Practicing Life

Since my husband and I moved back to my home town I have worked full time.  This has left me feeling out of touch with ministry.  But today someone contacted me by email for a dream interpretation.  I agreed to pray over this gentleman’s dream, and we talked over the phone.  It was a time of ministry on my part, and when we hung up I had the sense that my prior feelings of being out of touch were not based on the truth.

Later in the day I had a quiet time, and the Lord reminded me that, up to today, I had believed I could not function in my prior giftings.  He then said I had done well.  These are the words that I’d like to pass on to all those who have not ministered for a while;

“The gift is from Me, through you.  I am always able to function,” said the Lord.  “Your life is a course the keeps you spiritually in shape.  It is not the gift that you have to practice; it is the keeping of My word.”

Please be encouraged that the Lord can and will work through you, even if you are not actively engaged in your usual ministry.  Keeping God’s word by living our lives in a godly manner conditions us for the most important events that mark our paths.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,” (Heb 12:1)

Prophesying

The other night I had a dream wherein I was with a group of 5 ladies, with a 6^th lady as a ministry leader.  They met in church, and it was my first time to join them.  The women were deciding on which direction to take their ministry.  As they talked, I said the word “stop.”  They continued asking for input on their ministry work and in a little bit I reminded them that the “stop” was what the Lord was leading me to say.

Each of the 5 women got up and stood in a line up front and began to speak with smiles on their faces. The first said “yes, but you would say ‘stop’ nicely.” Each of the 4 that followed her said similar things, while the leader came over and whispered imperceptibly into my ear.  I told her I couldn’t hear her twice, so she left to write down what she had to say.  When she returned, the dream ended.

This dream has to do with prophetic ministry.  The word “stop” was to let the ladies know that prophecy does not come from men but that those who prophesy are led by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet 1:20-21). The Lord does not want us to decide how to prophesy, or where or when.

The 5 ladies represent the 5 foolish virgins.  They were being foolish in going ahead of the Lord instead of abiding alongside the Lord as a wife would do.  Some ministries feel compelled to publish prophecy everyday, when in reality, the Lord may not give something He wants us to share each day.  The 5 ladies were also foolish in stating that “stop”, or any word of the Lord should be spoken nicely.  Sometimes what the Lord has to say is a warning, such as a coming flood.  Or a rebuke, as when someone is living in sin.  Though we want to be filled with God’s grace, we also are to represent Him when delivering His words and not “sugar-coat” them, which would confuse the message.

The leader spoke imperceptively. Our messages from the Lord need to be clear.  Paul writes that we must speak “intelligible” words with our tongues (1 Cor 14:9) or the listener will not gain understanding. In my dream, the leader had no reason to whisper except she was being deceptive, and that reveals her nature as a deceiving spirit.

We know that in the “last” days there will be deceiving spirits released.  The leader in my dream represents a spirit of false prophecy. Our enemy seeks to pollute God’s words by encouraging men to speak their own words in His name.  There are many prophecies published and spoken that have their origins in men and not God.  Jeremiah prophesied about this problem, saying “because every man’s word becomes his oracle, and so you distort the words of the Living God, the Lord Almighty, Our God.” (Jer 23:36).  The Lord actually asked those who prophesied their own words to “stop” saying they were oracles of the Lord.

Those who prophesy must be patient, not generating words from themselves that they say are from the Lord.  We also must be submissive to the nature of the prophecy, not seeking to be received as “nice” by those whom we speak to.  The Lord had this to speak to Jeremiah about false prophets: “But if they had stood in My council, they would have proclaimed My words to My people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds.” (Jer 23:22). Speaking on behalf of God is not going to generate popularity; it is going to bear the good fruit God intends His words to accomplish. Amen.  Let us be so faithful that we not only know when to speak, but when not to.  May our words be pure and our intentions right.