1. Prophetic Words Need to Be Married to Intercession
Of the three prophetic words (I know there’s three) the Lord has released through our House of Prayer over the last two years, they have been tied to nearly 4500 hours of corporate prayer and intercession. I’m not saying this to boast about the number of hours of prayer. (The joy of engaging the Lord in prayer is the reward…) :) I’m saying it for the sake of contrast and perspective. Prophetic words that are not attached to a life of much intercession (before during and after) usually sound like it, feel like it and almost always bear no supernatural grace for the audience’s hearing and doing. Prophecy flows from a life of intercession for the Church. And all prophecy flows from the heart of the One Who “ever lives to make intercession” for the Church. (Hebrews 7:25) The object of prophecy isn’t correct analysis. It’s correct response to the Word of the Lord. And correct response to the Word of the Lord will only happen through intercession and the audiences’ receptivity to the grace of the Lord.

2. Prophetic Words Are About “Us”
We are much more corporate than we American realize. We are much more tied to our fathers and our sons and each other than our individualistic, post-enlightenment culture acknowledges. Our sin and our blessings are much more encouraged, stimulated and a part of each other than we know. There is one Body. And if we’re ministering in the prophetic it is therefore implied that we are speaking FROM the Body – TO the Body; which means we’re also always speaking to ourselves. Jesus is our example for the prophetic. If He, in His holy state, was “numbered with the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12) then we should assume no more elevated degree of separation. Humility and “identifying WITH the people of God” was also the lot for Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, Daniel and other prophets. Making prophetic words about “those people over there” devalues the Lord’s great passion that redeemed humanity “may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us.” (John 17:21)

3. Prophetic Words Pass Through the Cross of Jesus
In October, the Lord abruptly interrupted 6 months of praying through the book of Jeremiah by highlighting Psalm 22; David’s prophetic (and grisly) description of the Messiah’s death on the cross. I will never be the same. EVERY prophetic word of judgment and punishment against any segment of humanity (the Church or the world) ultimately was visited upon the Body of our Lord on the cross. Every single one. He willingly received the stripes for every indictment of lukewarmness. Every charge of hypocrisy. And every intimation of idolatry and unfaithfulness. It is impossible that a prophetic word be released from us in the Name of the Lord of glory without us understanding that what we are “calling out” first fell as wounds on His holy back. This should be the sober strainer through which ALL of our prophetic and pastoral words of correction flows.

4. Prophetic Words are Always, Always Redemptive
There exists no prophetic word from the Lord that isn’t attached to the redemptive power of the blood of Jesus Christ. All of our prophetic words must be attached to instructions for redemption and healing intimacy with the Lord. All prophecy is a part of the redemptive work of God. Words that only condemn and do not offer hope through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and our participation in the cross should be disregarded. Period.

5. Prophetic Words are Always About Lifting Jesus Up
“The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Revelation 19:10) If Jesus isn’t at the center, front and end of the prophetic word something (from immaturity to diseased neglect) is amiss. The end of all prophecy is that created humanity would be brought into agreement with the Father’s selection of Jesus as the anointed Ruler of this earth. The exaltation and worship of the historical, Jewish, resurrected God/Man, Jesus of Nazareth as Lord is the deep sea of glory into which all the prophetic streams flow.

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JSB • December, 2021