I’ve noticed recently when scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed, just how often many are re-posting prophetic encouragement and promises in regular frequency, tons of it, and sometimes as though anything is up for grabs that we might want to see manifest in our lives. If any of these prophetic words released to the general Body resonate with us individually in some way, and there is truly a promise the Holy Spirit is highlighting to any one of us, then surely we must treat them with the degree of stewardship they deserve? I’m certainly not saying there’s anything amiss with the notion that the Lord would speak to an individual through a public prophetic word – because in my experience He certainly can speak this way! I’ve been blessed myself lately by a couple of prophetic words released by great people – Lana Vawser, Graham Cooke, and Jennifer Eivaz, to name a few. But I’m wanting to encourage us here into searching His heart and intentions more prayerfully and purposefully, instead of the fly-by-wire approach of a fleeting ‘feel-good’ moment, when in fact the Lord might have something far greater for us to receive.
We expect the Holy Spirit to speak in those moments where a scripture might ‘jump’ off the pages of our bible, and it’s an invitation to discover what He is saying through that promise. We can also expect Him to use others, and some of these prophetic words released into the Body publicly can be a tremendous opportunity to walk into upgrades He is wanting to bring into our lives.
I would like to suggest that there is more available to us than the momentary enjoyment of reading a word, re-posting on our Facebook status, and feeling a little encouragement for a few seconds. So this isn’t about arbitrarily naming and claiming it/blabbing and grabbing it, with absolutely any ‘word’ that sounds nice to our soul. There truly is an enormous buffet out there at times, and it would seem that some of these words can have a greater degree of accuracy and of God’s heart expressed in them than others have. So as we read prophecies, where the messenger ‘sees in part and prophecies in part’, we are always considering that aspect of processing any prophetic word as well.
But the consideration I’m thinking about at present is that we are not just wanting to pick and choose the prophetic words we want to fill our plate with, so to speak, that appeal to our soul but doesn’t actually grow us up into maturity. The Lord gives us prophetic words to edify, exhort, and encourage. He gives us the prophetic word, so when the opposite happens in our circumstances, we have a promise from Him to hold onto that is truth and we can partner with Him in becoming who He intended us to be in the process of seeing that word come to pass.
What we want to look at doing more intentionally, when a certain prophetic word ‘jumps’ out to us, is to take it away and steward its outworking in our lives with the Holy Spirit. Perhaps if we do this, we won’t feel quite the same need to grab every little bite of just about anything that sounds good! We can actually mine just a few specific words that the Lord truly highlights to us that contain something for us to inherit.
Here’s a general process I followed when I read a general prophetic word a couple of months ago and felt the witness to my spirit that the Lord has something to me to receive through it.
First, I acknowledged that I believed Holy Spirit was speaking, and in seeking His confirmation a friend e-mailed it to me the next day saying she felt this was for me also. Thank you Lord!
Secondly, the process in unpacking a prophetic word involves communion with the Holy Spirit, asking questions, and expecting His reply. Because it’s a general prophetic word to the Body, not all parts of it will necessarily hold the same weight as other parts. So prayerfully work through each phrase and sentence, asking the Holy Spirit to highlight the promises He is wanting to bring you.
Using a few phrases from a prophetic word that the Lord spoke to my heart recently, here is how I ask questions as I unpack a word:
“I saw the things that were dead in our lives, promises of God we have given up on, dreams that have died, areas of our heart that have been overcome by fear and doubt, places where we feel life has been sucked out.”
What are my promises? Where are you resurrecting dreams in my life? What areas have I allowed fear to come into, knowingly or unknowingly? How can I displace fear with the truth of your love? What is the fruit of the Spirit you are producing in my life at present? Who I am becoming as I move forward towards this word and into seeing the fullness of what you have for me to receive in it?
“As the agreement between His people and heaven collided, resurrection hope began to manifest. The Lord is inviting us into a deeper realm of faith to hear the sound of resurrection hope before we SEE anything.”
What are you inviting me into? What is in the deeper realm of faith for me to discover about your nature and character? What do you have on your heart for me to ‘see’?
“This is NOT a time to GIVE up, it is a time to STAND UP and COME UP!”
How am I to stand? What aspect of your nature are you highlighting to me at present? What does it look like to come up where you are? What are you seeing from a higher ‘altitude’? What scriptures are you highlighting in conjunction with this word?
So I hope this blesses you and encourages you to ask questions of the Lord, and also to explore the possibilities with hearing His heart for you.
In Him,
fromtheendsoftheearth.com 