Chapter 06 - Maturing in Your Call
1st Step - Walking in Love
1 Corinthians 13:2 And though I have prophetic [insight], and understand all the hidden things, and all the known things; and though I have absolute faith, so that I could remove mountains, and do not have [agape] love, I am nothing.
When you are in that relationship with the Lord Jesus, it is so much easier to be able to see others through His eyes and to have His love flow through you.
Before you think you are a nice person and you are just so wonderful to everybody... let me just make something clear - that is not the kind of love I am talking about. I am talking about the kind of love, where you feel His heart - His agape love for others.
It doesn't mean that just because you don't dislike somebody that you love them. I am talking about the kind of love where you would lay your life down for them. The kind of love where you think of them before you think of yourself.
If you are the kind of person that always loved and that could always just pour out to others even before you came to know the Lord, then I hate to break it to you but you do not have this love yet.
I am talking about agape love here. Maybe as you are reading this you are thinking, "Yeah, I know what you mean. I got this!"
These words will come back to you when you start going through your training and you will start realizing that you really don't have any love in yourself.
Every time you judge another believer, every time you have judged another pastor because he has failed, every time you have judged a leader or somebody that stood against you or rejected you, you walk outside of love.
Every time you condemn and tear down somebody else because they didn't receive your revelation, you walk outside of love!
However, until you are at that place, you are not walking at the level of maturity required to get you to prophetic office!
In 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter, you will see the power of love. It says that prophecy, as well as all the gifts and revelations will go away without love! Without love you are just making a big fat noise, because love is the fullness. Love Equals Maturity
Paul says in verse 11 that when he was a child he spoke like a child, he talked as a child but that when he grew up he put away childish things. What is he talking about there? He is saying, "When I came to this place of love that is maturity. That is adulthood."
KEY PRINCIPLE
Love in itself is the fullness of maturity. |
If you want to mature and flow more in the gifts of the Spirit, or if you want to rise up in a greater authority, this is your single, most powerful key to all of that.
This is the secret to rising up to prophetic office and into the fullness of authority... love!
The Prophet's Secret Agenda
This is part and parcel of your mandate when you reach office. Do you know why?
It's because the prophet is a matchmaker. He match-makes the groom with the bride. He hooks up the Church with her loving Savior.
How will you bring the body of Christ to a place of knowing the Lord and hearing His voice? You will help her fall in love with Him. Now, how can you do that if you don't know or understand the power of love for yourself?
If you don't know the love of the Lord Jesus in your own life and if you don't feel His love for you now, how will you impart this revelation to the body of Christ?
The Lord wants to bring you into this private walk with Him. He wants to take those prophetic signs and that ability in you and He wants to give you a revelation of His love.
Trust me when I say - it will turn your life around!
You will see things in ways that you have never seen them before. You won't have to fear getting into deception or messing up. You won't have to fear being out of His will anymore, because when you walk in love, you walk in perfection and in truth. This is where the power is!
2nd Step - Praying With Power
When you know Jesus intimately and feel His love, learning to pray follows so naturally after that. As you progress you will learn that prophets have a rather unique prayer life, but the exciting part is to realize that the Lord is standing by to teach you this skill Himself.
When you know His voice and heart then praying becomes so relaxed.
So often when teaching others to pray, I have seen how they start out under such pressure. As they get ready to pray they push and they strive. They come with their long prayer list and I get exhausted just watching them! They look so intense. However, when you know the Lord Jesus and you know how to pray, you just walk into the Throne Room and see results!
I remember we had a conference once and there was a whole group of people who had gotten together ahead of time to pray before the meeting. They prayed and prayed for a full hour.
When I walked in I still felt that heaviness that only someone who has been there realizes they will have to push through for the first 15 minutes of their sermon. It was clear that they hadn't gotten a breakthrough. I thought, "What have they been doing for the last hour? Great we have to get up and preach and there is still such heaviness in the air!"
So I stopped and prayed with them. I got in there and within five minutes I dealt with whatever warfare there was. We got a breakthrough and I was all set to stand up and preach.
What was the difference? Did I have more faith or love...? Maybe... However, I think I just knew how to pray. I knew my authority and how to deal with these things.
KEY PRINCIPLE
You see - prayer is a rest. When I know who I am in the Lord and know the Lord Jesus personally, I know when, how and what to pray. |
If you have been lacking in this area you will notice a definite maturity.
You will also learn how to prophesy. I know I have been slamming the use of the gifts of the Spirit, but I am just trying to bring balance to all these people that overemphasize them. The gifts are wonderful. I love the revelation gifts and you will really learn how to prophesy.
You will learn to prophesy and decree. You will learn how to stand up and bring change and conviction, to shake people up and to raise them up. You will make them weep in the presence of the Lord. You will help them feel and experience Jesus.
As you rise up, you will not be the kind of "prophet" that goes around saying, "Ah the Lord is going to do this and that and that..." No, you will rise up to give the kind of prophetic words that make people touch and experience God.
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