Over the last few months, we’ve been looking at the prophetic gift and noticing the need for a renewal in this vital ministry. In a sense, we are asking the Lord to reset us to the original “factory settings” that marked the first release of the revelatory gifts right in the Book of Acts. 

We’ve looked at the importance of love, and recognized we need to love prophecy, God’s truth, God’s Church, and those who prophesy. We’ve also looked at the uber-important distinction between Old and New Testament prophecy which means there is a major difference for how prophets function in the New. Our third post addressed the essential, but so often missing, need for biblical discernment to partner with prophecy and with that, the reality that our sense of resonance with a word is not enough.

Now, here in our final blog of this series, I’m going to write about the two biblical plumb lines that guide us and assist us in identifying authentic prophecy; that which comes from the Spirit of God. This teaching is actually a very abbreviated version of two much more in-depth articles that are a part of the Learning to Discern course. If you are looking for more, you can certainly access those by subscribing to Come Aside. This would be especially helpful if you want to be equipped to teach others to grow in discernment.

OUR TWO PLUMB LINES 
Rev 19:10 “ The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus”
1 Cor 14:3 “…But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging, and comfort.”

The Revelation 19:10 plumb line is the vertical one that aligns us with Jesus. It pointedly tells us that the spirit of prophecy, or if we were to say it another way —the essential essence of prophecy, or the DNA of prophecy if you like— is the testimony of Jesus. 

Now, what is the testimony of Jesus? 
This was a phrase used in the Apostle John’s writings as a synonym for the gospel. What the early Church was testifying to was that Jesus had been raised from the dead and this was proof that he was indeed the Messiah and the Son of God. 

But they understood the gospel was of course more than the resurrection, it was who Jesus is, what he taught, his works, his life, his death, and his promise to return. For them the gospel didn’t just reveal God’s plan for salvation and secure their place in heaven, it revealed how to live this new life in glorious union with him (and each other). 

This is what the angel is saying to John: true prophecy must be in complete harmony with the gospel. It must be cut from the same cloth.  

Now you might gloss over at this point and say, “sure, I get it, I’ve always known that prophecy needed to align with scripture, no need to belabor this point.” But wait.

What I’m saying is different, this vertical plumb line requires prophecy to authentically align with the historical, biblical gospel of Jesus Christ, not with any of the current variations of the gospel that have arisen in these days. We have self-help, celebrity-idolizing, cross-avoiding “gospels” which are so different from the gospel that the apostles preached and died for. Another important point is that it’s the whole gospel that prophecy needs to align with, not just a solitary verse plucked from its context. 

It also means that true prophecy will bear the same fruit that the gospel does and this leads us into considering the second plumb line; the horizontal one.

THE HORIZONTAL PLUMB LINE 
The horizontal plumb line of 1 Cor 14:3 maps out for us the impact that true prophecy will have on the church or the individual. It will be to us the grace of God, encouraging, strengthening, or comforting— depending on our need. However, in the same way that we needed to understand what the testimony of Jesus means biblically, we also need to understand what God considers encouragement, strengthening, or comfort. It’s likely different than what we expect. For many of us, especially those that are Canadians, we might think this means that prophecy should be nice, it should say things we want to hear, because after all —that would encourage us. 

However, Jesus is going after more than an emotional lift. He’s looking to authentically and deeply encourage, strengthen, and comfort, and so at times he rebukes, corrects, calls us to die to our flesh, and to put all our trust in him. This is the gospel, it’s the only way to actually have abundant life; to have a life in union with him. Plastering happy face stickers over everything isn’t his way, he goes after truth in the inward parts and brings us close to him by bringing us through the cross. The cross is where we find true transformation, peace, and freedom. So a true prophetic word may lovingly rebuke us or it may reveal there is suffering in the path ahead, but even if it does—as it does— it will woo us to trust and love Jesus all the more. 

If you are hearing prophetic words in this hour that merely forecast what’s in the coming days yet they don’t point you towards Christ, implicitly or explicitly inviting you to love and trust him more, I’d consider setting these aside. We are all weary with the difficulty of these days and hungry for accurate revelations of the future— when will this change and what will it look like when it does? But friends be careful, the temptation in the beginning that the Devil enticed Eve with, was to be empowered with knowledge so that she could stand independently and not have to dependently, trust in God. 

“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (words of Satan in Gen 3:5)

Knowledge is good, but our desire to know the future can come from a discomfort with having to trust God with the unknown. 

If the Lord shows us what’s coming, wonderful, but instead of orienting everything toward this, let’s make knowing Jesus and his gospel our focus. Let’s instead pray for more prophetic words to be given to the Body which reveal Jesus’s heart, his priorities, and what he’s doing in these challenging days.

May the Lord give us a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, seeing him revealed as he builds his Church, seeks and saves the lost, and ultimately, fills the whole earth with his glory (Mt 16:18, Lu 19:10, Num 14:21).

By Sara Maynard

This is the third blog post in this series of Refreshing the Prophetic. The first two looked at the need for love, and then the difference between prophecy in the Old and New Covenant. As we seek the Lord for his refreshing of the prophetic movement, what we are really doing is asking him to restore us to our “factory settings”, to take us back to how the prophetic was meant to function. 

This is why the post on the difference between Old and New Testament prophecy is so important. If we don't have this foundation, we have little to build on. But if we do, it opens up understanding of the glorious way God designed prophecy to work in the NT and when we “taste the new” we won’t want to go back to trying to function like an OT prophet. 
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One of the features of the NT prophet is that their words are weighed and discerned by others. This isn’t the case in the OT, where prophets functioned as solitary voices, their only test being if the word (predictions) came true. Thus, if we confuse the Old and New, it becomes easy to assume that discernment is optional. Actually no. (Now to be clear, I’m not talking about the spiritual gift of discernment of spirits but rather, the skill of discernment that anyone can learn.) 

1 Cor 14:29 “Let two or three prophets speak and let the others weigh what is said.” 
1 Thes 5:19-21 “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies,
but test everything; hold fast what is good.”

The biblical instructions are clear—we are called to function more corporately in the new covenant, and the eye can not say to the hand, “I have no need of you” (1 Cor 12:21). Discernment is vital. Having prophetic words weighed and tested is the NT way that we want to return to. I wish we had worked to build this more into the culture of the prophetic movement years ago. Instead, we put our energy into activating the prophetic and creating a safe place in our churches for prophets to get launched. 

How I wish we had worked just as hard at making it safe for the church, as we did for the prophets. We could have taught on discerning prophetic words, rather than merely activating them, so that people who were prophesied over with well-meaning words that weren’t from God, didn’t end up confused or misdirected. It doesn’t have to be one or the other, doing both well is biblical. 

The scripture teaches: “…test everything, hold fast what is good”. Sadly, when we omitted the testing bit, we often held fast to whatever we thought was good, or what sounded good to us. 

In 1 Tim 1:18, Paul encourages Timothy to use the prophecies he was given at his ordination to wage the good warfare. Paul was helping him to stand fast in his calling— which had been confirmed by prophecy— against the spiritual warfare trying to discourage and defeat him. 

We’ve often extrapolated from this verse that prophecy reveals potential calling and destiny before it manifests, and we need to “war” with faith and intercession for it to come about. We might need to rethink this considering Jesus didn’t “war” to be crowned Lord of Heaven and Earth, but even with that aside, what if you are clinging to a false word, or what if what you are “warring for” is your desire rather than God’s?

DOES IT RESONATE?    
Most of us have used the principle of resonance as our primary way to discern the prophetic. It goes like this: we hear a word, (or even a teaching), and we notice how our spirit responds to it. If our spirit seems to affirm or resonate with what is said, we judge the word to be from the Lord. If it falls flat, we set it aside.

As an on-the-fly rule of thumb, this works well, but the problem arises when we confuse our soul with our spirit. When it’s our soul responding with an “amen” to a word, we can easily assume it’s our spirit, and our souls are continually being pressured by the spirit of the world, to the point that sounds which come from the world, can resonate with a comfortable familiarity.  Resonance can only be a trustworthy measure when we are continually reset and renewed in the gospel and this happens best in the context of Christian community, ie: the local church. 

We might be surprised with how much the spirit of the world influences our souls. I remember one time, being in a NA prayer summit as one of the representatives from Canada. We were treated to a wonderful trip up Pike’s Peak, one of the highest points in the Colorado Rockies. At the top, the group of about 40 leaders gathered to pray and as we finished, one of the Americans suggested we sing “America the Beautiful”, an American hymn of patriotism. 

There were nods of agreement from most of the American leaders, but the Canadians and Mexicans were aghast. We were not at all interested in extolling America, it was time to exalt Jesus over America! The spirit of patriotic nationalism had syncretistically mixed itself in with the gospel so that it wasn’t discerned by the Americans, but obvious to the Canadians and Mexicans. We need each other! 

It’s not only the spirit of the world that we have a hard time distinguishing from the spirit of God at times, it is also our soul’s desires. We all have desires which we struggle to submit to God, many of which are for really good things but perhaps not God’s will for us, (at least in this season). We desire the things that our culture values: celebrity status and platform, wealth, beauty, success, personal power, even being cool has a very powerful draw. We also desire really good things like being married and having children, being significant, even being used to bring revival. 

However, all unyielded desires can lead us to asserting our will and deceiving ourselves into believe that it’s God’s. So prophecy that touches these desires can be very hard to distinguish by the measure of simply: “does it resonate?”. This is why we need to be trained by scripture in how to discern and we need the safety of others, likewise trained, to help us. 

Equally powerful to unyielded desires are our fears. Fear of rejection, of failure, fear for our children, fearful distrust of church leadership, fear of ungodly government, all these and more can skew our discernment if we are basing it solely on resonance. 

Resonance is helpful, but it isn’t enough and isn’t always reliable. 

THE STATURE OF A PROPHETIC VOICE
Another way we discern is by the stature of the prophet. The words of those who are higher profile often go untested, because we are generally intimidated by them and not confident in our basis of discerning. It stands to reason, if all we are going on is our sense of resonance, that we would have little confidence to question a word brought by one who has an international stature and impressive track record. But if we can learn from scripture to discern, and if we build the practice of discernment protocol in our prophetic communities, then we’ll be confident in weighing the words from even the most high profile prophets.

What many may not realize, is the level of demand and expectation that itinerant prophets live under. Many have said to me how they struggle with being treated like a prophetic vending machine. They are continually called upon to “bring the word”, to prophecy into every church and city that they visit, to prophecy to every pastor, youth worker, worship leader, business leader, and politician. The expectations are ridiculously high and people can get very nasty if you don’t produce. In many situations, it’s not just a word that people want, but it’s a certain kind of word —a “destiny” word— a word that will promise them what their hearts desire.

Here’s a scenario that prophetic people will all identify with: I was ministering in a large church and praying for people afterwards. A leader had travelled many miles to attend this service because he felt he needed a prophetic word of direction. He made a beeline for me and asked for a word. I waited on God and sensed the Lord was leading him into deeper trust, a step-by-step season without long-term clarity so he would grow in dependance. I prayed and shared this with him. He was visibly annoyed as he walked away, clearly feeling ripped off. It was obvious what kind of word that would have pleased him, but I couldn’t cross that line and alter what I sensed God was saying. With this kind of pressure on prophets, is it wise to hold fast to every word, even from high profile prophets, without weighing them?  

DISCERNING EMERGING VOICES 
If you are a prophet who has not arrived at that level of stature where your words are regularly received, there is a real temptation to amp up the importance and weight of your word with intensity, exaggerated language, or passion. If we had discernment protocols, throwing in those extra trappings wouldn’t be such a temptation because even a word coming from a nervous new prophet, which is a true word from God, would be recognized and honoured.

You see, discernment doesn’t just sift out the words that are off,
it affirms and endorses the words that are from the Lord, no matter who delivers them. 
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Discernment makes prophecy safe for the prophet and for the church. It disciples, as words that contain mixture or which shift our eyes away from Jesus are pastored. It makes sure no one gets entrenched in dysfunctional ways. It builds humility, mutual submission, and unity into the fabric of the church, all of which attract the presence of God. And most of all, it keeps us hearing rightly and clearly the voice of the Spirit as he speaks! Let’s make room for discernment.

by Sara Maynard

ANOTHER RESOURCE: 
If you are a pastor or a leader or just want to dig deeper into the principles of discernment, I’ve been teaching a mini-course on this in Come Aside, our new publication, hosted on Substack. I’d highly recommend you sign up and get this as a resource for your church or group.

Last month we began this series with an introductory blog, which contained a few thoughts to set the stage for the rest of the series. To refresh our memory, here they are in a nutshell:

1. God has created an opportunity to refresh/ reboot how we walk in the prophetic, to find a more biblical way — so that prophecy will thrive. 
2. Prophecy in the Old and New Testament is both the same and different — because of Jesus.
3. Prophecy should be motivated by love. Love for God, (including his truth), and for others.  
4. Prophets also need to be loved and knit into the Body.

This month, I think we need to unpack the principle that ​prophecy in the Old and New  Testaments is the same and different— because of Jesus. You see, if we don’t fully understand this concept, we muddle the two up and end up trying to be an Elijah or a Samuel in the church.* It doesn’t work. This is like us trying to sew an unshrunken patch of cloth onto a well-worn garment. Even if you have great intentions— it ends up ripping and you have a worse mess (Mt 9:16,17). You simply can’t mix the Old and New Covenants together. 

THE NEW COVENANT IS BETTER IN EVERY WAY
There is a profound difference between the Old and New. The New is better in every way— it is truly glorious. All the key elements of the Old Covenant have been transformed, eclipsed by the jaw-dropping, Good News of the New. Think about this for a moment, here’s a quick summary: 

• From the law —> to the law fulfilled by Jesus & the new law of love written on our hearts.
• From an exclusive priesthood —>to the Great High Priest & priesthood of all believers, we all get to come near! 
• From the temple —> to the greater temple of Christ himself, & his people being built into the temple, the dwelling place of his presence.
• From continual, ritual sacrifices—> to Christ himself as our once-for-all sacrifice, & ours is the honour to worship him through presenting our bodies as living sacrifices.  

Notice every element is fulfilled in Christ and has the glorious result of all of us --whosoever will—being brought into union with Him, 
                      … and because of that, unity with each other. 

It really is breathtaking, my quick little summary has in no way done justice to the majesty and wonder of the New Covenant. 

But with this in mind as the backdrop, let’s consider if a prophet under the New Covenant, functions differently from those in the Old. Does prophetic ministry follow this trend of being fulfilled in Christ and transformed to include all of us? Or are NT prophets just the OT prophets with a bit of an upgrade, maybe like a new haircut? 

Hang in with me, this might just change your whole paradigm! 

OLD TESTAMENT PROPHETS
In the OT, prophets were God’s oracles who enabled the people of God to understand his will. They guided, admonished, and instilled hope. They were called as individuals and were given a singular, powerful anointing. Their lives at times were a part of the message, to the point that they became living parables. Signs and wonders, as well as the accuracy and power of their words, ensured their voices had great authority. But this came with a high price, they typically walked alone, carrying this great burden and responsibility, only truly being understood and comforted by God himself. Still, because of their faithfulness, Israel heard the rhema** word of God.

Think about that. Even David, a man that walked so closely to God, needed a prophet beside him to be the one who heard God for him. The vast majority of the people of God in the OT days lived their entire lifetime without personally hearing the voice of God speaking straight to their hearts. 

But then Jesus, the Word of God came, and everything dramatically changed.

I) THE WORD HAS COME
Jesus, God himself, has stepped into history to speak. Everything about him, his words, his lifestyle, his works, his death, and resurrection, all communicate the glorious message of God. He is the exact representation of the Father, he is the faithful witness (Heb 1:3, Rev 1:5). He is the ultimate Prophet, everything about him communicates God’s wisdom and ways, his love, and his redemption. 
  
Even with his ascension, he continues to speak to and through his Church, using three primary, overlapping ways: the Spirit, the Word (scripture), and the revelatory gifts. They move together in beautiful harmony.  

II) THE SPIRIT IS GIVEN
The glorious, powerful, Holy Spirit (that in OT days was just portioned out upon a few individuals) in this hour, has been, (and continues to be) poured out upon the whole Church. And the Spirit speaks! (Jn 10:3,27, 14:26) We can now all hear and even prophesy! 

Remember what Peter declared at Pentecost— that the prophecy of Joel 2 was now fulfilled! This is for all of us! 
“ … I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.” Acts 2:17,18

The Spirit of God flows through us, speaking to us individually and corporately, revealing Jesus and the specific good news of the kingdom that applies to that moment and need (Eph 1:17, Rev 19:10).

III) THE SCRIPTURES ARE USED PROPHETICALLY 
The Spirit directed the writing and assembling of the NT, as he did the OT, and he continues to speak through these holy words; so under the New Covenant, the scriptures come wonderfully alive to our hearts.

His Spirit speaks prophetically through the words of the Bible and causes them to leap from the pages, with perfect application to our hearts and lives in the moment we are in. But not just to us, when preached, the scriptures are a prophetic trumpet to the world, revealing the wisdom of God in Christ, calling all to “repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” 

IV) NEW TESTAMENT PROPHETS
But there is still more! 
There are also individuals who, (although hearing God and prophesying is available to all of us), there are some who are uniquely gifted by the Spirit to flow in this revelatory side of Christ’s nature. These are the NT prophets. The word of the Lord comes to them directly or through dreams, visions, and all manner of supernatural encounters. 

They hear and speak, but in addition, they activate the muscles of prophetic revelation in the Body of Christ. They provoke us to be a fully prophetic people, to expect to hear God, to listen for the voice of the Spirit, to follow where he leads. They serve like yeast, to leaven the whole lump prophetically so that our evangelism, our planning and vision casting, our team building, counseling, discipling, or our children’s ministry (just to name a few) all have a prophetic flavour to them. This indeed is glorious.  

So then, a NT prophet is the same as in the OT in that they hear and speak forth the word of God and they experience unusual supernatural encounters,
but they are radically different in that they are knit into the body of Christ --which is also hearing.

They are surrounded by a hearing and speaking community. They don’t hear for the Body, they hear with the Body, and serve the Body to become sharper and more revelatory in its hearing. They equip the Body for works of service (Eph 4:12).   

If you are a prophet in this day, you are a New Testament, New Covenant prophet.  Praise God! We need you and are so excited to see you flourish!
But in order to do so, you’ll need to shed any OT orientation that you’ve carried as a part of  your identity or in how you function. Remember, the Old and the New can’t mix. If that’s you, here are two keys that will help you make that shift: 

COMMIT TO THE LOCAL CHURCH
Jump in and get committed to the local church where you can joyfully, faithfully, serve, where you can be known and cared for, where you can be shaped and discipled by those with other gifts. This is necessary for everyone, regardless of their gift, but those with prophetic gifting must be even more intentional. You see, prophets can live lives marked with unusual supernatural activity which can leave them misunderstood, and thus create a great temptation for isolation. Resist this. The flip side is that supernatural activity can also become a source of pride, fight this too, for God will resist the proud even if they are highly gifted prophets. So choose humility, Jesus, the Great Prophet, modeled humble servanthood, let’s follow him. 

YOUR IDENTITY IS A SON OR DAUGHTER - NOT A PROPHET
Prophets are very prone to let their gift define their identity, which ends up becoming a terrible trap. When your primary identity shifts from being a son or daughter of God to a prophet of God, you have to work to maintain that identity. You have to keep proving yourself. This puts a responsibility on you to perform— to prophesy in any given situation, to be the one with the powerhouse word of the Lord. You might even find yourself getting territorial or competitive if other prophetic people rise up around you making you feel threatened. Or you might become resentful or insecure if your church’s leadership doesn’t give you a platform for your gift.  

Lay down the burden of prophetic performance and rest in the simple, unshakable, firmly established, New Covenant identity of sonship or daughterhood. This you don’t have to earn; nor maintain. Trust the Father to release you in your gift, to open doors, and give you both the word and the platform when it’s time for you to speak, just as he did for Jesus (Phil 2:5-9).

by Sara Maynard

* Credit needs to go to Josh Hoffert (Wind Ministries) for identifying this issue as a big place of confusion.
** Rehma words are words which are sometimes called the "now" word of the Lord. They specifically apply in that moment. 

If you have enjoyed these Redleaf Blog posts over the last year, we want to invite you to subscribe to Sara's new online initiative, COME ASIDE. This is a new platform that we'll be using to teach, share interviews, prophetic words and discernment in a more frequent and intentional way.
Over the next few months, we'll be migrating this blog to the COME ASIDE page on the Substack platform, which gives us access and a way to connect with a much larger group of people. 

There will continue to be free access to some of Sara's writing, but for those that want to journey more deeply, learning and growing in prayer and the prophetic, there's an option of becoming a paid subscriber so you can become a part of the conversation and enjoy full access to all COME ASIDE offers. For example, in October and November, Sara will be teaching a mini-course on how to confidently discern prophetic words. 

While none of us would have ever chosen what 2020 has brought us, the massive upheaval has created a unique opportunity to re-evaluate what is working and what is biblical in our lives, churches, and businesses. The Lord has been using Covid to give us an opportunity to pause and reboot, clearing out the unnecessary, even unbiblical, practices that have been creating a drag on our walk with God, like when your smartphone bogs down and you realize you have 20 open apps all running in the background, sapping bandwidth and power.

I believe that one of those places that the Lord is inviting us to "reboot" is how we pursue and function in the prophetic. 

I realize that as soon as I say this, it can trigger many strong reactions, both negative and positive. For some in the prophetic movement, these words stir up defensiveness because, in the past, opponents of the prophetic have used similar soft introductions, but then gone on to mock and attack prophets. Be assured, that is not where we are going.

Do not despise prophecies 1 Thes 5:20
Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. 1 Cor 14:5

Others perhaps, who have been personally wounded or had their churches suffer because of immature prophetic function, might be hoping that I would come down hard on the use of this gift, exposing all the ways that it’s been inappropriately used. 

I agree (changing metaphors), that there’s a need to “change the bathwater”, but let’s nurture and treasure the baby in the process! 

Let me first give you a few of my “credentials”, why I feel I have some authority to speak into this topic: I’ve spent 20 years leading national prophetic prayer ministries, I’ve served on the advisory team for the Canadian Prophetic Council, as well as been a member of that body since its inception, and I’ve chaired the Ears to Hear Network of Canadian prayer ministries, which discerns and weighs prophetic revelation coming from the prayer movement since 2007.  I’ve fasted and prayed extensively for prophets and for the increase and maturing of the gift of prophecy. I have seen prophecy in its glory, radically shifting lives and situations, bringing forth the kingdom of God— and I unashamedly, regularly, prophesy. 

AN AHA MOMENT
A year and a half ago, I was in a prophetic gathering with about 30 prophets. We were all sharing visions, dreams, and words that the Lord had given us, but I didn’t have much to contribute, so was mostly taking it all in. In this setting I suddenly noticed something. Every biblical reference or image was from the Old Testament— Elijah, David, and Moses were the heroes of the story — Jesus was barely mentioned. I wondered about that, and thinking back, realized that this was pretty standard in prophetic settings. I then started to wonder what it would look like if we modelled our prophetic after the way Jesus prophesied, rather than Elijah. I thought about Jesus, with Moses and Elijah on the Mt of Transfiguration, and the final scene being, Jesus standing alone with the Father’s voice ringing out: “This is my Son- hear him” (Mk 9:7,8). With that in mind, and the gnawing conviction that we were missing something, I began a long study of New Testament prophecy. 

Now, the God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New, God doesn’t change, but Jesus coming changed everything, so prophecy between the Old and New Testaments is the same in some ways, but because of Jesus, it’s different. 

It seems like now is the time to share some of what I’ve learnt, so over the next few months I’m going to be writing on this idea of rebooting, or perhaps “refreshing” (a gentler term) the prophetic. This will involve identifying non-biblical assumptions we’ve made which have weighed down our ability to prophesy in the fullness of the Spirit, in the same way that all those open background apps hinder your smartphone’s ability to respond to your requests. They are hidden but they slow things down, creating glitches, and dysfunctions. I realize this isn’t a perfect metaphor, but it’s enough to catch the heart of what I’m getting at. This won’t be all I write on in this season but I’ll try to be diligent to address it thoroughly, as I believe it’s time to have this kind of honest conversation. Perhaps like you, I’m jealous for the prophetic gift to be loosed to function in the Canadian Church in all that God intended it to be!  

With that as an intro, let’s open up the conversation with a really important consideration. 

LEARNING FROM 1 CORINTHIANS
The most extensive teaching on the prophetic is in 1 Corinthians. Chapter 12 lists a number of the revelatory gifts (which we lump together under the term “the prophetic”) and then goes on to talk about how the spiritual gifts are meant to serve the Body of Christ by uniting and building us up.  Chapter 14 is the fuller unpacking of how the prophetic is to function. 

But sandwiched between these chapters is “The Love Chapter”. 

Why, in Paul’s train of thought did he shift— pausing what he was saying about spiritual gifts and pivoting to release this extraordinary teaching about love?

In the words of Tina Turner, “what’s love got to do with it?!” Does love have any real bearing on prophecy? Aren’t those that prophecy just being a voice; communicating the words of God, the more anointed and more broadly heard the better?

Actually no. Love has everything to do with it.

This chapter is perfectly positioned, right in the middle of this foundational teaching on spiritual gifts and prophesy. The great message of God is Jesus, full of God’s love, so anything coming from a different spirit cannot accurately speak for God, cannot accurately carry his heart. In Paul’s words, “without love, I am nothing”. Those who prophesy must be functioning out of love to be in alignment with God. 

However, it’s not just loving those that we prophesy to. 

Remember the first and second commandments. The first commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mk 12:30), so first and foremost, our prophesying must be motivated by our love for God. Loving him matters more than anything, and only with this priority settled, will we be courageous enough to: 

• refuse to add to his words to flatter or to offer false comfort
• refuse to use “prophecy” as a platform for our opinions
• refuse to use it as a means to gain notoriety and status 
• refrain from prophesying when God is not speaking to us, even though everyone is waiting for us to “produce”

Loving God first when we function prophetically means also that we “rejoice with the truth”(1 Cor 13:6), we don’t play fast and loose with the prophetic, we do all we can to serve him well by speaking out the words that represent him carefully, reverently, truthfully. 

For the prophet then, it’s about loving God and loving others as a foundation for prophesying biblically, yet our need for love doesn’t stop here. 

The Church also needs to love the prophets.
This involves caring for them as people and helping them to find healthy and biblical ways to serve and grow in their gifts, gently providing them with the safety of  biblical discernment so they mature rather than become entrenched in prophesying soulishly (ie: from our opinions or emotions rather than from the Spirit). Prophets, like everyone, come alive in wonderful ways when they are loved. It takes courage to prophesy, and rejection should not be the “expected lot” of the prophet, prophetic people shouldn’t have to be defensive or keep one foot out of the local church, in case for them, once again —it goes badly.

We can’t cooperate with God’s reboot/refresh of the prophetic if we look at prophetic people or the prophetic gift with a critical eye. There has been a great deal of wounding in the prophetic stream, but that’s not Jesus’s way of love. A bruised reed Jesus will not break, no, his way is to rebuild and restore. Let’s join him.  

IN CLOSING, LET'S EARNESTLY PRAY:

• Pray for the increase of prophetic gifting in the Canadian Church. May the Lord release words, dreams, visions that grant us understanding and revelation of him, his ways, and his timing. May anointed and gifted prophets rise up throughout all the denominations. 
• Pray for those who function prophetically, that they would be knit into the local church, loved and surrounded by those who could teach and disciple them into greater Christlikeness (we all need this no matter how much authority we walk in). 
• Pray for healing for those who have been wounded or confused by well-meaning but immature prophetic ministry.  May they not close the door to God speaking to them prophetically, but instead, be empowered with tools to test words so they can treasure those which have come from the Lord. 

by Sara Maynard

NEXT TIME: REFRESHING THE PROPHETIC PT 2 - THE GREATER GLORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT PROPHET 

We are being sorely tempted with both these reactions right now. The spirit of fear has flooded the nations and is impacting us more powerfully, and at a deeper (more subconscious level) than we might recognize. The only place to be completely clear of it is in the presence of God, for it is perfect love that casts out all fear (1 Jn 4:18). ​

WE HAVE A PART TO PLAY
Yet, we too have a part to play in this deliverance.
Fear comes from a lie that we have accepted and believed to be true. It could be a lie that God isn’t truly with us, or that he’s not active, or that we can’t count on him to be faithful to us. Perhaps it’s the lie that he only able to use seasons of blessing to build and strengthen and glorify His church, but he’s handicapped in seasons of calamity and suffering. It could even be the lie that God needs a Christian to be the Prime Minister before he can bless Canada. Or maybe you are aware of another lie that has stuck to you like a fiery dart, poisoning you with its toxic fear. 

Let’s ask the Lord to show us if there are lies that we are believing right now which open doors in our heart to fear. As he does, let’s repent, and replace these lies with truth— the gospel. Let’s choose to believe the truth about who our God is, the goodness of his character, the unshakable nature of his kingdom. 

While repentance won’t necessarily change the swirl of fear around us, it will enable the Lord to rescue us from its undertow. We can become like the virtuous woman of Prov 31 who “smiles at the future”, or the well-cared for sheep of Ps 23 who feasts heartily despite the presence of his enemies. He is with us and will be with us to the end of the age, not in a remote, detached way, but as close as our skin.
We have found that place of rest that the wandering dove longs for—it’s in Him.

SO HOW THEN DO WE PRAY? 

• Pray for the leaders of the Church, especially those that pastor and teach, that they will lead in a fearless way, while still being sensitive and gentle with those who are struggling. Fear can cause strong reactions, so pray for pastors who are being impacted by fear at work in their congregations.
• Pray for the prophets in the Church that the Lord would mightily use them in this hour to trumpet the word of God that is pure, clear, and full of the revelation of Jesus. Pray for those who are personally battling fear, that God would gloriously rescue them.
• Pray for the restored revelation of the bigness of Jesus to the Church, a revelation that puts Covid, civil unrest, and elections in the right perspective, and restores our hearts to peace and joy.

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by: Sara Maynard

If you joined us for the Great Commission Day of Prayer on May 21st, you are aware of two prophetic words that were shared. 
We wanted to make sure everyone has a chance to hear and pray into these key words for this new era. 

During the year's leading up to Billy Graham's passing to be with the Lord in February, 2018, numerous prophetic leaders, from a wide scope of different circles all heard the same word from the Lord.

When Billy Graham passed away, his evangelistic gift would not be lost, but rather it would multiply. 

What God had given him would be multiplied and given as a mantle to thousands of individuals, known and unknown, for the sake of winning the lost. 

It is not about becoming famous, but becoming wonderfully fruitful for the kingdom. 
John 12: 24, in the kingdom, a seed (life) sown produces many more after its kind. 

This prophetic word came from our former house of prayer, where up to 40 meetings a week of dedicated prayer for revival and harvest was hosted for 12 years. In one these extended times of prayer, the Lord spoke and this word has been weighed and confirmed over the last year. 

He is saying that there is a third wave of intercession coming to the Church. 

In our generation, we have been blessed with two waves already: 
1) The Wave of Prophetic Prayer - 
This wave came in the 80s with the dynamic of the prophetic activating and empowering our prayer. Leaders such as Cindy Jacobs and Dutch Sheets were some of the key voices in this movement and it radically changed the nature of our intercession from one of just asking to interacting with the Spirit and responding to the voice of God.

2) The Wave of Intimacy -
This wave also empowered prayer in a new way as the Lord used the Toronto Blessing to draw intercession into a new place of intimacy with God. With this foundation, the House of Prayer movement brought intercession and worship into a new union and harp and bowl prayer enabled extended hours of refreshing intercession as we gazed on Jesus. 

But now a third wave is beginning! 
3) The Third Wave - Intercession for the Lost -
This wave will be as broad and transformational as the two previous waves, building on what has come before, but stepping into the revelation of the love of God for the lost around us. It will carry a new intensity, but not striving in the flesh, it will be filled with great earnestness but not become heavy in a soulish way, rather leading to unprecedented joy. The level of faith will be extraordinary.

​There is a grace right now that is beginning to flow, a grace to be carried by the Spirit into the seeking and saving prayers of Jesus in a way this generation has not yet known. 
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Lean into prayer for the harvest to be a part of what God is beginning to release in this hour! Join in your church's prayer times with new faith that if God is releasing great grace to pray for the harvest, it's because He intends to answer these prayers! 

by: Sara Maynard

I wrote about this from a different angle in last month’s blog, but let me caution us all, don’t waste this moment, don’t come out of this quarantine time like the five foolish virgins who didn’t get oil when they could, then didn’t have it when they needed it (Mt 25). This is a moment to embrace the deep transformative things that God wants to do, in the Church, but also in our lives.

A prophet said to me last week that his greatest fear is that we would come out of Covid the same as we went in-- that we would have squandered this trial. I so agree!

We are now just over two weeks into our national “go home and stay home” order, precipitated by the global Covid-19 pandemic. People are finding new structures and rhythms for their “stay at home” lives, the shock of the cascading changes is wearing off, and the realization that this is not just a pause, but a full-blown reshaping of society, is sinking in. 

I come from a theological position that believes that God is in control, yet not just in a general but disengaged way, rather in a very active way, shaping, maturing and positioning His Church for His glory, regardless if we are going through times of prosperity or calamity. While we must weep with those who weep and keep engaged with the very real suffering that is all around us, this lens means that even in this current crisis, we look to see where and how God is actively moving. What is He redeeming, what is He birthing? I find that looking for the work of the Spirit doesn’t just encourage me, but it inspires and directs my intercession, as I seek to “bless what God is doing”. I’m sure you too, find that your heart encouraged and your spirit activated in intercession, when you observe the hand of God at work.

Over the last 12 years I’ve had the honour of leading a large, national, interdenominational house of prayer (on Zoom), and at the same time, chairing Ears to Hear (the Canadian Network of Prayer Ministries). These two ministries have provided two unique windows into the Canadian Church. One window is a view into trends in the Church, and the other sees where the emphasis in intercession has been over the last number of years. 

So here are a few things, right in the midst of the Covid calamity, that I’d like to share with you. Places where I can see the Spirit moving, reshaping the Church in extraordinary ways in this hour. Of course it’s bigger than what can be shared in a simple blog post, but I’ll try to hit some of the macro changes. And what I’m observing now is where I’m leaning in in intercession, as I believe that these trends could very well be laying the ground work for unprecedented renewal of the Church and revival in our generation.
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​The post-Christian world has suddenly been confronted with it’s vulnerability and it’s mortality. Our secular society has been barreling down the road, self-assured and confident we had no need of God and that the Church was a relic from the superstitious past. Suddenly things look different. The world has been brought to its knees, humbled by a teeny virus. The sense of security we have had in assuming we live in a healthy, safe, environment, as well as the security many have found in their steady jobs and investment portfolios has been shattered. Anxiety is everywhere and escalating. That sense of security will not be regained in short order, if ever. Like in in the days of 9/11, our vulnerability has been exposed. The world has changed.

Remember, that the Lord could have had you born in any age, at any time in history, but He chose for you to be alive right now. You have, in a very real way, ‘come into the kingdom for such a time as this’ (Est 4:14). You are formed and designed for advancing the kingdom during this global crisis. The Lord predestined good works for you to do before the foundation of the world (Eph 2:10) and some of those good works pertain to this hour. Don’t fall into the world’s mindset which is only considering self-protection and self-provision, but rather, consider how can you (in wisdom) serve those in real need right now, even if it involves having to trust God with our lives in greater ways. How can we love our neighbours in meaningful ways?  
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The reports we are getting out of China involve testimonies of the Church in revival, fearlessly serving and caring for those in quarantine and gathering daily for communion and prayer because they have little fear of death. The influence of this kind of demonstration of the gospel, in such a counter-culture manner, cannot be quelled. It will change China. It is like the, seemingly insignificant, mustard seed thrown into the garden that grows against all odds to overshadow all the other plants. In Korea, again, the Church is stepping into the need, boldly going out into the streets to distribute masks at the request of the police. 

In Iran, another global hotspot, BBC reports that 54,000 prisoners have been released to combat the spread of the virus in the prisons. We have to wonder how many of these are political prisoners, Christians and dissidents that the Lord has just arranged to have sprung for this hour! Remember, the fastest growing church in the world is in Iran right now! God is sovereignly turning for good, what the enemy meant for evil. He is doing it overseas, He can do it here.

​When we start down this new trail to pray for this glorious holiness to grow in the Church, we quickly find we don’t know how to run this path! We stumble, we're awkward and clumsy, perhaps we even struggle to see the path we're to run as it’s become so overgrown. Maybe you can relate to this, maybe you find you run out of vocabulary very quickly when the topic of prayer turns to holiness. Why is this? 

I believe the reason behind this phenomenon is that we don’t have a true vision of the beauty of God’s holiness, in its full, stunning, brilliance and jaw-dropping glory. We’ve experienced the touch of his love, and can go deep into praying for that to be poured out on every heart as it has been on ours, but many of us haven’t experienced his holiness.

Because an experience with his holiness is not something that has marked us— in its absence, we insert, instead, what we know — legalism. 

​Perhaps asking God to show us his holiness, in its noon-day-sun brilliance and beauty, is where we begin. Then going deeper, in prayer and biblical meditation (reflection), to gaze upon how he is absolutely Truth in every dimension of that word, how he is absolutely pure in every motive, action, word and intention to the core of his being, how he is astonishingly humble, how he is perfectly loving. Consider these and more, as we meditate on all the aspects of his holiness (Ps 29:2).

No one else is holy like he is, and seeing his holiness in even the most fleeting glimpse creates in us an insatiable longing to be like him, and for the Church to be free from the tragic destruction and defilement that sin brings. 

This sets us on a path to run in prayer. The longing that is birthed by seeing his holiness begins to express itself in intercession, in groans, then in words. We pick up the pace and as prayer begins to flow, repentance is easy rather than extracted from us  as it would be if we were praying in a legalistic way. 

Here running this new prayer path, our faith soars as we see a vision before us of a Church that is a radiant, pure, “fit helpmate” for the sinless Son of God and we find we have words we have never used before in intercession that are now flowing passionately from our hearts. 

Hallelujah! He’s giving us a new language to intercede for this new season, a season that will be marked with a revival of holiness. 

Sara Maynard