Prophecy: A Nuclear Weapon

I am reading an amazing book right now called Spirit Wars by Kris Vallotton, a pastor at Bethel in Redding, CA.  You have heard me mention this church before as it is playing a vital role in my spiritual growth in this season.

The past five weeks have been rough.  I went from working 20-30 hours a week to working 60 hours a week.  For the first time in my mom career, I am working full time plus.  I started a new exercise program that has me at my workout at 5:30 which means getting up at 4.  I confess, that 4 wake up only happened a couple of times, which meant my quiet times didn't happen.  You don't maintain a relationship without feeding it!  The longer I went without my extended quiet times, the more despair crept in!  I could feel it, I went through my weapons of warfare, but couldn't shake it...until Sunday.

Kris says this:
"Prophecy is like a nuclear weapon in the hands of a believer.  It is important that we embrace the kind of prophetic culture that calls out our destiny and reminds us of God's work in our lives.  If we despise, reject or do not believe in prophecy, we play into the enemy's hands by laying down a vitally important weapon of our warfare."

Amen! My breakthrough came through a prophetic word delivered by our Pastor this weekend!  I have never sat under a pastor like Jeremy, my current pastor.  He is "pastor" in every sense of the word.  He is not perfect as no one is perfect, but he is an anointed pastor and understands like no one I have ever met what it means to shepherd his flock!  Several times since we started going to LifeHouse, Jeremy has come to us and said, when I was praying for you, God said.....  This weekend was one of those times.  He had been at a conference this week and had spent time praying for his flock.  There were a couple of families whom God spoke to him about directly, and we were one of them.  He called us up during church yesterday and spoke the Word over us and prayed for us.

If you have never seen someone operate in the prophetic, you may not fully understand what I am talking about here.  Let me challenge you to find a church where the gifts are practiced and watch when the prophetic ministry occurs.  Ask God to reveal the prophetic ministry to you. Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 all talk about prophecy as a spiritual gift.  Remember, I was not a believer in the spiritual gifts even five years ago.  However, God placed me in battles that required all He had for me to fight with or I would have lost!  Prophecy is one of those weapons!  And this weekend it sliced through the doubt, the guilt, the frustration, the anger with God when no other weapon in my arsenal had seemed to make a dent.

The Word Jeremy spoke was exactly what John and I are facing.  It was basically that we are carrying a "wide load" and that it is taking longer than we thought because we are having to take back roads, but if we keep moving forward and pressing on, there will be a great "payday" when we get there.  That doesn't necessarily mean financial, but just that we must run the race as one who wants the price as Paul said it.

I wish I could describe what happened inside of me as Jeremy spoke.  But I can't really put it to words other than to say it encouraged me!  It showed me that God had heard my cries and had given someone with flesh and blood a way to encourage me in my state of confusion and frustration! It silenced the voices that even then I knew were the enemy taunting me.

Prophecy is such a vital tool in the life of anyone who is engaged in a life sold out for Christ! It is the encouragement to keep running the race because when people who know nothing about your circumstances speak exactly what is happening and then tell you the outcome, you have the strength, the courage and the authority to keep moving until you see that outcome to fruition!  Read Joshua 1:6-9 and see how God encouraged Joshua for the road he was about to walk.  That is how prophecy works in today's world.

I was reminded yesterday of what God told me when we were struggling with leaving our former church.  Let me stop here and say I am in no way putting down or former church, in fact, without the teaching and training we received at that Body, I would not be in the place to receive what happened yesterday!  I was a huge skeptic of all supernatural things when we fist started attending our former church.  God used the amazing teachers there to bring me to the place where I could receive what my current church has to offer.  Our former church had a man who was part of the church affiliation that Body belonged to.  He would come a few times a year.  It was amazing to see him operate in the prophetic.  He was the first person I ever saw do that, and it was inspiring, encouraging, intriguing....I could go on and on.  He (even though he was only there a few times a year and had no idea who I was!) was one of the reasons I wrestled with God over moving churches.  God had placed it on our hearts to leave, but I kept wanting to return to what was comfortable.  During one of my wrestling matches with God over leaving the church, I reminded him of this man who brought great encouragement to me (even though I never received a direct prophecy from him...ever!).  God's answer was very straightforward: "Do you want a man who prophesies or a congregation who prophesies?"  I thought of that yesterday and I had to laugh!  Since attending Lifehouse, I have had numerous Words of encouragement and prophecy spoken over me.  And they always came at the moment when I wasn't sure which direction to turn or when I wasn't sure I could last one more day in my current circumstances.  Then the Word would come and put the circumstances in the perspective they belonged, and the joy returns!

If you are not familiar with prophecy, do some research!  Dig into the Word!  Ask God to reveal His Truth about it...and then find a church that allows the gifts to be used! If you have questions, I may not have the answer, but I will put you in touch with some amazing people who do or I can give you a list or resources that have been helpful to me as I wrestled through my traditional thinking that caused me to doubt what was fairly clear in scripture.  And if you are in the Midland area, come check out Lifehouse Fellowship!  It's not a perfect church, but it is a church where the Spirit moves and is allowed to dictate the order of the service!  I will have to tell you more about the service yesterday another time!  It was amazing! Or come check it out for yourself this Wednesday at 7 - come at 6:30 if you want pizza before service!