Born to Prophesy Read online

  Born to Prophesy: God’s Voice Speaking Through You has been written to upgrade those who have been taught cessationist teaching, which denies the continuation of contemporary apostles after the death of the apostles, including Paul. They believe that the charismatic gifts ceased in the first century and were replaced by the Holy Canon of the New Testament Scriptures. This type of theological doctrine has caused many believers also to deny present-day apostles and prophets and the full restoration of these ministry offices in the church today. Moreover, I wanted this book to be an exhaustive study of the gift of prophecy's function and operation in a believer's life and to give practical, foundational teaching that every bornagain, Spirit-filled believer can pursue to prophesy and embrace a prophetic culture. It is not God's desire that a believer pursue solely prophecies but to pursue, covet, or desire to prophesy according to 1 Corinthians 14:1.

  Born to Prophesy: God's Voice Speaking Through You shines light on the gift of prophecy and the fact that God's still speaks today and desires to speak through the believer. Moreover, this book is unique in that it differentiates itself from other books written on the prophetic topic of the residential gift of prophecy because it's not only a book but becomes a spiritual one-on-one coach, point of reference, mentor, and resource center while inspiring, encouraging, activating, motivating, challenging, and equipping the reader to arise as God's unique voice in the earth. I have completed this book through countless times of fasting and praying, hours of research, studying, meditation, frustration, and tears, as well as with much encouragement from pioneering fathers in the prophetic and apostolic, such as Prophet Bob Jones, Apostle John Eckhardt, Dr. Bill Hamon, C. Peter Wagner, and others who have inspired me to continue to write and be a father and reproducer of reproducers to my generation. I truly honor them all.

  The reader will finish the book empowered with the necessary tools, insight, education and understanding of how to discover and identify their own prophetic calling, identity, potential, Holy Spirit–given supernatural gifts, and God's eternal purpose. This book is relevant and will meet the reader’s need and hunger, which will ignite their faith, zeal, strength, and boldness to operate in the prophetic ministry. It's a simple read, and it's not an exhaustive, in-depth study of the office a prophet but an overview of the gift of prophecy and those desiring to prophesy. This book will help the reader in fulfilling their God-given, God-born desire, call, and dream. As the secular market has Harry Potter books, the occult, and New Age, which are popular, this book has the prophetic advantage and edge to be a launching pad for those who are just starting out in the prophetic. I pray that as you read this book you are challenged, inspired, educated, and encouraged to step out in faith and prophesy with power, boldness, and love in Christ for future generations. I take the reader through my personal prophetic journey to help him or her fulfill his own.

  INTRODUCTION

  Living a Prophetic Lifestyle

  WHEN WE THINK about prophets, what comes to mind? Typically, people may think that prophets are some weird, strange, spooky, mystical, and mysterious individuals from another planet who have been alienated from the world scene and show up suddenly like a super hero to save the world. Or they may see them as some bald-headed, hunchbacked, Igor-looking men with a word of doom, gloom, and judgment. There are some people who may believe that prophets are loners or lone rangers hidden in the obscurity of a cave or on a rock cliff until the time of release to speak a “thus saith the Lord.” They walk around as the only “voice” in the wilderness, like John the Baptist, eating wild honey, locusts, and wearing irritating apparel made out of camel’s hair. Also there are those who believe that prophets operate on the same level as psychics. Regardless of the many unusual and misunderstood perceptions of prophets, we must understand this ministry gift is nothing more than ordinary people speaking extraordinary words from the Lord. There are true prophets of the living God, and there are also false prophets of other gods or deities.

  Furthermore, when we think about prophecy, what comes to mind? People may equate prophecy with prophets, psychics, or some famous fifteenth-century French occultist seer from France called Nostradamus. His real name was Michel de Nostradame, and his predications of the end of the world and other future events became world acclaimed; however, his prophecies were based solely on judicial astrology. Some people may think that prophecy is imminent events that will soon happen, whether it’s personal, corporate, or geographical.

  Ignorance can make the prophetic spooky, mystical, mysterious, and insane. But the prophetic nature and function is simply the mind, counsel, and heart of God expressed and communicated to His people, present and future. There’s nothing demonic about the prophetic nature of the Spirit of God, but there are those who are false prophets, who are demonic and operate in charismatic witchcraft, which is idolatry and sin. We must understand that prophets and prophecy are God’s idea and concept and not man’s. We should not reject His voice through anointed prophets and prophetic people. I believe that every born-again believer who is filled with the Spirit can learn to hear the voice of God, speak the voice of God, and become the voice of the Lord in the earth.

  The biblical term prophecy as it relates to prophets has been limited to only prophets or a chosen few of the Old Testament, but God desires that every Holy Spirit–filled believer, through regeneration of the Spirit, possess an innate gift to prophesy as His mouthpiece. Biblically, we are admonished to be zealous of spiritual gifts and excel in the edification of the church. (See 1 Corinthians 14:12.) The prophetic is a ministry of construction not destruction. Prophecy has three main operations: biblically, foundationally, and functionally, which is edification, exhortation and comfort. This should be the prophetic DNA of any believer desiring to function in the prophetic realm. God still speaks today and will raise up a people who will declare His mind, will, and eternal purpose in the Earth.

  For Moses said, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you.”

  —ACTS 3:22

  Moses declared to the people prophetically that God was going to raise up a prophet like himself among His people and put His words in his mouth (Deut. 18:18). Jesus was that prophet that God was going to raise up. Jesus was the greater Moses, and He would be the one who would deliver His people and bring salvation, deliverance, healing, restoration and reconciliation. He would be the one that would fulfill what was written and spoken out of the mouth of His holy prophets.

  God will raise up in every generation holy men and women who have been anointed by the Spirit to speak as anointed oracles of the Lord. They will have the unction by the Holy Spirit to prophesy words that bring salvation, transformation, restoration, liberty, healing, deliverance, breakthroughs, and jubilee.

  There are people who believe that they have to feel Holy Ghost goose bumps, get knocked on the floor, or receive a sovereign visitation from Gabriel, the messenger angel of the Lord, to prophesy. We should not make prophecy or speaking words of edification, exhortation, and comfort as difficult as it already may seem. It doesn’t take any of that type of affect to prophesy, but through the Holy Spirit by faith we should open up our mouth and encourage those who we relate to by prophesying in the love of Christ. I have heard people who lack faith say, “I only speak if there is an unction,” but we must understand that when we received the infilling of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is the anointed Holy Spirit sent by the Father; if a believer possesses the Holy Spirit, then we can by faith speak holy, anointed words to build up the body of Christ both individually and corporately. It takes faith, not intellect or a natural feeling.

  God wants to develop and establish a prophetic culture and lifestyle in the believer. A prophetic culture is simply the behaviors, values, paradigms, beliefs, worldviews, and ways of life of an obedient believer or child of God. We are a covenant people and His new covenant church. We are a people who know our God and will do great exploits. That
being said, we must be prophetic by nature. New covenant believers have been birthed and transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light (Col. 1:13). We are a people of revelation, relationship, and covenant with our King.

  The words of our King are resident in the believer. We have been birthed out of prophecies or prophetic prayers; there was a need for you to be born in the time that you were born. God spoke you into being, not by accident but on purpose. You are a prophecy fulfilled because God said, “Let it be,” and you came forth out of your father and mother; so, you are a personal prophecy that was fulfilled for your generation. God’s word does not return unto Him void, but accomplishes what He sent it out to do (Isa. 55:11).

  A person’s belief system is what changes their culture. In other words, people are what they believe. We must live a prophetic lifestyle that is pleasing to the Lord. What am I saying? As new covenant believers we are a people who know our God intimately, knowing His voice and leading. We speak what He says and do what we see the Father doing (John 5:19). Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me” (John 10:14).

  Relationships are a key to moving in the spirit of prophecy, which is connected to a prophetic lifestyle or culture. Anyone who desires to prophesy should find a prophet or company of prophets, whether it’s a prophetic church, schools of the prophets, or a leadership prophetic team to train, help, and equip them to become prophetic in nature. There is a saying, “Birds of a feather flock together,” or, said another way, “You are the company you keep.” As covenant keepers, we should aim to have in our circle of activity and influence prophets and prophetic people who understand the role, function, operation, and integrity of this ministry.

  In Samuel 10:10, there is an example of Saul the king coming in contact with the prophetic spirit via a band of minstrel prophets. In that instance the Spirit of the Lord, which is a prophetic spirit, came on Saul, and he prophesied like the prophets. The same spirit of prophecy by the Lord came upon Jahaziel in the midst of an assembly, and he prophesied also in 2 Chronicles 20:12–17. The point I am making is that just about anyone can prophesy! When there is a prophetic atmosphere or environment that has been established by the believer through fasting, praying, extreme worship, praise, and unity, the heavens will open, and God’s presence will drop in a place and on His people; they will prophesy by the Spirit. I call it heavenly or glory prophecy. We should be passionately hungry for prophetic manna and bread from heaven. Jesus was called the Bread of Life (John 6:35). The prophetic is heavenly bread that brings life.

  A prophetic lifestyle is a culture that believes in the supernatural, modern-day prophets, prophecy, apostles, and the gifts of the Spirit. If one does not believe in the modern-day prophetic ministry, then how can one function prophetically by the Holy Spirit today? We must receive these ministry gifts of apostles and prophets, which are vital for the health and growth of the church, because they are the foundational building gifts set in the church (Eph. 2:20).

  The prophetic also can deal with damage control in a local church as well. The prophet’s ministry is described by the Hebrew word shamar. In his book God Still Speaks, Apostle John Eckhardt defines the word shamar as, “to hedge about (as with thorns), to guard, to protect, to watch, and to keep. The word shamar is first used in Scripture in Genesis 2:15, where Adam is told to keep (shamar) the garden. It is also mentioned in Genesis 4:9, where Cain asks God if he is his brother’s keeper (shamar).”1

  The prophetic should be governed just as the prophet’s ministry governs in the church. In the New Testament church of Corinth, they were very gifted but lacked the apostolic government to bring balance to the gifts that were at work in this local assembly. God wants His people and the local church to establish a prophetic culture, identity, and DNA. In every local church or assembly the voice of the Lord should be heard. Churches, ministries and organizations that do not embrace the prophetic ministry, prophecy, and prophets are denying the governmental voice and direction of the Lord.

  The Bible says, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams” (Acts 2:17). The outpouring of the Spirit of God was not limited to and did not cease in the first century or at the end of the Old Covenant age, but God will continue to bring change and pour out His prophetic Spirit on those who desire to shift and be conduits of His prophetic glory. God passionately desires to continue to raise up prophetic people and a prophetic generation that will herald His voice to the nations of the world.

  The gift of prophecy is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and it is given to those whom God chooses to give it to. It is not based on merit or on earning it, but it is based on the grace of God. However, Scripture gives us some indication that if we earnestly desire and ask for this gift, He might very well give it to us (1 Cor. 14:1). God wants us to be prophetic by nature and live a prophetic lifestyle, meaning to walk in prophetic integrity, honor, and dignity. We should not be people of words only but of demonstration. The gift of prophecy is a gift, and God wants the gift to be respected, honored, received, and used for His glory and purpose.

  The prophetic culture is a culture that is characterized by a particular social group or organization, and it can be defined as a way of daily activity of a group of people that is governed by their own behaviors, beliefs systems, core values, and symbols that they may embrace as their own without realizing it. I am reminded of someone that isn’t from New York City who suddenly decides they want to move there, but they have an accent from the southern city of Atlanta. After this person migrates to New York City from Atlanta, Georgia, and lives there for several years, when that person comes back home, people will begin to hear a difference in that person’s speech or accent. What I am saying is when this person who has an Atlanta accent moves to New York City, their accent changes even if they don’t realize it. The person will adapt to the environment that they live in, or the culture. Most New Yorkers are fast-paced people, while southerners are more laid back and hospitable. This person became a part of the culture of New York City without noticing it themselves, while others can see that their speech, dialect, and accent altered to more of a New Yorker than that of a down-south city of Atlanta accent.

  The prophetic culture can only happen when we shift our attitudes, beliefs, values, understanding of the prophetic gift and by faith live in that realm of the supernatural that allows us to speak for God. Every culture has different paradigms and belief systems. One belief system or worldview will affect how one does things and lives. Traditional or religious cultures and lifestyles have been accepted and adopted over many centuries; there are ways, belief systems, rituals, teachings of men, or doctrines that have been passed down generationally. Sadly, people easily accept and embrace these without further personal research and study of the Word of God to find out the truth and the answer to why people do what they do and believe what they believe.

  The prophetic is nothing new or should not be misunderstood when its function and emphasis is so heavily outlined throughout the Bible. The Bible is a prophetic book written by inspired, holy men who were prophets and apostles of the old and new covenant. If these men and women of old were prophetic by nature and lifestyle, then we as new covenant people should follow the same patterns of those who heard the voice of God, spoke His words, witnessed His supernatural acts, and became His voice to their generation. God wants to speak through you and use your unique voice to share His heart to His people.

  The nation of Israel, God’s chosen people, was a unique people and a set-apart race that had their own type of culture. Their lifestyle represented the God they believed, valued, and obeyed. They were distinct from other pagan cultures, which were considered foreigners. God’s people were a special race and a chosen culture that reflected a special God, who was the only true and living God. As we are in times of restoration, there were many movements of old that brou
ght dramatic changes, and present, restored truth became prevalent. The prophetic is not a secret but a restored truth. Many cessationist teachers remove contemporary prophets and apostles after the death of the original twelve apostles of the Lamb, including Paul. These teachers are just modern-day Sadducees who do not believe in the supernatural or the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the twenty-first century there are modern-day Sadducees who do not believe in the supernatural, miracles, gifts of the Spirit, prophecy, etc. I see why they were “sad you see” (Sadd-u-cee). The apostolic in the new covenant came to bring culture change to the way traditional leadership was doing things during the first century. They were living a religious lifestyle that was a culture of tradition, legalism, and pride. Unfortunately, the nation of Israel embraced many of the traditions of the Mosaic Law, which was bonded by circumcision (Acts 15).