Genesis 1:1-3 (KJV)
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
This is part two of a series that I taught last week titled: Getting a Prophetic Vantage Point. Biblical prophecy is God communicating His thoughts and intents to all of mankind. We need to understand that Jesus was heaven's thoughts, words, principles, plans and patterns for living as described in a book that I read by Dr. Bill Hamon.We have all witnessed over the years of how the integrity of the,"God said" has fallen into goofy displays of immaturity to which people attribute to the prophetic. In fact, there was a time when someone in the church would experience the unction to give a prophetic message and there would be a holy hush among the congregation as a show of respect and a desire to hear what God had to say. But you will be hard pressed to find that kind of reverence today. As a matter of fact, you will discover in today's spirit-filled church community the more strange it is the more anointing the people attribute it to being of God. Immaturity cannot breed maturity no matter how it may look or sound. Therefore, the prophetic has developed in the eyes of many with disdain and disrespect because of the out-right silliness that so many presume to be the prophetic when actually they just don't understand it. However, I'm not here to argue that point, but rather that you might experience the power of the prophetic as it should be in every believer's life.
Keep in mind that it was Jesus who rent the veil that kept us from seeing and hearing God up close and personal. Before that time, the Spirit of God would move on certain individuals and He would declare something significant through them to His people or His enemies and then it would lift off of His messengers. In other words, the Spirit did not indwell them permanently as He does today. The prophetic is very dear to the heart of God which is why it is so often counterfeited by the devil so as to pollute its credibility in the world.
Therefore, there are many Christian camps or groups out there that simply spend all of their time dissecting and disproving the prophetic voice as being non-relevant in light of the fact that we now have the written Word; and that the prophetic voice is of little use today because of the Bible. What this has essentially done is stifled the power of a "now" or "Rhema" word from God from coming forth. This is why so many churches are just meeting places that shout out theological thesis that describe godliness through works, rules, and religious dogma...but lacks the life giving power to bring real change to the people's hearts. These are just facilitators of intellectual discussions about God as the main subject to which they meet each week and talk about and nothing more.
However, God is still a "now" speaking God that releases dreams and visions and who continues to use a still small voice to speak to the hearts of men and women of this present day that we live. The Bible is the "logos" which means a permanent record of God's promises and thoughts that will never pass away even though the earth and heavens will. If we look at the word "Rhema" according to Vine's Expository Dictionary it will give us a deeper meaning to why the prophetic voice is so important. Vine's describes Rhema as a "word from a word." In other words, when we speak under the unction or influence of the Holy Ghost who always declares from the context of the Word...we will draw out of that Word of God a freshness of its revelation which awakens our spirit to its revelatory voice, and we will declare it with our own mouth as though God had just spoken it for the very first time. If we allow the apostolic and prophetic to be removed than we will remove our spiritual DNA.
Ephesians 2:19-22 (KJV)
19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Sadly, the church today ignores or remains inconsistent to their prophetic foundation because they have resorted to hiring CEO's or motivational speakers to run the church instead of the God honoring and fearless men and women who will stand up and speak what God is saying. If we look at the life of John the Baptist you will see that he was a prophet sent by God to prepare the way of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and His ministry. If you will stop and give this some serious thought as to what the Scriptures teach...you might also realize that we too as God's prophets should be preparing ourselves and others for His second coming as well. We are commanded to go and make disciples in all the world until He returns. Instead, we are just holding weekly meetings where we try to keep people under our particular local ministries. No! We need to be equipping and releasing them to go into all the world prepared and loaded with the prophetic voice that you have taught and introduced them to. If we look over in the book of Hebrews we will find a passage that so describes where much of the church has decided to anchor itself in the old. Hebrews 4:2 tells us that the gospel was preached to those of old just as it has been preached to us today, but the word preached did not profit them, because it was not mixed with faith when they heard it.
In other words, what this is saying, is if the Word declares that by the 39 stripes that Jesus bore on His back was for our healing...then there should be a Rhema (a word from a word) that awakens my faith to believe and declare it with boldness out of my mouth. If my faith does not attach itself to God's Word, than it will attach itself to something else beneath and much lesser than what God says I can really have. Therefore, what we need is for the church to become the church again by restoring the true apostolic and prophetic voice. If we look in the book of Amos you will find that God does not do anything without first revealing His secrets to His prophets (Amos 3:7). When the prophetic voice is non-existent there can be no revealing to what God has to say about any given situation that may be present. In other words, there is a great silence among us, other than the man-made noise that often takes over when God's voice seems to be absent. If we are going to see this change come to the church then there will need to be a people who will hunger and thirst for it right now! Every thing in this world started by a "God said!" In the beginning there was darkness. In the beginning there was emptiness and chaos and the Bible explains this clearly. Yet, how was all of that reversed? Through a "God said!"
We have to understand that we all have experiences of chaos, darkness, and emptiness at some point in our lives. However, once we have been born again...God begins to activate our faith with the prophetic vantage point of His Word. Once that Word is in you and you identify with it you will reverse the curse that your adversary has hurled at you. The antidote for darkness, chaos, and emptiness in your life is the same that was in the very beginning...it needs a "God said!" It is not God's will for you to be in darkness, chaos, or emptiness; but rather that His glorious light may shine from out of you with a prophetic utterance activated by a "God said!" When this prophetic voice is activated in you it will cause you to clap your hands, and put a dance in your feet. It's like fire shut up in your bones that makes you want to shout it out loud. Therefore, you're Genesis is your God said!
1 John 1:1-3 (KJV)
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Understand that the writer John is telling us that he and the other disciples had looked upon, touched, and handled the Word up close and personal. Therefore, they are declaring it to us down through the generations in a written document of it; yet, when it awakens the prophetic voice in you that believe, that same declaration will come afresh out of you with great conviction and anointing to which you will be ready to declare to others.
John 1:1-5 (KJV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
You need to understand that your beginning did not begin on the day that you celebrate your physical birthday. It began the day you were awaken to a prophetic voice that called you into a new creation. Peter was born many years before Jesus walked up to him at the Sea of Galilee and told him that he would be a fisher of men. In the beginning was the Word! You have to understand if God can personally speak to John, Peter, James and Andrew; if He can communicate with Abraham, and if God could tell Noah how to build a boat; if God could speak to Elijah and tell him where to find his successor in Elisha; if God could communicate with the prophet Joel to prophetically declare a coming day called the Day of Pentecost...then God can still speak to you and me today giving us direction and personal guidance for our life. There is life in what God says! The letter alone kills, however, the Spirit gives life to it!
Deuteronomy 8:1-3 (KJV)
1 All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers.
2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
Notice that God positioned His people to a place that would potentially create hunger in them. Unfortunately, there are many that have made gods out of their jobs. Some have made idols out of their possessions. Idolatry is when we put things before God. People put everything imaginable before God: careers, sports, and even how much they need to sleep rather than go to the house of the Lord and be in fellowship with other believers. What is happening is that people are trying to fill their hunger with their own selections that this world has to offer in substitute for what they really need from God. There can be no prophetic voice that declares the "will" of God when we are so full of other things. Think about it! There are some reading this that have pursued their personal dreams and over the course of years finally reached it and yet they are learning that it didn't fill their hunger. Why? It is because it was their dream not the Lord's. God has blessed us to be hungry so that we will seek Him for our needs. As long as you believe your hunger can be filled by what you do...you are going to remain in your personal wilderness.
When the Apostle Paul said that he had learned how to be content in whether he had little or a lot, it was because he had learned that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Somewhere you have got to get a revelation that your life is not connected to you! Your life is connected to a "God said!" Are you running from a God said at this moment? If so, please remember that Jonah couldn't get a preferred ticket that he desired and had to settle for a ticket to Tarshish. Why? It is because God still has a way of ordering our steps even when we get rebellious and want things on our terms. He just changes the playing field and it all brings you right back to what you were supposed to be doing in the beginning! A true Word from God will impregnate you; and eventually you won't be able to hide that you are carrying a spiritual seed. It will get to large to keep it hidden. God kept speaking to a shepherd boy until he became a king. Though Joseph was in chains, the word tried him until it finally came to fruition and delivered him to his rightful position. There is life in the prophetic voice which is why our adversary wants us to remain silent.
2 Peter 1:19 (KJV)
19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
The prophetic is a speaking light in your dark place. There has to be an anchor for us to place our hope in, otherwise, our faith has nothing to connect with. Therefore, the prophetic vantage point is God's Word which enables us to see our opportunities from afar off without any obstruction to what is available to us in Christ. If we don't learn to speak the light that illuminates our dark places than we will remain hopeless and will ultimately digress to self-preservation. God's Word never stops speaking its prophetic vision to each of us no matter where we may find ourselves off the beaten path. However, we can refuse to listen to it, and thereby diminish the affect that it could produce in us. I pray that each believer reading this article will come to grips to the fact that we all should have a "word from a word" that someone is in great need of hearing. Hopefully this was a word from a word for you today!
