In becoming a prophetic voice? one of the most important things we need to do is to re-educate ourselves as to the value of the Word of God.
Before my conversion, I was against the Word of God and this is a testimony I have given many times in the past. I was unbelievably hostile to people who came to preach the gospel to me. I would often arrogantly assert that ‘The Bible is a book of 1001 mistakes’. And when I read the Bible, it was with the express purpose of finding loopholes to argue over and ammunition to fight those who came to preach to me.
I usually say that I had some kind of demonic inspiration because I could retain whole verses and references by memory. And every time they came to talk to me I would quote scriptures to contradict them; ‘Yes but you know 1 Peter 2.3 says this and why does Isaiah 54.5 say this?’ People were stunned, they knew I was a heathen and they wondered how come I could quote so many verses of scripture. But it was only because I read the Bible specifically to be able to contradict them. The point is I did not know it’s true value.
When I became a Christian, I was taught that the Bible was God’s word, I concurred despite battling mental resistance for a season. But that is a story for another day. I thought I had got to the point where I was absolutely convinced of the fact. However, one day I was sitting, praying at my desk in my apartment in the Place de la Nation in Paris (so many good things happened in that apartment).
That particular spot was the place where, for the first time, I prayed for five hours. I was very happy, in fact extremely happy because I had not started out to pray for five hours. I just wanted to pray for one or two hours and then when I got going, I couldn’t bring myself to stop. So I went on an extra hour, then another hour, and then another hour and I ended up praying for five hours for the very first time. Needless to say, I was thoroughly elated.
That was the same spot where I was praying one day when I perceived the Lord speaking to my heart saying, ‘I’m going to show you that my Word is true. We all have those moments that are like defining moments in our Christian life. This one was for me defining moment. I thank the Lord because the Holy Spirit had exercised sufficient dominion over me such that at that point in time, I did not dispute what I heard in my spirit. Inside me, I just said ‘OK, thank you, Lord.
I thought about it at length, and I said to myself, here I am thinking that I am absolutely convinced as to the veracity of God’s word and apparently that is not entirely the case. Interestingly I was the one who always told people what the Word of God said about things. When people will come up with some issue or other, some uncertainty or other, I would always say yes, but God’s word says this and that.
I would just encourage you to focus on the value that you give to God’s Word. If we want to be prophetic, we must first and foremost honour the Word of God. And don’t be so sure that you know its true value because many of us if we truly understood the value of God’s word would live differently. No one can be a strong and reliable prophetic voice without giving the Word of God pride of place in their lives. The Word of God must be of supreme value to you because even when you’re speaking prophetically, everything must tie in with God’s Word. It must inhabit you.
If the written Word is of no value or of scant value to you and you try to prophesy and get into the spirit to pick things and speak, you may end up submerged with all kinds of spirits, absolutely all kinds of spirits. So, one time you will yield to the Holy Spirit and the next time you will you to another spirit. That’s how you have people who fall into deep sin still prophesying, we’ve all seen such situations. And those things bring confusion to the body of Christ and to people who are young or weak in the faith.
After this experience, the Lord began to deal with me and instill in me the consciousness of the true value of His Word. And I’m truly grateful for that experience. And it’s an ongoing experience because you never get to the point where you know everything as you ought. The Lord has built honour, and respect for Himself and also for His Word into me and it has been a mighty safeguard in exercising the prophetic.
I cannot overemphasise the need, as a budding or actual prophetic voice to continually feed on the Word of God and I mean continually. Fill your insides with it, fill your mind, your soul, fill your entire being; consume it day after day, morning, afternoon, evening. Think on the Word. You may read whole chapters but at times you will sit on one verse, think on it, feed on it, and chew on it. Then gradually the Lord will bring understanding. Sometimes it will bubble up as a prayer point or be applied as a prophetic word in your life.
The more of the Word is in you the more God can take it and release it over people through you. There is nothing more beautiful than the Holy Spirit releasing Scripture prophetically over people, connecting people’s lives and circumstances with the principles, and stories of His Word. This flows out of a real passion for God’s Word.
The Word of God cannot be an object of periodic consultation or even study for the sake of gaining theological knowledge only. You must see it as what you eat for the purpose of living in the revelation of Christ abiding within you. Shalom