Click on following links for: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 and Part 8.
What is the price for rising above entry level prophesying?
5. Humility
“The world has yet to see what God can do with a man who doesn’t care who gets the credit.” (Dwight L. Moody)
If I had to pick just one character trait which Jesus is longing to see in us prophetic people, it would be humility. And yet, this seems to be the hardest one for us to attain.
Let’s say, you are on a platform with a microphone in your hand. You look into the audience and see a woman. There’s nothing remarkable about her, but you instantly know something.
You point at her. “Your prayers are about to be answered,” you say, “that man you have been praying about for years and years is coming back into your life. Buy a wedding dress.”
The woman breaks down and cries. She raises her hands and shouts, “Thank you Jesus!”
Afterward, you find out the woman has been praying for her ex-husband. She believes they will be remarried, but everyone, including her pastor, has told her she’s nuts. They say that her ex-husband will never, ever change his ways.
Six months later, you are invited to the wedding of the woman and her ex-husband. The man had an experience with the Lord and was instantly changed.
This actually happened to me, and countless other ones like it.
Pretty heady stuff, right?
Today, as I look back at the guy who held that microphone and spoke those words, I cringe and shudder. I hate him. I hate his pride, his arrogance, his thinking that he was the man who prayed, fasted and heard God for other people. I don’t even like to remember the time period because I am so ashamed of that man.
But let’s be honest, okay? I still give prophetic words. So, what’s changed in me?
“I remember the day and the place where I died.” (Katherine Kuhlman)
Maybe, Kuhlman was fortunate enough to completely die to all of her pride on just one day, but I wasn’t. I can take you to street corners where parts of me died. Or to dumpsters where I crawled into searching for cans. Or to jobs I failed at. Or to countless other experiences where my heart was crushed.
Am I a perfect example of humility now? No. No. No.
But I am no longer the same guy who held the microphone and spoke the words to that lady…and I pray that I never will be like him again.
Humility takes time, lots of it. It is an ongoing work in my life, one which I continually struggle with; and yet, I embrace it.
(This series will be continued in the future.)
*I have used the word prophesy in a general sense to denote prophecy, words of knowledge and words of wisdom (1 Corinthians 12: 8-10).