Section 01 – The Prophetic Journey Part 1

Welcome to the first part of this teaching on the Prophetic Ministry. This is the first teaching taken from a live seminar on the ministry of the prophet, so we are going to be covering some foundational ground.

The ministry of the prophet is so vast that it is going to take a lot more than one little seminar to cover it. In this book we will be laying a foundation for you, to show you how the Prophetic Ministry works and how God prepares the prophet.

We are going to give you a preview of where you are headed if God has called you to move into this ministry.

As you can see from the title of this first section, we are going to be looking at the prophetic journey to start with. This is because moving into the Prophetic Ministry is like a journey that you will be traveling.

In this first section I would like to share with you a little bit of what you can expect as you start on this journey.

An Essential Ministry

I love the Prophetic Ministry! I don't think I could survive without it.

I look at poor people who can't flow prophetically and get revelation from the Lord, and I wonder how they even survive in ministry. It is just so wonderful to have the Spirit of God to give you revelation as you minister to people.

I use it every day, and I totally depend on it for ministry. And you know God never lets me down. No matter what my ministry situation is or who I am ministering to, God will always give me what that person needs.

Because you see it isn't about me or about exalting myself, because ministry isn't about exalting yourself. Ministry is about helping other people.

The word minister means a servant. We are there to serve people. And the best way we can do that is to be able to know from God what He wants to do in that person's life.

Easy Revelation

Having the Prophetic Ministry is awesome. Somebody may come for ministry and I know nothing about them. I have never seen them or met them before.

I don't have to now sit down and get them to tell me their whole life story. I don't have to get into a counseling situation to try and uncover what their problem is.

And if they should come to me with a problem that I don't necessarily have the answer for, I am not stuck and I don't have to say,

"Well you know I need to go and read up on that a bit. If you would like to come back next week I can go through some books.

I can also go through some Scriptures and go and speak to someone else who knows a bit more about this. If you come back then maybe I'll be able to minister to you."

You see with the Prophetic Ministry I just come into the Lord's presence and say,

"Okay Lord, please tell me about this person. Tell me what you have for them. Tell me what I need to know about them, and tell me what I should say to them."

Then He just gives it to me. And within a very short space of time I can zero right in, uncover the problem and minister to it.

It is going to take a lot more than just revelation to do the ministry though. I better have had a bit of preparation there.

I need to have a bit of knowledge of the Word, as well as some experience in counseling and in the Teaching Ministry of the Word.

What I don't have to do is spend hours digging and digging like psychologists do, in order to uncover a person's need. And if a person needs an answer from the Lord, God can give it to me very quickly.

Takes Time to Develop

So how did I come to this place of being able to flow so confidently and efficiently in this ministry?

Well I can tell you it didn't come overnight, and it didn't come full blown. It didn't happen one day when someone laid their hands on me and said,

"The Lord says, I have called you to be a prophet."

Then from that very night I could do it. Wouldn't that be so awesome? You come and lay hands on me and give me the ministry of the prophet.

There are some people who think they were born with 'the gift'. That is a very questionable issue and I will deal with it later in this book.

A Journey With Detours

Moving into this ministry is like a journey. There is a starting point and there is a goal that you are aiming for. There are a lot of stages along the way. And like most journeys, the chances are there are one, two or 20 detours along the way.

These are often things you are not expecting. There are sudden side roads that throw you off completely. You might be on a mountain and you say,

"I can see the city right down there. Within five or 10 minutes we will be there."

But then suddenly the road takes a complete right angle and goes the opposite way. Now the city disappears and you say,

"Hang on Lord, this is the journey you gave me. There is my destination. What is happening now? Why are we taking the side road?"

That is the journey of the prophet. God is going to throw curve balls at you all the time. He is going to lead you in different paths and detours before you finally arrive at your destination. And it is going to take a while before you get there.

Unknown Territory

The prophetic journey can be quite a challenge because you don't know what is coming next. You don't know what God is going to take you through.

God doesn't tell you what you are going through next. He may have given you a revelation of what you are going to get at the end. But He won't show you how you are going to get there.

All He will tell you about is the next stage or the next step. He will tell you the next turnoff that you need to take.

You go with great excitement and expectation, not knowing what to expect. And when it comes, it comes unexpectedly. It catches you by surprise.

Sometimes it knocks your feet right out from underneath you. Sometimes it engulfs you, and at other times you fall in a pit and can't get out. Sometimes you hit a mountain and you can't get through it.

Need Some Help

The journey of the prophet is tough. Don't think it is easy. Everyone thinks it is easy. They say,

"I am a prophet because someone prophesied over me that God has called me to be a prophet. Therefore I can now flow in this ministry."

Well as you go on this journey, it is good to have someone who has been on the journey and has reached the destination to help you.

Imagine now that I were to get in my car and travel to a new place that I have never been to before, I can look at the map and see more or less where I am going. But I don't know what I am going to meet along the way and I could get lost.

Okay if you have a GPS it is difficult to get lost nowadays but it could happen. It is so much nicer if you can go to somebody and say,

"Hey, you have been on this journey before. Can you tell me what to expect?"

They are going to say things like,

"Watch out for this. About five kilometers outside of that city they usually have a speed cop sitting there. So don't go too fast; you could get a fine."

That is helpful. They don't put that warning on the map. They might say,

"Look out for trouble here. There is a certain area that you go through and there are a lot of animals crossing the road. Watch out that you don't run into a cow."

It helps to know that sort of thing. But even with that help, the chances are you are still going to run into the cow. Or you might hit the slippery road and go off into the bushes.

It could happen, but it helps even afterwards to go back to the person and say,

"You know you didn't warn me about that."

Then they will say,

"Oh yes that happens sometimes. It didn't happen to me, but it could happen to you. Let me explain to you what happened here. Let me tell you exactly why this took place on your journey."

I have walked this road myself. I have fallen into the pit and made all the mistakes, but I reached the destination. So as a young prophet in training, I would like to help you before you proceed on this journey with great gusto and think,

"I can just go out there and it's going to be awesome. It's going to be wonderful. God is going to use me mightily."

No Glory

You have seen the big prophets standing up there and doing it. And you can now see yourself standing there and doing it. It is going to be glorious because God has called you to be a prophet.

Well if God truly has called you to be a prophet, the first thing I can tell you is it is not going to be glorious. If you have that idea you had better lose it right now. There is no glory in being a prophet at all.

And if you have seen someone standing up there and getting glory for being a prophet, the chances are they are not a prophet at all. They are just calling themselves one because it carries power to have the title of prophet.

We will cover that more later on. I will explain to you why we see these things and what to watch out for.

So as one who has walked this road and who has made it to the end, I would like to help you to walk this journey.

I want to show you what to expect along the way. I will also share some of my own experiences along the way. And the chances are, if you have walked this journey a bit, you may begin to identify with my journey.