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my Prophetic Process

My Prophetic Process

I honestly wish I could say that I learned to be a prophet of mercy through reading the Scriptures or through some powerful God encounter, but unfortunately that would not be true. The urgency I carry for this subject is because I have seen the damage caused not only by the self-commissioned prophets of judgment I mentioned, but by a prophet whom I know well—me. Before Kathy and I moved to Redding in 1998, we lived in a small town called Weaverville nestled in the Trinity Alps. Bill Johnson was senior pastor of our little church called Mountain Chapel for seventeen of those years. Danny Silk became the senior pastor of Mountain Chapel after Bill and Beni left to become the senior leaders of Bethel Church.

The first sermon Danny ever preached at Mountain Chapel was a message about offense and forgiveness in the Body of Christ. At the end of his message, he told the people that if they had something against anyone in the room, they needed to go to that person right then and reconcile. There were about two hundred people in church that morning. I looked around and saw nobody going to anyone. I thought, What great relationships our people have with one another. Then I looked behind me, and to my complete surprise, I saw a line of people extending out the front door of the building and leading up to my seat. They were all waiting to talk to me. One by one, they told me of the destruction I had caused in their lives over many years through my prophetic ministry.

It was painful as people recounted to me scenes that sounded like battle sequences from the movie Braveheart. But this was not a movie, nor was it a bad dream. No, it was my prophetic ministry. My prophetic words were almost always accurate, but they were also destructive, harsh and often given in the wrong spirit. I had made it my practice to call out people’s sins, and it mattered not that I struggled with some of the same things. Not only were my words negative; I would often share them in church or in a group of people.

I had no idea how I was affecting the people I loved. That afternoon, somewhere around 3 p.m., I finally figured it out. I sat there for nearly three hours painfully and tearfully hearing each person’s offense, until it finally occurred to me something was not right in me! I received what we affectionately call a “revelation bump.” It took me months to process through all my pain, grief and regret. I sought the Lord earnestly through lots of sleepless nights and many tears. I relentlessly poured over the Scriptures like a thirsty man looking for water, determined to understand the heart of God for this wonderful call He had put on my life.

As days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, I finally came to the conclusion that prophetic ministry, like every other ministry in the Kingdom, should be rooted in love. I came to understand that prophecy, as well as every other gift of the Spirit, is one of the love languages of God. Now I know the reason why 1 Corinthians 13—the most important exhortation on love in the entire Bible—is sandwiched between the main chapters on the gifts of the Spirit. That is what the supernatural ministry of the New Covenant is all about. As verse 8 of that love chapter says, “Love never fails.”