickened in my spirit.” By this, they meant that their inner spirit agreed with what someone was saying to them at the moment it was being said.

In other words, we could be standing there as a person proclaims to us, “God will soon send you to Saudi Arabia,” and our minds could be screaming, “Are you nuts?” But our spirit man could be jumping up and down in agreement with the prophetic words. Thus, our inner spirit confirms the prophetic words while the words are being spoken to us.

(3)  Or after the prophetic words are given to an individual.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go. (John 21:18)

According to many historians, Peter was approximately 23 years old when Jesus spoke these prophetic words to him. Then, fifteen years later, Peter was in prison, guarded by and chained to four squads of soldiers. He faced certain death, but what did Peter do?

On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers…(Acts 12: 6)

How could Peter sleep with so much stress upon him? I believe the prophetic words spoken by Jesus had been confirmed over and over to him during the fifteen years before his imprisonment in Acts 12. And when he was in prison he realized he wasn’t old yet. Thus, he knew he wasn’t going to be killed and went to sleep, confidant in the prophetic words spoken by Jesus.

Peter was not executed until he was in his late sixties, twenty or so years after this incident.

Whether we like it or not, many prophetic words will not be confirmed to us until after we have heard the prophetic words. It could be hours, days, weeks, months or years before they are confirmed and even longer until they are fulfilled. Yet, somehow, we still must hold onto them in faith.

(4) Or after we die and arrive in heaven.

And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised. (Hebrews 11:40)

The timing of this confirmation opens up new doors for us.

(Continued in Part 2)

After You Prophesy, Then What? (Part 3)

Twenty-six years ago, I had a weird dream and only now, am I beginning to make some sense of it.

In the dream, I was standing outside of a major league baseball stadium, but all the entrance gates were locked shut. Although I couldn’t see the action on the field, I heard the crowd cheering for its favorite team. The excitement stirred me so much that I wanted to be a part of the game.

I banged on the gate with both hands. Finally, the gate opened and I entered, not to sit in the grandstands with the crowd, but I was escorted out onto the field. I was a member of Jesus’ team.

There I stood in the outfield, wearing a new white home team uniform with a baseball hat on my head and a glove on my hand. I looked around at just how beautiful the green grass, the reddish infield dirt and the whole stadium looked. It was such an exciting feeling to know I was a member of the team.

Then, like a little boy, I just took off running around in the outfield. Here and there, helter-skelter, I didn’t care, I just ran around the outfield in my excitement and kicked up my heels. As I did so, I noticed there were countless other players in the outfield, doing much the same thing. We all just ran around, waving our hands in our excitement and yelling like a bunch of sugar intoxicated kids.

Now, mind you, the game was going on. So, every once in a while a baseball would fly or bounce into the outfield, but because we were all just aimlessly running around, we could not catch any of them. The best we could do was chase the ball until it stopped rolling, then one of us would pick it up and toss it back toward the infield to a waiting infielder. As soon as the ball was thrown, we outfielders reverted back to our aimless running around.

Then, somehow, I was promoted into the dugout to be used for offensive purposes. This time, I was not dressed in a glorious white uniform, but instead I was a baseball bat, hanging on a bat rack with numerous other bats.

A bat, I thought. I’m just a bat. All of my preparation and training has prepared me to be just a wooden bat. How can this be important?

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning and the score tied, Jesus was the next batter up. He walked over to the bat rack and chose me to be His bat. He walked to the plate with me in His hands.

Satan was the pitcher and threw a hundred mile per hour fastball on the first pitch to Jesus. Jesus timed the pitch perfectly and smashed it high over the center field fence. It was a walk-off home run.

As Jesus headed for first base on His home run trot, he tossed me (His bat) into the dirt. The crowd stood, cheering and praising Jesus for the victory, but as for me, I laid there, doing nothing and saying nothing.

Eventually, a bat boy came, picked me up and placed me back in the bat rack.

This is what I believe is the interpretation of the dream:

We must all desire the spiritual gifts, especially prophecy. If need be, we must knock on heaven’s doors until we receive the gift of prophecy. Once we receive the gift of prophecy, there will be a time period when we will learn about the gift. We will make mistakes. We will fail. We may look foolish, but we need to keep on running the race. Don’t give up.

Because if we are ever going to be used in a big way for the Kingdom of God, we have to become dead to ourselves and alive in Jesus’ hands, a spokesman for Him and Him alone.

Then, when we are finished speaking, we need to back off and say nothing. People will have questions, but unless we are given prophetic insight or an impression, we need to say, “I don’t know. Seek the Lord.”

Now, this sounds easy, but after a believer has spoken on-target prophecies to people, it’s hard to shut up. We want to please people. And they will always want to know more and will want us to do the work for them, right there and right then.

Resist the temptation to say more than one has because this will save us lots of headaches.

Plus, you will be ready to be used by the Lord again.

Happy Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day.

I just posted a tribute to my dad on my other site which you can see here.

A new post will appear on Monday. Have a great weekend.