1. You will be tempted to become bitter, critical, judgmental and a very angry prophet. Granted, prophets feel the pain and burden of God very personally. Many times they are way ahead of their time and their generation and they feel others are taking too long to catch up with what's on God's Heart. You see things many people are not seeing.
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| Prayer |
By Voice Of Hope
And you're right.
But the secret is learning to find the pathways that lead to the place beyond the anger He feels, to the Love He holds for people, even the worst of sinners. If a prophet does not, through intimacy and compassionate intercession, go into the depths of the Love of God, he/she can become very harmful and destructive, only seeming to see what's wrong with people and not lifting a finger to help them out of it.
Such a prophet will then be releasing messages that leave people condemned and hopeless as opposed to carrying redemptive power that lifts even the most broken of souls into the liberty and victory of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.
2. You will be tempted to pursue God with zest and zeal, not for Him as a Person and communion with His Glorious Presence, but for information and revelation.
This is because of the pressure, either self-induced or by others, to 'remain relevant' by always having 'a word from the Lord' a new revelation of a mysterious encounter to share that can, so to speak, 'keep others in their place', neutralize competition and maintain the acclamation of men.
If you do that, you become a noisy, empty, clanging cymbal, a cloud that holds no water and a spiritual womb that gives birth to wind. You will never make any real impact in anyone's life.
Worst of all, you stand the risk of hearing the most dreaded words from Jesus Christ one day, "Depart from Me, I never knew you!"
3. You'll be tempted to get so caught up ministering to everybody in the public domain, going from meeting to meeting, replying to messages, picking calls, doing one video and LIVE program after another that you begin to neglect the closet and your alone time with the Lord.
You forget that ministry at any level is 90% private devotion and 10% public ministry. It has to be, else it will not stand. When you abandon your place of receiving from God and feeding on Him for long enough, you will soon have nothing to give people. Then you'll be tempted to start using carnal and worldly energy and schemes to keep going.
You must discipline yourself to be more with God than you are with men. You must learn yourself enough to know when your battery is going low so you make urgent arrangements to retreat no matter what you have to sacrifice to be with God. And your alone time with God must become non-negotiable. You cannot do without it!
4. People will tempt you with over-dependence on you. There are people who will literally throw their Bibles and prayer lives out of the window once they have some little access to you. Instead of pressing into God themselves and seeking Him in His word and through fastings and prayer, they will overwhelm you with requests for 'a word', dream interpretation and lots of "What is God saying concerning me?!"
You will have to decide that it is okay to say you do not have a word for someone. Settle it in your heart that it is your primary assignment to help people find God and hear God for themselves so much that they do not need you anymore, not to create a following of people who idolise you as the voice of God in their lives. Then they can have a healthy honor for the grace on your life without becoming a stumbling block to you.
Voice Of Hope
Follow Apostle Pride Sibiya (Bishop: Glory Ministries) on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Periscope, WhatsApp, Google+, Instagram, Instaclips and all social media.
And you're right.
But the secret is learning to find the pathways that lead to the place beyond the anger He feels, to the Love He holds for people, even the worst of sinners. If a prophet does not, through intimacy and compassionate intercession, go into the depths of the Love of God, he/she can become very harmful and destructive, only seeming to see what's wrong with people and not lifting a finger to help them out of it.
Such a prophet will then be releasing messages that leave people condemned and hopeless as opposed to carrying redemptive power that lifts even the most broken of souls into the liberty and victory of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.
2. You will be tempted to pursue God with zest and zeal, not for Him as a Person and communion with His Glorious Presence, but for information and revelation.
This is because of the pressure, either self-induced or by others, to 'remain relevant' by always having 'a word from the Lord' a new revelation of a mysterious encounter to share that can, so to speak, 'keep others in their place', neutralize competition and maintain the acclamation of men.
If you do that, you become a noisy, empty, clanging cymbal, a cloud that holds no water and a spiritual womb that gives birth to wind. You will never make any real impact in anyone's life.
Worst of all, you stand the risk of hearing the most dreaded words from Jesus Christ one day, "Depart from Me, I never knew you!"
3. You'll be tempted to get so caught up ministering to everybody in the public domain, going from meeting to meeting, replying to messages, picking calls, doing one video and LIVE program after another that you begin to neglect the closet and your alone time with the Lord.
You forget that ministry at any level is 90% private devotion and 10% public ministry. It has to be, else it will not stand. When you abandon your place of receiving from God and feeding on Him for long enough, you will soon have nothing to give people. Then you'll be tempted to start using carnal and worldly energy and schemes to keep going.
You must discipline yourself to be more with God than you are with men. You must learn yourself enough to know when your battery is going low so you make urgent arrangements to retreat no matter what you have to sacrifice to be with God. And your alone time with God must become non-negotiable. You cannot do without it!
4. People will tempt you with over-dependence on you. There are people who will literally throw their Bibles and prayer lives out of the window once they have some little access to you. Instead of pressing into God themselves and seeking Him in His word and through fastings and prayer, they will overwhelm you with requests for 'a word', dream interpretation and lots of "What is God saying concerning me?!"
You will have to decide that it is okay to say you do not have a word for someone. Settle it in your heart that it is your primary assignment to help people find God and hear God for themselves so much that they do not need you anymore, not to create a following of people who idolise you as the voice of God in their lives. Then they can have a healthy honor for the grace on your life without becoming a stumbling block to you.
Voice Of Hope
Follow Apostle Pride Sibiya (Bishop: Glory Ministries) on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Periscope, WhatsApp, Google+, Instagram, Instaclips and all social media.
