Last week, we learned a lot about prophecy. This week, we’re going to learn better how to apply prophetic words in our lives and why God says:
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1 Corinthians 12:31; 1 Corinthians 14:1
Eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.
1 Corinthians 14:3
…the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort.
Prophecy reveals God’s future plans and will. Prophecy speaks our potential.
Habakkuk was getting a little bitter and impatient. He was a prophet who kept calling out to God for help, but didn’t seem to be getting a response. He watched as people became more and more wicked just before the rise of the Babylonian empire.
However, God seemed to just be ignoring all of the wrongdoing instead of administering justice. It just wasn’t right and didn’t make sense to Habakkuk. This isn’t the God that he knew.
Habakkuk did what we should do as well. He took his complains to the Lord and just kept on asking, kept on seeking, and kept on knocking.
Habakkuk 2:1 (NLT)
1 I will climb up to my watchtower
and stand at my guard post.
There I will wait to see what the Lord says
and how he will answer my complaint.
Habakkuk 2:2-3 (AMP)
2 Then the Lord answered me and said,
“Write the vision
And engrave it plainly on tablets
So that the one who reads it will run.
3 “For the vision is yet for the appointed [future] time
It hurries toward the goal [of fulfillment]; it will not fail.
Even though it delays, wait [patiently] for it,
Because it will certainly come; it will not delay.
The nation of Judah didn’t realize what was coming their way. Like Habakkuk, they were all going to need a prophetic word to stand on to understand what God was doing and why.
They were going to need a prophetic word to guide them to respond in the correct way and to turn back to the Lord through a difficult season. This wasn’t going to just be a few months of hardship, this was going to be 70 years of it.
Shortly after the writing of the prophet Habakkuk came the prophet Jeremiah through whom the Lord said:
Jeremiah 29:4-9
4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” 8 Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. 9 They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the Lord.
We can blossom wherever we are planted. Even living in exile among the very enemy determined to destroy us, we can grow and prosper! That’s just how good and how great our God is!
What did prophecy do for God’s people during this difficult season? It gave them prophetic perception. It gave them vision and revelation to see beyond their immediate circumstances.
That’s what prophecy will do for us as well!
Proverbs 29:18
Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint
Annette taught all about this verse and how prophecy gives us perspective to properly restrain ourselves. Prophecy gives us a revelation and a vision for the future that helps us to position ourselves to be prepared for it.
It gives us the wisdom to bring some extra jars of oil with us to keep our lamps burning bright when the lamps of others fade.
Perception is powerful and we desperately need the Lord’s prophetic perspective to keep us grounded on His firm foundation!
Prophecy equips us to see from God’s perspective.
Consider what prophetic perspective was able to accomplish in just a few of these Biblical examples!
A little baby coming to be consecrated – happened all of the time!
However, Simeon saw the Lord’s Messiah
Anna also saw the Messiah and told everyone about Him
Elijah’s servant saw a cloud the size of a man’s hand
Elijah saw an outpouring ending a 3 1/2 year drought
Elisha’s servant saw the enemy’s army surrounding and outnumbering them
Elisha saw the Lord’s army surrounding and outnumbering the enemy’s army
Three kings, of Israel, Judah, and Edom, came together to fight the Moabites. After seven days of marching, they were out of water and out of ideas. They finally decided to seek the Lord’s will and so they visited Elisha, a well-known prophet.
Why is it that we still seem to so often wait until we hit rock bottom before we turn to the Lord?
2 Kings 3:14-24
14 Elisha said, “As surely as the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, if I did not have respect for the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not pay any attention to you. 15 But now bring me a harpist.”
While the harpist was playing, the hand of the Lord came on Elisha 16 and he said, “This is what the Lord says: I will fill this valley with pools of water. 17 For this is what the Lord says: You will see neither wind nor rain, yet this valley will be filled with water, and you, your cattle and your other animals will drink. 18 This is an easy thing in the eyes of the Lord; he will also deliver Moab into your hands. 19 You will overthrow every fortified city and every major town. You will cut down every good tree, stop up all the springs, and ruin every good field with stones.”
20 The next morning, about the time for offering the sacrifice, there it was—water flowing from the direction of Edom! And the land was filled with water.
21 Now all the Moabites had heard that the kings had come to fight against them; so every man, young and old, who could bear arms was called up and stationed on the border. 22 When they got up early in the morning, the sun was shining on the water. To the Moabites across the way, the water looked red—like blood. 23 “That’s blood!” they said. “Those kings must have fought and slaughtered each other. Now to the plunder, Moab!”
24 But when the Moabites came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and fought them until they fled. And the Israelites invaded the land and slaughtered the Moabites.
This war was won by perspective. Perspective shapes our reality. That’s what fear and depression and anxiety and so many other terrible emotions do to us! They control our lives by defining our perspective.
Perspective was the defining moment when God’s people were either going to choose to enter into God’s promises or reject them. It was perspective that defined their reality.
Twelve people went into God’s promised land to spy it out. They all saw the exact same things and all agreed with the condition of the land. However, 10 of the 12 had very different perspectives and reports about their own selves.
Numbers 13:27-33
27 They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”
30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
After that generation died off, Joshua and Caleb were able to enter into God’s promised land and guess what the report was that had spread to all of these giant people living within it!
Joshua 2:8-11
8 Before the spies lay down for the night, Rahab went up on the roof 9 and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 10 We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. 11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
Perspective is powerful! We need to be very cautious with who and what defines our perspective. It’s not the report of people that we need to listen to necessarily, but the report of the Lord! We need prophetic perspective!
A significant part of receiving prophetic perception is how we position ourselves to see.
James 4:8
Come near to God and he will come near to you.
Position is so significant when it comes to vision! That’s why we hunt from tree stands. That’s why we pick from a seating layout when buying event tickets.
Here’s a guy who completely understood the importance of positioning ourselves to see Jesus!
Luke 19:3-5
3 Zacchaeus wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”
Because of perspective, nothing can change and yet everything changes! What was the first thing that changed when Adam and Eve sinned against God by eating from the tree they were forbidden to eat from?
Perspective!
Genesis 3:7-11
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Now when they took a bite of the fruit, did their clothes just instantly fall off or dissolve? Of course not! They always had been naked and they still were naked. Nothing changed except for their perception.
A revelation had come to them that changed their perception, which brought something new and terrible into their minds; shame! Their skewed perception and shame caused them to run away from God and hide!
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
Perception still keeps people from seeing Jesus today as well!
John 1:10
Jesus was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
How often do we walk through life completely ignorant of God’s Presence that is all around us? How often are we overwhelmed by emotions and believe lies that shape our perception toward our reality?
We’re like Elisha’s servant and all that we need is for our eyes to be opened so that we can see that we are not surrounded by our enemy, our enemy is surrounded by the Lord’s army!
How often are we like Jacob?
Genesis 28:16
When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”
Surely the Lord IS IN THIS PLACE and I was not aware of it… This is what perception can do. It can either reveal to us God’s Presence and how He is working or it can blind us to it.
2 Corinthians 3:12-14
12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.
We are a prophetic people, a holy nation! We should be able to look beyond our circumstances to see God’s truth that trumps them all! We should be able to see things differently not because of ourselves, but because Holy Spirit equips us to see things differently!
Prophetic Perspective!
Nothing changes, yet everything changes!
Because everything changes (referring to our perspective), everything can change!
We get to speak to things not as they are, but as they should be. When we can see from God’s perspective prophetically, we can speak prophetically and have things here on earth even as they are in Heaven!
Prophetic perspective is how Abraham was able to strengthen his faith in the Lord’s ability to do what he had promised even long after it became absolutely impossible to happen!
Romans 4:17 (AMPC)
As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. [He was appointed our father] in the sight of God in Whom he believed, Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that [He has foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed.
Prophetic perspective equips us to speak to things that are not as if though they are. We can only do this through the Lord!
Deuteronomy 29:4
But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.
One of the Old Testament prophecies that is quoted so often in the New Testament speaks to having this prophetic perspective.
Isaiah 6:9-10/Matthew 13:14-15/Mark 4:11-12/Luke 8:10/John 12:39-40/Acts 28:26-27
9 He said, “Go and tell this people:
“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
10 Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”
Perspective is what causes us to hear but not understand and to see but not perceive.
Luke 19:41-44
41 As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
Do we recognize God’s timing? Do we know and understand what season we are in spiritually? It’s only with proper perspective that we can have a proper response and choose to obediently walk by faith and not by sight and be saved!
Do we recognize that God is here in this place?
Do we recognize the time and the season that God has us living within?
Or are we still like these guys, Jesus’ disciples?
4,000 people had just been fed with 7 loaves of bread and 2 fish and there were even leftovers. This just happened through the hands of Jesus’ disciples. They were the ones who collected the leftovers following this miraculous provision.
Then, like us, they forgot all of that food except for one loaf of bread back on shore as they hopped in a boat and set sail for the region of Dalmanutha. They started talking about it among themselves.
Mark 8:17-18
Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?
Talk about a problem with perspective!
The disciples were so consumed by worry over their immediate circumstances that they forgot what God just miraculously did mere hours beforehand!
How often are we just as guilty of the same thing?
Do you know what Jesus’ big concern is with the end times?
Luke 18:8
…when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?
Faith comes from perspective.
Hebrews 11:3
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
2 Corinthians 4:18
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
1 Corinthians 2:9-12
9 However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived” –
the things God has prepared for those who love him –
10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.
Jesus took Peter, James, and John onto a high mountain. There, He was transfigured and they were physically there with Moses and Elijah. Talk about a perspective shift!
Matthew 17:9-13
9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
10 The disciples asked him, “Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”
11 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. 12 But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” 13 Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.
They did not recognize John the Baptist for who he was. Prophecy was being fulfilled right there in front of them and they were clueless… Beyond that, the Word of God wrapped Himself in flesh and came alive and they face-to-face denied Him.
So many Jewish leaders rejected the very God that they studied and claimed to know when He stood there in front of them. They hated and hung on a cross to die the very Messiah that they claimed to be carefully searching for and eagerly awaiting.
It’s time for God’s people to embrace and live not by sight, but by prophetic perspective! It’s not time to shrink away, but to rise up! It’s time to be courageous and to give people courage! We do this with the spiritual gift of prophecy!
1 Corinthians 14:3
…the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort.