When Jesus Reconfigured the Prophetic

Introduction: 

What is the place of the prophetic in your life? Is the place of the prophet to expose you, excoriate you and tell you what a rascal you are? You don’t need a prophet to tell you that. You know that already. What is the ministry of valid prophetic ministry to be characterized by?

[1Co 14:3 KJV] 3 But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men [to] edification, and exhortation, and comfort.

Why? Don’t people need to repent? Yes, they do, and Paul tells us what brings repentance: 

[Rom 2:4 KJV] 4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

If you want to see someone come to repentance, give them God’s goodness. To claim to be a prophet and speak something other than the goodness of God is to move according to an agenda that does not include bringing people to repentance. 

The Prophetic is to Prosper You: 

The place of the prophetic is to prosper you. 

[2Ch 20:20 KJV] … Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. 

The word “prosper here” means that the prophet’s impact on your life is to: 

To push (you): — (cause you to) break out, come (mightily), go over, be good, be meet, be profitable, rush to advancement, make progress, succeed, be profitable; bring you to successful issue, cause (you) to show or experience prosperity

The prophet is not here to beat you down. He is not here to tell your fortune.
He is not here insult you or blast you with condemnation. He is here to prosper you.

Paul’s inherent understanding of the prophetic was that it would prosper and bless those that received prophecy:

[1Co 12:7 KJV] 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. 

[1Co 14:6 KJV] 6 Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine? 

When Jesus Reconfigured the Prophetic:

In the gospel of Luke, Jesus’ disciples wanted to be prophets like Elijah, but he rebuked them in a manner that completely changed the prophetic office for all time: 

[Luk 9:51-56 KJV] 51 And it came to pass when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, 52 And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. 53 And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. 54 And when his disciples James and John saw [this], they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? 

Now the disciples were responding according to the Old Covenant example. Several times Elijah was mocked by Ahab and each time, he called down fire from heaven to destroy them:

[2Ki 1:10 KJV] 10 And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I [be] a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.

These men are on good ground, scripturally. What they did not know and could not know is that the LIVING WORD before them was about to reconfigure the application of the WRITTEN WORD they thought they were acting on:

55 But he (Jesus) turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. 56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save [them]. And they went to another village.

Notice that Jesus didn’t say they were of the devil. He was, in reality, at that moment moving them from an Old Covenant paradigm of death and judgment to a New Covenant paradigm of life and life more abundantly, according to John 10:10. 

[Jhn 10:10 KJV] 10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.

You Must Choose Between the Spirit of Elijah and the Spirit of Christ:

The disciples were trying to move in prophetic office according to the Old Covenant pattern and Jesus takes occasion of this to reconfigure the prophetic not according to the testimony of Elijah but according to the testimony of Jesus: 

[Rev 19:10 KJV] 10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See [thou do it] not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. 

There are many Elijah prophets on the earth – but not many Jesus prophets of the earth. Jesus’ prophets don’t come to destroy but to save. They don’t stalk the aisles of the church for who they are going to rip into next. Rather they look at you through the filter of the shed blood of Jesus and speak into your potential in God. This is the prophet that puts you over in life and it is in your best interest to seek that prophet out and establish a place in your life for that ministry for your own good and the good of those around you. 

Conclusion:

Paul exhorted young Timothy to become militant about the prophetic words that had gone out over him. 

[1Ti 1:18-19 KJV] 18 This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; 19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:

When did Paul lay hands and prophesy over Timothy? He met Timothy on his first missionary journey. It wasn’t until the second missionary journey that he laid hands on Timothy and activated him prophetically in his ministry. In Paul’s first missionary journey, he was preaching the gospel, confronting pagan authorities, and inciting the Jews to riot against him – leaving great upheaval in his wake. In Paul’s second missionary journey, he retraced his steps to each of the communities he had gone to at first, and he adjusted both his doctrine and his practice: 

[Act 14:21-22 KJV] 21 And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and [to] Iconium, and Antioch, 22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, [and] exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

If you study the word “confirm,” you will find it clearly suggests that Paul was laying hands on the people and prophesying over them. When you get hands laid on you, and someone prophesies over you the first thing you must be prepared to do is the second thing Paul instructed them: 

…. Exhorting them to CONTINUE in the faith…

Your warfare in the prophetic is not to take your prophetic word or your prophetic understanding and go beat someone over the head with how wonderful God said you were. The warring in the prophetic is against the contrary circumstances and resistance that often manifests immediately after receiving a bona fide, authentic word from a validated prophet. 

Once the prophetic is engaged in your life, the battle is on. The pressure will increase – but it is not the pressure of the enemy, but rather the pressure through which you (as Paul states) enter into the kingdom of God, which is righteousness, peace, and joy. What does this look like? Righteousness speaks of entitlement. When you push into the pressure, you break out into the kingdom. This is that experience by which suddenly everything you say and do becomes as effective as if God said it or did it. This is the level of authority you experience when you believe what God has said, and even in the midst of great shaking, you have peace and joy that puts you in the fast lane to your destiny in God.