RELATIONSHIP, THE PROPHET, THE PEOPLE, AND THE LORD

For many years prophetic people have used their gifting and calling, their anointing as an excuse for not walking in the right relationships. Even at times for rude behavior and an aloof attitude. It is time that we realize developing and maintaining the right and healthy relationships is a key to a successful ministry of any type but most importantly when ministering in the areas of the prophetic and supernatural. It is our willingness to step into a relationship that will allow us to be impactful and effectively be received by the body of Christ.

First things first, you need to know that we are not called as spokesperson to the church. We are called as spokesperson for the Lord to the church. So our primary relationship needs to be cultivating that intimate walk with the one who leads us and guides us and directs us. Cultivating this relationship daily is crucial. In prayer, fellowship, vulnerability, and in humility before the Lord. So we need to develop a disciplined prayer life. We need to be solid in his Word and do all that we can to be unencumbered by the weighty personal and human circumstances that surround us.

In addition to my relationship with the Lord, I need to have a right relationship with those in the body of Christ but particularly with those who are in leadership and an authority position in the body. One of the most common and unfortunately one of the most accurate criticisms of the prophetic ministry is that the prophet and prophetic people are lone rangers and that should never be. We are not meant to be an island. His desire for every Christian is that we are inter-connected and interrelated properly in the body with the right accountability and balance in our lives. One of the most trying relationships on the local church level is staying in the right relationship with the pastor. It takes a lot of grace, wisdom, and patience, since many times we are viewing things from different perspectives. Even though we may have the same motive and the same objective we just come at it from different directions, and we need to prefer one another and try to understand one another and the God-given responsibilities that each of us are assigned. We must learn to communicate, pray together and pray for one another because the pastor-prophet relationship at times can make or break your ministry.

The Word of God clearly tells us in Hebrews 13:17 “Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves.” I have to realize as a prophetic voice that any time I speak publicly on behalf of the Lord, my words and my life will be tried and tested by others, by the enemy, and by the Lord. I must realize that misunderstandings will come about at times by things that I say or methods that I use or the attitude that I have as I minister His Word. It’s my responsibility to bring forth the Word of the Lord in such a way that those who hear it will clearly understand what the Lord is speaking to us, and according to 1 Corinthians 14:29 realize that those in authority are called upon to judge the word. If you are not willing to submit to this, then really you will have a very difficult time answering the call and should probably not take those first steps because those who are in authority are required and responsible to do their part as well.

To be prophetic many times it would seem a great benefit to be sensitive spiritually and emotionally, especially to the prompting of the Lord, but we also need to make sure that we are not thin-skinned which will allow a spirit of offense to come upon us and hinder us not just in our gifting and calling but in our basic Christian life and walk. John Bevere in his wonderful book called The Bait of Satan deals with this issue in the spirit of offense. Many of the misunderstandings can end also in feelings of rejection and at times call us to shrink back or even question who we are in the Lord and make it difficult to walk in the confident relationship that is necessary to represent Him and boldly speak on His behalf publicly.

A few things that we can do to minimize these misunderstandings and problems is first to develop that personal relationship so that the pastor and prophet know one another’s hearts. Secondly, purpose ourselves for conflict resolution, not allowing these differences to fester or linger in our hearts but to sit down and legitimately communicate with one another our needs and thoughts, and feelings. Relationships like this require time, effort, and patience. Finally, the main requirement is sincere humility. It’s not just a requirement of ministry but it is the way of Christ. If we want to operate in His grace gifts, if we need His grace and favor in our lives, Scripture tells us that He gives grace to the humble and He resists the proud. The Word tells us to draw near to Him and He will draw near to us; you and I both know the Word works. As pastors, we seem to want to require100%accuracyordeathtotheprophet. Ifthatwerethecase, then how are prophetic voices to be trained as only redeemed human beings in all our flesh and natural shortcomings there needs to be understanding. Many times, we want to term someone a false prophet because of this desire for infallibility. I believe that there are false prophets and also false prophecies, and we need to test the spirits and bring correction, when necessary, but we also need to understand that the meaning of false is not true, incorrect, wrong, untruthful, lying, misleading or not real. When some of these wrong prophetic words would be better described as inaccurate, not exact, which has much less of an implication against the individual and his or her motive knowing that we can all make mistakes. There are also words that are spoken prophetically in the realm of declaration and proclamation and others that are even not properly conceived or perceived as the Word of the Lord, but more of them presumptuous words which means taking something for granted coming at times from one’s own soul rather than the spiritual realm, meaning your mind, will, emotions, opinion, or convictions.

Let us as pastors and those who receive a prophetic word realize that on many occasions at the moment the Word is spoken to me I can’t quite figure out how it could possibly happen, yet in the fullness of and the perfection of time, it comes to pass. Isaiah had some of the most powerful messianic prophecies ever recorded and went to his grave with those words unfulfilled yet hundreds of years later the Word of the Lord came to pass in the manifestation of the birth, life, and death of our Lord Jesus Christ and we know that Isaiah was not a false prophet.

Finally, there have been times when we as prophetic people don’t do all that we can do to take time to be with and get to know and understand the people we minister to. Obviously, this is not always possible. But we need to do all that we can to cultivate a Christ-like personality and relate properly to the people in the church. Not just the ones we like but the ones we don’t, but let us, youandIcommitourselvestomakerightandrealrelationships. Tobetouchable, open, vulnerable so that God’s people will realize that as it was with Elijah, so it is with you and me. The Bible says in James 5:17 that Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are and let us remember that you and I, we are only special in Him. Let us not think more highly of ourselves than we ought. Let us remember that the greatest of gifts is love and that without it we are an empty cymbal, just another voice. It’s time to mature, not just in our gift but in our character. Let us strive towards 1 Corinthians 13:11-13 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.