Activating Part 1 - Prophecy

Activating Prophecy

I have written before about activating prophecy but it seems the message has yet to get through, or penetrate the deep theological and doctrinal objections to anything prophetic. So, I believe the Lord is calling me once again to encourage people to not ignore what little or lots of prophecy that happens to come their way.

One of the main issues with prophecy is that people don’t understand it well enough to act upon it. There is also a credibility gap to hurdle, and there is a vast amount of ignorance as to what exactly to do with a prophetic word. I may be teaching Granny to suck eggs here, but please bear with me and allow me to open up my very own “Beginners Guide to Receiving Prophecy”.

What is prophecy? – Prophecy is either a revelation of something now or, more commonly, it is a revelation of something for the future. It is not telling your future, more of a telling you what God has in store for you IF certain things happen. It has no time limit.

The first thing is to somehow record it and write it down. This is of great importance and ensures accuracy of reporting and of memory. It is essential to be clear when recording prophecy so as to be able to pray about it accurately.

All prophecy must line up with the Word of God. If it doesn’t it isn’t from God so it must be tested against scripture. A prophecy will never go against either God’s written word or His spoken word. God’s Word is true and so is prophecy.

Next, it is essential to pray about it. Ask God for confirmation, particularly if it is something new. Prophecy only rarely speaks into the future other than to confirm things you have heard, or dreamed about, or thought about before. If it is a new prophecy, then the Bible says to get it confirmed by two or three witnesses before acting on it. If confirming things, prophecy is often stunningly accurate in revealing things that have never been spoken about or revealed to anyone other than the one receiving the prophetic word.

Too often, this is the end of prophecy because people to whom we prophesy frequently sit back and just wait for the prophecy to happen. It very rarely does until one receives it – takes it on board as God’s will for our lives - then believes it for oneself. Only when we receive it and believe it can we pray for it to happen as prophesied, and only then will God activate it and cause it to come to pass. I find it amazing how so many people receive the prophecy then, having done nothing whatsoever about it, complain that it didn’t happen and must have been false.

This step is the “If .... then” step which governs all prophecy. If we do certain things, then God will do certain things as outlined in the prophetic word. The “if”, for us, is to weigh the word against scripture, to receive the word, to believe the word, and to pray the word into being. The Bible calls this latter, ‘calling things into being that were not.’ (Romans 4:17)

Having said all of this, it may now be an idea to recall, or ask God to remind you, of all previous prophecies that we have received so that they can be activated. It is never too late to enter into a call God made on your life – no matter how long ago this may have been.

If God gave you his prophetic word, it is good for as long as it takes for it to happen – provided we play our part too.