Prophetic? Pathetic?

The last few weekends at church the focus has been on the “prophetic”, and last Sunday the church hosted a service which was designed to allow people to participate in and practice the ideology of the prophetic. The service was split into three sections, each catering to a different group. First section was geared towards the corporate body, and as people had a word directed towards the church as a whole, they shared publicly from the stage. The second section was more individual in nature, with several “prophetic” teams consisting mostly of elders, pastoral staff, and a few others. Those in the congregation were invited to come to one of the teams and be ministered to.  The third section was along the same lines, in that it provided opportunity for anyone in the congregation to share with anyone else.  The worship team (which I was a part of) played during the service, lending ambience and vibe to the proceedings.

I have to say that the service was a little difficult for me.  I will confess that I’m fairly unfamiliar with the “prophetic” movement, and what little I know of it is tied to very negative experiences from the early 90s when the Vineyard movement in Ontario was just starting. Most of these experiences were uncomfortable, mainly consisting of people praying for me to receive some gift of the Holy Spirit, be it tongues, or prophesying, or something else; and the prerequisite for receiving this gift seemed to be a posture of faking it, yelling, speaking complete gibberish, and generally making a grand show of oneself. I have always been a firm believer that the Holy Spirit is a gentleman, and not prone to show-boating or requiring acts of public humiliation to draw near to Him and receive gifts from Him. Thus, when people browbeat me and said that I wasn't willing to act the way they saw fit, I withdrew and decided that I was quite content with all of the other great gifts the Holy Spirit had imparted to me. In fact, I have come to the conclusion more recently that I am having a difficult enough time being faithful with the gifts and talents that I already have, so I don’t really need to seek out adding others.

At this point, I’m certain it sounds like I have a big problem with prophetic ministry. In truth, I don’t at all. I have a problem when people attempt to package and formulate and REPLICATE the work of the Holy Spirit. When the Lord moves in someone’s life, it is a wonderful thing. I suppose it is reasonable to expect that others would want to replicate the experience, but I believe that sells one quite short of what God has in store for them. When a person receives a word of encouragement from the Holy Spirit for another person, or for a group of people, it is a very awesome thing, and it is always accompanied by guidance, direction, and confirmation. But when a person attempts to regurgitate that word in a different setting, for a different group, it has the potential to divert their attention from the Giver of the gift to the gift itself. This is not only wrong, but it’s sad, too, because often times people are so focused on what God said to another person that they miss what God is saying to them!

I have had to defend the gift of prophecy at times, too. Perhaps the main forum has been in my own mind, although I have had many conversations with others who are totally turned off by anything prophetic. The gift of prophecy, foresight, intuition, discernment, reading another’s “mail”, etc., can be an amazing thing when it is given and received in the way the Holy Spirit intends. It brings conviction to the sinner, encouragement to the down-trodden, and life to the dying. I do not claim to be a theologian, or a scholar, or anything of the sort. I am only stating my opinion and position on prophetic ministry. What I have learned and observed is this: when a word comes truly from the Lord, its ultimate end is to give glory to God. It does not destroy, break down, embarrass, single out, condemn, or deride. The work of the prophetic is to challenge, convict, encourage, edify, build up, restore, and reconcile all to God. This has been my litmus test for many different words of prophecy, spoken not only to me, but to others as well.

With that in mind, I am reflecting back on our service last Sunday. There was some weirdness, certainly, but there was actually a lot of encouragement. There were strange visions shared, and there were words given which seemed out of place and ill-suited for the setting. But God is a lot bigger than our ability to mess up, thankfully, which is why I find myself excited about the potential of prophetic ministry at our church. I’m grateful for a staff that, despite their own misgivings, is willing to wade into the river and risk the bad to get to the good. Because while the bad stuff sucks, and can be distracting and divisive; the good stuff is REALLY good!